Kay County, Oklahoma, Summer 1973

My best and oldest friend, at the time, were chillin in a remote spot at the local lake about 11 pm, with the temperature about 80. I had 65 vw bus and we were both sitting in the back, he on the engine compartment, me up front on a bean bag chair, 8 track blaring away, inside lights on, and side doors wide open.Now it was the 70s so we had just popped a Coors and lit a joint.
During the silence between songs we heard a pack of coyotes go off. Nothing new to those of us in the country as we always slept with the windows open in the summer heat and youd here them about as regular as the oil pumps thumping away.On this occasion though, they sounded different. So much so that when the music started up again my friend yelled at me to turn it down. I reached over and simply popped out the tape. Just as I settled back and we started to talk about the weird coyote, the loudest, largest and most powerful roar I have ever experienced, hit my van from above, it felt like something was standing just outside pools light cast by the open doors and was leaning over the top of the bus. The low frequency and volume rocked both our chests. I glanced at my friend and he had a look of sheer terror and had lost all his color like nothing I'd seen before or since. He shrieked something like "What is that" followed by get us the f outta here. That was all I needed. In one move I hopped over the front seat wall, landed with one foot on the gas, the other on the clutch and had her started in a couple of seconds. I distinctly remember being too frightened to turn on the lights. Anyway i floored the gas, dumped the clutch and we bounced a 180 and headed to town.I never saw a thing and although I'm pretty sure my friend did, he never said so. The oddest thing to me was that we both blocked the entire episode out of our memories. 
A couple girlfriends saw me a week later and asked why I had acted so sketchy the previous Sat night. I told them I had no idea what they were referring to so they walked me back through that day, afternoon and evening. When I rembered I basically shoved them out and hustled to my friends place. Once there, it took me about 30 minutes to get him to remember. Initially he denied it and then he just started shaking and sweating and acting truly bewildered and scared.
We spoke of it a few more times and after a few years i packed up and moved to Washington State for the hiking, climbing and just about everything. I now have thousands of miles and hundreds of nights in the Cascades and Olympics , for 12 yrs I owned a home across the road from the Cascades on Mt Si Road east of North Bend WA.And in all these yrs and miles walked, now weekly in the Olympics I have not seen, smelled or heard anything like the other stories found on this sight.
My girlfriend is betting this doesn't get published because we had opened a beer a lit a joint moments before that damned roar which is still the single most intimidating sound I've heard. 
I have never shared this publicly but at 64 yrs old, who cares....peace out