Report 58026: Hikers find footprints, possible nest and hear wood knocks mid-day near Coolin

Myself my dad and a few friends were on a big hike from Lion head up the wigwams and down to Kent lake then down Lion creek to the rock slides at Priest lake this was a two day hike. On the second day we were following Lion creek which is about 7 miles of just animal trails we had come across multiple spots where bear and elk had been sleeping and at one point we were  about 10 min behind what we originally thought to be a bear, but once we reached its nesting spot we found huge prints that were about 16 inches long and about 7-9 inches wide, we were so close to what I can only describe now as a squatch that we could still smell it in the nest. We stayed there for about 10 min then continued to hike about 5 min later we started to hear tree knocks and such things.