Oregonbigfoot.com file# 00011

REPORT OVERVIEW

Date: August 11, 2001
Clackamas county, OR
Nearest town: Molalla
Nearest road: Molalla River Rd
Conditions: Sunny
Time: Evening
Location:

REPORT DETAIL

Description of event: 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, if 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

Source: oregonbigfoot.com
record updated:2002-07-08 00:00:00