When I Saw Bigfoot
I was lost, or, as I like to think of it, temporarily disoriented. I had spent the day isolated on a wet hillside near a swiftly flowing river. There was a bluff of a hundred feet or so at the edge of the woods, which were about half doug fir and half tanoak, with large patches of rhododendron and huckleberry close to the ground.
I had kept my nose close to the ground all day, except for about a half-hour lunch break. The mushrooms were blooming heavily all through the area. I had a pack full of themcantarellus cornucopia, to be specific, with a lot of dentiumas well.
It was a big load, later scaled out at sixty pounds.
The walk back to the truck was about four miles down a remnant of an old road, circling the ridge. I knew I would never make it all the way out by dark.
so I headed straight over the ridge, hoping for the best.
It was a lot of work to get to the top, but I hoped I could see the way down the other side once I was up there.
All I saw was more brush and timber, with no easy path marked out.
All i could do was steer around the heaviest ferns and move downhll. I could probably see about ten feet most of the time, and the gloom and damp were getting heavier all the time.
I was forced to sit down and scoot on my ass to get under the shrubbery in certain areas, sometimes breaiking through patches of mushrooms I would have liked to stop and pick.
There wasn't much of a moon, because of the heavy clouds, but there was a kind of glow in the air whenever I broke out of the brush into some lighter growth.
Then I smelled something a lot like you'd a expect a box of shit to smell after a day or two in the sun. It was almost like a wall of smell. I could see droplets of odor on the shiny leaves.
Bigfoot was just sitting there. I think he was crying. He didn't move. maybe it was just an old stump.
Then he moved.
He turned downhill and broke a trail through an imposing pile of broken limbs and farther down, clearing my way.
I could hear the crashing and tearing of llimbs for some time.
for a while I just stood there. The smell lingered. It got darker and wetter.
Then I followed. the path led directly to my truck.
I was lost, or, as I like to think of it, temporarily disoriented. I had spent the day isolated on a wet hillside near a swiftly flowing river. There was a bluff of a hundred feet or so at the edge of the woods, which were about half doug fir and half tanoak, with large patches of rhododendron and huckleberry close to the ground.
I had kept my nose close to the ground all day, except for about a half-hour lunch break. The mushrooms were blooming heavily all through the area. I had a pack full of themcantarellus cornucopia, to be specific, with a lot of dentiumas well.
It was a big load, later scaled out at sixty pounds.
The walk back to the truck was about four miles down a remnant of an old road, circling the ridge. I knew I would never make it all the way out by dark.
so I headed straight over the ridge, hoping for the best.
It was a lot of work to get to the top, but I hoped I could see the way down the other side once I was up there.
All I saw was more brush and timber, with no easy path marked out.
All i could do was steer around the heaviest ferns and move downhll. I could probably see about ten feet most of the time, and the gloom and damp were getting heavier all the time.
I was forced to sit down and scoot on my ass to get under the shrubbery in certain areas, sometimes breaiking through patches of mushrooms I would have liked to stop and pick.
There wasn't much of a moon, because of the heavy clouds, but there was a kind of glow in the air whenever I broke out of the brush into some lighter growth.
Then I smelled something a lot like you'd a expect a box of shit to smell after a day or two in the sun. It was almost like a wall of smell. I could see droplets of odor on the shiny leaves.
Bigfoot was just sitting there. I think he was crying. He didn't move. maybe it was just an old stump.
Then he moved.
He turned downhill and broke a trail through an imposing pile of broken limbs and farther down, clearing my way.
I could hear the crashing and tearing of llimbs for some time.
for a while I just stood there. The smell lingered. It got darker and wetter.
Then I followed. the path led directly to my truck.
I see fairies with some frequency, and I also see the Celtic Green Man. I tell people these things without worrying as much as I probably should.