Date: 2018-06-22
From: Dahlgren Backpack Campground 

To: Raven Rock Shelter
Miles today: 18.8
Weather: clear sky

It was a wet uneventful day. It drizzled all morning, but the green canopy of leaves overhead kept us mostly dry. We hiked right on through to 2 pm when we stopped at Ensign Cowall Shelter for lunch. Then it began to rain heavily. A large group of hikers was gathered there, hiding from the elements. Two hours later the gathering had grown. It was crowded and we didn¢t want to wait any longer. We decided to donn our rain gear and go five more miles before calling it a day. We were quite wet by the time we reached Raven Rock Shelter, but to my joy, my sox were only damp. Hurray for my new boots!The shelter was very new and spacious with a covered porch and a polished floor. The rain was still coming down and the wind was blowing. Cole asked if we could stay in the shelter and I agreed. It was a full house by the time we went to bed.Somewhere around 1030 at night I awoke to the sound of screaming in the distance. I was also very certain that I could hear the growling of a bear. I sat up in my bed trying to listen more carefully. I quickly determined that the growling was actually snoring coming from the second level of the shelter. However, there was most definitely screaming coming from off in the distance outside. Heart pounding, I frantically begin feeling around for my headlamp. I couldn¢t find it. I looked and looked and looked and wondered why nobody else in the shelter was stirring. Cole! Cole! Cole! I said shaking his foot, but he didn¢t move either. Finally I just grabbed my phone and turn the flashlight app on and got out of my bed. I moved out onto the covered porch and looked off in the distance towards where the screaming had come from. There were tenters in that direction and I could see multiple headlights flashing amongst the trees. The screaming had stopped by now. Still nobody inside the shelter moved or spoke. I was still a bit spooked and watched the lights flashing in the distance not knowing what to do. Finally I decided that everything must be OK and I crawled back into my bed.Them the lights from the headlamps flashed across the deck as three hikers arrived. Two of them were helping the third.¢What happened¢ I asked.A hiker named Beats had been sitting in his tent when all of a sudden a large branch came down off the trees and hit him in the forehead through his tent. Blood was gushing everywhere. He began screaming for help. That was the yelling that I had heard. Another hiker named Yodie rushed to help and a third hiker named Cruise assisted. Yodie seemed to have some first aid training. They sat Beats down on the floor at the front of the shelter and Yodie began cleaning the wound. I got out of bed again and kneeled beside Beats and put my arm around him. He was very shaky.Once he had been cleaned up Cruise and Yodie went to gather up the bedding so that all three of them could move into the shelter. I sat with Beats and rubbed his back. I tried to think of questions to ask him to keep him talking. I told him how jealous my son would be of such a long back rub. From his bed Cole piped up in agreement.Yodie and Cruise returned with all the bedding. Yodie had cleaned all the blood off of Beat¢s air mattress for him. His pillow and his clothes were still covered in blood. They kept Beats awake a while longer, but eventually they settled in for the night. I tried to go back to sleep but I just laid there thinking how that could have been any one of us out there in the path of a falling limb. The wind continued to howl outside.