My wife has a brother Nikolai. It was he who told me about his mysterious meeting on a forest lake with a yeti. It happened in the early 1980s. Nikolay lives in the north of Russia, in the Arkhangelsk region.
For those who are not familiar with the north of our country, I want to say that the Arkhangelsk region is rich in its nature. Huge carpets of swamps are strewn with cranberries and cloudberries. Enchanting sunsets over the White Sea, flashes in the night sky … And it's hard to find words about the beauty of forests. There are such dense forests that a person has never been in them. These jungles keep secrets and riddles in their wilderness.
From his youth, Nikolai loved to run with a box for mushrooms and berries. With my friend Sashka I visited many lakes, dragging perch and sorogu. One such fishing will be discussed.
Once, having collected some simple fishing tackle, Nikolay and Sashka decided to visit one of the lakes hidden in the wilderness. They visited it more than once. The perch is hungry there, which means that fishing promises to be successful.
At the station we took a train and went to the station 16th kilometer. Locals have chosen this place, generous with mushrooms. But the army of mushroom pickers scattered around the neighborhood, and our friends moved on. There was still a lot to go to the planned lake, which did not even have a name. It itself is small, has an almost round shape, along the coast it is surrounded by dense bushes and undergrowth, behind which a palisade of trees rises.
Finally they came, threw in the gear. The lake is calm, without ripples, like a mirror. The silence is broken only by the singing of birds. The forest is talking, crackling mighty trunks.
Go bite. The mood of the friends has risen. And then a terrible roar was heard on the opposite bank. No one is visible because of the underbrush. Only a terrible roar is heard. The men were really scared. They forgot about the bite. They look at the other side, prowl the bushes with their eyes - no one is visible.
- Maybe it's a bear? - Sashka asks.
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“No, it’s definitely not him,” Nikolai answers. And he himself has one thought - he must run.
But the men are standing, waiting for something. They hold fishing rods in their hands, but do not even look at the floats. Roar again. Already shuddered. Opposite the undergrowth stirred. The birches sticking out of the bushes shook. Suddenly one of them, as thick as an arm, began to bend to the ground like a reed. And all this accompanied by a heartbreaking roar.
- And we seemed to be paralyzed, - recalls Nikolai. -Wait, shaking. The adrenaline in the blood is already boiling. I hear someone whispering nearby. It turns out that Sasha is trying to comment on events, abundantly diluting his speech with swear words:
- A bear is … And a mad one … You have to run …
And the monster at this time took up other birches. Two trees shuddered, dropping foliage, and also bent to the ground with a crash. Suddenly - silence, already ringing in my ears. Everything calmed down. But a brief lull was broken by a huge old stump, which, breaking bushes, flew out of the undergrowth. The rotten driftwood, which weighed at least a hundred kilograms, flew 15 meters and flopped into the lake, raising a column of spray. And again the same roar in the bushes.
- It's not a bear! A bear cannot do that. We're getting ready! Fast! - Nikolay shouted.
Grabbing things, the friends rushed away from the lake, urged on by a terrible roar. It was only at the station that they took a breath.
Later, telling me this story, Nikolai suggested that the forest monster was none other than the yeti, he is also a bigfoot. The fishermen disturbed his peace. So he got angry, drove away the intruders.
I must say that Nikolai and Sashka, despite the fear they experienced, did not quit fishing. They just didn't go to that lake anymore. The Arkhangelsk region is full of other lakes for fishing.
Valentin Vyacheslavovich KRUZHALIN, Moscow