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View Full Version : What Happened To Me In August 1977, anybody else have any spooky stories



Linstrum
10-31-2007, 05:20 AM
When I take a trip out into the woods or desert, that is just about as good as it gets as far as being able to find and experience the wonderful peacefulness and beauty that Nature has to offer us. When I get out to where I want to be, all my problems just vanish into thin air and I feel an exhilaration that is hard to describe but is quite real. I think most people go out into the woods and deserts to experience this same thing. Of course we also do other things while there, like hunting, fishing, gold and other mineral prospecting, taking photographs, birdwatching, and whatever. Doing things like that just turns “better” into “best”, or is having your cake and eating it, too!
For more than a few folks, though, there have been times when the tranquility of nature was dashed and suddenly replaced by utter terror and panic. Like when a lightning storm suddenly shows up and you are on foot miles from the nearest shelter with that dark cloud right over you and the top of your head the tallest object for a ground strike to hit. Or walking back to camp with a quarter of venison over your shoulder and the canyon you are walking through has a flash flood high water mark twenty feet up the sides and it is starting to rain, and on and on with The Other Side Of Nature that is quite real besides being pretty scary but we don't normally spend much time thinking about. Mount Saint Helens was about as bad as it gets since being thirty or even fifty miles away was still within its killing radius when it blew up! But that STILL isn't as bad as it can get. Back in 1969 on Labor Day weekend I was on a desert trip to Saline Valley, California, the next valley north of Death Valley National Park. It is about as far as one can get from a gas station or telephone out there in the Lower Forty-eight States. The idler pulley on the air conditioner broke off and went through the radiator of the GMC Carryall (same as the Chevy Suburban) I was driving. To make matters worse Charles Manson, Tex Watson, Susan Atkins, and Patricia Krenwinkle drove up in two dune buggies and offered assistance. Of course they had not been apprehended for the Tate-La Bianca Murders yet and we did not know who they were, but they acted evil and it was the first time in my life that I used a firearm to prevent harm to myself. I didn't shoot them, just the presence of a rifle was enough to make them leave us alone. Pretty spooky.
But that is still not as bad as it can get out there in the otherwise peaceful, wonderful, unpopulated boondocks.
In 1977, eight years after the Manson encounter, I was out there in the same area of the desert near the little town of Darwin, California. I had my big black Labrador dog with me at the time. I was actually on a fishing trip up to Tuttle Creek at Whitney Portal near Lone Pine, California, but I detoured out away from the rivers and streams of the relatively treeless but highly wet east slope of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in order to camp by myself out away from populated areas. That sounded great at the time. I drove my 1968 Jeepster Commando far, far, out into the desert on an old mining road and found a nice secluded gulch to park in where I would be out of sight from any passing vehicles, if there were any. After dark I broke up a bunch of creosote bushes for a campfire and sat around drinking a beer and heating a can of Dennison's chili over the peculiarly-scented fire of long spindly creosote bush stems. I ate my dinner of chili beans and decided to listen to the car radio for a bit before retiring for the night to sleep. For those of you who have never been out into the vast deserts that range a thousand miles north of the Mexican Border to the southern extremes of Oregon and Idaho, and lie another thousand miles east of the Sierra Nevada Mountains to the Rocky Mountains, a good part of this vast desert is populated with burros that were given their freedom or escaped captivity during the mid to late 1800s and now roam in bands of totally wild animals this century. They are nocturnal when it is hot out in the desert, feeding in the cool of the night, and their braying and honking calls are quite common. That night, sitting there alone in my Jeep listening to the braying *******es, turned from a pleasant experience I had enjoyed immensely in the past into a night of terror. My black Labrador dog had never been around burros before and she was quite curious about them, the little horse-relatives coming fairly close to us in the dark to check us out and then leaving once their curiosity had been satisfied about us. Normally my dog would bark at intruders but she suddenly shut up and climbed into the Jeep and hid under the dashboard. The braying of a few *******es turned from occasional calls to intense and constant challenges, the worry that the animals were suddenly feeling conveyed to me quite plainly. At first I thought some coyotes were bothering a colt, but there were enough burros to fend them off no problem. I threw more creosote bush onto the fire to cheer things up a bit, but my dog's sudden fear began to have me worried and the beer I had just had didn't help with my imagination any, either. It suddenly dawned on me that there was something out there in the dark bothering the burros and they were fighting it off, whatever it was. A cougar came to mind but again the burros can fend them off as well. The braying of one particular burro out there in the darkness changed from anger to fear then to terror. There were probably ten burros in the herd that was close by to where I was camped and I could hear them running back and forth, probably three hundred feet from me. The one burro that was just screaming from something that seemed to be attacking it was not running and I could have sworn that the where it was located changed and it was now high up in the air! There weren't any tall hills around where it was, but it seemed to be about fifty feet up in the air. It was pitch black with just the stars for light so I could not see anything at all. By now I was about as frightened as i had ever been, my heart pounding and I was feeling faint. The one airborne burro was suddenly quiet but the others were still running and braying close to where it was and I figured that they were trying to protect it from whatever the critter was that was out there attacking it. A bear came to mind, and I figured that is what it had to be except that did not explain why the burro had seemed to be up in the air for about five minutes. I tried to turn on the headlights of the Jeep but the battery was dead! Of course I could not start the engine,either, and I was stuck there to take whatever was going to happen. The activity with the burros had been going on for about twenty minutes now and finally the burros moved away, but they were still braying and carrying on as they traveled farther from me. In about ten more minutes all was quiet again. By now I was nearly passing out from fear, I was cursing the lawmakers for making it hard for me to have brought a gun with me on this trip and I now wished that I had simply ignored the stupid laws against carrying a pistol in a car in California and brought along my .357 magnum since it would have made be feel a lot better than the fishing pole I had brought! The stupid lawmakers who passed that law for sure never had been scared to death out in the desert at night with an unknown predator that was big enough to apparently take down a full-grown adult burro! My frightening experience was not over yet, things were just starting to get weird and the next three hours until first light of dawn were the longest I had ever had to endure. All was quiet now but I saw the land around me light up a bit and I thought the moon had come up. I looked up and saw a large bright white light above me, maybe a thousand feet in the air. It hovered there for a few seconds and then it took off and vanished over the horizon at a speed I had could not believe! Then it came back and I watched it as it danced about, flitting from one area over the desert to another, changing course suddenly like it had no weight to it, like a child playing with a flashlight shining it on the wall and making it flip around back and forth, except this was a huge bright light maybe half a mile up in the air. Then it broke apart into several lights, all dancing around. One came back over to where I was sitting scared to death in the Jeep huddled up there with my totally silent dog. The area around the Jeep was brightly illuminated like day and I could see things quite plainly, including the burro that had apparently been up in the air. The burro was lying on its side about 300 feet in front of me and not moving. Suddenly that light went out but the others flitted about for another ten minutes then they vanished. I had brought enough beer with me to last for the week I had planed to spend fishing and over the next three hours before dawn I drank two six packs before I felt calm enough to think straight. When the sun came up I was totally exhausted and with its brilliance I went to sleep for a short time. When I woke up the sun was burning hot and my dog wanted out to make a nature call,as did I. I tried the starter on the Jeep and it started up like nothing had been wrong at all and i was beginning to doubt that what I had just gone through was real. But there was a dead burro 300 feet in front of me that proved otherwise. I drove over by it and got out to look and what I saw really scared me now! It had been an adult male burro and I could see that its genitals had been removed. I looked it over a bit more before throwing up from the intense fear I was feeling again. Its front teeth were missing and its eyes were opaque like they had been painted over with light yellow paint. I took a stick and poked at its side and the stick went through its hide. The skin was soft and peeled it back to reveal the muscle flesh beneath and instead of red with fresh blood like a skinned deer or rabbit it was dark brown. It suddenly dawned on me that the animal had been COOKED! It had been heated quite thoroughly and the meat was a s soft as roast beef and I could smell the cooked flesh, the odor was not much different than a roast just taken from the oven. This was just too weird. All this time my dog was silent but she began to growl and whimper. I got the hell out of there, driving the ten or so miles back along the dirt roads to Darwin. I saw a woman sitting out on the front stoop of her house and I asked her if she had seen anything odd the night before but I received a negative answer to my question. But when I got into Lone Pine about an hour later I saw the morning paper that had headlines of “bright lights seen again over Las Vegas”. I did not go fishing, I drove home and slept for three days. Back in those days cattle were not the only animals being mutilated.

MT Gianni
10-31-2007, 10:12 AM
Wow that is an experience. As a youth we were on an outing and 12-13 of us were leaderless at a Scout camp for the night. The plan was to go on a supervised hike but no one showed at the appointed area. No problem we went on our own and after a couple of miles climbed up into a nice bench, found a clearing and set up camp. I was 13 and doing great when the circle of trees I was at started to get smaller. It felt as though they were moving in at a slow rate. I was too macho to say anything till the oldest kid said "this place gives me the creeps lets get out of here." My brother says it was one of the weirdest feelings he has ever had. I believe that some places in nature are susceptible to paranormal activities at a much higher rate than others.
A friends great-Aunt was living in north Idaho and about 1972 she related the storie of some weird hippie types moving in "down by town". She was traveling on a winding highway late at night when she came around a corner and saw the highway blocked by people "dressed in white rags holding hands" She was 70 and driving a big old Chrysler from the late 60's. In all seriousness she told us "I know I hit a couple of them, but no way in Hell was I stopping."
Odd things happen. Gianni

floodgate
10-31-2007, 02:26 PM
Linstrum:

As you know, I lived in that area over the same period and travelled a lot through Panamint and Saline Valleys. The only "experience"I recall was when I encountered an odd-looking bunch in lower Surprise Canyon, at the top of which a small "cult" had taken over "Shotgun Mary's" old camp at the Panamint site (this was a couple of years after the Mansons were rounded up and hauled off, but they were clearly trying to copycat him and his group), and one of them had been shot fatally a few weeks before. I was carrying a nice old .44 Spl. in a well-worn belt holster, which must have looked like I was prepared to use it, so they nodded politely and went on their way.

The Mansons had previously lived up here in Anderson Valley, up Gschwend road about a mile from where we are now, until the locals - who simply do not brook any of that nonsense - burned them out; they got the message and took off for the desert. Lots more stories like that, but you'll have to come visit us here to get them.

The bright light experience sounds like a chopper or something out of NWC China Lake - except for getting the burro and scattering into multiple lights.

Doug

Scrounger
10-31-2007, 03:33 PM
Linstrum:

As you know, I lived in that area over the same period and travelled a lot through Panamint and Saline Valleys. The only "experience"I recall was when I encountered an odd-looking bunch in lower Surprise Canyon, at the top of which a small "cult" had taken over "Shotgun Mary's" old camp at the Panamint site (this was a couple of years after the Mansons were rounded up and hauled off, but they were clearly trying to copycat him and his group), and one of them had been shot fatally a few weeks before. I was carrying a nice old .44 Spl. in a well-worn belt holster, which must have looked like I was prepared to use it, so they nodded politely and went on their way.

The Mansons had previously lived up here in Anderson Valley, up Gschwend road about a mile from where we are now, until the locals - who simply do not brook any of that nonsense - burned them out; they got the message and took off for the desert. Lots more stories like that, but you'll have to come visit us here to get them.

The bright light experience sounds like a chopper or something out of NWC China Lake - except for getting the burro and scattering into multiple lights.

Doug

The bright light experience sounds like a chopper or something out of NWC China Lake - except for getting the burro and scattering into multiple lights.

Two six packs might explain that...

redneckdan
10-31-2007, 09:40 PM
just how much beer did you drink?:drinks:

Linstrum
11-01-2007, 02:08 AM
Oh, I had two sixpacks, but only AFTER all the bizarre goings-on had stopped!

That was in 1977 and in just about the same exact place back six years earlier in 1971 a buddy and I used to camp out there at that spot when we were doing a comprehensive report on the Darwin area. At that earlier time in 1971 the Vietnam War was still going on and the Navy Bombing Range where the Navy pilots practiced was about ten miles south of there and at night back then we used to see the whole horizon get lit up when they dropped NAPALM. The 2000 pound blockbusters also make a good deal of light when the ton of TNT they have in them goes off. In 1977 the Navy was still doing testing and practice out there at the Naval Weapons Test Center out at China Lake like Floodgate said and in all reality what I saw was related to military experiments, but not necesarily was the military that I saw since also at that time a lot of UFO sightings were made by the military where they were busy doing things and the unidentified phenomenon bugged the hell outy of the military, too! But the scary part was that bizarre lights in the sky that particular night were seen by thousands of people all over eastern California and southern Nevada! Plus I don't know of any equipment the military has that will cook a 400-pound burro in about ten minutes! That burro had not been there when I had arrived before dark and was most likely the one I heard braying loudly and frantically while it was in the process of getting cooked alive by some kind of microwave type of phenomenon. The military had been experimenting with microwave satellite killer machines, but that burro was not in orbit! But I did hear it when it seemed to be 50 or 100 feet up into the air, and something had to have lifted it up there! Other people have reported similar things just prior to when mutilated animals have been found. It still gives me the willies thinking about it, but since then I have still been able to enjoy going out into the Great Outdoors again.

Boz330
11-01-2007, 08:56 AM
Back in 95 I was guiding an elk hunter on a ranch south of Datil NM and just west of the Very Large Array on the Plains of San Augustine. We had parked at one of the gates leading into the ranch and going to walk in to some low hills we could glass from. Looking east there was a very bright orange white light about 2 miles away. It was very low to the horizon and I thought it might be a poacher since there was not supposed to be anybody there but us and I said that to the hunter. As we walked in we watched the light for maybe 5 min. and it never moved.
All of a sudden the light accelerated from our right to the left and maybe went through a 10* arc and went out. The only way I can discribe the acceleration is it went from 0 to the speed of a shooting star instantly. Out in that part of NM you can hear a car on the roads 5 miles away because there are no other sounds. There was absolutely no sound from what ever this was, not jet, turbine, reciprocating engine or roto blades. There were no navigation lights either. I have been around aviation most of my life and seen a lot of military jets but have never seen anything as fast as this, especially the acceleration.
At the time there were a number of military operations in the nearby mountains training for Bosnia. The jet jocks would light the afterburners coming out of the mountains and go supersonic while they were low and couldn't be seen on radar. The sonic boom would rattle the windows in camp but what ever I saw was going much faster that these jets but no sonic boom.
Military or extraterrestrial who knows. No one knew about the Stealth aircraft until the first Gulf War.
BTW this was an early morning hunt and I hadn't had a drink in a week or so. I told the hunter that was why we weren't seeing many elk, ET was poaching them. This whole thing was witnessed by my hunter as well. After talking to some of the Ranchers out there, this isn't all that uncommon. Did I report it to anybody, no, didn't seem to make much sense to. Officialdom chalks it up to swamp gas or whatever and makes you out to be a crazy.

Bob

redneckdan
11-01-2007, 03:04 PM
Oh, I had two sixpacks, but only AFTER all the bizarre goings-on had stopped!

Plus I don't know of any equipment the military has that will cook a 400-pound burro in about ten minutes! That burro had not been there when I had arrived before dark and was most likely the one I heard braying loudly and frantically while it was in the process of getting cooked alive by some kind of microwave type of phenomenon. The military had been experimenting with microwave satellite killer machines, but that burro was not in orbit!

Its possible they had the damn thing pointed in the wrong direction...we are talking about the same goberment that smacked a planet with a multi-million dollar orbiter because they forgot the SI-SAE conversion.:roll:

Linstrum
11-04-2007, 02:00 AM
Hey, there, redneckdan, Yeah! Good point! The gooberment equivalent of somebody shooting their own foot.

Couldn't get the telescope mirror for the Hubble Telescope in the orbiting observatory in focus, either. Some dumb @$$ didn't know that there isn't any air out there in outer space and set the focus for the mirror with the index of refraction for the non-existant air included in the calculations for building the optical equipment. My same buddy who machined the liquid fuel engine nozzles for the first three Space Shuttles also worked on the repair project for the Hubble Telescope. Hubble worked darn good after that, I never get tired of looking at the photos it has sent back. No pictures of E.T. yet, though!

Halfbreed
11-16-2007, 10:55 PM
There are alot of stories that could be told. But most will not tell them, because of ridicule. There have been several hints of that already.
That being said, we definatly are not alone, be it another dimension here, we can't see? whatever it is. and whatever is in it.
John

Ricochet
11-19-2007, 06:37 PM
Dang, that's spooky, Linstrum!