THE STORY OF WENDIGO PASS One night on my way home from spending the evening with my boyfriend (back

in 2009 before we lived together) I had what would come to be one of my most intense paranormal experiences to date. Driving along the aptly named Indian Ridge Rd. I encountered what I claim to be a Wendigo and now half-jokingly refer to the road as Wendigo Pass and refuse to go there after darkness falls. I was simply driving along, I-pod set to something high energy for the drive home, a mere 25 minutes tops, when movement caught my attention out of my peripheral vision. My first thought of course was DEER! since it was late and it was a very rural road. Then all the lights on the car went out for just a split second, as if shorted out, however my phone and I-pod went dead from full charge. This WTF moment was intensified when I looked over to see something moving through the tree line in easy strides keeping pace with my car at 55mph. The hairs on my neck and arms stood at rapt attention, giving me my first clue that this was something abnormal. I increased my speed to 60mph, the best I could manage safely on the winding road and the figure matched me with its gait. For a moment I had considered this to be a bear, but the movements were to graceful and much to fast to be a bear. All I could tell from the few glances I had managed to steal up until now was that this abnormality was large, hairy and a tawny brown in colour. What had felt like a half an hour had in fact been a five minute drive from Avis Rd. to my turn. As I neared my turn and was by circumstance forced to decelerate, so did my pursuer. Maneuvering the turn I got my first glance of what had been following me. In shadow all I was able to distinguish was that the creature was bipedal and had tapetum eyes, glowing yellow green from the shadows. The creature just leered from the edge of what was Indian Ridge, seemingly unable to move into or across the crossroads and follow me. After returning home and indulging in several nerve calming cigarettes (kids please don't smoke) I plugged in my phone and called up the boyfriend. I calmly as possible relayed the story to him in as much detail as I could. His response of course was to drive out to the spot it all happened at with my cousin (who he was living with at the time...wow that just sounds like some creepy southern thing but its not I promise) . Although we laugh about all of this now and he admits that it wasn't his brightest idea, he is by his very nature amazingly curious and stubborn...like a really spoiled house cat. I guess with both of them being Pagan as well that thought it would be fun to do a little ghost hunting. Boyfriend whom I will now refer to as C and cousin who I will now refer to as A, claim that they were 1) anxious to get out and 2) wanted proof of the event for themselves. Whether they expected to find anything, I'm unsure, but that soon became a moot point. Upon arriving at the spot where I had lost power both C and A pulled out their pendulums, and try to get a sense of the place. Sitting at my feet now C says that the energy was encompassing and the pendulums were all but useless as they would only swing wildly. Giving up that tactic C begins to cast out his senses for any psychic impressions and any entities nearby. First he picked up that it was lurking in the trees nearby, possibly intrigued by their arrival. A said that she felt wolf, coyote, something predatory. C felt very similar impressions but said that it was more than animal or human. Guided by their intuition C and A could feel it move along the trees and then run off. Pointing to a nearby house C felt that it had taken cover behind it, A concurred with him. Not a minute later a dog on the property started barking in a very alarmed manner.

Meanwhile I had been at home with my scrying mirror trying to call up a vision of what I had seen. It didn't take me long as scrying is one of my favourite pagan pass times. Once I had the mental imaged I sketched it out so I could send a picture to A and C. The creature I had seen was roughly the shape of a man; possibly 6-7 feet tall; the body of it was emaciated and every edge of bone could be seen through taut flesh;stringy, tangled hair clung to it everywhere except on its face; the eyes were deep and sunken, dilated to the rims; sharp, jagged teeth lined its mouth that hung slightly agape in a distant primal manner. I completed this sketch and sent it on its way. Right before receiving my photo C had received a mental image of the creature he claims came from the barking dog, the irony is that it was the same image I had just drawn, right down to the pose I drew it in. A and C decided that this was a bit too much of an adventure and that they should be on their way. C tells me know that the felling that came over him when he saw the photo and received the mental image was like being caged with a tiger. As they turned on the car and began to pull away C caught sight of two tapetum eyes glowing from the ditch they had been standing at only moment before. The ditch was at least five feet down from the curb so the eyes had to belong to something that stood at least six foot in height. Gunning the engine C sped back home and called me to fill me in on his part of the story. We have never came across anyone else with stories of this nature about Indian Ridge rd. I have found similar stories and the creature featured in them is the Wendigo. It is common knowledge that where we live in Virginia there were several tribe wars mainly between the Sioux and the Iroquois, that is why the road is so aptly named. Of course very few if any natives now live in the area, and no one I have talked to know any specific stories about the area. However the area is definitely steeped in native blood and the Wendigo belongs to the Algonquin Mythos. The Algonquins are aligned with the Powhatan confederation in Virginia, which ties this in very nicely, however the Wendigo is typically a creature of the North associated with cold and Winter. To add another layer fun here is a traditional description which sounds a lot like my own...

an Ojibwe teacher and scholar from Ontario, gives one description of how Wendigos were viewed The Weendigo was gaunt to the point of emaciation, its desiccated skin pulled tautly over its bones. With its bones pushing out against its skin, its complexion the ash gray of death, and its eyes pushed back deep into their sockets, the Weendigo looked like a gaunt skeleton recently disinterred from the grave. What lips it had were tattered and bloody [....] Unclean and suffering from suppurations of the flesh, the Weendigo gave off a strange and eerie odor of decay and decomposition, of death and corruption.

I can be no means prove or provide any proof of this encounter, and whether you chose to believe me or be entertained by me is up to you. However for three people this was very real and very easy to believe. I hope that I haven't lost anyone with this long post. Perhaps I can write up some of my other adventures sometime, but for now this is it. In Love and Nightshade Gareth