Glad I am not the only one that saw this as a squatch only thread.

Cathryn, did you ever figure this out? I joined the forums just for this because this is the only thing on the internet mentioning exactly what I've experienced in the last few weeks.

I'm in the White Mountains of Maine, late summer and it was midday.

I own the acreage, and my two neighbors who own the 400 acres surrounding me were not home (for both of them, it is just their vacation property, while I'm here full-time). The road dead ends at my driveway, and even before then, it's basically a trail that you need an off-road ready car to get up. No one hikes out here, there are much better mountains and trails for that in the next town. It's so quiet out here that you can hear a vehicle coming from a mile away. There were no other people out there. The whole mountain is wooded, except for my one-acre clearing.

I was on a hike through woods, headed towards the top of my small mountain with two pre-teen nephews and my dog. Everything was totally normal...normal sounds, normal small creatures everywhere. Then towards the end of my official trail, we all froze in our tracks. There were three HUGE thumps/knocks like a very strong person hitting a tree with a metal baseball bat. Maybe one to two whole seconds between each knock/thump. It sounded like it was 50 feet from us further northwest up the mountain. All 4 of our heads snapped that direction, but saw nothing. The dog slowly backed up and started barking and tried to lead us all back home.

Just like OP said, this isn't the tiny chirps of a chipmunk, or the small knocking sound a turkey makes, we have all those too. It was too big, deep and sharp to be a mountain lion. Absolutely not a woodpecker, it would have to be about 5 feet tall to make a sound like that. I have grouse too, that's an awesome, but very different sound than this, there is no "ball bouncing" element of this, it's 3 big slams and that's it--it's also louder. OP is right, it's a BIG sound.

There are moose in the woods, so my only guess was that maybe a moose was headbutting a tree? But there are no moose in West Virginia where OP is. There are black bear around too, but they usually stay down in the valley.

Sasquach have no rhythm. Three precise knocks means it is definitely aliens.

I was afraid the mocking would be back right away... I suffered reading through13 pages of it before posting trying to find real responses.

I would genuinely like to know what sort of large animal or behavior I need to watch for while hiking in my woods alone.

Grouse

Threads like this prove that not every adult should be allowed to vote lol. Not directed at you Mainewoods

THANK YOU! I was hopeful that there was more reading comprehension and intelligence now, but apparently not. I'm already regretting opening this back up on the poor OP. Guess it will forever be a mystery.

That assumes that the knocking indicates some kind of danger. I suspect that the only "animal" one really has to worry about if you don't have grizzlies is people. If sasquach is out there, where are his victims?

Have you been listening to Tony Orlando again?

I don't discount anything. I'm not implying sasquatches are real, but I'm also not implying they ain't.

I'm a 5-foot-tall, 110 pound woman who lives alone in the woods with my dog. I think it's smart to have a healthy fear of large animals, etc. especially when said animals have babies around. The moose out here have even been known to attack stopped cars. Glad to see some people have the ... to believe that they could take on any wild animal but a grizzly. I don't have that sort of confidence, I try to be smart instead.

And, no it doesn't automatically assume "danger." It's about trying to be aware of what is out there and what the possibilities are. You regularly advise people to not know or care what's going on around them?

And neither the OP nor myself ever said anything about "sasquatches" ...or aliens for that matter. I'm asking a real question, about things that actually exist.

Well, multiple people have tried to answer the question, but without an actual recording of the sound, it's all guess work. Anything can happen, but your chance of being attacked by some wild animal is pretty small.
On the bright side, you don't even have rattle snakes to worry about.

Let people have thier fun, we all need a laugh now and then.

True! We all do. And there are tons of places to have fun, why does it have to be at the expense of people who have serious questions? Hijacking them and then burying the question with "fun" so no one who might actually have an answer can see it? A couple people did genuinely try, and that's why the OP and I addressed those suggestions, but most just threw out random names of wild animals. Who has ever heard a chipmunk that has the volume of a baseball bat against a tree? You can't really get more clear about the sound than the description that both OP and I gave, it's just that no one actually read or believed it. It's just more important for them to "have fun" than for us to get answers to our questions.

Hopefully if you ever have a genuine question, other people will make sure you can't get an answer either. But I doubt that would ever happen, because you already seem to know everything there is to know, right?

… maybe it was someone hitting a tree with a baseball bat… possibly Mark McGwire

I sure don't, but I do recognize when someone has a chip on thier shoulder. The vibe of this forum has always been a mix of fun and real information...if I hear anything like that sound in the woods ill be sure to investigate and report back. In the meantime I'm going with aliens.

If I was 5' tall and 110 #'s I'd for real carry a 18" barreled 12 GA. Shotgun with a long sling in front. loaded with copper plated Buckshot (plug out) I'd have a good dog too, like You.

I want to Believe in Squatch's I'm a skeptical believer put it that way

There's nothing Else animal wise in the woods that can make those sounds.

So. no joking from me, just I don't have a guess or Answer.

Only time I have heard any thing close to that in the woods is in winter when the temps have held well below zero for and extended period.Trees can make a LOUD popping sound from the sap freezing and expanding creating what they call a "Frost Crack".And yes they are as loud or even louder than someone smacking a tree with a ball bat.

… surprised how quickly y’all are dismissing the chance that it’s Mark McGwire getting hopped up on steroids and traveling the country beating trees with a baseball bat

Could be your cannibal buddies banging their spears against their shields?