This is My Camping Story

I'm not much of an outdoorsy girl. I will be the first to confess that. I am allergic to at least a dozen outdoor plants and weeds and have asthma. So, in early spring and late summer, I avoid the outdoors unless I am sunbathing at the beach. I think I could live on a beach towel for as long as waves exist.

This tale is a short one and a true story.

May long weekend I was visiting at my friend's house who lives in the country and have a perfectly manicured lawn surrounded by gorgeous trees and bush, much like most of Ontario. To save on room in the house and de-stress I thought I would venture a stay in a tent. It will be fun; you don't know what you're missing they said, it's the great outdoors; I will love communing with nature...

The first night I was so exhausted I slept right away and soundly for the night. The next night went a little differently. I settled in with the radio on, a nice warm sleeping bag and a pillow, I meditated to binaural sounds and lay down to sleep. The first thing I noticed before doing so was the absolute quiet, in May there were not as many nature sounds at all. Plus, it was pitch black outside. That unnerved me, always one to sleep with a nightlight on.

For some strange reason, my intuition heightened maybe, I woke up just before 3 am. Seconds later, I heard the audible snap of a branch. I froze. I turned on the flashlight. What was that pray tell? My senses were on full alert, I sat up, heard another noise and became still again. I knew it was an animal of some kind. Then from behind the tent came a low grunting sound. If a person could freak out sitting still, that was me. I am sure my usual birdnest of hair was sticking straight up in fear anyway. I started wishing I could commune with my spirit guide, "what animal was it," but if you're psychic you know that oftentimes spirit guides can't come through if you're terrified.

I slowly inched my fingers to the phone. Thinking it was a bear I wanted to get ahold of my friend inside the house to make noise so I could make a run for it. For some reason at 3 am this seemed logical. Everyone knows you can't run from a bear right? They are bigger and faster. I thought I had the advantage of not being seen. Like human smell might make a difference, or not. I dunno.

Heart pounding, trying not to sweat in case my scent was stronger, and trying to remember all the research I did on bears for a blog, which was probably not the best thing to remember, this is how the text went:

"Hey, are you up? You awake? Turn the light on."

Outside, the light, turn it on.

Wake up! There is something out here!!!

It's breeeeaathing, I heard it grunt at the back of the tent.

Wake up, can you hear the phone dinging....there is something out here."

Then, it went quiet again. Still, I waited. After 30 minutes, I thought, ok the coast is clear I can relax and go back to sleep. Just as I was drifting off I thought I heard the shrill sound of women screaming but they were far off in the distance and I remembered there was a camping place in the general area somewhere. I froze again. WTF. I convinced myself it was a fear-based dream and nothing more and tried to relax. Another 15 minutes later and I heard it again, a grunting sound coming from the side of the tent this time. I carefully weighed out again the option of making a run for it but instead slowly sat up. Phone already in hand I went on Messenger instead.

"Heyyyy....it's baaaaaack. That's not a racoon it sounds bigger

...

Hey omg it's making a thumping noise. It's thumping on the ground!!!!!! It's a couple feet away.

Wake up pleeeeease wake up.

Make noise.

Scare it away.

Omg I'm going to diiiiiie, Im going to get eaten."

The household was sound asleep and my messages went unnoticed until the next afternoon. I sat wide awake motionless until 5 am, 2 hours later and as soon as the sun came out I looked out at the lawn and whatever it was now gone. I darted for the house.

Later that day I looked up animal sounds on YouTube to try to figure out what kind of animal it was from the grunts. A deer had a slightly higher sound to the grunt, similar to a sheep bleating but a bear sounded like a deeper grunt, so being somewhere in between I thought maybe it was a male deer which is bigger. Both will thump the ground territorially. There are no bears in this area but it was still scary.

That's my camping story.

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Here is my blog on wildlife that I researched and explains a little about my fear of the topic:

Spring Beware the World Wide Nature of the Wild.