BOLAN LAKE OREGON

I set out to look for sign of BF near Bolan Lake, Oregon. Bolan Lake is set at about 5500’ and is approximately 30 miles southeast of Cave Junction. I walked forest service roads, as well as off trail hiking looking for prints or other signs. I was focusing on prints or actually seeing an animal, and not on gathering hair or scat. My focus was on prints because I am not very good at distinguishing hair and scats don’t yield dna and are often confused with other animals. I have relatively high-end binoculars and A “film” camera that I used during the day to scan areas as far as I could see 360 degrees. I stopped every 5 – 10 minutes to scan 360 degrees.

Bolan Lake is a 12 acre, high elevation alpine lake situated in a glacial environment. It is surrounded by old growth fir, cedar, pine hemlock, and spruce trees. There are deer, bear, pileated woodpeckers, brook trout, and several other types of wildlife residing in both the forest and lake. Wildflowers include false hellebore, yarrow, Indian paintbrush, aster, daisy, and lupine, wild rhododendron and saddlers oak. A campground is now situated alongside Bolan Lake complete with restrooms, picnic tables, and fire pits. (paraphrased from cavejunction.com)

The weather was clear, although the first night, Friday, there was a single flash of lightning from a thunderstorm over a ridge.

I found scats that appeared to be bear, cougar, and deer. There were deer tracks almost everywhere and an Oregon State Police (OSP) officer advised me that people over the years have fed the deer and they have become somewhat used to people. I saw one deer that walked near my camp but it was very skittish.

This is an established campground and although it is somewhat off the beaten path, the campground filled up by Saturday afternoon. In speaking with an OSP officer I was advised this is a very popular fishing area. There are roughly a dozen established sites with fire rings and grills.


This area is not far from the Oregon Caves, where there was a “famous” sighting a few years ago. My reason for choosing this area is it seemed more remote than the Oregon Caves. I have found several prints in another area of Southern Oregon and felt getting closer to the coast might bring additional results.


I went by myself. I was camping in the back of my truck. I was there Friday and Saturday and left early Sunday.

I got to the campground at approximately 7:30pm on Friday and fished the lake for 30 minutes and then set camp and ate dinner before 9:00pm. I did not have a fire, did not play the radio, and did not make any other noise or distraction. I went to bed in the back of my truck when it was quite dark and after approximately 30 minutes heard very audibly some “wood knocks”. The wood knocks were three or four in rapid succession and then again after a period of 30 seconds to one minute and then exactly the same but closer. This happened three times, with the last set of knocks very close to where I was camping. After 3 – 4 minutes a car entered the campground and something large ran through camp that I could hear through the brush and see a “shadow” like image. I have no idea what it was, but probably a deer or bear. I watched the people set up camp and then approximately 20 minutes later another vehicle entered the campground and they did not set up camp, but slept in their car.

The camp was much more popular than I thought it would be and filled by Saturday afternoon. I left Sunday morning.

Friday I fished and ate, and then when it became dark I listened. I did not call blast, use scents or anything else. I listened. That is when I heard the “knocks”.

Saturday I walked about one mile to the east. I walked to a spring and relatively flat rocky area and walked north/south/north in a zig-zag looking for prints and scanning the mountainsides with binoculars. This was all off-trail with map and compass. Anyone can obtain the “Oregon Caves” 7.5 minute USGS topographical map and see where I was. I was almost due east of the lake.

Saturday evening I walked a road, just outside of camp that ran north. I walked for approximately one mile. I listened for noise and scanned with binoculars.


Friday night I heard several “wood knocking” events that began a distance away and then became closer and louder. They ended just prior to a car coming into the camp. There are woodpeckers in the area and although it was very distinct, in tone and rhythm, and not what I’ve heard from a woodpecker it certainly could be explained as such.

Saturday while off-trail hiking I found one print in snow that was approximately 10” long but in the melting of the snow. Although it has a “human-like” foot shape I did not take a picture of it, as it could have been anything. I spent a considerable amount of time off-trail and did not see or hear anything of significance. There was one sound I hadn’t heard before and it started almost due north of me, five minutes later was almost due west of me and then again after a short period was almost due south of me. Although it was a unique sound to me I assume this was a bird. There were no branches breaking or sounds of something walking in the heavy underbrush.

Saturday evening while hiking on an unused forest service road (unused as it still had significant winter tree damage across the road and was impassable with even a highly modified 4x4) I found what may have been an depression in the dirt, approximately 18” long and 6” – 7” wide. At first I passed it but then noticed it was different than most of the other dirt next to the embankment where the road was cut. I took a few steps back and knelt next to it for maybe 15 seconds trying to distinguish if it was made somehow by winter snow melt/water runoff when a stone landed against the embankment. The road is cut out of the mountainside, so there is an embankment on the inside of the roadway. There are numerous trees growing along this and some rocks also at the top of the embankment where the roots of some of the trees show through, but hold back small rocks. The stone/rock that hit the embankment made an audible “thud” and then rolled down the embankment. It may have been a stone/rock that rolled from behind something and landed against the embankment, but it was odd the way it “thud” and then rolled. I did not see it prior to the sound and the sound was loud enough that my hand instinctively went to my pistol grip without hesitation. I don’t know how a small rock could have fallen, but I don’t have another explanation. The “depression” didn’t have any distinguishable detail and I kept walking.

I constantly scanned the mountainsides; both down and up the mountainside, as well as across to adjacent mountainsides and ridges. I didn’t see any animals; however there were deer tracks all along the roadway. There appeared to be very good habitat for bear or deer.

While walking back to camp I saw cougar scat, and it was old. As I was walking back up this road I heard a very low woo, woo, woo, behind me that was barely audible, more by how deep/low it was than volume. I turned to look behind me and up the mountainside and almost immediately heard the same sound in front and below me. This made me think I had somehow misheard the first sound and I immediately turned back toward the direction I was heading to look toward the second sound. After maybe five seconds of looking forward and down the mountainside I heard a branch break behind me where I originally heard the sound above and behind me.

I continued walking and heard nothing else and did not see any animals.

One other thing of note was that I met an OSP officer that was checking fishing licenses. He stated he is related to a federal employee that worked for 27 years in this area and on his 26th year saw BF cross the road in front of him while driving near this location. I didn’t ask any follow up questions about when this was, but this same officer was very familiar with the Oregon Caves incident several years ago. He was speaking with two other people about BF while I was fishing, and I overheard some of what he was telling them.

This area holds other animals, deer and bears for sure. It would likely sustain larger animals as well. This area gets much more use than I thought it would based on just looking at topo maps and trying to get an idea of a remote area. I will go to another area near there, but not to the campground again.

I have walked other wooded areas, nearer Medford/Ashland and Applegate. I feel the Bolan Lake area is more heavily treed with probably more remote lakes, springs. I think it will be a good research area.

Although I didn’t find anything of note the area seems to hold promise, as I heard some unique “knocks” and other sounds and found what may have been prints, but were in too bad of shape to really know. I plan on staying off the main roads next time and will likely camp primitively away from a campground or vehicle.

Ace since you were so close, have you checked out "Babyfoot Lake" in Kalmiopsis Wilderness Area, or anywhere else in that wilderness area near Cave Junction? Not sure how much damage is still apparent since the "Biscuit Fire" but I've heard of several possible encounters in that area. 187,000 acres of wildneress seems pretty promising.

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Picture of Babyfoot Lake from HERE.. click for more pictures and information

There's also a forest service road you can take that starts near Applegate Lake off Carberry Road that ends up at Oregon Caves. I certainly wouldn't want to attempt that myself, but with a couple of 4x4's to support each other it should be doable. Also near Applegate and just south of there are Squaw Lakes. I use to walk along the creeks etc. in that area which also appears to be a promising area. Very Spooky at night, so if you're skittish take someone with you and make sure you can run faster than them.

I camped around Squaw Lake with four others, all highschool seniors... It was the spookiest night I've ever had camping. We weren't even telling horror stories, but none of could shake the bad feeling.

Ace, sounds like you've got a bit of work to do. I agree with you that you've found an area that holds promise.

Thanks for sharing.

Hi Ace, thanks for the very complete report. Sounds like you went to several areas we went to last summer. Any pics to share? Also I noticed you didn't mention any tree breaks. Did you see any in the area?

I know the Squaw Lakes area fairly well. My wife and I spent our first or second anniversary at Squaw Lakes; Little Squaw if I remember right. East of Squaw I found a set of three tracks in "stride" I guess you'd say. I don't have the topo map handy, but it must have been near FS road 2250, near Cinnabar (I think it's the "Talent" topo map, or the next one south)???? This is what really got me interested in the subject. I've gone camping there twice since and probably wouldn't stay there by myself, as I've had one other incident there in the middle of the night that freaked me out.

Last year I found one track south of Applegate Lake, off of a road that runs kind of west or south west maybe. I actually drove up Carberry, got lost and ended up in California and then back around south of Applegate Lake where I found one very well defined track in some "silt". I've wanted to drive up Carberry to whatever the other roads are near the Oregon Caves, but haven't made the time.

I'm also somewhat familiar with some of the Biscuit Fire area, outside of O'Brien. I used to have a highly modified 4x4 that I used to take on "trail runs". I've since sold it so I don't have the opportunity to drive anything overly difficult. There is a trail, which the name escapes me, but runs from O'Brien toward the coast. It actually used to be used in transporting goods from the coast, back in the day, if I remember right. (edited to add, it's the McGrew Trail)

I saw no tree breaks that I could attribute to anything other than weather. I have to say, I'm a skeptic at heart and don't consider too much until I can at least start ruling other things out. The road to Bolan Lake was confirmed opened only about a week ago and still had snow on it as I drove. Anything I saw that could have been a tree break I would have considered snow related. I've seen tree breaks in past that were protected from wind or snow, and those I couldn't easily call something else. This time though I didn't see any tree breaks that weren't obviously weather related.

What I found out is the area to search is HUGE and there will never be enough time. I like the Bolan Lake area, and I'll probably try to take more time to search from maybe Tannen Lake and just "off-trail" hike for a week west and see if I can't find something. That'll have to be next year though, when I have some vacation built up. I'll just go for one or two nights between Ashland and O'Brien I guess, when I can.

The McGrew Trail that runs between O'Brien and the coast was one I wanted to try many times with my 4x4 out there, but never did find anyone to do it with. As you said it was used quite heavily by old covered wagons taking goods to the coast, so heavily you'll find ruts worn into the rocks from the old steel rimmed wagon wheels that can be seen until this day. From what I understand there's an old cabin of some sort at about the 1/2 way point that's open for use during inclimate weather for people to hide out in while camping.

If you follow the Little Applegate River to the east on Little Applegate Road continuing on after it turns to gravel. I use to do a lot of walking and exploring up in the area around Glade Creek, Wrangle Camp and Ashland Watershed Areas. A buddy of mine lives on Yale Creek which is off Little Applegate Road just before it turns to gravel/dirt. Of course if you're familiar with that area, you also know of Anderson Butte, which is where I lived out there. My place was 1/2 mile SW off Griffin Creek Road towards Anderson Butte Road and SE of Griffin Lane... that should confuse everyone.. LOL.

A few weeks ago I was checking out that new Microsoft Live Earth, where they have color satellite photos. I actually found my old house since the pics were colored while it's really hard to find in B&W Photos.

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I should add that shiny area you see in the middle of the picture is the metal roof on my old barn. If it wasn't for that you wouldn't know the place was there.

Moregon, that Wrangle camp area is "just" south of where I found the 3 prints in stride. I know that area pretty well, as I used to live in Talent and drive up Wagner Creek and Anderson Butte VERY often.

Is your place for sale Just kidding.

The McGrew is a nice trail. It's definitely best done with another person though in case of breakage. It's not overly difficult, but you wouldn't want to break out there and not have another vehicle help out.

Oh yeah, I did take some pictures, but not of anything in particular. Most are of my truck and then a few of the terrain.

Ace, between your comments on Squaw Lake and oregonfooter's I'm curious about your experience there. Could you share here or via pm? I am hoping to get to the general area again this summer and my interest in Squaw Lake is piqued.

I'll take a look at my maps. I fished Squaw Lake in the past a couple times, but I didn't have an experience exactly there. I did meet a woman who had a "scary" experience there. She and her husband and kids were camping alone and heard something that scared them. It was felt as much as heard she said. They could feel the "vibration" or something. She stated her husband is an avid outdoorsman/hunter and this was no animal he's ever heard or seen in the woods. I don't know anything else about her experience though.

My experiences:

I found tracks and one set was east and one was west, or possibly east and southwest of Squaw. I also found a tree break that was not weather related east of there. I'll check my maps and see if I can't give a better reference.

Thanks Ace, very interesting!

Ace, one more question. Can you get to Squaw Lake on the Bolan Lake road or is it a totally different road altogether? I don't remember seeing signs for it on the way up to Bolan.

No SoCal, they aren't really very close, well sort of as the crow flies, they aren't on the same road, or all that easy to get from one to the other. I want to say it's 50 - 60 miles apart, as the crow flies, but I'll look at my maps tonight.

Squaw Lakes is approximate 12 miles west south west from where I found three tracks. Squaw Lakes is about 5 miles east of Applegate, so it's not quite between where I found the prints and where Applegate Lake is (which is a pretty easy reference point). Where I found one print in silt that was very distinct, very good detail was southwest of Applegate Lake. This is ALL as the crow flies and not based on the roadways. I don't have a map that has Bolan and the other areas, so it would be relatively inaccurate. I'm sorry, I don't have a good way to measure from Applegate to Bolan, but I'll look for another map.

Also, this is all approximate.

Thanks Ace, I'll have to look Squaw Lake up on my Oregon map. 2q's, Is Squaw Lake in a national forest and two Applegate is not too far off I-5?

Squaw Lakes and Applegate are in the Rogue River National Forest. In reading more, I guess Rogue River and Siskiyou were combined... It's a unique area because we have the Cascades and Siskiyous coming together near there and from what I'm told it's completely unique habitat for plants and animals because of the east/west and north/south ranges that come together there (my brother is a biologist so I know a "little" about the diversity the two ranges afford). It's truly unique, or at least that's what I'm told.

http://www.fs.fed.us/r6/rogue-siskiyou/index.shtml

Squaw and Applegate are both off I-5 a ways. It's kind of difficult to explain but Applegate and Squaw are almost what I'd call sister lakes because they are so close. You have to drive by Applegate to get to Squaw. Applegate is much larger, then you take a dirt road to Squaw and just past that is Little Squaw which is smaller still. They are all very popular lakes though and during the spring/summer/fall are all very popular and somewhat crowded. If you're off the road even a quarter mile or walk any distance from the lake you can usually get away from most people. During the winter the roads become impassable and you have to walk in, but the Forest Service tends to discourage that. Once a campground is closed they consider it closed and not usuable. Basically the issue becomes one of garbage in garbage out (GIGO) and they don't have services so they don't want to be responsible for your garbage or lost hikers. Applegate and Squaw Lakes are established campgrounds. If you're familiar with some of Tom Steinstras <sp> books, Pacific Northwest Camping (or something like that) you'll get a fairly good description (although you can get it off the 'net too if you search google) and directions.

There is kind of a loop off I-5. If you get off at Ashland, Talent, Phoenix or Medford (the towns all along I-5 as you go north) you can take a highway, road, or dirt roads and end up near Applegate. I-5 runs basically south to north, but there are other roads, dirt roads, or "Jacksonville Highway"/Highway 238 which run sort of from Medford east/west and north and end up in Grants Pass, where I-5 would take you. If you get off in Medford and take Jacksonville Hwy and keep going you'll get to Ruch and from there you can take a road to Applegate Lake. If you stayed on the main highway you'd end up going all the way to Grants Pass. So, essentially 238/Jacksonville Hwy is just another way to get to Grants Pass from Medford, just not as direct or fast and has some "scenic" stuff to see I guess. I'm guessing Applegate is 20 miles from I-5 and Squaw is another 5 - 6 miles from Applegate, on a dirt/gravel road. When I say dirt road I mean dirt or gravel, usually relatively well maintain dirt road that a car can travel, but in some cases an all-wheel drive or 4x4 is better, but again a car can usually travel if slow.

I have no idea what kind of backcountry experience you have but I have most 7.5 minute maps for that immediate area. If you're familiar with reading "backpacking" maps I can suggest a few. Again, most people will drive to any place they can drive, but if they have to walk more than 1/4 mile you'll see half as many people. Make that another 1/4 mile and you'll see half again as many people. I tend to try to walk past the crowd and keep walking until I'm the last person then I know I'm where I want to be.

Edit: If you have a hard time finding Squaw on your maps it's probably because it's small. Look east of Talent or east of Medford to find Applegate. That's the larger lake and Squaw and Little Squaw are just east of Applegate.

Also, let me know when/if you head this way. I'd be happy to talk over coffee, or possibly show you Squaw, Applegate, Wagner Butte, Carberry (a road), etc., etc. Let me know too your experience in this area so I don't talk like I know something you already know. I don't want to tell you stuff you already know, or sound like a blowhard know it all, because I'm not. I've just had a couple of experiences that aren't "easily" explained.

SoCal,

I just looked at your profile and some of your prior posts. I read the Bolan Lake one. That was interesting as I walked the same forest service road. Your pics were neat since I walked the same road. I didn't take the pics your did and now seeing yours I wish I did because it was so similar.

Hey Ace, thanks for all the info on Squaw/Applegate. Squaw sounds a little crowded for a bigfoot, is it crowded all week or just on the weekends? Too bad you encountered so many people at Bolan. The first night we were there last summer if I remember correctly, we pretty much had the place to ourselves. The second night only one other tent camper was there. And if time and scheduling allows, I'd really like to get up your way and hopefully meet up, that overall area sounds promising.

socaldave- directions made easy(correct me if I'm wrong Ace) to Applegate, then Squaw Lake

Coming up from California on I-5 take the first Medford exit, turn left going over the overpass. Take first left at bottum of overpass.... Continue on until you hit Jacksonville. Once at Jacksonville(unless they've redone the routes) you'll come to a dead end(middle of J'ville).. turn right and you're on your way to Applegate. Follow signs to Applegate Lake or Res? Before the water there's a road(I'm thinking a dam) that you cross over to continue on to Squaw Lake.

It's been so long, sorry if these hinder rather than help.

I can't believe it would be too busy in the middle of the week, but then again, it's been a long time(couple of years yeah, yeah, that's the ticket)

I typed a big 'ol response and lost it, but basically, Oregonfooter gave good directions.

Thanks again oregonfooter and Ace.

I am going again to an area very near this, but possibly a little more remote. I post this to let people know if they have suggestions on gathering data, and also to let people know that I will be "calling" or making what I think might sound like a howler monkey not too long after dark and maybe again in the middle of the night or several hours before the sun rises. If you're in the area and hear an odd noise in the middle of the night it may be me, so don't get too excited right away

Hey Ace,

I was curious if you had any vocalizations in the area where you had the tree breaks(?) Was the one that you said was distant the only one you heard?? Did you get any eerie feelings before encountering the tree breaks??

Theres been some encounters near my area but with all the fires this summer I have only been able to get into one of these areas. Theres a fire there so Iam still researching an area where pine boughs were stacked in a corner as if it was a makeshift bed of an abandoned structure. I came across a young bear cub in the same area of Garden Valley and I was once told by a fellow researcher that 'if its bear country its Bigfoot Country'. It's a very isolated area thats probably 45 miles from the nearest house so I hope I am on the right track. Do you ever do any tree knocks to see if you get a response?? I have been doing that from time to time but I haven't gotten any results yet.

I appreciate any advice that you may give out.
RB

Sorry, at work, will get back to you

In the area of the tree break, no vocalizations. I don't know what a Sasquatch sounds like, so I wouldn't normally attribute a noise to one; however, I did hear wood knocks and I've heard something outside my tent that was a heavy breather, as well as some weird low noise.

It was definitely "eerie" before finding the tree break. The area was so littered with scats it was incredible. I attribute the scats to bears, but who knows. The area was up a skid road with very dense trees on both sides and was somewhat dark due to the shade the trees provided.

I've done "calls" and tree knocks, but never gotten a response. I've heard tree knocks, a weird really low "sound" of sorts, found tracks, had a small stone fall near me (maybe thrown at me...I don't know).

I've only had a bunch of "circumstantial" evidence type things happen. I guess the BFRO would classify them as class B stuff, but then again, maybe they were all something explained, like birds, bears and NBA basketball stars walking barefoot in the middle of nowhere...

Ace, thank you for sharing that experience. Loved reading it- I was getting spooked while just sitting here at my desk!

My sister-in-law and her husband live up there in that area and I think I'll be exploring near there next summer.

Wow Ace you have come across more than I have. Thats great all of your experiences sound very credible and really interesting. I haven't had any stones thrown at me nor have I heard any tree knocks. I have come across some things I wasn't able to explain but that doesn't always constitute Bigfoot activity. I have had any eerie feeling of being watched several times and I heard what I thought were whoops.

It seemed that something was making a whooping type noise in a group of willows in an area thats semi-remote. I would make a whooping type noise and it would repeat it, this went on for about 2-3 minutes. Theres another call thats referred to as the Klamath (sp?) Oregon call. This is most eerie, haunting sound I have ever heard. If I heard it while I was in the outback I am not sure how I would react but I would feel the need to run from it. Its so high pitched that I can't even think how someone would able to duplicate that sound. It sounded to me like the animal was in distress or maybe it was really angry. Either way the recording sounded pretty scary so I can't imagine being there to hear it.

I believe it can be found at bfro.net or sierrasounds.com

Anyone going near here, that wants a tag-along, drop me a note and I'll try to make it.