Hunter Reports Mysterious Pounding and Tied Saplings in Minnesota Woods

There's something about a seasoned hunter sharing their encounters in the deep woods that always grabs my attention, and this one really delivers. I recently came across an interview on the Sasquatch Theory YouTube channel featuring Kathleen Colina, an environmental scientist and lifelong hunter, who opens up about not one but two unsettling experiences in the northern Minnesota and Wisconsin wilderness. Kathleen's story begins about three and a half hours north of the Twin Cities in Prairie Lake Township, a remote stretch of mixed deciduous forest, swamp, and dark black spruce stands. She had leased 40 acres from the Potlatch Lumber Company and had hunted the area many times before for grouse, bear, and deer. But one particular November deer season opener turned into something she still can't explain. She and two friends drove up the night before the season opened and slept in their vehicles. Kathleen settled into the back of her truck, wrapping a tarp around the truck bed for warmth, with a foam mattress and a shotgun close by. In the middle of the night, she heard something rustling through the forest floor, moving through the leaves in a way that didn't sound like a deer or a wolf. Whatever it was made its way right up to the truck, and Kathleen watched in the darkness as it opened her tarp. When she tried to sit up, hampered by arthritis in her back, the tarp quickly closed and she heard the figure walk away. Her friends were sleeping in a van nearby, and their door would have made noise, so she knew it wasn't them. The next morning, Kathleen climbed into her deer stand about 15 feet up a birch tree and put down doe scent to attract bucks. After a couple of hours with no action, she blew a doe call. What happened next was the part that really got me. Instead of hearing a buck respond, she heard pounding on the ground from one direction, then another, then a third, forming a circle around her. Bucks typically stomp the ground when they're hidden in thick cover, but they don't pound, and they certainly don't work together. Bucks are territorial during the rut and will fight each other over a doe, so three of them cooperating made no sense at all. This went on for a long time, with the same response every time she called. Eventually, Kathleen climbed down, picked up her rifle, and went to investigate. She walked behind the thicket and found something that stopped her in her tracks. Several saplings had been pulled over and tied to the ground, forming a rounded roof-like structure large enough for something to climb inside. The description of that structure is haunting, because it echoes what many witnesses over the years have reported finding in remote wooded areas. Apparent shelters or break structures made from bent and interwoven saplings are a recurring piece of the puzzle in Sasquatch research, and they often show up in places where no human camp has been set up. Kathleen also mentions a second experience from northern Wisconsin involving a falling tree and a strange figure caught on a trail camera, though the details of that one are teased for later in the interview. What makes Kathleen's account stand out is her background. She's not someone unfamiliar with the woods. She grew up hunting with her grandfather and father, she worked as an environmental scientist in the field for Indian tribes, and she later taught college. When she says the sounds and behavior didn't match anything she knows as a hunter, that carries weight. If you're into firsthand witness accounts from people who actually spend serious time in big remote timber, this one is worth the listen. Head over to the Sasquatch Theory channel on YouTube and check out the full interview with Kathleen. She goes into much more detail than I can cover here, and her calm, matter-of-fact way of telling the story makes it all the more compelling.