BFRO #12418: Various sounds heard during the BFRO's Jemez Mts. expedition

📍 Location

📝 Description

I am new to this stuff, so I won't even try to cover everything related to this trip. That's for others to talk about. I can tell about what I observed and heard. There were about twenty five people at the BFRO's Jemez Mts. expedition in northern New Mexico a few weeks ago. Several things happened during the expedition. I'll only describe what I observed personally, from where I was standing or sitting at the time.If you were on this trip, and you don't see me mentioning the other incidents that happened closer to your positions, then please write them up yourself. This is what I personally experienced.Pam R.Albuquerque, New Mexico[Portions below are edited by BFRO editors]Thursday, August 11th: Day : Bright and SunnyI, along with my sister our two boys, followed the expedition group along mountain roads near the first base camp to help find views over elk grazing areas where the guides could blast and listen. Several good spots were found and noted by GPS units. All of were at high elevations and had breathtaking views across vast mountain forests and canyons. The guides needed to see as many of these locations as possible while it was still light, so we kept moving most of the time. We explored these mountains for hours and only passed two other vehicles and one ranch house.Night : Rainy and WindyMost people headed out for the view locations visited during the day. My sister and another lady remained at the base camp to rest and listen for sounds in that area. Blasting at first location : Nothing heard. There was a lot of wind and rain from the west. No animals were heard responding to the blasts, not even coyotes or owls. The decision was made to move around to the east facing slope, away from the winds.Blasting at second location : We heard some things.Unlike at the first blasting location, there was very little wind and rain on this side of the mountain. The guides said the east side of the mountain would get the usual afternoon rain coming up from the Gulf of Mexico, but it was pretty sheltered from the storms blowing in from the west. There was only a slight drizzle once we got up on the east slope, and there were patches of fog hanging in the gullies. My two boys (Nick and Will), and I drove past the blasting site (#2) about 1/4 mile (using left fork in road at blasting site). One boy was asleep in the bed of the pickup truck. Around the first curve, the headlights lit up a small cloud of dust swirling in the road, as if an animal has just got off the road in a hurry. We drove slowly through the dust swirl. The ground was too rocky and gravelly for tracks. Not far beyond the swirl of dust, a bank of thick fog covered the road. We drove into the fog bank and pulled up to a clearing on the left, about 1/4 mile up the road from the blasting crew. We stopped and shut off all lights. Both boys were in the bed of the pickup truck and I was inside with the windows down. I heard nothing for a while. After a few minutes, the boys said they heard the sounds of sticks breaking inside the tree-line. The fog was too thick for us to see inside the tree-line. The source of the sound did not seem to move. There were occasional branch snapping sounds coming from one direction. This lasted for about two minutes. We could hear the blasts from down the road, but heard no responses to the blasts. After about an hour of hearing nothing more, we drove back down to the blasting team. At the blasting site I continued to listen for several minutes. I was very tired by now and cold. I needed to relieve myself, and I'm female, so I turned on a flashlight and marched up the road just far enough away to find some privacy.I walked in the opposite direction of where we had seen the dust swirl in the road. When I rounded the first curve in that direction, I was "hit" with a series of low pitched growls (about 7 or 8) that seemed to come from the tree line directly ahead of me. I stopped for a few seconds to make sure of what I was hearing. The growls were distinct, but very low pitched and just barely audible. I could feel the hum of the growls in my chest area. It seemed like I could feel the sounds better than I could hear them. Then, there was a louder growl which I could hear much better. That caused me to run back to the truck and my boys. I went toward the truck and whispered to Nick and Mike that I had been growled at. We walked back toward where I had heard the growls. On the way down Mike stopped me and said he saw movement in the brush. I heard branches snapping in the same direction. The three of us moved back to the truck and tried to call the others via the walkie-talkie.As I fiddled with the radio I heard loud moos and bellows from some cows in a gully below us. I had the impression that they were spooked by something. I got in the pickup truck to warm up. Nick walked with Mike Sedillo and the other guys down to where the leg of a young deer was found in the road. Will and I sat bundled up in the vehicle with the wind

🔍 Circumstances

About 20 people?

🌤️ Weather Conditions

2 a.m. (coyote sounds with yowling)

ℹ️ Additional Details

2 a.m. (coyote sounds with yowling)

🔗 Sources (1)

👥 Community Contributions

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