Close Encounter (1)

It was our annual week long backpacking trip to our most favorite wilderness in the world. My Uncle, Brother, and I had been hiking around Vermont and got bored with it so we decided to venture into the Dix mountain wilderness area of New York's Adirondack Park. This area is not the most popular, as it is off the beaten path, so we found ourselves pleasantly alone for once with no other visitors in camp for the night. We arrived around dusk and hurriedly set up camp and cooked a rushed dinner, all was going well. Having finished dinner, we decided to play a few games of cards in my tent, being the larger of the three. Night fell and the game went on under semi-lighted conditions. About three games into cards, we began to hear an ever so faint 3 beat rhythmic thump on the forest floor from quite a distance. After about five games we decided to turn in for the night to our respective tents, never thinking about the thumping that seemed to be getting gradually closer to our camp. Time went on, and as the sound kept creeping closer and closer, we all talked between tents to downplay our fears and conjure up fantasies as to what the thumping was and why it was getting closer to us. It got to the point where I felt the vibrating Earth rattle my insides and I could hardly hear the voices of my companions, at one point the thumping was not more than 10 yards from our camp. After that last cycle, the thumping completely ceased as my fanatically beating heart took over, but no one dared to peek from our from their nylon safety zones to see what might be waiting for us. "Its only the Earth releasing pressure," my uncle says. I don't think so, but the sound stopped nonetheless, so we decide to talk about it in the morning. So we stopped talking for now. About five minutes later, an unbelievably high pitched tone hovered over one corner of the camp, and bounced around camp from corner to corner, as if some larger life force was scanning us and our equipment. Accompanying this pitch was the sound of crashing equipment as it was strewn across the reaches of our camp, as if it was just picked up and thrown everywhere. No lights, just sound. That lasted for nearly five minutes and ended with a giant scream into the night sky. I nearly fell into shock, as did my companions.

We constantly wonder what had happened that night and we will honestly never know. What we do know, is the truth of the experience, and this story and its three witnesses can stand by it. My Uncle seems to rely on his geophysical explanation of ground pressure, but I and my brother think differently. The experience cannot be explained, but as each day passes, I yearn to uncover what force was behind it. I think I may never know, unless an up and coming X-files episode can delve into the mystery itself and give me some hypothetical explanation to satisfy my wondering imagination, and lay my random thoughts to rest.