A listener writes “Hi Wes, We talked about 4 years back after I heard one of these creatures barreling through the Mogollon Rim while I was fishing and whatever it was vocalized right across the creek from me. It was a primate like sound.
We were supposed to talk on the phone but I got caught up with life and it fell on the back burner. Sorry about that.
I wanted to reach back out to you because my girlfriend and I have been spending time in the region camping at some of my remote hunting spots. Interesting side note, the region where I had my first encounter is now closed by fish and wildlife, science permit only.
A couple weeks ago we had camp set up right on a ridge about 20 miles east from my first encounter. The ridge falls into a gorge where the river flows. You can’t get down to the river without serious climbing gear. To get to the ridge you have to take old forest roads up in a truck or jeep and will only see maybe a couple other hunters in the region.
I had a hammock tied off to one of the tow hooks in front of the jeep and the other side tied to a tree. I was laying in it late at night fading in and out of sleep. It was pitch black out and I didn’t hear anything. My girlfriend was fully awake in the front seat of the jeep. She starts calling my name which snaps me fully awake and I reply but she doesn’t poke her head out the driver seat window so I call to her again.
Turns out she had been hearing bipedal footsteps behind the jeep for several minutes and thought it was me. The next morning she found some small footprints in the sand in the middle of camp. I followed the tracks and they actually go down into the gorge to the point where I couldn’t follow because its too steep and dangerous.
I continued to look around and found one large track outside on the edge of my camp. Seems the adult never entered the camp and stayed on the perimeter. The adult track was about 16 inches and the heel was almost twice as wide as mine. I wear size 12.5 men’s boots. The tracks were so fresh they were both gone within 24 hours.
Something important to note, on that particular day we were only eating ocean fish. I was eating tuna and my girlfriend sardines. I can only speculate but I wonder if the smell attracted the juvenile.
A couple days go by without incident and we move farther down the ridge to a lower elevation. After moving camp we hear what sounded like coyotes, but they didn’t sound right. The end of the call devolved into a primate like growling sound and the forest went completely quiet. It was so loud i can’t even begin to explain it. There were no more sounds from frogs, insects, or birds suddenly. After a few minutes the normal forest sounds returned.
We moved camp again in the following days, and then heard primate like whaling/screaming coming out of the gorge. Then response calls started coming from other parts of the gorge farther away. The forest again went completely silent.
After that we didn’t hear anything else and it seemed whatever it was had moved on.
Thanks for your time,”