The Elk Hunt Interrupted
During an expedition in the northern part of New Mexico myself, my son, Stan Courtney
and M. took off from base camp to go find a footprint someone had discovered the
previous day. The footprint was supposed to be under a ledge in the limestone dust
where it was protected from the on and off rain we had on this trip. The footprint was
up one of the five “fingers†or valleys the host told us not to go up. He never
ventured up these “fingers†because it was his belief that the “big people†lived up
there and he did not want to intrude on their territory.
It was a strenuous hike though rain and a constant climb in elevation. We decided to
rest on a rock outcropping which jetted out towards to downward slope of the valley
we just hiked up. After a few minutes M. thought he saw something to our left but
after a brief investigation it was determined we could see the entire “bowl†to our left
and nothing could be down there without seeing it. We decided to remain on the rock
outcropping and rest some more. To our left was the way we hiked up the valley and
from our current position we could only look into the tree tops.
After a short while we started to hear wood knocks towards the bottom of the valley
we just ascended. After a few sets of wood knocks we determined there were
actually two sources of the knocks. The wood knocks continued up the valley and
alternated from one side of the valley to the other. I had a video camera recording
the whole time but the piece of equipment was not sensitive enough to catch the
wood knocks. When the knocks reached about half way up an elk bugled which the
video recorder caught.
During this constant and progressing knocking M. and I could hear something directly
below our position on the rock outcropping. There was not any distinct sound it made,
it just sounded like there was something moving around below.
After the two sets of wood knocks made it up the valley about ¾ of the way up, one
of the two-way radios we were carrying sounded with another group’s communication.
This noise abruptly stopped the wood knocking. We continued to listen and record but
nothing happened for a few minutes. Then, to our left and up valley from our location
we all heard clearly the vocalization “hay-ya†“hay-yaâ€. I was taken aback by this
vocalization because nobody else from our group was above our location and the
“accent†sounded Native American. Our host had told everyone that Native Americans
never ventured up this valley yet this sounded like one. After hearing these
vocalizations we waiting awhile but nothing else happened. We decided to leave and
head back down to base camp but wanted to stop by the location below our spot on
the rock outcropping to see if anything could be found.
When we arrived at the bottom of the rock out cropping we found a small stick with
sand on the end of it and a hole in the pine needles and limestone sand on the forest
floor that appeared to have been made by the stick. This hole had to have been
recently made due to the amount of rain we were receiving.
The video camera recorded the elk bugle, the vocalizations and I video recorded the
stick and hole in the soil as it was found.
Upon returning to base camp we explained to our host our encounter up the valley
and told him we heard “hay-ya†twice. He said that meant “Where are you?†in
Apache. Our conclusion to the events we witnessed is as follows:
Two Bigfoot were hunting elk and pushing it up the valley to trap it at the top as our
host had mentioned to us before our trip up the valley.
The juvenile Bigfoot was waiting below our location on the rock outcropping while the
others hunted. Probably bored, it starting playing with the stick in the soil.
Our two-way radio disrupted their hunt.
One of the Bigfoot called out for the juvenile once their hunt was compromised.
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From Stan –
For the elk sound click here: Elk
For the  “hay-yaâ€Â sound click here: “hay-yaâ€
