bigfoot?

well I wasn't going to post this, but what the hell I have the time.

It must have been about 1994. My highschool hunting partner I have now been hunting and guiding elk hunts in Idaho with for going on 20 years. We were hunting elk just the two of us deep in the Selway wilderness of Idaho. We got dropped in by bush plane by a good friend Ray Arnold (Alnold Aviation out of McCall, Idaho) with plans to hunt for 10 days out of our backpacks.
There were no shortage of elk and I had managed a nice 6 X 7 on the second day of the hunt. It was Allen's turn, we hunted hard for the next three days but did not see a mature bull, well kindof a lie, we saw alot of mature bulls, but Allen was determined to top mine. On the morning of the fourth day about 3 miles in from base camp, we spot a "toad" across the River maybe 2 miles away deep in a canyon with a huge herd, also from this vantage point we could see 3 or 4 more satelite bulls around the main herd, and one of those was huge as well. At 10AM we decided to cross the river which was no easy task, (Salmon River), we both did a full emerge while crossing, so for the rest of the day we were wet to damp. We did not catch the herd till late in the afternoon, and could not get close enough for a shot. By now we are close to 10 miles from our base camp with slim pickin for food and drink, but overwhelmed with excitement we decided to sleep where we were with our space blankets and jackets. Just to let you know of the night we were expecting, we had been cold in our tents and bags in camp every night, with 0 degree bags. But being young and having part of my brains still undeveloped we stayed anyway. We ate what little we had started a fire, and leaned against a tree and tried to sleep. Surprisingly till about 2am we had slept pretty well. This is where I always hesitate telling this story.

A little background on me first, I grew up with a gun in my hand, and have been hunting and fishing since I was 5 years old, Killing my first deer at 8 with a .243.

I have guided elk, deer and black bear hunts for 7 years professionally in Idaho, and most of my adult life for friends. I love the woods, and not much out there scares me. I can't count the times I have slept in the woods with only what I had on only because I was on game and did not want to hike back to "the" spot the next morning. This was not a unusual event for Allen and I. But this night was to be different and change the way (and Place) we had hunted all our adult lives.

Ok, 2AM, we start hearing what we thought we Coyotes way off in the distance, but didn't really sound like any 'yotes we had heard, then we started thinking if was a mountain lion, but again the sound was different. It was still quite faint, but it woke us up. We chatted a little more about mostly strategy for the morning hunt and dosed off again. What seemed like a good snooze was only about 15 minutes, and we heard the "howl" It seemed real close, real close being in the draw below us about 600 yards away. Sounds like a long ways but this was a sound that made the hair on my neck stand up. Stopped again, not much was said between allen and I this time, we just sat there with our backs against the same tree looking into the black with guns in hand and loaded.

Now its not a howl we here but steps, heavy steps, two legs, no way it was four wrong sound. This F#$king thing was close, then the smell came (very putrid, strong urine/BO smell), now mind you we still can't see shit, but are hearing steps for a while then nothing, more steps then nothing. We never saw a thing, but the steps continued for what seemed like forever, then in the distance you could hear running, no mistaking it this time it was on two feet.

We sat there speechless for an hour or so, so we thought, and never heard another noise. There was some talk between Allen and I, but for the life of me I don't remember it. Well our hour or so must have been 4, because without another once of sleep (not even a thought of it) the sun was coming up. We went to the area where we heard the steps and looked most of the morning and never saw a thing, no prints, no sign of anything out of the norm, but we both knew what ever we heard the night before was unlike anything we ever heard again. I can't describe the scream or howl, but after looking at bigfoot sights and listening to there audio, I guess it sounded sort of like that.

I have not been back to that spot, nor did we hunt that area for the remainder of our time there. Allen ended his hunt 2 days later with a bull that mine sat inside of. It was a typical 6X6, but huge. The pack back to the landing strip took us 2 full days (24Hr days) with the 2 bulls, and Allen's bull took us a day to get to spike camp from where he shot it.

The hunt was successful, but the memories we took from that trip had nothing to do with elk hunting......

Ha ha ha! I thought you guys were the ones that stank so bad that night. I love the smell of fear in the middle of the night
 PS: Thanks for the dead Elk Carcus's. 
Bone marrow= YUM

you've become quite domesticated over the last 13 years or so........

1. Adapt or die.
2. Always leave them guessing.
    Drop, slop & sleep camping, havn't done it in years. My son Ty (16) loves it and would love to go on your deer (D zone) hunt. Its just a little to far south.

Hey , he's welcome to join if you can work it out. I think Chucke and I and maybe a few more will be going. There are still over 2000 tags left if you go to DFG directly to Purchase. Let me know.


Skyboy, Joe