This weekend I'd like to get out and explore a little. There are a couple sighting incident areas that have interested me for a while, and if I could get a more defined area of where any of them happened I'd like to take a look around. Both incidents are cataloged on the GCBRO, and one is also on the SRI site. If the locations should be kept somewhat secret you could PM me if you know of more specific location details. Both sightings were from quite a while back, but I'd still like to see the areas 1st hand.

The 1st incident was in Crawford County.

Incident Description:(as I stated above-I have previously posted this sighting in the GCBRO site-I'm going to state HERE what I stated THERE, as I spent a good deal of time writing that as accuratly as I could)

I used to live near Grayling Michigan, which is home to an enormous Michigan National Guard training area. This is fairly secluded wilderness.

About 8 miles from my home, back into the training area was a lake I called 'Lonesome Lake'-I don't know if this small lake even has a proper name. It should show up on land sat maps though, it's in a fairly deep (for the area) forested valley. I always kind of thought it looked like a crater lake.

Around one side of this lake is a one lane trail, accessible only by ORV's or 4 wheel drives. It's one lane, you have to go to the end to turn around, or you have to back out. Apx halfway down the lakeshore trail it takes a hard right around a finger of hill. (ie: you cant see around the corner)

I was flyfishing in a float tube. I had just seen an osprey-which was a pretty rare sight-the only time I've ever seen one as a matter of fact. Right after I saw the osprey, the wind changed. (wind is significant when you're fishing in a float tube) IMMEDIETLY upon the wind changing, I heard the sound of a big animal moving about in the brush, apx 150 yards away-directly in front of me. I thought that it was probably a deer or perhaps a bear, and I was going to get to see it come to the water for a drink. The brush-movement noises stopped after a few minutes, so I whistled really loud. (sometimes this will attract, or at least make animals curious) This proved to be a bad idea.

The animal screamed at me. Very very loud. Loud enough, at apx 150 yards, that it was just a scream-loud white noise. Scared me to death. I've been a sportsman my whole life, and have never heard anything remotely like this-it was truly frightening.

I started 'paddling' back to the shore to my truck, I had suddenly decided I didn't want to fish anymore. I made it about halfway back to shore, when it screamed again. It wasn't quite as loud as the first time, but it was still plenty loud enough to raise my hackles. At the end of this second scream, there was a kind of 'tapering off' noise. At the time it sounded like that weird muttering noise that porcupines make. Kind of a gibberish, that almost sounds like words-but not quite. I have since decided that it sounds like a foreign language played at a too-fast speed on a record player. Whatever it was, it scared me even worse. I DID NOT want to meet whatever it was making that noise.

As I get almost to shore, I can hear whatever it was making it's way through the brush on the other side of the lake. It was making it's way towards the one-lane trail on the lakeshore. As I get out of the water and throw my stuff in the back of the truck, I can still hear it moving towards the trail, and occasionally making that weird muttering noise. NOTE: I couldn't actually SEE anything, for 2 reasons. One-at this point it's still a good hundred yards away, in thick brush, and on the other side of the 'finger' coming down off the hill. And, 2-I wasn't LOOKING for it. I didn't want to see it. Every hair on my body was standing on end!

I jumped in the truck, went to the end of the trail to the turn around, turned around, and came back to the 'finger' of the hill. I was very frightened, and it was very important to me to NOT SEE whatever it was. I can't explain WHY, but I did not want to see it. When I got the truck to the 'finger', I stopped. I shut the motor off, and rolled down the window and listened. I couldn't hear anything, so I honked the horn. Immedietly after honking the horn I could hear very distinct and very definitely bipedal footsteps about 30 feet away, around the 'finger' in the wet sand. That was enough for me, I was in definite panic mode-not ashamed to admit it, I was scared to death. I started the truck, revved the engine really loud, and just fired around that corner. There was nothing there, except maybe 20 or so footprints in the wet sand. They were human-shaped, and about 2 inches deep (into the sand). That's about all I can tell you about the footprints, I wasn't hanging around to check them out-I really only saw them as I drove over them. I was scared to even LOOK into the brush y hillside going up on my left. I get to the end of the lakeshore trail where it meets the main trail, and couldn't make the turn-I was going too fast, and I dug into the sand. I couldn't get the truck to move, so I jumped out and turned the lockouts. I get back in the truck, just as I closed the door-the thing screamed again, about 50 feet away. Very very loud. I got the truck unstuck, and started up the hill.

As I'm driving up the hill, my eyes were GLUED to the rearview mirror-just as I reached the top of the hill, about 100 feet from the lakeshore trail exit I'd just come out of) I see it walk right to the edge of the trail. It was under the shade of some trees, and perhaps thought it was hidden in the shadow-but it was 'backlit' by the light colored sand behind it. I actually stopped at the top of the hill and turned around in my seat to look at it. I would say close to seven feet tall, perhaps a bit shorter than that. Very broad across the shoulders and chest, no neck, pointy head. We looked at each other for a few seconds (the longest couple seconds of my life) and I got the hell out of there. I say 'we looked at each other' but I couldn't see it's eyes, I can remember the sunlight shining off it's brow though.


I didn't notice the smell until I'd got home. My dog wouldn't get anywhere near the truck for a few days afterward, and he LOVED to go riding. It was a putrid bad body odor smell.

From this I know that the sighting was in Crawford County, on Camp Grayling land, and on a small trout lake that was shaped like a C. Initially I thought that this was probably east of Grayling, but looking at the topo of the extended area, it could be a very large area surrounding Grayling.

That unfortunately is all I have time to say this morning. I have to get to work. I'll follow up with the 2nd sighting area I'd like to identify this evening.

How did it go??

(That sighting in Crawford County sounds scary!!)

I didn't know where to start looking because of the large amount of land involved.

I opted to get outdoors and do a little fishing instead. That was enjoyable.

After I wrote this post I 2nd guessed myself in whether I should even be asking the location question. Yes, this happened quite a ways back. Yes, there is a better chance of discovering something by retracing another person's footprints. However by asking the question on a public forum there is a possibility of having more exposure to an area than what is healthy. That is why I didn't follow up with my 2nd location question.

I have actually fished in an area that somewhat fit's the location description, but I'm pretty certain that it's outside of the National Guard territory. Perhaps I'll stumble on the location one of these years.

Hey, fishing is a good thing.
Thanks for the followup!