YEAR: 2001

SEASON: Winter

MONTH: January

DATE: Saturday

STATE: New York

COUNTY: Tioga County

LOCATION DETAILS: State land area known as "Michigan hill" in Richford , NY main road )travel out of newark valley on route 36 , you turn right of route 36 just after fishing access area. go about 1/4 mile and hang a right on michigan hill road go up th mountain approx 3 or 4 miles and hang left on access road.

NEAREST TOWN: Richford

NEAREST ROAD: route 36

OBSERVED: This is a somehat long story but i will try to shorten it the best i can without leaving out anything. I also reported this to the Western New York bigfoot association and contacted back and forth with thier director Mike George. He was suppose to come down and meet me so that i could take him out to the location this vocalization occurred , unfortunatley he never made it down. This happened to myself and my long time friend and hunting partner back in winter of 2001.
We were out grouse hunting one day in an area know as "Michigan hill" , a state owned piece of land 13,000 acres big near Richford , NY . We had hiked a mile and a half or so off the road with no luck finding any birds when we came upon a large thickly wooded gorge with a creek running through the bottom. We decided to head down the very steep hill into the gorge hoping that in the thick pine and old apple trees would be a few grouse. Once reaching the bottom and crossing over the creek we were both stopped dead in our tracks by a sound which made both of our hairs stand on end. A series of screaming growls which
i can only describe as i have before as a 700 pound hyena with a serious bad attitude had stopped twop grown men with guns instantly. i will tell you as i told the WNYBIC , I have been hunting for over twenty some years and have never , and I mean never heard anything such as this in my life.Well anyway , after two or three of these vocalizations ,which were coming from only about 30 yards away or so through the very thick trees , we decided to move a little closer. What happened then was what really put the scare into us , As we split about 10 yards apart and started to move towards the sound it seemed to move around my partner almost as if it were flanking him , when it moved you could here it walking through the snow and breaking branches and smaller tree limbs , it definitley weighed alot more than in my opinion him and i put together. We moved a little more before it vocalized a few more times and moved to our left evn farhter as if it were trying to get behind us. Needless to say with all this happening and the constant barking of the dogs from the farm up by the road we were actually getting scared and nervous, whatever was in those trees didnt want us there . after about three or four minutes i glanced over at my friend whom at that time was down on one knee with his gun shouldered as if whatever was there was heading for him . He looked at me and i motioned to him that i thought it was time to leave that area and whatever was down there and headback to the road and truck as quickly as possible. We did just that moving very quickly but cautiously, the whole time looking back over our shoulders till we made the truck. We never spoke to much about what happened but never went back to that place. A year or so later i told something of the story to another friend and huning partner of mine , he was playing with me and said "hey maybe it was bigfoot" , up until then i never thought about that at all, then one day the same friend played me some supposed recording of bigfoot that he found on the internet and my jaw dropped , a sound i hadent heard since that day a little over a year earlier was playing in front of me , belive me when i tell you the chills were enough to kil ya. I had him record the sounds and i called my hunting partner who was with me that day (he had moved to florida ) , i played the sounds over the phone and he had the same chiiling feeling. It was indeed , 100% positive , the exact same vocalizations we experienced that day hunting. A month or so later i contacted the WNYBIC and he i sent them this story along with the tape explaining that the sounds on the tape are exactly what we heard that day , i wanted to know exactly what they were. They responded with two of their own tapes which contained even more supposed bigfoot vocalizations. i could not believe i was hearing the identical sounds we heard that day , then They even top it by telling me that there have been several other sightings and vocalizations from that area and that they would like to come down and check it out for themselves , that was the last contact i had with them , a letter along with the tapes from 2/4/02.
I just wanted to share our story as i have never in all my years been a believer in a creature like this but will tell you my mind has remained totally open since then. I am not exactly sure what we heard or what was there , but i will guarantee that it was there.

ALSO NOTICED: Just teh constant dogs from a farm down the road wouldnt shut up and the total lack of grouse or for that matter any wildlife. Wierd

OTHER WITNESSES: Myself and my good friend and hunting partner , We we together hunting all day.

OTHER STORIES: Just the one from the WNYBIC , they didnt share details.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: 4:00 maybe 4:15 or so.getting a little dusky , a little darker down in the gorge area.a couple inches of snow on the ground

ENVIRONMENT: Approx 300 foot wide and 200 feet deep gorge type area , thickly wooded with pines , old apple trees , and briars . Creek running through the gorge , somewhat dark.Creek eventually comes out to a swampy area and goes under access road. A few farms down the road.

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Paul J. Mateja:

I spoke with the witness on 1/21/05. He provided the following additional information:
- The incident occurred off route 38 not route 36 as noted in the report.
- Unable to determine an exact date. It was during grouse season and could have been late Dec. 2000 or early Jan 2001. Note: grouse season for this part of NYS runs from Oct 1 - Feb 28 (reference 2004/05 hunting rules/regs).
- There was a dog at a near by farm house that barked the entire time they were hunting. In retrospect, the witness feels the dog was actually barking at something in the general area.
- That afternoon the area was oddly devoid of wildlife; normally the area is a great hunting spot.
- The witness and his friend started hunting at noon and heard the first vocalization at 4:00 p.m; it lasted no more than 10 seconds. A total of 3 or 4 vocals were heard over a 5-7 minute span. The source of the vocals was very close, perhaps 30 yards. The witness stated, "You could feel it, it was so powerful."

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