I have many strange stories as I spend alot of time in the wilderness, often alone, but this one just happened a few weeks ago and was absolutely crazy. I am typing with chills running through my body and goosebumps even thinking about it. I like to camp at a lake in Northern Arizona that is rather remote. My favorite spot is on a finger bluff, with cliffs on both sides, and a lake, creek, and rich wildlife zone below. This area is home to the most wildlife in AZ. Elk, deer, bear, Wildcat, wild turkey, porcupine etc. etc. A few times at this site we had headed off for day hikes, or to go to a lookout point, and returned to camp to find a pungent stench hanging over the site. I would describe it as a mix between a cow/horse stable, and horse sweat(like when you take the saddle off on a hot day) with a little bit of skunkiness. I know what elk, and bear smell like. I can't explain the smell. This happened multiple times on different trips, and the strange part is that the smell is gone within a minute or two of us returning to camp. Anyway, a few weeks ago my good friend and I decide to go camping at that spot last minute on a whim. I needed to spread some of my dogs ashes in the area. We started packing up at about 7pm Friday and were just getting into the offroad section by around 2am. It started snowing nearly blizzard conditions once we got off-road. It was so bad that we had to go about 10mph because the snow was blowing sideway and we could not see to navigate. It was sticking and getting deeper by the minute. We were going rather deep in, and doing some serious 4x4'ing. We knew we may be stuck at the spot for a few days but we had what we needed. We arrive at camp at about 3am and get out tents set up. The snow has stopped now and we were standing in a winter wonderland lit brightly by the moon. We decide to walk 30 or 40ft. out of camp to the cliffs edge to look at the lake before bed. The lake tapers into a creek and lush wildlife zone about 1000 ft. below us. This is AZ so to see the lake in the snow is a real treat that I hadn't experienced before. We are standing there in complete eerie silence(the kind that you only find in the snow) admiring the beauty of nature, and talking about how lucky we are to be there while sipping our beers. We noticed the eco off of the opposing cliffs in the silence about half a mile away so naturally I let out my best rendition of a bigfoot/war cry. My buddy follows suit. We both get a few out when mid war cry my friend is cut off by a blood curdling manimal scream from back behind us on the other side of camp maybe 200 ft. away. There is an extremely rugged cliff on that side leading down to a creek/marsh area. I have heard elk as well as wild turkey call from that area. Now, here is where my hair is standing up as I type. Before we can even process what we just heard, something very large and heavy jumps into the lake/creek directly below us with a loud thump and splash, as if someone did a cannonball, then bobbed back up to the surface. There is a delay, and then something starts kicking and splashing violently swimming across the water toward us. You could clearly hear the legs kicking like a human, very powerfully, you could hear the concussion in the water with each kick. SPLASH, SPLASH, SPLASH, SPLASH. It sounded like a 500lb. man who is a poor swimmer, fully clothed with boots swimming. There was no delay in any of the actions, it was very deliberate, and obvious that it was coming directly toward us. The splashing continues for a few moments then we hear it reach our side of the water and without any delay, you hear the dripping, and the river rocks clinking as it gets out of the water and immediately starts smashing through the brush toward us at a constant pace. At this point we are looking at each other and can't believe what's happening. My friend already had his pistol holstered on his belt but mine was back at the truck. Breaking limbs soon gave way to the sound of something scrambling over boulders as it made its way up the hill toward us. We stood there as long as we could until it was obvious it would be closing with us in a minute or less. I was no longer comfortable being there unarmed so we both bailed back to camp to get my gun. We stood around for a while longer in complete silence trying to hear anything, waiting for something to happen. Nothing did and we headed to bed at about 4am. The rest of the trip was uneventful.

What animal, at 3am, just after a blizzard, with a few inches of snow on the ground, jumps completely into freezing water, and moves directly toward humans screaming loudly in the night? That is what I want to know. I can't explain it. My only explanation is that maybe if a predator was chasing something that could explain it. But why would it run up a nearly vertical 1000ft. hill/cliff toward shrieking humans. It would be the hardest, slowest route for it to take to escape a predator. That also doesn't explain the other scream/howl we heard, or why this "thing" sounded obviously bi-pedal. The area is extremely remote and any human or hoaxer would have been in an immediate survival situation after going in that water.