YEAR: 2013

SEASON: Summer

DATE: 8-18

STATE: Minnesota

COUNTY: Cook County

NEAREST TOWN: Grand Marais

NEAREST ROAD: The Arrowhead Trail

OBSERVED: I had gone to the Boundary Waters canoe area in Minnesota August 18, 2013 with a friend. As we were canoeing the first day, it got dark. It was around ten pm and we were in the middle of a lake when we had a rock thrown at us. It was thrown a good 150 yards from shore. Then about twenty minutes later as we back tracked to the car, we were in a small canal between two lakes and heard a strange noise that to me sounded like a cross between a gorilla and a duck. The noise was about 30 yards away from us. We heard it for about ten minutes and every time we shined our flashlights towards the sound, we could not see anything. We had been sitting there for a while due to our canoe getting stuck on rocks.

OTHER WITNESSES: Two

TIME AND CONDITIONS: Ten pm. It was dark with just flashlights

ENVIRONMENT: Lush, green. Lots of trees, water and food.

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Robert Barhite:

Jesse and his friend arrived about 8:30 pm at Little John Lake for a canoe trip. Even though there was still some daylight left, they decided to do some canoeing rather than setting up camp. They made their way across Little John Lake to a narrow, shallow channel which connects Little John Lake and John Lake, and continued onto John Lake. It was now about 10 pm. They were in the middle of the lake and about 150 yards from shore when a rock landed in the water very close to them. They shined their flashlights at the shore but didn't see anyone or anything, and the shore appeared to be desolate.

Since it was after 10 pm they decided to make their way back to the car and call it a night. While in the rocky shallows between the lakes they hear a very loud noise, "...like a cross between a gorilla and a duck." The noises were very close, but whatever was making them remained just out of the range of their flashlights. This went on for 10 mts. while they worked to free their canoe which had become grounded. The lake and and virtually all wildlife became calm, ", like a dead calm." Jesse's friend is a hunter, and he had no idea what the noises were.

Once they got to the car they bunked down for the night. Jesse said that it was very difficult to sleep as it was eerie and he had the distinct sensation of being watched, and at one point he saw a large shadow standing very close to the car window, then move away. The two left the location the next morning.

The Boundary Waters area includes more than a million acres featuring over 1200 canoe routes through over 1,000 portage-linked lakes and rivers and includes 16 hiking trails and at least 2,000 designated camping sites.

About BFRO Investigator Robert Barhite:

A native of far northeast Iowa, Robert has always had an intense interest in Bigfoot and exploring the great outdoors.

His first expedition was the 2012 BFRO Iowa Hill Country Expedition He the 2013 Iowa Big River Expedition, 2013 Oregon Cascades Expedition, 2013 Michigan Upper Peninsula Expedition, 2014 and 2015 Wisconsin Expeditions, 2014 Iowa Expedition, and the 2015 Iowa Spring Expedition. Since 2012 Robert has participated in several private expeditions in Iowa and in Wisconsin. In addition to expeditions, he has conducted numerous solo research trips in Iowa and Wisconsin throughout 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2016. And for the last two years has been a guest lecturer at the request of the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers. Robert led the 2016 Iowa Spring Expedition and is assisting with the 2016 Iowa Fall Expedition and is scouting locations across North America for 2017 expeditions, and continues to monitor activity in a long-term study location in the Midwest.