Transcription
Hey guys, Chris here. Tonight I'm in the Sierra, Nevada, and I got a story about a Glacier National Park employee who goes solo backpacking. And I believe this is one of the most gut-wrenching, frightening stories I've ever told. That's next.
Okay, you guys. I am up here in the Sierra on the west side of Carson Pass. There's still snow up here. And we are along the shore of Cables Lake. Really nice place to go kayaking and uh fishing on this lake. So maybe we'll come back this summer and do that. And for tonight's beer from Mammoth Brewing Company out of Mammoth Lakes, California, we have Elderberry Sour. This is a sour ale with elderberries in it. That is pretty wild. 5.5 ABV, one pint. Pack it in, pack it out. We can do that. Not a problem. And it's uh welcome to the altitude when in Mammoth Lakes. Visit the tasting room or visit us online. Mammothlbwing company.com. And uh yeah, brewing since 1995. So, let's try elderberry beer. I'm going to have to make a sour face. I think it'll make me make a sour face. So, all right. Pour it in the new cup here. And oh, wow. It's purple. It looks like a white claw. Like a red white claw of some kind. Cherry black cherry white claw, but it's not. All right, let's see what that tastes like. Wow. It does taste like one of those White Claw type drinks. Very smooth. A little bitter finish. Uh got a sour taste to it, but I like sour. I like uh sour desserts, treats, and things like that. And uh fruit. So, elderberry sour. Wow. Yeah. It's almost got like a dry finish to it. So, there you go. Mammoth Brewing Elder Berry Sour. Cheers.
Now, our story takes place in Glacier National Park, northwest Montana. And Glacier is on the Canadian border. And then just north into Canada is Waterton Lakes National Park. It's they're actually connected together. And in 1932 they designated Glacier and Waterton as international peace parks because it was the first national parks connected between two different countries, two different nations. Glacier is over 1 million acres of massive U-shaped glacial-shaped valleys and these giant granite peaks, rivers, lakes, and just amazing wilderness. Established in 1910. Now, this park has grizzly bears, black bears, big horn sheep, mountain goats, grey wolves, mountain lions, and apparently Bigfoot.
Now, in 2002, Kelly was working in Glacier National Park. He was an employee there, and he was working as a botist. and his job was to go into the back country backpacking, hiking, and looking for invasive species, invasive weeds. And then they would set up an area and they would use a like a grid pattern, concentric circles, and they would map out an area and study the the ground cover and the weeds and what was going on. And then they would go back and make the report and then somebody would a team would come out and eradicate these weeds. Just a way to keep them from spreading because once weeds get in there they'll just spread and spread and then just take over. He was working with his partner but one week early in July his partner got jardia. was drinking water and his filter stopped working for him in the back country and he got sick for a couple weeks. And Kelly knew the protocol was to go with a partner and a small team and go out and not go by yourself. But he also had the option to go solo if he wanted to. It was not preferred, but it was left up to him and he decided he needed the money and he didn't want to wait for his partner to get well so he could continue working. Was left up to him where he wanted to go to look for these invasive weeds. And he decided to go into the high country. Most of their work was in the mid to lower range or elevation of this park. And so to do that, to go to the high country in the area he wanted to, which was the upper Waterton Valley, he had to go to Canada and then come back down through the Waterton Lakes National Park via the lake system. They got the lower, middle, and upper Waterton Lakes. And upper is this massive lake and it extends well into the wilderness and goes from Canada into northern Montana and then the upper Waterton River and he was going to go up there and then go up from there into the high country. So he took a tourist boat from Waterton Lakes Park and these boats go through the lakes and take people out for trips and tours. And his goal was to get to a place called the Goat Hunt. The Goat Hunt was at the far end of the lake. Had a campground, trail head, and a seasonal ranger station. And then this was the trail head, the beginning of the Waterton Valley Trail which followed the upper Waterton River. He does this boat trip all the way across. Long trip, gets dropped off and there's a couple people camping in the campground and then the boat turns around, leaves, puts his backpack on, and then he heads up this river. And again, his goal was to follow the river and then break off and then head up into the the high country. He travels goes several miles up this river deep into the wilderness. The boat has already turned back. It's gone. He's in the deepest part of this national park and it's one of the most remote national parks in the lower 48 Glacier National Park. Just stunning rugged country with all the intact wildlife that was there in the 1800s, 18 20s and it's still there. He follows the river and he finds this Valentine Creek. Valentine Creek goes to the west and there's no trail. So he just bushwacks up along the creek cuz he knows it's going to take him up to where he wants to go. He works his way up and it's just going through the thick brush and the alders and the pine trees. Creek is on his right and he finally breaks through and he gets near tree line and you can see Quin Peak this towering massive granite peak and he's below that and he gets up and he kind of levels out and it's just really rugged country very steep and he finds a good spot set up his tent and to do his research his work now he didn't think there there's going to be much up there, but he really wanted to check it out for personal reasons and as of course for the park and to see if there's anything up there that they need to figure out.
First night he's up there had the most beautiful sunset he'd ever seen. While he's watching the sunset and it's just about to go down, this Wolverine came by to check out his tent. There was no conflict. He just was quiet and patient and he didn't panic. But wolverines are really tough. And it's said that a wolverine can take down a full grown moose. This small mammal takes down a moose. Pretty crazy. He went to sleep that night, had no issues. woke up the next day, got to work, kind of figured out the area, didn't find much, and was just really enjoying his life and just being in a getting paid to work in the back country in a national park like Glacier.
On the third day that afternoon, late that afternoon, he heard the first cries, these yell screams that he could hear down in the valley below. Immediately, he felt unsettled. He'd spent several summers working in glacier and other national parks, and he'd never heard anything like this. It sounded almost like a cross between a wolf and a lon, but almost like it was being broadcast through this really loud speaker with this kind of tiny echoing sound to it. And he was trying to make sense of this. And while he was hearing this, he was also hearing something he couldn't quite understand. He was hearing tree knocks. Something was knocking on trees. It sound like with a baseball bat. And what's interesting is about a month earlier, he was in the back country with his partner and they heard a couple of these tree knocks. They were up on this ridge and they could hear down below them this knocking sound. They're trying to figure out what it what it was. They're thinking, "Is that a hiker? Is he just somebody a person just messing around hitting a tree?" And then they heard another one off in the distance almost like it was responding to the first one. Knock knock knock. And then knock knock. and they thought, "Well, okay, maybe it's a hiker and another hiker is letting them know where he's at." They they couldn't figure it out. But he was now hearing this with these terrifying scream yells down in the valley below. Sun was setting. He had his dinner. Just a light meal. Had some soup, a little bit of bread. and a trail bar and shut everything down. And he's laying in a sleeping bag and you can hear down in the Waterton Valley. It sounded like it was down there. More tree knocks and this yelling, screaming sound. Just off and on at a distance. This wasn't directed at him, but very unsettling. and he thought about it and he thought, you know, I've been out here good three days. Maybe tomorrow would be a good day to leave. Um, and I'm really kind of uncomfortable with what I'm hearing. It's just really strange. So, he goes to bed, falls asleep, and he wakes up the next morning, and he can hear something moving through his camp. and it sounded like wildlife because he could hear like four feet and on the rock. So he unzips his tent and he peaks out and he sees these mountain goats, mama and two smaller ones, and they walk right by his tent. And he unzipped the tent, he pokes his head out, and they didn't even seem alarmed by him. And he thought he wondered if something was pursuing them or chasing them. And he thought about grizzly bears. You know, with grizzly bears in Glacier, they're it's a can be very dangerous. And you have to have bear spray and you have to be in groups and you got to make noise and you have to do all the protocol when you backpack and you hang your food and you just got to really be mindful of grizzly bears. And so he's pulled his pepper spray and was just thinking if anything's around he's going to be ready for it.
Gets out of his tent and he sees sky and it's darkening up and this you can see a storm is coming in. Thick clouds are moving in from the west and this beautiful sunset is coming up at the same time. It's creating this really dramatic sunrise and yet a little intimidating because he's on top of this mountain and he's thinking about lightning. And then he thought about what he heard the night before with these yells and screams and he thought, I need to get out of here. So he takes his sleeping bag and his possessions and he wraps them up, puts them together, gets them in the backpack, gets the water bottle, he has quick breakfast, trail mix. Kelly had everything packed except his tent. He had room in his tent. He was getting ready to drop his tent and get out of there. And then he heard the screams, the howls again, but this time they were closer. And it sounded like they were moving towards him almost like they were triangulating his position by yelling. One would yell and then another would respond and then they would move, move closer and then yell and respond. And they were closing in on him and there sound like there were several of them. He immediately pulled out his pepper spray and he had wished he had a gun and he didn't have one and he's listening to this and he's just has this panicked feeling come over him and he feels like this is something's dangerous is happening to him and he doesn't know what they are because he doesn't know if they're human, if they're animals, if they're some kind of strange birds if they're from another planet. He had no idea what these were, but he knew they were dangerous and they were closing in on him. He could hear them down below him in the trees and up above him in the rocks. And he suddenly had this fight orflight adrenaline response and he didn't even think. He just started moving. And he had the pack on. He grabbed the pack, put it on, and he started running for the trees, leaving his expensive tent behind him. He had no time to pack his tent. And he thought maybe if he's lucky, he could go between them and get away and escape. He's in the trees. He's moving down the mountain and the trees are catching on his large backpack. just making him slowing him down. And so he knew he had to remove it. He stops, takes the backpack off, takes pulls out his daypack, and he grabs some some gorp, some trail mix, water, maps, his notes, matches, and his down jacket. And he had a knit hat. He pulled that out and he stuffed it in this dayack, ditched his big backpack, and kept running through the forest. After about a half a mile away, he heard behind him up where he believed his camp was these yell screams almost like they found his tent and were angry that he was not there. Just these howls, screaming and yelling very loud. Most terrifying moment of his life.
Continues breaking through the brush, heading down the mountain, working his way to this Valentine Creek, which he can catch, and then it'll take him out to the Waterton River, which will take him to the upper Waterton Lake. That was his only chance was to get out of there and work his way back out. He could now hear smashing and breaking of branches and this just crashing through the forest coming towards him in the distance, but it was coming towards him and he knew they were still pursuing him. He was amazed that he had enough survival skills to grab what he did out of his big pack and put it into his dayack cuz he was going to need it. He just kept going blindly on, crashing through the forest himself, trying to get to this Valentine Creek. He was following this rivullet, which is a very small stream. And at one point, it got wider and wider, and it it spread out and it was muddy on either side of this stream. And he was thinking about what was pursuing him. And if it was wolves or some animal, he thought maybe masking his scent would help give him just some advantage, some edge. So he knelt down in the mud and just started grabbing the mud and just rubbing it on his clothes, his hands, and his face. Just rubbing mud everywhere he could to try to mask his scent and to camouflage him if necessary. He continued to do this, covered himself as best he could in a short amount of time, pulled his water bottle out, drank some water, tightened it up, put it back in his pack, and continued going through the forest. He got to this Valentine Creek and he could hear them up to his right still pursuing him, but they were sounded more distant. and he bushwhacked his way along the creek and got to the Waterton River.
Kelly was now on the Waterton River trail, working his way back to the upper Waterton Lake in the goat hunt. It's going to be several more miles, but he felt relief that he was not going to be lost. He was on the trail. He was heading in the right direction and he was hoping he would find other hikers with safety and numbers and all that. He continued on as fast as he could go, but he was getting exhausted. He was getting dehydrated, hungry, and he had to stop because he had a sideache. And every 100, 200 feet, he had to stop and just catch his breath to keep going. Again, he hadn't heard anything in a while. And then he heard the cries again, and they seemed to be behind him, like they knew which direction he was going, and they were moving towards him. and he pressed on on the trail along the river and he could see up ahead the lake through the trees, but he didn't know what part of the lake, how close he was to this goat hunt, this trail head, and where the boat pickup was. And he was really concerned that if he had to skirt the lake, he didn't know if the trail would even go around the lake. He kept moving. He kept going down the trail. And then he heard the cries again. It was definitely closer. Without even thinking, he diverted off the trail and was now heading down towards the Waterton River. He had to find some cover. He got to the river's edge. He was exhausted. His heart was racing. He was just terrified. and he looked down at the river and he thought he needed to get some water in his water bottle and he went to the bank and he slid down to the river. At this time of year, the water was a little bit lower and he knew he could get across the river if he needed to. He started going downstream and he saw this tree with eroded roots along the bank created this space that he could go in behind if he needed it. and he's looking at this tree route and he thought this was his only hope was to go in there because he couldn't go on anymore and they were closing in. So he took his pack off, put his down jacket on, and crawled in behind these tree roots along the river and found a spot where he could kind of situate and be comfortable enough and see out a little bit and be near the creek and be covered, camouflaged. inside this location behind the roots along the river. It was cramped, almost claustrophobic, but he started to settle in and try to be comfortable and make the best of the situation. And he knew he couldn't be seen from inside there. pulled out some gorp, started eating it, drank some more water, and just tried to relax and make the best of it. And he really desperately wanted to get back to the goat hunt before nightfall because he'd forgotten his headlamp in his big pack that he ditched up on the mountain. He's sitting in this location and he's just exhausted. He's wore out, stressed out. And he falls asleep and he wakes up with this kind of this panicked feeling and it was dusk and it was almost dark like it is for me right here. Just almost pitch black. And then he just calmed himself and he thought, "Okay, I'm exhausted. I I'm I got a place I can rest if I need to. It's not going to be beyond freezing tonight. I got my down jacket. I'll be okay." So, he's in these roots just waiting and just listening. He can hear the gurgle of the stream as it's passing by him and it's getting dark. And then he falls asleep again. He wakes up sometime later, hours later, almost the next day, and he can feel something like claws on his leg. And in the morning light, just the very dim early light of the morning, he can see there's a pine martin that was crawling up his leg. And he thought right away like, "Okay, I must be in his space. This must be his little home. He doesn't seem afraid of me." And this pine mart looked at him and then it immediately went around his shoulder and jumped in his the hood of his jacket. And then he could hear something coming down the stream in front of him and to his right. Something loud. And it was unmistakable and it was not trying to be stealthy in any way. Coming down the river. And then he could smell this horrible stench. And he's frozen. And this pine martin is in the hood of his jacket not moving. And he's he's not moving. And he's in these roots motionless. And he can see in the light a silhouette. This large humanoid silhouette in the creek on the other side slowly moving by. He can hardly breathe at this moment. His heart is just beating. He's almost afraid that his heart's going to give him away. This heartbeat This thing passes by and then again he just crashes out from exhaustion. Wakes up an hour or so later and he can feel behind him the pine martin is long gone. It's lighter out and then you can hear the birds singing along the river. and he thinks whatever this is, it's got to be gone. It just can't be out anymore. Climbs out of the tree route. He's standing in the river. He's looking. He's listening. He thinks, "Okay, I'm rested. It's a new day. Let's Let's get out of here." and he hikes out of the river valley, gets down to this goat haunt, and there's no one at the campground. There's no sign of this boat. And the ranger station is closed. It's a seasonal ranger station except there's this man, this young man who's walking up the trail towards him and he's thinking, should should I tell him what's what happened to me? What's going on? Is he going to believe me? And at this point, he didn't care. and he saw this guy was by himself and he introduced himself and he was exhausted at this point and he said, "I don't know if you want to hear this or not, but I have been through a night and a day of terror and I want to warn you about going on your backpacking trip up this valley at this time." This young man listened. He nodded and he understood and he said, "You know what? I'm going to go out with you." And so they both went back to the goat hunt and waited at a picnic table for this boat to come. And this young man wasn't really sure what to believe, but he had this intuition the night before that something was not right. When you solo backpack in Glacier National Park all by yourself, there's so many things that can go wrong. It's such a wild place with the grizzly bears, the wolves, the steep mountains, thick forest, inaccessibility, and he had this intuition that he shouldn't be going. and this confirmed it. He even if he didn't believe his story or not, they're sitting at this picnic table by this trail head at the upper end of this Waterton Lake and this man who be eventually became friends with Kelly, he said, "Hold on, listen. I heard something." And they both listened and they could hear those cries again. And this man's face became white as a ghost because now you realize what this what Kelly was saying was true and they're waiting for this boat and it didn't come and then after just a few minutes they could hear the boat in the opposite direction coming towards them and this howling moving through the forest behind them and they're hearing these cries and they're feeling absolutely vulnerable like there's Nowhere to go. And then towards the lake, they could hear the distant sound of the motor of this boat coming to the goat hunt. Absolute sense of relief. They both got up and quickly moved down towards the dock. And then the park ranger that works the goat hunt got off the boat with a few other people. And Kelly didn't really remember what he said to him cuz he was so exhausted. He was had still had mud caked on his face. He was just a wreck. But he essentially told him what had happened. And then John confirmed what he had heard. This ranger was skeptical about what they were saying. But as they were standing there, they could hear off in the distance these yells and cries off up this valley. Right away, the park rangers said, "Let's just go." And they got back. All three of them got on the boat and worked their way towards Waterton Lakes, the town. It's a long ways away. They got there and it was such a relief to see the Prince of Wales hotel up in this hill and Kelly got back and he was able to get a hotel room, get a shower, get cleaned up. The next day he went to Callispel to see his partner that was in the hospital from his jardia. And then he came back and he went and told the ranger station in Waterton about what happened. Mainly be because if somebody was to find his backpack or his tent, they would report him as missing. He was really concerned about that. He stayed in touch with John and they actually became good friends. And then he talked to his supervisor. Kelly talked to a supervisor, told her what happened, and she was really kind of doubtful about what he was saying, but she said, "Understand had a hard time in the back country. If you would like to call it a season, you could wrap it up and you're free to go." And he did that. And then from that point, he was able to go to other national parks and work. He didn't want to come back to Glacier.
The following spring, he got a phone call from the rers's office in Waterton Lakes National Park. And they had found his tent. His tent was ripped to shreds. And not because of the snow. Something had torn the tent. Some something had just ripped it to pieces. And Kelly got this chill up his spine just hearing that. But the ranger also said that three other people had reported up the same valley up near that same mountain, Coutin Mountain and Porcupine Ridge in this area that they had seen several what they believed to be were Sasquatch. And it just confirmed to Kelly that he wasn't going crazy about what he experienced that night and that day and that whole experience in Glacier National Park in 2002. And that is our story for tonight. And it is now pitch black. The mountains are gone. The lake is I can still see the lake right here. But we are uh we're a little ways from the road, so we got to pack it up and get out of here. Well, I really hope you guys like that story. It really was for me that was just just the idea of being that far into the back country so far that you part of the journey was a boat and the other part was on a designated trail and then it was off trail on top of a lonely mountain and then to be pursued like that absolutely terrifying. So, all right you guys, I am going to get out of here while I got a chance. I hope you guys uh enjoy this. I am I'm going to do a lot of this kind of stuff getting out in the this summer camping, cooking, and doing the beer as well as some fishing things like that. We're going to put it all in these videos. It's going to be awesome. I'm just going to have a lot of fun doing this. Get away from the green screen and the AI, right? Okay. If you guys like what I do and you like stories about the strange, unexplained things that go bump in the night out this way, please hit like and subscribe. And I always appreciate all your comments. It's really really that's the support that I really like because it gives me confirmation to keep going. So, all right you guys, we'll see you in the next one. I better get out of here. Keep hiking.