Mt. Doug.

Mt. Douglas Park in Victoria has spectacular views, especially at night. You can see all of Victoria below you; you can see the lights of small American towns on the other side of the straight; and on clear nights, you can even see the lights of Grouse Mountain in Vancouver. A friend and I had ritual of walking up this mountain after dark. It was excellent exercise, and the reward of getting to the top was the breathtaking view. You had a distinct feeling of being on top of the world up there.

This particular night was darker than most. It was an overcast sky, so the moon and stars were hidden. There were many parts of the walk when you couldn't see your hand in front of your face. We were about half way up the mountain. The road was on a slight ridge, with the land sloping downwards on either side. We suddenly heard the sound of movement to our left side, so we stopped to listen. The sound intensified into a crashing sound as whatever it was ran through the underbrush. My first thoughts were "Cool! It's a deer." And I hoped it would come out onto road so we could see it - momentarily forgetting that in the darkness we couldn't see much of it anyway.

Then, we heard a kind of yelping sound. Then another, and another. I could feel my heart start to race as I tried to figure out what kind of animal would make that noise. It sounded similar to a dog, but not quite. A moment later I guessed that it was probably the sound of a coyote. My heart raced a little faster.

By now, it seemed as if the animals were right beside us just off the left-hand side of the road. We started to walk a little faster up the hill to try to put some distance between them and us. As we were walking, I noticed that the coyotes were following us along the side of the road, maintaining their closeness to us.

Suddenly, I saw a shape come out of the bushes on the road behind us. I tried to focus my eyes on it, but the darkness prevented me from seeing much detail. It was low to the ground, and moved with a loping stride. It went from one side of the road to the other and now I could hear the continuous crashing noise on both sides of the road. They were trying to surround us.

At this point, the urge to run was very strong. But I had a feeling that if I did, the pack would charge. I also didn't want to get separated from my friend. My mind was racing trying to imagine what I would do if I had to fend off an attacking coyote. I could feel the adrenaline in my blood, my heart was pounding and it seemed like all my senses were heightened.

We continued up the road with coyotes followed us on either side. We then heard another noise. From further up the road, a car was coming down, its lights illuminating the area. We could hear the coyotes turn and run down the hill away from us. As the car passed, we sprinted up the road a good twenty meters before stopping. We stood and listened for any signs of the animals, but there was silence. We continued to the top and later there was no sign of the animals on the walk back down.