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Geographical Index > Canada > British Columbia > Report # 15571
 
Report # 15571  (Class B)
Submitted by witness on Sunday, August 20, 2006.
Campers describe rock throwing on Forbush Lake

YEAR: 2006

SEASON: Summer

MONTH: August

DATE: 20

PROVINCE: British Columbia

COUNTRY: Canada

LOCATION DETAILS: You take the comox lake logging road it is a 45 minute drive past this lake and Willimar Lake you then have to walk up or paddle up the river to get to the mouth of Forbush Lake it takes about 30 minutes to do this.

NEAREST TOWN: Cumberland British Columbia

NEAREST ROAD: Comox lake logging road

OBSERVED: August20,2006 We were camping at Forbush lake at the far end. My wife, son and myself.

At 5:00 am this morning my son woke up and said he had heard something crossing the river behind us. We didn't think much of it as we are in the wilderness, but then I heard something throwing what sounded like very large rocks up the river about 20 yards away from our tent. We were camping at the mouth of the Puntledge river which meets Forbush lake it is open and very visable.
I got out of our tent and started to look around and heard yet another rock being thrown into the river. I hike a lot and have had many years camping in the wilderness I have never heard this sound. I got my family up and we went to our little boat because I didn't know what else to do. We rowed out from our campsite about 40 feet and heard yet another rock being thrown.
I took my flashlight and started along one side of the shore to see if I could see anything and to the right of our tent I picked up something red like a reflector shining back at us.

We remained in our boat and waited until the sun came up, we went back into shore when we could see. There was nothing there, where I had flashed my light, and my son was so scared because of this we ended up packing up right then and coming home. The only way into this lake is by boat or by hiking in, but there was no others at this lake when we came in the night before. When we reached our truck there were no other cars. You are only allowed driving between 6 pm and 6 am due to the logging trucks that are coming in and out.

OTHER WITNESSES: My wife and son.

OTHER STORIES: Yes just recently we were told that there were campers at Willemar lake the lake before this one and that something was throwing rocks at the campers and they had shot a gun up in the air the rock throwing stopped for an hour and then came back with larger rocks at the campers who then left the scene.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: 5:00 AM

ENVIRONMENT: Mouth of Puntledge river leading into forbush lake. Trees all around, it had been logged about a year ago. We were between a small little creek and this river on a river bed. This is part of or close to the Strathcona Park area/mountwashington.


Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Blaine McMillan :

I spoke to the witness and his wife at some length about their incident. I found them both to be credible and reliable. There have been numerous reports over the years from this area including several that have been cited by Dr. Bindernagel. This encounter contains elements that may be a pattern for this locale in that campers are woken to the sound of some large animal which then attempts to frighten them off by throwning rocks in their direction.

The witness told me that his son first heard something moving through the creek and then behind their tent, shortly thereafter large rocks were being hurled into the creek mouth. The frightened family bailed out of the tent and took refuge in their boat some distance from shore. The witness told me that he spotted a reflection, commonly refered to as eyeshine, near his tent which he had estimated at 7 feet from the ground. The rock throwing contined even though they were in the boat but stopped as daylight approached. Once there was enough daylight to see without a flashlight the family returned to shore and quickly broke camp.


About BFRO Investigator Blaine McMillan :