I was 11 or 12 on the first trip. My father was a battalion chief of a fire dept at the time. On the way in we had to cut two trees out of the path of the dirt road to get in which we saw as a bonus at the time as we needed fire wood. We had two camps deep in honey island swamp On the south MS LA border. There were at least 7 men per camp and two teens or young men, me and another that was a couple of years older than me. Large group of men with a extensive hunting lifestyle. We were there in squirrel season and was hunting squirrels. It was supposed to be a 7 night camping trip. It was cut short. We were deep in the wood and were rabbit shining at about 2am. All of the normal night sounds ended about a 1/4 mile from the camp. We all felt uneasy but walked for another mile at least away from the camp. The entire time the woods were entirely quiet. I remember one of the guys stopping and saying something isn't right. The group talked about it and decided to return to camp. When we got close to camp all the night wood sounds started up again. We were all sitting around the camp fire about 30 Min's later and the men in the group was telling the others about how weird it was. The woods sounds died around our camp and 10 Min's later this chest reverberating roar came from the same trail we were on. You cant understand it unless you hear it in person. I was very scared at this time mostly because all of the grown men around me were scared. They had conversations about building the fire larger to who has buck shot. Only one guy had 12ga buckshot in his vehicle and they doled the rounds out. It yelled twice more from differant places around the camp and you could hear it in the underbrush moving around. After a while with no yells and no movement the woods night sounds came back. This area was a long time hunting area for these men none of them had ever encountered anything like that before. We laughed it off the next day in the way men do when they are scared and went hunting. Great day lots of squirrel but no Night time rabbit shining this time. In the early morning hours a couple of hours before sun rise it walked up behind the camp very very close and let out a yell that woke the entire camp. It circled the camp all night until day break just out of light range. Two hours after sunrise the camp was packed up and we were out of there. Talked to my dad about it on the long drive home. He and I both had no idea what it was just that we needed to not be there. Several years later we saw a film about Bfoot and they played a yell that was supposed to be from it and it was the same thing we heard only a lot further away.
I think this is the longest post I've ever done so say what ya want to it was scary as hell to me. We did go back the next year and that trip was also cut short.
You, and others in your party have been had.
1. Another human that you either know or don't know is still laughing because he scared the crap out of you.
2. It was an animal and because you and your friends had already been freaked out "because it was suddenly quiet" the sound it made scared the crap out of you and your friends.
3. Your mind over time has changed what really happened and your observations are no longer a memory but have changed to a fantasized memory.
What happened the next day? Find any tracks? How about offal? Hair snagged on a branch? A 50 pound dog cant go through the woods without leaving some evidence and you think this 7 foot, 400 pound beast can move like fog? Why, because he's smarter than a dog? Are you smarter than a dog? Are you smarter than this phantom? Can you go through the woods and leave no evidence?
