Sasquatch Chronicles Blog

Jan 8

Shannon’s Notes from Salt Fork State Park in Ohio

By: Shannon LeGro

A weekend at Salt Fork State Park, Ohio

IMG_2575Arrived on the morning of August 3rd, 2014

We set up camp (Primitive Campground-Bigfoot Ridge) and proceeded to take a long day hike, which included Hosak’s Cave…pictured below, right. This lasted for several hours, and was uneventful. By the time we got back, a gentlemen was setting up camp in one of the sites at the head or our area.  For anonymity’s sake I will call him Bill. Bill noticed me walking around with my “nose to the ground” and asked if I was finding anything interesting.  Upon further sizing up of each others intent and interests…it came out that we were both interested in the subject of Sasquatch, and were there for that very reason.  Bill had a sighting of two creatures, not even 2 months prior, right behind our campsite.  He had even purchased a set of military grade night vision goggles to try and get a better look if he ever again had the chance.  Bill being easy to talk to, and dedicated to his search, we decided to team up that night and do some investigating.FullSizeRender (2)

Darkness fell, and we waited until about 10pm to make our way to the service road that lies behind our campsite.  We were not tree-knocking, calling, or calling great attention to ourselves.  We decided to sit in the middle of the service road and talk quietly amongst ourselves. It was extremely dark that night and we took turns using the night vision goggles.  We had heard a few shuffles and cracks repeatedly in the brush behind us, could have been anything though…there is much wildlife out there. After about an hour and a half at his location, we decided to make our way to another portion of the service road, maybe, 50 feet from our original location.  Bill says he wants to try something, and pulls out a glow stick and a string…we then take turns swinging this in circles.  This makes for a great little light show…and even has some whirring sounds to go with it.  (yes you can make your Finding Bigfoot jokes now)  But, it got something interested.  We had been at this spot for about 30 minutes, swinging and then listening, swinging and listening. It was about 1am and I had just gotten done with a cycle, when…in the brush directly in front of us, from ground level, came a loud and long, high-pitched, monotone whistle.  I was standing, and immediately went to a crouch. I can tell you, it wasn’t a bird. And it honestly didn’t sound like a person. Truly hard to describe. But, it had lips to purse to make that sound…and it scared me a little.  The guys were also completely wide eyed at this sound.  We sat in silence for a time, but nothing moved. Even after repeated swing cycles, nothing else would accompany that whistle.

We all returned to camp and went to bed.  Before we did however, we set something up on our picnic table. (this was not a gift of any sort, just an experiment)  Something to note…our picnic table was about 15 feet from our tent, and it wasn’t on exactly level ground.  Here is what we set up before turning in for the night.  Three small apples for a base, one apple on top of those, and a small tennis ball to top it off.  I took a before pic in the daytime for demo purposes.  Also note-worthy…except for snapping the pic below, these apples were not set up until after it was completely dark.

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On this first night, just before dawn..we awoke to footsteps and shuffling outside our tent, along with the occasional twig snap.  There were no other sounds, or any smells. It was unfortunately much too dark to see what it was, through the air vents of the tent.  This lasted for about 10 minutes, and then dawn came, taking the sounds with it.   Upon exiting the tent, we immediately noticed this:

 

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I’m not saying a Sas that did this, but it was interesting that the top apple was taken, and the ball was placed back where it was, so it couldn’t roll off the table. Was a brave person to come so close in the dark to a stranger’s tent.  But, not impossible by any stretch.

Our second day there, we went on another long, uneventful hike.  Bill had already left, and we had the campsite to ourselves.  Upon searching the grounds around our campsite a bit more, I found what might have been an old track.  Big might, mind you.  It looked much better in person, and I know it could be many things.

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We decided to stick around camp that night, since the whistle we heard was so close to our site.  We played some music, and started a fire, but had nothing of interest happen before we turned in. We did however, set the apples up, for the second time.  Once again, we were awakened to the same footsteps, twig breaks and shuffling noises outside our tent.  It was at the exact same time as the previous night.  It lasted just as long, and ended just as it was getting light enough to make out shapes outside the tent.  We exited, and what did we find?  The top apple again was taken, and the ball nestled among the apples to keep it from rolling off the table.  It could have been a person, yes.  But along with that insane whistle we heard, makes it all at least, interesting and note-worthy.

We visited Salt Fork again one month later, stayed in the exact same camp-site and also went in the middle of the night to the site of the whistle…nothing of interest happened that entire weekend. No footsteps or sounds, and our apple set-up remained, untouched as well.

 

 

 

 

43 Responses to “Shannon’s Notes from Salt Fork State Park in Ohio”

  1. E Meredith L

    Assuming no clever human pranking in the middle of the night, this is very likely a BF interaction, but how interesting that the creature would not take all of the apples. It seems to be more interested in communicating.

  4. pam

    I would be happy with a campout ending with such good results!
    The whistle really is the key….I bet you were anticipating an underwear changing moment!

  6. WALT D

    That spot looks very interesting. Going back to this sight could allow you to start a possible interaction with whatever is there on a occasional basis. Many have tried this and just maybe it will trust you more to start interacting with you ! Much better an outcome than a deep guttural growl.

  9. toomuch

    Shannon,
    I dragged my wife out on Bigfoot ridge the last couple summers. We had a good time hiking and kayaking, but she freaked out after seeing some debatable tracks around our site. It’s now safe to say that I will be returning solo next summer.
    Scott

  13. toomuch

    We heard something walk around our tent around 1 am, shortly after the wife was finally settled down and in for the night. But it could have been a deer. We saw mud tracks on the grass and road. What site were u at? I want to say we were on pc 2-3 (1st section on the left hand side of the road behind a couple big bushes)

  15. Shawn

    I like to go camping whenever I can, and have camped and backpacked many times in the Sierra Nevada ranges, probably in the vicinity of where Ron Morehead recorded the Sierra Sounds. Now, since I work 9-5 at a print shop I hardly ever get to go see the great outdoors. Now, the only tent I pitch is in the morning under the covers…

  18. Dave T

    The problem with Salt Fork is it has more squatchers there on a regular basis than anywhere in the state. I think most of the time people are calling and wood knocking back and forth to each other. I’m not saying Shannon didn’t have an encounter because there are squatches there and there has been many sightings even by some park employees I’ ve heard but it is a very high profile area. I think the apple thing was pretty cool though.

  20. Maacus

    I would like to see one up close, from behind 10 inch glass with re-enforced metal rods. And an escape vehicle in case the glass and metal rods didn’t prove to be enough. lol

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