An account in Grays Harbor County, Washington

November elk hunting in the Colonel Bob Wilderness in the Olympic National Forest. First day of modern elk season, high above the Humtulips River area. As I was setting up my truck tent for the night on a remote spur road I heard what I believed to be elk movement in the gulley/ravine below me. The area is a good elk hunting location and I have had success there in the past. It was too dark at the point to pursue any bull so I decided to make a cup of coffee, fire up my lantern and do a little reading before crawling into my truck tent for the night. It was a few minutes after I sat down that I heard a tree in the high timber above me being moved. It sounded like it was being pushed or shoved until it crashed to the forest floor. I am familiar with timber and have spent my entire life running chainsaws and around logging. The tree was large and there was no wind or weather. So I rationalized it as just a weakened tree in the forest that possibly a bear or other large mammal just happened to rub against until it came down. But what happened next unnerved me unlike anything I have ever experienced. About five minutes after the tree incident, I head extremely loud limbs breaking, like fir or hemlock limbs literally being snapped from a tree. The echo of this resonating through the deep timber and deep into the ravine below me. It seemed to be around 100-120 yards above me to my north. Then I heard the same thing in the ravine below me, and another smaller tree snapping and crashed. Then I heard a very odd sound. I have tried to describe it to my family and all I can compare it to is almost a primate like sound, and it echoed through the timber. At this point I packed up and drove the 7.5 miles back out to the gravel forest service road. I have never been as unnerved as I was. I had the overwhelming sense of being surrounded, and could not rationalize what I had encountered. I have spent my entire life hunting and camping in the backcountry of Washington and Oregon. I am a big game hunter and hunt alone much of the time. I am familiar with big game in Washington. I have no explanation for what I heard.