Just over a decade ago, before the wife and I got engaged, we decided to do a Pacific Northwest road trip. We flew into Portland, followed the Columbia River East, checked out Bend and Lewiston Idaho before ducking back into eastern Washington. From there, we headed west to the Olympic Peninsula.
We got into that area late one afternoon and after finding a campsite decided to go check out a quick evening hike. We ended up in a relatively busy parking lot that had access to a few trails including one to Hurricane Ridge, I believe it was.
Walking towards the trail a couple of guys seemed excited to tell us about a nice buck that was hanging out up there. Having never seen a blacktail in person that picked up my pace a bit.
A little way up the first section of trail we stopped in the elbow of a switchback. I happened to look back down the hill the way we’d come and caught a dude staring at us. When he realized I saw him he ducked behind a tree. I didn’t like that. Eventually I got a glimpse of him, heading back towards the parking lot, but he did a pretty good job of keeping trees between he and I and a glimpse was all that I got.
I remember commenting to my girlfriend that maybe those guys had told us about the Buck so we go up the trail and they could break into our car. At that point going back to the car to check on things would’ve pretty well ended the day, so we brushed it off and kept hiking.
When we get to the next fork in the trail, there was a small cluster of people gathered and sure enough most of them were taking pictures of a group of deer that did indeed include a nice buck. We got closer to the deer and took some good pictures while we watched them for a few minutes.
We turned back , passed all the people and took the other fork, which went out on a narrow ridge and some sort of overlook. I distinctly remember noticing a guy wearing mirrored sunglasses taking a lot of pictures of the deer, maybe even nodded at him as we walked past. When we got away from him my wife commented that he looked like Edward Cullen. Having never watched the Twilight series I had no idea what she was talking about.
Life was good as we started out on the long narrow ridge to the overlook. This was a great end to a fairly long road day and we were enjoying the evening. Until I once again felt the need to look back.
The dude with the camera and sunglasses was behind us. Probably about 100 yards back. The first time I noticed it I thought nothing of it. The next time I looked back he was about 75 yards, but stopped with his back to us. From there on each time I look back he was a little bit closer and yet every time I looked back, he was standing still with his back to us. I begin to get very uneasy. We had no firearm and only a pocket knife for a weapon. And it was only then that I began to take full stock of our surroundings. We were approaching the end of a trail that was indeed at an overlook. There was no one else in sight and everything fell off sharply in every direction from that point,
This guy looks somewhat pasty and frail, and I wasn’t particularly scared of him but at the very same time, I knew that he could still be trouble.
We finally found ourselves on a slight knoll at the overlook. The trail was a dead end and though the slope wasn’t sheer a good body check could easily send you down the slope to serious injury or death. Our hiking companion was closing in.
I told my future wife to walk around him on the right and I would take the left side. He would have a hard time shoving in both directions at the same time. I opened my knife inside my pocket and was as ready to use it as a weapon as I had ever been.
We started walking towards him and even when our shoulders practically touched the guy didn’t even acknowledge us. The mirrored glasses completely blocked any read on his eyes but I looked into them anyway . My heart was about to come out of my chest and I braced myself as I walked past him.
And then we were past him. We walked a little way before I checked on him again. He stayed at the overlook and didn’t follow us anymore. We will never know what he was thinking but he was next level sketchy and I was elated to put distance between us.
We encountered more undesirable characters on our trip around the peninsula but nothing else quite as intense.
