Compelling Eyewitness Report

[Little Foot]

5 minutes ago, Huntster said:

 

Indeed. If it would have been me, the fact that he was outside the tent when he became aware of it would have been key.

 

One rainy, solo, canoe moose hunt, I got up one very dark night to take a leak. I felt my way out of the tent and stood in a very light, misty rain doing my business, just like the guy in this sasquatch report. Then, directly in front of me at what I thought was within @ 50 yards, came the most agonizing cry I'd ever heard in my life. Buddy, I'm telling you, it stopped the flow of my business like the slam of a camlock valve. I stood there like a statue for about a minute or so listening for whatever came next, afraid to make the slightest sound myself.

 

Nothing.

 

Eventually the flow returned, and I finished my business. After a few more moments, I just figured that whatever it was, if it wanted me, there wasn't much I could do about it without my gun in my hand, so I felt my way back into the tent, got the 44 in my hand, and crawled back in my bag. It took a while to get back to sleep, but I did.

 

I heard it again @ 10 am the next day, and it sounded like it came from the other side of the lake where I hunt with a moose call. After a while, I realized what it was; a yearling moose being run off by its mother, who was ready to mate, and it was crying. 

 

I've always been afraid of hearing a bear outside my tent..........but I've never had a close encounter with one when I've been all zipped up.

 

 

 

Wow!  Heck of a story.  Too bad it turned out to be a moose..., huh?

 

My wife, 2 young daughters, and I were staying a cabin a long ways from civilization in the mountains of SE Oklahoma a few years ago.  My wife, sister-in-law, and daughters walked to the cabin where you rent late in the evening to get a soda out of the machine (about 200 feet or so away).  It was so dark you couldn't see your hand in front of your face if you weren't directly in the light.  All of a sudden I hear my daughters screaming (I was in the cabin), ran outside with my pistol in my hand.  They were on the walking path to the side door of the cabin about 50 or 60 feet away at this point.  They said they heard something.  I stood out there for a minute or so reassuring them everything was alright, when I heard what they heard.  I don't have any idea how to describe the sound, but I could feel it in your chest, and I guestimated that the sound was at least 150 feet away.  Needless to say, I shrugged it off in front of my family, but I laid on the couch all night awake with a pistol in my hand.  It was eery to say the least because I felt like I was being watched all night.  There was a sliding glass door to the deck that faced a creek and no curtain, shades or anything.  It was a very steep incline to the creek below.  I still can't say for a fact what made the sound, but my daughters insist the sound they heard sounded like the ones from the videos I've watched on bigfoot, and I have to agree.  We went up there for labor day weekend to 4-wheel the hundreds of miles of trails.  Many times during those rides I felt like I was being watched, the hair standing on end feeling you get.  We still never saw anything.

[Madison5716]

Scariest night I ever had was in Missouri, outside Mansfield. My son and I were traveling from Colorado to Maine, and we wanted to see the Laura Ingalls Wilder museum and their home. We arrived 10 minutes before closing unfortunately. I was determined to see it, so we found a campground, but it was late March and closed for the season. O called the number on the info board and they let us dry camp ( no water or bathroom). We set up camp and went to bed, intending to see the museum/house in the morning.

 

After a couple of hours, something woke us up. Something canine, maybe, stalked around the tent until dawn, growling. It was terrifying. For reasons I'm choosing not to share, my gun was in the car and my phone was dead. I had mace, a hammer and a tent for protection. 

 

Sometimes you just don't know what's out there.

[MIB]

Ok, so the scariest night of MY life ... well, two contenders.

 

The second, chronologically, was a night when at least 3 BFs entered our camp 5+ miles back into a federal wilderness.   I awoke thinking I was dying.   Could not breath.   Facial muscles spasming.    Pressure waves bouncing around inside my eye sockets.   Sound that I thought was me hyperventilating.    I've told it before so I'll save the details.    I managed to mouth-breath but it was forced / labored, then calmed a little.   Once I worked out that it wasn't me hyperventilating and heard the wood knocks, which probably took about 15 minutes, I knew what was going on and figured I'd be ok, it was just going to suck getting there, but that first bit awakening thinking I was dying was terrifying.

 

The first was in the early to mid 80s.   I did a solo backpack trip on a seldom used trail along a ridge.   No water.   At the end, I dropped down an old two-track to a mining claim looking for another trail dropping into the canyon .. at the canyon mouth is a road, more trails, a couple houses, and a fishing lodge.   I got to the mining claim, end of the road coming down from above with either a mile and a half of creek splashing, jumping off small waterfalls, etc, or hopefully I'd find the trail.   Set up camp in the road across the creek from the miners' shack ... 50-75 yards away.   They'd just forded the creek with their jeep, no bridge, small creek.    Ate dinner, climbed into my bag while the sun was still hitting the ridge high above me even though I was down in shadow.    I was still stretching / squirming to get comfortable when I heard rocks rattle across the creek.    I turned to look, saw nothing, heard more rattle a bit farther over, turned more, saw nothing, ... repeat a few times.   The source of noise was circling me, dropped into the creek bed downstream from the crossing where it was below the edge of the road out of my sight.   I heard a couple rocks roll over and splash in the creek, then something climbing.    I flipped over so I could see better ... wasn't so twisted up.  

 

As I regained view of the spot, all I saw was the back of something leave the road into the brush .. missed getting a good view.   But what I saw was unnerving.    Hair was short, like a bulldog.   It was "brown" .. more of a butterscotch color than a dusty tan.   Shape was all wrong ... from the ribs back, which is all I saw, it looked like you might imagine a ice age megafauna version of a hyena to look.    Stub tail .. 8 inches to a foot long, kind of clubby / stiff seeming.   The belly did not sag like a cat belly.  

 

I loaded my stuff back in my backpack .. crammed, not organized.  Shoved my feet in my boots ... didn't tie them.   I hauled a$$ across the creek and broke into the miner's shack.  Suddenly "warning - hazardous chemicals" seemed to be the least of my worries.   I closed the door, slid everything loose in the shack against the door.    The cabin had 3 rooms, not fully separate.   One seemed to be a bedroom.   There was a 2x4 wood frame roughly bed-shaped with a thick rubber sheet ... like inner tube material ... nailed over it.   Sitting at the "head" of the bed with my back against the wall, I had a clear view of the outside door.   That back wall was on the edge of a drop-off into the creek so it didn't seem like anything could come through the wall from behind.   I spent the night there sitting / leaning with my pistol and flashlight on my lap.     I heard something go around the cabin several times during the night ... gravel crunching.    As soon as there was enough light, I repacked my pack properly, laced up my boots, and hauled butt down the creek bed, didn't bother looking for the  trail (now I know it isn't there anyway, it's in the next fork to the west), and tore out of there jumping off waterfalls and stuff to get to the lower end of the canyon.

 

I have no idea what I saw that night but I can tell you one thing ... I'm not camping in that canyon again.   If I go through at all I'm timing things so I'm sleeping well away from it and passing through mid day.

 

MIB

[NatFoot]

So this was not a BF you're talking about but something even bigger and walking on four legs with a tail?

[norseman]

8 hours ago, MIB said:

Ok, so the scariest night of MY life ... well, two contenders.

 

The second, chronologically, was a night when at least 3 BFs entered our camp 5+ miles back into a federal wilderness.   I awoke thinking I was dying.   Could not breath.   Facial muscles spasming.    Pressure waves bouncing around inside my eye sockets.   Sound that I thought was me hyperventilating.    I've told it before so I'll save the details.    I managed to mouth-breath but it was forced / labored, then calmed a little.   Once I worked out that it wasn't me hyperventilating and heard the wood knocks, which probably took about 15 minutes, I knew what was going on and figured I'd be ok, it was just going to suck getting there, but that first bit awakening thinking I was dying was terrifying.

 

The first was in the early to mid 80s.   I did a solo backpack trip on a seldom used trail along a ridge.   No water.   At the end, I dropped down an old two-track to a mining claim looking for another trail dropping into the canyon .. at the canyon mouth is a road, more trails, a couple houses, and a fishing lodge.   I got to the mining claim, end of the road coming down from above with either a mile and a half of creek splashing, jumping off small waterfalls, etc, or hopefully I'd find the trail.   Set up camp in the road across the creek from the miners' shack ... 50-75 yards away.   They'd just forded the creek with their jeep, no bridge, small creek.    Ate dinner, climbed into my bag while the sun was still hitting the ridge high above me even though I was down in shadow.    I was still stretching / squirming to get comfortable when I heard rocks rattle across the creek.    I turned to look, saw nothing, heard more rattle a bit farther over, turned more, saw nothing, ... repeat a few times.   The source of noise was circling me, dropped into the creek bed downstream from the crossing where it was below the edge of the road out of my sight.   I heard a couple rocks roll over and splash in the creek, then something climbing.    I flipped over so I could see better ... wasn't so twisted up.  

 

As I regained view of the spot, all I saw was the back of something leave the road into the brush .. missed getting a good view.   But what I saw was unnerving.    Hair was short, like a bulldog.   It was "brown" .. more of a butterscotch color than a dusty tan.   Shape was all wrong ... from the ribs back, which is all I saw, it looked like you might imagine a ice age megafauna version of a hyena to look.    Stub tail .. 8 inches to a foot long, kind of clubby / stiff seeming.   The belly did not sag like a cat belly.  

 

I loaded my stuff back in my backpack .. crammed, not organized.  Shoved my feet in my boots ... didn't tie them.   I hauled a$$ across the creek and broke into the miner's shack.  Suddenly "warning - hazardous chemicals" seemed to be the least of my worries.   I closed the door, slid everything loose in the shack against the door.    The cabin had 3 rooms, not fully separate.   One seemed to be a bedroom.   There was a 2x4 wood frame roughly bed-shaped with a thick rubber sheet ... like inner tube material ... nailed over it.   Sitting at the "head" of the bed with my back against the wall, I had a clear view of the outside door.   That back wall was on the edge of a drop-off into the creek so it didn't seem like anything could come through the wall from behind.   I spent the night there sitting / leaning with my pistol and flashlight on my lap.     I heard something go around the cabin several times during the night ... gravel crunching.    As soon as there was enough light, I repacked my pack properly, laced up my boots, and hauled butt down the creek bed, didn't bother looking for the  trail (now I know it isn't there anyway, it's in the next fork to the west), and tore out of there jumping off waterfalls and stuff to get to the lower end of the canyon.

 

I have no idea what I saw that night but I can tell you one thing ... I'm not camping in that canyon again.   If I go through at all I'm timing things so I'm sleeping well away from it and passing through mid day.

 

MIB

 

 

 

[Incorrigible1]

Smilodon!

 

We're only 8000 years too late. Doubt one would strangle a sabre-tooth.

[MIB]

4 hours ago, NatFoot said:

So this was not a BF you're talking about but something even bigger and walking on four legs with a tail?

 

Not bigfoot, but no, not bigger.   Ballpark guess would be a little north of 300 pounds, fairly certain less than 500, but it's hard to be very sure since I never saw anything ahead of about the 2nd rib.     My sense was it tapered front to back with the shoulders higher than the butt and the bottom of the chest a little lower than the bottom of the belly, so weight-forward.   Hyena-like.   Length of the body and shape of what was out of sight could throw my guess off.  

 

It wasn't something I'd want to tackle bare-handed.   Not something I'd want to confront at all in the dark.    Daylight, some open space, and "fully adequate" firearms.   Probably the first time I wasn't satisfied my mighty .357 was going to be adequate for the job.  

[NatFoot]

4 minutes ago, MIB said:

 

Not bigfoot, but no, not bigger.   Ballpark guess would be a little north of 300 pounds, fairly certain less than 500, but it's hard to be very sure since I never saw anything ahead of about the 2nd rib.     My sense was it tapered front to back with the shoulders higher than the butt and the bottom of the chest a little lower than the bottom of the belly, so weight-forward.   Hyena-like.   Length of the body and shape of what was out of sight could throw my guess off.  

 

It wasn't something I'd want to tackle bare-handed.   Not something I'd want to confront at all in the dark.    Daylight, some open space, and "fully adequate" firearms.   Probably the first time I wasn't satisfied my mighty .357 was going to be adequate for the job.  

 

So what is your hypothesis on what it was? Hard to believe there's another cryptid out there along with Sas.

 

It's these types of things that are so compelling. You saw something and you know it was something that did not fit what is supposed to be out there.

[MIB]

11 minutes ago, NatFoot said:

So what is your hypothesis on what it was?

 

I don't have any that I have any faith in.    Sure, I have ideas about what it looked like, but it's a big leap from saying what it resembled to suggesting that's what it actually was, especially with the inseparable implications.   I'm going to take the safe course and simply say "I don't know."  

 

MIB

[Huntster]

45 minutes ago, MIB said:

........Probably the first time I wasn't satisfied my mighty .357 was going to be adequate for the job.  

 

LOL.......that happens every time one is confronted with the possibility of using a handgun in self-defense, and most especially with wild animals.

[wiiawiwb]

MIB...fascinating story of that encounter.  A can understand a sense of unease, or even foreboding, when you can't easily explain what you just encountered in the woods.  Is/was your instinct that it more canine, big cat, or sasquatch?

 

No doubt hikers or hunters, who never believed in a sasquatch as a living creature, and encounter a large, upright, bipedal creature nearby would have a sense of intense anxiety. They know what they just saw shouldn't exist but their senses, which they've always trusted,  just confirmed that it does. And it's nearby and they're miles from their car. Uh oh.

[Little Foot]

I don't know where you were, MIB, but by the description that sounds like some of the wild hogs we see around these parts.  There are many varieties of hogs in this area, some look like pictures of the razorback you see in Arkansas, some are much bigger with a mix, and some are a few generations away from the domesticated ones that escaped long ago.  They can be in excess of 800 pounds, but most of the fully grown ones are in the 200 to 300 range. 

[MIB]

10 hours ago, Huntster said:

LOL.......that happens every time one is confronted with the possibility of using a handgun in self-defense, and most especially with wild animals.

 

That's why I switched to a .44 as soon a I was old enough to legally buy one.   I've really only been in one situation (with a couple phases ) where I doubted its adequacy ... that's because WHATEVER was out there, it not from the set of known animals.   After a bit of pondering I swapped one of my .44s for a .454 which I carry in that particular chunk of woods.   I do not know if it is enough, but I'm fairly sure it's a step in the right direction.

 

4 hours ago, wiiawiwb said:

Is/was your instinct that it more canine, big cat, or sasquatch?

 

Initially I'd have said big cat.    Today, "none of the above."

 

MIB

 

[NatFoot]

So...alien?

[Little Foot]

4 hours ago, MIB said:

 

That's why I switched to a .44 as soon a I was old enough to legally buy one.   I've really only been in one situation (with a couple phases ) where I doubted its adequacy ... that's because WHATEVER was out there, it not from the set of known animals.   After a bit of pondering I swapped one of my .44s for a .454 which I carry in that particular chunk of woods.   I do not know if it is enough, but I'm fairly sure it's a step in the right direction.

 

 

Initially I'd have said big cat.    Today, "none of the above."

 

MIB

 

 

Hog?  Maybe?  Where was this?