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Az FieldResearch Forum

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2-25-09

On December sixth, 2008 I returned to the area of Workmans Creek with my three fellow investigators, Victor Oropeza, John Light, and Bernie Light. Our goal for this trip was to do some follow up on our previous trip to Workmans Creek and Aztec Peak. On this trip we also planned on staying at the Rose Creek Campground below the Workmans Creek area.

On December sixth we all met at the Rose Creek Campground and waited for the rest to arrive. Once all four of us were present we drove up to the location where we had taken the thermal pictures the last time in November of 2008. When we arrived there we took additional still photographs and measurements to assist in the developments of the thermal pictures we had taken. After the follow up was concluded we then searched the area around this location further and found that the area in question showed that it was a well travelled location. We found there were many crisscrossing game trails and many bedding sites. We did not however find any signs that were definitive of Bigfoot.

Our next step was to find the location where a friend had recorded a video several weeks prior where he and his grandson documented a familiar smell they encountered multiple times whenever they had a Bigfoot experience in this location. Using clues found in the video we were able to locate the filming site. This location is where the Workmans Creek begins. The creek is fed from three smaller creeks that originate from springs just east of the creeks origins. One of the small creeks crosses the forest road from the north and continues up the west side of the bowl that is the Workmans Creek wilderness area. At this point in the road there was a tell tale sign where a backhoe had dug out the side of the mountain along the north side of the road. This doubled the width of the road at this location. We were able to see this mark from the back hoe in the video.

Vic, Bernie, my daughter, and I grabbed our back packs and headed up the side of the mountain. We followed an old fire road that ascended the side of the mountain face. This fire road seemed to have separated the Coon Creek fire from the Bowl area and the forest to the west. The west side of the road was thick heavy forest full of firs and pines. On the east side was sparse pines and many fallen burnt logs.

It was among these fallen pines we found the carcass of a small decomposing buck. It still had velvet on its two point antlers. The meat and organs had already been consumed by the scavengers and only pieces of the hide and the skeleton remained. There was still a strong odor of decomposition in the air that led us to think that the kill was not very old. In its current

state it was impossible for us to verify the manner of death.

After returning to the vehicles we continued down the canyon towards the 288 highway. Once we were down below and out of Workmans creek we went to the Workmans Tubs. These tubs are a place in the Workmans Creek far out of the canyon where the creek flows through a large group of granite rocks. The eons of flowing water through these rocks has carved and polished them to a beautiful arrangement of tubs or bowls where the water falls from the numerous waterfalls above.

Our next stop was to drive through the Reynolds Creek Canyon. This canyon is the next canyon north of Workmans Creek Canyon and the two canyons share the ridge of mountains that run between them from east to west. As we drove the Reynolds Creek Canyon we realized this canyon was less visited by people and was also a smaller canyon, being only half the width of Workmans Creek Canyon. We did pass several possible tree formations that looked like possible Bigfoot markers. One was an X that was positioned along the road side. This X had been made using to six to eight inch logs about twenty feet long each. They were positioned between two ponderosa pines of triple their size. You could see that one of the logs had a coating of dirt on it that made it look like it had spent a good deal of time on the ground and partially covered with earth before being used to make this X. Each of the ends of these logs showed markings of being broken from their sources and not cut.

We followed the fire road until it came to a stop at the head of a foot trail. This trail was one of the many that meet at the junction of Aztec Peak and crosses the bowl and meadows of the Workmans Creek Bowl area. As the sun was setting and the temperature dropping rapidly we turned around and returned to the Rose Creek Campground to set up our camp and prepare for the busy night ahead.

My preparations were almost nil as I had promised my wife I would be home in the early morning on Sunday for my infant nephews blessing. This would mean I would have to get up at 0500 in the morning and pack my stuff to leave. My daughter and I planned on sleeping in the cab of my tiny Toyota Tacoma. We set up our stoves and cooked dinner and started a good camp fire. After eating and relaxing we waited for the sun to set and the night to come.

At about 2130 hours we decided we would walk down the road that led towards the highway from the campground and then down the closed forest road toward the Rose Creek Lodge. As we walked John used the thermal camera to scan the sides of the road and wilderness surrounding it. Bernie used a third generation night vision monocular to do the same. Vic used his camcorder to record the event and I walked with the group. We hiked down to the location where the fire road split from the main road at the fence of the Rose Creek Lodge. At this junction we stopped and scanned the area for any sign. I then made an attempt at vocalizing. I made three whoop calls into the forest. There was no response and the forest seemed very quiet. Before leaving this location I attempted a tree knock against a dead log and again there was no response. We hiked back to the camp without hearing or seeing anything.

We then decided the rest of the night would be set aside for waiting to see what came up to our camp. From 2200 hours until the time I retired to my truck at 2345 hours we heard several single noises. Each time they were the sounds of sticks breaking or thump or thud type noises. Each of these was a single event and did not begin or follow the others. When I went to my truck to sleep I did so only out of necessity as I had to get up and drive the three hours to my home. As I went to sleep the rest of the group minus my daughter were still awake and would continue to be for some time into the early morning hours.

Before I lay down I turned on my digital voice recorder and placed it face down in the bed of the truck to hide the red illuminated LED. I fell asleep quickly but was later awoken abruptly by t he flashing of lights in the windows of my truck. I sat up and saw that the John, Bernie, and Vic were walking around the camp with flashlights as if they were looking for something. The time was 0123 hours according to my clock on the dashboard. I cleared the three men on the hand held radios we were using and they replied that they had been in bed and had just heard something run through camp. The batteries were dying in my radio and I was not able to ask them any further questions but did notice that they were now taking their sleeping bags and moving them from their tent to the cab of the truck. Within a few minutes the three were now inside the cabs of their respective trucks and the lights were all extinguished with the exception of one LED lantern that was left on the picnic table. I again fell asleep and slept restlessly until 0500 hours. On the morning of the seventh I got up, packed my stuff by headlight and drove home. As I left the campground the rest of the group was still asleep and I could see that they had placed their sun visors over their vehicle windows. I had no idea at this time of the experiences the other three men had experienced.

Later when I was home I spoke to the three others through emails and learned that soon after I went to bed they had experienced some camp stalking type of Bigfoot activity. Some of the sounds the men heard that night were recorded by mine and Vics digital recorders. These sounds were impressive and very clear.

As stated before I turned on my recorder at 2345 hours. Twenty-nine minutes and forty-six seconds into the recording a loud boom is heard on the recorder. Several seconds later you can hear Vic asking the other two if they heard the sound and then John and Bernie replying to Vic that they had. At forty-six minutes and forty five seconds into the recording you can hear what sounds like sticks or rocks being banged together. Again you can hear the three men discussing what they heard afterwards.

After speaking to Vic, John, and Bernie afterwards they all explained that during the time they were up and after I went to bed they experienced many other incidents that were not recorded on my recorder.

On one such occasion they heard metal clanging in the woods in the direction of where the forest service gate was located that blocked the access to the Rose Creek Lodge. The three men believed that the metal clanging noise was from this gate.

The loud boom that was captured on my recorder was said to have originated near Rose Creek where the creek crosses the campground access road. Vic stated that to him it sounded like something very heavy had jumped or stomped on the ground near the creek crossing.

As the men sat at the camp fire there were at least two instances where rocks were thrown at them, one of these instances included a possible sighting through a night vision monocular. Vic and Bernie were standing next to the camp fire when Vic heard a rustling sound behind the camp ground on the North West side. He mentioned what he heard to Bernie and Bernie stepped away from the fire to a high point of ground just west of the bar-b-cue pit. From this point Vic pointed towards the direction he heard the movement and Bernie scanned the woods with the night vision monocular.

As Bernie did this he came to almost the exact location where Vic was pointing to and was startled when he noticed a large black object that seemed to move abruptly and catch his attention. Bernie stated that he then focused his attention on this object that appeared to be swaying slightly or moving from side to side. There was a tall ponderosa pine just to the left of the object. The object was about five feet to the right of the pine and a small sapling was directly in front of the object. Bernie stated the sapling was mostly open to his view and did not block the basic outline of the object he was now looking directly at through the night vision monocular.

I asked Bernie to describe what he saw and he stated that it appeared to him that it looked like someone that was partially knelt down behind the sapling. He said it appeared as if the object had placed its feet together and then lowered itself down on its haunches so that the rear-end would be on the ground and against the heels. He also described that he could clearly make out wide human-like shoulders with a round head in the center. This head and the shoulders is what he saw moving. At the time of this incident Bernie did not know the actual size parameters of the object. As the detail of the object was fairly obscured using the night vision Bernie asked Vic to put a flashlight into the woods in the direction he was now pointing to. Just as Vic began to do this a baseball sized rock flew in towards their feet from their left and landed on the ground just to the left of their feet. Both men turned and looked at the rock that had just landed as the sound of it hitting the ground near them startled them. Bernie then scanned the area of the woods from where this rock had been thrown and did not see anything that stood out. He slowly returned to the location where he had been looking at the dark unknown moving object and found that it was no longer there. Bernie scanned the woods for some time and could not find the object anywhere else. It appeared as if a diversion had been made to get the two to look away from the unknown object so that it could make its escape.

Bernie later stated he picked up the rock and saw that it was a red sand stone rock about the size of a baseball and that when the rock landed on the ground it had left a small impression of its impact and then a trail where it continued to roll on the ground.

On our return trip on December 20^th through the 22^nd, Bernie and I returned to the location of where this incident occurred. He stood in the same high spot and directed me to walk to the correct pine and sapling. I stood behind the small sapling that stood about five feet tall and maybe six feet wide. Bernie then had me bend my knees so that I lowered my height to just about the same height as the sapling. He stated from his position that the top of my head was now about the same height as the head he saw on the objects shoulders.

Next I asked him to tell me how wide the object had been using me as a comparison. Bernie asked me to raise my arms slightly to the sides and I did so until my arms were almost at a forty-five degree angle. He stated the width that my arms represented was about equal to the girth or width of the object. Lastly I asked Bernie how I compared to the object in size and he stated I was at least half the same size.

What really impressed me is I was slightly bent to lower my five foot ten inch height to about five feet yet far from kneeling and the object he saw that night gave him the impression that it was kneeling or sitting on its haunches.

Directly behind the spot where I stood was a very well used game trail. There was at least six inches of snow on the ground and this trail was at least twelve inches wide and had no snow whatsoever on it. All the other game trails I had seen on this day were full of snow with only animal prints disturbing the snow. This trail continued downhill towards Rose Creek and then up into a small draw that ascended the ridge behind the camp towards the west.

Lastly I paced off the distance between the location of where the object was and where Bernie and Vic were standing. I paced thirty-three paces or almost one hundred feet. There were no other objects or brush between Bernie and the object and except for the small sapling it was behind he had a clear open view or as much as he could have had with a night vision monocular.

Bernie also stated that he got the impression when he first saw the object abruptly move that to him it appeared as if it had maybe lost its balance and fell slightly to the side revealing its location and presence to him.

Sometime after this occurred the three men decided to retire to their tent and vehicle to go to sleep. Vic turned on his digital voice recorder and other recording equipment. This occurred about an hour and ten minutes into my recording. From one hour and thirteen minutes to one hour and eighteen minutes into the recording a raucous of noises can be heard. At one hour eighteen minutes and twenty seconds you can hear the tent zipper on John and Bernies tent open. This is the point the three men get up to investigate the sounds they had just heard.

When talking to John he stated he had been lying down inside his sleeping bag for about five minutes and everyone else had been so as well. He then heard a loud growl or grunt and then the sound of heavy bipedal running past his tent. You can hear John say geeze just after the runner passes on the recording. John stated that the runner had started in front of Vics truck that was parked backwards facing the campground road and next to the woods on the north side, past his tent that was located between Vics truck and mine, and then behind my truck and up the road to the campground towards the south.

When John and Bernie got out of their tent they went to Vics truck and found that he was still awake and had heard the same thing as he was listening to the recordings as the recorder was recording. The three men then searched the areas around camp for any signs of the runner including foot prints. This is the moment when they woke me up and I saw the flashlights in the cab of my truck. The three then felt too uneasy to sleep in their tent and decided to sleep in their truck cabs. After gathering some belongings and their sleeping bags they got inside the trucks and tried to settle down and sleep. Bernie stayed up for some time scanning outside the truck with the night vision monocular without any results. John told me later that the whole event with the runner really spooked him and he had a hard time getting back to sleep inside the truck. When I left in the morning at about 0525 hours I saw that Bernie and John had also placed the windshields sun blind up to keep any onlookers from seeing in.

In the morning the three men set out around camp to find any evidence of the previous nights visitor or visitors. The area where the dark object that Bernie saw through the night vision was checked and nothing more than disturbed ground litter was found. The road that ran behind the trucks and tent was searched for footprint impressions but none were found in the rocky hard soil. The rock that was thrown at Bernie and Vic was found again and verified the direction from where it had been thrown.

When we returned to our homes we were able to discover the different sounds that were recorded at the camp that night on the digital voice recorders. Vic was able to pick out two separate growls that occurred after the three of them went to bed and before the runner ran past the tent and trucks. My recorder picked up the some of the ruckus from around camp but not as much as Vics did. Both recorders recorded the sounds of the footsteps running past the camp.

(AUDIO CLIPS OF THE RECORDED SOUNDS WILL BE POSTED SOON ON THE NEW **AUDIO FILES** PAGE THAT WILL BE UPLOADED SOON)

1-7-09

Here is a comparison shot showing the Figure in question is more than likely a pine that was later found on our return trip. The pine was several hundred feet in the background and not seen the morning after the thermal was taken or the initial followup pictures.

(Comparison provided and made by Scott Davis)

12-01-08

A good friend of mine who is very good at photo enhancements and comparisons was able to take one of thethermal images from the Nov. 22nd trip and compare it with a digital photo of the area taken the next day. Although the figure in question is still unknown you can seeclearly that it is not anywhere in the day time photo.

(Comparison photo posted with permission of Scott Davis)

There are other comparisons I am working on posting and willdo when they are available

11-29-08

On November 22^nd My wife, one of my daughters, and I drove to the area of the Sierra Ancha Wilderness South of Young, Az. We arrived early in the morning in the Rose Creek Campground to meet up with three other interested squatchers. By about 1030 hours everyone had arrived and caravanned up the Workman Creek area.

The Sierra Ancha Wilderness is roughly 7000 feet in elevation and makes up an area south of the Mogollon Rim and north of the Roosevelt Lake basin. There is a large escarpment similar to the Mogollon Rim on the south borders of the wilderness that overlooks the lake basin. The fauna is a mix of deciduous and coniferous trees, the majority being Ponderosa pines. Also included are white firs, oaks, aspen, apple trees, and ash. An interesting plus to this area are the numerous natural springs that were still flowing well into fall and long after the last of the summer rains. The Rose Creek and Workman Creek were both flowing well and both are also fed by the natural springs. The area itself was very dry and there was a lot of fuel on the ground. The springs brought extra life to this area.

We first drove up to the Aztec Peak lookout tower and spent some time surveying the area we wanted to concentrate our efforts on. The area of Workman Creek and Aztec peak is an interesting area when looked at topographically. There are four separate peaks, Aztec being the tallest, that group together. The area between them forms four separate saddles and in the center is a small basin with a large meadow that was once a ranch with numerous apple trees. Through one of the saddles the Workman Creek flows out of the basin and down towards the Workman Creek falls and Rose Creek. The Coon Creek fire scarred the area some years back burning through the center of the basin and most of Aztec Peak.

As we were coming from the peak we spotted a large X made of two burned pine trunks. The two bare logs were both perched on the top of a break in a larger tree that had lost its top some time after the fire. When you look at the logs you can see that the first log appeared to have fallen and during its fall it came to rest in the shelf like break of the larger tree. When you see this you wonder how that tree came to rest there naturally. It looks more like it was placed there. The second tree that forms the X rests against the first tree. If you look at how this tree would have fallen on its own is does not make any sense. It appeared that the tree fell almost sideways against the peak which seems strange with the extreme pitch of the peaks slopes. Also if this tree did fall on its own how come when it struck the first tree it did not push it off the top of the larger tree it was resting on. I cannot prove this occurred this way but studying this it does not fit that this naturally occurred.

Farther down the road on the side of the peak my wife spotted another tree formation. This time she found a tepee type structure. Just off the road about sixty feet there were multiple smaller pines that had been stacked or pushed onto a larger living ponderosa pine. The trees were laid in this pattern all the way around the center tree giving the structure the look of an Indian tepee. The top of the structure stood about twenty feet. The base of the tepee was about 25 feet in diameter. After taking digital pictures from the road we walked down the steep decline to the structure.

Before I could reach it I observed a bare area in the pine needles a few feet from the tepee structure. I had seen similar signs before when a deer or elk have used their hooves to turn up the pine needles to find sprout and other small plants hiding under the forest litter. This spot looked similar but it was different. First there were no hoof prints in or around the spot and the dirt below the needles was not disturbed. Second the area was about four feet by five feet in a rectangular shape. It looked as if someone had pushed away all the needles leaving the bare dirt in view. When I bent down I could smell a strong skunk like odor in the bare area. Looking around the base of the tepee I found two more similar bare spots on the forest floor.

On one side of the tepee next to a downed log there was an area of the forest floor that was covered with two different kinds of hair or fur. The area was about three feet by three feet. In this area there was mostly a white coarse hair spread out in clumps. This white hair was very thick and similar to deer hair at about two to three inches in length. The color was almost pure white and it appeared that the hair had been pulled out in clumps. Mixed into the hair was a black fine, fuzzy fir. This black fir was short, very fine and soft and completely opposite of the white hairs. This spot also had a weak odor of a skunk like smell but not as strong. My first thought was a skunk was killed in this spot but I could not see any bones, hide, or blood on the hair or ground. Aside from the hairs the forest floor was untouched.

Returning my attention to the tepee structure I could see that it had been formed when the trees around the center tree were pushed over to rest against the center trunk. There were also many other trees that were not from this spot as they had no stump near them or in the close vicinity. This too could have been formed naturally except that some of the trees were not from this location and had to have been transplanted to the tepee structure area after they were removed from their stumps.

Another hundred yards down the road is the location where one of the group members had had a Bigfoot sighting in the summer. In this location there are a group of rocks that are exposed above the forest floor. One of these groups forms a small shelter. The group of rocks has openings on three sides with the one on the west side being the largest. The largest opening is approximately 4 feet wide and over seven feet tall. This opening is also open above the top of the rocks allowing a view of the sky. It was just inside this opening that one member of the group been driving down the road slowly looking down the slope of the peak and saw a head and shoulders pop up inside this opening. The man stopped and observed a dark hair covered upright being turn and look at him giving him a startled look before turning and running out of the shelter and down the slope deeper into the forest on two legs. This group member later named this Bigfoot the Old Silverback as he observed a silver tinge of hair on the creatures back when it turned and ran, similar to that of an old silverback gorilla.

Several things I immediately observed when walking to this spot was that it was a well travelled area. There were numerous rocks erupting from the ground and the forest floor was far from being level. Although only being about fifty feet off the road side it took almost five minutes to walk back to the spot. The forest floor was very turned up. It appeared as if the area had high traffic and the forest litter was all disturbed. Before reaching the shelter, or small cave, we had to climb over a fallen white fir. Upon further inspection of the fir it was apparent that it was still alive. The top branches were still green and growing. The lower branches had all been stripped on the side that was facing up. The trunk itself was elevated about three feet above the forest floor as the tree had fallen across two large rocks. The spot where the branches had been removed the bark on the top side or side facing up had been worn off. It appeared as if this spot was the crossing for some animal that had used it numerous times wearing off the top of the tree trunk bark. If you continued over this fallen tree you would walk directly to the rock shelter. Inside the shelter the floor was all turned over. It appeared as if the shelter had been used fairly well by something and not too long ago.

At this point we travelled down to the large meadow that was seen from the peak. We had to park our vehicles at a trailhead and hike back into the meadow. Once in the meadow we found that there were numerous springs that flowed across this meadow. At many points these springs formed large pools that were surrounded by numerous animal tracks. Among these tracks were numerous large impressions that held the shape of a Bigfoot type print but the tall grasses that were intermingled in them made it impossible for any track definition whatsoever.

Also inside this meadow were large, old apple trees that still had a few very ripe apples in the upper most branches. Looking around we found numerous elk and deer scat. Inside one of the pools of water was a piece of metal culvert that was sticking up vertically about 12 inches from the top of the water surface. It looked like parts of an old well head. We were told that in this area there had been an old ranch that had apple orchards.

As the daylight was diminishing we returned to our camp that was situated just above the Workman Creek spring head and inside the edge of the pine trees not touched by the old forest fire. Our camp was et off the road about hundred yards.

When it had been dark for several hours we decided to go on a walk down the road from the camp taking the thermal camera that was brought by one of the group members. The women and one man stayed in camp. There were three of us who set out on the walk. Before leaving the camp we scanned the area with the thermal camera, nothing was found near the camp. As we reached the forest road we again scanned this area for any thermal signatures. As the camera man was doing this one of the group members heard a distant whoop towards the east. I decided to respond to the whoop and by doing my own. We advised the group at camp we were making some calls via radio and I then made one single whoop call towards the east, there was no response.

Once the scan of the woods with the thermal was complete we continued our walk down the road. We walked another fifty yards or so and we found a tall pine stump that had been burnt. I took my axe handle and hit the tree trying to make a tree knock. The knock echoed into the woods and was heard by the group at camp. Again there was no reply to the tree knock. One of the group members then decided to make some more whoop type calls. He made three separate whoops one right after the other. A few seconds after finishing we heard two separate distinct whoops in the distance towards the west near Workman Creek Falls. He made three more whoops but this time there was no response.

We walked another hundred yards or so until the thermal camera man stopped in his tracks and called out the two of us to come and look at what he was looking at. I peeked over his shoulder to see the viewfinder of the camera. The camera man was standing facing almost due west off the side of the road and into a group of scrub oaks. Through the view finder you could see a very bright white object was behind them. It appeared that there was something erect with a pointed head standing behind the small trees and facing us not moving. The object was putting off more heat than anything else seen by the camera in the surrounding area.

The cameraman took a still picture of the object with the thermal camera and as we were reviewing the picture on the viewfinder he stood still and did not move from his position. The camera was still pointed at the location and hot object in question. When we switched the camera back to the live view we observed that the object had changed shape. It appeared now that the upright object was now turned slightly from us. You could almost make out a profile of a face on the viewfinder. Another picture was also taken of this new position.

We decided to try and see if this object was alive by moving the camera and see what occurred when we looked back to it. The camera man turned a three hundred and sixty degree turn scanning the woods around us. When he returned back to the same view he had once before it appeared as if the subject was gone. After a moment we relocated the object and it appeared to have moved slightly in its position. It was now several feet to its right or our left but still behind the group of trees.

We watched again through the viewfinder and this time while doing so the top portion that looked like a head moved slightly to one side, similarly to how a dog cocks its head. There were two of us who were watching this as it happened. We stood and watched the object swaying it head from side to side or cocking its head from one side to another about four or five times. When this object moved the movements were slow and deliberate. It appeared as if you could see the eyes in the center of the head. One would be behind a small branch as one looked at us and then when the head swayed you could briefly see both eyes before the other went behind a branch. I then made a mental note that there was no wind at all and there was no breeze of any kind.

We then decided to turn around and walk away towards our camp acting as if we were leaving. We walked about twenty yards and then together all turned back around and walked back to the spot where we had been standing. The camera man scanned the location again and again located object again but again it appeared to have moved farther to its right, or our left. As we again stared at this upright object we could see that it was still swaying its head from side to side. As we were looking through the view finder this time the camera man and I heard a deep long growl coming from the same area as the subject. The sound was similar to wuuuuugggghh. It was very deep and slightly muffled or distant.

After this time we decided to walk back to camp and tell the group at camp what we had seen. As we walked back I had the strongest, creepiest feeling behind me lie we were being watched. The other two men made similar comments.

When we were walking back into camp we could see the group at camp was staring off into the woods to the east of camp. When they saw us approaching they said they had just heard a loud noise coming from that direction. They said the y could see us and knew where we were but they heard a loud metal clang noise where they were looking. We showed the camp group our findings and explained to them what we observed and heard. Throughout the night while we were still up several of the group heard noises in the darkness outside of camp.

We all retired to our vehicles and tents late in the night. As I lay in bed at one point after waking up I heard footsteps walking between our truck and the tent. This area would be outside the edge of the camp on the far north side. These footsteps sounded like any others a person would make and did not appear to be heavy. I believed that someone from camp had been walking next to our tent. Shortly after I heard the tarp that was being used as a shelter for the potty being moved around, it sounded like the wind was moving the trap. The weird thing was, there was no wind at all. I slept the rest of the night without any further incident.

In the morning the only other woman to accompany us besides my wife said that some time during the night she was awake in bed and heard three distinct and loud whoop calls. She could not recall the exact hour or from which direction they came but said they were loud. I asked the group if anyone had walked next to our tent during the night and they each verified that they had not. I found that the tarp that had been hanging in the trees for the potty shelter was now on the ground. I checked the ground around our side of camp and found nothing that resembled a print at all. I also asked my wife if she had heard the same noises I had during the night and she said she did.

Once everyone was up and camp was taken down we all headed back to the site where the thermal image was taken. The first thing we did was take a comparison shot with the thermal camera. We found that the same object that we had seen the night before was now no longer there in the thermal camera. I went back behind the group of trees and the camera man took several shots with the thermal camera of me in the general area of where the object had been.

After the pictures were taken I searched the area behind the trees and found an area where the grass had been bent over. It appeared similar to a deer or elk bed. The area was about four feet in diameter. Between this spot and trees where the object had been standing I found a possible foot impression in the grass. You could clearly see the outline of a foot with the grass bent over in the center and still green. I placed my booted foot next to the impression and took several photographs. Later when I looked at them I was able to trace the outline of the impression and the impression left by my boot. My boot mark left an impression just over half the size of the unknown impression.

We then crossed the road and into the woods on the opposite side of the forest. There we found numerous saplings that were bent and broken. The individual saplings would have a brake in their trunk and the top of the tree was still connected and bent over touching the ground. All these saplings appeared to have been pointed in the same direction, towards the road. There was one specific sapling that probably stood about 10 feet tall. It was two inches thick and the lower portion appeared to have been used by a deer or elk as a rub. The bark on the lower half was all shredded. At a height of almost five feet the top of the sapling had been twisted a hundred eighty degrees and then bent over similar to the other saplings and also facing towards the road.

After our excursion was complete we all returned to camp and finished picking up camp and packing our vehicles. My wife, daughter, and I were the first ones to leave. As we drove out and were almost to the trailhead where the meadow was we came upon a large group aspens were. In the center of these aspen was a very tall and largetepee type structure. From the roadside we took photographs of this large tepee. There were multiple trees used in the making of it. Most of them were well over sixty feet long and twenty-four to thirty inches in diameter. The top portion of the tepee was at least fifty from the forest floor and the base was at least sixty to seventy feet across in diameter. Along the sides and intermingled with the tepee were also large Xs. My wife wanted to head home and we were not able to stop and investigate further.

(Thermal pictures were used with permission of "Borderland", thermal camera man)

10-21-2008

ON October 2^nd through the 5^th, 2008 I returned to the area of north Kaibab where only a month earlier several family members and me experienced some very eerie possible Bigfoot behavior. This time I was hunting turkey during the shotgun limited hunt in area 12A West. I decided to return to the same camping spot that we had been at the month prior and this time I brought my two daughters who were seven and three at the time. Two of my sisters also accompanied us and one of my brother-in-laws as well.

My sister, my two daughters and I reached camp on the second at about two thirty in the afternoon. We set up camp and prepared for the coming hunt the next day. This time I brought a large family sized tent to sleep in instead of the pop-up camp trailer we had used the month prior.

In the evening my sister and I sat and waited for my other sister and her husband to arrive as they had to wait until they were done with work before they could come up. The evening was very quiet and we sat at the camp fire just staring into it. The girls had gone to bed about eight and were sleeping in the tent. After waiting until almost eleven thirty we decided to turn in. My brother-in-law was driving and he had never been to this area and I was hoping he would not get lost. We decided to help them out a little and left a bright LED lantern on top of the cab of my truck to give them a beacon of our location.

When went to bed the inside of our tent was illuminated by the bright LEDs from the lantern. Shortly after we got into our respective sleeping bags we both heard a loud branch brake just outside our tent on the east side. I asked my sister if she heard the noise and she said she did. A few more minutes later and it sounded like a small object was thrown at the east side wall of the tent. My sister this time asked me if I heard the object hit the tent. All of our heads were against the east wall and I could distinctly hear the object hit just above my head and centered between me and my sister who as on the other side of the tent. At first I thought it may have been a twig falling from the tree above us until I realized that the roof of our tent was a separate part of the tent and extended over the sides of the tent to allow water from falling down the sides of the tent. Had it been a twig from the trees it would have fallen onto the roof and not hit the side wall about half way up the wall.

I slowly drifted in and out of sleep as I tried to stay awake for my sister and brother-in-law. Two separate times I opened my eyes to see a shadow moving against the tent wall. This would mean that something was moving between the LED lantern on the truck cab and our tent. The truck was parked just west of the tent about twenty feet away. The first time I saw the shadow it was just a movement from one side of the tent to the other. The second time it appeared as a fast moving shape as if something had run passed the lantern. Both times this occurred I was unable to see a solid shape that would distinguish what was moving outside the tent. Both times I was unable to or do not remember hearing anything. I also cannot remember the time between the two occurrences as I was in and out of sleep.

At about twelve thirty in the morning my sister and brother-in-law showed up at our camp and because of the hour they both slept in the cab of the truck. After they were settled in I quickly fell asleep and slept through the rest of the night without any further incidents.

The next eveningwe decided to try and make some Bigfoot calls into the forest to elicit a response. My sister and I walked away from camp about a hundred feet next to a large fallen log. We were close enough to camp we could still see the entire camp but could not hear anything coming from the camp. My other sister and her husband stayed at camp and sat around the camp fire. My daughters had fallen asleep again very early and were sleeping in the tent.

After waiting for several minutes my sister started by doing the two tree knocks on the fallen tree. There was no response. Later I again tried to do a singletree knock and again no response. My sister then did her three whoops that she is so good at. There was again no response to her whoops. During this time we were in contact with the others at camp via two way radios. They could hear our calls and knocks but also heard no responses. About this time my brother-in-law stated over the radio that they began to hear noises around the camp. He was not specific and made the single statement. This time I attempted a howl that came out a little flat and did not sound too good to me. Shortly after there was a deep long groan heard on the ridge to the north. The groan was very distant and was far enough away it was hard to make out exactly what it sounded like but we both still heard it. Again we waited and my sister again tried her three whoops. This time she had a response there was a single aaahhhaaaahhaaahh that was higher in pitch than the groan and sounded like it was coming from the area of the fire road just north east of us and a lot closer to us than the maker of the groan had been.

After this we decided that my sister would stay behind at the log and be a straggler to see if she would be approached by anything. I walked back to camp and left her there at the log with the knocker and a radio. When I returned to camp my sister told me that they had heard several noises in the brush behind camp. Before she could explain what was heard we all heard a single heavy crunch noise that came from behind the camp to the east. This location separated us from a meadow by a small stand of thick scrub oaks. It sounded like the crunch noise came from just beyond the oaks. It reminded me of the noise someone would make if they took a fairly large stick and propped it at an angle and then stomped on the middle to snap it. You could hear the sound of the stick snap as well as an accompanying thump.

My sister was able to tell me that just as we began doing the tree knocks and the calls they heard what sounded like a large rock hit the ground behind them inside the oaks and roll a short distant. Minutes later they two separate instances where it sounded like smaller rocks being thrown between them and oaks. My sister believes they were rocks as she said she heard one of them strike another rock that was on the ground when it hit and rolled.

Several minutes passed after I heard the first crunch sound when a second louder and closer one was heard just south of the area where the first one was heard. All three of us heard both sounds and my sister was becoming a little nervous. My sister also stated several times that she could hear faint footsteps behind her on several occasions. She had her back to the east so was facing away from the source of the noises and rock throwing.

After being by the log for almost ten minutes my other sister radioed and said she was getting freaked out and was coming back to camp. We watched as she emerged from the woods shortly after. She related to me that when she was there alone at the log she had the weirdest feeling of being watched. She said it was not a scary feeling but she knew she was not alone there. She also described a chattering noise that she had heard off and on for about five minutes while she was there. She stated she could faintly hear what sounded like deep toned chattering or talking type sounds coming from her south or right side. She said she was facing the camp and could see us in the distance talking but could not hear us. To verify she was not hearing us from her location she noted that she was hearing the chattering in the forest to the south when were not talking. She was unsure of the source of the chattering but stated that the deep tone was something she would only expect from a very large animal.

During this time my brother-in-law was feeling a bit overwhelmed by the occurrences and hearing my sister say she was upset as well was not making him any happier. He stood up and walked around the camp fire to the opposite side and stood there as if warming himself. He stated he did this as he was more comfortable looking in the direction of the noises we were hearing in case he saw something. Several minutes after standing there I noticed him turn his head to the left and looked just over my head into the forest. He made a strange face and then exclaimed that he was seeing some eyes reflecting in the forest. I wanted to look and see what he was seeing but I knew I would have to turn around to see them and it could scare off whatever was there. My brother-in-law continued watching and I could see in his face he was amazed at what he was seeing. He then said, yeah, I see you as if talking to what he was seeing. I then noticed he smiled a large smile. Shortly after he smiled he exclaimed, wow I asked him what happened and he said the eyes seemed to have fixed and enlarged when he smiled. He then stated he wanted to look away briefly and then look back to see what happened. I told him to try and he looked down at the fire and then looked back up in the same direction. He looked perplexed and said that the eyes were gone.

We talked for about ten more minutes at the fire and then my brother-in-law stated he was seeing the eyes again but they appeared closer to the ground. I could not help myself this time; I had to see for myself. I turned around and briefly caught the shimmer of what appeared to be a red and white reflection of an eye shine. Just as quickly as I saw it, it was gone. Just as it disappeared my brother-in-law said, Now its gone. The one I saw appeared to be about three to four feet off the ground. I could not see anything else behind the shine like a shape or movement.

My brother-in-law stated that the first time he saw the eyes shining they appeared to be situated between the shower tent and the oaks but behind them at about fifty feet away. He also noted that they appeared as if they were higher than the top of the shower tent. The shower tent is almost seven feet tall at the two roof peaks. He described seeing two eyes that appeared to be swaying slightly from side to side and every once in a while one of the eyes appeared to disappear briefly or diminish in brightness as if the being there had blinked or slightly turned its head away from him. The eyes were described as a reflection of white and red light similar to what you would see on a bike reflector that was shining when headlights were on it. The light of the reflection was constant with exception of what appeared to be blinking of the eyes. He also stated they were round in shape and appeared to be about two inches in diameter.

The part he thought was strange was when he said he smiled at the eyes with a large grin and they appeared to have stopped swaying and fixed briefly and brightened as if they widened. He thought this was a very strange response to him smiling. He also agreed that when he saw the eyes the second time they appeared closer to the ground. I told him what I had seen and where and he agreed he saw the same.

Shortly after the second eye shine it appeared as if the action had stopped. We all noticed that the forest insects sounded louder and the uneasy feeling we all had was gone. We figured our visitors had left for the night. It was now passed ten thirty and we decided to go to sleep. I quickly fell asleep as I had been exhausted from camping and was suffering slightly from altitude sickness. During the night I woke up and stayed up for several hours as my daughters kept me up as they were cold and were slowly pushing me off the mattress as they tried to get closer to me. During these times I was awake I remembered hearing several instances of bi-pedal footsteps outside the tent. Twice I heard heavy loud stomping type footsteps walk slowly passed the south side of the tent. Each time I heard this I could distinctly hear the footsteps come from one side of the tent and walk off to the other. Later I heard two separate times where something on two feet ran passed the tent. The thundering sound of the foot falls as whatever ran passed was so heavy it shook the air mattress with each foot fall. I knew from the sound and motion I felt that whatever had ran passed our tent was huge.

The interesting part of this was as this was occurring I could hear my brother-in-law in the other tent snoring. He is notorious for his distinct snoring and our tents were over fifty feet apart. I have heard from others that when the snoring starts in a camp the big hairy visitors come by to play.

When we woke up the next morning it was overcast and the rain began shortly after. It rained all day long without any break. In the evening the rain slowed enough to let us make a camp fire. We thought we would try and drive away from camp to make some calls but the rain began again so we decided to call it a night.

During the early morning my sister had to get up and make a nature call. Being that she was eight months pregnant she woke up her husband and made him follow her to the shower tent where the port-a-john was. She stated as they returned from the nature call they got into the tent and laid down. Just as they were getting settled in they both heard a very loud sound of a large tree branch breaking. They both described it as something had grabbed a large tree branch in a tree and slowly pulled it down breaking it off the tree slowly and loudly. My sister then said she heard footsteps coming from the same area of the tree breaking which was just up on the side of the ridge to the south of the camp and behind my tent. That morning we picked up camp and began our long travel home.

09-04-08

In August 2008 from the 29^th to the 31^st several of my family and me went on an archery deer hunt in the north Kaibab area of the state. This location is located on the north rim of the Grand Canyon. We had camped in our favorite camping spot in the area of Big Saddle, Crazy Jug Point, and Indian Hollow. Those that attended the hunt were my brother Brian, my sister Rebecca, my nephew Tristan, and my daughter Kaycee.

We hunted for mule deer all day long and when the sun set at about seven in the evening we went back to camp. I had already decided that I wanted to try and do some Bigfoot calls to see if we could illicit a response of some kind. Well we definitely got a response but not the one I was planning on.

At about nine thirty at night my sister and I went down one of the forest roads next to our camp. We walked about two hundred yards from camp. At this point we sat in the road and talked for about five minutes. We then decided we were going to try and make some Bigfoot calls and direct them further down the road away from camp.

I started by doing a long howl that started out higher and finished lower in pitch. I stretched it out to about seven or eight seconds. We then sat and listened to hear if there was any response to the howl. We heard nothing. My sister then tried by doing a group of whoops. She said she had heard them many times in the mornings while camping at Wood Canyon Lake. After her whoops we listened and again heard no response. A few minutes later she tried again doing the whoops but with a deeper lower tone. As before we had no audible response. We sat for about another five minutes before returning to camp.

When we returned my brother stated that they could hear our calls easily but they also heard no responses to them. As soon as we came back into camp my sister decided to take my daughter inside the pop up camp trailer and put her to bed. My nephew was tired as well and followed them. This left Brian and I alone outside sitting around the camp fire.

Within five minutes of our return we got the response we had not planned on. As my brother and I sat around the camp fire we were talking when we were interrupted by a loud crashing sound of a large tree branch breaking just inside the small group of sapling pines about fifty feet from us on the north side of camp. The sound was so distinct that you could also hear what sounded like a heavy foot fall at the end of the branch breaking.

My brother and I both found ourselves staring in disbelief in the direction of the sound. We both looked at each other in awe and asked simultaneously if the other had heard the noise knowing that we both did. We then decided that we should act nonchalant about the incident and listen to hear if anything else happened.

Within a minute or two we heard what sounded like heavy footsteps on small twigs behind us in the shadows behind the camp trailer. We both again spoke of hearing the sounds and tried to pin point the location. We had thought that whatever was causing the noises was circling the camp.

Our visitor continued making noises just at the edge of camp every few minutes or so. The weird thing was that the noises we heard were not those of a normal animal trying to be stealthy and accidentally stepping on a twig making noise. What we heard gave me the feeling that whatever was making the sounds was trying to get our attention or at least wanted us to hear the noises it was making.

After hearing the noises continue on for about ten minutes we came to the conclusion that what we were hearing was two separate things. As we were listening we could hear very plainly that sometimes the two locations had noises coming from them at the same time. We could not both be hearing two separate noises from two opposite sides of camp at the same time without there being two of them.

Then the evening took a different direction. A small stick was thrown onto the top of the tarp we had hung in front of the trailer to use for shade. We both spoke to each other for sometime about what our visitors were and could only think that my sister and I had made a good enough raucous doing our calls that we may have attracted several Bigfoot and they followed us to our camp and were now messing with us.

We continued hearing the sounds moving around the camp in the shadows just out of sight. Brian and I were both very excited at the audience we had captured. As we talked a loud thump noise caused both of us to jump slightly. We both turned and noticed a softball sized rock on the ground between us and the camp trailer, they had thrown a large rock into our camp. Now they were taking this game up a notch and we were a little concerned that they may begin to start throwing these large rocks at us.

We decided it was time to go and try to sleep or at least use the camp trailer as a bit of cover. We put the fire out with some water and then turned off the lantern and entered the camp trailer. When we got inside my sister and nephew were still awake. My sister told us she had heard Brian and I talking and could hear the commotion that was going on outside. She even added that she could hear something pacing back and forth behind the trailer. They both added that they had been hearing an endless volley of small stones or twigs being thrown at and hitting the back side and top of the trailer. Rebecca added that she also heard a loud sigh that came from behind the trailer where she had heard the walking and that every once in a while she could hear heavy breathing.

We turned out the lights and tried to go to sleep. Within five minutes of entering the trailer we all heard a loud metallic bang just outside the door of the trailer. We had placed a sheet metal box of food on a small table just outside the trailer door and it sounded like someone had hit it or thrown something at it causing the noise.

I had driven all night to get to the hunt location and was exhausted and even with the activity outside I fell asleep quickly and did not hear anything else that night. In the morning Brian recounted to me what else he heard throughout the night after everyone else was asleep. He stated throughout the night our visitors threw small rocks or twigs at the trailer. And then some time in the early morning he heard what sounded like someone taking a branch or stick and dragging it across the top of the canvas that was above his head. The sound started on one side and was drug all the way across the other side.

On Saturday we talked throughout the day about the activity the night before. My nephew was so excited about what had happened that he talked about what we would be doing the coming evening to try and illicit a similar response. As the day wore on and the sun got lower in the sky my nephews feelings of excitement turned to anxiety. He became nervous and scared and asked us repeatedly not to call in any Bigfoot. He could not eat and cried. Seeing this I decided that we would not try any calls that night. We all went to bed and awoke on Sunday without any noticeable activity.

I attribute the lack of activity to several things but cannot say for certain why we were not visited on Saturday night. First, we did not attempt any Bigfoot type vocals or any other way of attracting their attention. Second, around midnight or shortly before it began to rain. The rain continued until Sunday at about noon when it stopped. We had a pan out in the open and it collected over four inches of rain in that twelve hours. Third, we had another group of hunters move in down the road from us to the east. Maybe our visitors decided to check them out and play with them for the night.

Sunday night my nephew went to bed early so my sister and I went out down the opposite fire road from the first night to try our calls again. As we walked in the darkness down the road we both noticed that the loud cricket and insect noises that was almost deafening the whole weekend could only be heard on the left side of the road. The right side was completely silent. I have never heard such a partition of night insects before. I have heard them all stop suddenly but never be separated as they were.

We walked about two hundred yards down the road and then sat on the shoulder of the left side of the road. We sat and talked for about five minutes before we decided to start our calls. My sister started first doing the whoops that she was so good at. We had no reply for the three times she did them. I tried later doing my howl and again no response. We went back to camp and sat around the camp fire again and talked trying to see if we would have a repeat of Friday night. We waited for over thirty minutes and heard nothing. We figured the night was over and went to bed to get ready for the last day of the hunt.

I fell asleep fairly easy and quickly. During the night I remember waking up four times to the camp trailer shaking from side to side. Each time I thought that one of my family was up in the trailer moving around. I did think it was strange though that when the trailer would shake I could hear the propane bottle under me shaking and clanging in its holder and I thought it was strange as the tank was hard tied to the trailer and it would take a lot of force to move it and make the noises I was hearing. Not thinking much more of it I would fall back asleep.

The next day my brother and sister both spoke to me separately about how they had been awake most of the night and that during the night they both heard movement outside the trailer as if someone was walking around it. They both stated they also felt as the trailer was shaken violently from side to side at least eight times throughout the night.

They described the shaking as though someone had grabbed one of the ends of the trailer and was shaking the trailer in a side to side motion back and forth for several seconds. They said it felt like the trailer was twisting back and forth on the legs it was braced on. This side to side or twisting motion coincides with the rocking or shaking I felt several times that woke me up during the night.

My brother also told me he could not sleep as he was not feeling good and about midnight when he was hearing the movement outside he said he also heard a loud but low toned growl. He described the growl as being very strong as he said he could feel it vibrating in his body. It lasted for almost ten seconds and was heard coming from behind the camp trailer.

My siblings had decided on not saying anything at first on Monday morning as they were afraid of scaring and upsetting my nephew. They both waited until we had picked up camp and were on the road. They called me on their cell phones and related to me what they had heard.

As I said earlier this incident took place less than a half mile from where my family and I had heard our first vocals in October of 1991 on a deer hunt. While hunting on this trip we were excited to see numerous trees breaks that lined the forest roads east of our camp. There was one area where road had been covered with downed trees and the ones surrounding them were broken at heights of eight to twelve feet. The tops of them were pointing towards the same directions.

We also found an interesting cave that overlooked a stock tank and a meadow east of our camp. My sister and I climbed up to it and investigated it. It had three separate chambers that broke off of a tall large main one. The main chamber was almost twenty feet tall. The furthest chamber went back about forty feet from the entrance. Inside there was a strong skunk mixed with musk smell. The smell was not something I recognized. The ground was littered with debris but it appeared that the ground was very disturbed like there was a great deal of traffic in and out of the cave. At the mouth of the cave the opening was almost blocked with wild rose bushes. There was a very well used path that entered through one of the bushes parting it in two. There were rose vanes were on the ground in the path and were crushed indicating high traffic in and out.

Here is our campshowing the typeof camp trailer we were in and part of the camp layout.

The cave that was found east of our camp.

This shows the large amounttraffic in and out of the cave.

The deepest part of the cave.

My sister standingin the main chamber of the cave. Note the black walls and ceiling. It appeared to be mold.

The view down from the cave entrance.

These arejust a few of the many trees brakes foundeast of our camp.

08-09-08

In August of 2008 I received an email from a Mr. B. Mr. B related to me the following story. He stated that in 1993 or 1994 he was in high school and living in the west valley of Metro Phoenix. On this particular night his brother M, his best friend, and he decided to go on a drive in the desert with their open top Jeep. They made it to the White Tanks range and parked their Jeep on one of the dirt roads they had been traversing. The three of them talked for some time while sitting in the back of the Jeep. Mr. B stated that it was about 11:00 PM and that they had entered the park near the park entrance off of Olive Avenue and were very close to the canal.

After being there for some time Mr. B stated he began to hear movement in the brush to the right side of the Jeep. He first played it off as being a rabbit or other small mammal until the sound began to circle around behind the Jeep. The three heard as the movement continued behind them over the road and then into the brush on the left side of the Jeep. Mr. B said he was very confused as he had been a hunter all of his life and had never heard an animal circle him in the wilderness less in the desert. The three youths became unnerved and exited the Jeep with a flashlight in hand. As they listened for the circling creature they were able to pinpoint the general location of where the animal was travelling. Just as this thing began to edge closer to the dirt road in front of the Jeep the brother of Mr. B turned on the flashlight illuminating there stalker in the beam of light.

Mr. B described that in the beam of light he could see a tall upright animal that was standing behind a creosote bush. The animal was still moving when the light illuminated it and it began turned to look at the three as it emerged from behind the brush and crossed the road in two large extended strides and then disappeared behind more brush. Mr. B described the animal as being about seven to eight feet tall as he gauged this off of the height of the six foot creosote bush. This animal was walking on two legs as a man would but was twice the size of Mr. B as he is today. Today Mr. B is six foot four inches tall and weighs over two hundred seventy five pounds. He also described the shoulders as being massive and twice the size of the creatures waist. Mr. B described the animals hair as being two toned, and similar in color to a German Shepherds coloring. He told me that the hair was dark tan or brown but in certain areas where the hair met folds in the skin that is was lighter tan or brown. He described how when you see a German Shepherd he is one color on his back but near his belly and under his legs the color is lighter and this is how the hair looked to him. He also told me that the hair was definitely not fur like a dog or bears fur but was thin and long about three to four inches in length.

The last thing he described was the animal had no neck. When I asked him to explain more about this he relayed that he was not saying it did not have a neck but that the neck was very short or very thick and not noticeable. Throughout his life Mr. B and his brother have talked about their experience with this desert Bigfoot and had always wondered what it was they really saw. Mr. B stated that he had been watching a television program that was based on Bigfoot and on that specific episode an artist rendition of a Bigfoot was displayed on the screen. Mr. B said that the drawing reminded him greatly of what he had seen that night in the desert near the White Tanks Park and made him remember the details of the incident.

Mr. B is a Navy veteran and is a General Contractor for a local construction company here in Maricopa County.

08-04-08

This past weekend I took my daughter squatchin with several other friends. We went to the Mogollon Rim and had a great time. We heard several vocals and found some great future research areas. I took some photos of the area we worked in. We also found a black bear in a cinnamon phase walking in the forest. I was able to get photos of him too.

Here are a few unusual tree formations, it almost looks several "X's" in one. I was not able to get back there and check them out further.

This beautiful meadow with the creek runningthrough was part of our concentrated area, we found a few possible impressions in the creek bed.

This is the 180 side of the last photo.

Here is the black bear, when he stood broad side to me I could only see the cinnamon almost blond color. He was very beautiful. I guess he weighed in about 200 pounds easily. We were about 80 yards or so from him and I had to use the zoom to get these pictures. It was crazy that he stayed still and did not run from us. He could see us as I had whistled at him to get him to look our way.

Here is another view with his head to the side.

My daughter with her walking stick looking for sign. She loved every minute of it.

Our tent at camp. we had a broken zipper on the tent door.

The area that is in the center of the photo shows a small stand of pines and firs. In this area we heard something approach in the night and make noises for almost an hour.

Here is better shot of the area in question. It is traingle shaped and is about 30 feet across on each side. Perfect concealment for something curiously wanting to sneak up and watch.

06-22-08

In May My fmaily and I were able to get back to Kendrick Peak and to the location where I found the destroyed trees. The area had changed significantly since I was there last in the fall. We did find a few new signs in the area but there appeared to be less than last time. The "X" I saw last year was gone butI foundtwo saplings that appeared to have been used as markers. The first has been bent over into a low arch and the top held down by three or four large logs that have no bark on them. The second is snapped at about 12 feet up from the ground. The top isstill connected and points to theEast touching the ground. I also took pictures ofwhere I found the trees destroyed in the fall. That area appeared very different and the spot did not seem to be thesame as when I found it. I still took photos of it though as it still shows the destruction.Before we left we took some time to try some tree knocking. We tried three separate times and did not receive any response, it was also the middle of the afternoon.

My family at the bottom of the trail.

This is the sapling that is bent over and held down by several otherfallen trees. The next shows the other trees holding it bent over. The fallen treesappear to have been placed on the top of the sapling to keep it there. Definately does not look natural!

Here is the snapped sapling, it is center of the photo and you can see the top leaning down towards the right corner of the photo. I was carrying my 2 year old whenI took this as the trail was so steep, I couldn't get down there as this lower than me off the trail. The following photos show closer views of the sapling.

The next series shows the area I found last year, remember whenI found thismost of these trees had just fallen and still had branches and leaves on them.Mostly from the heavy winter they hadin Flagstaff casued the changes here.

The trail is under the logs and in the center of the photo, youcan't see it.

This photo shows one of the basketball size rocks that were found strewn around this area of the trail. There is no origin of them nearby. No creeks, no drainage, and no ersion that brings them to the surface. As seen here they are just sitting in the trail.

Here is my foot on that rock to show it's size.

this last photo is looking back towards the destruction where the trail begins again. Youcan see my family standing amongst the downed logs.

03-06-08

Here is a brief description of an "X" found near a possible bedding area. This was found by a friend and following are photos of the "X", the bed, and other surrounding areas. These photoswere taken off the 260 highway on03-01-08.

"1.29.2008 During my drive up north I noticed Sycamore creek is way up as well as Tonto creek looks 100ft wide at Jakes Corner. I stopped at the windmill and water tank at mile marker ~234 on the north bound side of 87 and walked around the tank then started up the hill following one of the many cow trails. I noticed some interesting prints/impressions from before the rain and followed then into the bush and heavy canopy. I was walking underneath them next to bedding areas and look up and saw two ~10' sticks from the century plant in a perfect cross right over the trail, this was not normal, i turned around immediately. my boot prints stop about 100 feet from there and I left some good mud imprints. I had my day pack on and left the 357mag in the truck. First thing I thought was what I read on BFRO about BF marking trails so my instinct was to turn around and head back to the truck and come back later with an equalizer and/or another person and get a picture of this X.

3.1.2008 (pictures were taken)I had to stop at the water tank and go back to the area where the X was located. Someone or something did place them there as one was woven in the branches of a scrub cedar. The first one I've seen in a place where maybe shouldn't have been. While walking up there I spooked something in the brush and it took off like a rocket, never did see what it was nor did I find disturbed ground. There were fresh deer and other tracks all over this hillside."

The "X" is in the rear of the photo left of center

Above is a photo of a possible bedding area behindthe "X" under a cedar tree.

photo of area aroundwhere the "X" was found.

01-25-08

Heres some photos that were taken by my trail cam of some elk who passed by and a squirrel. I also am posting photos of the mouth of the trail where the tree was knocked down. I hope to get up there again soon and get photos of the "spooky" area snow permitting. I can't get into the area now because of the snow fall.

01-14-08

On November 3^rd 2007 My Father, my two year old daughter, and I were on our deer hunt in Northern Arizona. Our hunt area included the area known as area 7. This included the area north of I-40 to the South rim of the Gran Canyon and from Williams, Arizona to the west and the Navajo Reservation to the East.

We chose the area around Kendrick Peak. This area is located several miles North and West of the San Francisco Peaks and Flagstaff, Arizona. We made our camp on the South side of the Peak about a mile from the Kendrick Peak trailhead.

We had been hunting for several days without any sign except does. Two days prior we had found an old logging trail or jeep trail that was just West of Newmans Tank, a cattle stock tank that is situated on the North side of Newmans Peak, a smaller neighbor of Kendrick Peak. We had wanted to drive up this trail but the mouth of the trail was blocked by a freshly fallen White Fir. The trees there were very thick and it was impossible to see more than twenty feet up the peak where the trail ascended. The trees were all either Aspens or White Firs.

I had mentioned to my Father that I wanted to walk that trail before we left to see what I could jump. On this day we decided to try the trail. I was to walk up the trail and then turn off into the woods and return down the hill side trying to flush a buck towards my Father and Daughter waiting below. My father parked in his truck on the fire road just away from the trail mouth. I took my GMRS radio with a headset and left the other with my Father so we could keep in contact. As I reached the mouth of the trail I took several moments to examine the fir that was blocking any vehicle access. The forty foot, twenty-four inch thick fir was freshly fallen. The needles were still green and moist. And where several branches had broken off the trunk when the tree fell I could see that it was still oozing pine sap freely. I then looked at the base of the tree and observed that the tree fell with its roots intact, that is basically the tree was uprooted. I could also see that the dirt and hole where the tree had been planted was still moist but just starting to dry. This fir could not have fallen to long ago.

I climbed over the tree and began to ascend the trail which climbed straight up the face of Newman Peak. I noticed that the trail was very primitive and not well used. I was able to observe that a few quads had used the trail not very long ago as there were several newer quad tire tracks on the trail. After ascending about fifty yards the trail split with another trail heading off to the East perpendicular to this main trail. I followed the main trail and as I did so I continued to find more fallen trees across it. There were four in all at different points of the trail and each was in different ages of decay from being freshly fallen like the first fir to almost decayed and rotten. Each of these four trees was either uprooted as the fir was or snapped off at the base of the tree about six to eight inches from the ground. They all were also fallen directly next to their stump.

When I had reached about three hundred yards from the mouth of the trail I came to a point where three trees had fallen across the road in the same place. All three were lying across each other, two from one side of the trail and the third from the other. Their stacking blocked the trail with a barrier of more than three feet high. I stopped here briefly and turned around to look at the area around the barrier. On the East side of the trail I could see small fir saplings bent over to the ground all pointing to the West or towards the trail. On the West side I observed a tall X made of the trunks of two aspen trunks. The X was over 30 feet tall and the two Aspens used to make it were at least eight inches thick.

At this point my thinking changed, I began to wonder if I was not trespassing in or near the area of a Sasquatch. I climbed over the barrier of trees and noticed that the trail made a ninety degree turn towards the West. The actual turn was obscured by a thick growth of trees at the bend of the trail so as I could not see where the trail went once it turned from where I was standing.

When I reached the turn and passed the trees the trail opened up from all sides and the trail disappeared under a mass of fallen trees, branches, and boulders. I looked in awe in all four directions and observed that the forest in this location had been destroyed. An area of about a half acre appeared to be the site of a bombing or other destruction. I began to take in what I was seeing and could see that all the trees, all being white firs and aspen, inside this spot were all fallen. They were all lying over each other not in any pattern or specific direction. These trees ranged from saplings to full grown twenty-five to thirty inch thick trees. The degree of time they had fallen was also different as some of these trees were beginning to decay and ranged up to freshly fallen like the fir from the mouth of the trail.

Next I noticed that all these trees were broken off at their bases, not cut, or were uprooted. Those that were broken off from their stumps were so from ground level to about six to ten inches above it. I would estimate over a hundred trees in all were fallen in this half acre of destruction. They crisscrossed in all directions laying over one another making it nearly impossible to remove them from their locations without cutting them where they held each other down.

I began to climb over and weave my way across this place and in doing so noticed that there were basketball sized sandstone boulders mixed into the mess. I looked around to see if I could find where the boulders originated from but the forest floor was covered in its normal litter of leaves and pine needles. Where the ground could be seen I found fresh green leaves and green needles showing me that some of this had recently occurred. I could not find any place where the soil had been disturbed or any outcroppings where the rocks may have come from. I also thought that this location was a crossing for a wash or other run off location. It was not and there were no signs of erosion.

I could also see in the areas where there were fewer trees that there was a great amount of animal sign, mostly scuffs but occasionally a few discernable deer and elk tracks were observed. It appeared that the local fauna used this spot quite often.

I looked passed the mess of downed trees and could see that the forest beyond this isolated location was normal and showed no other signs equaling where I was standing. I commented on my location and its condition to my Father using the radio and he acknowledged he heard me and cautioned me to be careful.

I finally made my way across the pile of trees and found myself on the other side where a more primitive form of the same trail continued. Twenty or so yards farther the trail changed as the trees changed from an Aspen and Fir mix to mostly Ponderosa Pine. I continued my trek and then began to feel the uneasiness that something was not quite right in this place. I stopped in the trail again and looked around myself. This time I observed that there were more trees that had fallen. Here was different though. These trees appeared to be stacked against other living trees. To explain better it appeared as if someone had taken all the fallen trees from the ground and leaned them up two to three against the trunks of other living pines. I have never seen this before as was my feeling in the prior location of all the destruction.

I no longer felt comfortable continuing on this trail so I turned south and walked off into the trees towards the slope down and began my attempt to drive a buck towards my Father below me. Once I left the trail and began my decent down the side of the peak I felt as normal as I had the entire hunt and as I was before entering this trail.

I reached the truck and my Father some ten minutes later and again recounted to him what I had seen. I had forgotten my camera back in our camp and I advised him that I wanted to return tomorrow to document the destruction on the trail.

The next morning came early and I awoke with the thought and anxiousness of taking pictures of what I had experienced the day before. My Father apparently had thoughts about my intentions as well and told me that he had had a dream during the night and that I should not return to that place as it was not safe. He would not elaborate on the dream but I could see in his eyes that it upset him and he was very concerned for my safety if I tried to approach that place again.

I finally succumbed to my Fathers wishes although it upset me. I did talk him into allowing me to go to the mouth of the trail and photograph the fallen tree that was blocking the entrance. I thought about that place for some time and I can honestly say I have never seen anything in the forest as that. I cannot think of any simple or complex reason for how those trees were destroyed in the manner and design as they were except that they were purposely made to look like that. I cannot think of any person that has the strength or skill to down those trees without any form of tool or saw to assist them. None of the trees there showed any marks of tools or saws. So what could have done that or why?

In my opinion this location was possibly a barrier to keep trespassers out. The tree at the mouth being the first No trespassing sign. I have read other reports where Sasquatchs have been reported to knock trees down over trails to block the path from trespassers or to mark a trail for others. These are only theories as to why these beings would do this as we have no firsthand knowledge.

You may wonder why I believe this account may be attributed to Sasquatch and I will respond by saying that this account of what I discovered on the trail was not the only evidence we found. Throughout our weekend there we had many times where we had the feeling. That feeling someone is watching you. On the first evening at our camp we heard several single knocks and a few unknown vocals some distance from our camp site. Each of these occurrences was observed by either my Father or me at different times.