Crawford County, MI near Grayling

Camp Grayling National Guard Base

Smallish secluded lake. Roughly 'C' shaped. High steep surrounding hills on 3 sides, marshy area on the far end. This lake is in a very large Michigan National Guard training area. Jackpines, and scrub oak. A lot of wild blueberries, and acorn mast. Deer, scattered black bear, coyote, porcupines. Rolling hills, mixed forest, swamp. Jack pine, scrub oak, other indigenous plant life Deer, black bear, other indigenous animals

I-75

Jun 1991

Early afternoon

Clear

Sighting,Tracks,Sounds,Other

Fly fishing in a float tube.

None

(as I stated above-I have previously posted this sighting in the GCBRO site-I'm going to state HERE what I stated THERE, as I spent a good deal of time writing that as accuratly as I could)

I used to live near Grayling Michigan, which is home to an enormous Michigan National Guard training area. This is fairly secluded wilderness.

About 8 miles from my home, back into the training area was a lake I called 'Lonesome Lake'-I don't know if this small lake even has a proper name. It should show up on land sat maps though, it's in a fairly deep (for the area) forested valley. I always kind of thought it looked like a crater lake.

Around one side of this lake is a one lane trail, accessible only by ORV's or 4 wheel drives. It's one lane, you have to go to the end to turn around, or you have to back out. Apx halfway down the lakeshore trail it takes a hard right around a finger of hill. (ie: you cant see around the corner)

I was flyfishing in a float tube. I had just seen an osprey-which was a pretty rare sight-the only time I've ever seen one as a matter of fact. Right after I saw the osprey, the wind changed. (wind is significant when you're fishing in a float tube) IMMEDIETLY upon the wind changing, I heard the sound of a big animal moving about in the brush, apx 150 yards away-directly in front of me. I thought that it was probably a deer or perhaps a bear, and I was going to get to see it come to the water for a drink. The brush-movement noises stopped after a few minutes, so I whistled really loud. (sometimes this will attract, or at least make animals curious) This proved to be a bad idea.

The animal screamed at me. Very very loud. Loud enough, at apx 150 yards, that it was just a scream-loud white noise. Scared me to death. I've been a sportsman my whole life, and have never heard anything remotely like this-it was truly frightening.

I started 'paddling' back to the shore to my truck, I had suddenly decided I didn't want to fish anymore. I made it about halfway back to shore, when it screamed again. It wasn't quite as loud as the first time, but it was still plenty loud enough to raise my hackles. At the end of this second scream, there was a kind of 'tapering off' noise. At the time it sounded like that weird muttering noise that porcupines make. Kind of a gibberish, that almost sounds like words-but not quite. I have since decided that it sounds like a foreign language played at a too-fast speed on a record player. Whatever it was, it scared me even worse. I DID NOT want to meet whatever it was making that noise.

As I get almost to shore, I can hear whatever it was making it's way through the brush on the other side of the lake. It was making it's way towards the one-lane trail on the lakeshore. As I get out of the water and throw my stuff in the back of the truck, I can still hear it moving towards the trail, and occasionally making that weird muttering noise. NOTE: I couldn't actually SEE anything, for 2 reasons. One-at this point it's still a good hundred yards away, in thick brush, and on the other side of the 'finger' coming down off the hill. And, 2-I wasn't LOOKING for it. I didn't want to see it. Every hair on my body was standing on end!

I jumped in the truck, went to the end of the trail to the turn around, turned around, and came back to the 'finger' of the hill. I was very frightened, and it was very important to me to NOT SEE whatever it was. I can't explain WHY, but I did not want to see it. When I got the truck to the 'finger', I stopped. I shut the motor off, and rolled down the window and listened. I couldn't hear anything, so I honked the horn. Immedietly after honking the horn I could hear very distinct and very definitely bipedal footsteps about 30 feet away, around the 'finger' in the wet sand. That was enough for me, I was in definite panic mode-not ashamed to admit it, I was scared to death. I started the truck, revved the engine really loud, and just fired around that corner. There was nothing there, except maybe 20 or so footprints in the wet sand. They were human-shaped, and about 2 inches deep (into the sand). That's about all I can tell you about the footprints, I wasn't hanging around to check them out-I really only saw them as I drove over them. I was scared to even LOOK into the brush y hillside going up on my left. I get to the end of the lakeshore trail where it meets the main trail, and couldn't make the turn-I was going too fast, and I dug into the sand. I couldn't get the truck to move, so I jumped out and turned the lockouts. I get back in the truck, just as I closed the door-the thing screamed again, about 50 feet away. Very very loud. I got the truck unstuck, and started up the hill.

As I'm driving up the hill, my eyes were GLUED to the rearview mirror-just as I reached the top of the hill, about 100 feet from the lakeshore trail exit I'd just come out of) I see it walk right to the edge of the trail. It was under the shade of some trees, and perhaps thought it was hidden in the shadow-but it was 'backlit' by the light colored sand behind it. I actually stopped at the top of the hill and turned around in my seat to look at it. I would say close to seven feet tall, perhaps a bit shorter than that. Very broad across the shoulders and chest, no neck, pointy head. We looked at each other for a few seconds (the longest couple seconds of my life) and I got the hell out of there. I say 'we looked at each other' but I couldn't see it's eyes, I can remember the sunlight shining off it's brow though.


I didn't notice the smell until I'd got home. My dog wouldn't get anywhere near the truck for a few days afterward, and he LOVED to go riding. It was a putrid bad body odor smell.

No neck. Pointed head-I could SEE the saggital crest-as it stepped away from the tree into the sun, the light hit it in such a way as to make the crest very evident. In fact-the crest is my strongest visual memory of it. Very large shoulders. Heavy brow, deep set eyes. The lips looked like the lips of a chimpanzee-without the protuded mouth area. It was dark brown to black in color. I can also remember seeing one of it's 'fingers'-would have been the left hand. It was dark in color-but not hairy. That's pretty much all I can remember of it's physical appearance-I was in kind of a hurry to get out of there.

As I drove out of the lake, there were a series of footprints in the wet sand. Maybe 20 of them. They were human-like in shape, they were big, and they were probably 2 inches in depth. I wasn't sticking around to check them out-so I can't answer any particulars about toe count, etc.

Thrashing noises in the brush. Very noticeable, very distinctly bipedal footfalls in wet sand, incredibly loud screaming, semi-loud "gibberish" that almost sounded like a foreign language played on a record player at a fast speed--the only way I could describe it.

I didn't notice anything other than the footprints in the sand, the stench (after the incident), and the noises. I didn't stick around-and I never went back. It's not physical evidence-but I was terrified. I can't even describe fully the feeling.

I've had nightmares for years about this. I'm a corrections officer in a maximum security prison, and as such am a trained observer. I don't rattle easily. I have never been this terrified before in my life, before or after. I saw what I saw......and I don't even believe in bigfoot. Whatever the hell that thing was, it made it real clear that it didn't want me fishing in it's lake. I've never gone back. I wish I'd never seen it, no one believes me, and I can't get it out of my mind. I would be delighted to find out that it's just a figment of my imagination, and that these things aren't really walking around out there!

Jim Flowers

After speaking with the witness for between 30 and 40 minutes on the phone, I found him to be very accurate in the retelling of the report as submitted to SRI, and previously to the GCBRO (link below).

The witness was fishing from a float tube when he first heard the sounds of brush moving and whistled in the hopes of bringing out a deer or bear, or causing it to move into his field of vision. In response, he heard what he described as a "roar," followed by muttering resembling a very loud chatter similar to that which a porcupine makes. The estimated duration between sounds is about 30 seconds or so, with a total duration of approximately five minutes.

At the time of the first sound the witness estimated he was between 75 and 100 yards from shore and possibly 150-200 yards from the source of the sound. The witness immediately paddled his float back to shore and left in his truck. The footprints were noticed in the wet sand as he drove by slowly. He describes them as numbering near 20, with a 16 inch length and 6-7 inch ball width. They were fairly clear and he had the impression there were five toes in several of the tracks, which he further described as being very "human-like" in appearance. The witness did not stop or slow down further for a better view, but continued vacating the area.

The subject of the sighting is described as between approximately 6'9" and 7' in height, with an estimated weight of between 450-500 pounds, very heavily built, "massive" and "weight-lifter"-sized. The witness further describes his impression of there being no visible neck, with a large shoulder and trapezius area that could have contributed to this. The witness further states that it was either dark brown or black in color, which was hard to tell exactly due to the reflection of sunlight upon hair. The witness believes that it may have appeared slightly stooped because of its massive size, as opposed to this being its actual posture.

The hair is estimated to be 3 inches or so in length, with the hair on the arms and legs being longer than that on the body.

The witness was not able to describe facial features in detail, other than it appeared to have a jutting brow line, and a mouth/jaw area that resembled a chimpanzee or other primate minus the protuberance. He was also adamant regarding what appeared to him to be a sagittal crest on the head, and the eyes being "deep set" while not entirely visible due to shading/ light reflection.

The witness estimates the distance of the actual sighting at about 50 yards with a duration of a minute, although admits that due to circumstances and his feeling that the subject wanted him to leave the area, it may have just felt longer than it was.

The witness states that he has not returned to the area since, and that due to the length of time between the incident and now, some of the details are harder to remember, such as track details; He seems to remember them looking like huge 5-toed human tracks, but does not specifically remember counting the number of toes at the time.

This report was originally submitted by the witness to the GCBRO in 2001 (see http://www.gcbro.com/MIcrawford0002.html). No pertinent follow up was done at that time, other than a verification that he did indeed submit a report to them, with no questions asked before it was published.

While an in-person interview was not possible at the time, several investigators from SRI did drive through the area on Monday, August 6th, 2007. The location, topography and general description of the area are consistent with what was reported.

The witness is open to further contact should any future questions arise regarding his report.

Several from the media and other sources.

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