Saturday, May 20
We scheduled a brief
meeting to discuss the previous night's activities for 11 AM.
Teams trickled in from about 11:15 until 11:45. When everyone
had arrived, we went over the incidents from the first night,
and discussed how we might improve our coverage for Saturday night.
It was agreed that we should consolidate the teams into the area
near where the sounds were heard the previous evening.
View
looking Northwest from Quartz Butte. Photo by Jeff Lemley
Richard Grover, Harv Zimmel, and a few others decided to scout
the area on the south side of the Lewis River to see if it was
accessible. Several others went out for the day to do some individual
scouting. A few people went to the Ape Caves.
Rick Noll
looks for tracks in the sand along the Lewis River. Photo by
Dave Smith.
Rick
Noll arrived after most people had already left. He had been up
at the location of the previous evenings sighting, looking for
trace evidence. He had found nothing, despite 2 hours of combing
the area. Rick Noll then offered to give an inservice on how to
properly cast a track print. A few of those that were still around
took him up on the offer. Everyone had agreed to meet back at
the campground between 4 PM and 6 PM, before proceeding out to
their assigned locations.
Rick Noll
shows BFRO volunteer Tod Fossetta and his 3 children how to
properly cast a track. Photo by Dave Smith.
At
around 6 PM, Don Anderson and his friend Skip arrived from Tacoma.
They joined Harv and myself for dinner. I gave them instructions
and directions to get to their monitoring location. At 9 PM
Harv and I headed out for the evening.
We arrived at the India team position for the scheduled broadcast
at 10 PM. The
acoustics from this location were excellent, and all teams in
the broadcast area could hear the broadcast quite well. Several
coyotes calls were heard by various teams off and on as we broadcast
calls periodically.
Zimmel
and I then proceeded up the road to the Hotel position, and
broadcast several calls. We did not hear any responses.
At about 1:45 AM India team reported that they had heard something
at 1:40 AM, but had assumed that it was me playing the broadcast.
I informed them that I had not broadcast in almost 45 minutes.
He replied that what he heard sounded very similiar to the
broadcast. Noll, Smith and myself immediately departed for
the India position on Quartz Butte.
We arrived, waited and listenned, but the sounds did not continue.
Team
India (Casey Rogers (left) and Mike Willey) sitting near
their campfire. Photo by Richard Noll
After giving
the screamer ample opportunity to repeat its vocalization,
we decided to call it a night, knowing that we woud return
in a few weeks. We were satisfied with the progress on this
trip. We now had a much better idea of where to focus our
attention next time, and we had a better sense about when
to let the recording equipment record continuously, and
for how long.
