A college girl and her roommate decided to take a break and go camping at Assateague Island, Maryland. After a long hike, they returned to find their campsite trashed, and a terrifying cryptid canine.
I received the following account:
"In 2009 I attended college at the University of Maryland/Eastern Shore. I always felt overwhelmed with studying and assignments and spent most of my time inside. My roommate and I decided to abandon our school work one weekend and have an adventure. We agreed to go to Assateague Island. It's a barrier island and a refuge for wildlife. I was most excited to check out the feral ponies I had heard about. There do not seem to be many places where you can see wild horses anymore.
So we decided to camp even though it was the off season and chilly. At least there were no crowds. We borrowed a bunch of gear from our hardcore camping friend and headed out. We stopped at the visitor center and the rangers told us where we would be likely to see the horses. They told us to make sure we put away all of our food items whenever we were away from the campsite. We showed them the bear proof cooler we had borrowed and they said that was fine.
We setup our camping spot and went to the recommended trail and when we were out there we caught sight of horses off in the distance. They told us to stay at least 40 feet away. We were happy to get a distant view of horses across an inlet. However, we were really excited when the herd stormed through the water and toured the area where we were standing. There must have been three different herds while we hiked that morning. We had binoculars to spot them in the distance and were satisfied with our sightings by noon. We had a cookout and relaxed on the beach.
I was ready for bed early and got into my sleeping bag after sunset with my book. I must have fallen asleep immediately. The next thing I knew I was woken up by something howling. Now I'm familiar with coyotes and wolves but this did not sound like that. It was higher and more shrill. It gave me goosebumps all over and I could feel it getting closer. I convinced myself it must be one of the island foxes so I just fell asleep again.
But then this horrible growl woke me up again. It was a low growl, guttural, and rumbling. I could hear something rustling outside the tent. It was probably half an hour before the noises stopped and I could sleep again.
The next day we decided to take the wildlife loop trail. It was maybe three miles long and gave good views of marsh and forest. We spent a long time exploring. By the time we decided to head back to camp we were both pretty tired and it was almost sunset. We came over the crest of a dunes and could see our tent a ways away. It looked like it was fluttering in the wind more than it should be. I could tell there was some stuff on the ground by the tent and I remember saying how weird that was. As we got closer we could see that the tent door was hanging unzipped and flapping around. The stuff on the ground was our gear, sleeping bags and clothes. We thought someone robbed us. We knew we hadn't left any food unsecured and it didn't seem like an animal's work because the zippers were just pulled down like a person would do.
Inside the tent there were muddy prints all over the ground cover and tarp. If I didn't know better I would have thought they were from a giant dog. Our bags had been opened and all contents had been removed and thrown around. All the food locked inside the cooler was missing and everything was covered in sand and mud. We were totally astonished, and then I noticed that growl I heard the night before. I was instantly terrified. I can't tell you how primal it sounds. My roommate and I rushed out and heard it coming towards us as it came from behind the trees. We both screamed when we saw this huge werewolf-like creature. It was obviously eating something and looked like a six or seven-foot-tall wolf but had a man's torso. It had a long snout and sharp fangs and when it howled it sounded like a human scream. It was facing sideways from us so I couldn't really see its eyes. However, its back was kind of hunched over and it had massive shoulders. It never looked at us. It finished what it ate and then turned away and disappeared into the trees. We were literally shaken from seeing that thing. We knew we had to leave.
We pulled everything out of the tent and shook it off as best we could. We threw everything in the trunk and raced out of there. We stopped at the ranger station but it was after hours and nobody was around. We didn't know what to do and went home.
I called them the next day to describe what we had seen. I have no idea if they took me seriously or if they thought we were just seeing things." A
HAVE A COMMENT? GO TO OUR SUBREDDIT AND POST YOUR THOUGHTS
Feel Free to Post PHANTOMS & MONSTERS DIRECT LINKS ON YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA & WEBSITE. Thanks For Your Support!
.jpg)
Your financial support of Phantoms & Monsters and our other pursuits is much appreciated. Please click the banner above. Thanks.
.jpg)
