The Crypto-Para Museum Team took a trip to Medoc Mountain State park today. We decided to walk the Bluff Loop trail, where we had found our 2nd print last season.

The first unusual thing we noticed was a silhouette in the trees. Here are the photos Stephen took, but they do not do it justice. We thought it might be a stump that looked like a person, but as we got closer (around a bend) there was no tree or stump, and when we returned to the location later, it was gone.

The second interesting thing: as we continued along and followed the trail away from the stream, we heard the breaking of large branches, which caused us to freeze, and then we heard a deep menacing grunt which sounded like a large animal. We were rather alarmed as we could not see anything to help identify the creature and it sounded angry. We continued onward (hurrying a bit), thinking that the trail returned to the parking lot. However we reached a point where we realized we would have to retrace our steps to return to the parking lot, passing the same spot where we heard the creature. We walked rather quietly as we did not want to disturb whatever it was.

As we approached the spot where we had heard the creature, we found an unusual print. It could almost be a large human print, if a human slid in the mud and was not wearing shoes. As you can see, we were wearing boots, and I could not see anyone walking these trails barefoot.

Not far from the print we found a large log in the path which had not been there five minutes ago. We even rolled the log to the side to see fresh leaves under it. Which indicates the creature we heard was something other than a bear. Also we had heard nothing fall, so this log had to have been placed rather gently.

At this point we headed back to our vehicle, stopping at the point where we saw the silhouette, tried to recapture it but it was gone.

It was an eventful day at Medoc Mountain, we will be heading back soon, hopefully with some volunteers with us. Next time we will bring a thermal.