The most amazing thing about what we do is that we often retain allot of patience in hopes of seeing or hearing something paranormal. I spend time on many investigations that are rather peaceful while others are just full blown strange. I have realized if you do not put yourself in a certain situation you will not experience the strange so we decided to make a return trip to the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest here in southern Nevada.

It is great to be back into exploring strange sites as last month my gallbladder was gangrened which caused me to have a massive infection and surgery. I am so glad its all over I felt a little weak hiking but I was extremely proud of all the results and things experienced on my trip.

Tammy and I would head to two locations one being Fletcher Canyon the other being a second trip to Robbers Roost. I was just happy getting out of Vegas where I could go where it was 20 degrees cooler and a nice walk under the stars. With those factors I could careless if I seen a ghost or not my main goal was to get out their and get into the mix of things.

I had a great night planned out including chicken wings and brews. If you notice our group spends allot of time outdoors and it has many rewards especially when you are out in seclusion 3 am. On our way through the forest I came so close to hitting a deer. It was on the side of the road grazing and its head literally came within an inch of the passenger side mirror. Not only that but as we almost entered the forest to our left a bright light lit up an area behind a hill off in the desert a few hundred feet from the main road. So the night already was taking an odd turn of events prior to us even hiking.

The other issue we had to deal with is the fact that the area just reopened up after a forest fire so many of the residents still vacated this area and of course I felt it would stir up something cryptid. Just like a few years ago when I was in FL we managed after a bad hurricane to get deep in some seclusion and our group had a skunk ape sighting.

Tammy and I parked near the side of the road and hiked on in where a trail led us uphill for awhile and so our adventure would begin here which would turn fairly frightening as the trip went on.

Fletcher Canyon

As we hiked up the trail I could smell fresh pine and perhaps the leftover smell caused by the fire miles away. I generally stayed ahead of Tammy about 20 feet on the trail to scope it out and get photography of some of the ancient pine trees in the area.

At times we found a few trees laying on their sides while at the same time the forest was so quiet you could hear a pin drop. Strangely I did not hear any animals or wildlife. Tammy got real sick the first 15 minutes of our hike maybe elevation sickness. She was better once she threw up but still I was a bit worried because we had a couple miles in the canyon there and a couple back.

We took a fairly long time to hike up to the spring at times we both found some rocks near the trail to sit on taking a breather drinking our fluids. I believe we both heard an owl or at least Tammy seen one but no crickets and it was fairly really dark out being we had no moon. I found a giant old pine log where I climbed up onto walking across only to see others had carved their names into the wood.

The canyon appeared to narrow a little bit as at times it leveled off while other times we had some uphill climbing. I noticed these old rusty irrigation pipes the further we went in as we were roughly almost at 8, 500 feet. The trail at times was wide other times sort of hard to see as run offs gave it this illusion. Not only that but we never knew what was waiting around each turn being it had so many twist and turns in it.

Rumor has it there are 3 mines near the end of the canyon so I wanted to explore them but we never did find them. There are places the brush is so intense that anything could hide back in these woods you would not even know it is there.

As we went deeper into the canyon I heard some trickling and well we found a spring which looked more like a small creek. Tammy touched the water it was like ice maybe run off from the remaining snow at the peak.

When we reached the spring we followed the path along it then it became rather steep again leveling on off. I followed the path and was amazed that the canyon we were in was narrowed down to a couple hundred feet across with cliffs on both sides of us. Not only that but a quarter mile prior to this area was various little signs stating we were entering a wildlife area which in simple terms means miles of terrain and forest.

I thought I found a mile in the cliffs and instead found allot of brush which took me along side some crevices, rocks and 100 foot walls. The forest was quite dense here allot of foliage due to the spring. I am not sure how far we would have to follow the spring as we already went a quarter of a mile almost and found not a clue to where the mines were. I mean with all the brush....piles of crushed rock....and dense forest this canyon had many blind spots and animal paths perhaps from the deer in the area.

I did find some big cat stool on the trail at least studying it a bit it appeared to be that. Tammy and I were suppose to break at the spring but instead we took the time going down all these little paths in search of the mine or remnants of it. The air was nice and cool it beat the 100 degree heatwave in Vegas while at times their were some very patch icy cold spots that I noticed.

I went to walk down to the flowing water nearby and cut across. When I was walking I ended sort of twisting my ankle near a rock and fell. I actually fell into a series of green plants which only seemed to grow near the spring. The plant had ridges around the edges of the leaf with a fuzzy stem and stood about a foot and half tall. As soon as both my arms landed in the patch of plants I felt allot of pain such as a burning sensation much like when you hit your funny bone. Then seconds later parts of my arm had hives or rather my skin had some puffy outbreaks. It only took a couple minutes and the pain would not let up. Then eventually despite the pain my arms became somewhat numb with a pins and needles sort of effect. The pins and needle effect did not dissipate till roughly Monday afternoon two days almost after the incident. So it was apparent that whatever plant this is I am allergic and well they didn't effect me prior to this because I was wearing pants. Tammy thinks it might be the poison oak which is native to this area or perhaps a spiny needle plant which does just that...makes you feel as if a thousand needles are pricking you at once.

After exploring the more narrow part of the canyon I noticed many other peaks around us but more or less they looked like dark shadows in the night. Tammy and I decided to head back it was a nice hike and I wanted to find us an area with some flat rocks to sit down to rest. We took some unmarked trail which ended up taking us a couple hundred feet below the spring back on the main trail. Tammy and I took a photo of eachother...had some food and drinks. I was just ranting on to her how peaceful it was here and Tammy was telling me how this would make great camping. I agreed with her up until we were breaking and heard a god awful monstrous scream.

We both were frozen looking at one another as if we were questioning what it is we just heard. We were in the forest so deep and at first we both thought it was car tires squealing. But then the screams had gotten louder something was close. We decided to start hiking back to the car I would have the camera ready and my sound recorder in case.

The second time it screamed I thought maybe I am wrong but thought I heard something communicate with this unknown creature back. It sounded as if one was near us and another was miles away. I almost felt like whatever it was new we were in that canyon nearby and it was letting off a warning sign or perhaps communicating with its own kin.

As we walked down the trail the screams turned into a combination of a scream that would repeat itself followed by a very raspy sound. We stood still a few times on the trail to listen as at one point it sounded like a dog being eaten......or fighting for its life....while at times I could hear a scream that just echoed followed by 3 to 4 sounds which sounded like something communicating and not with us. The scream was very eerie but what got me was how after the scream you would hear 3 to 4 barking like sounds but not like a dog but like vocal cords....perhaps a chomping sound. I estimated that whatever this was got within a half of mile from us as on the trail there was times impassable brush so we had a cushion between this and us.

As we made our way down the trail we left whatever it was behind us but could still hear its screams it was no bird we tried to guess what mammal it could be but in all my years of being a cryptozoologist and paranormal investigator this sounded off. This was no bobcat...or mountain lie....or Bambi....it was no owl or bird. This was something large that was able to scream and at the same time after each scream it was able to make these series of sounds. I could literally hear its vocal chords still playing back over and over in my head.

To give you a similar idea of what we heard listen to this video more towards the beginning combined with the sounds near the end of it seems pretty similar http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HFzqBF0BUc with what sounded like a hairball being coughed up each time it screamed. My theory was that it possibly was bigfoot perhaps the fire had caused some disarray in this region or perhaps it was trying to spook us off or was threatened by our presence. Strangely despite how close it was to us we never once heard footsteps, branches breaking, rocks sliding etc how could something move around us so silent yet let out sounds such as this.

At this point I pulled out a weapon Tammy stayed close to me within a foot as we worked our way down the canyon and to the road. I could hear this thing over and over just a few seconds apart. I never felt watched or threatened until I heard this and well lets just say that for almost a half mile of our hike we stopped when we heard it. I kept telling myself its perhaps a mountain lion but when I arrived home we looked up bobcat and mountain lion sounds this was neither not even a slight chance it was a big cat.

As the creatures screams furthered themselves from us I pulled out my recorder not sure if it picked it up its not an expensive one and generally I use it for EVPs in closed spaces. But again you never know and if I captured it then it will in a couple months go live on our website.

At times it almost sounded like whatever it was had been screaming as if it just caught itself a meal or something. As we made our way to the trail entrance some other hikers said hi to us as they were hiking up and down the road. They sounded really nice who knows they had head lamps maybe they were there for the same reason as us.

If you ever want chills go deep 3am in Fletcher canyon maybe its a fluke maybe something migrating who knows. I know that we got real close to this thing yet heard no movement and never seen it. But it was loud enough and echoing in the canyon to travel up to a couple miles so we heard it and perhaps the locals didn't due to the fact that the area had been vacated over the past weekend.

After we talked about it for awhile we decided to head on off for a calmer up at Robbers Roosts.

Robbers Roost Investigation 2

Last time we went up here it was icy and full of snow. I remember sliding down this ice slope losing my flash light and even falling down a 5 foot deep hole. I had hoped for better results and if anything to chill out take some evps enjoy the rest of my night.

Tammy and I crossed the road someone was speeding so we had to dart like deer quick into the thick. We took the path to the left no ice so it only took us about 10 minutes to get to the roost.

At first we explored a series of limestone rocks to our left but we didn't go high enough so we ended up at first going up into the roost to our right of the path. Tammy and I climbed this little wall then I made my own path along the edge of a drop off eventually climbing up onto the roost or rather small area where robbers once set up base camp at.

The walls had black soot on them and their was smashed bottles. I also noticed some new cliff rings and straps embedded into the rock. This is a climbers dream people love to repel off the top of the roost or rather the over hang.

The rocks were very slippery and glossy in some areas very hard to get any kind of grip to climb. I always knew climbing or getting there is the easy part now getting back that is another story. I did climb back on over to where Tammy was.

The roost basically was a giant cavern that collapsed causing it to be split in two large sections. In all due reality your sitting in a cave that is exposed to the outdoor surroundings. The stars were all out and I almost had a bat hit me in the face.

You could see the tops of the trees as we sat up in it and eventually we decided it was getting late so we climbed down off some rocks and crossed the trail to a series of rocks which we found to be the other part of the roost.

This roost was much safer as it had a dirt path leading into a dead end cave while another path led to a slanted glossy rock with about an 8 foot climb. When I arrived at the top of the wall their was a flat sandy area big enough for a few robbers perhaps to sleep under the stars with a few small little person caves. Tammy spotted a bat I moved in to get a photo but he flew off.

I spent a little time up on this part of the roost took some evps.....and photos. Honestly I did not feel anything here. I thought at one time I heard something maybe movement perhaps low tone talking. I kind of experienced the same thing my first trip here but it is my opinion that this is an awesome place to hike to and climb into. It is one of these places you could drink a brew...bring a picnic and during the day the views are spectacular of course at night you can sit under the stars or under a rocky canopy your choice.

We did not stay here to long but at least this time it was much warmer and we were able to get better footing. I noticed both roost had a series of burn marks on the wall of the cavern. It was apparent people had built fires here before.

We made our way back as we drove some rain actually hit us and their was some amount of lightening in the area prior to heading into Las Vegas.

I must say it was a memorable trip and of course without making such a trip who would have ever known that the second largest national forest out of all 50 states might hold a few secrets of its own. Our next trip we may visit a mine or two stay out of the 100 degree desert heat and bust some ghost the old fashioned way with hard work and patience.

On a good note my arms are doing much better I never been allergic to anything in my life accept perhaps pistachios so this really took me by surprise. It took only 3 seconds for it to react with my arms and hands. Perhaps will have Tammy call in my next show to describe our hike a little bit. Speaking of our radio show we had a really great show the night prior to our paranormal trip. Everybody had fun we had allot of comedy and we had some great fortean topics of discussion including bigfoot himself. Does this creature roam the forest of southern NV? I would not rule it out entirely the strange lights in the area....all the way to the strange sounds it really made it in for a nice night of paranormal exploring.
Peace,
Lord Rick
Founder, Talk Show Host, Author
www.paranormalghostsociety.org