A group of friends are camping near the Gila National Forest, NM and experience frightening sounds made by a large biped around their campsite and tent at night.

The following account was in response to a reference I made about Bigfoot activity in the Gila National Forest in New Mexico:

"I had something happen to me a few miles outside of the Gila National Forest, NM. Some friends and I went camping out in the boonies, down a game trail with seriously low levels of activity. I like that area of the Gilas so much because a lot of it is logging land on the outskirts of legit unmapped woods.

The first place we set up camp was pretty much on the edge of a pine thicket where the forest jutted up a ridge, lots of trees still but not as many as further in if that makes sense. Anytime I go camping in a place like the Gilas, old growth forest with nobody around, I like to smudge the area with a sage bundle and roll a cigarette as a kind of offering and cleansing. I have a masters degree in cultural anthropology and I lend a lot of credence to indigenous beliefs, especially where it concerns the wilderness.

When I sat down by the fire we set up to get my sage started it wouldn’t light. I used my lighter, I stuck it in the fire itself, but it wouldn’t get lit, it just got charred and the twine burned up, but no significant smoke from the sage. It was eerie, because usually that’s a pretty bad sign if you follow any stuff like that. I just let it go because it was pretty dark out by this time, and to suggest moving camp probably would have gotten me heckled pretty badly by my friends.

As the night goes on, we’re doing typical camping stuff, playing guitars and singing songs, drinking beers and roasting hot dogs, etc. When we put out the fire I noticed just how dark the forest line really was at night and it spooked me pretty badly. We’d seen a herd of elk up the game trail, heard some coyotes, and I even saw a dinky looking turkey wandering around at one point in the early afternoon so I was aware of the wildlife around. But once that fire stopped popping it was dead silent, like you said there was a heaviness to it.

The three of us just kind of looked around in the dark trying to get our eyes to adjust but figured we’d been staring at the fire for too long and were just giving ourselves reasons to get freaked out by the darkness. So we hopped in the tent, zipped up, and just tried to get some sleep.

About an hour passed before we all heard the very distinct sound of bipedal walking very close to our camp. Crunching on the dry pine needles, twigs snapping, dirt getting kicked up. It sounded like a big burly guy was stomping around out in the middle of nowhere in pitch black dark. Even writing that just gave me a chill up my spine. That sh*t was unsettling. We all looked at each other from our sleeping bags, eyes wide and silent as whatever this thing was passed us by, just one. It was so quiet, no other life could be heard, not sniffing or snuffing like a bear would, no elk calls, no sound of jingling or equipment like a hunter might have, I honestly have no idea what in the world could make such a distinct 'THUMP' pause 'THUMP' pause, but it was wild.

None of us slept that night, and the next morning we moved camp down another game trail somewhere far away from that looming ridge and tree line. Didn’t see any evidence of anyone around us in at least a mile radius of the camp, and still I have no explanation for what I heard or experienced that night. As a side note, at the next place we set up my sage bundle lit and burned white milky smoke." DS

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