Hunters have told stories of ape-like creatures that live solitary lives in the wilderness. The creatures are shy and they rarely emerge from their remote lairs, especially when human beings are around. However, some human beings have actually come face to face with these Bigfoot creatures. And many of these meetings have ended in absolute terror. Could such creatures really live in wilderness areas and yet remain almost completely undetected? What kind of creatures are they? Are they products of mutations or are they survivors of an almost-extinct species? We may never know. We do know that throughout history Bigfoot creatures have been sighted all over the North American continent. While many people have thought that Bigfoot sightings are nothing more than products of overactive imaginations, it would be hard to explain why there have been so many sightings in so many different places. IN the 1920s, three men discovered something new about these huge and mysterious creatures: When one of their kind is harmed, the Bigfoots seek revenge. And their revenge is more terrifying than the creatures themselves.

Ryan Curtis and his fellow trappers were tired-dead tired. They had been trapping all day about seventy-five miles north of Portland in a small canyon in the Mount Saint Helens area of Washington. Trapping was hard work, but it was a living. There weren’t many jobs available in the northwestern part of the United States during the 1920s. So Ryan and his trapping buddies spent most of the fall and winter in a small cabin out in the wilderness. It was rough being away from his family, but Ryan liked living for a season among the tall, willowy pine trees. It gave him a sense of just how incredible the natural world was.

“Time to go, Ryan?” asked Brendan Rivers, one of the trappers. “Yep, I expect so. Getting near sundown.” Ryan looked up at the trees surrounding him and noted how the sun’s rays were now slanted through the delicate pine needles. The shadows made a kind of patchwork design on the forest floor.

Then Ryan saw something else through the trees-something that made his heart race in terror. Just beyond the grove of trees was a small clearing. And standing in the middle of the clearing was some kind of huge, hairy creature. It looked like a bear-no, an ape-only it was much larger than apes he had seen pictures of. And the creature’s brown fur was long and matted in places.

Ryan closed his eyes and rubbed the. He figured he was seeing things-the fading light and his own fatigue were playing tricks on him. When he opened his eyes, the creature was still there-only now it had raised its arms above its head in a threatening motion. And its mouth was pulled back in a harsh snarl.

Ryan looked over at Brendan. Brendan’s eyes were big with terror. It seemed as if he was frozen in place, frozen by fear. Ryan slowly reached for his rifle, but the creature was no longer moving slowly. It charged toward the two men, crashing through the forest. Ryan didn’t wait but a second. He aimed his rifle and fired.

The creature stopped in its tracks, just a few yards in front of them. Ryan thought he might have grazed its head, but he couldn't’t tell for sure. He could see the creature clearly. In the split second that the creature stood in front of him, Ryan tried to memorize it in detail. It was huge-maybe as tall as nine feet. Its eyes glowed a blood red. To make matters worse, its body gave off a horrible stench, a smell so powerful that Ryan’s eyes teared up and his throat narrowed into a gag.

Then, as if it suddenly realized that it had been shot, it turned and ran back into the woods. Ryan breathed a sigh of relief. He looked over at Brendan. Brendan’s teeth were chattering with fear. “W-w-w-what was that?” Brendan asked. “I don’t know,” Ryan answered. “I’ve never seen anything like it. All I know is that we’d best get back to the cabin before it comes back.”

 The two trappers ran back to the cabin often looking over their shoulders to make sure that the creature wasn’t going to make another appearance. That night, around a roaring fire, they told their friend, Quincy Kramer, about the encounter. Quincy had been trapping in another part of the woods that day. Always a skeptic, he scoffed at the two.

“You can’t tell me some hairy ape has been living here all this time and we haven’t once seen it. After all, we’ve been hunting these woods for years,” Quincy said. “I’m telling you, it happened,” Ryan answered. “Brendan here saw the thing, too.”

“It was gruesome,” Brendan answered. “And the smell-it was enough to make you throw up.”

“Come on, you two. Maybe you’ve been out here in the wilderness too long. Maybe you should head back to Portland and get yourself a city job,” said Quincy. Just as Quincy finished his sentence, there was a loud thud against the cabin wall.

“What the-“Quincy began, as he reached for his rifle. Another thud followed, this one louder than the first. The cabin’s walls trembled just a bit. Then the thuds began in rapid succession, one after another. “It sounds like someone’s throwing rocks at us. Who could it be?” Brendan said, his voice weak.

 “I don’t know,” Quincy answered, “but I aim to find out.” Rifle in hand, Quincy strode to the door of the cabin. Ryan stayed where he was. This day had been weird enough-and now the night was turning even weirder. Whatever it was, Ryan wanted to sit and wait for it to go away.

Slowly, Quincy opened the door and stuck his head outside. As he did, a boulder-sized rock-too heavy for any man to lift, let alone throw- catapulted through the door. Quincy slammed the door shut. His face was pure white. “Looks like I owe you fellas an apology,” Quincy said, his voice shaking just a little. “Those ape creatures-they’re real all right. And they’re mad. There’s a bunch of them-just at the edge of the clearing. And they’re tossing boulders at us.”

“W-w-w-what should we do?” Brendan asked. “I don’t rightly know,” Quincy answered. “We could grab our guns and fire at ‘em through the door.” Bang! Another boulder hit the wall. “I vote we stay here,” Ryan said. “We just stay put. They’ll leave soon enough. They can’t keep this up all night.”

“You’re right. We should try and wait it out as best we can,” answered Quincy. So the three say, huddled inside the cabin while the rocks were hurled at them from outside. They weren’t prepared for how long they would have to wait. All night long, the creatures kept up the rock throwing, hurling one rock after another at the small cabin. Its walls held firm though and just as the sun began spreading fingers of light against the sky, the pounding stopped.

The three still sat, huddled together, as if not quite believing that their attackers had left. Quincy volunteered to open the door. “But what if they are right outside, waiting to attack?”

“They could be,” Quincy answered, “but they could have gotten us long before now. They could have knocked down the door and killed us if they wanted to, but they didn’t, did they?” Ryan couldn't argue with his logic. The three men grabbed their rifles and slowly opened the door. The cabin was surrounded by rocks, boulders, tree limbs and other debris. It seemed as if the creatures simply threw whatever they could get their hands on.

 Among the debris were huge footprints in the dusty dirt. Ryan gasped as he realized just how big the footprints were-maybe two feet long. The creatures themselves were nowhere to be found. It didn’t take the three trappers long to make the decision to leave the woods-and quickly, before the creatures decided to come back.

The men packed up their meager belongings and, rifles at the ready, they headed out of the woods on foot toward civilization. It was time to get city jobs.