One night in the wilderness of Canada four friends, Taylor Hess, Kaitlin Dunkle, Richard Williams

and Travis McIntosh were on a hiking expedition.  After a long day in the cold woods, hiking the
rough, rocky trails they decided to set up camp, start a fire and eat and rest for the night.  In the
chilly night a clear star filled sky shone above them.  It felt good to share each other’s company
around the camp fire and they began telling tales of old and new each trying to top the last
one’s story.  Richard began telling the story of the Partridge Creek Monster.  A tale which began
in the early 1900’s by a team of hunters following a herd of moose in the Canadian wilderness. 
They had just found the herd but before they could fire at them, the herd turned in another
direction and let out almost a scream as they turned to run. 
When the hunters turned to see what had scared the moose off, they could not believe their
eyes.
For to their left stood a huge creature, it was massive, they had never seen anything like it.  It
was about 30 feet long, 12 feet high with feet and claws that were over 3 feet in length.   The
hunters were scared but wanted to follow and sure enough they found him.   He was as huge
and scary as he had been when they first saw him and this time the monster turned to face
them.  The hunters thought they were doomed as the monster began to approach them but
then once again he stopped, let out an enormous roar and left into the woods.   The monster
known as a cryptid has been seen many times in the Canadian wilderness but after several
years no more sightings had been reported.    Everyone looked around at each other, not quite
sure what to make of the tale Richard had just told them.  Then they broke out in laughter and
told him “yeah, right Richard nice try scaring us to death.”  Travis however still looked a little
spooked but they cleaned up the camp site and decided to head off to bed and hit the trails
early in the morning again.   Travis couldn’t sleep though.  He couldn’t get the tale Richard told
out of his mind.   He wondered if it had been true.  Could these things really have happened?  
He pondered those thoughts for a little while longer and then sort of chuckled to himself for
being so naive and then put it out of his head without further thought and drifted off to sleep.  
It was a peaceful night.  Easy to sleep with the crisp air, the sounds of birds chirping.  You could
still hear the crackle of the fire outside the tent that they had left burning outside the tents for
warmth and for ease of starting breakfast and coffee the next morning.   Soon everyone was
sleeping soundly in the comfort of their tents.   All of a sudden Travis awoke with a start.  He sat
up in his sleeping bag, nervously looking around and listening.  He was in a cold sweat and
disoriented for a moment not exactly sure what had startled him awake so suddenly from a
sound sleep.  Then he heard a noise.  Not sure what it was he decided to look outside the tent
to see what he could see.
The fire was still burning, everything seemed as they had left it when they had turned in for
the night.  Then he heard it again, a crackling, crunching sound coming from the woods.  He
was sure he had heard something this time.  He stepped out of the tent, his blanket still
wrapped around his shoulders.  It was quite chilly but the sky was still clear, bright and starlit. 
Richard stepped outside to see what was going on.  “What’s wrong Travis?” He asked.  Travis
looked at Richard with a concerned expression and said “man, I’m not sure.”  “Something
startled me awake and I know I heard noises out here but I don’t see anything.”   Richard
looked at Travis for a moment and then laughed a hardy laugh.  Travis looked annoyed, and
asked “what is so funny?” .   “My story of the cryptid, it got to you didn’t it?”   Travis looked
at the ground embarrassed and then replied “well yeah, a little at first.”  “But I swear Richard
I heard something out here and it was real.”   Richard looked around the campground and
Looked up at the beautiful night sky.  “Well, whatever you herd I don’t hear it now.”   “Travis
nodded in agreement and as they both turned to go back to bed they heard a low growl and
the same crackling noise Travis had heard earlier.   Nervously Richard looked over at Travis
“now that I heard my friend.”   They scrambled to find their flashlights and a rifle and came
back out of the tent to walk around a little.  “Maybe it was a bear”.  Richard said to Travis,
Travis looked worriedly at Richard and nodded, hoping Richard was right.  They walked a little
way down the trail.  Travis looked down and tapped Richard on the arm.  “Richard, look at
those.”   Richard shined the flashlight on the ground and saw a massive footprint.  Travis
looked at him and said “that is not a bear track”.  Silently they walked a little further down
the trail.  By this time they had awoke the others and everyone was now on the trail, looking
for whatever was making all the noise.   The girls were shaking, their voices quivering.  Kaitlin
asked “why don’t we just go back to the tent and look around in the morning light?”.  Richard
shook his head and said “no, none of us will get any sleep anyhow and if there is danger near
I would feel better knowing.”    All of a sudden from the woods behind them, there came a
Horrifically loud roar.  The guys turned around to see what it was, the girls had fallen to the
ground in their fear.  Then they saw it, it was huge, almost dinosaur like in appearance it looked
liked it weighed tons.  It was at least 40 feet long, at least 15 feet high.  It had huge teeth and
feet and it was obviously very angry.  Angry AT THEM.   It was not happy to be disturbed by
their presence and started to slowly step towards them.  The girls screamed, Richard raised the
rifle readying to shoot if he had to.   They all stood still as rocks, jaws dropped not sure what to
do in that terrifying moment.   The cryptid raised his head and glanced at them fiercely, he
moved his eyes from one to the other, inching forward ever so slowly.  Richard c***ed the gun
posing to shoot.  Then just as fast as he had appeared the cryptid let out one more loud roar
and then turned back into the woods and moved quickly away.   Richard and Travis dropped to
their knees and for the first time in all those moments took a deep breath and hugged and
comforted the girls.  “We are all ok, he’s gone.” Richard said.  Travis and Richard helped the
girls up and they all walked slowly back to their camp site and spent the rest of the night talking
about what had happened.  They were all relieved to be ok.  They tried to reach someone,
anyone to tell what had just happened to them but of course there was no cell reception in
their remote location.  They fell into an exhausted sleep for just a short time and woke up
still shaken from the events of the night.  They all looked around at each other afraid to speak.
They silently they packed everything up and were once again on their way down the trail.  It
was a beautiful day.  The sun was shining, the leaves full of fall colors and that crisp, refreshing
fall air was quite a contrast to the terror they had experienced in the night.   On the way down
the trail they came across a mounted patrolman who asked if they had seen anything on their
journey.  They all began to talk at once and the Mountie had to stop them and ask them to
speak slowly.  They told the Mountie everything they had seen in the middle of the night.
The Mountie told them they were lucky to be alive, that another family camping had
come across the same creature just a few nights before and once again he told them the
tale of the cryptid’s.  When they left the Mountie to finish their journey they knew they
had lived and experience a real life mystery they would never forget.  Once home they were   
first excited to have such an experience to share with other friends and family.  But when the
time came none of them did.  They each had decided on their own that they didn’t want to
deal with people who may not believe them or deal with the press and intrusion of people
showing up with questions.   They decided they wanted to live just as they had before and the
four decided that some things are best kept between best friends.  They did vow however that
someday, they would all return to that spot just to remember and see if the creature was
still there.