Campers 1, Orange-Eyed Creature 0

The sun is out, the ice is off the lakes and the fly rod is threaded with fresh line. Like many Valley residents, I was ready to get out for the first camping trip of the summer.

What I wasnt ready for, though, was a Blair Witch Project reenactment.

After an evening spent fly fishing on Visna Lake with my sisters fianc, Jaden, we decided it was time to head out to Lake Lorraine.

With the sun shining until the wee hours of the night, we did not even notice it was already 11 p.m. By the time we stopped for our sleeping bags, camping gear and a little grub for our stomachs, it was nearly midnight, and our trip had just begun.

On the road out Knik-Goose Bay Road to Point MacKenzie, the conversation turned to the outdoors. Jaden is an avid hunter and a very accomplished fisherman; I like to beat the water with my line in futility in the name of just getting out of the office.

He started talking about how he has spent so much time in the woods, and has only really been scared two times that I can remember.

Once out at Point MacKenzie, with total darkness now surrounding us, we decided it would make a great photo opportunity to capture the lights of Anchorage reflecting on the inlets still water. I had just purchased a video camera, and this was the first real trip for it.

We walked down a tiny path for a few hundred yards, videotaping the nice scene. Thats when I heard some rustling in the bushes.

What do you hear over there, Jaden? I asked.

I dont know. It has bright orange eyes, though. Its like 20 yards away, was his response after shining his flashlight in the direction of the noise.

About that time, the bushes started rustling, and it became obvious that the Orange-Eyed Creature had started walking in our direction.

You ready to get out of here? I asked Jaden with a cracking voice laced with fear, paranoia and a trace of guilt for coming down in total darkness to my imminent death with a pregnant wife sleeping peacefully at home.

Suddenly the bushes started rattling even closer, and with much more force. The Orange-Eyed Creature was coming after us. We bolted up the trail, the video capturing our wild run from the thing in the woods.

Is it coming after us? Jaden can be heard on the tape. LETS GO! was my fevered response.

When Jaden started running, I grew even more scared. Im a slower runner, so naturally, I was going to get eaten first.

But more importantly, I know that Jaden feels at home in the woods, and can handle himself there with ease. If he was running, I thought, there must be something wrong. And that meant I had to drastically improve my time in the 40-yard dash. NFL recruits would have been envious of my speed on this day.

Of course, Jadens .44-caliber pistol was still in the truck, as we were only going down a short path for a second, or so we thought. I would not have expected anything less on this trip.

We finally reached the gravel clearing, breathless, and then realized that Jaden had left his headlight high beams on, blinding us for our final stretch to safety.

The interior of the truck became our barricade. What do you think that was? I asked. Im not sure. I think it may have been a small black bear, Jaden said.

In reality, the Orange-Eyed Creature never even got to the trail where we were, but it scared us nonetheless.

I didnt need to see it to believe it was a large animal. I didnt have to see the orange eyes, or hear the bushes rattling.

No, my imagination was all I needed to get scared. My imagination alone did more than the Orange-Eyed Creature could have done had it actually gotten to us.

In my mind, we were already dead the minute a bush rattled in the breeze.

It may have been a black bear, it may have been a lynx, or it may have even been a small wolverine for all we know.

The debate of what it was raged until we finally fell asleep three hours later in the safety of a cabin.

In a way, I sort of didnt want to know.

The entire five minutes had been such a rush, and to find out it was a small grouse or another similar tiny animal would have been anticlimactic, not to mention embarrassing.

I like to think that it was a black bear, or maybe a grizzly bear, or maybe even Bigfoot reincarnated.

The bigger, the better, in my mind, because it lends credibility to our dash through the darkness, trying to escape the wrath of the Orange-Eyed Creature.

We had survived.

Make that three times, Jaden said when we knew we were in the clear and back on the road for another adventure.

With a puzzled look on my face, I asked him what he meant.

Ive been scared three times in the woods now, he said.

Casey Ressler (ressler@alaska.net) is the Frontiersman Valley Life editor and resident bear wrestler.