BFRO #5123: Loud calls, rock/boulder throwing disturbs campers

📍 Location

📝 Description

Overview: Dates - Oct. 17 -20, 2002Location - Douglas County, MO near Dora, MO - Mark Twain National Forest Campground off CC Highway, North Fork, Campsite #20 (Pine loop).Evidence -Loud calls, rock/boulder throwing, footprints, displaced log in middle of lower trail, multiple incidents.Witnesses -Myself and camping partner, Carl. No other campers were in the entire park on 10/17/02. Incident #110/17/02 approx 7:30-8:00 PMAfter eating dinner my camping partner and I were sitting in front of the large camp fire facing the stream (North Fork of the White river). It was an extremely quiet night. No crickets, or locusts or frogs/toads could be heard at all. It was very quite. We were talking and listening to music. Over the music I heard an animalistic sounding call out of my right ear. I heard it twice before I asked Carl if he heard it. To me it sounded about 150 - 200 yards away, upstream and on the opposite side of the stream up on the bluffs over looking the stream. He said, "I hear something". I jumped up and turned off the music. Immediately after turning off the music we both heard a similar call from downstream approximately 50-100 yards away. It sounded as though it was coming from the upper path running parallel to the stream. The campsite (#20 - Pine Loop) was unique as it was created in the middle of the upper trail. In other words, someone walking the trail would actually walk right in the middle of the campsite. The call was very unusual. It sounded initially somewhat canine. When I first heard the second call I was unsure of my original impression of the first call coming from upstream. Carl and I are both avid outdoor/camping enthusiasts. Carl 50-60 years old and has been an outdoorsman most of his life. I am 30-40 years old and have been camping many times as a child, with Carl twice per year for the last 10 years, and with my own family. We have both heard many identifiable animal calls while in the forest. This was an animal call that was unlike anything we had ever heard, or seen on any documentary or while camping. To describe the sound this animal made is difficult. It began the call as a canine type "howl" followed by a "whoop" or "bark" repeated several times. This was NOT a coyote or wolf. The pitch was much deeper and tonal quality gave the impression of something larger than a coyote or wolf. The animal made 2-3 of these "howl/whoops" and then was silent. During the silence Carl and I speculated as to the source. We immediately ruled out coyote and wolf as we had both heard those animals in the past. We heard no movement of the animal during the silence - but we were talking/whispering to each other and could have missed any movement sounds. 30-45 seconds after the downstream calls, what we believed to be the same animal let out a call the truly defies description. The animal was now almost directly in front of us if not slightly downstream. The sound appeared to come from the lower path running parallel to the stream just in front of us. This would make the animal approx 35 yards away between the campsite and the stream. The call was another "howl/whoop" combination repeated 2-3 times. It was so loud that the echo from behind me was almost equal to the original sound in volume. It was a "blood curdling" call. Clearly the animal was either posturing or warning us. I felt the call was directed specifically to us. The call was almost human - but would have had to be a very large tall human. The depth and volume of the call indicated to me an animal of a minimum of 150 - 200 pounds. For the first time in my 38 years, an animal call triggered my "fight or flight response". I immediately picked up a large knife and felt an almost over-whelming urge to loudly scream back into the darkness and to rush toward the sound. My adrenaline was pumping. I said to Carl that I felt the sound resembled a large human imitating a wolf. That the call was very "exaggerated" and was clearly meant to scare us. We speculated that someone might be playing a hoax on us. Carl responded that he felt this was a close description of the sound. Just as he said those words, not more than 5 seconds after the end of the loud call in front of us, we heard a second animal make the SAME call from 150 yeards or so UPSTREAM. When we heard the second animal make an identical call, we knew we were not dealing with a human prank. I am a musician. The second animal was not a human being. The second animal's tonal characteristics and depth matched the first animals almost identically. We humans have such different voices. I would have been able to differentiate the two human voices from each other if it was a prank. When we heard the second animal we knew we were hearing something neither of us could explain. It was NOT human, it was NOT a coyote or wolf, it could not be explained. The second animal seemed to be giving it's location to the first. The first animal seemed "male" or parental. The second animal seemed "female". Wit

🔍 Circumstances

My camping partner, Carl.Incident #1 -We were listening to rock music (Yes, "Fragile" album, the song "Roundabout") sitting in our camping chairs. Two yard torches, two large candles and a large fire in our campsite. We were talking.

🌤️ Weather Conditions

Incident #1 Approx 8:00 PM. Partly cloudy - near full moon night.Incident #2 Approx 10:00 PM. Same weather conditionsIncident #3 Approx 2:00 AM (10/18/02) - same weather conditions - possibly slight drizzle/light rain.

ℹ️ Additional Details

Incident #1 Approx 8:00 PM. Partly cloudy - near full moon night.Incident #2 Approx 10:00 PM. Same weather conditionsIncident #3 Approx 2:00 AM (10/18/02) - same weather conditions - possibly slight drizzle/light rain.

🔗 Sources (1)

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