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Bigfoot: July 2010 Scouting Trip… oh what a night!
By Moose Magnet | July 25, 2010
July 13-18, 2010
We arrived after 1800 hours on Tuesday evening July 13th. First priority was to get all of the tents set up with all the bedding ready to go. We then set up the tarp over the kitchen area and got everything set up in the kitchen. I will use the fire as the center of the camp. Due east about eight yards was my tent with all my boys in it. Due west about five yards was where my daughters tent was with her friend. If you shifted slightly south of her tent and went about another five yards is where the kitchen was. The kitchen was tucked in a small grove of pine trees. Both my tent and my daughter’s tent were out in the open. My tent had pine trees on the east side. Due north of our campsite was a large meadow over 200 yards long. My nephew’s tent was slightly northwest (more west than north) of the fire and about forty yards away tucked in the pine trees. My truck was south of the fire about eight yards on the dead end road we came in on. There were eight of us at this time with more coming up later. Myself, my three boys (17 years old, 14 years old and 11 years old), my daughter who is 20 and her friend who is the same age, a nephew in his early 20’s and a nephew in his early 30’s. Now it is important to note that my older nephew does not hear as well as the rest of us so he was kind of our gauge at times because if he heard it we knew it was loud. Both my nephew’s are skeptics on the subject but more so the older one (this is also important to remember). My older nephew also has insomnia which turns out is great for what we do (other than the hearing part) and my other nephew does not like to fall asleep until the sun comes up so all but the last night we had two people awake at all times. The rest of us have been on more than one BFRO Expedition (my daughter and her friend more than my boys).
We had hotdogs, potato salad and chips for dinner. We like it simple the first night. We sat around the fire and went over the protocol for the trip. We also made plans for what we were going to do. The road continued past our camp and on up the mountain. There are tons of old logging roads in the mountains of Utah and they make it easy to go places at night were there are not any campers. Before it got dark we drove around to try and find all of the campsites so we knew where every other camper may be located. This helps when trying to determine sound sources. I then looked at my topography map to just refresh my memory on where everything was. I also drove our path during the daylight so I could memorize the path and major landmarks along the way so I could keep my orientation up during the night. We didn’t hike around much the first night but the following day we hiked around especially the logging roads we knew about from previous scouting trips from Boogeyman. In fact we were in this area because of Boogeyman (who could not make it on this trip). On the 4th of July weekend he was in the area and while exploring the area found some strange rock formations in a remote area and was growled at (similar to the growl that happened to him in the Olympic Peninsula in Washington while on a BFRO Expedition) while hiking around. We had been looking at this area anyway but that kind of synched it for me. So I had information on the area prior to this trip. I had also done some recon earlier this year and previous years I was not unfamiliar with the area I just didn’t have much hiking experience of the area. Anyway I felt fairly prepared for the first night.
Tuesday Night July 13th/Wednesday Morning July 14th
We went out just after dark as one group. I felt it was a little large but I wanted to separate later after we had moved further up the road. This particular path did not have any campers on it. My kids all got Gen 1 Night Vision (NV) for Christmas this last year. It was their main gift and I know someone. Anyway, so this made it fun for my kids when we stopped. I wish I had better but you can only do what you can do. They used the IR beams to try and find eyes looking back at them. When the IR Beam hits an animal that has high quality natural night vision their eyes look like powerful green flashlights. We used our neighbor’s dog as an example to show them and it looked like a demon dog out of some B movie. This gave them a baseline to know what to look for. I try to do these type of things with the group so they have a baseline for twigs breaking, pine cones dropping, wood knocks and anything we have encounter or that we think we may encounter. We chop wood and have people go off to see what it sounds like and how far the sound travels and so on. Back to that night, we did our thing out there and nothing happened. We decided to go back to camp and wait a bit and then go back out. As it turned out my youngest had a cough so he wanted to turn in early so my boys and I stayed back in camp while the rest went out again on the road. They did some of the normal protocols we do. At one point my daughter found with the NV what appeared to be a pair of eyes looking at her. Once this was established she passed her NV to her friend. Her friend only saw one and then the NV was passed to my Nephew’s who only saw one eye. They looked to see if it could be a star or some other anomaly. There was nothing there with the naked eye that would indicate something other than a pair of eyes. Once the eyes were gone my older Nephew who is around 6’3” went out there to establish a baseline for the height of the eyes. He told me he did not go behind the tree so we could check for tracks the following day. It was determined that the eyes were taller than he was. (Note: The following day we looked for tracks around the area and found that something had been there but when or what was not conclusive. The material was pine needles and such which happens to be some of the toughest to track in or glean information. This was frustrating because we could not find physical evidence to support what they said they saw.) They marked the area and returned to camp after a while. We sat around camp recounting the night and just shooting the breeze. We turned in around 0200. I didn’t hear anything significant on the recorder for the night and my nephew’s only heard some minor movement.
Wednesday July 14th.
Everyone woke up at various times. We made hashbrown, eggs, bacon, sausage and had some chocolate milk for breakfast. Over breakfast we went over what happened last night for everyone. The plan for today was to hike around and find the rock formations Boogeyman had found on the 4th. We don’t know what did them it was just odd where they were at since we are both hunters and they are known to do similar things. On our hike we did find them and took pictures and measured some of them. We think we found both ends of the line which had over a dozen formations in it. One end made sense to where it was located but the other did not as far as a hunter would be concerned. Anyway I just thought it was worth mentioning. After the hike we just hung out at camp playing card games, reading, relaxing and sleeping. For dinner we had Dutch Oven BBQ Chicken, potatoes, cowboy beans, and cherry cobbler. This is always the best meal of the trip. During dinner we discussed what we were going to do that night. We wanted to go further up the mountain and go off of the main road further.
Wednesday Night July 14th/Thursday Morning July 15th
Nothing really happened until some of our group stayed back in camp. After we came back to camp I decided to call blast some coyote calls to see if I could get a response. This has worked in other areas. I was curious to see if there were any in the area. This helps when trying to determine vocals that we hear. When I went on one of the California Expeditions last year one of the BFRO Investigators from the area played tons of local animal sounds for us so we could get a baseline of sounds. Since then I have made a CD for our group so we can do the same for Utah. I have over 40 variations of Coyote alone along with every other large known species that might confuse us. I would have to admit that Foxes make some of the strangest sounds I have ever heard. My youngest was getting worse so I opted not to go out again and he went to bed early. My oldest and I stayed back in camp while the other five made their way up the mountain and onto an old logging road. We had already made this hike during the day so they knew where it was in the dark plus we had marked it to ensure us finding it. The Logging Road group had activity but nothing that could be singled out as Squatch so not really worth reporting. During the time they were gone my son and I had three projectiles hit our kitchen area. Two of which we agreed sounded like rocks hitting the bark of trees and not pinecones falling. The other one we could tell was something that gave the impression it was not a pinecone falling but something actually tossed. We also had a loud single wood knock from the NorthEast (this was one direction I was fairly certain did not have campers and if I described the area you would understand why). The other group made their way back and hung out above camp on the road for a bit. After turning in for the night it wasn’t even a half an hour and my Nephew’s tent was hit by something (on the side) hard enough it bounced off and hit several feet away (kind of like a trampoline affect). They said it defiantly hit the side. Shortly after they heard what sounded like a bipedal subject moving around and then their tent was struck again, this time they think it was a pine cone but it did not slide down the side of their dome tent, it again hit hard and bounced to the side. Their tent was under a tree with several pine cones on it. Something to note is after this night we played games in this tent during the day to see if pine cone would drop and what they sounded like. Nothing ever did. We also threw pine cones trying to simulate them dropping off the trees and most slide down the sides after hitting the tent.
Thursday July 15th
My youngest son woke up shortly after I did and he was feeling worse. I talked to him and he decided that he would like to go home. So I threw some gear in the truck we were not going to use any more, got some bagels for breakfast and left. He felt bad and wanted to stay but he said he just didn’t feel well enough (we took him to the doctor later and he has double pneumonia so he was very sick). I felt bad for him but I knew it was the right decision because he needed his own bed and needed to relax. I got back that afternoon and tried to sneak in a quick nap but that didn’t work. That night we had Poo Stew for dinner with rolls (we take large soup cans of non-creamy soups and just mix several different types together). As long as you don’t mix anything cream oriented the soup is really good, it is an old Scout trick. The plan for the night was to do more of the same and hit the same areas.
Thursday Night July 15th/Friday Morning July 16th
My two Nephew’s chose to stay back at camp this time while I took everyone else out. They said they heard something hit a log not to long after we had left the area. As they sat around the fire they heard movement around camp on the wooded side. At one point they said something crashed into the tarp that was over the kitchen area. Once again I looked for tracks and found nothing I could say would sway me either way. My group had nothing happen that would lead me to believe it was nothing but normal forest sounds. We all came back to camp and sat around the camp for a while just shooting the breeze again. I wanted to go out one last time but this time I was not going to go far. My daughter and my younger nephew went with me. We were just above camp this time. I wasn’t going to do any loud vocals but I still wanted to let it be known that it was our camp that was doing all of this. I opted to do some guttural grunts this time that someone showed me how to do in California last fall. I had just rattled off a few of them and all three of us heard something that I have never heard. The best way I can describe it is that imagine putting your cell phone on vibrate and putting it on a table. That vibration when it rings coupled with the low growl of a dog when it is warning of danger and then add a good amount of bass. We heard it three times coming from about 40 plus yards west of our camp. It creeped us out enough that both my daughter and I took out our bear spray at the same time. I have been stalked by bears in Yellowstone and I have been stalked by cougar’s while hunting in Utah and have heard plenty of sounds from both but this was new to me on all levels. At this time we also felt like we were not alone and being watched. I tend to discard this most of the time because I am not sure if it is self induced on my part. I still have no clue other than the fact I heard it with two other people and it was deep and guttural. It took me a little while to muster the courage to do the low grunts again. We didn’t have any other response and decided to go back to camp for the night. Nothing else happened while we were awake around the fire. We turned in after 0200 in the morning. About twenty minutes after we turned in my Nephew’s said their tent was again struck by something that had some muster on it. Then shortly after the first another object struck the tent again at a different location. Now at this time their tent was furthest away from everyone else and secreted in the trees the best. This would later change after my Nieces’ arrived on Friday.
Friday July 16th
We woke up at random time. I decided I wanted to try and make Aebleskiver’s for breakfast. They are like round pancake balls. Well that was an epic failer. My Nephew has cooked them before and when he woke up he said you have to use Crisco on the pan so they don’t stick, it is almost like you are deep frying each one. So I cooked pancakes instead. I need practice. We were expecting some more people to possibly come up today. About noon we heard my Niece crackle over the radio. I had to go find them and then I drove her minivan down because of the road. I only hit bottom once. I was hoping they would bring their truck but they had issues with it. They had been looking for us for about two hours and they had just about given up. These two nieces are twins and in their thirties and they brought a friend with them. They set their tent up to the south of camp secreted partly in the woods and all by themselves. Three women isolated from the main camp. This could be interesting. They had never done this before and new very little about the subject.
Friday Night July 16th/ Saturday Morning July 17th
That night we had Southwest BBQ Chicken and potato salad for dinner. We sat around and I went through all of the protocol with the Newbie’s. The plan for the night was we would all leave together then at some point all the women would break off and go it alone. That almost happened. My Niece’s would only go if I went with them so it was all of the women and myself (hold the joke’s). We left everyone back off the side of the road and I took them up to further up the road. We stopped at a clearing off the side of the road and hung out there for a while. While there we did some wood knocks and both parties heard two wood knocks from the south. During this time the lower group heard three more wood knocks. Two of the girls went off into the woods to use the restroom. Just as they were leaving the group one of my Niece’s was standing there and got hit just below the neck line by a wood chip that stuck to her sweater. She was confused about it. No one was moving near her and the other two were more than ten yards away in a different direction. She came to me and showed it to me and told me what happened. I don’t know what to make of this. The wood chip was the size of quarter and almost a half an inch think. Nothing else happened so I decided to continue on up to the old logging road. We sat on some rocks and started to do our thing and coordinated our efforts with the other group. Shortly after settling it we all heard a whistle and thought it was someone in the group. I was sitting across from one of my nieces and all of a sudden she said she could see a red glow over my right shoulder in the woods. She started freaking out. It then went away. Shortly after that she saw it again and started curling up in the fetal position, then she covered her eyes and said she couldn’t look anymore. Then she peaked and said it was still there and covered her eyes again. We were hearing forest noises from that direction which was north of our position. We then got a call from the lower group saying they wanted to join us up here. I moved and found a different spot to sit away from the women. We heard two clacks and shortly after the lower group appeared. After we got caught up my two nephew’s and my daughters friend went further up the road. After they left we kept hearing forest noises from the north where my niece saw the red glows. My daughter wanted something to happen to her so she decided to move to the north of us about ten yards from anyone else and sat on a rock that was about six feet in diameter. She put her back to the north (woods) and faced us. Shortly after that I saw a red glow getting brighter, hit its peak and then go dim and out of sight. This lasted for over five seconds. Now there were other times I thought I saw eye glow but I don’t mention it because it could be my imagination. I have to have something else occur before I admit it is eye glow. Out of all of what I thought I saw this is the only one I will recount because how long it was there giving me time to view it and also the events that followed. One of my nieces shortly after this said she was staring at red eye glow just south of us. She started acting panicked so we were trying to find what she was looking at. She said it was moving and she could see the silhouette of the Bigfoot. She blurted out, “I am looking right at it and it doesn’t care!” She said some other things as well and then she had had enough and tried to make a run for it but her friend grabbed her and held her there. She continued to describe where it was and then I asked, “are you sure it is not my son (middle)?” She asked, “where is he?” My middle son had moved to the south just about ten feet away from her and climbed the small embankment and then got on top of a rock. My niece was seeing the red glow of the IR from the Night Vision my son was using while trying to find what she was looking at. I will admit I tried not to laugh but her sister and friend did not hold back. I got the entire thing recorded and plan on giving her a copy. It was priceless. My niece thought my son was a Squatch that didn’t care she was making eye contact with it and she couldn’t figure out why no one else could see it. I asked her after the situation had calmed if she had learned one thing… know where everyone is in your group. We continued doing our thing with the other group. The upper group was hearing movement and rock grinding (like you would hear when you walk on a gravel road and the rocks grind from the pressure of you walking). We continued to hear forest noises behind my daughter and a few said they would see eye glow from time to time. Then we heard what sounded like two clicks from around my daughter. Then a rock (clear as day) hit and bounced off of the rock my daughter was sitting on. She then started hearing loud movement right behind her. She called out to me and said she couldn’t move and wanted me to come and get her. She said she had had enough. I quickly got up and made my way to her. As I pulled her off the rock she was shacking like a leaf in the wind. She couldn’t stand and almost took me down with her. We had to stay there for a moment so she could regain the ability to walk. She made her way back to the main group and sat down. My oldest son said that you need to be careful what you ask for. He was hit with a rock on an earlier trip this year. A few more minor things happened and then my niece’s said they were done and would like to go back to camp. Their cup was full. I radioed up to the upper group and told them we were leaving. They stayed for a bit. On the way down I could hear movement off to our right and then later off to our left after we passed the campers that were camped on the left. Others in the group heard this as well. Once we got back to camp I radioed the upper group. They said after we left it was dead quiet up there. They said they think they followed our group out. By the noised we heard I would have to agree that they followed us back to camp. After a bit the upper group made their way back to camp. We sat around the fire and recounted what took place and then we all laughed about what happened to my niece.
After everyone retired to their tents I guess it went crazy. I have it all recorded so I do have a timeline for everything but the rock throws and the tent brushing. About seven and a half minutes after we went to bed while my daughter and her friend were talking about what happened to her you can clearly hear five wood knocks in the background which was about 0237 in the morning. My two nephew’s heard everything that night and said the knocks came from at least six or more locations. Between 0255 in the morning until about 0321 I recorded nine vocals, some faint but all had a similar sound. Then at about 0330 the wood knocks or banging starts. First there was one and then about fourteen minutes later two more followed by four more about thirty seconds later then about fifteen seconds later there was a series of twenty one followed by three about forty seconds later and then a minute later I counted sixty seven in a row lasting about forty five seconds. Then for the next three minutes I only heard three and then is was fairly quiet for about sixteen minutes. Then I heard one again. About fourteen minutes later I heard another nine in a row. Not even eight minutes later there was another fifteen in a row which was about 0426 in the morning and around a minute later another eight in a row. My recording ended around 0435 in the morning because I was out of memory on that card. I need to get bigger cards. My nieces tent had some encounters after my recorder died. They said there was something heavy moving around their tent early in the morning and it sounded like it was bipedal. On the back of their dome tent are five rope tie downs for the corners and the doggy door/vent. On that side they said something walked by rubbing the top of their dome tent which is around five and half feet tall. I didn’t see any signs of the tie downs being pulled up but I did notice the northeast corner of the tent (where the subject was said to have started) the corner of the tent pole was dug in the ground leaving a small trench about eight inches long like it had been kicked or something. I look for tracks but the area was either to compact from previous activity or had too many pine needles. I could see that something had been there but it could have easily been my nieces setting up the tent. Whatever happened left a lasting impression upon them and made them yell out for me. By the way I did not hear it but one of my nephew’s did get out of their tent to check on them. My niece said shortly after she screamed the subject move into the trees. In the morning my nephew’s said that there tent was hit ten times during the night and said at least six of them they believe were rocks and had a little muster on them. The rest could have been pinecones but they believe they too were also thrown and did not drop from trees. This night was by far the most active for us. Sadly I slept through it all.
Saturday July 17th
We had a mixture of muffins and bagels for breakfast. We played games most of the day and just tried to relax. Some people took naps. My daughter and her friend (with others help) moved their tent on the other side of the kitchen are to be more isolated so stuff would happen to them during the night.
Saturday Night July 17th/ Sunday Morning July 18th
We all went up the road as one group. Shortly after hiking my two nephews went back to camp because nature was calling. The rest of us made our way to the logging trail. Nothing really major happened while we were waiting. I did hear what sounded like a person walking from where we came up and thought it was my nephew’s coming up because I knew they were on their way. I turned to look and did not see red headlamps so I radioed them and they were still a few minutes away. About a minute later they did show up on the trail. Here is an account from my younger nephew of that evening.
‘During road walking Saturday night when the group reached the logging road IS and I had to take a crap and therefore went back to base camp. On the way to base camp we heard nothing and on the way back to the logging road we heard nothing. After getting back to the group IS and I had decided to separate from everyone else and go further up the logging road. IS and I stayed barely within hearing range of the group meaning that we could hear the group in the distance. If looking up the road was 12 o’clock IS and I sat off the road at 9 o’clock and the main group was somewhere about 6 to 7 o’clock. The road had curved slightly (to the right) when walking up. We heard a stick break in the direction of approximately 5 to 6 o’clock between us and the rest of the group. That’s when John radioed us that JS (John’s oldest son) saw something move across the road. Later we heard another stick snap closer to us like something was moving towards us on the opposite side of the road where we were sitting. Again later we heard another stick snap in the direction of 3 o’clock which is right across the road from us. Before we went down and joined the rest of the group IS and I heard a stick snap on our side of the road in the direction of 9 o’clock. We were about 10 to 15 feet away from the edge of the woods (10 to 15 feet away from us in the direction of 9 o’clock) and we could see absolutely nothing beyond the woods. We joined up with the group which wanted to head back to base camp except for AS, CG, IS and myself who stayed at the logging road for a while longer. We got no more activity all the way up to reaching base camp.
When we went to bed IS and I heard a rock hit the tent within a short time. A little later I heard a car alarm go off which was on the road above us. The car alarm was on for what felt like a while before turning off so I don’t think that the campers accidentally turned it on. I believe something set it off. Shortly after that I heard another rock hit the tent. Also I kept seeing quick flashes of white light on the side of my tent and I heard faint voices in the direction of the campers. After the rock throw I heard nothing other than the campers now and then. That night I went to bed early then the other nights because I felt that there was nothing out there.’
There were some forest noises up on the logging road but nothing that would strongly indicate we had the visitor we were seeking up there. The campers my nephew is referring to moved up above us about seventy five yards or so and in a place I didn’t think anyone would camp at. I think the car alarm and all of their white light activity made the night a bust. I listened to the recording and the car alarm went off for almost a minute and a half. Then I could hear commotion for a while and some calling out by the campers. About ten minutes before the truck alarm going off I did hear someone yell ‘Hello?’ on the recorder.
I think we had a great trip and one to remember. I am in the process of working on the sounds and will post them as I get them cleaned up. There were some on the trip who were skeptics and now have some food for thought. There are those who are strongly skeptical as I am. I have taken people hunting for deer on many occasions and when hunting not every little thing that occurs on the trip is a deer. The same is to be said while Squatching. Not every little thing that occurs is a Bigfoot. I leave that up to every individual person to decide. I will say this much… out of all the possible eye shine I may have seen I can only say strongly that there was one I believe was not my imagination and that occurred not far from my daughter on the rock. I wish I could have heard the banging in real life. I have now heard wood knocks in four different states and they have a commonality between them in sound. There were a few that I did hear on this trip that had the same familiarity about them. The bangs on the recording I am trusting my nephew’s on what they actually heard. The vocals on the other hand I believe are legit after sending them off to someone I trust and also because of how familiar I am with the Utah Mountains and their wild life. These are unlike anything I have heard known animals make either from personal experience of from what I have gathered on the internet. Again… I will let the listener decide for themselves.
John…
Topics: 2010 Expedition, Eye Shine, USG Recordings, Utah Expeditions |