In 1978, Eric and two friends from the Tongass National Forest cruiser team took their two-week leave to camp and explore the pristine wilderness around Powers Creek, located in the ominous Tracy Arm-Fords Terror Wilderness of Southeast Alaska. On their second day, the peacefulness of their trip was shattered by a hellacious scream originating further down the Endicott Arm inlet. Dismissing it at first, the three unarmed men returned to camp to find their belongings strangely shifted and toyed with. The situation escalated dramatically when one of the men was washing dishes at the creek and a terrifying, thunderous scream erupted directly across the water from him, sending him fleeing back to camp.
As dusk settled, the group found themselves surrounded. A coordinated volley of screams began from four distinct points in the thick timber around their camp, rotating in an X-configuration. Over the next three days, a living nightmare unfolded. The group endured relentless pacing just beyond the firelight, sticks and small rocks thrown into their camp, and sleep deprivation. When they attempted to temporarily leave camp to signal for help on the beach, they returned to find their heavy-duty foam cooler smashed by a massive, greasy handprint and the rest of their belongings torn to shreds and scattered like a tornado had hit.
Forced to abandon everything, the men retreated to the beach to build a signal fire. As morning broke, they realized a massive, 14-foot-tall, dark brown entity had been standing dead-still in the tree line barely 50 feet away, watching them for hours. The creature suddenly became active, pacing through the timber and violently pushing over trees just above their beach camp while three other silhouettes leapfrogged through the brush. Miraculously, a friend in a skiff arrived early to pick them up just as the creatures began throwing large rocks at the shoreline, allowing the terrified men to barely escape the inlet with their lives.
