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| Those lush, thick Ouachita woods remind me of a tropical rain forest ... |
This is the third
installment chroniclin’ my time spent in the North American Wood Ape Conservancy’s
research area in the Ouachita Mountains of southeastern Oklahoma. Again, these are just a few of the things
that I personally experienced while there, and these were just from my first
trip. I would spend yet another week in
late July to hunt the next full-moon ... but I’ll get around to that trip
later. As for now, I had left-off with
me sittin’ in a cabin just before 6:00 A.M. and not the best state of
mind. I had just spent the past 3½ hours
in a tree-stand, where I was s’posed to be the hunter for an animal that had basically
turned the tables on me. I had one of
the most powerful big-game rifles cocked and tightly clutched while these
animals were basically right under me, and I friggin’ blew-it. I knew all along that these animals were
real, even before it got way too friggin’ real while sittin’ up there in that
tree. That night was like a carnival
ride; I was strapped-in and could not get off until the ride was over. But this was why I was here; so now it was
time for me to tighten-up, ‘cause losin’ it any further would just be too
costly for everyone involved. This is
how it went down:
After Alton recorded what happened, I felt
something crawling across my left cheek.
I scratched and removed a large unfed tick, mashin’ it between my
fingernails then grindin’ it into the floor.
Travis broke the silence and said that he was goin’ out on patrol, so I
asked if I could go. I thought to
myself, Hell; you just got bucked-off so the best way to remedy the situation was to hurry-up & jump back on ... and I immediately asked to
go along. He agreed and said he wanted
to do a very slow stalk, but for me to stay at least 20 to 30-yards behind him
at all times, lookin’ in all directions.
I quickly crawled outta my tree-stand harness, guzzled a bottled-water …
buckled my fanny-pack over my holster and waited for Travis to get well ahead
of me. No talkin’ and no noise, so it
was goin’ to be a slow and quiet hunt as we headed west towards the creek. I waited for Travis to get well ahead of me, then
cocked the .45-70 … placin’ my index finger over the trigger-guard. It was eerily quiet without the usual chorus
of Carolina wrens or the hauntin’ serenade of a wood-thrush to break the
silence. The mornin’ mist hung low as we
began our scout …
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| My vantage at trail's bend ... although it was much darker that mornin' on my stalk. |
After a hundred yards or so, the ATV trail
made a bend to the right and then back to the left. At that point, I briefly lost sight of Travis
for a few minutes until I finally wound my way around the bend. By the time that I got to the property gate
at the creek, I was immediately overcome by a very strong “zoo smell”. In my opinion, that meant that somethin’ was
close. I remembered thinkin’ to myself, Holy sh¡t! This animal just made its way
between Travis and me, and neither one of us heard or saw it. After crossin’ the creek, I finally caught up
with Travis who, to me … had looked like he was motionin’ me to go to the right. He stood there for a while, and then
eventually proceeded to stalk to the left down the creek. I headed to my right, along a trail that
paralleled the base of the mountain. I quietly
walked through a shallow-water crossin’, pausin’ for a couple of minutes. I was almost to the next shallow-water
crossin’ when I heard somethin’ way off in the distance … ahead and above me to
my right … possibly even up on the mountain.
What I heard was a faint but long yell, which sounded like someone
screamin’, “Aaaaaahhh …” that seemed
to continue for at least 30-seconds until it faded-out. I could not even begin to explain what this
was. It sounded as if I were in a stadium and heard someone yell; However, due to echo I could not
quite tell exactly where it had come from.
At
that exact moment, Travis radioed me … and
I just about squirted a friggin’ grape!
The ear-bud was still in my front right breast pocket, but the sound
startled me. He asked where I was, and I
whispered that I was headin’ towards the trail that went up the mountain. He then asked, “Why?” I responded that I
thought that he had signaled me to go right; in which he responded, “Nope … I signaled you to stop.” I asked where he was, and he said that he was
along the creek headin’ to the cabin. I
asked if he had heard that yell, and he replied, “Nope … all I can hear is runnin’ water.” He said that he was gonna follow the creek
and then head-back to the cabin, so I told him that I would turn around and start
the slow walk back. At this point, I was probably about 300-yards away from the cabin, but was basically on my own. Unlike hours earlier, at least now I could see ...
I slowly made it to the gate within a few
minutes, but smelled nothin’. I started
makin’ my way around the bend on the road when I noticed somethin’ standin’ in
front of me. Not 40-yards ahead was a solitary doe … just standin’ there eatin’ the grass growin’ between the ruts on
the ATV trail. We just stood there
starin’ at each other, and she didn’t seem to even care that I was there. She continued to feed, standin’ there chewin’
as her tail swished from side to side. At
that moment our silence was broken; I heard what was either a rock shift or a dull stick break off to my left,
and that doe immediately looked to her right.
She immediately froze, puttin' one front hoof down two to three times in succession. Her tail flashed and she bolted past me at
a dead-run into the woods to my right!
My heart-rate accelerated as I stood there tryin’ to see what
had startled her. She didn't mind in the least that a man with a gun had just walked-up on her, but whatever it was that she saw caused her to
flee for safer grounds!
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| My view into those thick woods from the trail ... |
I stood there for at least 5-7 minutes,
but could see no movement nor hear anything further. I continued my slow stalk back to the cabin
where I saw Travis sittin’ there watin’ on me.
I asked him if he had smelled anything at the gate, to which he replied,
no. I elaborated about the yell/cry that
I heard, and he said that he did not hear that, either. Then I told him about the doe. Tired, Travis said that he was goin’ to try
and get some sleep and that I should do the same. After he went into the cabin, I sat in front
of my tent for a while to try and decompress. I was too keyed-up from the events of the
past several hours … so no matter how I tried, I could not sleep. Alton finally
came out of the cabin and told me to get some sleep as well. I tried eatin’, thinkin’ I would carb-crash,
but that didn’t happen, either. I forced
myself into the tent and lay down on the cot, but my mind was still racin’ so I
tossed & turned for at least another hour.
The rest of my teammates were now up and had
gathered in front of my tent to discuss the previous events. The wood-knock was definitely heard by all;
however, Mason was the only one besides me that heard somethin’ smashin’ into
the pile of rocks behind their tent. I
again told of what I experienced while sittin’ in my tree-stand, as well as
what-all I had observed out on patrol. I
confessed to my teammates that I had failed; I had the perfect opportunity to
possibly take one of these animals and I simply was not able to do it. At that point … fear, anger and regret hit me
all at once and I emotionally lost it. I
was both embarrassed & ashamed of myself, and don’t remember when I finally
went into my tent to crash. I evidentially
dozed-off for a short while … gettin’ at least an hour-and-a-half’s worth of
actual sleep. I awoke sometime after noon,
and we discussed our plans to go to out of the valley to get ice, water and
check-in to folks via our cell-phones.
The plan was for me to drive, due to the fact that I had the largest vehicle,
but more so because I needed to drive in and out to better learn those
roads. I had a few loose items that
needed to be secured in the bed of my truck, such as the come-a-long, a chainsaw,
extra fuel and tools, etc. but instead opted to leave them on the porch of the cabin. We loaded our ice chests and containers for
potable water, as well as a few bags of trash and headed-out.
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| Our Oklahoma road-block; was this simply a coincidence? |
Shortly after 2:00 P.M. we departed the
valley; however, sometime after the second creek crossing, the trail was completely
blocked by a large tree-fall. I thought,
how odd; Alton & I came in on Saturday, the women on Sunday and Travis on Monday … and now we mysteriously have a large tree over the road.
I suddenly remembered that I had left the chainsaw, bottle of bar-lube,
fuel, tree-strap and come-a-long back at the cabin, but I did have 2 brand-new
tow-straps under the back seat. The tree
was semi-rotted towards the base, but strangely it fell perfectly perpendicular
across the road, which I felt was very
suspect. All of the trees on that
particular side of the road had a slight lean down the mountainside; however,
that tree mysteriously “fell” the
opposite way. I tried not to dwell on
this, but it was what it was so I didn’t feel the need to stir-up any friggin’ drama
by bringin’ it up. After we hooked-up to
it, I used my Chevy’s front tow-loops to pull the trunk in reverse to one side
of the trail, and then it took all five of us to roll it to where my truck could finally
pass.
Shortly after we finally got about halfway to the
highway, we all saw a very large turkey runnin’ down the gravel road just in front
of my truck, and ended-up seein' a couple of roadrunners as well.
We finally made it to a gas station to get some food & ice. While we decompressed … we each called
friends & family and I made it a point to check the weather. As per Weather Underground, storms with the high probability of rain would approach the followin’ evenin’
… and it was forecast to most likely rain through our departure on Friday. We left “civilization” about 5:30 P.M. for
the long, slow & bumpy ride back.
At a deeper creek crossin’ we stopped to refill our potable water,
makin’ it back to camp about 7:00 P.M.
After we unloaded, I immediately went to the tree-stand and repositioned
it … movin’ it to the left and about 2½’ higher up the tree. Once bitten, twice shy; I was still unnerved
from the previous night’s encounter. After
chow, I was told to get some sleep; however, I could not force myself to do so. Alton
made the call that I would not be
gettin’ back into any tree-stand that night.
Disappointed with my head still spinnin’ … I remember bein’ awake in my
tent ‘til well after midnight; but then, I don’t really remember much more until
later that mornin’.
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| A deeper spot in the creek to the right of the frame made a nice 8' x 10' impromptu bath tub, complete with seating. |
I had first awoke at 7:00 A.M., dozed on
and off ‘til 9:00 and didn’t wake again ‘til almost 11:00. Travis and I went to the creek to bathe. As soon as we got there, I sh¡t y’all not … there was a distant but very distinct wood-knock
off to the east. Obviously, these friggin’
animals had eyes on us the entire time we were there, watchin’ our every
move. Everything else that day was uneventful. Alton and Graham went out to still-hunt while
Travis went out on patrol, makin’ lots of noise, dischargin’ his sidearm and
yellin’ loudly. I opted for a quieter
approach, slowly strollin’ back into the woods to where we had bathed earlier
at the creek, and sat on a boulder for the next 2½ hours. Via my radio, I learned that Travis would be
sittin’ on the side of the mountain, about halfway back on my walk to the cabin. I did not see him upon my return, but he said
that he had watched me stalk past. When
Travis and Alton finally returned, Travis sighted-in 2 of the .45-70’s … and then
we all sat in the front of my tent from chow until we would retire for the
evenin’. Knowin’ of the approachin’
rain, I had pre-packed as much of my gear as possible. Everyone had said that I’d probably get more
sleep if I stayed in the cabin, but stubbornly I wanted to be in my tent for my
last night there. My mistake …
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My rock huntin' perch between the creek and the mountain ...
this spot didn't offer much cover, but gave a panoramic view. |
I had my Olympus recorder on, sittin’ on
top of a storage bin in the middle of my tent when I heard what I thought was a
rock hittin’ tin on the top of the cabin around 10:00 P.M. Upon reviewin’ this recordin’ … you could
plainly hear me yell, “Now, that was a f_#in’
rock.” My teammates said otherwise,
but due to the stress and sleep deprivation you could not have convinced me any other way.
My sudden burst of insubordination was obviously due to sleep deprivation, but I could
do nothin’ about it at that point. I was
a wreck, and as far as everyone, includin’ myself was concerned it was time for
me to get outta there. It then started
rainin’ like Hell, but by 1:00 A.M. it was friggin’ game-on again! I began to hear movement all around me, but
due to the rain … it was hard to pin-point exactly what was going on. But even in that drivin’ rain, I could hear snorin’
comin’ from the cabin, meanin’ that everyone else was zoned-out. At one point, I heard the approach of
“splash, splash, splash, splash, splash, splash, splash” as ... in my opinion,
somethin’ on two legs had just run past my tent.
It came from the east and ran west past the front of the cabin. Shortly afterwards, I heard the same friggin’
thing, but this time from behind my
tent … runnin’ from the east to the west behind the cabin. Again I thought, how in the Hell could
somethin’ do that in complete darkness … in hard rain … and not friggin’ trip over anything?
But the most excitin’ activity for me to
observe was yet to come. Somewhere between
3:30 and 4:00 A.M., I started to hear that same loud breathin’ that I had heard
directly under me while sittin’ in the tree-stand. This time, however … it was between my friggin’
tent and the cabin … mere feet from my head!
Clutchin’ my cocked Henry with my .357 at my side, I knew better than to
even attempt to fire any shots with my teammates sleepin’ just a few feet away. As loud as the rain was poundin’ on my tent …
I could distinctly hear this friggin’ animal breathin’ in and out. I was paralyzed with fear, but at the same
time abso-friggin’-lutely amazed that this was actually happenin’! Either this animal was purposely jackin’ with
me; or, because of all the noise from the drivin’ rain and the sounds of my
teammates snorin’ … it did not think that I was awake or could hear it. I nervously and repeatedly pressed the call
button on my radio, but got no response from anyone in the cabin. After what seemed like several minutes, I
finally nutted-up and forced myself to sit straight up on my cot. Although I never heard any movement outside …
the breathin’ immediately stopped. I got
off of the cot and sat in a camp chair in the middle of my tent. I was facin’ the rear of the tent when
suddenly somethin’ was flung … either water or mud, very forcibly across the
back wall of the tent. I actually saw
the moment of impact; the whole back wall
of the tent moved almost 1½’ inwards!
Needless to say, I did not get
any sleep after that.
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L to R; NAWAC investigators Shannon Graham,
Alton Higgins, Shannon Mason, Travis Lawrence
and myself before our departure from Area X ... |
Except for the rain … I heard no other
activity from my nocturnal visitors. By
first light, the rain was subsidin’ so I began breakin’ down my camp. This was a very tedious process, because I
was on-guard and constantly lookin’ in every direction with every trip to my
truck. I was the first team member to be
completely packed-up and loaded and was ready to ex-fill before 9:00 A.M. My early-bird reward was to be able to take
an impromptu “bird-bath” with the remains of some potable water, and then
dried-off and changed into some shorts and a t-shirt for my drive home. Waiting for the others to depart, I stared
through the drizzle at the mountain … still wonderin’ how these animals could
navigate such steep, rocky terrain at night.
As I stood there, I prayed in solitude and thanked the Lord that
everyone was safe, askin’ that He watch over us on our journeys home. Selfishly though … I caught my self askin’
God if I could please just see one of these animals before I left. Almost immediately I caught movement comin’
down the side of the mountain, and could see a brownish-gray figure emergin’
through the thick, wet, green vegetation. I could hear nothin' as the animal moved down the steep incline and out of the cover of greenery. Dumbfounded, I was only granted the sighting of a deer that made its way
about 30-yards from me, hastily retreatin’ back up the mountain as soon as it
caught sight of me. I took that as a
sign for me to count my blessings and to not
ask for more, especially after I had
just been given so much durin’ the
past week. I realized that I was blessed
to experience things that most ordinary people would never get to experience. We
all safely departed shortly afterwards …
While I estimate that I only got between
1½ to 1¾ hours of sleep the night before, I’d only stopped twice between
Oklahoma and League City, Texas … arriving home by 7:15 P.M. Once there, I unloaded and unpacked, fixed a
Crown & Coke … shaved and finally
took a long, much-needed hot shower.
After finishin’ my third cocktail, I was still wired from my trip. Wide awake, I couched-it in front of the TV and
was up ‘til at least 2:30 A.M. … only to be awakened before sun-rise on Fourth
of July. Our family had previous plans
to join some good friends in Crystal Beach for food, fun & fireworks. Thank God that my wife drove, even though I rarely
sleep in a vehicle. I would still not
fall asleep until well after 1:30 A.M. or so that Sunday.
After everyone else had retired, I had found myself starin' at the moon
through a cloudy night on the upstairs porch of that beach house. The couch on that porch was deep, and a stiff
gulf breeze kept the relentless skeeters at bay. I
again found myself awakened before sun-up … and my lack of sleep pattern
continued on that track for the next week or so.
Folks, this was the final installment of my first
trip to a place the North American Wood Ape Conservancy calls “Area X”. Again, I urge everyone to visit our Web site
at http://www.woodape.org and read the
NAWAC’s Ouachita Project Monograph … detailin’ several years of study performed
by our members. Remember, we ain’t
sellin’ y’all nothin’. Period. No guided trips or “Bigfoot” related
merchandise … no phishing, ads or pop-ups.
We all volunteer our time and personal finances to try and provide
definitive proof of the existence of this yet undiscovered mystery primate. Once that is finally accomplished, we will
work just as diligently to fulfill our goal of protectin’ this species and its
habitat. Meanwhile, I’ll be postin’ what-all
happened to me on my second trip in “X” … and to say that things got hairy that
trip is a bit of an understatement! Folks,
let me clarify somethin’ here; this ain’t some exercise in creative writin’ …‘cept for maybe typin’ all this in
“redneck-eze”. Not in my wildest friggin’
dreams could I even begin to make any of this sh¡t up! It has definitely taught me that there are
things out there in this world that we don’t yet understand, and we shouldn’t
take anything for granted. Hell, this
old man’s just been schooled, so remember … the
truth is still out there! Until next
time, try and keep yer eyes & ears open while runnin’ ‘round out there in
them woods. Y’all come back now, ya hear?
