The Hunt in Juniper Woods
Jack was 10 years old the last time he visited Juniper Woods in the Mt Hood National Forest of Oregon. His Gramps took him on his first camping trip and they spent the weekend sleeping in a tent, fishing all day and making their meals over a campfire. It was pure heaven for young Jack. Now, 20 years later, here he found himself entering the forest once again. As he drove his jeep further and further into the woods, he couldn't help but breathe in the strong smells of juniper and pine and everywhere he looked he saw the beauty of the lush forest. Wild ferns grew thick at the base of the majestic trees and rhododendron bushes dotted the landscape, some as tall as trees and bright with colored blooms. There was no place on earth like the Pacific Northwest.
Jack was meeting his best friend Cole at the campground nearby and they planned a weekend of catching up and spending some quality time together. Cole had moved to Idaho after college and Jack didn't get to see him as often as he liked. As he rounded the bend, Jack entered the campground and caught his first glimpse of the lake. The sun shining on the water was almost blinding and Jack's stomach did a flip-flop in excitement just thinking about all the fish out there waiting to be caught. As his jeep navigated the road around the lake, Jack spotted Cole unloading his truck at a clearing in the woods. He honked his horn and Cole turned to wave him in.
It wasn't long before the guys had their tents set up, the gear unpacked and some wood collected for their evening fire. They grabbed their poles and walked down toward the lake for some much anticipated fishing. Jack had a bag of colored mini-marshmallows and a bucket of worms - his all-time favorite for catching rainbow trout - and Cole had his glow-in-the-dark power bait. They both planned to out-fish the other. Jack found himself a stump to sit on close to the water and Cole set up his foldable chair a few feet away. They both baited their hooks and cast out and almost immediately Jack was already reeling in his first fat-bellied trout. "Woo Hoo!" echoed across the lake and both friends were grinning from ear to ear.
An hour later, they each had a cooler full of fish and the sun was starting to set. Bullfrogs started croaking and the crickets were chirping loudly. They decided to head back to the campsite to get the fire going so they could prepare their dinner. Jack cleaned the fish while Cole got the fire started. Soon they had a skillet full of trout sizzling in seasoned butter over the fire and potatoes wrapped in foil baking in the coals.
After dinner, bellies full and content, the guys settled in to catch up on each other's lives. Jack loved listening to Cole's tales of adventure. While Jack had settled down and married his high-school sweetheart, Cole had started his own business as a wilderness guide in Idaho. He lived alone in a cabin in the woods and catered to wealthy adventure-seeking city folks who hired him for week-long hunting or fishing excursions along the Salmon River. The area was thick with elk, white-tailed deer, bear and mountain lion and depending on the season, they also hunted duck, goose and turkey. It was a dream job for nature-loving Cole. Lately he'd even taken on a new venture, offering "squatch" hunts for Bigfoot enthusiasts. It was turning out to be a surprisingly profitable addition to his business, even though Cole himself didn't much believe in the existence of Sasquatch.
Jack was intrigued to hear about this latest venture and he bombarded Cole with questions about Sasquatch. Jack had always believed in Bigfoot himself, especially since he was convinced he had heard one cry out in these very woods as a 10 year old little boy. He never forgot the blood curdling cry that seemed to last forever as it carried across the lake that weekend he and Gramps had camped in Juniper Woods all those years ago. Gramps told him stories about Bigfoot the rest of that trip and when Jack got home, he checked every book about Bigfoot out of the public library and read them all cover to cover. He was fascinated, and he believed!
Cole decided to indulge his friend's fantasy and suggested they do a little squatch hunting of their own in Juniper Woods. Of course Jack was all for it, and he could hardly sleep that night, anticipating what they might find. The next day, after breakfast, they grabbed their packs and headed out for a long hike up into the woods. All along the way, Cole pointed out things to watch for and Jack searched the ground for any signs of Bigfoot. Cole showed him low hanging, broken branches or hairs stuck in the bark of trees and they ran their fingers along large footprints in the mud, trying to figure out if they were bear or wolf or worse. They looked for nesting sites, uprooted trees, caves and any signs of things out of the ordinary. They stopped occasionally and made calls. Cole had these strange calls he would make that sounded nothing like the Bigfoot Jack had heard all those years ago, but he listened intently for any response every time Cole belted one out. Cole suggested they make some thumps with big sticks against the trunk of a tree. He told Jack this was a form of communication the Bigfoot made with each other, so Cole grabbed a thick branch and whacked the side of a tree three times and they listened to see if anything thumped back. Every so often, they'd stop and repeat the ritual over and over again, as they walked farther and farther up into the woods.
It was starting to get darker as daylight was fading, so the guys decided to head back down the mountain toward the campsite. It had been a fun search, but Jack was a little disappointed they hadn't seen or heard any sign of the squatch. As they were making their way back through the woods, they stopped once more to do some "knocking." Cole hit a tree with the stick "Thump! Thump! Thump!" and they cocked their ears for a reply. All of a sudden, they heard a distant "Thump! Thump! Thump!" from behind them, up the mountain where they had just been! Both boys stared wide-eyed at each other in disbelief! Had they really heard that, or was it wishful thinking? Cole thumped the tree again and they waited for a reply. This time, there was no return thump but a huge rock the size of a small boulder came crashing through the trees and landed at Cole's feet. They both stared at the rock dumbfounded. Had some one or some thing just thrown a rock at them? They listened intently for any sign that they were not alone in the woods, but all they could hear was the pounding of their own hearts. They decided to move on down the mountain. It was getting too dark and they hadn't brought any flashlights, never intending to be up in the woods this long.
Neither one of them dared to speak, a million thoughts going through each of their heads. Cole was a few feet ahead of Jack when they heard a large twig break somewhere in the woods behind them. Both of them froze and listened. Cole started worrying that maybe this wasn't the brightest idea, especially this time of year when bears were known to be roaming. Neither of them were prepared for an encounter with an angry bear. They started back down the trail when all of a sudden the air was permeated with the most intense, disgusting, stomach-churning smell. It was chokingly noxious, like something had died and was rotting nearby. Cole turned around to ask Jack if he smelled it too and Jack looked up to see this huge, hairy mass step out from behind a tree right behind Cole! Jack was frozen on the spot, so petrified and shocked by what he was seeing that he couldn't even call out to warn his best friend. Cole, sensing the horror in Jack's eyes, barely had time to blink before two strong arms reached out and picked him up like he was a rag doll and threw him across the forest floor. All Jack could do was watch in horror as his friends' body soared through the woods and bounced off a tree, landing in a slump at the base. Jack just stared in awe at this horrible hulk of a beast. It was far more sinister than anything Gramps had described and nothing like in the hundreds of books he had read growing up. It had dark brown, matted hair all over its body and long, hulking arms with huge hands and feet. Its head was entirely covered with the same fur and it had yellowish glowing eyes and a wide nose and the hugest gaping maw of a mouth filled with teeth that pointed out sharply every which way. It looked right at Jack and tipped its head back and let out the same blood curdling scream that Jack had heard on that very same lake as a 10 year old little boy. The sound of it hit Jack in waves and the warmth of the beasts' nasty smelling breath rustled through Jack's hair. He was so intensely petrified with fear that he couldn't have moved from that spot if he wanted to. All he could do was accept his fate, so he closed his eyes and in seconds he had joined Cole in a slump at the base of the tree.
And that's where the two best friends were found a few days later. The ranger reported finding several large tracks in the surrounding area that were indistinguishable, and he couldn't say exactly how the boys had died, but each of them had numerous broken bones as though they had fallen from a great height with much force. Rumors spread for weeks in the surrounding towns and old timers fueled the gossip with tales of the Great Sasquatch of Juniper Woods. Bigfoot lives! Believe!
