Oregonbigfoot.com Photo Research Journal
August 11, 2001
Clackamas County, OR
Molallla
River Vocalizations
Bob
and I drove up and attempted to locate the Molalla River
site. I mistakenly thought it was BEFORE the Horse Creek
turnoff, so we didn't find it. We instead found an area
which we thought was the location - a small road which was
closed off recently by a large dirt pile. There were people
everywhere, so we decided to drive up Horse Creek Rd. in
order to find a remote location to camp.
We
drove about 3-4 miles up Horse Creek Rd. and ended up on
a brushy, tertiary road. It was a beautiful setting: the
road was bordered by deciduous trees and our campsite was
park-like under huge old growth timber. Above us was a clear
cut full of thistles. We picked up two plastic grocery bags
worth of garbage (I was cursing the previous campers the
entire time) and made camp. After a dinner of boiled hotdogs
on the Coleman burner (fire season is in effect), we made
coffee and sat back in our chairs to drink it. It was about
8:15, still very light out. A loud but somewhat distant
ROAR came from east of camp from about 1/4 mile away. Within
a minute's time it was answered by another roar from west
of camp, right above us in the clear cut. The roars were
deep, gravelly and powerful; the first was slightly higher
pitched than the first, and slightly longer in duration.
Bob and I grabbed our coffee and bolted for the Jeep on
the second one. It was loud and CLOSE. We sat in the Jeep
with the windows down, drinking our coffee and waiting for
another sound. We heard nothing. No branches breaking, no
answering calls... nothing. I had the camcorder recording
by now but had already missed the action.
We
were concerned that it might be bears, and debated whether
to stay or go. We decided to stay - I thought it was unlikely
that a bear would bother us if it hadn't already, and if
it was a Big Guy, all the better! Nonetheless, I spent a
very sleepless night in the tent. During the night, we heard
a few branches breaking, but nothing very telling.
The
following morning, two bear hunters came by on quad runners.
We told them of the sounds we'd heard... one of the hunters
was of the opinion that we had somehow gotten between a
sow bear and her cub. I inquired if he'd heard anything
about Bigfoot sightings in the area. He chuckled, and said
that although he didn't disbelieve in Bigfoot, he hadn't
heard anything about Bigfoot in that area. We thanked them
and they left.
I
walked up in the clear-cut area that the second, deeper
roar came from and found no footprints, although the ground
was soft and the dirt was bare.
We
decided, after packing up camp, to drive farther down the
road towards Copper Creek. On a hunch, we pulled into a
camping area on the right, and lo and behold it was the
elusive "Molalla Site". I recognized the trees
from Steve and Teresa's photo. We made lunch and hung around
for a bit... all the campers had left and we had the spot
to ourselves. Bob pointed out the ridge across the valley;
it was our campspot! We were almost directly across the
river from this spot the night before.
We
continued on down the road, trying to find Copper Creek.
No luck. The map was not at all clear (NEVER buy a Pittmon's
map... they're black and white and handdrawn which makes
it impossible for even a veteran map reader like me to distinguish
between the roads and the rivers!) and the road that we
thought might be Copper Creek Rd. was gated off. We gave
up, though I was very intrigued by the gravel pit campspot
described in the Track Record where the campers had witnesses
small lights hovering above the trees and I desperately
wanted to locate that spot.
I've
discovered a more-than-coincidental frequency of GRAVEL
PITS in Bigfoot sighting reports, especially those in which
the creature spends a considerable amount of time vocalizing.
For instance, the Puyallup screamer of 1973, the Snohomish
screamer of 1978-79, the Lummi Indian Reservation screamer,
the white Yakima Sasquatch (I believe that was a gravel
pit) and another white BF in Texas, just off the top of
my head, all took place in gravel pits id I'm not mistaken.
Incidentally, I'm currently working on compiling gravel
pit/quarry reports, and would appreciate it if readers would
email me with related reports they come across at info@oregonbigfoot.com
Do
you have information which might be helpful to us? Please
drop
us a line!
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