Teenager has a nighttime close encounter and then sees tracks in the snow in Avery witnessed in Calaveras County, California

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When I was in my early teens, my aunt was dating this fellow who lived in Avery, CA. He was an aspiring carpenter who was trying to build a cabin on his property. Though the main house was already completely built, he took it upon himself to build this cabin directly across the way, on the side of this hill. Running between the main house and the cabin was a creek, which stood at the base of the hill, that had a bridge crossing over it. Anyway, my aunt had decided to move in with him during their courtship and they decided to live in the cabin as it was being built. I had spent my summer there with them that year, but this was my first time being there during the winter. The area (Avery) in which they lived was heavily forested and fairly remote, with the nearest neighbor being several miles away. Needless to say, it was extremely cold at that time of year. As a result, because the cabin was a work in progress, and only had plastic instead of glass in the windows, the wind would ho...