Back country pack trip

A few years ago, we were packing up into the back country of Utah. There were 4 of us on this trip, it is a trip we do often. We had seven animals with us, all of our best riding and packing mules. We have some fantastic horses but when the country gets rough, it is nice to be on a good mule. We arrived at the trail head late in the evening, we all had a feeling that we should spend the night at the trailhead and load up and hit the trail first thing in the morning. That night, a couple of guys were spooning in the gooseneck of the trailer and the rest of us slept under the stars but kept close to the animals, from previous experiences we have learned the animals are the best alarms for anything approaching during the night. It was a beautiful clear night but amazingly quiet. It was about 3am when something woke me, not sure if it was a sound or just a feeling. The animals were awake and very attentive to something off in the woods, all of them were staring with both ears pointed forward at the same location. At first, I figured it must be a bear, I could hear branches breaking and some low grunts every now and then. I made sure my 44 was close by and also grabbed my trusty 30 30 and lay it across my chest just in case. This is where things got weird, the animals became more restless, some of them began staring at another spot out in the forest with their ears switching between the original location and the new location. At this point I sat up and put my boots on and made sure I had a round in the chamber and just listened. Way off in the distance I could hear noises that I cannot describe, like a scream or a howl but not from any animals I have ever seen in the forest. Suddenly, there was the sound of a large branch breaking, it sounded like a very large branch. Then three distinct knocks on a tree, this was very close.

The animals were all standing very close together, all staring into the forest at the original spot, focused on something just outside the meadow we were in. After a few minutes of deathly silence, there were three distinct knocks way off in the distance down the canyon. All of a sudden, without any warning, there was a bunch of rustling and what sounded like large heavy footsteps, like a small group of vary big creatures took off running. I watched all of the mules follow the noises and then stare down the canyon for what seemed like a long time. Eventually the animals all started to relax, some went back to munching on hay some laid down and I closed my eyes wondering what the hell just happened. When morning came, a couple of the other guys mentioned hearing noises during the night but nobody really talked about it. I did notice that throughout this trip everyone always had their guns close at hand and jumped at every noise out in the forest. Not to long ago, I brought it up with one of my buddies, he didn’t turn and look at me but said in a very serious voice “I don’t want to talk about it”

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