Report 19983: Fisherman describes possible howls and camp stalking at Round Lake, Uinta Mountains

During the month of July of 1986, a friend and I wanted to try our hand at catching some Arctic Grayling in the Weber River drainage of the Uinta Mountains.  The hike along Dry Fork was fairly flat and very pleasant.  But after hiking a mile and a half and crossing the stream (Dry Fork) -- the trail snaked its way up a very steep mountain for over two miles.  I remember the hike quit well, because both of us were loaded down with heavy packs and inflatable rubber rafts.  After several hours of hiking in heavy timber, we finally topped the mountain at 9,995 feet and reached Round Lake. The lake is located in a grassy meadow and surrounded by heavy pines.  Both of us were very excited to blow up our rafts and start fishing.  I remember we only had a few hours to fish before sunset and that we only caught a few trout on spinners.  Somewhat disappointed with fishing, we gathered up our gear and found a good campsite several hundred feet away from the lake.  After setting up our camp and eating, we walked to the lake and found an area that overlooked several heavy-timbered canyons.  By this time the sun was completely hidden behind a chain of mountains and the temperature was dropping fast.  To our shock, we both heard several howling moans in the heavy timber below us.  I would guess about a half-mile away.  The howling was loud and powerful.  I'm almost certain we heard three to five howls and they sounded nothing like a coyote or wolf.  The sounds seemed surreal and not human in any way--and as far as I'm concerned, they were not made by any animal that I was familiar with.  We just looked at each other--trying to figure out just what in the heck would make such a loud and unforgettable moaning sound. Spooked, we walked back to camp with our flashlights.  We both slept in one tent, which was a little unusual, because we usually slept in separate tents.  Blame it on me, because I was still a little shook-up.  Sometime after midnight, something large moved through our campsite.  As I remember it, we thought it was perhaps a deer or more likely an elk.  From time to time, I would emerge from the tent flaps spotlighting for glowing eyes.  Whatever it was, it had left me sleepless and bone tired. The next morning; a group of horseback riders we met on the trail told us that something had spooked their horses during the night and they had mentioned something about a Bigfoot.  Welcome to the wilderness I thought--it seemed the further you were from the trailhead--things became easier to believe.  That day, we caught buckets of Arctic Graylings at Sand Lake, they were small.  We moved on to Fish Lake that evening to camp.  I remember we made a rip-roaring fire and talked about Bigfoot and had a night-visit from a chipmunk that scared us.  I can't explain it--but the place seemed tainted with a bad vibe--we both felt it. The next day, the fishing was good--almost too good at Fish Lake.  The area was beautiful with steep rocky ridges, but the atmosphere seemed creepy and wanted us to move on.  We caught dozens of good-sized Graylings, fishing from our handy rubber rafts in this L-shaped lake.  Instead of staying another night at Fish Lake--we hiked to Round Lake and camped the night.  The next morning, we hiked back to the trailhead at Holiday Park...a day earlier than planned.  The really weird thing; we left a place where the fish were biting--just because we had a bad feeling around Fish Lake--very odd.