The audio file below was recorded on the morning of Sunday September 21st, 2008 at about 11:15 a.m. in Washington County New York. It was recorded while taking video with a JVC camcorder. The video was transferred to DVD a few days later. The DVD and original video tape were then sent to C.Bartow of NESRA who extracted and enhanced the audio file. The audio recorded contains a number of possible woodknocks, growls and moans of interest.
The morning of the 21st I woke up very early having gone to sleep early the night before, after completing my first full hike on Saturday (Black Mountain) with a friend who joined me, Mark Allard. He decided to sleep in Sunday morning, so I set out to do some exploring. We had agreed to head home by noontime. I was wide awake after sleeping about 10 hours and figured I'd take out a pedal boat that was available to campers where we were camped. I wanted to shoot some scenery and layout of the land for another friend who's been to N.Y. with me before, but couldn't make this trip, Mark Anderson. This is who I did some narrating for on the tape. The morning was beautiful, clear and warm for late September. The water was like glass, lots of bugs and lots of fish surfacing for them. There were also lots blue heron and even smaller green heron which the camp owner told me to watch for... also many buzzards (Turkey Vultures) which were enormous.
After going up one side and down the other of a portion of the main canal I went into a smaller feeder creek/river. As I entered, the noise of the pedal boat was stirring up lots of birds ahead of me that were feeding in the weeds on both shores, this is how I noticed the size of these buzzards as one came out no more than 20 ft in front and you could hear the wings it was amazing. On the video you can see it circle a few times it must have been its nest area. I realized the noise I was making and commotion of the birds on both sides. I decided to stop for a break have a drink, a snack, a smoke and just drift and record and take in the sounds. Not more than a minute after stopping I heard 2 quick and it seemed distant wraps from behind me which would be up river the direction I was heading. To me they sounded clearly like wood against wood. I turned the boat around and pedaled in that direction a bit and stopped, I then heard some single and louder knocks to which I yell on the tape "There's something banging, man" and try getting closer.
Now I was against the wind and with a small camcorder mic, I thought nothing will be picked up on tape except for birds that were close by and of course the noise of pedaling the boat. But I still knew what I was hearing. I considered going ashore for a bathroom break but had an uneasy feeling and was totally unarmed. When I took the boat earlier I didn't plan on being on land and didn't take a knife or walking stick. To be honest, I was getting creeped-out. I had come out with only a camera, camcorder and snacks and drinks and thought if something jumps out like a bear or wild cat or anything, what am i going to do hit it with a camera? I learned some lessons on this trip, never be unarmed and if you hear noises stop and be quiet. After the knocks or whatever they are stopped, I headed back towards camp and thought if even a couple of these sounds are picked up, I'd be happy and it would be confirmation to me. I didn't really think anything besides birds would be heard on tape. I returned to the camp, we packed up and headed home. The whole ride home (almost 4 hours) I kept saying,''I should have better recording gear'', ''I should have gone on land'', ''should have been armed''... there were many shoulda, woulda, coulda's.
The Possible Growls
These are another whole story.
When I returned home and got settled in Sunday evening, I played the tape to see if any possible knocks were picked up and was surprised to hear they were - especially the first 2 quick ones that seemed farther away. This was only through the t.v. speakers. I asked a good friend of mine who is a musician and very tech savvy to burn the tape to DVD so I wouldn't have to keep using the tape, so he made me a couple while he was watching something else. I gave one to my friend, Mark Anderson, who couldn't make the trip. He listened on a portable DVD player with good headphones. He called me immediately the next day and said ''What the hell are the growls??" He said, 'You told me about knocks but nothing about growls." Also in the middle, a catlike screech and 2 stomach groans that I can't explain because I felt great when I went out in the morning but now my stomach was jumping. I went back to my musician buddy who hadn't heard them yet he cranked them through a surround sound system and when it got to the growls at 6:45 to 6:55 he looked at me and also said ''What the hell was that''? It rumbled through his room and we played it at least a dozen times. The only question I ask myself more than "what is it" is, "how could I have not heard this on the water that day?"
The part of the river this happened is only about 30 ft wide. I was in the middle, so whatever it was cat, squatch, boar, whatever... was in the weeds no more than 20 ft away. I'm still baffled. It was low enough to not hear it yet loud enough to be picked up by a camcorder microphone? It doesn't add up. I realized I at least made one good decision and that was to not go on land there unarmed as something was obviously checking me out in the trees. Since then I've read a little about infrasound, which may help explain, even if its not a squatch, some other animals use it. I would like to see a formant structure to them someday maybe it would prove at least the size and lung capacity of whatever it was. Again, I'm not posting these saying the sounds are Sasquatch-related but very strange indeed and I welcome all opinions.
-Dave M.
Thank you to C.Bartow for sound enhancements.
Unedited or Enhanced Audio File (see below for lineage):
Edited and Enhanced Audio File (see below for lineage and editing process):
Sounds of Interest per C. Bartow's Review - Time Log:
- 1:48 - Knock, bang or gunshot
- 1:51 - Knock, bang or gunshot with two quick knocks immediately after at 1:52
- 1:55 - 1:57 Growl
- 2:03 - Knock, bang or gunshot
- 2:19 - Knock, bang or gunshot
- 3:07 - Knock, bang or gunshot
- 3:30 - 3:33 - Growl
- 3:33 - Knock, bang or gunshot
- 3:34 - Knock, bang or gunshot
- 3:37 - 3:38 - Moan
- 4:43 - Knock, bang or gunshot
- 4:52 - Knock, bang or gunshot
- 5:23 - Knock, bang or gunshot
- 5:39 - Knock, bang or gunshot
- 5:50 - Knock, bang or gunshot
- 6:45 - Short moan/growl
- 6:55 - Short moan/growl
Audio Lineage:
--->[D-Mac's Camcorder VHS-C Tape]
--->[VHS-C Tape Converted to DVD by D-Mac's friend]
--->DVD ISO Files Extracted/Saved Using DVD Shrink 3.1
--->DVD ISO File Audio converted to audio WAV file with QuickMediaConverter V5.3.7
--->WAV audio file imported into Steinberg WavLab 5.00a 221
--->Unedited WAV exported as MP3 file 224Kbps
--->Unedited WAV enhanced by increasing gain +4db and filtering with Waves X-Noise Threshold 12.8, Reduction 71
--->Enhanced WAV file version saved
--->Enhanced WAV file version exported as MP3 file 224Kbps
WaveLab Enhanced Analysis Snapshot
Audio file editing and analysis by C. Bartow
