He Watches Me From The Bush

​During the covid pandemic all of the gyms shuttered their doors for a little while. The gym I was going to was no exception. I still needed a place to workout so I decided to drive to the outskirts of the city where there were outdoor workout stations being built for future residential areas. I would park my car in a parking lot that was about a kilometer away from the outdoor workout facility and hike the kilometer to start my workout.

​I loved working out in the sun with a gentle breeze and also I loved the fact that there was nobody else out there and I could have the entire facility to myself. By facility I don't mean a large one but just a tiny one with some platforms to do step ups, a chin bar, a dip bar and a balance beam. The workout facility was deep in the bush and a distance from any real civilization. 

But from day one I felt like I was being watched as I worked out. I knew that the area I was working out in had some problems with farmers who got their land annexed to expand the city. These were backwoods types that walked around with a rifle in their hands as normal procedure. I was a little concerned that I might be working out on disputed land. 

During my workouts I could hear cracking and popping noises of trees and twigs from the surrounding woods. In the still air these sounds were magnified and seemed so near but they were likely coming from deep in the bush. It unnerved me but not enough to prevent me from working out. For weeks I would hear the noises and started to just accept them as part of the outdoor workout experience. I would usually work out in the morning or in the afternoon. But one day I was very busy and I could not workout at those times so I went later on in the evening. The weather was warm but by the time I started my workout the sun was beginning to set. Halfway through my routine it was dusk and the grayness took over reducing my field of vision sharply. All of a sudden the bush took on an ominous appearance. No longer could I see into the bush as it just appeared as a solid black mass that towered into the sky. 

Again I heard the noises from the black mass, but this time along with the popping and cracking of the twigs there was a shuffling noise in the underbrush as well. It wasn't any type of animal because no animal in this area was big enough to make those loud noises. In the mountains it could be a bear, but there were no bears around here and if it was one he would have eaten me alive already.

I quickly finished up my workout the whole time thinking a man with a shotgun would walk out of the blackness and start bucking his gun. I kept my eyes on the bush the whole time. I worked out harder than usual, likely out of fear from the noises in the bush. I walked away from the workout facility thinking and feeling I was being followed. I looked back several times but there was nobody there.

EPILOGUE...

The man left the workout area to walk back to his car when all of a sudden a figure emerged from the shadows of the bush and walked over to the chin bar and did a few chinups and then went to the dip bar and did some dips. He then grunted a few times and slowly walked back into the bush and melted into darkness. 

The Sasquatch was never seen working out again.