To whom it may concern,
Some things in life can make you have a whole new understanding of what life really means to you, and those things can have an impact on your life so fiercely that it's hard to go back to who you once were.
I just never expected my life to have such a drastic turn at only 25.
My name is Mitch McCallahan. I was an interpretation ranger in Olympic National Park, and a WFR (Wilderness First Responder). Now a survivor.
It's funny using 'was' as a past-tense situation. The incident wasn't even that long ago. More or less, it happened six weeks and four days ago. On October 16th, 2016. I can't even get that date out of my head.
The day had started out well, but while I was working the information desk, I was radioed in about an incident that happened around the Alley Creek area close to Whiskey Bend. Before that, though, I had never been called out for a serious incident like this, and even at that, none of them were 'newsworthy'.
Things only went from there. In the end, three rangers were left severely injured, one of which tragically lost their life, then out of the original six hikers two perished on the scene and one was handicapped. Additionally, two rangers ended up in a coma for almost two weeks because of their injuries. As you can probably imagine, one of the two rangers was me.
I'm still healing from that injury, the wounds on my chest are just scars now, but the broken clavicle that was caused because of a gunshot wound and not the actual monster that was out there is still healing and making things all the more challenging when it comes to daily life.
In case you're wondering. I am no longer in Olympic National Park. I was transferred to Grand Teton National Park. Even though I haven't started work yet, they are giving me an extended three weeks to heal and manage my PTSD before beginning work. Not that PTSD could go away in nine weeks, but I'll try to find some way to manage it.
I just hope whoever reads this takes more precautions than I did when it came to the incident that I'm going to tell you about.
From,
Mitch McCallahan
YOU ARE READING
Horror of Alley Creek
HorrorIn the woods, anything can happen. It doesn't matter how experienced you are or what you do. Always expect the unexpected and never assume you know what lives in the woods.
