Expedition 4

That night, July 28, at about 10 p.m., while returning to their camp from ours, Angelo and Ronnie heard a call that they described as a kouk, repeated numerous items, and coming from a small, nearby wood.
As with the tockkkoiiing calls, Angelo was unable to identify these kouk calls as that of a bird, either at that time or since -- based on the description, the regional U.S. Forest Service biologist could later not identify them either -- and I predict that, just as with the tockkkoiiing calls, he never will, the reason being what Darwin and I heard in association with such calls during our recon north (see below). This same wood happened to be the abode of a female mule deer, which we named Hazel. Last year, in Bluff Creek, we were essentially forced to adopt a camp pet, another doe, which visited our camp almost daily. We called her Chestnut, and she would often spend hours in our company -- in the last week she even brought her fawns with her. Hazel was no Chestnut, however, keeping very much to herself in that wood. Even so, we have no reason to suspect that it was she making the kouk calls.

The next night, July 29, time indeterminate, Ronnie heard what he believed to be two tockkkoiiing calls near their camp by the lake. If so, they were to be the last such calls ever heard -- and the only recording we had of them, from the first visitation on the night of July 20-21, had already been taped over and lost forever. In fact, no other strange or unidentified calls or sounds were heard until Darwin and I were up north. While on that nine-day northern recon, on August 7, in a small canyon and waiting for two days of drizzle to end, I first heard, in the early morning, a large "crash" in the forest above our tent. This was near the area where Jeff Meldrum, a professional primatologist, and Mark Slack, a professional hunter/tracker, were "visited" in camp in 1997 on the first Six Rivers field project. The visitation involved rifling through a backpack, tree-knockings, and whistles. It should be noted that, as with other informants in the past, they interpreted such disturbances, especially a "crashing" quite close to them while they were resting on their return trip, as intimidation displays or signals, and a general desire for them to leave the area. While such interpretations are, of course, subjective, the presumed displays have a tendency to rapidly assume serious meaning when vulnerable individuals, alone in the wilderness and little concerned at the time with theoretical propositions, are suddenly exposed to them!

I'm not sure how high up towards the ridgeline the "crash" I heard took place. An identical "crash" occurred in the late morning, and was heard by both of us. We do not think that these "crashes" were the result of falling trees -- and no wind was blowing anyway -- as trees, when they fall, create more than a single crashing sound due to all the branches smashing individually through thick vegetation. The "crashes" we heard sounded more like individual logs or rocks being thrown through vegetation. That evening, after the rain ceased, we managed to move to another canyon, and, just as we were finally setting up a camp video night-camera before going to sleep, at 11:50 p.m., we distinctly heard a tree being knocked, just briefly. This sound came from the forest up towards the ridge, on the south side of this box canyon. Over the next hour or so, I stayed awake and continued to hear small breakings and disturbances -- but no more tree-knockings -- coming from the same area. I was very aware of this as I have extremely good hearing, and one could hear a pin drop in the stillness of that night. No visitations into camp occurred, however, and nothing was captured on the night-camera.

The next day, August 8, at 4:30 p.m., five distinct and very loud kouk calls were heard coming from the very same area on the forested canyon hill. These calls were presumed to be the same as those heard and described by Angelo and Ronnie as having been made on the night of July 28, and whose origin remains unidentified. We heard five such kouk calls, followed by what sounded like the smashing of large rocks and then small rocks crumbling. Nothing else was heard, and, again, the calls occurred too fast to be recorded. As with the "crashing" sound following the last tockkkoiiing calls I heard on the morning of July 28, the rock smashing is certainly beyond the repertoire of known bird behavior. The next day, August 9, in the afternoon, Darwin heard tree-knockings twice in another canyon we were exploring -- where we found the "beds." Unfortunately, I did not hear these, as I was talking at the time. That is the extent of the sounds we heard on the recon north.

It may seem strange to some that we would pay so much attention to such simple sounds in the wilderness. This is because, after enough experience in such an environment, one becomes very attuned and aware of what sounds to expect and what sounds not to expect. At any given time, unless it is windy and/or rainy, the wilderness is absolutely
silent, with the exception of birdcalls, which are, of course, identifiable by the knowledgeable percipient. Large mammals are rarely encountered, and the slightest sound should tell the experienced wilderness explorer that something is going on, and usually what it is that is going on. When this cannot be determined, even by highly experienced and professional hunters/trackers such as Mark Slack -- on the 1997 expedition -- then we can rightly suspect that something unusual is going on.

A good example is the rock-throwing episode in our first box canyon camp in 1997, where we were again this year. During the first days of the 1997 expedition, individual rocks were thrown down from the canyon about every half-hour or so in the early evening; the rocks did not tumble or roll down, but flew through the air until they hit other rocks. Mark was very puzzled by this phenomenon two years ago, but at first I paid little attention to it, assuming that there was a natural explanation. It was only later on that expedition, after other "things" happened, that I attached more importance to the rock throwing, but by then it was too late, as we had already moved on to the next camp. Incidentally, there was not a single instance, in this same canyon, of rock-throwing this year. If it was a "natural" occurrence in 1997, why not in 1999? All we heard in this canyon this year, twice, was small rocks rolling down a little -- probably dislodged accidentally by passing animals -- and a rockslide early one morning (see below.).

On August 15, after returning to our original camp in the first box canyon, following a three-week absence -- and the day before the final day of the expedition, when preparations were beginning to be made for leaving the Siskiyous -- several events occurred which may or may not be related. The first event was that, between 7 and 8 a.m., both Angelo and Ronnie were awakened by the sound of a rockslide in the canyon -- where the rock throwing occurred in 1997. This canyon had had many rockslides in the past, as evidenced by the multitude of rocks of all sizes at its base, but I am not sure how common these are. This slide may well have been a natural occurrence. The second event was that, in the afternoon, we hiked down the creek from this box canyon towards the Dillon drainage. Our trip was uneventful, although we found interesting, lush terrain, including flat ground with meadows and many edible plants. Curiously, this was the first time that we had ever descended down that hollow, although this was the fourth time that we had camped in the canyon above it -- and we had often wondered what was down there. It should be noted that the last "visitations" to our camp further north in 1997 actually began the night after we first hiked down a similar hollow towards the Dillon drainage. This may be coincidental, of course.

The third event was that, in the evening, we finally deployed the infamous orangutan urine. This urine was obtained from a menstruating female orang, courtesy of a major American zoo, to serve as an attractant to possible wild apes -- a wild idea, for sure! We deployed the urine on bushes and trees near an animal trail starting near a drop towards the Dillon drainage and heading towards our camp. So, on the same day, we had a rockslide, a penetration down towards the Dillon, the deployment of orang urine near a drop to the Dillon, and, finally, the last event, also related, I think, to the Dillon, which I will now relate. Again, it may all be coincidental.

That night, at about 11:30 p.m., we were still sitting around the campfire talking, having had a late dinner, with Darwin planning to soon broadcast calls all night and stay hidden behind a large rock on that same animal trail near were we had just deployed the orang urine. Suddenly, we heard a tremendous bellowing call. My own first impression was "How could we be broadcasting, when we were still sitting around the fire" -- a silly notion, of course. I myself cannot fully describe the call in technical terms. My interpretation, however, was that it came from a very powerful animal at some distance, possibly thousands of feet away, maybe even a mile, and from the southeast -- the direction of the Dillon drainage. The bellow turned into a long, drawn-out howl that lasted at least 10 or 12 seconds, and possibly 15 seconds. There was a curious pitch fibrillation towards the end of the call. After a very brief period, maybe just one or two seconds, the call was repeated. This second call was essentially identical to the first. Thus, the total duration of the two calls ranged from 20 to 30 seconds.

As Darwin is far more qualified than myself at evaluating these calls, I have asked him to provide his interpretations, which he has done as follows. He states that he heard two identical bellowing howls, each one lasting approximately 15 seconds, with a two- or three-second pause in between. Based on the volume of the calls, and the associated background distortion -- which increases rapidly as a function of both volume and distance -- he estimated that the calls originated from a point about half a mile to a mile distant, probably from near the top of a ridge to the southeast -- generally, the direction of the Dillon drainage. He states that the howls had both the volume and power of three or four opera singers, such as Pavoratti. He also states that, if a human listener had been standing directly in front of this entity when it made the howls, he or she subsequently would have had trouble hearing properly for quite some time. He estimated that the volume output of the howls at ground zero was probably in the range of 100 decibels.

He states there were five distinct components of the two calls. The first component was the initial bellow, which had a mid to low range, starting at about the second "G" below middle "C" on a piano. It then crescendoed both in volume and in pitch until, after about three seconds, it hit what he calls its peak volume and most consistent range, which represents the howl, the second and loudest component of the calls. This howl was in the mid-range of human hearing, hovering around the "D" directly above middle "C," with very strong harmonics surrounding the main pitch. Along with this consistent line, he identified a third component, a screeching sound, similar to that of the mid-range line being played through a cheap two-way radio with static, about one and half octaves higher, and with a fluctuation in pitch up and down in the range of a perfect fifth. The fourth component of the calls was a distinct underlying rumble throughout, which he interprets as being the actual vibration and rumbling of the entity's chest cavity. He estimates that the amount of rumble and power of these calls was about two or three times that of the broadcast system that we were using to propagate supposed Bigfoot calls into the environment -- and this is quite loud in itself. And, finally, he interpreted a fifth part to the calls, the endings, which lasted three or four seconds and consisted of a descending tremolo effect which decreased in volume as the pitch got lower.

The ability of a presumed hominid voice to produce two or three distinct sounds at the same time reminded Darwin of the "throat singers" of Tuva, who do much of their singing by this method, producing more than one tone and/or sound at a time. This effect is accomplished by using distinct sound chambers in the human body, namely the nasal cavity, the throat, and the chest. Used in various combinations, Darwin states, this might be how the Sasquatch accomplishes such feats of multiple simultaneous sounds. Finally, Darwin has asked me to quote his conclusion on these calls, thus: "In my opinion, after having heard audio recordings of supposed Sasquatch calls, which I myself was broadcasting in the field, and from what I know of different properties of sound, including many specific aspects of the human vocal system, having studied it for years, I can think of no animal, other than, perhaps, the purported Sasquatch, that can produce such sounds."

When we first heard the beginning of the first bellow, Angelo was about 50 feet south of where the rest of us were sitting, having gone to soak the pots and dishes in the pond. Darwin, Ronnie, and I first sat there a few seconds, speechless. I then tried to get Darwin's attention, but he ignored me, and I learnt later that he was concentrating intently on analyzing the call. At one point we all stood up, transfixed, staring up at the southern star-studded sky across which the howl was crossing. As the first howl ended, I recovered my senses a bit, and quickly told Darwin to start the digital recorder, which had sat by us every night by the campfire -- but this night, with preparations to leave, it was in the >work tent! He dashed to the tent, and ran out with it as he turned it on, but we missed recording the second call by just a few seconds.

Soon afterwards, Darwin set up the broadcast system on the large rock from which he had been planning to observe all night. We broadcast similar, purported Bigfoot calls in a southeasterly direction, but there was no response. Later, we all retired to our tents for the night, and Darwin stayed up till dawn. He then returned to the work-tent and told me he was so cold he could no longer feel his feet. He had broadcast all night, every half-hour or so, but nothing had responded. He had also manned one of the video night-cameras personally, hoping that something would come down the animal trail from the direction of the Dillon drainage towards our camp. However, to his knowledge, nothing approached the camp, and our second video night-camera, pointing to the open hill to the north of our camp, also did not film any intruder. I stayed awake all night too, but in the work-tent monitoring the seismic detectors. Detector number 3, not far from Darwin's position, did signal twice at one point, and I then heard small disturbances in the bushes in his direction. I assumed it was him, and thought nothing of it. However, he informed me at dawn that he had never left his position behind the large rock at all, and had not once stepped heavy enough to set off a detector. So, another unresolved mystery remains.

There is also an unresolved aspect to the calls we heard. After the calls ended, Angelo wondered what all the excitement was about, as he had simply interpreted them to be made by a pack of coyotes yelping and howling in unison very close to us on the hill to the north. We compared notes repeatedly over the next minutes, and days, and he was adamant that he had never heard what we described. Yet the three of us are adamant that we heard a tremendous bellowing/howling by a single entity at great distance. I have heard coyotes many times, both in Arizona and in Mexico, both singly and in packs, and I am absolutely certain that what I heard did not resemble a coyote or a pack of coyotes in the slightest. It is true that Angelo was in another part of the camp at the time, but I think that, even taking into account possible different acoustical effects, these are insufficient to explain how one percipient can report hearing something so different from three other percipients. I have no explanation for the disparity. All I can relate is what I interpreted as having heard -- which seems to correspond fully with what two other persons reported hearing. The tragedy is that we did not get a recording of the calls, despite our having with us a state-of-the- art digital recorder. Such a recording, of course, could then have been subjected to subsequent analysis by sound engineers.

Page 5 of the Expedition

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