The Cabin at the End of Herrick Road. Derek Wachter
back of the trailer, while Craig closed the door and continued to set up camp and equipment. Craig opened the storage compartment to the trailer and pulled out a large megaphone, along with digital and audio equipment boxes from his storage that he kept in large, brown cardboard boxes. Finally, Craig pulled out a plastic folding table and set up audio equipment onto the table. Craig also set up a digital video camera on the table to video record his research. It has always taken a great deal of time for Craig to set up his audio equipment. By the time he finished, it was early in the evening along the Elwha River. The sun was starting to nuzzle up against the tree line, dipping below the hillside, the sound of the river beating against the edge of the riverbank. Craig finished setting up three small security cameras that he always attached to the sides of his trailer when he went camping. This way he wouldn’t miss anything should anything happen while he was fast asleep. One looking out the back, while the other two looked off the sides of his trailer. Craig hooked the cameras up into an old thirteen-inch television set that was hooked up to a receiver that could carry up to four security cameras. The receiver would split the cameras up into sections of four on the small thirteen-inch screen. Craig had the receiver set to run on motion detection. That way, when the sensors on the cameras would pick up motion in the area, they would turn on and begin recording. Craig found that this not only saved on video tape space, but electrical power as well.
After getting his equipment set up, Craig then went back into his trailer, where his dog Max was laying peacefully on the bed of the trailer. Craig let Max be and started to make dinner. He turned the propane stove on and opened the refrigerator door. Finding a nice piece of T-bone steak, Craig took the steak out of the trailer refrigerator, opened the package, and dumped the steak into a cast iron skillet on the burner of the stove. Craig started the burner and began cooking his dinner. The smell of the cooking steak and the sounds of the steak searing in the skillet woke Max from his deep sleep.
“Max, you hungry?” asked Craig.
Max the dog watched intently as Craig flipped the steak in the skillet. Craig opened a pantry cupboard and took out a small bag of dog food, just the right size to last a weeklong for Max if they would be camping for a week long. Craig filled Max’s food dish with dry dog food and his water dish with water. Max hopped down from the bed and continued to watch Craig intently while he cooked his dinner. In that moment though, the old thirteen-inch television triggered on. The camera in the back of the trailer had picked up motion. Craig removed the skillet from the heated burner to a burner that was turned off and went to look at the camera that had triggered on. Craig watched the screen intently and did not see anything that could have made the camera turn on. Craig ignored the screen and let it turn off automatically after the thirty-second recording window. If Craig had been paying closer attention however, he may have noticed the large stick that was now resting on the ground that wasn’t there previously.
Craig went back to cooking his steak, opening the small cupboard above the stove to get a bottle of seasoning salt. Craig seasoned his meat and flipped the steak in the skillet one more time to season the other side. Craig finished cooking the steak and put the seasoning back in the small cupboard. In another cupboard by the refrigerator, Craig opened the cupboard door and took a dish plate from the cupboard. Craig set the dish down on the countertop. Craig got into the freezer section of the refrigerator and grabbed a small microwaveable bag of broccoli. Craig put that in the small microwave on the countertop and cooked it. After the bag of broccoli finished cooking, he poured the broccoli onto his dish and the steak onto the plate. He moved the cast iron skillet to the back burner that was turned off and got into the refrigerator and grabbed a bottle of steak sauce. Craig poured steak sauce over the steak and put the bottle back in the refrigerator. He then took his utensils and his plate of food over to the dinner table where Max was waiting intently.
“Max, you have your food down here,” said Craig, pointing to the bowl of dog food.
Max began eating from the bowl of dog food, while Craig enjoyed vegetables and steak. Craig cut three quarters of his steak and the other quarter, gave to Max in his food dish. The two enjoyed a nice steak dinner that evening.
After finishing their dinner, Craig said, “Well, Max, that was a good steak. I suppose I should go back to that store and get some more for our trips, huh?”
Max looked at Craig, tilted his head, and ran to the door of the trailer, where he sat down patiently by the door.
“Yes, it’s just about time to start work,” said Craig.
Darkness was drawing on the small campsite. The sun clearly disappeared behind the trees of the Elwha Valley, casting ominous shadows from the large pine trees that surrounded the campsite. The crickets and toads in the area could be heard, croaking and chirping in unison. Craig had always enjoyed the sounds of nature. To him that was his music. He had dated a girl a while back that asked him what his favorite type of music was, and Craig replied, the chirping of the crickets in the mountain darkness. Apparently, she didn’t like that answer because there was no second date after that evening.
Craig stepped out of his trailer with a heavy green winter coat on. Max hopped out of the trailer and ran to the back of the trailer and began barking at the tree line again, uncontrollably—again, the hair on his back standing on end. Craig walked around the corner of the trailer toward Max.
“Damn it, Max, if you’re going to bark like this you can’t be out here while I work, come on. Let’s go back into the trailer,” said Craig.
Max wouldn’t budge from his position this time though, so Craig grabbed Max by the collar to pull him back and get him to go back inside the trailer. Max held his position firm though, to the point where Craig nearly had to drag him back into the trailer. Once Craig had Max in the trailer, he shut the trailer door.
“Jesus,” said Craig under his breath. “What is his problem?”
Craig walked over to his portable folding table with all his equipment on it and began moving some of the equipment around. Craig stumbled around the table and found a small lantern for light. It was now dark in the Elwha Valley. The sunlight was completely gone and so was moonlight this evening too. It was pure darkness; natural light was only provided by the stars in the night sky. Craig could clearly hear the sounds of the river behind him and the sounds of the crickets, and the frogs, and all other bugs making loud noise.
“Boy, it’s loud out here tonight,” Craig said to himself. “I hope that I can hear through all the secondary audio interference tonight.”
After turning the lantern on, Craig found an audio recorder that he used in previous nightly investigations where he kept an audio log of his investigative research. Craig grabbed the small audio recorder, flipped it to record, and began saying the following into the recorder:
“Friday, March 16, 2018. Today I began my research in the Elwha Valley at approximately 7:58 p.m. I am down by the Elwha River this evening, past the dam and far enough away from the small community where human interaction should not disrupt this investigative research this evening. The temperature gage indicates it is approximately forty-six degrees at this time. It was a bright sunny day, surprising for the Olympic Mountain range this time of the year, and it is a clear night. No clouds and no rain. I can see stars in the sky, and though they are beautiful it feels that the temperature is much colder than just the forty-six degrees that is reported. I am near the unincorporated community of Elwha, Washington. Maybe a population of forty year-round residents who, more or less, identify belonging to Port Angeles, a larger town north of Elwha and back on the Highway 101. A majority of the town’s population come in the summer months for vacation.” He looked at his wrist watch. “It is now 8:00 p.m. and the sun has been set for nearly two full hours now. The tree line around the campsite is thick. It is difficult to see through the forest. It was difficult to see through the forest even in the light of the day too. The canopy of the forest is thick and allows for very little light to make contact with the forest floor. This evening I will begin my investigating by conducting a thermal imaging scan of the area, as well as along the riverbanks. Followed by using an audio parabolic dish to hear faint distant sounds in the forest and around the river valley. Followed by an amplifier with a megaphone to play audible sounds for approximately twenty minutes—the length of the previous audio recording from