Salt Fork State Park October 16, 2010

This past weekend I had the opportunity to be the Salt Fork Squatchtivity tour guide to an out-of-state visitor.

We checked into the cabin Friday night.  The weather was cold and rainy and it was already dark by the time we got settled so we decided to get a fresh start in the morning.

We awoke to a chilly but sunny Saturday, and after a hearty breakfast at the lodge, we donned our hiking boots and hit the trails.  We hiked and surveyed several areas in search of the perfect spot to set up base for our evening squatchtivities.  We mutually agreed to set up at a picnic area off of  park route 4.  This area has had several sightings and was away from the beaten path.

We headed into Cambridge to dine at the favorite eatery, Theo's.  We then returned to the cabin to get bundled up in our night gear.  Upon arriving at the cabin, we were approached by 2 teenage girls.  They had seen my Squatchmobile and inquired as to whether I was a researcher.  I had a great time answering all of their questions and then they wanted to show me a very cool and squatchy place they had found.  We then hiked over to this beautiful cave and rock formations, the sunlight was beginning to fade quickly and we had to get to our location to set up the trail cam, so we bid the kids farewell and drove off into the night.






 We arrived at the area at 7:30 pm.  The night had already set in and we had the dim light from a half moon.  As soon as we opened our car doors we went to the back of the vehicle to begin unloading when we both heard a long, low growl.  We both looked at each other and the usual phrase "did you hear that!" was exclaimed.  The night's excitement had already begun!  I walked about 100 feet from the car to a lone picnic table to drop off the first load when a very loud, very shrill scream from a fox pierced the quiet air.  Wow, was that amazing!  Of course I still hadn't even gotten my audio recorder out of my case!
At that point I figured, I'll unload the car in a minute, I need to get my recorder going!  Ok, with that done, we decided the next bit of business was to find a good tree to hang the trail cam from.  The Moultrie was a top of the line model with IR lighting, video and still shot capabilities.

I then proceeded to cut and smash a bag of 18 apples as the small fire we started in the grill was beginning to crackle.  We then warmed up a cast iron skillet, compliments of the cabin and proceeded to fry up a big, greasy pound of bacon.

As the aroma of bacon began wafting in the air, the coyotes became quit vocal!  There were lone coyote howls soon accompanied by many from directions all around us.  The evening was ALIVE with animal activity!

We then settled down in our camp chairs and talked quietly when we heard another low growl come from across the parking lot.  The night was clear and cool and after about an hour and 45 minutes, we decided to head over to another location to see if there were any other squatchers in the area.  Before leaving we wanted to check the trail cam.  We went to the trail cam and there were zero images on the D card.  I then did a little dance in front of the camera to make sure it was working properly.  The red IR lights lit and the camera logged a video.  Success!
We then arranged several items on the picnic table and tucked the recorder in the arm of the camp chair to record any sounds or movement that may occur at the site in our absence.

We got in the car and drove to the other area where we found Terry and Treba and we sat there for about an hour chit chatting.  We told them we had to get back because we had left a small fire in the grill, so we headed back and checked the items on the table; nothing had been disturbed.  We then went to the trail cam and noticed that 2 more images had been recorded!  We took the camera down and set it on the picnic table and were joined by 2 other researchers.  About 20 minutes later Don and Missey K. arrived on the scene and they headed out for a night hike.  I decided that not much was going to happen and I was getting cold and tried and wanted to call it a night.

We returned to the cabin and began viewing the video from the trail cam.  In the hour that we were gone...something had set off the camera to take one still picture and then a video.  When we saw the video we were freaked out!  What was it???? We tried to rule out all the usual suspects.  no fingers for it to be a hand.  Hairs covering the object.... Tell us what you think it is!  Perhaps if someone has the capability to enhance the video, remove the brightness...


Well anyway, we were really geeked up over the video but managed to get to sleep with visions of Bigfoots dancing in our dreams.

As usual, it was an amazing weekend of being in the woods.  The weather was gorgeous and the fall leaves were beautiful.  We may not have had any real squatchtivity, but we had some hair-raising thrills to speculate on and to make us want to return to this area for further investigating!

I hope your weekend was just as much fun!  Now back to reality.  BOO!  Have a great week!