Ginseng Hunters Hear Wood Knocks
On Saturday the 8th of October, my father and I went on a ginseng hunt and experienced some unusual knocking in the forest.
I wanted to share this story as I'm very sure what was making the knocks and I wanted to describe the events and area in greater detail.
We started out fairly early on Saturday as I had a church function I wanted to attend in the evening. It was a rather cool morning but we figured it would warm up as the day went on. It did warm up some but never really got out of the 60's.
The area we decided to go to is one that is rarely explored by anyone due to the fact it is very steep and you have to cross a creek to get into the area.
We crossed the creek, the water was down due to the lack of rain, and started to make the steep climb up the mountain. After about a quarter of mile going almost straight up, there was a little leveling off and then straight back up again.
We had a destination in mind and was determined to make it to the area. Finally after a couple of hours climbing, and looking for ginseng we hit an old mining road. It was grown up with small sapling and some weeds but it was much better walking than climbing up the side of the mountain. We followed the old road as it winded around the mountain and towards the area we really wanted to explore.
©Thomas Marcum |
Once we got to the main area we wanted to be in, we still didn't find much ginseng. So after a little while we decided to start heading down the mountain. We had basically went from left to right covering around 3 miles, at this point. But remember this was very strenuous climbing. As we are making our way down the mountain, by now we are back in the old road, we are still looking over the edge for ginseng.
We stopped to looking around, and we are talking about the area when I hear a wood knock down below us and to the right. It was a very distinctive wood on wood sound. I have heard several wood knocks over the years and this was clearly a wood knock and not a nut falling to the ground. I ask my dad if he heard that and said "I think that I was a wood knock". My dad said he didn't hear it.
We stood there for a little bit waiting to hear something. After about 30 seconds or so we started to talk a little and then there was another wood knock. It sounded like ti came from the exact same spot as the other. This time my dad heard it. It was once again a wood on wood sound.
We looked were we thought the knocks had come from but due to the thick forest we couldn't see any movement. I tried a whoop but did not get any reply. What I find interesting is that I have heard a theory that says that Bigfoot will knock the number of people it sees. So, there was 2 of us and it knock a total of 2 times. So maybe that theory is correct but I would assume they have different knocks to mean different things. Who knows for sure really.
After standing there a little while, we continued on our way out of the woods. On the way out I managed to find around 8 or 10 plants of ginseng. The plants were good sized and had nice roots on them. This kind of saved the day for me as I had had a terrible day finding ginseng. But like my dad said, you can't find it if it is not there.
My Dad. ©Thomas Marcum |
We finally made it out of the woods and back to the truck. We had covered about 6 miles in some pretty tough territory. We only found a little ginseng but had some wood knocks. It was a great day and we both enjoyed being in the woods. My day is almost 74 years old and for the last several years was not healthy enough to walk the mountains. I will always cherish these memories and our time together.
Now, while we explored the area, we never found another human footprint or evidence that anyone had been in there recently. We found some old soda cans that were pretty old and if I was guessing would guess them to be from the 90's. Not many people want to climb this steep mountain.
The area is idea for a being such as Bigfoot. The area rarely gets humans, there is plenty of food and water sources, and lots of roaming area. As for shelter, there were several cliff lines and even some very large rock formations bigger than most houses in the area. These types of places could easily provide year around shelter for a Bigfoot.
Well, that is my little story, I hope you enjoyed it.
Have a great day!
Thanks
~Thomas~
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