Vocalization heard near Thunder Mt

Oregonbigfoot.com file# 04841

REPORT OVERVIEW

Date: September 13, 2009
Clackamas county, OR
Nearest town:
Molalla
Nearest road:
Joyce Lake Road
Conditions:
clear and warm
Time:
early morning
Location:
Campground at Skookum Lake near Thunder Mountain.

REPORT DETAIL

Description of event: Myself and five geocaching friends hiked to Skookum Lake to camp overnight. We hiked in from the Baty Butte trail where it begins near Lost Lake Meadow. We were all a bit spooked as I had told them about the two recorded encounters with bigfoot at the lake. We all stuck pretty close when it got dark as all we had was star-light. A married couple had their two dogs with them. The dogs were a little restless most of the night. At one point I believed that one of the dogs had ran off and was barking and the other was barking at him. It turns out that the two dogs, while avid hiking companions, are not used to camping and were cowering in their tent all night and were barking at whatever they heard in the night. The faraway noises sounded like barks and were thought to be coyotes or another animal of some kind, they would appear to come from the west end of the lake and at times from the road to the east of the campground. At some point in the night the front of a storm front moved through, a branch fell out of a dead tree and crashed near our camp and woke most of us up. We compared notes in the morning and passed it off as the wind. I wasn't sleeping very well as I had a strange feeling that something was out and about. Around three or four in the morning I heard a very loud call that sounded like it came from the other side of the lake. Since it sounded very much like a bird I did not give it very much thought... except that I was puzzled as to what kind of bird would be in that area making such a loud call in the middle of the night. The call sounded clear and bell like, similar when it started to the call of the local turkey vulture. It lasted about four seconds and then trailed off to a gurgling at the end. It carried quite well, had good echo, and I estimated it to be 1-200 yards away. Although it is hard to tell as sound carries quite a ways. Earlier in the day my nighbor had walked to the top of Thunder Mountain and yelled as loud as he could and we all faintly heard him even though he was a half a mile away and almost 1000 feet higher in elevation. Nobody else had heard the call in the middle of the night. I didn't really give the noises in the night or the strange call much thought after that... Until last week I was reading "BIGFOOT! The True Story Of Apes In America" by Loren Coleman. I got to page twenty-one and read a description of the call of bigfoot by Rick Noll "sounded sort of like a high-pitch scream by a woman, trailing off to a gurgle." At that point I had the same feeling that kept me awake that night in September and believed that I had heard bigfoot. We will be going back next September. I plan on making a mud trap for prints and bringing along my heavy wildlife motion sensor camera. Anyone want to go?

Source: oregonbigfoot.com
record updated:2009-12-06 22:59:39