On a whim, and totally unprepared, I decided to take a hike in the same area where I had my unsure encounter years ago. I was already in Elizabethton(the town below this mountain), and after gaining some free time to kill, I headed up on the mountain and down into the valley which is called "Frog Level". This area is several miles back into the Pond Mountain Wilderness via an old deteriorated logging road. The area known as Frog Level consist of dense foliage, several natural fields, many roaring streams, and lots of wildlife. I arrived at the old cleared parking area at the end of the road, and noticed two horse trailers parked there. They were the only two vehicles/trailers in the area. I parked and took off toward the same area in which I had found a suspected bigfoot nest years ago. To reach this area, one must hike an old gated logging road which crosses several streams. This area is very dense other than the old road grade. After about a 1/4 mile hike, the old road opens up the first large natural field. It is in the tree line in the far end of this field where I found the supposed bigfoot nest years ago. I saw many horse hoof prints on the way, but I didn't see ANY human boot or shoe tracks at all on the way. Arriving at the end of the field, I found a natural opening in the foliage that leads back into a cleared area in the dense foliage where the nest was located years ago. I checked the area and didn't notice anything that I would consider unusual, but I did notice some old fire rings, apparently this was considered a good spot for an overnight stay at some point. All the while I was checking this area, I had that strong feeling of being watched that you hear about so often. After checking the area thoroughly, I decided to head back out into the field and do some more looking around. I exited through the opening in the foliage, and this is when I heard the vocalization. It sounded like it came from across the creek, which was located about 50 yards away from the old nest site. The sound I heard was "Heyah ya yah ya yah" and then a quick "Snort!". The "Snort!" sounded like when you blow air through your closed lips and make them flutter. The first thing that popped into my mind was that I was hearing some sort of Native American chant. Upon hearing this, I was a little unnerved and had a very, very strong urge to turn around and leave, so I did, in a hurry. After about 50 feet of brisk walking, I stopped and said to myself "What the hell are you doing, that was some kind of vocalization!", so I bit my lip and turned around and headed straight toward where the sound came from. The sound had came from across the creek in the next natural field, and the old logging road crosses the creek right in front of where the sound had came from. I walked up to the creeks edge, and right in front of me was a set of human-like tracks leading off into the creek. Three tracks in total. The first track was good, and showed a lot of details in the toes, the second track was close to the edge of the creek and very deep and noticeable showing clearly where the toes swept up and out of the mud, the third track was just under the water in the edge of the creek, and barely visible in the sandy bottom of the creek before it got too deep to make out any detail.Whatever made them had apparently jumped out of the dense foliage on the left corner of the road and creek, and had walked through the mud in the old road and apparently crossed the creek there. I immediately scolded myself for being so unprepared this time with no camera or anything, but I new I had to find out what had made that noise. I crossed over the creek and scanned the next open field, but saw nothing. I came back across to the trackway and looked it over very good, and determined that the tracks looked very odd to be human. Very long and narrow, but not out of reach to be human, just odd. The stride was also huge, so this added to the mystique. At this time, I was having an overwhelming urge to leave. Now, the people who know me on this forum know that I am a no nonsense kind of guy. I cannot stand the romantic idealism, and I always call out BS when it's being put forth. That is why it kills me so much to have to admit this. I actually had an overwhelming urge to leave. Not just out of being unnerved, but something more. I also knew that I was totally unprepared, so I hurried back out to get my thoughts together on how to proceed. I quickly decided to wait until the next morning and come back fully loaded and take lots of pictures and take a casting of the tracks. I came back home, immediately jumped on the forum, and started seeking advice. I found some very helpful threads on how to cast a track, and the materials to use. I hopped up the next morning, made lots of phone calls trying to find a supplier of Hydrocal or something similar, hit a lot of dead ends, but finally found a Gypsum-based molding material made by USG(U.S. Gypsum) at a local supply store. I had to buy a 100lb bag, but it only cost 25 bucks. I loaded up the 4X4 with all the necessities, and headed out. I was holding my breath the whole way, hoping against hope that the tracks had survived the night. Upon arriving back at the parking area end of the old logging road, I noticed that there was no one there, no vehicles, so apparently the horse riders had left either last night, or early this morning. I gathered up all my gear, which consisted of about 40lbs of molding powder in a trash bag inside a duffel bag, a mixing can(coffee can), a stir stick, a cup for adding water, a roll of paper towels, my field notebook, sketching paper and pencil, my digital camera with plenty of disk, a big knife on my side for protection, and lots of determination. On the way back down the old gated logging road, I noticed more horse hoof prints than the day before. Arriving at the trackway, I noticed that two of the tracks were destroyed. The track that showed the toes clearest had been trampled by horse hooves. The track just under the water had been swept away by the current of the stream. But, to my delight, the deepest track had survived unscathed. This time though, I noticed that someone wearing boots had came through the area and made prints. This is the first footwear prints that I had seen. Luckily, they didn't step on the deepest track and destroy it. The human boot prints didn't even come close to being as deep as the humanlike barefoot impression. The horse hoof tracks didn't go as deep either. I thought this was intriguing. The sky looked like it could blow in a rain at any time, so I quickly took many pictures, set up my mixing can, and got to work. I measured the track, it measured in right at 11 3/4 inches long from visible end of big toe area, to back of heel. The width was 3 3/4 inches at the ball, and 2 1/2 inches at the heel. The stride measured in at approximately 56 inches, measuring from the spot where the track was destroyed by hoof prints, to the back of the good tracks' heal. I took RobUstes' written advice(a track genius in every sense of the word) and used strips of a cereal box to make a wall around the track to hold in the molding material. I used four stones to shore up the walls to keep them from sagging back. I mixed the material and got the consistency that I felt would be appropriate, and poured the track. I waited for about an hour for the material to set(it gets very hot as it sets doesn't it!), and in that time I made a sketch of the area, took notes, and took many pictures and explored the area. I didn't find anything else out of the ordinary at that time. I came back to the cast and following more good advice, I scratched the information into the top of the cast, date, time, and location. I checked a glob of casting material that had dropped on top of one of the stones and it was hard as nails, so I figured it was time to remove the finished cast. I ran my hands down into the mud under the cast and it lifted right up effortlessly. To my ultimate delight, it had actually worked, it took the print. I took the cast over to a deep spot in the creek and dipped it under the water and let it wash off. I lifted it out and was simply amazed. It was clear, and I thought I could actually see some dermals on the edge of the ball. I was very exited, this was my first footprint cast. I quickly cleaned up the area, and packed up. I headed on back out with a feeling of accomplishment and I now have the finished cast to help me tell about my experience. I want to say, on the record, that I cannot say for sure that this is a bigfoot track, and I also cannot say for sure what made the vocalization that I heard. The strong feeling of wanting to leave may have just been a general spooked feeling, nothing more. The track could be human, and the vocalization could have been humans on horseback somewhere in the area. I want to leave those options open as I am not a romantic. If I were a romantic, I would be hailing this experience as true bigfoot activity, and not even considering any other explanation. I do plan on going back to the area soon to do some heavy research. I think this is a very promising area, as there is a BFRO Class "A" report very, very close to this location. I will include some pictures that show the events of the day, and would love to hear any comments, good or bad.

Opening in foliage to first field, my pack with the molding material can be seen in the middle of the opening:

This is near the end of the first field. The arrow #1 shows the opening in the foliage to where the old nest site was located. Arrow #2 shows the opening that leads to the area where the old logging road crosses the creek, and the tracks:

Here is the muddy area where the tracks were found, this is the area where the old logging road crosses the creek:

Arrow #1 shows the track that was cast, #2 shows a human bootprint:

at last - we know what the Vol looks like!

nice cast - great story.

The photo below looks like it has the toe drag that meldrum has talked about.

C

This is the track that was cast today:

#1 shows the track, #2 shows a human bootprint, and #3 shows a horse hoof print:

This pic shows the track, and a human bootprint right beside it. Notice the difference in depths:

Another view:

Awesome man...You a romantic ? Do not make me laugh . couple of questions..regarding the vocals...and trust me I know how hard it is to describe a sound in words..but is there anything that makes it stand out in your mind as to why it possibly could be from a sas ? Pitch ? tone? volume? etc ? and percieved indication of a size based on your own voice and stature ? regarding the tracks..anything distingushable or out of the norm about the tracks themselves ? shape ? double ball...I probably should wait for the rest of the pics ..but what the hell ..

Measuring the track:

Pretty cool, Vol! Hey, did you check the cast for hairs and such before you rinsed it? Just curious.

Getting ready to pour the casting material:

Casting material in place:

very cool volsquatch ,I would start that Heavy Research TONIGHT.

It took! As you can see, there is WAY too much mud on it to make anything out at all, it would need to be rinsed to see anything at all. The mud was very thick stuck to it:

The rinsed track. Keep in mind, I just rinsed it, it still needs a lot of cleaning up to make out all the details. I am not sure how to proceed on that yet:

Awesome Vol!!

Would like to hear more about your feeling that you needed to leave. Simple adrenalin rush? Cinematic image of a dead hiker? Felt like you were about to jump out of your skin?

Fascinated and jealous...

Another view:

Another view:

Another view, showing wierd shape of toes:

Another view of the toes:

Another view:

Another view of the toes, odd:

Another good view:

Another view!

It's very suprising at how much detail this USG molding will pick up! This was stuck to the side of one of the cereal box strips, can you make out the word "Krackle"? No wonder this stuff can pick up dermals!

Fully marked:

My sketch of the area:

My equipment(on short notice):

The other side of the creek, showing the next field. This is where the vocalization sounded like it was coming from:

The tree where the nest was located years ago. It was a lean-to type thing, basically sticks leaned up against the tree, LOTS of them, to make a sortof half-teepee-type structure.

View showing tree where nest was located, and opening in foliage to get into the little clearing. It's very secluded back in there, I can see how it would be a good place to spend the night:

Butterfly party in the old parking area . When I first saw this, I thought it was MG's Bigfoot Fest '04, everyone was going crazy over a pile of crap.... :

Well....I hope I didn't break your monitor! :yuck:


Thanks C. That's one thing that stuck out to me. The toe drag. Good observation.

Wow that is way awesome! Such good detail in depth and toes! Gotta be a squatch print! See? Trust your instincts...... Great pictures Vol!
keep up the great work!



Sailgirl

Well Jim, the sound, or "vocalization", had a nasally, soft sound to it. It sounded as though someone would have to actually try and make their voice sound that way. It was very unnerving. Like I said, the first thing that popped into my mind was some kind of Native American chant. It started out slow, and then got faster toward the end, ending in the "Snort!" sound. Very wierd. The only other time I have heard anything similar was on the net somewhere, where the guy was in his van and recorded what he said was a Sasquatch talking...very fast....I can't remember where or what that report was all about. The tracks were so long and narrow that it struck me as odd. The depth compared to the horse hoof prints really got me exited. Hopefully someone can give me some good advice on cleaning this cast the rest of the way, or maybe I could send it off to be examined. That would be great!

Hey WM, there was so much mud on the cast, that you couldn't see anything. It was so thick, wet, and heavy, that it was a mess. It had to be rinsed to even handle it properly. I would guess that everything that was touching that footprint is stuck to it, as the molding material set it up pretty good.....

Hey Ace, I catch your drift, for sure

Well Spork, when I heard the vocalization, I immediately thought of a Native American for some reason. The chants that they do. Then I heard the snort, and for some reason, I just had this feeling come over me, sortof an unconcious need to leave, not to mention being unnerved a little at the thoughts of something unknown being so close, but not conciously realizing that there was something over there, it's hard to explain. So, I turned around and started walking back the way I came in. That wasn't in my plans to do that, I was going to explore some more. About 50 feet in, I sortof woke up out of my haze and that's when I realized what I was doing, and what was going on...it was wierd.

Awsome Volsquatch!!!!!

Hey, did anyone notice how the imprint looked. I refering to the how the weight is toward the toes of impression. Compare it to the boot print, look at how the boot impression is formed, heel to toe. The imprint starts toe to heel. Anyone else notice the break in the middle of the impression?

Thanks Sailgirl! But let's not go as far as to rule them Squatch prints yet....they could be Human prints

Whatever they are Vol...this is a classic example of how a good investigations should go. Not one place..not one..have you DECLARED this to be a squatch..you have just layed out what you heard, saw, found, and documented...and then leave it to us to make up our own minds.
Exemplary, Vol.

Congrat Volsquatch, That is around my stomping ground and as I can see that those creatures are still around Pomd Mounain area and in several area in Carter County. As for the vocalazation you stated and now you can see MG/ JC are right along what they been stating. Thanks for putting up that and so others can see that. A word of warning those forester are funny when you goes armed in that area. Take care and good report.

Thank you NW.

Rodney, what do imaginary BF have to do with Vols report?

Well Rodney, thanks for the kind words, but i'm afraid that it really doesn't prove anything regarding MG or JC's claims. It's funny how I can head up to that area in my spare time and find this kind of thing, and bust my butt to gather a track cast the very next day, whereas JC has reported years of bigfoot activity on her property, bigfoots tromping around all over the place on that farm, but not one time has she produced a track cast to show for it(or clear photo of a track for that matter). Hey, it's apparently not rocket science to cast a track if I can do it. As far as the vocalization, like I said before it could have been someone on horseback talking and a horse snorting, and I just heard it funny, I just can't say for sure, but I did have the wierd feelings, that's for sure. Was it just me freaking out? Can't say. And as far as the track, it could be human. As far as the "Foresters" go.....First, I wasn't "armed" up there today. I just had a legal sized knife on my side, no firearms. Secondly, I might know those "Foresters" in that district a little better than you think I do. But like I said, thanks for the kind words. Take care, and I hope you have good luck in your research as well.

Good Volsquatch can you explain what you mean you woke up out of a haze???? after hearing some vocalazation.
That is something you need to think about unless you been popping pills.

Now Rodney, I do not "pop pills", not my style. It's like I didn't pay any attention to the sound at first, but I turned around to leave for some reason, I just had the urge to do so. It wasn't in my plans to leave, I just started to leave for some reason, I know I heard the sound, and I was a little unnerved, but I really wasn't unnerved enough to just leave, that's not like me. After about 50 feet of walking, it's like I just snapped out of the state of mind I was in..and realized that what I heard might very well be some sort of vocalization. It's hard to tell what happened really. It could have been that I had my mind on so much, trying to remember what happened back in '98 with the nest and stuff, that I just was on autopilot, who knows. Is this relevant to the track I found? Can't say, and probably will never know, but I had to mention it. I wanted to include every detail of the events which led up to finding the tracks.