Recon activities

[#59]

D.G., Ray Ford & I made a couple of trips into the Spencer creek area last week mainly to observe any ongoing activity.

Wednesday night we arrived at ~19:00 and stayed until ~2:00 of Thursday morning.  The moon was just shy of it's full phase with temps in the upper seventies and a slight SSW breeze.

Building a fire at sundown we simply sat around and conversed in a typical "camper's" fashion with no weapons visible nor NV or other electronics in use at the time.

There were a couple of what we've termed as "signal howls" coming from the west down on the lower end of the creek and then another from up the creek ~1 mile to the east.  These occurred at roughly 21:00 hours.

Periodically, there were howls/hoots mainly east of our position and they occurred on a sporadic basis for the next couple of hours.  

There was one incident of a loud splash and what sounded like bipedal foot steps in the shallow water immediately across the creek at ~22:50 hours.  The lake was ~1.8' above normal pool so the adjacent wood flats have many areas of shallow water standing in them.

At almost exactly 24:00 the "show" began in earnest with a series of howls, screams and hoots eminating east of us ~250 yards up the creek.  This recital lasted ~12 minutes with only momentary pauses between the participants.  We identified at least four different locations these vocalizations were concurrently coming from.

Afterwards, the sound tailed off to almost nothing so we packed it in around 2:00.

Saturday evening we repeated the same setup/location however, except for a couple of distant hoots absolutely no vocalizations were noted.

D.G. also brought on of his coon hounds (Sam) along for a sort of "experiment" in that Sam was one of two hounds that (~30 months earlier) had struck a trail off the highwall just behind Bulletmaker's place and made a run down into these bottoms and back with the chase continuing ~1 mile east of Bulletmaker's place up onto a mesa we refer to as the "Arrowhead" where D.G. and his companion were unable to follow due to the vertical elevations on most all sides of the location.  As it was pitch dark and they were unfamilar with the spot it was decided to leave the dogs (which were still running "whatever" up on top of "Arrowhead") and return the next AM to call them in to the truck.  

During this chase the dogs were in a dead run almost the entire time with one stop down in the lower creek bottom where they bayed up for a few minutes and the later on for a short time up on the "Arrowhead".  D.G. has commented that in some respects it resembled a bobcat chase except that it was moving way faster than any bobcat he'd encountered in ~30 years of hunting.

However, the dogs were nowhere to be found even after mulitple trips back with D.G. bringing a packmate (Moe) along to help look for the missing pups.  On one trip (~21:00 HRS) D.G. and "Moe" were shadowed by something in the bottoms while they were walking through a pasture ~100 yards from the creek woodline.  "Moe" would trot over to within ~50 yards of the trees but go no further.  Also, just a few seconds later, they received a barrage of howls/screams ~150 yards to the east up on the old strip mine stem walls.   It wasn't until two weeks later that D.G. received a call from a rancher located ~1.5 miles NNE of the original location stating he had "Sam" in custody.

Apparently, the dog had been hanging around the rancher's home for ~1 week but would let no male person near him preferring to stay in the pasture adjacent to the house.  One evening while the father and son were away Sam came up on the porch and sat ther looking and growling off at the nearby woods, according to the wife and daughter who were alone in the house.  When the men later returned he went back to the pasture fence ~50 yards from the house and layed down.  They were able to catch him a few days later and get D.G.'s phone number off the collar.

D.G. has often commented how traumatized Sam was when he came to pick him up and how he has been a different pup form that day, forward.  However, Sam has since been on several hunting trips and gets out and hunts like nothing even happened.

Last evening down on the creek where the original incident occurred, Sam would not leave our sight when D.G. let him out of the dog box.  This was his fist trip back to Spencer creek since the aforementioned incident.  He sniffed around the perimeter and came back to lay down beside D.G. not even wanting to get back in the dog box.  It would likely be interesting if he could only tell us about what happened that night 2 1/2 years ago up on the "Arrowhead" mesa.

BTW, the other dog was never found.

[Micahn]

A couple of questions.
Do you or your friend have any way of recording some of these sounds ? If so it would be great to hear some and I am sure if they was good they could be added to the new site connected to this forum that is still being built. You would be named as the one recoding it.

Also did D.G happen to ask the family if they had any type of experience with  Bigfoot ? If not do you think he might ask them about it ? If the dog did go onto the porch because of it that night they just might have some other stories and not even know that it is Bigfoot related. He could just ask them if anything weird had ever happened around the farm.

Nice story by the way and I hope to see more from you in the future :-)

[#59]

We have several recordings of these vocalizations on cassette tape made over a two year time span.  Have been meaning to take them to a specialist to have the background noise (insects) cleaned up a bit.

D.G. did ask the family about any unusual sounds/incidents but they were very reluctant to discuss anything in detail preferring to chalk everything under the heading of cougar screams, etc.

In a way, I cannot blame them as the end result could very well be a bunch of yahoo's traipsing all over their land.

[#59]

#1 son (Matt) is in town from Alabama for a few days so this evening we made a sortie back down to Spencer creek as he'd never been into that place.  We came in from the east (EW34) and also the north/south approach via NS4200 and set up listening positions. As I'm still on the back side of the flu bug we decided not to make any extensive hikes around the area.

The coyote howler immediately produced a "signal howl" from ~200 yards SSW of our first position quickly followed by two accompanying vocalizations from locations south and then west of the first sounding.  Then, two separate packs of coyotes lit up to the ESE of us and went on for at least three minutes before settling down.  Within 20 minutes the mass of tree frogs ~50 yards to the WSW of us went totally silent as I told Matt we had visitors.  There was the sound of bipedal transit through the brush/timber with the soft crack of a small limb heard on two occasions.  We continued to talk softly as I'm sure this bunch has long learned the sound of my Cherokee upon arrival there.  They apparently were just politely listening to us and after a while the frogs gradually began to resume their serenade as we figured they had moved on to more interesting matters.

After about an hour, we moved to a different location and I initiated my version of the "signal howl" which was immediately answered just to the SSW of our spot.  In the next fifteen minutes a couple other vocalizations were heard in the distance and then things went silent.  After another few minutes and the arrival of a batch of sparrow sized mosquitoes we decided to call it an evening and get some coffee.  Matt was pumped as this was his first experience as such and he commented that his cousin (Ben) would likely be a dark shade of green when he finds out what all transpired this evening.

BTW, Matt is also of the opinion that these things should not be hunted down for the sake of producing a carcass for "science", or $$'s or to stroke an ego.

[Ben Mitchell]

Matt was right about the "green" part. I'd love to get out there soon and hear one of these dudes in the flesh. Have a good one Uncle John. Let Matt know I enjoyed speaking with him the other day and the door is always open in Athens, AL.

[#59]

Have another trip planned for back down there this weekend!

[#59]

With Oologah reservoir at ~4' above normal pool (and rising) this weekend may call for another boat ride up Spencer creek...with the ice storm damage it'll be interesting to see just how far up I can go before it plays out.

[Teufelwald]

How do you know that the sounds are made by a BF type creature?
Remember in that movie legend of boggy creek...that guy said the creature tore the hide right off his dog....I would not turn my GSD loose on a creature....it would be a death sentence for the poor dog!

[#59]

Went down to Spencer creek late this PM on a "spur of the moment" turkey hunt...alas, I was apparently the only "turkey" in that vicinity.

Mosquitoes were legion.

BM's neighbor ~1 mile to the west (on the hill just south of Cherokee Central) has apparently installed a shooting range complete with trap machine(s) and a rifle range as it sounded like Fallujah...that is the third time in the past 60 days such goings-on have been occurring when down there.   

Did get the chance to try out the new Walker Game Ear Quad muffs with digital adjustments...was amazed at what I could hear and then astounded at what I was missing when they were removed...much more workable/ease of use (in the field) than the Bionic Ear parabolic dish I have used for the past six years.

[#59]

Due to a promise (for a mess of squirrels) made to the landowner I have permission to hunt on, looks like Dr. Wallace and I may be making a trip to Spencer creek this weekend to fulfill said promise.  Maybe we'll leave a couple extra for the "other residents" as well.

[#59]

07/05/2008 sortie;

Took boat ride up Spencer creek (north) and made it as far up as ~75 yards upstream from "Roy's Crossing" before a large oak laying bank to bank in the channel made further progress impossible.  Good thing someone had their boat chained up as the recent high water would have otherwise floated it off.

The purpose was to scout for any interesting tracks as the lake (Oologah) was down ~4' from the previous week and the plethora of floating green vegetation (duckweed) has left a lime green "carpet" from the present waterline back inland for as much as 35-40 yards in some places.

Anything that crossed the creek or traversed near it's bank would leave very noticeable tracks in the soft clay/silt deposits lying just underneath the lime green vegetation.

All I observed (made 3+ trips up & down the bank in places) were numerous raccoon, squirrel and a few deer tracks.  Did find the main deer crossing near #7 stand and have cataloged that for next November.

Plan on getting out there next weekend as well as the water level should be down by another 4-5' and maybe I'll get lucky...later.

[#59]

Someone asked me about seeing any snakes during the recent sortie up Spencer creek.

I don't recall seeing any cottonmouths but did observe one strange slimey creature on the creekbank.

Further inspection revealed something that wore bib overalls and looked like Burl Ives after a 3-day weekend drunk tear. 

[Bill]

I saw a creature that looked much as you describe in that general vincinty on one of my trips to OK.

[Ray Ford]

I think you guys are being a little hard on the "Spencer Creek Critter"--not to be confused with the "Spencer Creek Image."  But then....

[#59]

Got a fresh batch of blackberries picked...anyone for cobbler?