I noticed a report on your website from September of 2001 at the Sand Flat campground (State of California, County of Tuolumne). The hair stood up on my neck when I read this due to the similarities with my experience. My experience occurred the same month and year at the Clark Fork campground, about one mile Southwest of Sand Flat.
My wife and I arrived at the Clark Fork campground on Thursday, September 20th 2001. This was our first ever September camping trip (we usually go in mid-August). We were surprised at how few people were in the campground compared to our 4 previous trips to this area. One factor that probably lead to the extremely low occupancy was that the 9/11 terrorist attacks had happened the week before. Out of 88 camp sites, probably only twelve were occupied. We set up our camp in the 'B loop' and settled in. The B loop is our favorite of the 2 campground loops. It has a slightly nicer setting (more pine trees, nicer bathrooms, etc.) and is closer to the 'wilderness' than the A loop. But on Sunday the 23rd, the two retiree campground hosts told us the B loop was closing for the season and that we would need to move to the A loop of we were going to stay.
After relocating to the A loop on Sunday morning we noticed that there was only two other campsites occupied. All other campers had left. One group was a young couple with two very young children, the other was two older men in their 60's or 70's with a trailer. I had never seen so few people in this area. It was really nice to practically have the whole place to ourselves. It was very quiet.
Sunday night it rained hard, and we spent most of Monday morning patching our leaky tent and drying everything out. On Monday night, we did as we always did before bed: played cards and listened to the radio. We climbed into our tent and went to bed at about 10:00 p.m.
Late that night after 2 a.m., I slowly came out of a deep sleep due to high-pitch noise which I initially thought was a wounded coyote. After I was fully awake, the noise got much louder. It was clearly a 'screaming' sound rather than howling, yipping, yelling, or shouting. The screaming appeared to be coming from the Clark Fork River area, north of the access road which leads to the campground. The sound got progressively louder and was obviously not from a canine.
I wondered if any human being could make a sound so loud, long, and hideous. The sound changed pitch and tempo many times. My wife woke up about a minute into the screaming. She asked, 'Why is that man screaming?' I had no idea what could have made such a sound but it was very unsettling. My wife said it sounded like a man was being murdered out in the forest, but then commented that a person couldn't make a sound like that. Whatever made these sounds had to have an enormous lung capacity. The screaming went on for about 5 full minutes before it stopped. I laid awake for a while, nervous and wondering what it could have been. Frankly I didn't want to know.
As I drifted off to sleep about an hour later, I was awakened by a very loud metal-on-metal 'bang' coming from the closed B loop portion of the campground. It was obvious to me that the sound was one of the bear-proof dumpster lids being lifted up and then dropped. I've heard the sound many times. Now that's fine and dandy, except that it was 3:00 a.m., bears can't open the dumpster lids, and there was no one else in the area where the sound came from. The B loop was closed. This really bothered me. I did not fall asleep until almost dawn. I laid clutching a pistol with my heart racing every time I heard a rustle outside of our tent. I refused to leave the tent until it was light.
I have heard hundreds of coyotes throughout the years, both in the Sierras and in the California desert, and this screaming was not a coyote. As for the possibility of a mountain lion making these sounds, I would bet my life that it wasn't a feline. I've heard mountain lions make some strange noises, but the bottom line is that a cat sounds like a cat. It's easy to distinguish between noises a feline, a canine, or a bear makes. The screaming that my wife and I heard was none of these.
Okay, I just spent about ten or fifteen minutes listening to the various sounds and recordings that you have to try to help me identify what we heard. I cannot say that any of the recordings sounded j...
I was camping with my dad at Bear Lake in Emigrant National Wilderness. I had just woken up from a loud strange sound, I put my boots on and got out of the tent and heard a very loud howling noise com...
I was up off old strawberry road on sunday afternoon about 4pm. Take left before you get to strawberry proper off 108. I was getting the dogs out of the truck. Its a one lane old road, there was a tur...
I was just about to go to bed for the night when I took my dog outside for a quick walk. The area around my house is very densely wooded and my backyard is so forested that it's hard to see in the dar...
I don't like talking about these things because, # 1 I don't believe in it and # 2 I do now. On Wednesday, April 8th, 2009 my cousins cows got out, which was located in Godfrey, Il. which is in Madiso...
Me and my son and daughter were hunting deer during the 2006 youth deer season. My son shot and wounded a deer and it ran into the woods. We all three went into the woods looking for it. Something sta...
Object was standing near a bush. Coloration was a gray or white. Thought it was odd for some person to be standing out in the country at that time of night. Object was about 7 foot tall....
I was driving to Wichita Falls Texas with my family. I was looking out the window and saw this big black figure running fast on two legs. It ran off a hill into a little valley. It was dark black, had...
We were riding along cherokee road in Prescot, a comunity near Moody Al.when rounding a curve we saw what looked like an ape man but humanlike exept for the hair,which was all matted and black.it was ...
Bulky Hairy (Brown Hair) being walking under the bridge. We are Tractor Trailer Drivers and both saw a bigfoot Sept. 3, 1997 3:00PM Central Time. Hwy. 406 in Hamilton, Canada. We were crossing a bridg...
We saw footprints while walking in the woods that must have been 20 inches long and found some tree branches broken down. They were originally about 15 feet high. We decided to head back to his house ...
It was about 6 am on my way to work at [R**** Ranch] when something came from the right side of the road, out of the woods, and forced me to stop or run into it. It is dark that time of morning so i...
October 1992
THE BIGFOOT REPORT FROM SQUATCHABLE.COM
SIGN UP FOR OUR FREE DAILY NEWSLETTER!
In five seconds or less, keep track of the most important Bigfoot news of the day. Squatchable's daily email newsletter features the day’s biggest stories and sightings report that matter most to readers like YOU.
Check your email!
Please check your email's SPAM or JUNK folder and confirm your subscription. It's in there somewhere!