|
Some preliminary details about the September '05 Colorado expedition.
The expedition took place in a mountain range between Leadville, Breckenridge,
and Aspen. Old newspaper articles mentioning sightings in this area date
back over 100 years. Sightings continue into recent decades.
Seven of the participants were prior eyewitnesses. Three of the Colorado
BFRO guides had heard vocalizations in the target areas.
There are some recordings from this trip and a few photos of tracks. At
least one participants report has been submitted -- a Class B report of
the first distinctive sounds heard during the trip (click here
for that report).
There were no sightings, but there were distinct Class B incidents on
Saturday.
Everyone was present around the campfire when the camp was approached
by something knocking trees and throwing small rocks at vehicles. This
happened after a knock interchange earlier in the day, a mile or so up
the canyon from this spot.
On Saturday night a few trail cameras were set up in and near the camp,
but got nothing. Only three were working and could not cover every angle
of approach.
The image range of a trail camera with a flash is about fifteen (15) feet.
The underbrush around the camp was open enough to allow the animal to
approach from almost any direction, which the cameras could not cover.
Heavy wood/rock knocking at night, in combination with fairly accurate,
lateral, rock throwing, rules out non-primates. It rules out everything
but apes, in fact. Among the great apes, only the largest ape designs (gorilla, chimp, human, orangutans) have arms, hands, thumbs, and fingers strong
enough to make the sounds (and hurl the objects) these animals can
make, sometimes in rapid succession.
|
|
Curt Hovenac describes the knock encounter shortly after it happened.
|
