YEAR: 2000 or 01

SEASON: Spring

STATE: Tennessee

COUNTY: Grundy County

NEAREST TOWN: Tracy City

NEAREST ROAD: Highway 56

OBSERVED: A friend and I decided to go hiking on the Fiery Gizzard trail in the Spring of 2000 or 2001. We were hiking back to the trailhead through the gorge near the Fiery Gizzard creek when suddenly the woods literally erupted in the loudest screaming/whooping/whooing noise I have ever heard in my life. There was definitely more than one of whatever was making this racket because I remember hearing screaming above the background of whooping and whooing sounds. I remember thinking at the time that it sounded like one of the indian attack scenes in "The Last of the Mohicans" movie. This went on for about 5 seconds and then complete silence. I expected to hear someone laughing or running off but there was no sound of any kind. I asked my friend "What the hell was that?" He said it was probably boy scouts. There isn't a boy scout alive with the lung capacity to make the noises we heard that day and we hadn't seen many other people if any on the trail that day as I remember. Nothing else unusual occurred for the rest of the way out. I have hiked this area many times since this incident with nothing unusual happening.

ALSO NOTICED: None

OTHER WITNESSES: Two We were hiking single file not talking just concentrating on getting to the trailhead.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: Mid-afternoon, sunny calm sky.

ENVIRONMENT: Mixed forest in gorge with nearby creek

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Matt Pruitt:

The witness is an experienced outdoorsman, and an avid hiker; holding a membership to one of the more prominent hiking clubs in the state.

He and a friend were dayhiking along the Fiery Gizzard Trail, which the witness had hiked many times before. The two had noticed no other vehicles or hikers in the area when they arrived at the trailhead.

After a considerable amount of time and distance had passed, the two had focused completely on finishing the hike, and had stopped conversing with each other on their way back to the trailhead. They began descending deeper into the gorge, which consisted of quite rocky terrain. The sound of their footfalls was dampened greatly as they moved out of the leaf litter onto the rocks.

As they moved further down into the gorge, the forest around them erupted into screams and whoops that the witness described as comparable to "Indian war cries". The impetus of the sounds was one major scream that had incredible sustain, and seemed to emanate from an animal with a huge lung capacity, followed by several "whooping cries" from other individuals in the immediate environment. The vocalizations carried on for a total of four to five seconds, crescendoing into complete silence.

The witness estimated that at least two to three individuals were responsible for the vocalizations. The sounds were being generated from within a fifty to one-hundred yard radius of the witness. Neither hiker had any visual contact with whatever was making the sounds.

The two finished their hike without any other interruption.

These sounds are highly characteristic of sasquatches, in that they serve both as an intimidation to intruders, as well as a warning to each other. These sounds can not be made by any other animal that inhabits the area.

Moreover, the possibility of a perpetrated hoax on the hikers is highly unlikely, due to the fact that the terrain is quite difficult to navigate (even on the primary trail), and that there were no signs of other humans using the trail that day.

In all likelyhood, the witness and his companion ventured close to a small group of sasquatches that were already in the environment. They were able to do so by being extremely quiet, and therefore relatively uninvasive. At some point, one or more of the sasquatches were alerted to their presence, and vocalized a warning call, both to each other and the intruders.

The witness has hiked the trail several times since then, and has heard nothing out of the ordinary. He has also tried mimicking the vocalizations himself in the same area, and confided in me that he couldn't come close to the volume, or sustain that the calls had.

The gorge in the area serves as a funnel for running water sources, as well as wildlife. The terrain would be inviting to large, evasive mammals; in that it lends itself to strategic movement and avoidance of humans.

About BFRO Investigator Matt Pruitt:

Matt Pruitt grew up in the mountains of Northeast Georgia, and has been conducting active sasquatch research for several years in various parts of the country.

Matt has attended/organized the following expeditions:

North Carolina - 2007
South Carolina - 2007
North Carolina - 2008
Georgia - 2008 (Expedition Organizer)
Washington (Cascades) - 2008
Washington (Olympic Peninsula) - 2008
Georgia - 2009 (Expedition Organizer)
Washington (Cascades) - 2009
Washington (Olympic Peninsula) - 2009
Oregon - 2010 (Expedition Organizer)
Washington (Olympic Peninsula) - 2010
Georgia - 2010 (Expedition Organizer)
Oklahoma - 2011 (Expedition Organizer)
North Georgia (1) - 2011 (Expedition Organizer)
North Georgia (2) - 2011 (Expedition Organizer)
Arkansas - 2012 (Expedition Organizer)
North Georgia - 2013 (Expedition Organizer)
North Carolina - 2013 (Expedition Organizer)

Matt is a trained visual tracker. During the summer of 2007, Matt co-instructed a tracking course for BFRO members in the Southeast. In 2009, he co-instructed an updated version of the same course for BFRO members in Utah. He currently lives in Northeast Georgia.

He can be contacted at Georgia@BFRO.net