I work in the Yukon

I'm a land surveyor, have been for about 5 years now and I'm questioning the career path I have chosen for myself.

I honestly don't know how I got into doing this but I guess my Dad somehow convinced me into thinking that I would be happy doing this. Unfortunately, this was not the case, but I continued to convince myself that this was a career path that I should take, despite my better judgment.

I'm not happy. I don't like the fact that I have to cut down part of the forest to get the job done and despite my experience in the job, I still struggle to carry my equipment kilometer after kilometer and it pretty much leaves me brain dead after a day's work (especially during heavy rain or blizzards). In short, I don't enjoy it. Even the paycheck isn't worth what I feel I'm going through doing this shit.

The only saving grace for this godforsaken profession is my partner and friend, John (not his real name).

Now John isn't really made for this type of work either but he does seem to have an eternally optimistic mood which makes the job a little more bearable, for me especially. There is one thing I have to mention and it's the fact that he sometimes humors himself by humming or mimicking animal and even mechanical sounds.

I'm telling you all this because I had a rather strange experience yesterday and I'm not sure whether it was John, an auditory hallucination (it happens from time to time), or something else, but it was weird.

We were working on an area of several hectares located about 100-150 kilometres south of Dawson City in the middle of the forest. Now, coyotes are quite common here and it isn't unheard of to see or here one in this area but I am quite certain that what I heard out there was not a coyote.

I was in one of the corners and John was not exactly in the corner opposite of me but it was pretty close. I was in the process of measuring the angle between two points of land 6 metres away from each other when I hear a lone coyote howl from the general direction of where John is. I payed it no mind; I kept on working. The strange thing was that it didn't stop.

I finished measuring the angle and I tried to keep my focus as I picked up my equipment as the howling continued unabated. I started looking around for any coyotes that could be making this sound and I was starting to doubt that this was a coyote making this sound; already 45 seconds passed since it started. I walked in John's direction, hoping to find him in the clearing he created.

I could barely hear the crunch of my quickening footsteps or my heavy breathing as the howl turned into a ringing in my ears. 65 seconds passed since it started. I panned the forest quickly, what the hell was making that sound? I couldn't focus correctly. Where was John? 90 seconds, I was getting lost. I sat down in the snow and tried to block the singular sound out but it's volume only increased. This needed to stop; 110 seconds. Just stop. My eardrums were ready to burst, my fingers were full of snow in my ears. I had shut my eyes, became nauseated and dizzy from the double vision, I fell over, I no longer had my balance. I was in a fetal position, shaking. "Please, just make it stop!" I begged.

150 seconds, then the sound started undulating, creating reverb throughout the forest, it modulated itself in different octaves, different tunings and it started doing so at an increasingly rapid pace, crescendoing into an unrecognizable screech that left me partially deaf and sort of thankful that I could no longer hear it.

It took a while for me to unfurl myself and get back to my feet but by then John had found me and with obvious concern, started asking what happened.

"Didn't you hear it?"

"Hear what? Are you alright?"

"You mean...?"

"No, I didn't hear anything."

"Your pulling a joke on me."

"What?!"

"I know you are."

"But-"

"You can imitate animals really well John because that's what I heard except somehow you wobbled your voice at... inhuman frequencies..."

"I think you need some rest, man. Work's definitely getting to you."

"You're probably right."

"Go back to the truck, I'll continue with this."

Now, I've asked locals about this particular forest and strangely, there's not much to be said about it, no particular histories or legends associated with it and even those that have hiked in it have said that there's nothing unsettling about it. But all of them mention that they don't see many animals down that way and now that I think about it, I don't remember seeing any during the time I was there.

I'm going back there early tomorrow. If there's anything worth mentioning, then I'll mention it.

Have a good day.