The BFRO OK Expediton took place in at a location in eastern Oklahoma on Sept 8-11th. It was led by Matt Pruitt with assistance from fellow BFRO investigators Gary C (TX) and Sandra M (AZ).
Some of us arrived on Wednesday so Matt led us out to a location which had a recent report of a late night camp "visitor". We spread out along a dryed up creek bed and began to make provocation sounds. No responses we heard so we headed back to get a good night's sleep as everyone else would be arriving on Thursday.
Day 1
The first official day of the expedition was spent doing some scouting in various areas around the general vicinity of basecamp as well as waiting for the rest of the members to arrive. Shortly past 9pm we all headed out to our predetermined positions and started making provocation sounds to determine if any Sasquatches were in the area. I was in the "R3 group which was positioned north of a lake on a forest trail. We found a nicely hidden clearing just off of a north-south trail which had access to the lake. For several hours we received no responses to our sounds other than crickets and the occasional rodent in the leaves. But all three of us heard what we thought was a soft knock south west of our position. We knew it was not the next closest group (R2) since we were unable to hear any of their knock sounds from where we were. Since the "soft knock" was south west of our position I decided to take a solo stroll south down the trail. I walked probably 150-300 yards and made small knocks on various trees as I moved. I heard nothing in the woods around me. Beforehand RS and I switched to a private radio channel so that we could communicate via headset about any sounds either of us heard as I walked. I notified her that I was turning around so that she wasn't confused about the sounds of me approaching. About 100 yards into my return walk I was struck with the impression that something ran by me. It gave me a bit of a startle and on the audio recording you can hear me clearing my voice as I gained my composure. I have no idea what it was but the immediate impression was that it was it felt like a person on two feet. I have no doubt that it could have been a deer or other animal.
Before getting in position for the night I set up my digial recorder (Zoom H2) on the trail probably 50-75 feet south of our stake-out position. It was recording in 2-channel mode with the left channel facing our stake-out position and the right channel facing south along the trail. The sounds of the movement it recorded indiciate that it came from the direction of where I was walking rather than from where RS and MS were sitting at the stake-out position.
The following graphic illustrates the setup and the left/right channel sound profile of the recorded encounter.
Below is a link for an audio recording of the movement sounds. You will need headphones to hear the finer details as the sounds start out feint and then get louder as whatever it is moves towards the recorder. You can also hear me clear my throat in the audio as I mentioned above. You can also hear RS and MS talking about movement they heard at the same time. At the time you hear them talking they had no idea that I too heard something as I hadn't contacted RS on the radio yet to tell her.
I cannot say definitively what it was that moved by me on the trail but the audio shows that something at least disturbed the leaves and broke some sticks as it moved by. I can say definitively that it scared the crap out of me.
Movement Along Trail
Day 2
Day 2 consisted of doing some more scouting east of our basecamp position. We found a creek that was still running and a large pond with good cover along with some terrain we felt would be good to investigate later at night. We split up into several groups and headed out later that night. I was with a group in a grassy meadow which was not far from the pond we discovered earlier that day. Our initial provocation sounds did not yield any results so we decided to take a hike up some horse trails near by. Near the top of the trail RD belted out an impressive howl and for the first time we heard a response which sounded a bit different than the others. It was much higher pitched and shrill sounding than the coyote howls which we had all heard of the last couple days. It very well could have been a coyote but to our ears it sounded distinctly different. Once again you will need headphones to hear the detail of the audio.
Possible High Pitched Response
The above file was recorded by my Zoom H2 as we were hiking up the horse trails. I left it on the roof of a car to keep recording in our absence. Upon review it picked up what sounds like a very faint whoop like sound. There were no other sounds heard before or after this sound. It was by sheer chance that I happened to catch it on reviewing the recording.
Possible Whoop
Day 3
After more scouting another location was chosen further north of our basecamp near a lake. Possible responses to our provocations were heard but nothing definitive. I will mention one incident which was and still is very strange.
As we all spread out along the lake JT and I took a position north of the lake on a forest road. After about an hour of not hearing anything we decided to head back down to the lake where the other groups were. I was walking with my Zoom H2 still recording in my hand when we both heard what sounded like 3 whistles. We didn't have much time to think about it as Matt Pruitt came on the radio asking us to wave our arms around so that he could identify us in the thermal. Knowing that Matt had whistled to the movement he heard on the first night we gave no second thought to it since we both figured it must have been him. About 15 minutes later we were both with Matt P near the lake edge. By chance I happened to mention him whistling at us as we walked back down toward the lake. He told us that he didn't and then quickly confirmed via radio that nobody else had been whistling at the time. We heard nothing else during the entire expedition which sounded like these whistles. Even the screech owls we heard later on that night were not even close.
Here is the original audio of when we heard the whistles. You will hear Matt come on the radio asking us to wave our arms around as he saw us in the thermal.
Whistles
This is an enhanced amplified version of one of those whistles.
Single Whistle
Summary
This was my first BFRO expedition and I had a great time. The people working for the BFRO really are a testament to the organization. They are a very friendly, patient, dedicated, and hard working bunch of folks. I also really enjoyed the people who I met during the week. Everyone got along great and we made a great team. It only took me about 2 weeks to sign up for my next expedition which I just returned from today. I will be writing up my notes on that shortly.
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