Camp Fire

I have been a girl scout since I was in the 1st grade. A few months ago, I was up at Tomahawk Ranch in Colorado. My troop was the troop that organized the whole thing. The camp lasted 3 days and two nights. About 60 younger girls attended, all ranging in the ages of 6-11.

On the first night, a girl in my troop, her mom, and I went out to start a fire for the girls. The activity center (where all the rest were singing songs to pass the time) was about 10 minutes (walking) away from where we were going to set up the fire. All three of us clung to each other, trying to preserve heat. The further we made into the forest, the more nervous we got. We continued to feel as if there was something following us. We kept taking turns shining our flashlights behind us and around us. We got a little lost but when we finally made it to the fire pit, we forgot about our fears and started building up a pile of wood to burn.

When we had finished, we started back, and continued with our soft screams and looking around. As we rounded the corner to the activity center, my friend and I heard something crunching in the shadows of the trees. We assumed it was a deer or a coyote dashing after food. As we continued, we heard a voice that I will never forget. A deep, raspy, masculine voice came from just beyond where our flashlights could reach. The "man" unmistakably said, "girls", as if trying to call us to it. We did what any teenage girl would do and ran as fast as our numb legs could carry us, screaming all the way until we made it back into the light of the activity center.

After telling the rest of the girls in our troop and being laughed at, I almost felt like they were right. I was cold and scared and I had imagined the whole thing. After about 10 minutes of singing camp songs, our leaders came in and told us that she needed three girls from our troop to go and light the fire. My two friends, Mickey and Twix (these are there camp names) said they would go. After a few more minutes of them making fun of me, I decided to suck it up and go.

We grabbed the matches and went in the direction that I came from before. I tried to act like what had happened before was completely off my mind, but I was constantly swinging my light all around me. When Mickey saw what I was doing, started giggling at me. I stopped to object, but as I turned to them, I saw something in the woods. I just stopped everything I was doing (including breathing) and pointed. Both of them suddenly stopped and turned deathly pale. They turned and saw the figure of the man just as it faded back into the shadows. We all stopped talking (after about 3 and a half minutes of continuous screaming) and walked along the trail without making a noise. We never once took our lights off the forest.

We made it to the pit and took turns shining the lights around, while one person lit the fire. As it turns out, I was the only one that actually knew how to use matches. I crouched and struck the match. It lit the wood and I started putting pine needles under the main flame. The fire was... Well... Having serious issues, so I lit another match. I placed it on the opposite side and put more needles under the flame. Suddenly, Twix helped and dropped her light. I felt a sudden chill and the fire blew dimmed to a low glow on one of the lumps of charcoal left by one of the previous users. After another little while of screaming and running around like lunatics, I finally sat down and lit the fire, just as the girls came down.

Later that night, when my troop was back at our cabin, we sat in our pjs on some of the extra mattresses. The cabin that we had was not used often, and it was a little old and creepy. At about 1:30, we heard a knock at the door. Expecting it to be the nice lady that owned the camp, we sent another girl to go get it. She opened the door and came back, sprinting. We asked her who it was and she said she didn't know. We asked her what she meant and she said there was a man. But the man looked like he had been old, sick, and not really there. After, once again, freaking out for a while, we decided to go to bed, after, of coarse, putting the beds as close together as possible to reduce the likelihood of more freakiness.

The next night, when we stayed at a new cabin, nothing happened. And I hope if we ever go up there again, it still won't happen.