Baron Von TnT (Baron for short), my 16 year old daughter Taryn, and I made our way down Interstate 44 from Tulsa to the cache site. The air was full of excitement (at least for me). The reason we were doing this cache at night is because Baron had to work until 6 p.m. He wasn't in the caching mood, not feeling well because of a cold or something. But, I talked him into it. Why we couldn't wait until the weekend was a mystery to me, but later I'd regret that decision. It was a new cache and it just couldn't wait.
It appears that "something" had been watching us all along. A pair of glowing eyes are seen in several of the photos. What these eyes belong to I don't think we'll ever want to know. As we exited off Oklahoma highway 377 and into the country, our moods began to change. The excitement was still there but fear of the unknown was beginning to creep in. Especially when you have advanced knowledge of a Bigfoot creature spotted in the area...yeah, right! The paved road turned into dirt and we wound our way deeper and deeper into this unknown part of the country. We crossed over a single lane wooden bridge with no guard rails, just one of those sights that reminded you of some old movie that had trolls waiting to pounce on you if you crossed the bridge. It didn't help our mood any!
As we got closer to the cache site, the road turned back to asphalt and the GPS was beginning to count down in feet. We approached a bridge made of concrete. It looked like a fairly new bridge, which set my mind at ease. I was expecting some old, rickety, haunted bridge, one that looked like a dozen cars had crashed through the rails, and passengers had plummeted to their deaths; bridges that you hear tales of crying ghost babies or moaning spirits still trapped in their crashed cars. But no, it was just a modern day, brand new concrete bridge.
As we exited the car, the thick musty air hit us. Taryn was beginning to whine about not wanting to be here and wanted to go home. I reassured her that everything was ok and warned Baron not to start whining or else. We heard a pumping sound off in the distance and then realized it was just an oil rig pumping oil. The sky was clear and the stars were shining brightly. I was thinking at this point, it's a beautiful night, nothing to worry about. So let's get this show on the road!
We grabbed our cameras, GPS's, and caching stuff and started looking for the best route to approach this cache. The GPS says it was under the bridge, and we finally found the best place to get down to the cache. The smell of dead rotting animal carcasses was beginning to get terrible at this point and I started getting the feeling that something was watching us, but I didn't say anything to the others, figuring I'd start a panic with the rest of the caching crew and then we'd never find this cache.
The cache was easily found, and I started to log and photograph the find as I usually do. I usually photograph the logs at caches so I can easily remember what I wrote, but for some reason I didn't do that this time. Having set up my camera on a miniature tripod, we got together for a group picture, holding the cache for photographic proof as being at the cache site. Taryn was not holding still for the picture, and I sensed something was wrong with her. Something was giving her the creeps and she was ready to bolt out of there. I didn't sense the danger at that point, didn't know what was lurking behind us. Baron was also starting to get the jitters and wanted to get the heck out of there in a big hurry.
I reassured them at this point, there's nothing to worry about, we've all been caching in the dark and nothing has bothered us before. Ha, little did I realize! We got back to the car and started packing things up and I started shooting photos of Baron at the back of the car and he started taking pictures of me, kind of a dueling camera shootout. Something grabbed my attention and I pointed the camera towards it. Two glowing eyes reflected back at us from the camera's night shot sensors.
Then the panic set in. "Baron, what is that", I asked. "There's something behind you!" Baron and Taryn turned around and saw this ghostly dark figure standing a few yards behind the car, staring at them. It appeared to be holding a staff or a stick of some sort. I didn't believe what I was seeing but wasn't going to stick around to find out what it was. I snapped a few more shots in a panic as fast as I as could. Meanwhile, Taryn was screaming and shaking and begging me to get her out of there. Baron was packing things back in the car as fast as he could and headed for the passenger seat and locked himself and Taryn in the car, with me outside. Gee, thanks guys!
I fumbled with the keys, I couldn't get in the car fast enough. I finally got the car started, in gear and we were gone! Baron, at this point, was a cross between scared speechless and furious with me for talking him into going. Taryn was still shaking, still a nervous wreck. We didn't relax until were within a few miles of Tulsa.
We dropped Baron off at his car at work and quietly parted ways. We got home and changed into clean clothes (it's not from what you think!). We examined the photos from the digital camera. It appears that "something" had been watching us all along. A pair of glowing eyes are seen in several of the photos. What these eyes belong to I don't think we'll ever want to know.
We should have taken the cache name to heart. I'm not sure what it is that we learned from this, but I'll think twice about going to a cache named Wildman at night ever again!
