This encounter happened just a short time ago.

I was out in the National Forest.

I was searching for a good hunting spot for the upcoming deer season.

I parked my truck in a small stone lot proceeded into the woods.

I'm kind of a knucklehead because when I'm hunting, I don't follow man-made trails.

By the way, let me tell you, this takes place in Alaska.

I'll cut through the bush until I find a game trail and then I'll try to follow it further

away from civilization.

Anyway, this day was no different. I walked through the

woods and hit a promising looking trail and I took off. After two hours, I stopped for a break.

My back was starting to hurt because I spent most of that time been overlooking for tracks.

I picked a small boulder to sit against. It was warm and I was tired

and I naturally fell asleep. I have no idea how long I was out, but a loud thrashing in the woods

behind the boulder startled me awake. I've been in combat. I've learned to wake up instantly and quietly. Whatever was

thrashing around behind me had to be big, and I slowly started to peep over the rock, hoping to see

a huge buck tearing the crap out of a tree. But just before my head cleared the boulder, everything

stopped.

I froze and everything got quiet.

The kind of quiet just before the chainsaw starts in a horror movie.

Two things happened.

I heard a sneeze and instinctively said, God bless you.

As soon as the words left my mouth, I regretted it, but there was an instantaneous rushing of something large through the woods. I stood up quickly and looked for the deer,

...