BFRO #75933: Hikers report possible sasquatch vocals + stalking in center of Harstine Island

📍 Location

📝 Description

On Sunday May 28, 2023, at around 7am, myself, my husband, and my brother went for a nature walk near his parents' property. We found an old logging road near the south end of the island in the center. Manke Lumber owns pretty much the entire center of the island so its all-evergreen tree farmland. Half of this 89-acre parcel was clear cut in about 2015 so it is new growth shrubbery. The other half is old growth evergreen forest with some wetland mixed in. At the entrance of the logging road is an orange locked gate indicating it is a logging road. The public isn't welcome to drive through it but it is open to walk through. When we first parked, we noticed that at the entrance of the path is multiple shot gun shells scattered around the gravel. In the brush surrounding the gravel road was one discarded women's Nike shoe, a pair of broken glasses, and some empty energy drink cans along with bundles of twigs wrapped together with what appeared to be purple leather, but on closer examination it was a very old rubber band. We also noticed many signs I am assuming from the locals (?) that say not to pick the shrubbery. We left it all alone and started our trek up the gravel road. For the first part of the walk, it is a fairly steep climb up a gravel road and once you turn the corner and can no longer see the bottom of the road where the car is parked it starts to even out a bit but still climb somewhat. On the left is where the trees were cleared and it's all newer growth about 7-year-old trees or so and surrounded by brush, and on the right is tall old growth trees in a dense forest. When we reached the top of the peak there was a small clearing and you could see this amazing view of the whole forest, on the clear-cut side. It was beautiful in a destruction and rebirth kind of way. We stopped for a few minutes and took in the view. That is when we first heard the owls. Which first there was just one coming from maybe a mile or so out into the new growth forest. At first I thought it was an owl, which was weird because it was a little late/early to hear an owl considering it was well into the morning and the sun was all the way up by this point. As we continued on our path, we found more of those bundles of twigs with really old purple rubber bands around them. And as the land fully evened out there was a sort of marsh on our right-side and the trees were broken at really odd seemingly intervals that did not appear natural at all. And the path began to get narrower because the trees began to overhang the whole path as we got further and further away from the new growth forest and started to enter the old growth land and were fully surrounded by large evergreen trees and the sun was beginning to be hidden by the cover of the treetops. We found another small clearing on the left side the road except this one you had to walk through a narrow trail to get to and the oddly shaped broken branches were there again, seemingly placed on purpose in various arrangements surrounding this circle opening in the forest. None of us went on that trail to the clearing. This is when we decided to turn back and start heading back toward the car. The whole time we were on the path the owl sounds never stopped. They actually got louder and seemingly closer. And there were multiple of them. Then they were coming from both sides of the trail. It seemed like they were communicating with each other. My husband stopped us every few minutes to listen as we were continuing down the path. He noticed that the owl sounds weren't coming from above us as if they were in the trees like an owl would do. They were coming from ground level. At one point we heard what sounded like muffled voices, as if someone were in the trees but had their mouth covered and couldn't speak, followed by very loud and low-pitched growl that was maybe 20 feet into the old growth forest near us. A feeling of dread kind of surrounded us at this point, but it didn't feel like anything wanted to hurt us per say, more like just letting us know we were not welcome there and they were watching us intently. As soon as we started our decent down the road and could finally see the car parked at the entrance behind the locked gate, the owl sounds finally ceased but, the feeling of dread and that we were not welcome did not dissipate until we were driving down the road and finally got back to my husband's parents' property a few miles down the road.

🔍 Circumstances

Myself, My husband, and My brother, and our dog.

🌤️ Weather Conditions

Bright sunny day at about 7 in the morning. Lighting conditions were clear and bright. Weather was sunny and warm. No wind, no rain, the sky had some clouds that ended up burning off as the day went on.

ℹ️ Additional Details

Bright sunny day at about 7 in the morning. Lighting conditions were clear and bright. Weather was sunny and warm. No wind, no rain, the sky had some clouds that ended up burning off as the day went on.

🔗 Sources (1)

👥 Community Contributions

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