Geographical Index > United States > North Carolina > Madison County > Report # 13492
(Class A)
Submitted by witness on Friday, January 6, 2006.
Family describes incidents in Pisgah Nat. Forest ; NC-06 Exped notes
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YEAR: 2005-06
SEASON: Summer MONTH: July DATE: 5th STATE: North Carolina COUNTY: Madison County LOCATION DETAILS: Edited out per request of witness and family. NEAREST TOWN: Hot Springs OBSERVED: [Editor's Note: The observation described below is Class B. The Class A observation was told by family members during the course of the on site interview. See the *investigator's comments* section of this report. The two men who had the Class A sighting do not care to type it up themselves. Their incident is so closely connected with this Class B submission from this family, that it should be combined. The men's incident is clearly Class A, so the *combined* report should show a Class A ranking. There will not be a separate report for their incident.]
It was a damp July night around 10:00 and we were staying at my Grandpa's house. My family and I had a fire going outside. We were all sitting around it talking. It rained all day so the night seemed darker than usual. The house is set on thirty wooded acres with a creek about twenty-five feet away. There aren't many houses on this mountain due to the fact that it runs with the Pisgah National Forest.
I went in the house to get the cd player. It was a very still night. We listened to a few songs; when we decided to play the Sierra Sounds cd with bigfoot recordings on it. As we listened to the cd we all became jumpy and the feeling of someone was watching us came over us. We then started hearing sounds of what sounded like saplings being broken up above us; higher up in the mountain. We just laughed it all off as nerves. Then we heard what sounded like a tree about ten inches around being broke then slide down the mountain at us. All us became scared and ran to the porch of the house for protection. When I seen my cousin run I knew it had to be something. He is in his late thirties and has grown up in the mountains. He is familiar with the animals sounds and the layout of the mountain. I don't know if it was anything or not, but it sure scared the heck out of us.
OTHER WITNESSES: There were five other people and we were all sitting around the fire. OTHER STORIES: Yes, two people (cousin and brother) two years before this were hiking up the mountain across from my Grandpa's house when they had a sighting. The got a good look at the creature before they became scared and ran down the mountain. TIME AND CONDITIONS: 10:00p.m. it was a dark damp night;it had rained all day. ENVIRONMENT: There is thick forest, mountains surround the area and there is a creek that runs through it.
Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator :Leevon Patrick:
The report above was the initial submission by the family member who contacted us first.
Her report does not mention the Class A incident. The Class A incident was described shortly after this first contact.
I began correspondence with the witness and her family beginning in February of 2006. She resides in Michigan and stated that she has relatives that live near Hot Springs, NC. Her grandfather owns a large tract of land in the mountains which serves as the meeting place for the extended family reunion, every summer. The incident she mentions above happened on one of the days of the reunion.
Because of a prior sighting, a family member had previously purchased a copy of the Sierra Sounds recordings (which has recordings of various bigfoot vocalizations, including aggressive chatter). The evening after the rain had stopped they played the Sierra Sounds CD and shortly thereafter they heard pacing on the ridge behind them at approximately 100 feet in distance. In addition to the pacing, they heard branches breaking and a tree was thrown down the ridge at them. The family left the campfire and went inside.
I also interviewed the woman's brother. He was one of the two men who had Class A sightings in August 2001, again during the family reunion on the mountain. This is the incident that got them interested in the subject originally, and led to them obtaining a copy of the Sierra Sounds recordings:
The brother and his cousin were hiking up an old logging road near the grandfather's property and decided to take a break on a bluff overlooking a ravine. A rock the size of a "volleyball" was hurled at them from above. They looked and saw a bigfoot-like animal 40 yards away staring at them. It was squatted down with its elbows on its toes. Its arms were massive and its hands were large. It was covered in reddish brown hair and its chin was tucked down. It was a girthy animal; three and a half to four feet from back to front. He said its hair was straggly and there were no visible ears. It was squatted back on its calves.
The brother and cousin ran down the mountain to the trailhead. They returned home, shaken by what they saw.
In August of 2006, BFRO investigators Leigh Culver (GA-BFRO), Jason Vogan (NC-BFRO), Nick Wamboldt (GA-BFRO) and myself (NC-BFRO) met with the family on their property. We had previously asked them to call us if more things happened around the property. They called and told us activity the night before. They wanted us to come see for ourselves the next night.
Before we arrived the family had gathered around a fire outside their home. They said they heard a wood knock several yards off into the thick treeline. The knock caused the family to go back inside the house.
When we arrived we looked around the area for anything of interest. We found a possible track on the nearby mountainside where the brother and cousin had their sighting a few years before.
Various family members told stories of rocks and logs being thrown at them.
Two weeks later a BFRO expedition (the first NC expedition) focused on this area for a few days before moving on. They eventually followed the highest ridgeline to a rainforest-like area near the Appalachian Trail where some distinctive sounds were eventually heard by most of the participants.
The Pisgah Nat. For. zone in western NC is mountainous and sparsely populated. It is north and east of Smokey Mountains National Park, which straddles the Tennessee border.
Portions of the Pisgah region get a lot of rain. Those areas are mossy and ferny and full of wildlife. The distinctive sounds on the NC expedition were heard in one of these rainforest-like zones in the high country.
A few misc. photos from the BFRO's September 2006 North Carolina expedition:
Huge bear track
Possible stick formation
About BFRO Investigator :Leevon Patrick:
Patty Lee (photo) lives in Lake County, Florida.
- B.A. in Fine Arts from the University of Colorado
- Certified Wilderness Emergency Medical Technician (WEMT)
- Traveled and camped extensively in Canada, Alaska, and Lower 48
- Former manager of a high end climbing and wilderness outfitting retailer in Virginia
- Organized the BFRO's November 2007 expedition in South Carolina
Patty attended the following BFRO expeditions:
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