October 2019 Ontario


Hi Lynn!
I wanted to touch base to tell you about an encounter I had recently. I listen to your narrations regularly and feel comfortable sending this to you.
I have the luxury with my job of having 3 days off in a row every week, so last October I had decided to go fishing for a couple of days. The area I had chosen was very remote. Living in Northern Ontario makes it quite easy to find a remote location to disappear for a day or two.
The weather was quite bad the day I left, very rainy and very windy. The weather forecast called for clearing later that evening and better weather the next day so I decided to head out and get set up while I had daylight, then get an early start on fishing the next morning. The trip in was very slow and tedious. The best I could do was a meager 20 kph (thats about 13 mph in American) along the rough roads for a gruelling 3 1/2 hours. When I finally did arrive at my destination I quickly set up my tent and had a bite to eat. The wind and the rain still howled around me, and being alone and only having a canoe, I decided to use better judgement and stay off the lake for now for safety sake. If any of your listeners have ever been in a canoe alone in heavy wind they will understand what I mean.
In this area at that time of year the sun sets early, and darkness sets in around 6:30pm. Every thing was wet of course from the drenching rain of the last 2 days and building a fire was not possible, so I decided to turn in early. I read by flashlight for a while, and decided to try to sleep at about 8:30.
As promised, the weather did indeed clear about that time and the air became unusually still. The rain had stopped also and the silence, as they say, was deafening.
I lay in my tent quietly trying to drift off for about a half hour, when the silence of the night was harshly broken by a very loud SNAP, immediately followed by a splash. I had thought at first it was a gunshot, but quickly realised it was a large rock striking another rock and bouncing into the water, directly behind my tent. That very abruptly got my attention and I lay quietly and motion less, listening intently for any other sounds. I heard nothing, until about 30 seconds later another much larger rock fell into the river with a deep thump, the kind of thump that only a very heavy object can make when it falls into water. I was at high alert right now. Again I listened for any other sounds, footsteps or voices or maybe some kind of vehicle leaving the area but heard nothing.
Then another loud splash accompanied by a deep thump broke the silence. I knew at this point that there was definitely something or someone THROWING stuff into the water. Until now I was rationalizing that maybe someone had been messing with me or it was a beaver striking its tail on the water, or a bear over turning rocks looking for food, but I was convinced that none of these scenarios fit the situation at hand. As any one hearing this story may or may not know, beavers will strike the water only once before diving to safety, bears make a lot of noise like grunting and heavy footfalls, and it was impossible for this to be a human, I know for a fact that the nearest humans were 10 km away from my location because I had passed them on the only road in to where I was, and I heard no motorized vehicles prior to the incident. As I said earlier I was very, very isolated.
I decided to leave at this point. Being in such a remote location, and knowing that the road was very bad and it being the middle of the night and I was alone, all added up to this being a very dangerous situation for me. So leave I did.
I didnt waste any time leaving that night. It was about 10 pm, and I drove along that dark bush road as quickly as I could. I had forgotten about the river I crossed earlier in the day and when I saw it my heart sank. I do have a 4 wheel drive truck, but the river had swelled some from the rain over the last 2 days, and I just was not sure that I could make it through there without issue. My mind raced, if I get stuck then I will have to get out of the truck to deal with it in the middle of the night. Did that thing follow me? I decided to chance the crossing, and thankfully I made it through
unscathed.
I went as far as the other campers and parked my truck near them. I felt safe there, knowing there were others nearby if things got crazy in the night.
I slept in my truck and returned to my campsite the next morning. My tent was untouched and nothing seemed out of the ordinary. I did venture behind my tent and discovered a rock face about 20 ft through the trees directly behind. It rose on a shallow angle about 30 ft then leveled off to a horizontal ledge where some shrubs were growing, then rose about another 40 ft on an even shallower angle. This was where the rocks had come down from above and into the water, and where I had heard the first rock strike the rock face and then bounce into the lake. It was obvious to me that the rocks would have to be thrown. It was impossible for them to roll down that rock face on their own because of the shallow angle, and also because I heard no other sounds.
I have not been able to return there to investigate further. As happens around here, the heavy winter snows come off the Great Lakes in early November, preventing me from investigating further. I do plan on returning in the spring, hopefully better prepared to meet a wood giant.