Hi Gang,
I've been doing some serious thinking about a strange event that happened to me late one night while on a deer hunting trip in B.C.'s interior mountains, and I was wondering if anyone had ever experienced something similar to what I'm about to describe?
In October of 1984, a friend of mine from work asked me to join him on a mule deer/moose hunting trip into the Deadman Valley country not far from Kamloops, British Columbia. It sounded like a good outing so I readily agreed.
After we discussed our plans for traveling up to the Deadman Valley country, it seemed that it would be a good idea if we each took our own vehicles since we were working different hours and lived a good distance apart.
Before I left home, my hunting partner called and explained in detail that he would meet me at a small lake that was located near an old rundown, abandoned ranch up the Deadman Valley about 25 miles in off the main highway. He said I couldn't miss the spot we had arranged to meet beside the small lake because there was a large for sale sign nailed to tree at the entrance to the ranch that was impossible to miss. I was simply to go about a quarter mile past the ranch house a pull off to my right on a small side road next to the lake.
The 250 mile trip up to Deadman Valley in my truck and camper was uneventful, and I started into the bush off the main highway shortly after 11 p.m. Along the way up the valley I would pass a ranch with a porch light left on every ten minutes or so until I got in about 20 miles, then there was few signs of people living in the area.
About midnight I came to the for sale sign nailed to tree and thought to myself that indeed it would be impossible to miss. After traveling a hundred feet or so past the sign, I began slowing down and I glanced to my right noticing through the old evergreen trees that there was what appeared to a "light on" inside the old supposedly abandoned ranch house. I was a little upset upon seeing the light in the ranch house as I did not want to trespass on someone's land and perhaps cause trouble with the owner. I decided to proceed the quarter mile up the road past the ranch, found the road to the right beside the lake and made camp.
I slept little during the night as I expected my hunting partner to show up at any time. However, I was later to find out he had mechanical problems and his truck had broken down not far from home. He never did make it.
I got out of bed about one hour before daylight and put on a pot of coffee, had a bite to eat and readied my hunting gear. When it was just about light enough to see, I decided to walk down past the old ranch house and take a trail that headed back into the hills towards the east. Jumping down out of the camper I noticed that the inch or two of snow on the ground had a frozen crust that would make walking noisy and hunting poor.
In about 10 or 15 minutes time I had walked down hill and was outside the old ranch house on the bush road. What first struck me as strange was that there were no fresh tire tracks or footprints around the house or in the yard. Next, I was shocked to see that there was no windows in the house at all. I walked across the property and checked the old log barn out back but found no sign of life there either. It looked like the place had been empty for years.
To this day I have no idea where the light I plainly saw in that old abandoned ranch house came from, but after asking some questions, I have heard stories from other people regarding similar happenings and strange lights at this property and a few others.
Maybe some people never leave their land and home ... even after they die?
