Report 6130: Hikers hear strange screams in the Desolation Wilderness

During the second week of July 2000 my son (16 years old then) and I had backpacked into the northern part of Desolation Wilderness from the Loon Lake Trail head in Eldorado County, California. Desolation is located in the El Dorado National Forest.  To get to the trailhead you take Hwy 50 east out of Placerville and turn off on the Crystal Basin Lakes Road. Follow this road about 20 miles to Loon Lake and the Desolation Wilderness Trail head parking lot. From the trailhead we hiked into Rockbound Lake and camped near the outlet of the lake which goes down to Buck Island Lake. We stayed there for four days. This is a place that we backpack into quite often and are very familiar with the area. We usually set up a base camp at Rockbound and then day hike and fish at several lakes in the area as well as the Rubicon River.  Desolation Wilderness is just west of Lake Tahoe and the Pacific Crest Trail. On our third night there we sitting in camp.  We had fished until dark and it must have been about 9:30 or 10:30PM. It stays lite very late in the summer and we usually fish until dark. At that time we heard a very loud scream that came from the northeast shore of the lake. A few seconds later we heard two more loud screams that came from the same direction. These screams were very loud and not like anything that we had ever heard before. My son and I have both heard mountain lions scream before but these were much louder and very high pitched. We knew that the screams were to loud to be a bird and really didn't know what they were. At that time we didn't even think that it may be a bigfoot. We had both heard about Bigfoot but it wasn't something that came to mind when we heard the screams. Shortly after the screams we went to bed and didn't hear anything else. The next morning I got up just before daylight so we could pack up and hike back to Loon Lake before it got to hot. My son was awake but still in our tent.  At this time we both heard the biggest loudest roar that was nothing like we had ever heard before. This roar came from the south end of the lake. My son quickly got out of the tent and we just started to ask each other what it was when there was another loud roar from across the lake. About ten seconds later there was another loud roar from way up in the Rubicon River canyon which was about 2 miles away. This roar was muffled because of the distance but was still loud enough to hear. About five seconds later there was another loud roar that came from where we had heard the screams the night before. Five seconds later there was a very, very, loud roar that came from about 50 yards or less behind our camp.  At that time my son and I turned and ran over a small hill behind our camp to see if we could see anything. The area behind camp was fairly open with alot of granite and brush and a few trees. At that time we really didn't know what we were looking for but we thought that we might be able to see something. We hiked around the area and over to a snow pond but didn't see or hear anything else. At that time we returned to camp, packed up our stuff and started to hike  back to Loon Lake.  On the hike back we talked quite a bit about what we had heard and were joking that it was probably several bigfoots communicating with each other. I guess we really didn't want to believe that we had heard a bigfoot but we both knew that there is no other animals in the woods that can make the type of screams and roars that we had heard. A few days later I drove back to the El Dorado National Forest Ranger station at Camino, Calif. and asked a couple of employees at the counter if they had ever had anyone report hearing any loud roars or screams in the Desolation Wilderness area. One of the employees told me that someone else had reported hearing some loud screams a few weeks earlier. I then told the employees what my son and I had heard and one of them said it sounds like a bigfoot to me.  They also told me that there was someone at that office who takes reports on possible bigfoot happenings and I left my name and number but never heard from anyone. Over the next couple of years my son and I had told several people about what we had heard but really didn't find anyone else who had heard the same thing.  Most people we talked to had no reason not to believe us but really had no idea how loud the screams and roars were. By this time we both began to believe that we had heard several bigfoots communicating with each other but really had no way to prove it. A friend of mine then told me about the BFRO Wedsite and we logged on and found out that there were other hikers that had reported actually seeing a couple of Bigfoots in the Desolation Wilderness not very far from where we had camped. We talked about submitting a report but never got around to it. A couple of months ago the same friend gave me a video tape of the Discovery Channel show about Bigfoot. When I heard the recordings of Bigfoot screams I knew then that we had heard the exact same thing. The only difference was that the screams we heard were louder.  Probably because we were actually hearing them naturally and not on a tape. About a month later my son was able to view the Bigfoot video and when he heard the screams he said, Dad thats exactly what we heard.  We listened to them several more times  and agreed that we would submit a report. There has never been any doubt in our minds that the screams and roars we heard could not have come from any known animal species that lives in the Sierras. We both wanted to believe we had heard a Bigfoot but really had nothing to compare it to until we heard the screams on the Discovery Channel video tape. My son was raised in the Sierras and I have lived there for 20 years so both of us are quite familiar with the local animals and sounds. I am also a wildlife biologist and know that the sounds we heard could not have come from a bear or mountain lion. We both now believe that the sounds we heard came from several Bigfoot type creatures or at least an animal that has not currently been identified.