As Chris, David, and I sat around the fire our second night at the
Blue Mountains, we couldn’t help but feel a little sad that our journey was
coming to an end. We had just spent an amazing weekend of adventure and
fellowship in the beauty of God’s creation. What more could a man ask for? It
was getting late though, and we all knew that we needed a good night’s rest for
the ascent out of the valley the following morning. We each headed off to our
respective sleeping spots; David stayed by the warm fire, Chris went to his
three man tent which was about 6 meters from the fire, and I went to my one man
tent which was off on its own about 15 meters from the fire (I was so far away
from everyone else because the sound of human snoring is my kryptonite). I
crawled into my warm mummy bag and quickly fell asleep. What followed was
perhaps the most frightening 20 minutes of my life.
I woke up. It was 3:15 a.m. There was no breeze, no sound, no nothing.
The night was dead…Then I heard it. It was approaching my tent slowly…large, shuffling
footsteps. “An animal?” I thought to myself. It kept approaching. “No, it can’t
be. I hear two legs, not four. What is it? Maybe another backpacker coming to
steal my stuff while I sleep?” I sat up slightly in my tent and became
instantly alert. I realized that the footsteps were coming from the woods and
were on a direct course for my tent. “WHAT IS IT!?!?” I thought. Fear laid its
icy grip upon me and my mind began to search desperately for answers. “What do
I do…WHAT DO I DO?”… I had an idea. “I’ll yell something!”
Now, there were two things I hoped to accomplish by yelling something:
(1) scare off my attacker & (2) speak courage into my faltering heart by
saying something really brave. And so it was decided. I would yell something.
But what to yell? I kid you not, my first thought was that maybe I could yell
something like “Hey, I know you’re out there. Let’s make this a fair fight.” As
if the serial killer standing outside my tent might think to himself “Ahhh heck…you
know what, the kid’s right. I should just let him out of his tent and give him
a fighting chance!” My second thought wasn’t much better though. I thought about
quoting the scene from Lord of The Rings when Gandalf faces the Balrog, by
yelling “The dark fire will not avail you, flame of Udun!” I think that the
only thing this would have accomplished would have been to give the thing
outside my tent a good chuckle before attacking me. Now, before you judge me,
please understand that the mind can think of some pretty crazy things when it’s
gripped by fear...Anyways... I continued to sit up in my tent, listening as the footsteps
got closer. “I have to do something now.” I thought. Time to yell! Out of all
the possible things I could of yelled, all I managed was a very meek “hey.” This
did not have the desired effect of giving me courage, but the footsteps stopped...2
meters behind my ten. Dead silence followed…
Fear turned into sheer panic as I began to wait. “What have I done?”
I thought. “I’ve lost the element of surprise now. It knows I’m awake.” Seven
minutes went by and I didn’t move a muscle. All I did was lay there listening.
Towards the end of the seven minutes, my heart began to slow down and I started
to regain control over my mind again. “Perhaps I imagined the whole thing.
Maybe it was an animal,” I thought… Then I heard it again. The same shuffling
footsteps, although this time a little farther away. Instantly, the fear and
panic returned, and the realization hit me. “Its playing a game with me,” I
thought, “I have to do something. I can’t let myself get trapped in here.” I
made up my mind. I had to make it out of the tent and get David and Chris.
I put on my headlamp and began to lace up my boots. Normally this
job takes me somewhere between 30-60 seconds. This night was different though.
My right boot went on in two minutes, however, I heard noises before putting on
my second boot. This caused my hand to start shaking, and my left boot took
almost three and a half minutes to put on. After putting on my boots, I grasped
my knife in my right hand and knelt down at the entrance of the tent. As I knelt
there, I became acutely aware of the dull, short, $5 knife in my right hand
that I had bought a few days earlier. “Why didn’t I buy a bigger knife?” I
thought. I continued to kneel, replaying the plan over again in my head...I would leap out my tent and run for the fire. I continued to kneel in silence. My
heart was still racing, but my mind started to clear a little bit…It was game
time!
I quickly unzipped the tent fly and lunged out of the tent. The
first thing I noticed was that the fire was out and there was no sign of David.
I kept running and eventually made it to Chris’s tent. “WAKE UP?” I yelled. To
my relief, I was greeted by two separate voices. One made an “uuuuhhhhhh”
noise, and the other said “What? Did someone catch on fire?” “No, no one caught
on fire.” I replied. “But I swear there’s something out there guys. Get up!”
David and Chris both got their flashlights and came outside. I quickly told
them my story. As I told the story, the expression on David’s face slowly turned
from annoyance to fear. “I had the same thing happen to me at about two in the
morning.” He said. “That’s why I came in from the fire to sleep in Chris’s tent…"
And so, at 3:35 in the morning, David, Chris, and I embarked on a thorough
search of the camp. What did we find? Absolutely nothing. After all of that,
there was nothing there. No person, no animal, no footprints. Nothing! We
decided to go back to bed, but this time we all piled into Chris’s tent. It was
a little crowded, but it felt safe. The guys both went to sleep, but I had it
in my mind that I would keep watch through the night. After playing hero for 10
minutes, I drifted off into sleep.
We woke up the next morning filled with joy at the sight of day
light. We quickly packed up our tents and ascended the golden stairs, up the
same way we had gone down. A fairly uneventful end to our weekend… Looking back
on that night, I realize that the “thing” outside my tent was probably some sort
of animal looking for food. Upon that realization, I’m a little embarrassed by
how frightened I allowed myself to get. I’m embarrassed that I didn’t put more trust
in God. At the very least though, that night was a memorable end to an incredible
weekend. A weekend spent with two amazing men in the beauty and glory of God’s
creation… A weekend I will never forget.
“The Lord is my light and my
salvation
Whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the stronghold of my
life
Of whom shall I be afraid?
When evil men advance against me
To devour my flesh,
When my enemies and my foes attack
me,
They will stumble and fall.
Though an army besiege me,
My heart will not fear;
Though war break out against me,
Even then will I be confident.”
-Psalm 27:1-3
