The Rocky Mountains are amazing. If you’re ever visiting Colorado or close to the heart of Denver, it’s a must see sight. The mountain ranges are gorgeous, any time of the year, and they bring a sense of smallness to oneself. Not in a sense of the mountain range itself, it is small, but more so how small we are as humans. We’re even smaller in comparison to the monster that lives in these mountains. He roams the hills, looking for his next victims and searching for his next victory. This monster is one that many people believe to be imaginary. Folks have tried to capture recordings of it and used the footage to prove it’s existence, but most always come back circumstantial. Footage would be blurry or recordings would be fuzzy. It seems like the people that tried to capture this monster never had good equipment or they had to make it look bad enough because they were faking it. Whatever the reason, Bigfoot does exist, he lives in the Rocky Mountains and he most certainly hunts any victim he encounters.

Jake and Thomas knew of the stories. They heard of the rumors and the tales. Of course that wasn’t going to stop them, not in the least. These two had a wild souls and wandering hearts. They were radicals, I suppose, would be the best term. Jake was a sportsman. He was the crazy one of the two men. Jake loved anything having to do with the outdoors and involving adrenaline. Thomas was the same way, just not to the extent  Jake was. Thomas apparently valued his life more than Jake did. Thomas also enjoyed music. He loved the piano and was quite good at it. These two had been friends for what seemed like before they were born. If you believe in such things as past lives, maybe they had been friends in one of those as well. Regardless of the case, each of them wanted to go backpacking in the Rockies. It was a bucket list of theirs and something they had been talking about for years. Finally both of them had the time and were beginning to plan their summer trip there. They set aside one week, not including traveling time, to hike these mountains and camp.

The day the men were packing the car to head out on their adventure, they saw on the news, a Bigfoot sighting had occurred. It was towards the top of the overpass at the highest point in the Rockies. There was a road leading there and just happened to have a campground. The elevation was extremely high at that spot, which not many campers enjoyed. Jake and Thomas thought this might be a fun place to go and try to hunt down Bigfoot. Little were they aware, it wouldn’t be long before they were actually the ones being hunted. Cat and mouse games are what this beast was best at. He’d been hunting people for decades. Every year campers went missing. Not as often, but sometimes, even cars would disappear. Entire families gone in one day. Rescue teams always searched, high and low, but no one ever turned up. Not a single person on that mountain has ever been found. After Jake and Thomas heard the news of the Bigfoot sighting, it’s safe to say, they slammed on the gas so hard it’s possible they forgot to shut the garage. An eight hour trip was about to turn into a five hour jet propelled car ride. Jake was driving so fast, at some points along the highway, the cars literally looked like they were going backwards. Once they finally reached the Rocky Mountains, when they were driving up the curvy slopes, it looked like something out of a cartoon movie. The back of the car fishtailing all over the road and smoke flowing off the back tires. There was no way on God’s green earth these two adventurists were going to miss Bigfoot. Unfortunately for them, Bigfoot was patiently waiting for his next prize hunt.

Bigfoot wasn’t your average monster. He was smart and skilled. He had learned his craft over many decades and perfected his hunting and searching. Sure, he was a monster, but at his heart he had human traits. He had feelings and needs. Bigfoot also had a killer instinct. It didn’t help that most of the population used him as a game. They used him as an adventure and a hunt. Many years ago he turned from being a friendly giant into a killer. He’d had enough of the torment. One night a switch flipped and he decide he wasn’t going to be a victim anymore. He was going to claim them. Ever since that evening, he wasn’t the same. Bigfoot had turned into the monster that people perceived him to be.

Jake and Thomas set up came at the site towards the top of the mountain. The campsite wasn’t very big and could hold maybe twenty campers on a good day. When the men had arrived they were the only souls there. Off in the distance Bigfoot was watching. He could see every move they made and would wait until the perfect opportunity came to strike his terror upon them. Jake and Thomas put their tent together and started a campfire. It was late in the evening and both of them were caffeine addicts. They each grabbed their coffee cups and brewed up a nice warm batch of dark roast coffee. If you ask them, there is nothing better than dark roast. Anything else is just water.

After their campsite was set up they laced up their back packs and grabbed some bright LED flashlights. They went down the first trail, the same trail the spotting had occurred, hoping they would be able to see some sort of evidence. They hoped their might be some clues to lead them in the right direction. Footprints or tracks of some sort. Jake and Thomas continued on this path for a little over thirty minutes. They were committed to finding something, as any true adventurist is. Evidence is exactly what they stumbled across. Both men were walking when Jake suddenly stopped. A footprint was sitting in the dirt right in front of him. It wasn’t just any footprint, but Bigfoot’s. They could tell because it was much too big to be an animals. Even a bear’s print. The footprint had to have been eighteen inches long and ten inches wide. Both men were a little startled and began backing up. They were looking at each other, when Thomas backed into something and came to a stop. He turned around and there stood Bigfoot. Towering over both the men and looking down at them.

Bigfoot let out a roar. Jake and Thomas dropped everything they had and began running. All they had left was one flashlight, everything else was left in a cloud of dust. They were running down the trail as fast as humanly possible. Each man looked like the Usain Bolt of the Rocky Mountains. Little were they aware, they weren’t running towards their campsite, but further up the mountain. Both men came to a halt and realized that they were going in the wrong direction. There weren’t any side paths leading a different way. Jake and Thomas had an instant fear come over them, if there weren’t any side paths, how would they get off the mountain without running into Bigfoot. They couldn’t and they would have to fight there way out.

Jake and Thomas decided to stop running. They were bringing the fight to Bigfoot and the fear to him. Jake and Thomas saw Bigfoot running after them up the path. There was a full moon out this night and that helped light the night up a little. They both played football back in high school and knew a thing or two about bringing the pain to the other side. Jake and Thomas took off towards Bigfoot, full speed ahead. They tucked their heads down and speared him on either side. All three came crashing to the ground. Both men rolled off to the side and stood up. Bigfoot was already standing and staring at them. They both reared their fists back and let out haymakers. Bigfoot swatted both of their strikes and slammed them to the ground. He had a giant foot covering Jake’s neck and Thomas was being held down with a massive hand. Both men were yelling and flailing. Bigfoot grabbed them both and held them in the air. He walked towards the edge of the path and let out a roar that echoed through all of the Rockies. He pulled them back towards his chest and tossed them off over the ledge. Both men went barreling towards the ground. Screaming and flailing and then…silence. Bigfoot looked down towards the bottom of the cliff and walked away.

The End.