Share A Picture Or Experience From The Outdoors

[Guest]

Not too sure "Biggie" utilizes saws or axes. Actually when encountering nests, the first thing you do is determine wether the timber used was broken or snapped or uprooted. When we see saw cuts etc. we know that it's manmade.....unless Bigfoot used limbs from a logging operation?

[Guest Cervelo]

Not too sure "Biggie" utilizes saws or axes. Actually when encountering nests, the first thing you do is determine wether the timber used was broken or snapped or uprooted. When we see saw cuts etc. we know that it's manmade.....unless Bigfoot used limbs from a logging operation?

Hummm please exit the taking stuff way to serious zone at this time!!! LOL it is obviously manmade! Just kidding folks but it was still a cool find in an unusual spot. No doubt in my mind it was the hand of man!!

[Guest]

Sorry Cervelo.........thought you were serious.....no harm intended.

[Guest Cervelo]

Sorry Cervelo.........thought you were serious.....no harm intended.

LOL it's all good! I do need to do a better job of letting you guys know when I'm trying to be a sarcastic jerk! It's the the sarcastic part I struggle with the other part I got down!!!

[Guest]

This past year, my wife and I bought a piece of land that has never previously been occupied, and which is surrounded by a few thousand acres of timberland and large private holdings. My only neighbor is within sight, but he has only been here since 2007, and works away from home sometimes for weeks at a time.

When my wife & I were looking at the land, I took her and my 2 daughters to see a beautiful oak ridge that I had found while surveying for the owner. In order to get to the ridge, we had to cross a large fallen oak tree. The tree's root ball was exposed, and the tree's trunk was elevated off the ground, so we could go over it, which I did because of my height & size, or under it, which they did because of their much smaller size. The woods were kind of thick on either end of the tree, or we thought it was at least.

On Thanksgiving, my brother-in-law Rod and I decided to walk around our land, as he & my sister had not been down to visit since we bought the place. We walked through our hardwood bottom (which begins within a few yards of our home), crossed our creeks, and then came up out of the bottom and worked our way up toward the oak ridge. When we got up there, we started to bypass the ridge when we noticed a lot of yellow clay/sand piled up in the direction of the ridge. We walked up that way, and I recognized it as the spot where the downed oak was when my wife, kids, and I had walked up that way the previous spring. We saw the big oak, but the root ball had been lifted out of the hole and shoved about 10 feet UPHILL from where it was. There was yellow clay/sand all the way from the hole it had been in to where it now rests, a couple of feet wide and half a foot or so deep. The upper part of the downed tree (that was the top when it had been standing years ago) was shoved even further away, and saplings that had been growing on the uphill side were now bowed over with their tops under the large log. However, there are no scrape marks on the saplings. There has been no heavy equipment or equipment of any kind on my property in that area, and there is no sign of any being there, or of any traveling in from any direction. I absolutely have no explanation for how the log, which must weight thousands of pounds, could have gotten lifted out of the depression it was in and shoved up the slight hill (not a steep grade, just a slight one).

The following are some photographs I took at the site within a few days after Rod and I made our discovery. Keep in mind that we found the tree like this in November, but the last time I had seen the tree was months before, so I have no idea when this happened, and enough time had elapsed for shrubbery to grow higher than it had been when my wife and I had crossed it before. Also, although I am posting this on the BFF, I have no idea what could have caused this. I have surveyed in the outdoors for 20 years and hunted for over 30, and I haven’t seen a tree of this size just get shoved over like this appears to have been. If there is an answer I have overlooked, I am very open to it.

Fig. 1 Original hole where tree was related to current location of root ball, 13 ft away. When the tree was in its original location (and fallen instead of upright), its trunk was pretty much parallel to the way it currently lays, and the root ball contained roots that spread out an additional 3-4 ft with soil still filling the gaps between them.

Fig. 2 My oldest daughter standing in the original hole for reference.

Fig. 3 My daughter standing at the tree’s root ball for reference

Fig. 4 Base of the tree and view of the “drag mark†where is was pushed or pulled over 13 ft.

Fig. 5 View of drag mark from original hole all the way to where the tree currently rests.

We also found an indentation in the shape of a foot that I later measured at 14.5†long that was about 30 yards from the site. As we were talking about what we had seen, my mother (who lives with us) said that she heard something emitting a low, guttural growl somewhere near her end of our home. Her room is on the South end of our home, which is the end nearest to the hardwood bottom. She said that our dog Muffin barked at whatever it was, and that it growled some more, but ceased after Muffin kept barking. Muffin is a beagle mix, and does not have a deep growl.

My oldest daughter, Abigail, age 15, said that she was awakened by something hitting the side of our home. She turned toward the living room, and whatever it was hit the side of the house again. She tried to figure out what it was, and it hit the house one more time. The hits were very hard, and were about 10 seconds apart. Abigail lives with her mother in Pascagoula, MS, and was up staying with us for a few days. She was sleeping in the den, so that she could watch tv as long as she wanted. I have MS, and sleep with the ac on, a ceiling fan on, and a window unit on in the window on my side of the bed, so I cannot hear anything outside mine & my wife's bedroom.

My mother has not heard anything growling lately, and to my knowledge, nothing has hit the side of the house, though I guess no one would know when Abigail is not here. The latest nighttime sounds are loud sounds that sound like a woman screaming. The sounds are always between 3 & 3:30 am, originate to the West of us, and seem to get closer with each subsequent “screamâ€. The sound lasts for about 3 seconds, and is about 5 minutes or so apart. It seems that they stop before they enter my neighbor’s field, a small portion of which lies to the West of us. He has cattle and horses in the field.

Tracks appear...

Fig. 6 Tracks by my freezer out the back door.

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Fig. 7 Freezer foot compared to my size 12 shoe.

This is a series of tracks walking across my yard from the chest freezer at the back of my house toward a swampy area on my land, and ultimately an almost impenetrable swamp and thicket further to the East. The part of my yard that these tracks are crossing is covered with clay backfill for the septic system that we had installed. When viewing these tracks, keep in mind that after I saw the track by my freezer, we had two days of very hard rain, and only the deepest tracks remained. Also, I am 250 pounds, and I did not sink into the soil at any of the track sites.

Fig. 8 This is the “freezer track†after the rain. All the tracks are about 16†long.

On the other side of my swampy area, I have a beautiful oak ridge, on which I have planted some oats, clover, rye grass, and wheat for deer. About once a week I take a walk over on the ridge to look for signs of deer, to see if the things I planted need more lime of fertilizer, etc. Earlier this week, I was walking in the plot that I had planted there, and happened upon a large foot-shaped depression that was pointed in the direction of my home. It had pressed down earth and vegetation that I could not do at my weight. I removed the leaves to get a better pic. I took a few pics of it. The tracks were headed toward the creek separating it from my house, and the soil and ground was not such to hold prints, so I decided to back track it, if possible. I was bound to that, since I constantly criticize people who find a single print, cast it, and proclaim for years to come that they have evidence of sasquatch. There are odd situations that can cause such depressions (not a trackway of them), and the hind foot of a bear looks incredibly like that of a person. However, if one can track much at all, it won’t be long before you can find the front foot tracks on a bear, and some hair caught on limbs or trees. Anyway, I began to backtrack this thing, and I had no trouble with it. This trackway was in the woods on the oak ridge, and was about 30 yards from the big oak tree that was shoved about 15 feet not long ago. I never saw a front foot. I found several tracks, all pointing in the general direction that the first one I found had been pointing in. Mostly they were larger than normal footprints that made it look like a barefoot NBA star had walked through the woods, but the leaves were just pressed down really flat on the oak ridge. When I stood near the tracks, the leaves did press down somewhat, but not as much as in the tracks I was following. Also, when I picked my foot up, the leaves sprang back up again, though you could tell that I had stepped on them. I will take this opportunity once again to remind you that I am 250 pounds in the morning before I eat breakfast, so whatever made these tracks was significantly larger than me.

I followed these tracks, or rather backtracked them, until they left my property and I saw that they had come from a wide swampy seasonal spring. The pictures that follow are my attempt to show what I saw on the oak ridge, both in the plot and going down the ridge. Unfortunately, the pictures simply cannot convey what I actually saw at all. I am not sure if it is the 3D of real life vs the 2D of the digital pics, lighting, or what. The picture of my rifle scope next to a track is in the food plot. The rifle scope is 16†long. In the picture of my feet at an odd angle, the heel of my right foot is even with the heel of the track, and my left foot is at the top of the track.

Fig. 9 Track in food plot

Fig. 10 Comparison of the track with my size 12 shoe.

Fig. 11 16†scope on my SS brush rifle compared to the food plot track.

Fig. 12 The tracks in the leaf litter are almost impossible to see in a picture, but pretty easy in person.

[bipedalist]

Well you got the ubiquitous 3-3:30am thing going on so sound recording is definitely in order. Tracks look good......maybe rig up a bird cage with some fruit in it and see if anything can figure out that puzzle and hang it about six feet off the ground (above a mud hole).

[Rod]

Good stuff, Shawn! I can certainly vouch at the oddity of that fallen Oak since we were both scratching our heads trying to figure it out.

[Guest Biggie]

Shawn get Matt and Bobo out there asap! lol

Seriously that does seem squatchy. There were no dents or marks in the house afterward? Since you're new there it may have been testing for your reaction to see what kind of new person it has there to deal with now. Since you didn't come out hostile it may believe that you are nothing to be concerned with. So far as the growl if it was bf then the best I could guess is that it was annoyed with you being close by on it's land where the bf is not a threat to you since it did no more than that.

[Rod]

Shawn get Matt and Bobo out there asap! lol

Seriously that does seem squatchy. There were no dents or marks in the house afterward? Since you're new there it may have been testing for your reaction to see what kind of new person it has there to deal with now. Since you didn't come out hostile it may believe that you are nothing to be concerned with. So far as the growl if it was bf then the best I could guess is that it was annoyed with you being close by on it's land where the bf is not a threat to you since it did no more than that.

Furthermore, that thick swampland Shawn is speaking of is definitely thick. He and I had a heckuva time penetrating it. If there's a BF in the area, it is indeed ticked that folks are beginning to move in on its territory.

[Guest KentuckyApeman]

This past year, my wife and I bought a piece of land that has never previously been occupied, and which is surrounded by a few thousand acres of timberland and large private holdings. My only neighbor is within sight, but he has only been here since 2007, and works away from home sometimes for weeks at a time.

That's pretty amazing. You buy some land and it could have current BF activity. Can you set up a trail cam? Might catch a shot of your night time visitor. Keep us posted.

[Guest]

That's pretty amazing. You buy some land and it could have current BF activity. Can you set up a trail cam? Might catch a shot of your night time visitor. Keep us posted.

I have several IR trail cams (I think 6 of them), and I got a new one that does not use IR at all, it just continually takes pics every 5 seconds (or whatever you set it at) all day long. The one drawback is that it only takes pics during the day time, since it does not use IR. The good things are that it does not use IR (it is widely suspected that BF may be sensitive to IR light somehow), and that is does not need to be triggered, since it continually takes pics. You view the pics as a kind of time lapse photography of the area where you have it aimed on your PC. You can set the speed, pause, rewind, etc., and can select individual images or clips to save individual portions or send them to friends.

[bipedalist]

Sounds like you got your own little expeditionary force down there Surveyor, why leave home without them if you got five game cams and an event recorder. Do you rent them out?!

So when are you starting up the expeditions down in Miss.?

[gigantor]

That's awesome surveyor, hope you get the money shot.

Below some of the places I look for sign, but since I'm in Maryland, my expectations are pretty low... I explore mostly around dams, especially the downstream creeks.

Edited January 11, 2012 by gigantor

[Guest Biggie]

Furthermore, that thick swampland Shawn is speaking of is definitely thick. He and I had a heckuva time penetrating it. If there's a BF in the area, it is indeed ticked that folks are beginning to move in on its territory.

I would think that if it were angry with them being there that it would have done more than what it has though such as rock throwing, raging around breaking trees ect. So far no escalations like other people have experienced and I hope it stays that way where it will be a peaceful place to live.

What kind of wall did the bf hit, brick, vinyl? Were there no dents or dirty hand marks on it after the bf hit it?

[Guest]

We ain't got no rocks 'round here! It's all silty loam...pine tree country and swamp. Yep, it was vinyl siding. No tracks or prints. Maybe it threw something.