Bearmgc, I'll go a little further about this area, and why we think this "could" be a BF area. In addition to the footprint, and the snapped off trees. there is a small hollow up there that looks and feels like a sleeping den. Now, bear are known to be in mountains around here, but this hollow is a bit different, in that leaves and small branches have been piled up on several ledges, making it look like a den or "bedroom". This sounds funny, but in this particular area, this stuff would have to be brought in as none of the leaves, branches or small brush can get in there on their own, meaning, not naturally dropped or blew in from wind. This is right beside a depression, for lack of anything better to call it, which water can collect, fill up, and run out a natural hole in the rock about the size of a basketball. If someone were describing this to me, I'd think "Yeah, sure!", but it's one of those spots that when you see it, you know it didn't happen that way by accident. We are going to do a bit more exploring there, in full daylight, and well armed, just in case! My friend has a couple of other anomaly's about this area, but I'll talk to him before I say more. I will say that I have seen one other spot like this, up in the Cascades, near Silver Creek Falls State Park. There used to be a Boy Scout camp up there, called Davidson's Ranch. We had a summer outing there many years ago, and a bunch of us went exploring in the woods. We came across a small cabin beside a ravine, and it was in poor shape, almost ready to tumble down. The back jutted out over the ravine about 4 feet, propped up by a couple of poles. In that underhang, was another nest or den, like what I described before. Only, being young and dumb, we climbed down to investigate. First thing we noticed was an overwhelming smell like a combination of raw sewage and something so "tangy" for lack of a better word, that stung our eyes, burned our noses and throats, and made you actually want to stop breathing, and just get out of there! Which we did! I've smelled fresh "cat" urine, and fresh skunk , but never anything that made you involuntarily jerk back and turn away like that. As we were hightailing out of there, from the other side of the ravine, sounding about 1/2 a block away,( we were city boys then!) was a really loud, high pitched, sound, not really a roar, and not a big cat scream, but maybe something like a combination of the two. We ran almost all the way back to camp, and never told anyone else about what we had seen or heard for many years! I have never gone back there, but I'd like to see if I could find it again. BoomLover
