Bigfoot Harvesting Fruits, Berries & Vegetables.

[dlaw]

Tal,

A belated Happy Birthday.  On the Tenn portion of Land Between the Lakes, there is a holler called wildcat holler.  A friend and I were camping there one night during a deer hunt, many years ago 
We were sleeping in the back of a pickup with a topper on it.  During the night, after the fire died down, we heard something walking around the truck.  We were a couple of miles off the main road and no one else was around.  The next evening, after dark, as my friend was making his way back to camp from hunting, something followed him out of the woods.  And we heard the "wildcats" "squalling" during both nights that we camped there.  

Have hunted LBL many times since, but have never camped in Wildcat Holler again. 

[Branco]

Did you see or hear anything unusual? Whether you did or not, I know you enjoyed it! Thanks for the birthday wishes; I appreciate them.

[JKH]

On 9/23/2016 at 3:49 PM, Branco said:

The fact is that when folks hear a long, loud scream that is human-like in all respects from the deep woods at night, and they can't really identify it, they will likely attribute to a some known animals they know exists. "Panthers" no doubt have got a lot of bum raps.

 

That's what I thought...I have a family member who is sceptical. He spent much time backpacking in the mountains and maintains he's never seen or heard anything unusual. Well, there was that time a big cat (cougar?) sat in a tree nearby screaming at them, but isn't that what cats hunting at night do? LOL. Honestly, I don't even know, but it sounds very odd to me.

[NCBFr]

Loud is a pretty relative terms.  My bet is that most of the loud, long woman-like screams is from foxes.  It is amazing the sounds that can come out of those little critters.  However, they cannot match a BF for shear volume.  I heard a female banshee like scream last winter that was so loud that its echo was loud enough off the opposite shoreline I initially thought it was a second scream.  No known animal can make a sound as loud as that scream.

 

BTW, my interest in BFs was really started when I heard an "Ohio howl" late one afternoon when riding my bike up a remote  hill.  It was loud and long, but far enough away it was not threatening, and I can clearly remember working through every known animal in NJ trying to figure out the match without success.  It was not until later that I found the sounds on the internet that I made the match to BF.

[MIB]

We never had any issue with 'em stealing our produce that I know of.   We had minor issues with raccoons, skunks, once a bear, twice deer, and even once a possum in the garden but they left clear tracks.  We had some issues with fruit but again, deer, bear, and even elk were pretty common on the lawn around the fruit trees.   We didn't have any issue with disappearance of "wet cob" horse feed or meat from the freezer as are sometimes reported.  

 

I recall one thing my father told us was a cougar scream.   Might have been.   FWIW, their scream is a mating call, not a hunting call.   Despite it being 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning, we all heard it.   (Maybe there was an earlier one that woke us up?)   He was very insistent we not go outside to check on the woman screaming.    While the likeness was there, it was merely a likeness, I don't think any of us thought it was a woman in distress.   

 

Then again, I've never heard any of the classing bigfoot yells either.   I've heard low whoops as "a group of somethings" moved through the woods nearby and within that was at least one non-whoop, multi-syllable sound.   I've heard other yells and responses that were no language I know, but they were language, not merely screams, roars, or howls.  

 

Puzzles.   That's all I've got .. puzzles I'm not mentally wired to rationalize away.   I'm after real answers, not comfortable dismissal via sweeping questions under the carpet.

 

MIB

[ShadowBorn]

We did get a witness on camera where they would come hunting in the Huron National Forest every year. They would have apples out side there camp site where they would find them missing. The odd thing with this is that the witness reported that what ever ate the apple's would defecate in their coffee filters. Now that is an odd incident for these creatures that I heard but after my first encounter in that area I believed it.

 

Do they over eat at times to the point that they have to empty their stomachs by defecating and eat more? How fast do their bodies absorbs what they eat ? I have this interview on tape but cannot show it with out his permission and I have only seen him once by accident . He had a lot more information that he gave us about these creatures and how they would visit their camp site. Like I have said before how can deer take down a whole bait pile of 10lbs of corn on the stalk in a single night. That too has me amazed as well.  I would say with out a doubt that they are opportunist when given the chance. 

[Branco]

Thanks dlaw. That LBL area has produced some hair-raising reports ever since the dam were built. Have never camped there, but have always wanted to.

Based on some reports from LBL, there are apparently some ill tempered and aggressive boogers that live there.

 

A lot of folks, including myself, have had BF follow them back to camp late in the afternoon. Some of the BF have stayed around the camp for hours after dark messing with and pestering the campers. At times, the animals were aggressive enough that folks abandoned their camps and came back the next day to gather their gear and leave the area.

 

I've found three fully equipped tent camps in the Ouachita Mountains over the years that were totally abandoned in three hard to reach locations. All had been abandoned months before I found them. In the most the memorable case, right dab in the center of the foraging area of a group of of BF I had been messing with for nearly three years, the tent had been lifted straight up from the center of the top such a distance that it tore the walls loose from the floor for a foot or more at each corner. It was a small, two person tent and it was apparent that the weight of the two people - both males from the clothing left at the site - and their ice box kept the floor from being totally separated from the wall. The tent, two Coleman lanterns, cooking stuff, canned goods, sleeping bags, a good ice box inside the tent with water, rotted packaged meat, a few soft drinks, and three cans of beer, etc were all left for good.

 

I and some of my hunting Bud's tried unsuccessfully for months to find out who those two campers were. I suppose they didn't tell many people about why they left all their stuff in the boonies, but I sure wanted to talk to them.

Regards my friend.

[Lake County Bigfooot]

Thanks for confirming my suspicions on my recording above, I have another question though. Living on this cat tail marsh, I am trying to figure out a way to catch a print. So far I am bust for my efforts. It seems like the first use by them is always in late June, around the time the cat tails are above 6 feet tall. Also around that time the marsh works like a sponge and sucks all the moisture out of the surrounding area, so surrounding soils are very firm and not conducive to leaving prints. I might have found a toe print between all the cattail litter earlier this year, that is it. The cattail litter might be my biggest problem, a larger flat foot may depress it briefly but it will spring back up. I know they come in here from time to time, it should be possible to prove that, it is driving me nuts....I sure would like to see a print....the surrounding points of access are limited so maybe that is my best bet. I think they come from marshy areas of the lake above me, and secluded wooded islands in the middle of that marshy area. One of those islands is full of hack berry bushes, I want to pay it a visit, but it takes a concerted effort and a canoe, which I have. Any hints toward looking for their point of access? They are so stealthy, it begs the question if they stick around here even during the daylight hours. Any suggestions would be very welcome when it comes to finding evidence and prints.

[hiflier]

Saw this and thought I'd wade in (pun intended). Working in a crawl space one time I noticed a large burrow under the house. A friend of mie suggested sprinkling baking flour around to see if the burrow was active. The reasoning being an animal would leave prints, even light ones, in the flour. I guess the same could be done with wood ashes? both are natural so would be fine for the environment.

[TritonTr196]

On 9/26/2016 at 1:39 PM, Branco said:

Thanks dlaw. That LBL area has produced some hair-raising reports ever since the dam were built. Have never camped there, but have always wanted to.

Based on some reports from LBL, there are apparently some ill tempered and aggressive boogers that live there.

 

 I can state this as fact.. Couple mean ones in there for sure. Some places you don't want to go even in a group...

[scottv]

Before trail cameras, tracking stations were popular for wildlife detection. Basically some type of bait in conjunction with some type of smoothed substrate (sand, fine dirt, special paper or plate for small mammals). With the advent of trail cameras I have not heard much about people using tracking stations anymore, but might be worth a try.

[Branco]

LCB: I have a small hand held, battery powered UV light that I have used on old roads and trails to see what was using them, but you are apparently wanting to cover much more ground than that. Portable UV lights are now much cheaper than when mine was bought and hunters use them to follow animal blood trails after dark. Police have used them for years. As Hiflier mentioned flour would show tracks, but rain or dew would mess it up outside.

 

If you care to check limited areas for track, you might try this option. Get a UV light, a "professional" (that's the way they are labeled" hand held spray bottle, fill it with canola oil and spray the area you want to monitor with it. Check the area later - several days or more - at night with the UV light. The oil is fluorescent and you will be able to see the outline of animals' feet that walked over it. The oil will adhere to the feet of soft soled animals and the fluorescent material can be seen past the treated area.

 

There are other dry or liquid materials you could use that fluoresce - gypsum, talc, calcite or laundry detergent - but rain would wash if off sooner that it would the oil.

 

Disclaimer: Personal use of this procedure has so far confirmed what I knew before hand; there are bear, coyotes, cougar, raccoon, deer hogs and people who walked the trails and old roads.  Your results might vary.   

Edited September 28, 2016 by Branco

[Lake County Bigfooot]

Thanks for the tip, I am going to try that, seems like a way to possibly beat them at their own game, still a bit of guess work as to whether they will walk on the deer trails or adjacent to them. Of course in a Cat tail marsh, the cat tail litter covers the ground, but I might be able to use the oil and fluorescent light on the adjacent soils that form the perimeter, particularly in the deer blind of sorts I think it uses. I have heard about flour or sand before, but seems like it would notice that pretty quick and avoid it, I could be wrong. Right now anything is worth a shot. There is a small window of time when the cat tail marsh dies off and the sponge effect reverses and the surrounding soils re hydrate, that might also be my best chance of finding prints, although I somehow think they know where to avoid. If I could determine how they enter the marsh that might help, the marsh is completely circled by roads, so they have to cross a road somewhere to enter. My house sits right across from an adjacent marsh that borders the lake, that seems to be my best guess on how they get here. I think I might have to spend a whole lot of time examining that area for prints. Seems to me that in those travels it would be hard not to leave any evidence.

[Branco]

On 9/27/2016 at 3:25 PM, TritonTr196 said:

 

 I can state this as fact.. Couple mean ones in there for sure. Some places you don't want to go even in a group...

Triton: Have been wanting to ask your opinion about "Jan's" story from back in the early 80's concerning the brutal killings of a family of campers by some animal(s). Strange story for sure. (If you had rather not discuss it on the thread, I would appreciate it if you would send me a PM. Will keep you opinion confidential.) The story has bugged me for years. Never had a chance to be in the area and snoop around.

Regards

[Yuchi1]

^^^ Read about that as well ~10 years ago...seems the 5YO girl's body was found up in a tree several feet off the ground.