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Speaker 1: I'm from south central Kentucky. When I was twelve years old,

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we lived on a dairy farm across a gravel road

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from my cousin's house. At the time, I was raising

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some baby chicks that I kept on a high shelf

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and a tall shed that paralleled the back of my

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cousin's house, and I kept them there to keep any

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animals from getting to them. One night, my cousin was

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over and we were watching TV when I suddenly realized

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I had forgotten to feed my chicks. My mom handed

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me a mostly empty box of Quaker oats, and my cousin,

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my little sister, who was three years younger than us,

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and I went out to feed the chicks. My cousin's

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driveway had just recently had a new load of white

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gravel poured on it, and the moon was full that

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night and we could see just fine without the flashlight,

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but I took one with me anyway, so I could

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see inside the shed. The shed door was standing half open,

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so we walked inside and I flipped on the flashlight.

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The shelf where the chicks were on was six feet up.

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I had to use the ladder to reach them, but

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I wanted to make sure they were out of harm's way,

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and as I swung the beam around to face the shelf,

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I got the shock of my life. Standing there on

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its hind legs with its front paws on the shelf

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was a huge white dog like animal, well one of

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a screened I couldn't tell which one of us it was,

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but that prompted the dog thing to drop down on

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all fours. My sister and my cousin took off running

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for the house, but I was frozen in place. This

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thing was hunched in its back, and it started moving

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toward me with one of my baby chicks still in

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its mouth. Its face was covered in blood and it snarled,

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showing me its teeth. As it moved closer, I could

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see red eyes glaring at me, and I knew it

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was going to pounce on me, but still I couldn't move. Please,

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dear Lord, let me move, my mind, cried, as it

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got within five feet of me. Instantly I felt myself

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spring into action. My sister and cousin had already reached

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the house when I broke into a hard sprint. The

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new gravel pulled my feet out from under me, and

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I found myself spilling across my cousin's driveway. As I

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tried to get up, I looked back and saw that thing,

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that monster, standing on its back legs in the moonlight.

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It reared its head and screamed a terrifying howl, like

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a dying woman, and then it looked at me, and

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by then I was back on my feet, and I

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took off for the house. I bolted through the screen

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door to find my cousin and my sister trying to

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explain to my dad what had happened what they saw,

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and I tried to tell him too. We wanted him

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to go check, but he wouldn't go outside. He insisted

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that we didn't see anything, and to tell you the truth,

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I think he was afraid. I heard a lot of

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stories about men out raccoon hunting when their dogs wouldn't

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leave the campfire, and maybe that's what my dad was

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thinking of that moment. I don't know what I saw

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that night, but if that was what kept good hunting

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dogs from leaving the safety of a roaring campfire, it

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made perfect sense to me. Two years later, we moved

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five miles down the road. We had a big Collie.

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Then that dog wasn't afraid of anything, or so we thought.

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One summer night, when the moon was full, we heard

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it scratching at the door trying to get inside. Daddy

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opened the door and that dog almost knocked him down

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trying to get past him. About that time, we all

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heard the same ungodly scream I recognized from that night

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in the shed, and my dad and I stepped outside

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to see what it was. The field next to the

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house was that same white doglike creature standing on its

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hind legs in the moonlight. Dad ushered me inside, where

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we watched from the window as that thing dropped down

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on all fours and walked away. And the next day

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we went to the field to look around. We found

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some white hair in the barbed wire fence around it,

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but we never saw the creature again. I've since heard

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stories of others who have seen it. Though to this

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day I think about that monster that killed all of

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my baby chicks that night, and it ate most of them.

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This encounter took place on October sixth, two thousand and five,

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in the desolate desert of southern Utah. My late wife

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and I were to meet some friends for a multi

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day hiking trip through some slot canyons. For those who

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are not familiar with what a slot canyon is, it's

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a narrow sandstone canyon formed by water runoff with vertical sides.

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By narrow, I mean some areas are several feet wide,

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and while others are barely large enough to fit yourself through.

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It's common to crawl, climb, and repel your way through,

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and sometimes swim scattered pools of standing cold water left

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over from the storms. This particular hike we were doing

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is well known for having these cold pools of water.

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My wife wasn't keen on that part, so she and

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I opted to hike in a different way and join

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the rest of the group halfway and hike out together.

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The very nature of how these canyons are formed is

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why you do not want to be in them when

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it's raining. Storm water moves swiftly through these canyons and

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immediately becomes a deadly flash flood. Often the walls are

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sheer and vertical, so there's no climbing out for escape.

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In fact, every year people die when entering these places

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without concern for the weather. For this, the weather had

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been clear for days leading up to our planned departure

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and was predicted to be a storm free night. Also,

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there is no self service in much of this area,

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so you're on your own. Self sufficiency is expected. Our

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original route traveled through one slot canyon and met up

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with another slot canyon, and carried on further south as

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a tributary to a larger reservoir downstream. Looking at a map,

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it would look like a capital y where these two

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canyons came together. The west entrance is more technical and

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takes more time to traverse, while the east entrance is

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largely a sandy wash bottom and can be traveled much easier. Basically,

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it's like walking on a beach. Just upstream of where

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both canyons meet is a clearing wide enough to camp

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away from the wash. That was the place where we

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planned to meet the others. The main group set off

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on October the fifth, with plans to meet us either

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late on the sixth or early on the seventh. My

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wife and I planned to leave our home and get

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to our meeting point all in the same day, so

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we set off on the sixth. Getting to the trailhead

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for us required a six hour drive, then about eight

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miles of hiking. As usual, we were running late, so

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By the time we were on foot with our gear

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and in motion, it was three o'clock in the afternoon.

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The hike was incredible. The two hundred foot wide wash

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slowly narrowed as the miles went by, and halfway we

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were walking through areas where we could almost touch both sides.

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The colors would glow especially strong as the sun lowered,

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making some of the hallways glow in ways not thought possible.

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It was the golden hour. We were progressing well, spirits

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were up, the map had us just about to the confluence.

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Suddenly we were rocked by the awful stench of death.

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The canyon walls were over four hundred feet tall and

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the canyon was ten to fifteen feet wide, and that

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stench was so concentrated you could almost feel it. Yet

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there was no sign of where it was coming from.

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Nothing nothing in sight on the ground up or down

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the canyon, and with near vertical walls, we were really confused.

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We kept on using our shirts and whatever else to

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filter the air as the canyon continued to twist and turn,

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and then there it was a full size adult mountain

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sheep or ram just a few days dead. I say

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a few days because that was the time since the

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last storm flooding in this canyon, and the carcass wasn't

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covered with runoff debris. It was obvious it had showed

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up afterward. Our suspicion was it slipped and fell down

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into the canyon from above. The gender was impossible to

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determine because the entire abdominal area ribs to pelvis and

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all the way to the spine was missing. Not to

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say the introls were strewn about in the process of

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being devoured or in decomposition. It was outright missing all

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of it. The head was turned away and down into

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the crevice between the ground and the wall. Once we

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identified the source of the stench, we quickly ran past

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it to get to fresher air. Just as we were

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clear of the odor, we walked right into the confluence.

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The joining of three four hundred foot tall large sandstone

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hallways was an awesome sight. I stood in the center,

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and I looked straight up to see the sky in

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the shape of a wy, and I could tell that

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we needed to find a spot to camp soon. Luckily,

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the clearing where we were camping was just a few

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hundred feet away up the west canyon to our surprise,

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the West Canyon was wet, meaning it had a small

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amount of water flowing through it, so much so that

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we were jumping from sand mound to sand mound trying

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to keep our feet dry. We weren't concerned with flooding

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because we were confident with our weather forecasts, and it's

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also common to have water springs or seeps in the

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desert canyons. As we walked through a particularly narrow section

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along the way, the walls gradually widening to around two

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hundred feet with large sandy banks on both sides, and

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they were gaining elevations safely away from the wash bottom.

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We chose to stay left as we hiked up stream

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and found a clearing large enough to camp for the night.

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It was about twenty or so feet up from the

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wash bottom and about thirty feet away, with small trees

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and bushes between to give us a little privacy. After

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setting up camp, we had just enough light left to

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look around a little. I personally wanted to see if

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anyone else was around that we should be aware of,

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and just as I hoped, we were alone. It soon

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got dark, so we started back to our tent. It

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was then we took notice that as we walked along

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the wash, our footsteps sounded like a splat splat as

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we stepped. I remember jokingly telling my wife that it

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would likely wake us up should our friends arrive before

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we got up the next morning. Before long, we were

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zipped in our tent and down for the night, when

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just minutes later, out of the pitch black night, we

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were met with an absolutely insane roar coming down through

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the canyon. It was of such volume and force that

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we were instantly beside ourselves with fear bordering on outright panic.

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Everything about it seemed impossible. The sheer capacity to create

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such a sustained volume was outside my understanding. Out there.

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At worst, maybe you would see a mountain lion or

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a black bear on a very rare occasion, but nothing

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that would come to the combined guttural roar of an

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African lion mixed with that of a silver backed guerrilla.

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What still has my head spinning is the duration. It spanned,

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almost ten full seconds, with no change and intensity throughout.

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Instantly we knew first we were not alone as previously thought,

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and second we were definitely not on top of the

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food chain. It was then that I took notice of

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my wife, who at the time was having an absolute

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melt down. She was yelling and squirming around in her

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sleeping bag as if she was possessed. It was everything

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I could do to get her to try to be silent,

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and as I held her down with both arms and

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a leg so we could hear. Easier said than done,

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but done nonetheless. And there we sat, holding each other

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in our tent, whispering and wondering what the hell was happening.

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My wife, having grown up on a farm, told me

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she had never heard or known of any animal that

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could make that kind of sound, except on television. I'm

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a city boy, having spent most of my youth mountaineering,

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and I've met up with mountain lions, black and brown bear, moose,

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wolves and whatnot. And I was absolutely stumped. Neither of

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us had a clue what could have made that sound.

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So we lay there in dead pitch black silence for

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around ten minutes, when I eventually mustard up the nerve

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to sit up. Very slowly. My mind kept racing around

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for anything that we may have had with us that

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could be converted to a weapon of defense. The two

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metal bars in my internal frame pack A three inch

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pocket knife, tent, poles, a rock. I didn't find anything

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that I thought would keep whatever this was off of

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us if it attacked. Suddenly, whatever this thing was showed up.

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As I sat in the dark, something very large and

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very fast ran down the wash toward us from the

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upstream at my left, passing in front of us, and

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to my right, out and down toward the confluence. And

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it did it in seven unmistakable bipedal steps. It was

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pitch black, and I stereophonically heard the splights of the

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steps that had to have been more than fifteen feet

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apart as it ran past me, no more than thirty

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feet in front of where I was seated. The creature

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made a breathy, gruntle sound, almost matching the pace of

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its steps, and had passed through the one hundred and

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thirty foot clearing and under three seconds. If we were

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scared before, it was nothing compared to how we felt now.

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All we could do was sit and wait and wait,

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and that is what we did for hours. I don't

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remember when we finally fell asleep, but I was sure

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wide awake when my wife started packing to leave at

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first light. I spent a few minutes looking around in

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the daylight, trying to find anything that would give me

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an indication of what it could have been. But I

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didn't find any footprints, and my wife was making it

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clear she was leaving with or without me. I think

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it either climbed out of the canyon or it was

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stepping in water the entire time. I don't know what

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I'm confident with. However, while not having seen anything, I

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know what I heard, and that is enough for me

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and our friends that we were to meet up with.

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They were delayed with minor injuries. There was absolutely no

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keeping my wife there a single minute longer than necessary,

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and I wasn't about to let her walk out alone.

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I left markings in the sand washbottom and put a

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note for our friends in the hiking register before informing

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the ranger at his station that our friends were still

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out there. He said another ranger was making the track

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that day and he'd let him know to keep an

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eye out. It turned out that our friends were around

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six hours behind us when they called. They claimed they

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neither heard nor saw anything out of the ordinary during

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their entire trip, and that a few nasty blisters were

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the reason they decided to leave early. Strangers still They

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all say they didn't see any dead animals along the

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way either, while I clearly remember taking notice that the

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sheep had not changed in any way when we ran

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past it again on our way out. We still haven't

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told those guys anything about our experience that night. My

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father was a logger, a for a stranger, a mechanic,

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an iron worker, and a welder. He and I spent

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a great deal of time in the woods together. My

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father was no stranger to the wilderness. My paternal grandfather

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had been a fisherman until he enlisted and went to

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fight the Kaiser in World War One. A short time

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after arriving in Belgium, a shell explode did three feet

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from him and practically ripped him to shreds. But he survived,

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and he spent about a year in the hospital in

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England until the doctor sent him home to Newfoundland, telling

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him that he would never fish again and probably never

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work again. He went home and proved the doctors both

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right and wrong. He never did fish again. Instead, he

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chose to start logging and sawing lumber with the assistance

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of his sons. My grandfather's mill was located at the

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mouth of a short heavily timbered valley, where they cut

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about fifteen to twenty percent of their lumber. They practiced

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selective cutting and did a five or six year rotation,

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moving to a new area each year. As each son

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came of age to work in the mill or the woods.

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Grandfather warned them to never, under any circumstances, be caught

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in the valley after dark. He never did give a reason,

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but Grandfather was star enough in his warning that none

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of the brothers ever disregarded his advice. My father told

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me that sometimes late in the evening, when they were

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doing their post work day maintenance by lantern light, they

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would hear strange sounds coming from the valley. There would

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be wood knocks and growls and screams, and owl hoots

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and whistles, and brush breaking, and occasionally the sound of

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an animal dying. None of the brothers ever saw anything,

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and Grandfather never admitted to seeing anything, but they all

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knew that there was something terrifying in those woods. The

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neighbors nearby and in surrounding villages knew that the valley

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was occupied by demons, and nobody went there after dark.

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The fear lasted up until the nineteen sixties, when I

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was a boy, and it was my father who delivered

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my warning. The mill had been shut down in nineteen

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forty nine due to political issues, and everyone found alternative employment,

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but the brothers and grandfather still operated it now and

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then for personal use. One day in the early nineteen fifties,

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a friend of my grandfather's arrived at the mill with

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his horse and slay to go into the valley to

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cut some firewood. Well, grandfather was there at that time,

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and since it was late in the day, he reminded

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his friend to be out of the valley before it

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got dark. The friend scoffed at the advice and headed

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out anyway. Grandfather finished sawing his lumber around dusk, and

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he loaded his trailer and began oiling and greasing the

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bearings in the mill, and all of a sudden his

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ears picked up the sound of pounding hoofs and a

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voice yelling at the horse to go faster. Grandfather looked

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up in time to see his friend and the horse

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coming tearing out of the valley towing an empty sleigh,

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and grandfather intercepted the horse and managed to bring it

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to a halt. Both man and horse looked wild, and

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it took a while for grandfather to calm them both down.

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When his friend regained enough of his composure to speak,

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his first words were, I should have listened to you.

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He had gotten about halfway through the valley when he

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saw an ideal spot for cutting. He gave the horse

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some feed and water, and then he went to work.

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A couple of times he noted that the horse had

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seemed fidgety. He couldn't see anything wrong, so he returned

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to his work. He recalled several times hearing something moving

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around in the brush, but passed it off as being

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a moose or some other form of wildlife, and he

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ignored it. By dark, he had a load cut and

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was almost ready to head home. He picked up his

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gear and was about to secure it with the load

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ropes when all hell broke loose. A huge, hairy, manlike

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creature burst out of the trees. It was a giant.

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It was eight feet tall and probably weighed five hundred pounds, said,

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and it was screaming and gnashing its teeth and breaking

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off trees as it rushed forward. According to the man,

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it probably broke off more wood in a few seconds

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than he had cut all afternoon. What scared him. Most

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were its eyes. They were glowing red and contained more

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pure evil than he had ever encountered in his life.

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I'm never going back into that valley again, he swore

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to my grandfather, and with that he snapped his reins

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and headed home as fast as he could, And he

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kept his vow, and he never returned. As a child,

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00:21:37,799 --> 00:21:40,799
in the nineteen sixties, we used to ride our bicycles

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near the mill to play in the shavings and saw

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dust in the nearby river. We always had fun, but

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we never felt comfortable there. In the evenings, we always

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felt like we were being watched, and we always made

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sure to be home after dark.