I'm glad you made it out alive. Thanks for the warning - pretty sure I'm not going to be swimming in Crater Lake anytime soon...

I'll post the rest tomorrow night. I can't spend too much time at once thinking about what happened or my mind starts to go to very dark places...

I'm still breathing for the moment, but I can't see a way out of this right now.

I think that, with enough Jameson, I could probably get him to open up about it. I'll have to think about it.

Thanks! I definitely will!

Really, it's an amazing place, and despite some of the weirdness, I wouldn't give up this job for the world. Most of my time up here is uneventful and peaceful. As long as you're careful and don't go looking for trouble, it's relatively safe, most of the time.

Always and forever.

I've actually told him much the same thing. He's not as interested as I am in making a lot of these things public, though, so I wouldn't hold my breath on that. I'm sure that he'd let me tell you any stories he might have, so I might ask him to share some with me to relay.

Not that I've seen, but I'll let you know if I see one...

I'm sure there's probably nothing to it, but I'm starting to second-guess myself with the sounds that are coming from outside the cabin...

Hell, I hadn't thought about that.

You may be right... I'm having second thoughts about going out there.

I don't know. The isolation can do funny things to your mind if you're not wired for it. It wouldn't be the first time I've seen a ranger who couldn't handle it and start imagining things where they don't exist. I've done this job for a while now and I've never seen anything that I couldn't explain rationally. Even the sounds I heard last night could easily be explained by an animal.

Well, it's important to note that the black bears in this region (where they exist at all) are on the smaller side and generally scared of humans. I'm faced with the decision of waiting inside and letting whatever it is decide what's going to happen or go and investigate myself. I'm all alone out here, and this cabin isn't exactly a fortress...

I'd rather choose the encounter myself.

No idea. I didn't get any messages about it.

Hmm... Didn't realize I had one deleted. Probably skimmed a little close to /nosleep guidelines unintentionally (though I didn't think so)

You mean, besides the discovery that there are real-life monsters roaming around out in the park? I don't think I'll be able to look at the wilderness the same way again...

Thanks, but I think I've had my fill of this place. The isolation and hundreds of miles of wilderness no longer seem charming or calming to me, not knowing what is out there...

It makes sense - it was just a little jarring. We typically think of bears as the apex predator out here, but this thing stepped in and took the top spot pretty quickly.

It's going to take some pretty big convincing to get me anywhere near that hole again!