YEAR: 2008

SEASON: Fall

MONTH: August

DATE: 28th - 4th

STATE: Colorado

COUNTY: Pitkin County

NEAREST TOWN: Aspen

NEAREST ROAD: Rt. 133 south east of Aspen

OBSERVED: During an elk hunt Aug.28th to Sept. 4th we were camped in the Snow Mass Wilderness area. The first two days were normal with no activity. We were just glassing for elk and fishing. After the first day of elk season my friend Jim shot his elk and that night things started to happen. That night we put some loins on an old saddle rack ( about 4' high) for lunch the next day. The next morning they were gone with no trace of anything climbing or dragging them away. The rack would not of held up to anything of weight climbing on it. It was like something had picked them up and walked away.
The next night one of the hunters was awakened by something pushing on his feet through the tent wall and asked his son if he was pushing on his feet but his son said no.
The next night I was awakened about 2:00 am by something dragging my tent. I thought I was dreaming at first but realized I was't. I grabbed for my light but the tent quit moving as I rolled over. My first thought was a bear was trying to break in but I could not hear any breathing like a bear would be easy to hear at two feet also I could not hear no moving outside the tent. I did not turn on the light hoping whatever it was if did nothing it would leave. I layed motionless till morning and never heard anything. At daylight I exited my tent and found an old elk jaw at the doorway and the tent had been moved @ 6" to 8". I checked the elk jaw and tent for teeth marks or tears but there was none. Whatever had moved the tent would had to of had hands and had to of gripped the tent by each cornerabout 6 1/2' apart because the rain fly would have been in the way.I did not tell the other two guys in camp because I didn't want them to think I was crazy.
Then as we went out to track an elk that morning as we cleared the trees by camp we heard 3 whooping typ calls from the thick pines above camp.The two hunters just looked at each other and said what the hell was that. I said I diddn't know and started walking.
That evening Jim had returned from packing his elk out so I told him what had happened. That night something spooked one of the mules so bad it was trying to get loose so we went out to check but saw nothing.
The next morning Jim and I talked about leaving and packed up camp and left with the other two hunters.

ALSO NOTICED: We did find what seemed to be a track at above 12000 feet that clearly had toes @ 12" long.Also heard something while hunting that sounded like digging sound but never saw anything.

OTHER WITNESSES: Three other people in camp

OTHER STORIES: yes my friend said there are many reports from this area

TIME AND CONDITIONS: @ 2:00 am

ENVIRONMENT: pine forest by creek and mountain ridge

A & G References: Delorme A&G Colroado page 46 C-2

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Dennis Pfohl:

The names of the witnesses have been changed in order to protect their identities as requested by them.

Spoke to the witness John on the phone and can add the following.

The first day at camp they noted an unusual skunky odor in the area.

Several comments were made by other hunters in the camp of "things with long hair" brushing up against their tents during the night.

The camp had many items including fishing poles and supplies lying around, and nothing was disturbed the entire time with the exception of the missing elk loins.

On the third night a member of the hunting party experienced something pushing hard on his feet through the tent wall in the middle of the night.

The fourth night in camp the witness was in his tent asleep when he was awakened with the sensation of movement and then realized his tent was slowly moving.
He quickly reacted by rolling over and grabbing his flashlight, but then the movement stopped. He never turned it on. Later after thinking about the event he said he thought that when he rolled over his movement was felt by the culprit and that is why it stopped. He lay awake in his tent listening unable to sleep until morning and then went out to inspect his tent and confirm if what he had experienced had really happened.
He saw that his tent had been moved approximately six to eight inches in an outward direction away from the camp center.

The ground was level in the area.The tent never collapsed during this event, and while assessing the situation that following morning John had found no tears, teeth marks or any other type of damage to the tent material that someone would expect to find if a bear or other powerful large animal would have likely left on the tent material. All the stakes he had used to stake the tent into the ground were pulled up and out in the same direction as the tent movement.

The tent is a high quality Cabellas XPG Deluxe two person tent, which includes stakes six inches long and made of T6 extruded aluminum. He also noted that immediately after the dragging had stopped, he laid still and listened but never heard anything leave the proximity of the tent, neither footsteps or breathing.

John was very perplexed as to this event. The ground was dry and fairly compact at the location. Knowing the tent had been staked into the ground using all six loops, he felt that whatever had moved his tent had to have a great amount of power in order to pull the stakes out as it did. He emphasized that he never felt a pause when the stakes caught the loops, instead the pulling action was steady and strong the entire time giving him the impression that whatever had pulled it was extremely powerful and agile since it did not tear any material in the process. This really bothered him.

Below is some additional information that was emailed to me from John after the initial interview and after asking him to include any other details he could remember...

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Dennis
After reading some of the reports there is a few things that I think are related to my report. One is someone talking about some scat that looked somewhat like horse, and that was something I forgot to put in my report. I found some scat above our camp that puzzled me I have hunted bear and many other big game animals in Canada but the scat I found looked more human like but was in segments @ 4" long. I took it for bear but it was more colored like human and did not have berries or other thing in it like a bear, also bear scat is usually in piles and this was scattered like it was walking as it was going. It was not Elk or Deer or Cat it was something I have not seen before. The other hunters saw it and did not know what it was either but I told them it was bear even though I knew it wasn't. The two guys with me think there is no way there is such a thing as bigfoot so I didn't want to look like I was crazy. We found the scat on the trail we dragged the elk out on the day before.
I'm not sure if I put in the report about the tops of trees that were broken in that area but I could stand at the bottom of the pine tree and I could just reach the bottom of the broken tops and I am 5'11". The tops were broken like someone would reach up and break the top over and you could tell it was done by something with soft hands because the tree was not scared above or below the break like an Elk would do and you could see the branches above the break was squeezed down like a hand would do.
Also that same day I could hear rocks above me like they being thrown down the rock ledge above and at that time I thought it might be Elk above but I could not see anything. I want you to know I did not go out there thinking I would run into a Bigfoot but all the things that happened really bothers me because my mind tells me that it was all something else but my heart tells me it had to be.

Thanks

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John adds the whoops they heard and described where like the 1974 sierra sounds “whoops without the knocks." http://www.bfro.net/avevid/SierraSounds/Whoop.mp3



They cut the trip short by one day due to these events, they were all uneasy and wanted to leave.

I phoned Johns friend and hunting partner Jim shortly after speaking with John. He confirmed the events to me as John described, and said that he trusted John’s observations, and that he was not the kind of person to make extraordinary claims unless it happened.

John also commented on how dark at night the location was. "You could not even see your hand in front of your face ,so how can whatever these things are, see so well in a very cluttered campsite in such dark conditions?" he said.

About BFRO Investigator Dennis Pfohl:

Dennis Pfohl is a business owner in Colorado and an avid Outdoorsman. He attended the 2004 New Mexico Expedition (Mescalero IR), 2005 New Mexico Expedition (Mescalero), 2005 California Sierras Expedition, and 2005/2008 Oklahoma exp. 2008 Texas Expedition. Organizer of the first Colorado
BFRO expedition in 2005, and organized the 06,07,08,09,10,11,12,13,14,15,16 and( non public) Colorado Expeditions.

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