Forest Threat
AN UnderBelly Case File
File#: 05
BY: Steve Campbell
Not all wood is solid
CHAPTER 1
Did you hear that?
At times, as reporters, we are asked to go to far areas and see what can be found out. You see, this seems a great thing, the way this works is you get a lead, you go there on your expense, and you live there for that story. So far so good. However, if you can not find a story or you do not get published for any reason, you do not get back what you spent on that trip. Or you say no to away trips for that reason, then you get all the stories that are bottom feeders, and you never get published again, and after two months of no publishing, you are fired with a cause. So great, I am traveling way north for a story of people who live in the woods?
So I did accept the story; what choice did I have? I found my bag of tricks and packed it full of, well, everything that would fit, and then started up the 99 through Fresno on the way to Calaveras Big Trees State Park. After a trip up a highway I then had to move over to an old two lane road up Sneiling Road that was named after a town that was built in 1851 after Charles Sneiling, and then I moved over to old J59 that has every name until you hit that town, then you move to another name and so on until I finally go back on I4 and up to my final destination, the TimberLake Lodge in the city of Arnold just at the bottom of the big Mountain road called the Ebbetts Scenic Byway, and that is where in the morning I will meet with Beverly about what this story was about. So with me making it there, I got a great meal at Sarafina’s Italian Kitchen and had a good night’s sleep, except I did not.
Because I woke up many times dreaming about a man with a hat and a stick with a light on it, as he tried to remove my memory and replace it with the dreams of a white rat. Finally, he was stopped by the old man, who turned to a beautiful blonde, and she said she would take me as I was, even though I had a rat’s tail leftover from the experiment. Right then, my alarm went off, and I grabbed my pad and wrote down all I saw in my dream, which I was told to do by Willy because dreams are doorways to the truth inside or something like that.
Anyways, I went to a burger joint that had a breakfast special, and got on my way up the road to the work area across from the entrance to the Big Trees State Park. When I got there, I did see the old red Pinto I was told about, so the two old Fords got together while Beverly and I had a conversation about what happened in the woods. She also had three signed statements from people who were visiting, saying what they saw, each in their own sealed envelope, so I could look them over later tonight, since no one stays in the park for any reason after dark. And that was a rule I was told got added a year ago when all camping in the park was removed from the schedule. Beverly could not tell me why because she started after that was already done, but she figured that Sally would know, and she started after 12:00 and worked to close when the sun hit the trees, whatever time that was, according to the time of year.
I then had a conversation with Beverly, where she told me herself what happened when the tour group, all but one person, wrote letters about the events from that day. Beverly got comfortable on the bench with a cushion so she could sit there, and she started her story, and I let it flow without interruption so it would be natural, then I would ask her questions. I found that the story is complete without a bunch of stops and starts where details are lost. I put the tape recorder on the bench so she could see it running, and I pushed the record button and asked her to just tell us what the story was.
Beverly's Words: So, as you should know, I am a guide, well, a training guide, as I only do some of the trips. When I learn them all, I will move up the ladder. Well, anyway, I was out that Monday with a trip of two couples and a single guy. He was the guy who did not want to be involved, as he said. So we started as we always do, going up the trail to get to the big trees in the back of the forest, where the trees are the biggest, being the farthest away from man, basically. You have to remember back in the logging days, one of these trees would build two complete homes, but it was like the first thing ever to grow here, as well as being over 500 years old, older than some Bible passages. Oh sorry, so we were walking and I could hear this kind of knocking noise every so often so I would stop the group and say please do not knock on the trees and the third or fourth time I stopped we were in the middle of the trail and I was at a distance so I could see everyone, and we all jumped when we all heard the same noise and there was no one in the group even close to any tree by feet.
I then wrote it off as a squirrel eating and dropping the shell down in the area we were in so we kept moving up so we could make it to the big trees that everyone comes here to see, that is why this track only gets done once a day due to the time round trip, and it is not suggested for young or old so we were all young adults here you see. So we went up, and the noise followed us and stayed about the same volume with a knock every two to three steps, which I personally started getting freaked out about, but could not share that detail. You see, Karl, we are taught to stay calm, or everyone will follow the pro and lose it, and may leave the trail and disappear, or get lost. So I followed and kept walking to the trees.
However, everything changed when I was in sight of the big tree across the path, you know, it was in a magazine so many years ago when this path used to be a driving tour before it became a walk-only tour, I do not know why, except maybe cars got bigger. So there was our first stop right ahead of us, when a bunch of leaves all dropped at once over us, causing us to stop in the middle of the trail. I do not know if you know this, since you're from the city, but animals will never drop leaves on you; they are there to survive, not play like that. So I must say I did say to everyone, OK, that might just be the wind, let’s just get to our first stop, and we will feel better after we cross that off the list, another line we are told to say.
So when we got to our stop, Mindi screamed as I was looking at her that she saw the tree move, and her husband calmed her down with a bit of the lovely stuff, you know. Then I was looking at one of the trees we were going to go to next, and I swear I paused and could not move because not the tree but the bark came off the tree and started walking to us in the forest, and I could hear the snap of the branches before it fell and disappeared or became grass then. This seemed to be happening all around us as everyone was screaming, “What’s that miss?” and “Why are the trees coming closer?” “I think I see the ground getting closer to us.”
So finally I had enough, and I did scream, “Stop, just everyone stop, there are no trees in this forest that move, and we have to stop imagining that from taking place now, or we will go back, and you will miss the incredible old man tree that is as wide as your house and over one thousand years old.” Just then, Andy, the guy alone, started screaming, and he was moving out of the crowd, and he said they got me, as the other two guys grabbed his arms, and what I saw could not have been happening because it looked like they were having a tug of war with tree bark all lined up in a line.
I then said, OK, all you ladies stand together, facing out, and everyone hold the hand of the person next to you and do not let go for any reason. Then I walked over to the bear thing and sprayed bear spray over it, and it moved away. When he was free, we all started walking all the way back to the start point. We kept moving, so no one walked backward for long, and we got back safely. That night, they all gave me those letters in duplicate so I could turn one in so I did not get fired, you know, as well, for whoever wants the truth. So Karl, do you have any questions?
And I was tied up for a minute and had to wait a second, then asked her, “Did you ever look to see if Andy had bruises on his legs like he was being pulled by bark, Beverly?” and she said, “Well when we got back I called medical and when they came over from right here to over there they put up his pants and yes we all saw the marks that looked like he ran into a branch and tripped only it was all the way around both legs above the ankle.”
So just so it is on the tape, you said they were in this building, and they only had to go to that table there, Beverly, and would you say that was no more than 100 feet in distance?” and she said, “Yes, Karl, only 100 feet max due to it being late, so they were here cleaning up by then.”
I then asked her, “So when you first started hearing the knocking did it remind you of anything else or had you never heard that before?” and Bev said again, “No, Karl I never heard that before and it had more than one sound as if it was many all knocking at once,” and I added, “You mean like a chorus of multiple knockers?” and she nodded and said, “Yes.”
After that story she told, I did thank her and asked if I could stay here to look at the letters in the open air, and she had no problem with that, so I started to go through the letters as I waited for noon to come around, or the hunger for a midday meal got to me, I will just see what happened first.
So I started reading the letter from Mindi and Martin, where they wrote:
“I really do not know what to say in this but we both agreed that there was nothing that Beverly did wrong however there was something wrong in the woods the day we visited and Mindi does not want to leave the house now because of it, as she said it ‘The trees came alive and tried to take us away’ and that was not far off in my opinion. You see, we were walking to the Big Trees of the forest to mainly see the whole cut through the tree for the old cars to pass, I do not think that is alive after damage like that, but I did think it would be cool. Anyway, as we were walking, I noticed out of the corner of my eye movement that I felt was following us, but being in the woods all my life, I never thought of anything more than a monkey or bird, to be honest. However, when Beverly brought a knocking to our attention that was clearly all around us, I was thinking Bigfoot in my mind, even though that is far from normal. I thought that due to knocking, and I heard on news shows that you look for that in Bigfoot searches. So I was happy when we started up again and I could just see my goal over the hill, then I heard Maggie scream and my Mindi grabbed me in fear over the words of bark that was attacking, until Andy I think the little guy on his own started screaming the forest was trying to ‘eat him,’ so when I turned I grabbed his hand by reflex and held him from being pulled by what looked like a bunch of flat guys with bark on their backs, because bark can not hold or attack right? However, everyone else was saying the trees were coming to take us away. Needless to say, when we got Andy back, we all almost ran out of there and kept running all the way out of the park to a table by the main road behind the ranger’s home. It did not take as long back as it did up due to it being mostly downhill then. Mindi wanted to make sure I stressed very strongly that Beverly did not cause this event in any way, so she should not be held responsible for it.”
Then I saw the other two from the same party, but this time they both had different letters, so I started with Jack’s letter, which I could see was fairly short but had a few interesting stand-out statements in there. So jack wrote:
“My friend of many years convinced me to go into the woods, which I do not really do that much, since being lost in the forest for a few hours when I was young, you see, so I am always hesitant about a repeat event. That is why I was kind of surprised when I agreed to go up with Maggie. However, from what I saw, I will not be leaving the city again for a while. So we were walking up, and the girls were making a big deal about falling pinecones or something until we were covered in leaves somehow. When I looked up, I thought I saw someone standing on a limb, so when I cleaned my glasses and looked again, it was not there any longer, and I did notice there were no really large limbs over us then. Anyway, there was some conversation about that as we walked further into the woods. I really wanted to go back, but I could not be a wuss in front of three females, with one being a friend, for now that is. So the next time we stopped, everyone was looking at Beverly, so I decided to look around instead, and there were a few peculiar things I saw. First, the woods were dark even though it was high noon. By the time the sun got to the floor, it was pitch black, where there was nothing to see, as if it was night. Second, the wind was almost zero, when I looked at the tops of the trees, there was massive movement with nothing at all on the ground. I think that is why the leaves dropped on us; they came straight down. And the creepiest thing was I could swear I saw reflections in the forest as if there were many deer or other animals looking at me with full wide night vision eyes, but I only saw that on the south side of the trail. When I looked to the north, I could see the ground as usual. I must say I was happy when we started moving until Andy started screaming, and those eyes were all behind him as he was being pulled back into the forest, until I think Marty and I grabbed his hands and pulled him into the group again, then we all ran back to the cars. I jumped in and so did Mags, and we just sat here, as she said to write now what we saw so it would not get scrambled by time. I do want to add that Beverly had nothing to do with this unless she ran a group of small Indians in the woods, sorry, no, just joking, she did not, period.”
So that gave me a little more to the weird and strange side of things. That was until I saw the novel that Maggie wrote. I thought I was reading a story from a classic love story to be sure, and it was also three pages long. So I began wondering if I would even find her ending spot before I starved out here with no nourishment. Maggie wrote:
“OK, I was going to just get into the event that caused this whole affair. However, I do feel it might be important for you to feel the way the atmosphere was when all this took place, so I will write so you can feel the way we did in this forest nightmare, so maybe you can find what caused it and get it to stop. You know our forest is the one last place that you can still find the outcomes of what nature is like without any interference from outside sources. So we met the nice and very gentle on the eyes Beverly, who just made the day light up in a way that some people can do just from the first hello they speak. So I started this trip with a firm belief that I was going to be relaxed that day from nature, and I do believe the trees give off much of the earth's oxygen, so I would be better off today than most days for sure. So we started to walk up a nicely lit path that had so much to see on both sides. Even the small ants could be seen in the bright light all the way out as far as you could see. However, that feeling started to change after we got over the first hill and started a bit down again. I can tell by how my shoes slide on my feet; you know. And I looked to the left of me, where all was bright and calm, compared to the right of my path I was walking on, which was not calm at all and was kind of chaotic in its way due to the dark patches that seemed to suck all the light out of the day in certain spots. So I decided I would be on the happy, bright left side of the trail, so I moved to the other side of Jack as we kept going up the trail. And someplace after we passed the down tree with the yellow flowers all over it on the left, Beverly stopped us in a quick way. I could tell by how my toes hit the front of my shoes, you know, and she just was asking to be sure we were all keeping up with the tour, which I was not, because I did not care for their over-exercised world. I would rather just relax with the brightness of the trees and forest, you know. However, when Beverly started us up again, I noticed both sides of us were just as dark and were not inviting at all now, so I decided to move to the middle and start to focus on where we were going instead of around us. It was kind of getting scary the way everything was changing, almost as if we passed through a barrier of darkness. Ya, that would be good. We left the light of the forest and moved to the darkness of life as a whole. The next time we stopped, it was because of some wind claim made by Andy that the forest was coming alive now, and we should go back to the car before it would no longer be nice to us as a whole party. I do not think anyone was listening to him. However, I do have very good listening skills, and I did hear what he said and felt his concern, even though I did not think it was real yet, at least not at that point. So I think Beverly at the front of our little group was saying something about some flowers in the trail side when I happened to look up and see the trees drop a bunch of leaves on our heads and all I could think of was if there were any spiders on those leaves, because I read that most bites in the forest come from spiders and some go unnoticed as just a sore spot when really there is a war going on just under your skin trying to remove the toxin you might have. So yes, I looked for spiders and was happy when I realized I did put my hat on that covered my whole head, you see, so I just needed to clean up. But there was no water so I just decided to deal with it for now. After checking Jack and me for multi-legged intruders, we started walking again as Andy started again being concerned that the forest was trying to send a signal that we were not supposed to be here. That all went unnoticed again, like last time. I just thought he came across as a whiner more than a winner. So, a bit longer up the trail, Beverly stopped with what sounded like an annoyed voice and told us to please stop knocking on the trees. However, right when she said that, the knocking started all around us, so we got moving again. I did think that would have been a good way to set up stress on the trail to make this more like a video game journey. So after a few more feet, Beverly just stopped, and I could see she was watching something. So as everyone started talking again like children, I was watching what could not be true, where it looked like the covering on the trees to keep their worth in had a life of its own, and it wanted to come for us instead of the trees. I looked at Beverly, and we had a moment where we both turned back, and I pulled Jack, and she was pushing the rest to get back to the cars, when Andy, the little man who was then walking next to me, fell or ended up on the ground somehow. I of course bent down to try and help him up when he seemed to be pulled deeper into the forest, before I think Martin and my Jack grabbed for him just before he was pulled away. However, he was being pulled by the trees themselves. I know that because when we all stopped, I looked up and saw those eyes, a multitude of sets all in a row as if they were all helping to pull this mean little man away. When the guide, Beverly, came over and started spraying the brush, and whatever had those eyes with her spray where I could see them run off, and the light of the forest started to come through again, and right then I felt relief for us all.
Then we all ran to the front by the forest ranger cabin and sat on the benches there. I do feel this was an experience like you would find in a horror book or story made for TV. That would be a nice idea to make the forest more exciting for our young, since I read that they do not involve themselves with nature that much anymore. However, for a trip like we had today, it was much more exciting than it should have been, so I think you should lower the stress. And really, if you think we were supposed to believe that the bark off the trees started walking and becoming a life in itself to attack quiet walkers in the forest, I think your special effects guys need to go back to real-looking stuff and no longer run in fantasy land. However, that Andy fellow was a good actor. I did believe him at first before I realized how impossible the storyline was. But Beverly, I did think, was too calm for the whole thing to be real. And she did bring a very strong and stand-up role to the part. Anyways, that is my review of the terror of the forest or whatever you're going to call it.”
So I have to say that she did not get it at all, and I do think she thought she was at an amusement park, which is not a good sign of where our society is going now. So I decided to hold off on lunch at the bottom of the mountain and just wait for Sally to come in to work in about 20 minutes, and I do think I could survive on no food until I was done with her side of why things changed here not long ago, according to Beverly.
So a very attractive woman got out of her Jag and walked over to me, saying, “May I help you with something, sir? This is a work area and not the park.” I looked up at her and asked her, “You would not by any chance be Sally, would you?” and she took a step back and asked, “Who wants to know?” So I launched off by saying, “I am Karl Kolchak from LA, I drove up here about that story many told,” as I showed her the notes, “of the trees coming alive which I will be honest with you I do not believe at all, however these accounts are pulling on my sanity switch to its off position and then I find out you shut down all night activities just a few months ago, without a single notice other than done, so that makes me want to ask, here in the middle of the great outdoors, why Sally did you do that?”
Sally was not ready for this in the morning, and I could tell she was thinking too hard, so many things she could not say, and just said, “I need to go to my office. Why don’t you come along with me?” And she started walking off. I have seen this in the past, trading privacy for the time to think of what to say. The worst thing to happen is that I will be walking more, and in this fresh air, it might not be that bad.
So when we got to her door, she unlocked it and left me outside as she turned on the lights, then said, “Karl, was it? Come on inside, as I start my coffee machine up. And I could tell it was going to start, so I just sat and waited for the starting line about budgets, money, or politics. As she turned back to me, she said, “Karl, relax for a bit inside out of the weather. So Karl, I must say there is no big secret, other than we had to cut costs due to the number of people that visited the park this year compared to the last few years.”
And just then, I could not even keep my laugh inside, and she said, “What do you find so funny about having to close for financial profits?” So I took the last four years reports of this very park and laid it on her desk, and said, “Except for the fact that profits as well as attendance was the highest in the last five years this year that is until you closed down, and also financials this year before you closed were profits for the first time in five years so do you want to throw more false crap at me and see if it sticks or do you want to tell me the truth,” and as I was getting up, I said, “I guess it's best if I just tell the public the real facts and say it came from an official scared to speak her mind to the public, that always works well.”
Then I started to walk out of the room when she said, “Karl, I can see you are the real thing, and not just a high school dropout wishing for a story to get you in the big time. So ok, we did close down night activities, but that was not because of problems we saw, but complaints we heard, trash moved all over, trails dirty with leaves, just became an unmanageable situation.”
And I turned to her and said, “Miss, that was a nice try, but we both know you do not close because of a few backed up johns or dirt on the trail. I think I am done here in this house of lies now.” And I did walk out, and walked to my car and sat down as I played her trying to come up with the politically correct reasons and had to spend some time putting the papers in my bag to make sure they did not fly out of my car on the way down the mountain and also remove the dirt from my floor, well basically stalling just in case she got the urge to run out and get me.
And as I was starting my car, and I started to look at my hands in the car I could hear her walking up behind my car and I was of course startled by her fast appearance and she said, “Karl, turn that thing off and I will tell you what happened, it might even get the powers in charge to get off their ass and do something.” So I pushed the record button, laid the gizmo on my seat, got out of the car, and leaned against the door of my 66 Mustang.
As she started her side of the story of forest creatures, “Karl, you have to understand I can not just come out and say we have problems and need to close to save lives, that would sound like suicide for my whole life here. I started as Beverly did, and now I have a lifetime of benefits and easy days from the running I did in the beginning, you see. So anyway, this park had its once-in-a-while horror story that was a write off for years now, but after that big push for I-4 through the northern forest.”
I had to stop her and say, “What northern push, I never heard of anything like that?” and she said, “Ya, they are trying to keep it hushed until they finish it and everyone will be so happy for the shorter ride they will forget the thousands of old trees that needed to be cut out because of a road that we do not really need from I-4 to I-108 right past the Spice Mountain reservoir. So anyway, when that construction started, our once-in-a-while problems became even more well-known to all the employees, and we had people refuse to come in, and if they did show up, they were out another month due to work strain and a bunch of other reasons. Basically, we close at night, or we have nobody here to protect the campers, so we had no choice but to close, and that is when everything during the day began to increase. It is almost like they are starting days because they won the night game,”
And I said, “Ya, that is how the 10-year-old gets what she wants, it is called transferring a win and works in most cases. So now they come all the time but for the most part only in the woods, but do you not think it will continue until you are no longer allowed here because we broke our bargain not to harm the forest any longer, why should they stop now, I would go to the coast now, remove all there is, Sally I really have to consider what you have said today.”
And she said, “Karl, consider what, that is the reason, what is there to consider?” and I looked at her and held her shoulders and told her, “That is what you do not get yet, I am not the reporter all the time, I am also the solver many more times, and tonight I have two roles, remove the threat and then write about it Sally.”
She backed away from me and said, “Karl, you are one person; how are you going to resolve something that an entire crew could not?” I then told her, “I sometimes wonder how I can, but so far, there is always a way; I just need to find the peace that makes it happen. And then I will be back to help you.”
And then Sally told me, “You just be careful and let me know if you need anything special, and Karl, you do not exist, and we never had this talk, understand.”
I went to get in my car as I said, “Sally, if I only had a dollar for how many times I was told that same thing over the years, my girl.” And I drove off to find an impossible solution for an impossible problem. So I went to the yellow pages, I did hope they still had them here.
CHAPTER 2
I Feel Lost Now
I arrived back at the hotel in time to ask the front counter if they had an old phone book, and they did, so I promised to return it, and the comment I got back was, “Why bother?” So I had my reading for the night and went off to the same burger joint I had breakfast in for a very late lunch and a few minutes of just thinking about what I did learn today.
My problem is that you get so used to the tools you have to find shortcuts, then when they are not available, you almost have to learn how to do things again. For me, it has been so long since I worked outside the big city that I almost relied too much on Willy, and he could not help me here, that is, if he is even still in town after the guy I ran into not long ago with the cane. And what I did believe was that it was him he was looking for, since that bookmark he always used, I think, had the same name the warlock gave to me that one time I met with him under peaceful terms, then maybe I cursed myself with nightmares from telling Willy about his searching. If that is it, I will deal with it, because I had to help Willy this time, even if it does take me to a new reality of sleeplessness at one point. Now, good, let’s eat.
I just got back to the room, and I realized what so many people have told me about how easy my life would be with a portable computer, or otherwise known as a smart phone. I will need to look into one of those. I just like the old way, so with that said, time to search the phone book. I spent the last hour going through this small book and only found one thing that might give me what I am looking for. It was the National Native Foundation that was located down the road from here, back the way I came, and it is too far away from me to make it there tonight, so I guess it is TV time for me now as I think about this issue. I have to figure out a plan, without colleges or specialists around, there has to be a way.
Better yet, let’s just take a walk on the streets in this tiny place and see what comes out at night. I will say I found a library that, for a small deposit, I did get a few hours of reading about the forest spirits that protect the trees and such. So tomorrow I will have some knowledge before I go to the National Forest Native relations department.
The next morning, I woke up with a headache, as I was on the floor and was not even in the bed at all, so needless to say, I guess I did have another sleepless night. So I was off, showering, dressing, and out the door before then noticing the books were no longer where I put them, and I closed the door and went to find the books that got moved by something or someone, after checking to be sure all locks were still tight, as they were before I went to bed. When the books were stacked next to the door, ready to be returned today.
So I got three books, and they were all about native customs and the way the land has changed since they were no longer the watchers of the woods, which is where the term watcher in the woods comes from. Now what I have to say is these books are not closed any longer and they are on top of each other as if one book is guiding your eyes to another, and that I will not move them, I will not touch them, but I got a chair and looked down on them and what I saw is, “Leshy: Slavic Forest Spirit: In Slavic mythology, the Leshy, a formidable spirit, helps as the guardian of the woods around it. This spirit is often given the figure of a tall green man.” (next book) “However it has been known through ancient writings that does not have to be shown as leaves of any kind but can show to the seer as twigs all the way to parts of the tree itself.” (third book) “He is known to play tricks on humans, unless he feels they are hurting the trees, and then the games stop and he becomes protective or even evil to protect his charges. It is best to bring a new tree and plant it in a way that allows for care to be able to identify the problem that must be solved.”
So I will choose to say that I have a helper, I do not know how or where, but these books clearly give me a path that I will check at the institute later, after breakfast.
So when I got to the building I was going to, I was surprised that it was so small with such a big name. I went inside and there was no desk or anything, so I just started walking around until a young woman came out and I asked her, “Is there anyone I can talk to about tribal and spirit customs?” where she smiled and said, “Well sir, since I am all there is I guess I should say yes, and then say I will be glad to, Mr.?”
I kindly said, “That would be Karl, miss?”
“Hello Karl, I am Lucienne, and I would be happy to talk to you today.”
And she started walking to a table. As we were walking, I said, “That is a French name meaning illumination, is it not?”
And she said, “Karl, you are a smooth one, and yes, it does, and I am sure you're now going to tell me something about illuminating your life or something. I have heard them all, so can we get to what you wanted to know?”
And I just stood there, and when she looked at me, I said, “You know, not all guys want you to become their wife or have an affair, you should realize that sometimes people are just trying to be nice without getting in your pants.” Then I said without a delay, “I wanted to know if you knew anything about the native Indian tree spirits that help to protect the trees?” And then after I got no answer just said, “Hello?”
So I went to get up and she finally said, “Oh, ok, I just do not think I have been talked to that way before, Karl, and yes I do.”
Then I said, “Well, maybe you should have been, and thanks. I wanted to know about anything you know about the Leshy or the Indian name for him, if you could enlighten me?”
So she started saying, “You see, Karl, the Indian name for the tree protector is the same, with many tribes considering the redwood particularly a sacred being, and often viewed as protectors and also playing a cultural role in spirituality. However, the Leshy is seen as a spirit to protect the trees, but not as kind as the others. It is written that it can become any part of the forest and attack the invaders with mystery and cunning as its partners to save the trees. And to communicate, you must first give from yourself, or plant a tree for it to see, then you must wait for contact, if there will be any. So, Karl, am I to take from this conversation that you are going to try to communicate with a spirit to go away or something?”
“Well, not really, I just want to inform him that this section of forest is not the same as the northern path by the new highway they are building.”
And then she said, “So you're going to lie to the spirit of the wood and hope he does not find out. You did know that the park’s land is owned by the same developer that is doing construction, did you not know that, Karl?” I was surprised by that information. I had to leave, as I said,” Thank you for your information.”
And I had to get back to Sally, so I started the long trip back north to the forest reserve.
I drove into the parking lot and saw the Jag there. Then I walked into the office as Sally was on the phone, so I turned and walked out, closing the door behind me until I heard, “Karl, what's up?”
So I walked in and said the hello stuff, then said, “Did you know that the same group that is arranging to do the construction across for that I-4 crap is the same group that purchased this park three years ago when California was trying to dump their unprofitable land, called the Great West Coast Land Grab Bill?”
And then I sat down and waited for a response.
And she did sit back in her chair and said to me, “Karl, where did you find that out?”
“Come on, Sally, you think I would tell you, just as there is no chance I would ever say I had this conversation, and if you notice, I have no recorder even on me now. But I will say, going to try to solve this by saying we are just poor people working for the state, please do not bother us anymore, we will die in the roots of the grass out there. I must say you people have put yourself in this position, and now nature has come back to make you pay for your crimes, Sally.”
When I finished, I just sat there waiting to see if there would even be a response to this, and after almost ten minutes with her staring at me, I got up to leave, and from behind me I heard her say, “So, Karl, what are you going to do now?”
And I did turn to look at her as she sat there and said, “Sally, you see, I am just a reporter, and I report on what I find, that is what you said yourself. Maybe you can try to lie to gods and spirits, but me, nope, not in my ball of wax, girl.”
Then I walked out and got dinner at the same Italian place I went to originally and had to laugh that the one story that has cost me the most is the one story with strange items in it that I will also leave being paid for my time. And then it was back to the office for me.
CHAPTER 3
Final Report
Special Report – L.A. Times
By Karl Kolchak
Terror in the Trees
It would seem that the northern forest of the Calaveras Big Tree State Park has been added to the growing list of so-called county properties now owned by questionable private parties in the state of California. This follows a bill passed four years ago, nicknamed the “Land Grab Bill,” when the state quietly began selling off state-owned land so private interests could improve it for profit while providing the state with a windfall of cash to pay down mounting debts. The deeper issues surrounding those decisions will not be the focus of this report.
This reporter has obtained documents that tell the story of over two thousand acres of trees slated for removal to allow for a planned roadway crossing from I-4 to I-108 through forest that includes redwoods that were recently sold and is no longer on protected land. However, that underhanded program is not the central point of this story.
What this report centers on is a battle that seems to be unfolding within the previously mentioned state park area. There have been multiple accounts, supported by signed official statements from guests, of strange happenings that began the same week construction started on the northern side of the park. This is the very location where the two thousand acres are being cleared and burned to prepare for what many have called an unnecessary pay road meant to turn a profit from the property.
According to eyewitnesses, there are mysterious beings that do not seem at all pleased with what is taking place. Reports include deep scratches appearing when nothing sharp is nearby, people being pulled into the woods, and, in one case, never found, and the most recent incident involving an entire tour group fleeing in terror. Several claimed that trees themselves seemed to move toward them. Statements from the tour guide, park management, and three signed affidavits confirm the group’s account as they narrowly escaped the area.
This reporter visited the site personally and stood along the same path described in the statements. I did not stay long. There was a heavy, dark feeling that now hangs over what was once a bright and welcoming place. Today, it feels less like a destination for families and more like something out of a late-night Halloween attraction.
UPDATE – Seconds Before Printing:
Ownership of the park has now shifted once again. The State of California has repurchased the land, and the construction project has been mothballed, with no new start date announced. Sources suggest that a preview of this report, along with additional details, was delivered to certain interested parties before publication. The impact appears to have been immediate and lasting.
May your time in the woods be safe, and may those who find comfort in the sun and the peace of nature continue to do so. I believe we all need that more than ever.
