Let's Not Meet Again

Men in the Woods

Recently, (and by recently, I mean like eight months ago. I had never had an experience before this) I moved to an island in the South Pacific and have gotten the hiking bug so I try and get out to new locations as much as I possibly can what with work eating into my precious time. This happened about two weeks ago. Since I live in the South Pacific region, it gets mighty hot, driving all by the most insane hikers indoors unless it's at night. Of course, I'm not a masochist so I try to do all my hiking in the early hours of the morning or in the evening when it starts getting cool.

I've never been afraid of going hiking by myself. I did it when I lived in Oregon and never ran into any problems with it, but my island isn't my friendly home state. I always carry pepper spray and when I used to go hiking in Montana and Wyoming, would sometimes carry a handgun to ward off anything I couldn't take on whether it was a bear or person, but I had always gotten off considerably lucky.

I got to the trailhead at about 6:30 in the evening. The trail was called "Thousand Steps" but in all honesty, it was mostly just a walk straight down to the cliff and then a grueling journey back up. I didn't want to go, but my dog, Mad Moxxie, needed to be walked and I had done the hike so many times I could probably do it in my sleep. The first thing I noticed when I pulled up was an old, rickety, rusted out blue pickup truck with a big plastic tarp over the bed to keep out the rain. These are pretty common on the island, affectionately earning them the name "Guam Bombs". I didn't think much of it as I hooked up Moxxie and started heading down the trail, trying my best to ignore the mosquitos that were making a meal out of my exposed neck.

Heading down the trail was relatively easy, avoiding the banana spider webs, I felt the stress of my day slowly unwind as the underbrush grew darker and night approached. I made it all the way down to the water's edge when I noticed a man standing about a hundred yards away. It was dark enough now that I could only see his silhouette so I have no idea if he was looking at me or at the water but I chose to ignore him and instead pull Moxxie's ball from my backpack and throw it for her a few times to get all her wiggles out. After sometime, the man started walking over to me and stopped maybe about ten feet away. Now, I'm not a tiny waif of a woman. I'm 23 years old and I stand at about 5'6" and this guy was just a couple inches taller than me, but most of the locals were on the smaller side. But something about him just felt...weird.

"Evening," I greeted as he nodded and looked down at Moxxie who had just returned from running after her ball. I stooped down to pet her now sweaty head as the man kept his eyes trained on my dog, "Can I help you, Sir?"

"Pretty dog," He responded mildly, "You alone?"

"I have my dog." I said lamely, trying to sound braver than I was feeling, "I'm NEVER alone." I tried to emphasize on the fact that I had my dog with me, but the man seemed unfazed by my statement.

"Oh. Have a good night." With that, he turned around and started walking back towards the trailhead. I watched his shadow disappear into the trees and waited for about half an hour before I too started walking back towards the path, my mind on high alert as Moxxie pulled me through the trees and up the cliff side.

The crickets pierced the night as I climbed the steps, illuminated by my flashlight. My hands were full with Moxxie's leash and my light, but you could bet your buns that I would have pepper spray out if I had an extra hand. Finally, my light pierced the trees at the top and I practically booked it up the hill.

When I got to the top, I nearly shat myself. The rusted blue pickup truck was sitting in the parking lot still, but their passenger side door was practically touching my car's driver side. Inside the car, I could faintly see two men sitting in the cab and I could feel them watching me.

Slowly, I approached my car, walking as far over to the passenger side as I could and kept Moxxie with me as close as I opened the door and crawled over to the driver's side. At that moment, the door of the pickup truck flew open and my dog started going ape shit, barking at the two people who were now outside of their car and trying to break into mine. Heart in my chest, I rammed the keys into the ignition and tore out of the parking lot so quickly, I nearly took my mirror off.

I called my mom as soon as I got home and she begged me to call the police. Unfortunately, the police here on island aren't as vigilant as they are on the mainland and that area is known for car thefts, mugging and other debaucheries as I learned from my coworkers later that week.

Earlier this month, another girl actually disappeared from that area without a trace, and it makes me wonder if the men in the blue pickup truck didn't have something to do with it. If I hadn't had Moxxie with me, would I have been mugged or worse? If I learned anything from this experience, it's that for my lady hikers, please always take pepper spray with you, go hiking in groups and always let someone know where you're going. It might save your life someday.

And to the men in the pickup truck, let's never meet again.

EDIT: I did call the cops about the missing female and the truck I saw. They said they would investigate into it. So far, I haven't heard anything but I fear for this woman's life and realize how easily it could have been my own. Also, I realize that hiking alone, especially as a female, is a dangerous past time and I do realize again, how foolish and naive I was being. But I have learned and plan not on hiking alone anymore!