SC EP:1176 It Was Six Feet From My Van

Linda writes “I wanted to share my experience I had back in April of this year. This was in a large natural area in Southeast Michigan. I was suppose to meet up with my research/ investigating friend on a Friday night in May at a camp.

The weather was not so great on the way down. It was storming off and on throughout the afternoon. When I got to the camp nobody was there. My friend Gabe was still working and had not been able to come yet. It wasn’t dark yet but raining so I stayed in my van. Finally after texting back and forth, we established that He would come out the next morning because the radar showed a huge storm approaching and there were already flash flood warnings out.

So as twilight approached I decided to go outside even though it was sprinkling and load up on my drinks for the night so I would not have to get out again after dark in the storm approaching. I did not have a fire going didn’t see the sense in that. After grabbing two pops from my cooler I approached the opening of my van the slider door on the side.

I had miscalculated my timing and now it was fairly dark with almost no light..I looked toward my left out into this neighboring field there were 4 sets of eyes kind of greenish, and they were heading right at me. Now I figured they were about the right height for coyote or deer but I was a bit confused as to why they were coming at me. I grabbed my little flashlight from behind the seat and turned it on the eyes and yelled out in a very stern voice “Whatever you are that’s far enough!”

The creatures stopped and I realized now they were whitetails. All adult deer no fawns or bucks with them. In that second I thought to myself Why are these deer running up to me that’s not normal behavior, light went off in my head, they were trying to escape a predator.

Soon as I thought that they all raised their heads and looked back at the wood line on the other side of the field. Then bolted across the field taking off and away to the left. I started panning the wood line and bingo there about 7 or 8 feet ( a guess) up in the air were two huge round forward facing eyes set wide apart..And NOW its watching me instead of following the deer. I called out “I see you” in a casual voice but loud enough to let it know I knew it was there.

It kept watching me, I grabbed my bigger flashlight thinking i would light this thing up with my 1500 lumen but no all I could see was the eyes watching me still. Now its very dark and sprinkling harder. I decide to get into my van and get my thermal out thinking Im going to try and thermal this thing. Its still standing in the tree line. I step up into my slider door turn around and sit down on my bed, grab my key fob thinking id shut the slider door while its raining and I’m getting my thermal out..now I hit the keyfob and as the door slides shut I hear this very loud growl/roar and it sounds like it is 6 feet from my van!!

The door finishes shutting I hit lock and alarm. I am in shock now and sitting inside in the dark thinking no way am I going back out there and am I going to have to climb over the middle console to jump in the drivers seat to escape?! I listened intently waiting to see if my door was going to be torn off or what this thing was going to do and then the torrential storm hit …I was not going to turn on any interior light and would just keep quiet..even though it rained most of the rest of the night i could hear screams and howls throughout the night. Something screamed and the coyotes sounded off going nuts…Gabe showed up next morning and crossed over there and found suspicious tracks…upon his return to camp he was going to go back and cast the one but it had been scuffed out, very strange. I was happy to not be alone anymore at camp Ill tell you that! Then in June in a different area I was attempting to hike a trail but stopped on top of a berm to look at a print and got charged from behind in the woods behind me but I couldn’t see it..you are welcome to call me if you want the rest of that experience. Since I have talked to you on the phone years ago.”