Lost on Skinwalker Ranch by Erick T. Rhetts

Author:Erick T. Rhetts [Rhetts, Erick T.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Blue Ink Publishing
Published: 2014-09-24T20:00:00+00:00

Nick and I went back to the trailer before officially going out to do the walk. I for one needed to take care of some personal business—we were going to be out in the cold and snow for a couple of hours—and we both wanted to be armed.

Technically, company policy required us to carry a sidearm whenever we were on duty. It was all about professionalism, and it didn’t hurt to have a little intimidation factor when face to face with the more daring and nocturnal adventurers tempting to gain access to the property—and I mean the two legged kind. People tend to act stupid after dark, for whatever reason. But keep in mind, our job was security. As necessary, we were directed to detain and then call the local police. We weren’t out there to shoot anyone.

We had no intention of hunting the coyotes. If that were so, we would go out with rifles. We were going out with the intent to find out how they got on the property and how they went off. Having the 9mm. was just in case we ran into them. It was all about protection.

We picked up their trail from out back of the ranch house and followed it due west across field one. The band definitely was distracted by the dog run and left prints all along the fence edge as if they were trying to figure out a way in. We assumed they picked up the scent of our own dogs. Coyotes are known, especially when food is scarce, to attack and eat domestic pets.

After checking the perimeter to make sure they hadn’t tried to burrow beneath, which there was no sign of, we stayed with the tracks—easy to follow in the snow—to the tree line separating field one from field two. This is where we noted that the band split into two. Four of the coyotes headed for the trees—I took Nick’s word for how many there were—and went south towards the gulch. The two others passed through the opening in the tree line and out into field two towards the second dog run.

We debated splitting up there, but this time Nick agreed picking up the south trail would be easy enough later on. Besides we already knew there were coyotes living in the brush down that way. He wanted to know where the other two were heading, and so did I. If they had a den somewhere on the property, and there were shallow caves and hollows in the ridge north of the road, we wanted to know where. We both had seen and heard coyotes while doing our nightly rounds, but usually they were at a distance. When alone they’re not so brave and highly unlikely to attack a human. Not so if they are in packs and hungry.

There was no art to tracking them. We could see as soon as we broke the tree line into field two that the pair was heading straight west across the field and towards field three.

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