By request, here it is bullet maker.
This is a rather lengthy story, but it is what I remember and true as the nightmares it left behind.
I was a young boy in West Texas, the year was 1976. I was only 12 years old. I was fortunate in my childhood to grow up on a ranch, had my own place to hunt on, had a few freinds that could do the same. Times were alot different for kids growing up compared to what they are now. I was trusted with a rifle, maybe just a .22 , but trusted that I wasn't headed for school with the thing. I spent nights with freinds in the woods camping instead of running the streets.
I loved fishing back then, but West Texas offered little in the way of fishing waters. I made do however, I talked any old guy in town into taking me with him if he was headed for the nearest fishing hole on friday night. One retired man in my town was headed out one Friday back in 1976, and I was eager to ride shotgun for him.
He was glad to take me and a buddy along. So Friday after school we pack up and sit ready for our ride. As we arrived on the Pecos river to a remote camp where none had been in several years, just as kids will be we jumped out of the truck. This was a '65 dodge if I remember right, the ole green one if anyone remembers them. The truck made alot of noise, just in the door hinges alone. As me and my buddy run for the river before the doors are fully opened, the exitement builds. Something caught his attention downriver. With his head still turned downriver and mine looking into the river below my feet he runs over me. He can't speak, he's almost gagged. I'm busy looking at him, he's busy looking downstream. All of this happened in a few seconds, but as I noticed his hand and finger going up as to point downstream, I began to look. With him gasping for a word to say and my eye trying to catch what he is pointing at, I see it. It appeared as an animal was spooked from our presence and sudden arrival was crossing the narrow river just about 50 yards downstream. My first thought was a large black bear. Yes, it's possible in West Texas. Mexico, and major parts of the Big Bend National Park had been known to home several. Black Bears do not grow large at all in Texas. Most are the size of a Hog, if your lucky to ever see one. What we had seen stood on two legs, and walked fast.
None the less, my little buddy Hector was in severe fright. I was concerned, and even a little scared. The man taking us on this trip was accepting this as "being away from mommy too long". I recall him saying "well, i'm not taking you back home, your here to stay".
I told him I think we seen a bear. His reply might have been, well whatever it was it's gone now, it's just as scared of you as you are of it.
All evening and all night, I knew that wasn't a bear. I think the old man knew it also, but had no idea of what we seen. Hector finally got his voice back and quit shaking, but neither of us slept that night.
The old man never would allow us to check for tracks that evening, we just gathered firewood from upstream, which we gathered up alot of it!
The next morning, I was never more eager to go check it out. We waded in the shallow river downstream until we came upon the spot where we believed the animal came out. Unfortunately we found nothing significant.
No tracks, but only a good size mudslide of a foot print. Knowing now, I should have seen a claw mark, that would have made more sense.
After spending the rest of the weekend there, uneventful, I have so many times went back. Probably hundreds of times. Later when I was about 25 years old, there was a party of teenagers having their fun in the same area. I heard rumour about the party coming to a halt on a Sunday morning. I ask one of the teenage boys the story. One of the girls in the party went behind a bush, ( the only one in west texas?). Being a distance from the rest of the group, she begins screaming loudly, and another girl came running to her aid. She was panicking very bad, was so upset that they all felt something was wrong and they all broke up the party and left immediately.
That very Sunday at noon I ask the teenage boy to accompany me to the river, he absolutely would not go. I left alone, and headed out with a small 35mm point and shoot camera. With gun rack in the back of course, remember the good old days? I headed for the ex-party zone. As I arrived, I realized that this spot had become popularized by party people, I didn't think I would find anything. I tried to find the only bush in West Texas but might have been giving bad directions for it, I did however remember the spot where when I was only 12 I had the first encounter.
I waded the shallow river just as I had done for many years, and behold, I had found the same spot again. Although erosion had changed the area some, the shallow bank was still the same. As I waded toward that spot I found it, something that has changed my life forever, a huge track. Perfect in the alkali mud. Hard as a rock and the outline should have made history. The track was of a right foot, only four toes were perfectly clear, just as the accelerator foot pedal in my truck, only huge!
I became scared at this point, I felt the same way Hector did over 12 years before. I was all alone, 25 years old, 200 yards from my truck, in the middle of the Pecos river, 50 miles from the nearest town, I had found the track of what I knew was a bigfoot, I was damn scared.
I had hunted all of my years, even at that time I had a hunting record of 2 mountain lions, 6 foot rattlesnakes (alive), more bobcat than I got toes and fingers, and called up anything on four legs. I ran traps before school every winter morning. I had slept with more ugly woman than willie nelson, and been thrown out of half the bars in el paso, why was I scared of something that wasn't even there?
I went back to town that evening late, with the intent of coming back with plaster, but we got our yearly rain that night, the river came up about a foot and I lost that track for good. I did however get a picture, but I was so shakey it never came out good enough. I tried to quiz the girl about what she had seen that night, I don't know what it did to her, but she will never be the same, thats what her freinds say. None of the kids partied there anymore, those days were over for that.
I went back time after time to this very same place, I have more stories, and other people have related stories also, I have witnessed cattle with a hind quarter torn completely out, no cut marks. I have seen coyote traps (victor double springs) torn and twisted, and I have seen fences torn completely down and drug away.
My conclusion, there is an animal out there. How it has survived and no single person has ever bagged one I don't know. It never has seemed right to me. I'm not the only redneck with a gun and a thirst to kill something, it looks like to me this is the smartest of all animals. It seldom leaves a track, and never leaves a trail. It moves fast, it's nocturnal, has a keen sense of smell and good eyesight, and has more intellegent instinct than any other animal as it will not make a mistake.
I believe that one will surface soon, in the back of a truck. I hope to be a part of that hunt, and know the man who bags it. It's going to open new doors for hunting, thats for certain.
