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By TCC Team Member Dorraine Fisher
Professional Writer, a nature and wildlife enthusiast who has written for many magazines.
Bigfoot
Encounter In Illinois?
What Exactly Happened To Me?
By TCC Team Member
Dorraine Fisher
As a writer of cryptozoology, I hear
stories every day about weird things that happened to other people. Weird things
they’ve seen and heard. And I always try
to be objective. I mean, who are any of
us to say that something doesn’t exist or events couldn’t possibly have happened
the way the story teller said?
But I had a little event occur
recently in the woods in my area. And, even though I DO always try to keep that
open mind with others, I’m having trouble processing what just might possibly
have been my very own bigfoot encounter. So, I guess you can tell me what you think
happened.
I was getting ready to hike an area that I
hadn’t traveled in a while. It’s a more difficult trail that winds into a deep
canyon and is very steep in places. But I decided that day that I could do it
because mostly I wanted a change of scenery.
When I got out of the truck at the
edge of the woods, something seemed different right away. I’d been to this area
enough times before, but that day it was quieter. No birds singing. No squirrels
barking from the tree tops. No animal sounds of any kind. But I didn’t think too
much about it until I was recalling the story later in my head.
But
when I stepped onto the trail and started walking, I could hear deer running
around in the brush. That wasn’t anything unusual, I knew, and I slowed down for
a moment to give them a moment to settle somewhere they felt safe. This time,
strangely, they didn’t, but I just kept walking, thinking they would get quiet
at any moment. And they did for a time.
But I kept walking the trail that
led through thick brush, when suddenly, I heard a crashing noise, almost like a
small tree dropping to the ground, in the distance to my left. This was perhaps
forty feet away, though I’ve never been a good judge of distance. But the deer
started scattering again. It sounded like there were several of them and they
seemed to be all around me.
But still, in spite of all the
movement, I kept walking to the edge where the canyon trail drops off down the
steep ravine. I hesitated for a moment at the top because it’s a little
treacherous and I was starting to doubt I was really up for it so early in the
morning. But I started down anyway and got maybe 8 feet down when I changed my
mind. I was experiencing a little vertigo and had started to think it wasn’t
safe for me. I started back up and
reached the top again surrounded by the deer still moving in the brush, though I
still couldn’t see them. I stood there
for a moment straining to see.
Now is when the events may be
misarranged in my mind, because I started to get a creepy feeling, like I wasn’t
alone, or that something was watching me. I stared off into the woods for a
moment to see if I could see anything at all. But it was still pretty early and
the brush there was so thick that all I could see was dark forest and maybe a
few tree branches moving. There was no noise at that moment. It had become
eerily quiet again.
But suddenly, I thought I heard
something whiz over my head and land on the hillside behind me. I stood there for a moment, my eyes darting
from side to side, trying to process it, wondering if it had really happened,
when, as I stared into the woods, I saw something hit a tree branch in front of
me and fall straight down to the ground. It looked like a stick or piece of
bark. I stood there for a moment again, staring into the woods, and I thought I
saw movement, but I couldn’t be sure.
But by that time, the creepy feeling
was in high gear. Did I just have something thrown at me? Twice?
I
guess I was thinking that might have been what happened, because I started to
think maybe I needed to leave the area. Strangely I wasn’t feeling afraid, but
more like I was in the way or interrupting something. And I started back up the hill
trail.
But no sooner had I started walking, I heard
another crashing sound, same as before, but closer this time it seemed. And I
could hear the deer, crazed again, running in circles up and down the steep
incline. I started walking a little faster, but suddenly to my right, two deer,
fawns still with spots, came charging at me out of the brush and startled me.
They caught sight of me at the last second and spun sideways and darted in two
different directions. Just not the direction they came. But at the speed in
which they were running, if they would have run into me, they would have knocked
me into the canyon and possibly killed me. I ran quickly up the trail toward my
vehicle.
When I got to the truck, I was still
processing the whole thing. What had just happened? Why were the deer acting so
crazy? Why were they running toward me instead of away? And where was their
mother? When I was halfway home, I felt
sure something “unusual” had happened to me. And by the time I made it home I
was processing a full-blown theory about what it was.
I’m still having trouble actually
saying what I might have encountered. I didn’t see anything, so I’ll never be
able to say for sure. But I will say that there was a lot going on
there at that moment, and I think I interrupted something.
Crashing noises, deer crazed with
fear charging right toward me, objects flying through the air in my direction.
Intelligence tells you to look for
another explanation. Crashing noises? Could be trees falling in the woods.
Right? Deer racing through the woods could be running from anything: coyote,
bobcat, or a panther even. Things being
hurled in my direction could just be my imagination. Right? Things fall from
trees all the time. Squirrels and birds drop things.
But all these little events together
could add up to something. Just about anyone who spends a lot of time in the
woods like me has seen something at least once that seemed unusual, that maybe
for which you couldn’t quite find an explanation. Something that didn’t quite
add up to what you know as familiar.
And all I can say is this event
gave me a really weird feeling. And to me, weird feelings count, especially when
you’re in the woods far away from any help or human contact. They’re called
instincts and you have them for a reason.
But no matter what it was or might have been,
I’m pretty sure I won’t forget it. And I have my theories about it, but what do
you think happened to me? ************DF
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