Every place has its warnings. Some are written on signs. Some are passed down in stories.

And some, you only hear when it's already too late.

This is Cruise Tips TV Unplugged, Alaska lore and legends. In this series, we explore the

stories rooted in Alaska's ports, coastlines, and

communities. Many of these stories come from tradition and oral history and may reflect

differing perspectives. In southeast Alaska, there are stories about something that doesn't

need to chase you, doesn't need to trap you, doesn't even need to be

seen, because all it has to do is call your name. And if you answer, if you take even one step

toward that voice, you may not be walking back. In places like Haynes, where the forest presses right up against a river,

those stories don't feel distant.

They feel close.

This is the story of the Custica, the Land Otter Man,

and the moment when a voice sounds just familiar enough to make you follow it.

You don't arrive in haines with noise.

You arrive in space, the kind of space that feels open at first, until you realize how quickly it closes in.

The mountains don't rise gradually here.

They come up fast, sharp, almost vertical in places,

and between them, the Chilket Valley stretches out just enough to make you feel like you can breathe.

But only just, because the forest is never far.

It starts at the edges of the road, then thickens almost immediately,

layer over layer of trees, underbrush that tangles movement, ground that isn't flat, even when it looks

like it should be, and water, always water, rivers that move faster than they appear, channels that shift with the season,

...