Horrific Screams!

In early spring of 2008 Beau and I decided to buy new camping gear. We were so happy to put winter behind us and looked forward to enjoying Mother Nature once again.

Beau was anxious to camp, yet the nights were still very chilly, and I remained a quite hesitant. But after all of his pleas I finally gave in.

So we set out for Tea Creek Campground for the holiday weekend. Many other eager campers had arrived early and grabbed the good spots, so we made our spot towards the back of the camp, close to the bathrooms, which I liked a lot.

This was our first time to Tea Creek; we fished, hiked and settled in for dinner by the fire. Thankfully our good neighbors donated their extra firewood to our cause as we were not totally ready.

After the sun went down it began to get so cold that we decided to turn in early. We snuggled with one another and with Lucy, our dog. For a while we lay all shivering together. I was just about ready to pack it up and head home when I realized they had fallen sound asleep. How could they? It’s freezing!

Now it was just me who lay wide awake, alone trying to lull myself to sleep with the normal crick-n-crack of the forest. In the distance I could hear other campers but after a few hours they retired and everything became silent.

It must have been sometime after 1:00 am when I heard the horrific screams coming down the road. It was the wildest screaming screech, each followed by a deep lapsing grunt. It also sounded like it was beating its hooves on the ground. It was a deep beating sound, hard one to explain.

I mean to tell you these were sounds straight out of a horror flick! I’ve never heard anything of the sort, ever! And it was heading in our direction. Screaming, screaming, screaming at such a frightening pitch, so loud that I couldn’t believe Lucy didn’t wake up and begin to bark.

The thing grew so close that I thought of unzipping the tent to take a look. But I just laid there with my imagination running amuck. No gun! Scared! When it got down to our site it took a turn into the woods and screamed its way up the hill until it was gone. Needless to say, I did not get to sleep that night, at least not until the sun began to rise.

The following morning I told beau what I had heard and he didn’t know what to think. I thought I might go around and ask our neighbors but many had already packed up and left. I did manage to look for tracks but I’m no tracker.

When I got home I questioned several hunters, researched screaming animals, listened to many bird calls (especially screech owls!) and found absolutely nothing until stumbling across this website. To this day the screaming thing still puzzles me, but at least now I know that I am not alone.

West Virginia…wild and freaky!