Last week, my and my wife decided to go snowshoeing in Algonquin park. It’s really fun exploring the park in the winter because you’re allowed to go and camp anywhere, you aren’t limited to marked trails, portages and campsites. We also like to bring our husky because she loves the snow and rolling around in it. The three of us set out from Thompson lake road which borders the far north of the park.

It was a little nippy but we had lots of layers. We made our way across Thompson lake until we hit a small unnamed creek. We followed it through 3 small ponds and set our bearings towards wild goose lake, which occupies a small valley that’s opened up by Lauder creek. We arrived on day 2.

When we got there the sun was setting. We set up camp, started making food, and went to sleep when it was dark. In the middle of the particularly cold night, our dog started growling and woke us up. We just assumed she heard and animal and tried to get her to calm down, but the growling eventually turned in barking. To figure out what was freaking her out, I grabbed my flashlight and poked my head outside the tent

It was snowing, the fluffy type of snow, and I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. I let out a yell to scare off any animals and zipped up the tent. The dog only stopped barking momentarily. I decided I’d put on all my now gear a poke around, since I wasn’t tired anymore. I bundled up and climbed out of the tent.

I shinned my flashlight around and just saw snow, beyond the light of my flashlight was black. I looked around all sides of the tent and couldn’t find anything, until I noticed our sled was missing. I asked my wife where we left it and she told me to the right of the tent, where I was standing, but it wasn’t there. If there were any footprints around it I trampled over them, so i decided to make small circles around the camp looking for prints as if I were tracking a deer. There was nothing.

My wife decided she’d come out and help me. When she opened the flap of the tent, our dog bolted out and started hopping through the snow towards the frozen lake. I tried to catch up but she was darting between the trees and my snow shoes were bulky. When she disappeared beyond the light of my flashlight I lost sight of her completely.

We followed her tracks through the woods and across the lake. When we reached the tree line on the other side of the lake they stopped. Right where they ended I saw a very small but noticeable red dot on the snow. We were calling out her name but she wasn’t responding, the barking had stopped completely a few minutes earlier. I didn’t tell my wife about the red and instead told her we should continue in the morning, it took 10 minutes to convince her we should return to the tent but I really didn’t feel safe out there.

Neither of us really slept. A 7am the sun was close to rising and the sky cleared up, so though it was still dark we could see without our flashlights. We decided we’d get up and continue looking for the dog. We left the campsite and headed to the lake. From the shore you could just barely see the other side without a flashlight. We had lights on us but didn’t turn them on because our eyes were adjusted to the pre-twilight. That’s when we heard it.

We heard the hurt whimper of a dog, but it was unnatural. It was coming from the other side. The sound was the noise a dog would make quietly, but it was being broadcasted loud enough to be heard across the lake. This would be like hearing a human whisper at the volume of a yell. We both felt it was unnatural and decided to turn around. We decided it would be best to leave. It took twice as long to snowshoe out of there without a sled.

We eventually made it back to our snowmobiles on the road and had to dig them out a bit. As we were driving out I looked in my mirror and for a split second I thought I saw a tall human figure at the side of the road behind us. When i turned my head back I saw nothing but snow.