YEAR: 2012`

SEASON: Winter

MONTH: March

DATE: 3rd

STATE: Tennessee

COUNTY: Anderson County

LOCATION DETAILS: The location was where Mill Creek enters Norris Lake. There is a rock outcropping and a swampy area.

NEAREST TOWN: Andersonville/Norris

NEAREST ROAD: 61

OBSERVED: On March 3rd, 2012 something happened to me and a buddy that we can’t explain. I hadn't really thought about whether or not I believed in Bigfoot as a Biology student, but whatever this was made a believer of me. Basically, it scared the hell out of us.
Me and Clay have grown up in the Norris Lake area. We’re hunters, fishermen, backpackers, and general outdoorsmen and we’ve never encountered anything like this. Earlier that day we had decided to take my four wheeler up the lake approximately five miles from my house to a clearing and build a fire. We got to the clearing around 9:30. We kept hearing two owls hoot at each other from across the lake and we both kept hearing something moving in the tree line sixty yards from our fire. We quickly dismissed the footsteps as being a deer and as the night progressed the wind started to blow really hard.

At 11 pm the wind started to die down a little bit and I noticed that the woods were totally silent. The owls had stopped hooting and the water wasn’t white capping anymore. Around midnight we decided to leave and as we stood up we heard these sounds in the woods like sticks breaking. We knew that if it were a deer we would have spooked it a long time ago. I felt eyes on me and for some reason I had this random notion to make a wood knock. I had seen the Finding Bigfoot show and thought maybe I can get a response out of whatever was in the woods. I picked up a piece of cedar from the wood pile and knocked it against a cypress tree. We waited for the echoes to clear and while I didn’t hear anything Clay stood straight up and started breathing heavy saying he heard a knock back. I thought he was lying, but soon after became a believer. I knocked again and this time I heard three distinctive knocks back. There’s no way it could have been an echo because the reply came long after the echoes cleared. I suddenly got scared- like shaking. I knocked again and let out a “whooping” call. We got one distinctive knock back and then we heard this growl… this horrible growl. It was guttural and yet somehow primate like. It was like a monkey whooping and a deep snarl at the same time—almost like whatever made it was using two sets of vocal chords.
We started freaking out, but we really wanted to figure out what it was, so we jumped on my four wheeler and rode towards the sound. We stopped periodically, but never heard anything. What was strange was that we both felt strongly like something was watching us. I mean that feeling alone was terrifying because it just felt like pure hatred. We ended up riding back to my house without actually seeing the creature, but whatever it was- it was angry that we were there and it absolutely hated us. True story- no joke whatsoever.

ALSO NOTICED: Owls were communicating back and forth across the lake, but stopped hooting just moments before the incident.

OTHER WITNESSES: Josh and Clay. Two witnesses sitting around a fire chewing tobacco.

OTHER STORIES: We have a friend named Blake who reported an incident in Clinton Tennessee in 2003.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: Footsteps between 9:30 and 10:30 pm. Knocks and growl sometime around 11 pm. Skies were partly cloudy with winds blowing between 7 and 12 mph. The moon was extremely bright.

ENVIRONMENT: The area is Appalachian forest. But the area where we were is usually under water in the summer because water levels drop in the winter. The terrain is very mountainous.

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Ashlan Yost:

After speaking with the witness via phone, I have additional details to add to this report.

The witness lives fairly close to the area where this report occurred. Being an avid backpacker, rock climber, and biology student, he is quite familiar with the area and the wildlife here. He recalled that the first sound the two heard was as they were in route to the clearing where they planned to build the fire. They had stopped to check on one of the tires of the four-wheeler they were driving. When they stopped they were able to hear heavy footfalls approximately sixty yards away from them. Whatever was making the sound was not in their field of vision. The witness emphasized how deliberate and bipedal the footfall sounded. After checking the tire, the two men continued to their destination where they built a very large fire. The witness recalled how cold it was that night, between twenty-eight and thirty degrees. He remembered the wind howling and that storm clouds were blowing in. He believes that it either snowed or rained the day after this occurred. Even with the loud wind, the two men could hear something pacing back and forth just in the trees beyond their camp. He estimated that the pacing went on for around twenty minutes. Again he estimated whatever was pacing to be approximately sixty yards away from them. The distance it was pacing was an area approximately forty yards in width. It was at this point that he decided to make his first attempt at knocking. After the knock, the witness said he heard nothing, though his friend started to shake. His friend thought that he had heard a response and prompted the witness to knock a second time. This time he knocked three times. After approximately thirty seconds, the pair heard three distinct knocks in response. The two men began to feel somewhat nervous at that point, but decided to knock an additional three times. At this point they heard one final knock followed by a deep guttural growl. The witness emphasized that he has never heard anything like that before. He described how deep, loud, and long it was. He believed it could have lasted up to eight seconds. The two men decided they should get on the four-wheeler and try to find the source of the growl. They drove in the general direction they believed the sound to have originated from, but never heard or saw anything else. They both began to feel uneasy, and decided to put their fire out and leave.

Since that encounter, the witness has returned to the location, but only feels uneasy at night. The witness returned several days after this incident with some other individuals to "look around." Close to the clearing where they had built the fire, they found a pond surrounded by a muddy bank. In the mud they found a large bare footprint. They proceeded to cast the track and the witness is not in possession of the cast. It was also noted that this track was found in a very desolate area when the weather was at or below freezing. The photo was not clear enough to add to this report unfortunately.

Since this incident the witness has felt compelled to start researching other potential reports. He hopes to learn more about what happened to him that night.

About BFRO Investigator Ashlan Yost:

Ashlan Yost was born and raised in East Tennessee. She has spent a great deal of time hiking and camping in remote areas.She has also spent a considerable amount of time in remote upstate New York. She has had a life-long fascination with animals, particularly wildlife. She is a licensed Veterinary Technician, practicing in the state of Tennessee. Ashlan began researching the sasquatch phenomenon ~2005. Attended:
2010 Tennessee BFRO Expedition
2011 Tennessee BFRO Expedition
2013 Kentucky BFRO Expedition
2013 West Virginia BFRO Expedition
Numerous private Expeditions.
Her main interest in the subject involves evidence such as tracks, scat, and hair samples. She also has a distinct interest in animal behavior.

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