I will only recount here what I have spoken of in this blog, or what I can verify through online sources.
I don't remember what day we arrived in South Carolina. August 10th or 11th, I believe.
To save cash and further the adventurous spirit of the trip we had been camping in Wal-Mart parking lots and National Forests. We had left the Pisgah National Forest in North Carolina (home of the Brown Mountain Lights) and spent the night between sleeping in shifts at a rest stop just inside South Carolina. After spending the following day at the ocean we found the closest National Forest and decided to make camp.
The Francis Marion National Forest is large and thick with new growth trees. Winding dirt roads and mostly empty, save for the occasional something to catch your eye and think 'huh...', such as blank road signs. Or a tricycle in the treeline. We weren't sure how to get to the campsite, and had two different sets of directions. We picked one and drove into the forest, hoping for the best.
A truck followed us part of the way, and then wasn't. I didn't see it turn off, but I don't know the forest, and maybe he did.
Nearing dusk, we arrived at the Elmwood Recreation Area. Two (or three) campsites, a restroom, and a looped road. A camper was parked at the treeline of the furthest campsite, so we took the next largest open space.
Once or twice a truck would drive through, loop the dirt road, and go back out.
We explored the area (under a constant rising and falling screaming choir of cicadas) and noticed a large owl sitting in a tree. As we moved, so did it. Tree to tree. Never far. We both noted to each other how it watched us. How it felt as though it was keeping an eye on us. I became uneasy and messaged a friend where we were. They messaged back that multiple bodies had been found in that forest, which did not help.
As we set up our tent, a truck (not the same truck) pulled into the site, looped through the taken site, and then drove into ours, over the grass and right behind where we were setting up our tent.
The driver and I spoke, and while polite, I remember being unnerved enough to keep a hand on the knife in my pocket. At one point the driver asked; "Do you know where you are?"
"Yeah, Francis Marion," I said, not immediately recognizing what he meant.
He didn't respond to that, but then informed me that his friends will be there soon but we "shouldn't worry because they're all good guys", which comes off slightly unnerving.
He drove off and back to the actual road, and then to the camper which was apparently his. As he sat outside of it enjoying the evening, Elizabeth and I finished setting up for the night, sweating to death and decided we should just call it a night. We never heard a vehicle after that.
I had a bad sunburn from the beach on my back and slept uneasily because of it. Elizabeth also slept uneasily, and partly because at one point she said she heard two separate sounds. First an owl. Second, according to her, what sounded like multiple people behind our tent making fake owl calls. She said it kept up for a while before she passed out, though I have no memory of this.
In the morning, we both woke sweating, exhausted, and somewhat sick feeling. We assumed that was because we washed our faces and skin with water from a tap near our site and maybe that had given us something (we were sick feeling until we left the forest).
When we exited the tent shortly after daybreak, we noticed the camper was gone. There was no sign of our neighbor. None of his friends ever showed up, and despite our restless sleep, neither of us had heard him leave.
The sun was excruciating and, sick, tired, and uneasy, we both felt as though we were not welcome there, by the man in the camper, by the forest itself. It was hard to articulate, though it felt as two magnets repelling. We packed, and left, shortly thereafter feeling just fine (if not still exhausted).
We filmed most of our trip, and here is the section of that footage from that forest. Interesting to me now, a few years later, is the morning where we both seem distressed, tired, and a bit confused (though admittedly, the heat was unbearable).
Today, this morning, reading various reports and jazz online as I usually do, it struck me that the feeling I had leaving that place was similar to the feeling after shortly after this event. I know what I am implying, and to be honest, some of the obvious symbology makes it a bit hard to ignore. The Owl. The disappearing act. The odd ball questioning. The intense sense of being unwelcome. The activity in the night that Elizabeth heard but I did not, despite being awake in chunks through out the night and sleeping poorly. The "friends" that didn't show up (even though Elizabeth believes she heard multiple people in the woods). I am not entirely convinced that I remember everything that happened there, in the Francis Marion forest.
As a side note; shortly after our night at the site, there were at least four UFO/UAP sightings in South Carolina.
