A listener writes “I live and bowhunt in Alberta. Back in the fall of 2011, I was hunting by myself and camping in a tent for about three weeks. I had set up camp at the end of a dirt road, surrounded by Crown land and farmers’ fields.
One night, I was sound asleep when the sound of a large branch breaking roughly 50 feet behind my tent, in the woods, suddenly woke me up. That particular night was extremely quiet, with absolutely no wind. When I heard the branch break, I immediately sat up on my cot, and all of my senses were focused on that location.
For about 30 seconds, there was absolute silence.
Then, whatever had broken the branch suddenly ran directly toward my tent. At that moment, I honestly thought it was going to run me down. As it passed by the tent, I could hear it moving and actually felt the ground vibrating.
I have been hunting for over 40 years, and what I heard running past my tent did not sound like a four-legged animal.
It continued past my tent and my truck, crossed the gravel road, and then I heard an extremely loud crash. Considering how incredibly quiet the night had been, the sound was startlingly loud. Then, once again, there was total silence.
I decided to stay put for the rest of the night and investigate first thing in the morning.
To my surprise, the loud crash I had heard was caused by a tree approximately 36 inches in diameter and maybe 40 to 50 feet tall. It had been snapped roughly two feet above the base. The tree appeared to be healthy, with no obvious signs that it had been dead or weakened.
I’ve spent a lot of time in the woods, and I’ve been trying to understand how something could have broken a tree that large and healthy in that manner.
So my question to you, Wes, is this:
Have you ever heard of a creature breaking a tree that big?
I’ve tried to make sense of what happened that night, but it still doesn’t make sense to me. Whatever it was, it was large and powerful enough to make the ground vibrate as it ran past my tent, and then somehow a healthy tree roughly three feet in diameter was snapped near its base.
I’m genuinely curious if you’ve ever heard of anything similar.”
Joyce E
That is a crazy huge tree.
Charles R
I cannot fathom even the largest Bigfoot being able to snap at the base a 3 foot diameter healthy tree. Think about it. If you rammed a car into a tree like that it likely would not drop it, but tear the vehicle up. Pretty wild and maybe some other kind of force at work, and maybe in conjunction with the Bigfoot.