Oregonbigfoot.com Photo Research Journal
July 7, 2000
Josephine County, OR

Oregon Caves Follow-Up

Bob and I went to follow up on the Dr. Johnson Oregon Caves Sighting report of 07/02/00. We camped the first night, uneventfully, on NFD019 off Grayback Creek Rd. The second night, we moved camp up the mountain and behind the Caves off 070. Beautiful, remote campsite!

During the night we saw what appeared to be one set of eyes higher in the trees than "Bucky", the male deer who insisted upon coming within arm's reach all night and the following morning. In the middle of the night we heard one loud "THUMP" followed up a rolling/crashing through the brush; it sounded as if someone had thrown a large rock that had then rolled through the underbrush. We also had an Osprey flying through camp the following morning.

On Sunday morning we went to the Caves and hiked the first trail up from the caves. We found several impressions above the acutal foottrail which measured 14"X5". Brad smelled "something dead" further back on the trail so I followed him back to the area and I smelled it as well, but we found nothing to explain it. At Big Tree Trail Bob and I continued our hike up the trail 1.5 miles to the sighting location. The area was exremely dark and was near a small stream. We heard the same "whoa, whoa, whoa" sound described by Matthew Johnson (Bob and I have heard that once before, near Fall Creek Reservoir, while following up on a sound/stalking report). It was NOT the sound of a bullfrog, or that of a grouse. We hiked the remainder of the trail, felt a bit "spooked", and heard the same sound on the way back. I could not seem to pinpoint the sound, though I did carefully go off the trail a bit and try to locate it. I found some large impressions, and the ranger had told us that they had found a "track", but wouldn't tell us where since he was worried about damage to the vegetation.

However, what many inexperienced or over-enthusiastic searchers refer to as "tracks" are often indistinct impressions without toe marks and, as such, cannot legitimately be categorized as Bigfoot tracks. What we found at Oregon Caves were impressions, and were inconclusive. The sound we heard was interesting, and we are still searching for an everyday explanation for it.

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