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I work for the County Road Department.

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I'm not out on the roads working, at least not usually.

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Usually I spend more days than I care to count, crouched under some concrete spans, tapping

4
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abutments and measuring riverbed scour while there's still enough daylight to do so.

5
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It's not a glamorous job.

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It's a notebook, a folding-level rod, and waiters that somehow, despite the best cleaning,

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00:00:34,400 --> 00:00:37,560
always smell like swampy water and old fish.

8
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There's also a lot of waiting into murky waters.

9
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I can't see into.

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Now at the end of all of this, I've been promised a good retirement.

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I guess we'll see about that in 12 years or so.

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One day I got a call that came in around 430, not long before I was supposed to leave

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at 5.

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It had been a hard rain earlier that day, and I'd already been out checking several things.

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But this call, well, let me tell you about it.

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17 might have lost a little rip wrap, my supervisor said.

17
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If it's not underwater, grab your numbers, and if it is, you do what you can and get out.

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Now County Bridge 17 is a two-span, poured-in-place concrete job out on a secondary road that

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only locals use, unless the main highway got clogged up and GPS reroutes everyone onto

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that road.

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There's a gravel pull-off on the south shoulder, and there's a big willow that tries to

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eat up the whole north abutment every summer.

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I topped off my thermos through the rod and the paint stick in the bed of my truck and

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rolled out.

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The storm that had blown through left everything fresh and clean, sort of, in a muddy way.

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The sky was grey, but no storm clouds were left.

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The river was up maybe a foot, and it was rolling fast over the rock.

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By the time I eased onto the shoulder, set the flashes on my truck.

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Dusk was already beginning to settle under the bridge.

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It comes early in October.

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My gear is simple.

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Headlamp.

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Hand-help flashlight.

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Geoprene waiters and an orange vest that makes me look like a big traffic cone.

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I carry a cheap tape measure and a hammer that I almost never use but always carry, and

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that level rod that I fold up like a pocket knife.

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I called it in on the radio.

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17 on sight.

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I got answered with static, which is usual out there, and that's fine.

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I've been under far worse spans with nothing but my own voice to echo for company.

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There's a crawlspace where the southern wing wall leaves just enough room to slide in, past

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all the heavy cat tails.

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The underside air of the bridge is different.

44
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Cooler, yes, always, but it also carries the river's smell and the damp chalky smell of

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concrete.

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First thing I check is drift.

47
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A storm leaves you a kind of story if you know how to read it.

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Leaves, sticks, pieces of foam and other river debris all racked up against the pier noses.

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If your drift line is up against girders, your numbers just changed.

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Tonight the line was a palms width below the bottom flange.

51
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Close but not chewing at the concrete.

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I could see that deer had gone through sometime after the rain.

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I could tell by the way the silk crust was still soft around the slots, and the edges had

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not yet crumbled.

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There were two small deer and one larger.

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They chose the shadow under the north span, which is what anything with any sense would do.

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There's the road above, the river below, and cover on both sides.

58
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You know, a bridge is kind of a corridor from nature for anything walking through.

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I marked the abutment, painted a thin dash at the left wing.

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Yesterday's high water scarps still wet looking in the light.

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That's when I noticed the other track.

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Not a boot and not a shoe.

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This was a wide, bare print pressed into a plate of silk near the water's edge.

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It had that look where the toes aren't defined as in clean sand, but you can read them

65
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by the way the silk bulges and the outer edges feather out.

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But it was the width that got me.

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The ball of it was as wide as my handspan.

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It was no arch to speak of, just a solid flat weight.

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What made me frown wasn't the size so much as the way it set into the ground.

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Very deep, very careful.

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The river had dropped an inch or two since it had stepped there.

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I could see the little ledge around it where the water had once been.

73
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I found all kinds of human signs under bridges, beer cans, wrappers.

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One time I found a whole sleeping bag.

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One time someone had thrown a dead microwave under there.

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And sadly, once I found a person who had, let's say, accidentally unallogged themselves

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doing one of their favorite habits.

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So I know I can see and find almost anything when I go out on a job.

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And bare feet?

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Those on a strange thing to see down by the waters.

81
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Well, not in the summer anyhow.

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But this was late October.

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The air had a hard bite to it, and whoever owned that foot had walked the silk the way that

84
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you would move on rip wrap when you don't want to roll an ankle.

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Deliberately and carefully.

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I told myself this was probably just some trespasser, some kids on a dare.

87
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Or maybe one big, good old boy that had one too many and threw his boots over his shoulder

88
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for a laugh.

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I could have almost believed any of those.

90
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But then I heard a rock move.

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Now people who haven't been around rip wrap hear rock sliding.

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And that has kind of a sound to it, sharp and messy, a little avalanche sound that makes

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everybody jump when it happens.

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But this was not that.

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This was the soft clack of one stone, then another.

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It was set down and eased off like somebody was testing their step with their full body

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weight and not wanting the whole bank to announce where they were by rock sliding.

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It came from my left, the shadow side of Pier B.

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I turned my head lamp, but my instinct was to keep the pier between me and whatever I couldn't

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see yet.

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I took two slow steps, keeping my shoulder almost brushing the formlines.

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And I spoke as I always do when I find fishermen or teenagers or homeless people under some span.

103
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County roads I called out.

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Is there anybody under here?

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My voice did not carry far.

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I heard another rock tick and settle.

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I got no words back, just quiet.

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It was the kind of quiet that says something with feet and a brain has stopped to listen to

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me, and they're trying to conceal themselves.

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I heard the river.

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I heard a tiny drip where water had worked through a crack in the deck above.

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I heard my own heart in my ears.

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Pier B roads I called out again, much louder this time.

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I'm just checking the pier's.

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Whoever you are, you're fine.

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Just don't spook me and we'll all be home for supper with clean shorts.

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I set it with a small laugh.

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Nobody laughed with me.

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I stepped to the corner of Pier B and edged around.

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There's a narrow shelf where the rip wrap meets a pad of baked down silt.

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My light pushed the shadow back and showed me the willow tangle that hugs the north abutment.

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Between those two things, between the willow and the concrete, something very large stood

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in that odd, quiet way that large animals do when they're deciding if they're going to

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flee or fight.

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You can read a silhouette under bridges in the dark.

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You see the shape first, then how it holds its shape.

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This shape had a head without a neck, at least not in the way a man's head and neck would

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be.

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The shoulders themselves were forward, rolled like it was carrying a heavy load across

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its back.

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The arm that hung nearest to me was too long if this was some man.

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The fingertips were far closer to the knee than the hip.

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It stood with no movement.

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My light slid across it, and it caught nothing that threw back shine for eyes.

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One reason might have been the angle.

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Lights under bridges can do some strange things and bounce around.

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But the real reason is, eye shine is for deer and raccoons and other animals.

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This was not just an animal.

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I saw it turn slightly, and I realized with a shock that I could see the line of latissimus

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and deltoid under the hair.

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Further shock, it had hair, everywhere, and a lot of it.

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I did not raise my light to its face.

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Part of that was maybe some fear, but a lot of it was, "I didn't want to turn this into

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a confrontation."

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Shining your light in someone's eyes can sometimes turn it to a confrontation.

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Man or animal.

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My hands found the rod and unfolded it.

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You see, when I'm kind of nervous and I'm unsure of something, I do whatever it is I

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am sure of.

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And right then, my job was what I was sure of.

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Peer bee scour pocket, I said aloud, because that's another thing I've learned about being

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under there with all kinds of weird people and situations.

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Talking helps everybody decide you're not a problem.

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Whether it's a person or an animal.

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I dipped the rod into the pocket that forms at the nose of the pier where the current hits.

156
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Tape met stone at 29 inches.

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Pre-storm was 27 and a half.

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I wrote that down with a pencil that lives behind my ear.

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All the while I was aware that I was being stared at.

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Hard.

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Thinking back on this now, I really can't believe I stayed and did what I did.

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Maybe I was in some kind of shock.

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Maybe I was testing my own bravery.

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I honestly don't know.

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Maybe I thought if I just acted normal, everything would be okay.

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Now, there's a girder's web near there.

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Each span has three flanges, like shelves, dusted with spray.

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On the web of the center girder, about eight feet up, too high for my natural reach, I saw

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something that looked like a wet spot.

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Not splashes or drips.

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It was a smear, the size and width of maybe a man's palm, but a palm that was far bigger than

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mine.

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I saw the wide heel of a hand, a little knuckle drag.

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There was fine grit stuck in the moisture, like someone had braced themselves there with

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their hand as they walked past on the unevenness.

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The thing in the notch between the willow and the concrete, the thing with the muscles and

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the hair, I saw it as it shifted its weight.

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I saw it from the corner of my vision.

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I saw it without looking directly at it, as I had been doing all the while.

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That movement made a soft, snicking and clacking noise with a few stones that moved.

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"Hey, I'm going to finish this and back out, okay?"

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"You stay on that side," I said, then I added, "Yeah, you stay there and we'll both be happy."

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I saw it turn its head, just a degree or two at my voice.

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I can't say it was listening to me, but it was more like it was hearing.

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I've wrote a note about the palm smear, that I would try to photo it on the way out.

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Wrote that the North Wing wall settlement was a quarter inch since the last check.

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Now truthfully, none of that was consequential, but I had logged it all anyway.

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I took my phone out and shot a photo of the smear.

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On the screen it looked like just a damp dark spot on some gray concrete.

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This wasn't a clear print of any kind.

191
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When I finally folded the rod up, I did it slow enough that anyone watching would know

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this wasn't a threat.

193
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I was making no fast movements.

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I backed away slowly and in such a way as I could keep peer-beade between us.

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All I heard was the rushing of the river around me.

196
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Under the South span, the deer slots had overstepped and left.

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Those little ones knew which way to go, and so did I.

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I ended up coming out the way I went in, belly low, shoulders scraping cat tails.

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The light on the truck flashed against the guardrail and made the world look real again.

200
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Real red and amber I guess, but dirty and human.

201
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At the shoulder by my truck, I stood there and called it in on the radio.

202
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Seventeen to base, non-confrontational trespasser North span, finished measurements, will

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return at ten hundred with partner for a daylight look.

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The radio answered as it always did with just a hiss and a crackle with some broken words

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coming back to me.

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And for the record, they could always hear me on that radio, but I could almost never hear

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them unless I was close.

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Strangest thing.

209
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Anyway, I stood there by my truck for a minute on the gravel, and then I felt that thing

210
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that you feel when a adrenaline washes out and leaves your organs empty.

211
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And I got in my truck, took a sip of coffee from my thermos, my hands shaking, trying to

212
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steady myself.

213
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I was processing what I had just seen, what I had just gone through, and I went through

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it, being sure I was right, and I was.

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I knew I was.

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I knew what I had seen.

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I sat there in the truck for several more minutes.

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It was fully dark outside now, which comes early in late October.

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What I was waiting for, I can't say.

220
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Maybe I thought what I had seen would come up and show itself to me again.

221
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Though that didn't make any sense either.

222
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Finally, I pulled away and left the bridge.

223
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The farther I drove away, the more surreal the whole thing had seemed.

224
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Had I really stood there in the darkness under the bridge, with what I was sure was a big

225
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foot?

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I believe I had.

227
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Now, sleep after something like that isn't really a good sleep.

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It never is.

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Your brain replays the same scenes over and over in your dreams.

230
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Sometimes with different endings, sometimes with scary endings.

231
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I told myself a lot of practical, no nonsense things over the next couple of weeks.

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It was kids, kids just playing with a costume, I said.

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Or maybe it was a big man that wasn't wearing shoes because drink and maybe other habits

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00:16:06,160 --> 00:16:08,320
made them make poor choices.

235
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Though I didn't know of any man in the county that large.

236
00:16:12,960 --> 00:16:14,720
Then I thought, "Black Bear."

237
00:16:14,720 --> 00:16:19,280
Yes, it had to be a black bear standing up the whole time.

238
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Although you and I both know, a black bear under a bridge makes no sense.

239
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They're not fond of concrete and rocks.

240
00:16:28,040 --> 00:16:34,160
And a black bear's shoulder doesn't hang the way that I saw it, and they're not muscled

241
00:16:34,160 --> 00:16:37,520
up like a big rustler.

242
00:16:37,520 --> 00:16:43,040
Next day at ten hundred, just as I said, I went back with Tom from the shop.

243
00:16:43,040 --> 00:16:45,280
Now, Tom's good company.

244
00:16:45,280 --> 00:16:48,520
He's not one to talk endlessly.

245
00:16:48,520 --> 00:16:54,640
I parked at the same place, and we went down into the South Span as I had done the day before.

246
00:16:54,640 --> 00:16:58,840
The bear print that I had seen had softened overnight.

247
00:16:58,840 --> 00:17:04,560
Due and a small water seep had feathered the edges, so it was more of a suggestion than evidence

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00:17:04,560 --> 00:17:06,160
by that time.

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00:17:06,160 --> 00:17:10,240
Still, the width of it hadn't gone anywhere.

250
00:17:10,240 --> 00:17:14,080
Tom put his boot beside it and nodded without smiling.

251
00:17:14,080 --> 00:17:17,840
"That was a big fella," he said.

252
00:17:17,840 --> 00:17:21,880
I nodded and said, "Yeah, he was."

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00:17:21,880 --> 00:17:23,920
That was all I could say back.

254
00:17:23,920 --> 00:17:28,520
We just looked at each other, and both of us nodded again.

255
00:17:28,520 --> 00:17:30,760
We both knew.

256
00:17:30,760 --> 00:17:37,040
I know that Tom had had his own things happen with Bigfoot far outside of the job.

257
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I had heard rumors.

258
00:17:38,440 --> 00:17:41,400
He never talked to me directly about it, though.

259
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But his look told me.

260
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Those rumors?

261
00:17:44,280 --> 00:17:46,280
They were true.

262
00:17:46,280 --> 00:17:49,880
He had the look of knowledge to him.

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00:17:49,880 --> 00:17:53,120
So I showed him the smear on the girder web.

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00:17:53,120 --> 00:18:00,200
Now it had turned to a white ashy gray there, just a salt outline where fine grit stuck.

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00:18:00,200 --> 00:18:05,520
"You put your hand up there," Tom said, kind of half question in his tone.

266
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"No, I can't reach it," I said, not without a ladder.

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He took my phone and made me stand where I had stood and took a photo of me reaching.

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In the picture, my fingers are good, 15 inches shy of that print.

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We finished the job quickly and quietly.

270
00:18:27,160 --> 00:18:29,320
We measured the scour pocket again.

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00:18:29,320 --> 00:18:34,920
There were no changes since last night, which told us the river had peaked and settled.

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00:18:34,920 --> 00:18:40,240
We marked the quarter-inch wing wall settlement, and called it benign for now.

273
00:18:40,240 --> 00:18:45,800
We picked up a couple extra beer cans we found, a cracked bobbar, and a tangled plastic grocery

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bag.

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Since we would prefer clean outdoors, even if others don't.

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00:18:52,760 --> 00:18:59,120
When we slid back into the light, I looked once at the willow that guards the north abutment.

277
00:18:59,120 --> 00:19:05,040
It was still full with a blaze of color, not having lost its foliage yet.

278
00:19:05,040 --> 00:19:09,560
The willow moved and swayed, almost unnaturally.

279
00:19:09,560 --> 00:19:14,600
Now maybe it could have been a breeze that I couldn't feel, or maybe it was the limb tips

280
00:19:14,600 --> 00:19:18,040
that were touching the water, floating with the flow.

281
00:19:18,040 --> 00:19:24,680
But I thought there might have been something else up under the arching, drooping limbs.

282
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I hadn't felt it all day at the bridge.

283
00:19:27,680 --> 00:19:34,800
But now, looking at the willow, I felt it, the feeling of something watching us.

284
00:19:34,800 --> 00:19:39,880
I said nothing to Tom, and we headed back to the shop garage.

285
00:19:39,880 --> 00:19:44,040
Back at the shop, I wrote the report the way you write reports.

286
00:19:44,040 --> 00:19:50,760
If you want to keep your job, and your sense of humor, dry and practical.

287
00:19:50,760 --> 00:19:54,280
Post storm inspection, County Bridge 17.

288
00:19:54,280 --> 00:19:58,000
Scour increased 1.5 inches at peer B.

289
00:19:58,000 --> 00:20:02,880
North wing wall settlement, 0.25 inch monitor.

290
00:20:02,880 --> 00:20:06,280
Drift line at minus 1 flange thickness.

291
00:20:06,280 --> 00:20:11,200
Evidence of recent human/tress passor presence under North span.

292
00:20:11,200 --> 00:20:13,400
Non-confrontational.

293
00:20:13,400 --> 00:20:16,360
Human daylight patrol by Sheriff's office.

294
00:20:16,360 --> 00:20:18,760
Low priority.

295
00:20:18,760 --> 00:20:22,240
I attached three photos that I had taken.

296
00:20:22,240 --> 00:20:26,720
None of them were any evidence, and they would never make a believer out of anybody for

297
00:20:26,720 --> 00:20:27,720
anything.

298
00:20:27,720 --> 00:20:32,720
Well, because quite truthfully, they didn't show doodly squat.

299
00:20:32,720 --> 00:20:35,640
I wanted to keep my job.

300
00:20:35,640 --> 00:20:38,680
I never wrote about the other thing in a report.

301
00:20:38,680 --> 00:20:44,080
I didn't write about how I shaped the size of an impossibly tall and wide man, with the

302
00:20:44,080 --> 00:20:49,800
build of a wrestler was under the bridge with me the whole time in the darkness.

303
00:20:49,800 --> 00:20:54,360
I didn't write about how I did not raise my light up to its face.

304
00:20:54,360 --> 00:20:59,600
I didn't write about how I wished I had had a second light to light the area better,

305
00:20:59,600 --> 00:21:04,280
because I knew I was standing there with a big foot.

306
00:21:04,280 --> 00:21:07,080
On that last one, I thought about it.

307
00:21:07,080 --> 00:21:11,820
And later the next day, I went to the hardware store after work, and I bought myself a second

308
00:21:11,820 --> 00:21:12,820
light.

309
00:21:12,820 --> 00:21:14,600
It's not fancy.

310
00:21:14,600 --> 00:21:19,200
It takes the same batteries as the first one, because, well, let's just say I'm old enough

311
00:21:19,200 --> 00:21:21,720
to have learned that lesson.

312
00:21:21,720 --> 00:21:23,560
It rides on my vest now.

313
00:21:23,560 --> 00:21:26,440
On the opposite side, Velcroed heavily.

314
00:21:26,440 --> 00:21:32,360
So when I come around a pier, I can light up both edges at once.

315
00:21:32,360 --> 00:21:38,080
Now since then, I've been under a lot of bridges because that's part of my job.

316
00:21:38,080 --> 00:21:43,880
I don't have the luxury of saying I'm going to stay away from those places from now on.

317
00:21:43,880 --> 00:21:46,560
But I am careful when I go under.

318
00:21:46,560 --> 00:21:52,720
I keep concrete between me and what I might not see over there or can't see over there.

319
00:21:52,720 --> 00:21:59,480
I make sure to announce myself several times before I go down under to do the job.

320
00:21:59,480 --> 00:22:05,520
But I listen for the sounds of stones moving, water splashing, or footsteps on the rocks

321
00:22:05,520 --> 00:22:06,520
or the mud.

322
00:22:06,520 --> 00:22:15,480
But I listen most for the sound of one stone moving, just one being moved carefully.

323
00:22:15,480 --> 00:22:20,720
And you'd be surprised how often you hear just one stone move.

324
00:22:20,720 --> 00:22:27,120
You'd be surprised how many things are trying not to be seen out there, not because they're

325
00:22:27,120 --> 00:22:28,400
monsters.

326
00:22:28,400 --> 00:22:33,360
But because they've learned that humans bring a lot of problems.

327
00:22:33,360 --> 00:22:35,000
Humans are loud.

328
00:22:35,000 --> 00:22:37,480
Humans are trouble.

329
00:22:37,480 --> 00:22:42,040
If you're looking for proof about Bigfoot, well I really can't help you, all I can do is

330
00:22:42,040 --> 00:22:44,120
tell you my story.

331
00:22:44,120 --> 00:22:47,600
But if you're looking for how a person keeps their hands steady when something is watching

332
00:22:47,600 --> 00:22:53,840
them from the darkness and they have a job to do, I'm the guy to help you with that.

333
00:22:53,840 --> 00:22:55,720
You go on and do your work.

334
00:22:55,720 --> 00:22:58,320
You don't aim your light in anyone's face.

335
00:22:58,320 --> 00:23:03,200
You leave room for both of you to pass each other, without getting too close into each other's

336
00:23:03,200 --> 00:23:05,320
personal space.

337
00:23:05,320 --> 00:23:07,240
You stay aware though.

338
00:23:07,240 --> 00:23:10,720
You watch them, without looking directly at them.

339
00:23:10,720 --> 00:23:14,040
You watch them, in case they make a move on you.

340
00:23:14,040 --> 00:23:15,920
And of course they always could.

341
00:23:15,920 --> 00:23:18,720
You really just don't know.

342
00:23:18,720 --> 00:23:23,960
That river in this county, it will be here when I'm long gone and nothing more than just

343
00:23:23,960 --> 00:23:28,280
a photograph in one of my great-grandchildren's shoe boxes.

344
00:23:28,280 --> 00:23:30,680
That river will flow in eb.

345
00:23:30,680 --> 00:23:31,840
Stones will move.

346
00:23:31,840 --> 00:23:34,400
And debris will get backed up there.

347
00:23:34,400 --> 00:23:39,520
And it will still act like a corridor for anything walking through there.

348
00:23:39,520 --> 00:23:44,680
Now sometimes one of those things walking through there might just be one of us humans.

349
00:23:44,680 --> 00:23:46,280
But there are times.

350
00:23:46,280 --> 00:23:53,160
It's going to be something bigger, older, something built for the uphill run.

351
00:23:53,160 --> 00:23:57,620
Let's know that if you both choose the same time to walk through there, do yourself a

352
00:23:57,620 --> 00:24:02,240
favor and keep at least one peer between you.

353
00:24:02,240 --> 00:24:04,360
Go on and measure what you came to measure.

354
00:24:04,360 --> 00:24:05,360
Be quick about it.

355
00:24:05,360 --> 00:24:08,440
Do your job and back out slow.

356
00:24:08,440 --> 00:24:10,480
Keep a lot of space between you.

357
00:24:10,480 --> 00:24:11,480
Be respectful.

358
00:24:11,480 --> 00:24:14,720
Talk to it.

359
00:24:14,720 --> 00:24:18,840
Now that night, after the coffee went cold and the radio had turned to nothing that I

360
00:24:18,840 --> 00:24:24,160
could understand, I had sat there at my kitchen table and I tried to write down as much of

361
00:24:24,160 --> 00:24:25,960
this as I could get down.

362
00:24:25,960 --> 00:24:31,680
Now that writing is what I'm using to make this email to you.

363
00:24:31,680 --> 00:24:38,640
I am sure that I will be back under 17 or another bridge just like it after the next storm.

364
00:24:38,640 --> 00:24:44,320
In fact, I have been back under bridge 17 since this happened.

365
00:24:44,320 --> 00:24:45,960
Nothing happened though.

366
00:24:45,960 --> 00:24:48,800
But when I go back, I'll mark the wing wall.

367
00:24:48,800 --> 00:24:54,360
I'll check the pocket and I'll curse the patch on my waiters that always leaks.

368
00:24:54,360 --> 00:24:59,880
And if something's down there using the span, the same as me, well I aim to leave it all

369
00:24:59,880 --> 00:25:01,880
the room I can.

370
00:25:01,880 --> 00:25:04,640
And I'm going to keep both lights handy.

371
00:25:04,640 --> 00:25:29,840
[ Silence ]