Ok /к/, I’ve put some thought into this and I've decided to share my WTF/nope/innawoods story with you. I wasn't going to do it but after seeing a few other threads with people discussing weird stuff I figured I might as well, and maybe I'll get an solution for my one and only unanswered question. What I'm about to tell you is the 100% honest truth, and I'll try and be as detailed as possible. Firstly, some brief background info on me, which I only offer so you might understand my behavior and mindset. I am in my early 30's, I'm an active duty Marine who's been in the Corps for over 15 years (a GySgt), I have quite a bit of training along with real world combat experience, I am a rational, logical, and skeptical person who does not believe in the supernatural or spiritual, and I'm a long time lurker here at /к/ and 4chan in general.
So this all took place in the Californian Mojave desert, at a place called the Joshua Tree National Park, three weeks ago over the Thanksgiving holiday. I often go out on short camping trips, and this time I was out for one night of camping before the weather got too cold to tolerate it. This is a huge desert area, with almost no vegitation other than scrub brush and cacti, large mountains with very flat valleys, and hardly any wildlife to be seen. I go out there to do some hiking and to get away from gadgets for a while and relax. The sunsets, sunrises, and starry nights are really amazing.

When I go out alone I leave my wife a map of where I'm going on my trip identical to one I also carry, along with a set timeline. I	usually take a ruck with duraflame log (so I don’t have to burn the already sparse vegitation), basic survival gear with food and water, and I carry a Ruger 77/357. It's a bolt action .357 rifle with that uses 5 round rotary magazines, of which I take 3 more. I carry this because it's a national park and no one gives me a hard time about it, it's reliable, very accurate, light, cheap to shoot, and powerful enough to kill a coyote from 100 yards if I need to. The coyotes out here aren't deadly, but they are pretty damn fearless and are used to people so it's a necessity. I almost always camp on the large rock outcroppings now, because one time I woke up and saw no less than six coyotes standing in the dark just outside the firelight watching me, pacing quitely. It was actually kind of neat to be so close to them and we sat watching each other for a while, until one started edging in too close and I had to shoo them away with a warning shot.
Anyway, this particular night was uneventful aside from the coyotes making a ton of obnoxious noise around 0400. It was also pretty damn chilly, and since I was awake already I started heading back before the dawn even broke. I can make pretty good time and distance on foot, so my campsite was about 4 miles out, farther than most people bother to venture. In fact, I've never ran into anyone that far out now that I think about it, even though it's not that far.
>cont.

So I'm heading back and I'm hiking back down a large hill that has boulders and crevices all along it. Nothing too crazy, definitely not rock climbing or anything (I stay away from dangerous areas since I'm alone). I get no farther than 400 or 500 yards from my actual campsite and there lying on the ground in front of me I see a blue and white knit beanie cap, the kind with the tassles on the sides. I stopped and started scanning the area, but I saw nothing out of the ordinary. I called out with a "Hello?", and got no reply. I walked over and reached down to pick it up, and as soon as I touched it I heard a faint, "...hello?", off to my left. I stood up quickly, but saw nothing. Walking further to my left I saw a large crevice in the hill that went down about 30 or 40 feet and curved hard to the right among a few very large boulders. I couldn't really see anything down there because it was still too dark and the angle wasn't good, but as soon as I had got a look down into it I heard a much louder "Hello?", come up from below. My mind clicked into gear and I thought, shit, someone got lost and probably just spent a long cold night trapped down there. "Are you okay? Are you hurt? Do you need help?," I called down. The voice came back, "Please, come help me!" I realized, holy shit, that was a childs voice, or it sounded like it. So I tossed my pack and rifle on the deck and started yanking out some 550 cord as I yelled down, "Don’t worry, I'm going to help you! Stay calm!" I tied a big loop off around the stone near me and then wrapping it around my arm I came quickly back to the edge. I started to lean forward to find the best way down when several things happened.
>cont.

I yelled down, "Stay calm!", and then immediately got a whiff of the most awful smell I've ever smelt as I leaned over. Imagine what a long dead animal rotting in a mud puddle If on a hot day would smell like. Just like that. In the gloom below I saw a slight movement, just a shape, but far larger than any child could have been. And then I heard the childs voice, "Please, come help me!" I froze. That phrase had sounded exactly the same as before, and I mean EXACTLY, in tone, inflection, cadence, everything. It was so I exact that that's what made it weird. A few seconds went by as I hesitated, then again from below exactly as before, "Please, come help me!" Now, I don't scare easily, but I was suddenly overcome with unexplained fear. Not a fear I've ever felt before, like an adrenaline pumping kind you'd feel from a car accident or firefight, but a gut wrenching, predetor and I'm the prey type feeling that made me panic. I went into full flight mode. I reeled back, scooting on my hands and feet, and grabbed my rifle, panting. I remeber thinking to myself, "This isn't enough, I should've brought my M1A,", and a second later I heard scraping and scrabbling sounds... coming up the crevice. I stood up and fucking ran. Left all my gear behind, just rifle in hand, right down the hill. I heard panting, huffing coming from behind me, and then loud a shit "PLEEEASE! COME HELP ME!" I was sprinting in the dawn, nearly hysterical with fear. And then I was back, through the park entrance, and straight to the office, where I started banging on the door, hell I was kicking it even, and yelling for help.
>cont.

A park ranger came from around the side of the building and told me to knock it the fuck off. Thinking about it now I realize he had his hand on his pistol and I very nearly got myslf shot with all my bonkers behavior. Mind racing, I told him the only thing I could think of that would make sense, "I was coming back from my campsite and someone attacked me and chased me!" He looks at me and says, "Who?" I tell him I have no idea, I never got a look, and that I could take him to where it happened where all my gear was. So after a brief chat with another ranger, this old fella and I get into his ATV and head back to the hill. We get up to the crevice in the rock and sure as shit, my gear is still there with the cord still wrapped around the stone like I left it. But no one else is there, and no blue and white beanie either. The ranger gets a little pissed, and asks me if I had been drinking or doing drugs, and after returning to the office and taking my statement he tells me, "Maybe next time you come out here you might want to leave the rifle
at home, ok buddy?"
So that's it. I headed home. Took a shower and tried to figure it out. I decided that either some seriously fucked up kids had just pranked the shit out of me, or that I had almost been robbed and killed by some tweakers in a desert hiking ambush. The only problem with these that I can't figure out is that if either one is true, then what was that fucking awful smell all about?

***

-- Honestly, I don't know California legends that well, but I’ll be the first to say it: Skinwalker.
Basically, /к/omrade, you met something that eats people. And a skeptic who thinks you're a 5150 case.
This means: Never return to that area again. One, because the Ranger might try to get charges on you for some reason, and two, because whatever "that" was, might remember you and decide to deliberately hunt you.

-- I’m going to look into this. But it's really hard to believe it, even after living through this.
Also, my statement was actually filed as an actual report at the rangers office, and is on public record if anyone wants to verify that I'm telling the truth. Although I may have left out some of the more... interesting parts of the encounter in the report, for obvious reasons.

-- 29 Palms, are you an instructor out there Gunny? I miss bouldering at Joshua Tree and those were definitely some of the most beautiful night skies I've ever seen. Kind've haunting to think I was camping (and drinking) in skinwalker territory.

-- Yes, I'm an instructor with a year left to go out here at 29 stumps, but I'd rather not get too detailed here on 4chan about my specifics.

-- Ok now, to people who say nothing crazy happens out here in this desert or the park, you obviously aren't a local whose lived here their whole life. I've lived in Yucca valley my whole life and I can tell you that in these super tiny towns there is several of cases of people getting lost or going missing every year out here that you don't hear about. Usually tourists types. It's not hard to keep it out of the news when your only real news outlet is a couple of town papers run by 4 or 5 people each. It would be really bad for what tourism we have if word got out that people were going missing out here regularly. What usually happens is that people misjudge distances in the desert, thinking things are closer than they really are, and then the dryness dehydrates them quickly.
Here's something that happened to someone I personally knew about 4 years ago in this same desert that OP was in. A kid I went to high school with was apparently going through a rough time and he decided to commit suicide. This guy drove out, parked his car, left a note in it, and headed out into the desert. A couple I days later they finally found some of the guys clothes and backpack with weed still in it, but never found the guy. Now if you weren't friends with the family or locals from here you'd never know these details, but the news never said a peep about it. Not even a 'boy missing' spot. Now this was intentional, but my point is the same- people get lost and go missing out here more often than you'd expect.

-- Okay, I'm going to take the time to read up on this stuff. Right now I think I need to take a break; rethinking about this over and over again makes me feel a bit nauseous. I will say that there is some weird shit out here in the desert, plenty of meth head tweakers, old abandoned mine shafts, and hell, they even permanently shut down part of our training area a few months ago because they found another Native American site full of artifacts during a live engagement.

...nope