This expedition was over a wide area,,, studying at three seperate locations!Resulting in one member getting hit with a rock!
Attending were: MOMO64 team leader, bethemonkey,MedicDon, and his wife.
bethemonkey, arrived approx 9pm on Friday,,, we set up shortly there after and established a listening post at an ongoing research site near my home,,, do to flooding,,we set up at a slightly different location then normal...soon after we shut the truck down and turned on audio recording equipment a peculiar "breathing" sound was heard near the vehicle..I could not identify the possible maker, nor could bethemonkey...We decided to sleep in the truck and leave the recording devices run,, unsure if anything else was recorded!
Saturday, the 12th, while awaiting the arrival of medicDon,, we drove down a road from which someone had mentioned a feeling of being watch at,, traveling down the road we discovered a possible trail, and investigated it,, upon which we discovered a very promising potential track.
After the arrival of medicdon, wwe established a LP near the end of the road, we could occasionally hear a howling noise from far off,, but other sound made it impossible to hear them clearly! Medicdon recorded a possible growl, but further evalution seems to indicate bullfrog!

Sunday the 13th arrived stormy..bethemonkey and I met medicdon and his wife,, and departed for the focal point of the trip,,, The shooting range where several incidents have been reported recently,,,The Sun came out luckily.
We initially established a listening post to be manned by medicdon's wife, bethemonkey, medicdon, and myself set out on some very sloppy trails to look for secondary evidence..upon entering the area we immediatly found a small blindlike structure,, and and proceeded to hike further in the location,, approx. 3/4's of the way up small mountain! I found a potential structure, from it's location I noticed another structure in the distance,, I stumbled upon a track,,, and immediately called for MD and btm to join me.. at the second structure MD was looking it over and broke a rotten piece that was inserted in it,,, we proceeding up the trail when MD complained he had just been hit in the back of the head with a rock!
we continued to the top on this new pathway where we documented some more structures and a really nice track! we came off the mountain and departed!

This is a cude map of the incidents at the range!

this is the area and possible structure,, where medicdon got hit in the head with a rock!

We found this beer can in the middle of nowhere,, hanging from the smallest twig on a limb..Interesting observation,, we had experienced three days of intermittent rain at times fairly heavy,,, there was no water in the can! We also found some possible tracks near this location!

It is important to note that at this location there is one way in and out for access. I am sure some people are thinking oh someone just left it there...which is not impossible but is very, very unlikely. I make this statement because I would have expected the storms to have at the very least knocked this can down from it precarious perch and if it was not knocked down during the storms it would be likely for there to be a fair amount of water in the can. If a person did leave it there they did so without leaving much in the way of tracks and never walked on the trails provided. We spent an inordinate amount of time looking all up and down the muddy walkways for even the slightest track -boot or otherwise. None were found except for our own which were very easy to tell.

When you combine these various factors we can say with quite a bit of confidence that it is unlikely that the can was left overnight, and on the same token it is unlikely that a hiker left it there in the morning and never used the trails. (to get in you have to cross a bridge that runs across a ravine/creek--at this bottleneck point there were no prints)

It was a real treat to get out in the woods with Momo and Bthemonkey. I was really interested in learning more about tree signs/formations as I have had very little experience with that. We found our first tree formation within minutes of crossing the creek. This one had obvious signs that it had been the result of some manipulation and not a natural occurrence. When I first saw the beer can it looked so surreal like it was suspended in the air so I moved in for a closer look. This is when we found the tree formation next to the can. I was curious about how sturdy it was so I gave it a little shake which caused it to sag due to some rotten wood. After we turned and started up the hill with the other two in front of me in plain sight is when I got whacked in the back of the head with a rock, pretty hard. The rock hit me below the slope at the back of my head in horizontal trajectory, it was not a falling object from a tree. I am fairly certain it was a rock due to the impact it had. In addition to the tree signs,the beer can and my getting beaned we also found two tracks that were fairly convincing to me and I have hunted and trapped for many years. There was one trail in and one trail out of the location and my wife had a listening post set up at the entrance to that trail. We were alone on that hill, period.
I am truly fired up to have my first what I consider to be activity along with the other things we found. My biggest regret is the lack of preparation that let me find two tracks with no casting material or measuring equipment with me. That will not happen again. 25lbs of hydrocal are in the mail and my documentation kit will be up to snuff before I go out again. I am excited to be a part of M.A.P. and feel like we can make some contributions to the hunt in the expeditions to come.

Here is the best pic of the bigger track, for comparison my shoe is a 10 1/2


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Here is my pic of the can in relation to the structure that I disturbed. Despite the urging of my friends I did not break something else to see what would happen :-)


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This is recorded from the first night I was there. (Friday-6-11) --Unidentified noise that continued off and on for quite some time. This noise occured 8 minutes after pulling up and recording and almost immediately after I began to shine a flashlight all up and down the woodline sporadically. Please let me know if this is a bird/owl or a fox or even a Bigfoot with asthma... Thank you!

Moved to the MABRC Expeditions area with the other debriefings. Good work guys, we will get a patch made up for this mini-expedition.