These are some highlights of the recorded audio from Warren Co., NY in the eastern Adirondack Park. These clips , or parts of them, were aired on Mike and Bob's Bigfoot Quest blogtalk radio show on 8/11/09. These links will take you to the Soundcloud.com website, where all the recordings were uploaded, to give anyone interested, a better chance to hear them again. An explanation of each clip can be read, and I suggest using some good headphones, and as much volume as you can comfortably stand, to hear all the details in the audio.
Mike was the first to arrive at the site of the basecamp on Friday 7/31. He walked around to survey the situation of the heavily overgrown site, and did a narration on his Samson Zoom H2 recorder. He decided to do some knocks on a rock that he tested for the best sound carry, and made this interesting recording clipped from the longer one:
NESRA Expedition 7-31-09 - 8-2-09 1 edit 3 wood knocks and crash real time 2 18 clip 7 WAV by imonacan
There was certainly a reply to Mike's rock knocks, less than 2 minutes after. To just hear the reply, here is a much shortened clip:
NESRA Expedition 7-31-09 - 8-2-09 1 edit 3 wood knocks and crash WAV clip by imonacan
An enhanced version of the reply, of this same shortened clip, can also be heard. Chris used Steinberg Wavelab editing software, to remove much of the background noise, to better hear these sounds of interest:
Chris B Enhanced 3 wood knocks and crash 6 sec clip 7 b WAV by imonacan
Late Friday, we walked down the muddy road into camp, and placed my H2 recorder in a selected tree crotch, a little ways off the road, and left the recorder running for an overnight surveillance. The three of us turned in a little after midnight. After the expedition, I reviewed the 7 plus hours from Friday PM to Saturday AM, and clipped out some of what I thought, were interesting sounds, and sent the clips to Mike, to also review. The recorder was set at medium gain with the full recording level, and on the surround sound setting. This clip was probably the most interesting, and came over an hour and a half into the recording:
OVRNGHT 8-1 pt1 clipE by imonacan
Something of reasonable size steps and approaches the tree and recorder, and scratches at what I believe is the fake fur windscreen, that protects the built in mics on the recorder. More crunching steps are heard, and then , more scratching. Fainter scratches are heard for a while, and also what sounds like it could possibly be a faint inhale, and a bit louder...exhale. A single sound that clearly sounds like a tongue click, can also be heard. I would suggest listening to this clip a few times over , to pick out these sounds. This clip was amplified, and run through an EQ curve to lessen some of the higher end hiss in the recording. No other editing, or noise reduction, was done to this, or any clips that follow.
Things go quiet for almost a half hour, and then pick up again in this clip, that I estimate is from around 2AM Saturday:
OVRNGHT 8-1 pt1 clipF by imonacan
What is interesting, is that nothing is heard walking away (from the previous "clip e"), and the crunching movements and scratching starts up again. A little breeze also seems to pick up, with the sounds of the dropping water from the foliage that also can be heard. Things again go quiet, accept for the dripping moisture. About 20 minutes later, several sounds can be heard, that sound like mic taps, like the recorder possibly being touched or poked at:
OVRNGHT 8-1 pt1 clipG by imonacan
The Saturday PM - Sunday AM recording from our night operations, was also interesting. Again, all recordings were made with the Zoom H2 recorder, that I located on a rock, about 20 yards west of our higher position, on the west end of the ridge. Again, the recorder was set at medium gain, full recording level, and the surround sound setting...in the hopes to capture our conversations, and any interesting sounds or movements during the night ops. After Mike did his 2nd set of wood knocks, and it seemed to initiate some movement that we were periodically hearing down below in the ravine to our south and west. Several hollow sounds that I described as a "clickity - clack" , can also be heard in the clip, that came from in between our position, and camp. This could possibly be the beak snapping sound of a Barred Owl, that had sounded off, around an hour before. Chuck had also heard a hollow sound from the basecamp, that he noted and described. Whether or not we heard the same sound...is still out for question. The conversation between Dave and myself, and our 2 teams radio conversation with the basecamp, can also be heard :
NGHTOPPS 8-1 pt1 clipA by imonacan
Later, Mike did his famous Yeti howl, that initiated more movements from the ravine. Our conversation and radio conversations can again be heard:
NGHTOPPS 8-1 pt2 clipC by imonacan
It is hard to hear the full effect of the movements down in the ravine in these recordings. This movement seemed to follow a similar pattern during the night opps, and move from south to west, and at times toward the basecamp. What amazed me about the "crunching" movements, was the fact that it would stop dead, and then start up in another location in the ravine. It was hard to imagine something moving in between these locations, without making a sound. This lead us to believe, it was possible that more than one source was responsible for these movements. Unfortunately, no visual conformation was had, to see what was making any of these sounds. A tremendously loud "thud" that happened Sunday AM in the area near the pond, was heard by three of us, but unfortunately... not recorded. This sounded as if something very heavy (piece of log, or a large rock) was slammed on the ground. This, and the other sound incidents that took place during the course of the expedition, made for an interesting experience. Give these clips another listen, and enjoy...and you be the judge.
Bill R.
