Every year I return at least twice to the area where the Colorado Howl recordings were obtained the summer of 2009. The site is on a remote dead-end road, being 25 miles from the nearest pavement. I have spent many days there all alone enjoying the quietude.
I arrived on Saturday, the 21st of July 2012. Dennis and Shannon Pfohl, of The Colorado Bigfoot Research Group pulled into camp on Monday morning and Marc Swanson arrived on the next Thursday evening and spent the weekend with the group.
This place is a little bit different than I have ever been before. Vocals can be heard anytime during the day or night and as a result we try to lay low in the morning and not move around much before 08:30 a.m.
On Monday afternoon at 2:30 p.m., I heard coming from the south-east at about 200 yards in the wood-line, a massive single wood knock. It sounded like a major leaguer hitting a home run ball out of the ballpark. This was not a trip that we would hear any loud vocals.
Tuesday morning at 5:00 a.m. Shannon heard what she described as someone yelling “heh” directly south of us. She thought at the time it was only me out early in the morning. It was not.
[Photo by Marc Swanson]
Left to right – Stan Courtney – Marc Swanson – Shannon and Dennis Pfohl
Wednesday morning around 1:00 a.m. we had a massive thunderstorm and high winds. I was sleeping in the back of my pickup under the truck-topper. As the rain stopped I felt as if the truck was shoved very hard by something at the front . Twenty seconds later the truck was shoved strongly a second time. I couldn’t see or hear anything.
Around 5:00 a.m. Shannon heard a very large single wood knock coming from due south. At 9:35 a.m. I was sitting in a lawn chair by the meadow and heard another large wood knock coming 200 yards due west.
In the evening after dark, maybe 9:30 p.m., Shannon and Dennis, using a thermal imager, watched a cow elk in the meadow, seemingly upset about something (maybe our presence).
Click here to listen to this sound clip of the elk: Elk in the meadow.
Thursday morning at 8 a.m. Shannon and Dennis both felt and heard their 26 ft. trailer being smacked by something near the corner. There first response was wondering if I had snuck over and was teasing them. I was not up and about at the time.
It was a little unsettling to all of us to think that perhaps something had been in our camp during the daytime.
At 4:30 p.m. we did hear one distant howl as a response to one of our calls.
[Photo by Marc Swanson]
Friday evening we heard our first close-in coyotes vocalizing in a stand of trees about 200 yards SW of the camp. We were all hoping that the Colorado Howler would join the chorus, but it was not to be.
Click here to listen to this sound clip of the coyotes: Coyotes near the meadow.
Saturday morning, between 8:15 and 8:30 a.m. Marc, who was sleeping in his tent, was awakened by a very large rock that was dropped or thrown and landed several feet from his tent.
Saturday afternoon we walked about 75 yards into the woods behind our camp to collect firewood. Marc and I then returned to camp. Twenty minutes later Shannon and Dennis came back to camp. Dennis related that while walking a little further into the woods he was alarmed to see a black “ball of fur” headed straight towards him.
It turned out to be Belle, my Karelian Bear Dog. She normally scouts out the area and spends lots of time in the woods. She is “on her own” most of time and as with other members of her breed are known as being quite fearless. The previous week she had a short altercation with a Hereford range bull, it was a stand-off.
As Belle came back towards Dennis she immediately hid behind his legs and peered back down the trail from where she had come. It remains unknown what she had encountered that would affect her in this manner.
We broke camp on Sunday morning and returned to our homes. Although we did not hear and record any loud vocalizations we did feel like we had heard very loud wood knocks and had perhaps had camp visitors on three occasions.
The following are some of the sounds heard from base camp: The Meadows 2012.
Filed under: My Research |
