There’s Something Out There

It was 4:30 A.M., on the outside edge of Mt. Rainier National Park. We were in the Sheep Lake Trailhead parking lot just off State Route 410, beside the Pacific Crest Trail. It was a sleepless night, tossing and turning trying to find some way to sleep. The temperature was dropping throughout the night into the high 30s.

At certain times, based on the location and situation, attempting to sleep in the wilderness can naturally result in heightened senses. Especially sounds. Because at 4:30 A.M., it’s pitch black, I can’t see anything. All I can do is hear. Every bit of rustling triggers a fight or flight response.

Just when I’m on the brink of slumber, I’m kept up by the sound of others in the lot speaking and having engine trouble. It’s hard to keep track of time in the late hours of night. It feels like a void of space and time. I don’t have service to distract my mind and the book I have has grown painfully boring to read. Jess is asleep so I must lay here unmoved as not to wake her. Time transforms into something I am try to pass with sleep. But when sleep doesn’t work, I lay and listen to the sounds of the night.

I finally manage to drift off and dream about a big party. A bunch of my friends were there having a great time. The essentials of a good party were involved. It was a blissful subconscious escape from the reality of being cold in middle of a remote wilderness. I dreamt long enough for the party to end.

Then I woke to a noise. With every unfamiliar noise I hear, my primal brain reacts with an alarming sense of urgency. An urgency that dismisses the notion of sleep and demands my full attention. The noise was a slow, stepping, crunching on leaves, audibly right behind the back door of the van. Directly next to where my head lay. As I was listening to the footsteps. Obie confirmed the noise with a jolt out of her bed and into ours. In a defensive position she motioned with her snout toward where the noise was. I grabbed Jess from her sleep and said quietly “there is something out there.”

We saw a couple of bears from a distance on a trail earlier in the day. Now we are sitting upright in bed at 4:32 A.M., rudely awakened by my primal instincts to be alert. My heart is beating like a kick drum inside my chest. The darkness and cold of the night adds a certain level of fear to the encounter. Even though we are in the safety of a metal shell inside our van, we are still only a few feet from a predators environment. There is no way to confirm it’s a bear. All we have is our imagination. We definitely shouldn’t go outside to check and it’s too dark to look outside. While I am curled up under the covers trying to get warm, this bear is walking around in the dead of night, looking for something that is unknown to me. We can’t leave, it is too dark and late to drive through mountain roads.

We must stay and listen to the sounds of the wilderness. To the sounds of a bear doing what bears do. While we try to escape this fearsome reality to a party. A party where all of my friends are there, having a grand ole’ time.

Paradise Trail, Mt. Rainier National Park, Earlier that day