Scariest 3 hours of my life
My family's bonding activity used to be camping, hiking, and hunting. By the age of probably 12 I was allowed to go hiking alone because I knew how to use most guns, and how to properly handle a knife. In my long almost nineteen years of life I could say I have done over 20 hikes alone and probably over 300 with at least one other person.
Now you are probably like, yeah okay so what?? Like you've gone hiking a shit ton cool. What does that have to do with the scariest three hours of your life? Well, let me tell you what it has to do with it.
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The summer of my 15th birthday my stepsister and I wanted to take a trip someplace. We didn't really care where there just had to be hiking trails around it. So we were looking for places that had hiking trails and rather cheap hotels, we found exactly what we were looking for in a place called Grand Marais, MN. There are about 10 different hiking trails within a thirty-minute drive of the city and our hotel was really cheap cause where we stayed was a ski resort.
We scheduled our trip for August and was super excited to go. There ended up being 4 of us on this trip, two of our friends, Ally and Kate, who had never been hiking wanted to go with to experience it. As they were our friends there was no way we weren't happy about them coming with, it also meant the entire trip was a lot cheaper. The main thing that had to change was that we couldn't go hiking as much, but we still planned on going hiking at least once. And it was on this one hiking trip that I am now terrified of hiking without a big group.
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The day started out normal I got up, showered, did the usual morning routine before heading downstairs. I made breakfast with some of the food we brought with from home. That day our goal was to go into town and explore for a little bit before going to a hiking trail on the border of Canada.
When we first got into town around 10 am, we saw this super cute little chocolate shop that also sold ice cream. Sadly I couldn't get the ice cream because of having a dairy allergy, but I did get a ton of dark chocolate to enjoy later. Afterward, we just wandered around, walking on the shore for a little bit before heading to one of two restaurants in town. We got lunch and it was surprisingly delicious, although I guess one could assume that since it has been there for ages.
After lunch, we drove about thirty minutes, maybe more till we got to Grand Portage State Park, which is known for its beautiful waterfalls and also the fact that you can walk to Canada on one of the trails. If you don't mind crossing a river, that is. I think we arrived at the park around 1 pm, we wanted to get there early-ish because if you go to late you cant hike, you have to stay on the paved trails.
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We got out of the car and immediately headed for the none paved path, we had plans of walking on the paved path if there was still time. The path we were planning on going on was an 8-mile round trip, so we figured there would be plenty of time since most people can walk a mile in twenty minutes. We wanted to be onto the main trail by 6 for sure cause that is when the forest starts to get dark.
When we arrived at the beginning of the trail my stepsister and I were a little shocked, the trail looked completely ungroomed. It looked more like an animal trail than ones you would normally find at state parks. That should have been our first sign that something about this trail was weird. We started heading up the trail, the first quarter of the trail was hiking up a cliff face. For the two of us experienced hikers that wasn't a big deal and was rather normal, but for the people, we were hiking with they were tired after just climbing up the cliff. As per normal when you are hiking with inexperienced hikers you put them in the middle and front so that they control the pace.
As soon as we go to the top of the cliff we took a little break as Ally and Kate were tired. My stepsister and I stopped to take pictures since the view was breathe taking. We were just above the tree line and could see for miles. We could see Lake Superior which was about two miles away. It was a gorgeous view. However, I felt that something was wrong. When we got to the top of the cliff I could feel a pair of eyes on us.
I moved over to my stepsister and quietly told her what I felt and she felt the same, neither of us wanted to turn around though since feeling eyes on you wasn't the weirdest thing while hiking, Raccoons tend to love watching and throwing things at you. Once Ally and Kate were rested enough we continued on, except this time going downhill. This time my stepsister was in front and I was in the back just in case there were any raccoons.
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We headed down the hill rather quickly, we were making good time but the feeling of eyes on me just grew stronger and stronger. The entire feeling within this forest was wrong, the entire time I didn't hear a single bird or any of the normal animal noises you hear while hiking. We did, however, hear a ton of branches and twigs breaking. The was no wind, the tall trees were silent, this forest had no life in it except for the trees and the abundant amount of undergrowth.
We stopped about half-way down the hill when I demanded we stop. I smelled blood. Human blood. And yes there is a difference in smells between human and animal blood. Humans blood is very metallic smelling. My stepsister and I were freaked out at this point, we wanted to turn around and go back. Ally and Kate though, they wanted to continue, they thought that it was animal blood I smelled and didn't care.
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My stepsister and I had both been hiking and hunting enough to know the difference. Because my stepsister and I had hiked so much just the two of us we used opposite senses, which sounds weird, but let me explain. It is easier to focus on a couple of senses rather than all of them, she focused on sound and I focused on smell. There is so much more that you notice when you don't just focus on sight. While Ally and Kate were taking a break, we walked slightly up the trail to talk and look around.
The thing we both agreed on is that we should instantly leave. This trail was not safe for us especially since we only had three knives. She kept saying how she heard footsteps along with the breaking of branches. While I was saying besides the smell of blood there was a rosy scent hanging around. And roses are not something that you find in the Minnesota woods. When we walked back the Ally and Kate we both said that we should leave, we didn't feel good about being there.
Once again though they wanted to continue and go to the waterfall which is the turn around point for the trail. Since we couldn't get them to turn around, we continued on. I had pulled out my two knives, keeping one in each hand, while my stepsister pulled out her one. We forced Ally and Kate to pick up a faster pace, we wanted to get to the waterfall and immediately get out of there.
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Because we were pushing Ally and Kate to get to the waterfall, we got there within 25 minutes which was a really good time since we had two miles left to the waterfall. As soon as Ally and Kate saw the waterfall, they took their shoes and socks off and ran into it, soaking their feet in the water to cool down.
My stepsister and I though stayed alert the entire time, being out in the open like this felt even worse than being in the woods. We both felt at least fifteen pairs of eyes on us as we stood by the waterfall. We were both facing the woods, not wanting to let anyone creep up on us. I glanced down for less than a minute to pull out granola bars to give to everyone. When I looked back up I made eye contact with a guy staring at me through the bushes. I dropped my bag and pulled out one of my knives. When he saw my movement he turned around and ran across the trail, disappearing into the forest once more.
The truly scary thing about this encounter was that his eyes were all black. There wasn't any white within them, his clothes also appeared to have something splattered all of him. Once he was gone I turned and yelled, "we are leaving now." I shoved the granola bars back into my backpack, before turning to my stepsister and telling her what I saw. She nodded and was just staring at her phone, she glanced at me before holding her phone up for me to see "There is no service, also has it really been three hours since we got into the woods?"
We pretty much forced Ally and Kate to get their shoes back on, and immediately headed back onto the trail. I was in the lead this time, one of my knives out and visible in my hand. On the trail walking back everyone smelled coffee and mint, which finally got Kate and Ally freaked out, so they finally started walking faster. Everything on the way out was peaceful, there wasn't any out of the ordinary noises, just the quiet woods.
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When we reached the cliff face and started heading down it, I felt the almost all of the eyes leave. It finally felt like we were going to be safe and not die. Even though the sense of danger was gone we still hustled back to the car because we thought the sun was going to be setting soon. However, as soon as we got into the car and turned it on, we all pulled out our phones and realized that they had somehow moved an hour ahead so they read 4:30 instead of 3:30. All of our phones also got service again at the same time.
We knew there wasn't a time change anywhere around where we were, so we left instantly. Instead of going straight back to where we were staying we drove around for an hour, before stopping to get dinner. After that, we went back to the resort. My stepsister and I stayed up all night talking about what or who it could have been. Till this day we still can't say what, all we know is that if it was just the two of us we would never have gone that far, but also if it was just the two of us would we still be alive.
I am not one to pray, in fact, I abstain from doing it, but that day I prayed. Even now I still can feel those eyes watching me occasionally. And that boy's black eyes are something I will never forget and will always haunt me.
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Dedicated to All those that took their lives, all those that died too young and to all those who are struggling, you will get through it and flourish once you do.