John Spincer
When I was around ten or eleven my grandfather took me to the Uncha Mountai Red Hills Provincial Park. He kept saying that I’m growing up too soft and I need to man up. The trip was supposed to help me man up. I don’t know if it made me manlier but let me tell you I’m not gonna go camping ever again. He decided to build a tent not in an official camping site but strait up in the forest away from other campers. I hated that trip. We spent two and a half hours walking deep into the forest before he decided that we are far enough from civilization for me to man up. I was exhausted and hungry but he still made me build our tent all by myself. He said that a man has to know how to build a tent. It took me ages to build it. It was getting dark when I finished.
My grandfather had planned that I’ll have to kill some sort of animal to provide food for the trip so he was very disappointed that we had no more daytime left. We ate some sandwiches that my mom had prepared for us and went to sleep. Grandfather fell asleep almost instantly but I couldn’t. It was too uncomfortable. After some time I heard someone talking, but the voices very strange and high pitched. I couldn’t understand a single word. Well I couldn’t even decide if they were people talking or some animals making funny sounds. I woke up my grandfather but then the creatures stopped making sounds. My grandfather said that raccoons are making funny sounds when they play. It was quiet for some time and my grandfather fell asleep. I was too nervous to sleep. Suddenly I heard something running past the tent. And then a sound similar to laughter came from a bit further away. I was freaking out but I didn’t want to get my grandfather angry so I didn’t wake him up. It became quite after some time and I probably fell asleep. I was woken up by the light of the flashlight my grandfather turned on. And then I saw a hairy face looking at us through a tear in the tent. The eyes were shining red, similarly to what you get taking pictures with a flash. I started screaming my Grandfather also began shouting. The screaming and the light probably scared the creature. It stumbled backwards and ran away. We heard three or four other creatures lough and shout for some time and then it got dead quite.
For some reason I can’t remember well what happened afterword’s. How we spent the rest of the night and how we got back to the car. I just remember that it took us all day to get back to the car and that my grandfather kept saying “it was a bear, it was a bear”. But I am certain it was no bear.