Jump to content

Gifford Pinchot Encounter April 21, 2015


SWWASAS

Recommended Posts

BFF Patron

Been a long time since having BF contact but that changed yesterday.    Was having a bit of PTSD yesterday when I got home.    Let me do a preliminary report then write it up after I am able to review the digital audio tapes.

 

1.    Happened on the back side of a named mountain in the Gifford Pinchot.   Remote area I had not gotten way back in before.    Got interested,  did some prep work with Goggle Earth and a USGS map and figured out a way to get in.   When I got there, and hiked in on a old ditched off  logging road that had not been used in decades that took me towards the back side of the mountain.     Initially impressed with the area.   Running water, lots of recent elk and deer tracks, a very fresh bear track.   The game trails look like freeways there compared with most areas.  

 

2.    When I got near the mountain,  I heard some thumping, indicating something heavy moving  in the trees towards the mountain.   Stood there watching and listening and then got a blast of infrasound.    Was not very close so I just stood there waiting for something else to happen.    It started raining, did not want to get my electronic gear wet so I decided to back out and got zapped again from another that was between me and the way out.   I had to move towards it because the logging road made an L.     It could not have been the first one because of the short time between the first and second zap.    It must have come from someplace else and got in behind me.   I felt trapped and really wanted to get out.    Nothing happened on the way back to the truck, but it was raining so put my pack with the running digital recorder in the truck and was standing around with both truck doors open, hoping to get more audio when all hell broke loose near my truck.     Best described as an ape aggressive display tantrum.     (Norseman, I don't know how intelligent they are but they are more ape than man).   

 

3.   I have never experienced this kind of aggressive behavior before without apparent reason.    I was alone and they wanted me the hell off their mountain.     I don't plan to ever go back alone and when I do, I am going to carry a bigger side arm.       The zapping made my abdomen hurt badly all night so I could not sleep.   

 

4.   I have not been through the recording yet, but if the recorder captured what happened near the truck,  I think it will be a significant audio.    There is also a chance that I might have gotten something in a photograph but that is not likely.    I will let you know what I have on audio.    More later.  

Edited by SWWASASQUATCHPROJECT
  • Upvote 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Whoa Nelly.  

 

And all because you know what those squiggly little lines on a map are good for.  Just one more skill to be conversant on in this discipline I suppose. Nice work.

 

Glad you made it back to tell us Randy.  So what was did the tantrum feel/look/sound like to you?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Admin

That's great! glad your work is paying off.

Although I don't believe the zapping, nothing to do with you, I just can't accept it as a natural phenomena from a primate. Guess it's one of those things I'd have to experience to believe.

 

3.   I have never experienced this kind of aggressive behavior before without apparent reason.    I was alone and they wanted me the hell off their mountain.     I don't plan to ever go back alone and when I do, I am going to carry a bigger side arm.

A 44 Magnum minimum.

 

4. I have not been through the recording yet, but if the recorder captured what happened near the truck,  I think it will be a significant audio.    There is also a chance that I might have gotten something in a photograph but that is not likely.    I will let you know what I have on audio.    More later.

Can't wait to hear the audio!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Admin

yeah, I can see an elephant or a croc doing it, but a monkey?  nah...

Edited by gigantor
Link to comment
Share on other sites

BFF Patron

Just went through the audio.      Not nearly as scary as was there in person.     Have not found the infra yet.    It is done looking at the graphics trace and takes a long time so have not found it yet.    Did not help that it was raining so there is rain noise in the recording masking everything.   And my pack was particularly noisy yesterday.        Not sure if I did get zapped at this point.    I am sure it is the same mechanism, something to do with the chest cavity but my gut feeling at the time was that the first BF that spotted me  made a warning others in the area I was there.     That low drumming sound has to carry a long way.           I did get the audio from my truck.     It is classic ape chuffing.    My recorder was in my truck with the doors open so not as loud as I remember it.    But very ape like in nature.     Would have to have been raining.   If the recorder was outside, then would be as loud as I experienced.   It sounds like a steam train going up a steep grade except that it changes pitch up and down.      I need carefully take a clip out of the orginal long file so will take a while to do so I don't loose the original.    The file is my whole hike so is very long.     I cannot remember exactly how I did it the last time.    Used different software than I use to analyze.    I think I may have used video editing software.  

 

Going to look at my photographs next.    Keep thinking of stuff I should have done at the time.   Hard to act rationally when you are scared.    I should have walked towards the chuffer and caught sight of it but was afraid of what might happen, and I knew there was another that came up behind me before.    I just did not want to leave the safety of my truck at that point.    I was so happy when it started.   

Edited by SWWASASQUATCHPROJECT
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Don't get mad but I have to ask, the drumming sound you heard wasn't a grouse was it?

Ya, Grouse don't chuff.....

Edited by norseman
Link to comment
Share on other sites

SWWSP, thanks for sharing your experience. I know from personal experience that when an animal shows aggression towards you it can be very unsettling. Do I stand my ground or hightail it out of there!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

BFF Patron

The attached link is the BF chuffing.      I have just gotten back to my truck, open the passenger door,  put my pack with recorder on top, walk around to the other side, mess a bit then come back to the passenger side when you hear the chuffing.   Turn up the volume,  the chuffing is faint, because the recorder is inside the truck and the  BF is some distance away.    Chuffing starts just after the 1:20 mark.   Does not last very long.     Recommend earphones.     It is a .wav file.     Sounds like ape to me.    Have heard ruffled grouse before.    Not what I heard earlier that day, similar but different.  

 

 

 

https://soundcloud.com/user288607773/bigfootchuffing


Much as I would like the pictures I took towards the sound to show something, they don't show anything I would want to say is a BF.    Just typical dark stuff that could be a stump or anything.  

Edited by SWWASASQUATCHPROJECT
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Admin

SWWASP,

 

I use Audacity (free / open source) and it works great.

 

You should apply a low pass filter of 150 Hz to find any infrasound. If you want to post the file, I'll help.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Admin

How far away was it when it made it's display?

 

I ask because when we got followed, the thing wouldn't let itself be seen, it always stayed just inside the brush so that we couldn't spot it. In our case, 30 yards or so at the closest.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

SSR Team

SWWA, please describe this zapping stuff in a bit more detail if you'd be so kind ?

How long did it last, how exactly did you feel when whatever it was was happening ?

Stuff like that if you don't mind.

I've said before, I've met people who have described this sort of stuff, in WA too, and they weren't joking around.

What happened really happened IMO, multiple witnesses too.

Am I right in saying Tigers are the only feline to use infrasound by the way ?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
×
×
  • Create New...