June 2016 at Roo's Place

I do want to say that not every time I go to this location I have exciting things happen.  I want to point out that I know not to expect something "exciting" to happen every time.  Its not being realistic.  I have learned over the last 5 years to not expect anything.  Only go and enjoy being out in the woods.  Putting myself in an active Bigfoot location and camping with family and friends is great.  Having something tall and hairy coming for a visit just makes it even more special.  Its those extra things that make me go more and more.

I went to Roo's Place twice in May.  There was still snow on the ground and very cold.  I had some knocks, found a print and maybe seen something that could be them but since I am not sure.   It could be anything.  So I will leave it at that. 

I have just got back from camping this weekend.  I am still trying to wrap my thoughts around what happened while there.  What I will say is that June is much warmer and a more active month than May.   I think from now on I will be patient and start camping there in June.

Before I go into the details of my weekend,  I would like to point out some things about my dog Roo.  She has been camping with me now for almost a year.  Many times she also has gone out in the field with me in active Bigfoot areas.  A highlight of a few things that has happened with Roo: I saw this huge dark upright shape run right in front of Roo and I.  It was 15 feet away!  We also had one run right by the tent one night.  How do I know it was one?  I saw the shadow of it running.  We also had 2 talking right behind the tent.  It sounded like a conversation in Japanese.  This was all in the state of Washington last July.  Here in Colorado Roo was with me when I saw a reddish brown one watch us from a ravine in a clump of trees about 75 yards away.  Roo was freaking out on me until I calmed her down.  Then I saw it.  Then there is Roo's Place.  So this dog is familiar with our forest friends.  I have taught her not to chase things in the woods and no barking.  So now when there is one close by she tells me by her body language (tail/head down and ears back), sometime a quiet growl-woof and then most of the time she does this quiet grumble growl.  She will also turn around and watch when we are around a campfire or just reading at the campsite.  When she is nervous she tries to climb in our laps or does her quiet grumble growl.  She is not being aggressive, just telling me that there is one close by and she is not happy about it.  Could it be other wildlife?  She ignores them or we have taught her to ignore them.  So if you come to our camping spot you will not hear a dog barking or chasing wildlife.  I thought it was important to teach her to be respectful and not to be a problem.  It was either doing this or leave her at home.  Our forest friends have been known to kill dogs here in Colorado.  Also I would like to point out that she does not go to all my locations.  Mostly at Roo's Place because she was with us when it all started. 

Now on with my weekend...

I got off of work early on Friday morning.  Since it was early, I decided to go camping at Roo's Place.  Either alone with Roo or maybe my husband will join me for part of the weekend.  I had texted my husband and he said he would come up after work.  I arrived at Roo's Place around 2:20.  As I got out I noticed that some weather was coming my way.  Roo got out of the car and like the last 2 times camping she was nervous and wanted to go back in the car.  I told her no.  While I was trying to put the tent up before the storm hit, Roo was acting all nervous and seemed like she would bolt.  So I put her on her cable tie-out to keep her with me.  I was thinking the storm was making her nervous.  Now I am not so sure.  You see normally she is not on a leash or tied up while we are camping.  I only put her on a leash at night.  Remember this little bit of information.

When I go to Roo's Place I usually do a whoop and my whistle.  Just to announce my presence.  Much like we do when we ring someone doorbell when we go to someone house.  I like to let them know when I am there but I am pretty sure they already know.  What was special about this time was I got a return call.  In fact several calls back that I would say were whoops.  I put the tent up in time before the weather hit.  It was close.  So I sat in my car for a bit and then later in the tent.  It decided to storm off and on until Jon got there just before it got dark.  We ate and then went to bed.  We did not want to chance a campfire.

Around 5:00 am, my husband went back home to volunteer with the sheriff's department.  He was coming back late afternoon.  He loves to camp as much as me.  He was willing to drive 2 hours both ways.  I truly expected to be camping by myself this weekend.  It was nice he could spend part of it with me.

Approximately around 11:30 while I was reading there was a series of knocks.  It came from where we had heard the rhythmic knocking that first night the year before.  It stopped and started up again and then suddenly stopped.  I was getting ready to turn my camera on to video to record some of it but it stopped before I could do this.

Maybe 1 1/2-2 hours later I had moved my chair to stay in the shade.  I was facing my tent.  Then I heard something walk up towards the back of the tent.  Then I heard what I thought was clicking but soon realize it sounded more like small sticks being hit together.  This went on for at least a minute.  Both Roo and I was watching the tent intently.  I fully expected to see someone's head or someone walk around the tent.  Then I heard a yell to my left and glanced over there.  Then everything got quiet.  I got up and walked over to the spot behind the tent.  I searched for prints but only found 2 sticks that were not there the day before.  In fact the sticks were not pine but some type of shrub that did not grow right there.  I also noticed the ends of both of the sticks looked like they were hit.  So I picked them up and hit them together.  One of the ends broke right away.  See photos:

 

I decided to walk from the tree line to the tent and it was what I heard.  When I had hit the sticks together it was what I heard.  Also I noticed the tent window was close to the corner.  During this whole time both Roo and I just sat, listened and watched.  It kind of reminded me of when one walked up to the tent while Roo and I was in it after a storm.  It had left a 16 inch impression on my tarp.  That incident I had talked about last year in an earlier posting in the blog.

I sat down and was reading again.  A while later I could hear movements behind me.  My back was to the ravine.  Roo was acting nervous and then started to do her grumble growl.  Then she watched behind me.  She was using her nose, ears and eyes and was watching something.  I could hear it.  She was nervous so I decided to put her leash on her because she looked ready to bolt.  I then was hearing voices or something like that.  I kept looking but saw nothing.  At one point I decided to move my chair so I was able to watch the spot and it wasn't behind me.  Roo then laid down and continue to watch but seemed more relaxed but alert.  Then I was hearing the movements all around me.  All my senses except my eyes were telling me there were several around me.  I had decided to continue to read.  I was keeping my cool and see what will happen next.

Later on I had decided to get up and do some cleaning.  This place has some broken glass from careless people.  They were broken years ago.  There was moss and dirt built up around the broken glass.  I knew this spot has not been used except by us.  We leave a sign at the camp spot and it has never been moved.  I won't go into any details about it but it is safe to say if you use this spot the signs would be moved.  I used the box that our tent came in to put the glass.  I went down closer to one of the structures.  As I was putting glass in the box I noticed that Roo was in the trees looking nervous.  I continued to put the glass in the box when suddenly a small rock hit the side of the box.  I quickly looked up and noticed Roo was much closer to the tent and ready to run.  I looked around and did not see anything but I knew a small rock hit the box.  There was a small dent in the side where I heard the rock hit the box.  I laughed and said I was trying to clean up the glass so no one gets hurt.  I then walked back to the camp site.

Probably an hour later my husband gets back.  I told him what had happened while he was gone.  He looked at the sticks and also noticed how the ends looked like they were hit.  I showed him the box and the dent.  I told him everything.  We then started a camp fire.  We noticed that the weather was getting stormy again.  We ended up eating in the rain and then going to bed early.  We had severe thunder storms for 2 hours.  We went outside later and there was pea-sized hail.  Nothing else happened as far as we know.  I slept the whole night.  Then we got up, packed and came home.

I almost forgot!  I found 2 old prints on Saturday:

So I had a pretty good weekend there at Roo's Place.  It was a good beginning for this year.  I hope to continue to explore and become familiar with the group there.  I love this place!

So my friends...

SQUATCH ON!