YEAR: 2019

SEASON: Summer

MONTH: July

DATE: 19

STATE: Idaho

COUNTY: Idaho County

LOCATION DETAILS: Take Forest Service road 221 south from Grangeville. Turn left on Forest Service road 444. The encounter occurred next to the Upper Gospel Lake viewpoint.

[Investigator (MM) Notes:
GPS coordinates for location: 45.626812, -115.950122

NEAREST TOWN: Grangeville, Idaho

NEAREST ROAD: Forest Road 444

OBSERVED: My fiancé and I were camping across the road from the Upper Gospel Lake overlook on the western edge of the Gospel Hump Wilderness (Coordinates: 11N 582004 E 5053188 N). We were camping in the bed of our pick-up truck underneath a tarp. During the night I awoke to the sounds of a large animal walking past the truck. My first thoughts were that it was a moose because the impacts of its feet/hooves were those of a heavy animal. I started to raise up to look and my fiance grabbed my arm and asked me to stop because she thought the animal would hear me. The interesting part of this is that she is hearing impaired. She was not hearing the animal walk by, what she told me later is that she heard the animal make a noise that she could not attribute to any animal she had ever heard. She said she felt the sound more than heard it. I should note that I never heard this sound being emitted by the animal, all I heard was the impacts of its feet. After the animal walked away I laid down figuring I missed a good chance to see a moose. Approximately 5 minutes later I heard three very distinctive wood knocks. I had never heard this sound anywhere in the outdoors before this night. The first time I heard this sound other than my encounter was on your Finding Bigfoot TV show.

ALSO NOTICED: Another thing of interest occurred the next day. WE hiked down to Lower Gospel Lake to fish and have a shore lunch. We decided to hike up to East Gospel Lake. During the first part of that hike the forest we were walking through had a disturbing, empty feeling. This was unlike any feeling I have ever experienced before that day. I have spent a lot of my life in the woods, I am a biologist by trade and a hunter. This felt very different than the normal stillness you can experience in the forest. I only had this feeling in the forest on the eastern edge of Lower Gospel Lake.

OTHER WITNESSES: My fiance and myself were the only witnesses.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: During the middle of the night, specific time is unknown.

ENVIRONMENT: We were on a ridgeline at the head of two major drainages. We were parked at the edge of a high meadow with mixed forest on three sides.

About BFRO Investigator Matthew Moneymaker:

Matthew Moneymaker is originally from the Los Feliz District of Los Angeles, California.

- Bachelor of Arts in English Literature from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA).

- Juris Doctorate (Law degree) from University of Akron School of Law

- Founder of the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization,1995.

- Writer and co-producer of the Discovery Channel documentary "Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science", 2001.

- Co-producer of the TV Series "Mysterious Encounters" for the Outdoor Life Network (OLN Channel), 2002.

- Producer of the "2003 International Bigfoot Symposium" (Willow Creek Symposium) DVD set, 2004.

- Co-host of "Finding Bigfoot" on Animal Planet Channel, 2010 - 2017.

- Current Director of the BFRO

- Available for private bigfoot expeditions and conferences. To inquire please email ContactUS@BFRO.net