Man describes childhood incident, a possible approach at Seven Lakes witnessed in Inyo County, California

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When I was a young boy, my father would take me backpacking in the Sierra Nevada mountains every summer. When I was 10 years old, my father decided I was strong enough for a long excursion in the wilderness, and we set off for a place called Seven Lakes near Big Pine. We had hiked for a few days when we came to the sixth lake, and we could see the seventh lake just beyond it. Seventh lake was covered with ice and there was snow all around just past where we decided to camp for the night. We thought this would be a good place to stay and explore the next day. During the night a snow storm hit and it became freezing cold, so my father and I put our sleeping bags over us and huddled together for warmth. I kept looking at my father's watch and hitting the light on it to see when we could expect the sun to rise so we could get warm. It was 3:45 a.m when we heard footsteps walking up the trail towards us. Our tent was right on the edge of the trail, and whatever was out there walking was...