Screaming or howling in White County, Georgia

It was June 15 1997, Father's Day. My friends and I had been rock climbing at Raven Cliff Falls in the Chattahoochee National Forest outside of Helen, Georgia. After climbing all day Friday and Saturday morning, a rain storm made us pull down our rigging and head out of the woods. We drove down to Helen and walked around until around 5:00 pm. We filled up the truck and headed back up towards Raven Cliff to find a camp site for the night. We found a small dirt road that had been barricaded with a large dirt birm. We drove over the birm and drove into the forest. We drove until we had a half tank of gas which put us several miles back in. Around 11:00 or 11:30 pm, we found a small clearing and decided to stop and make camp. Once we exited our truck, we found a shallow hole that was about three to four feet in diameter that appeared to be an old fire pit. It had a large log laying on one side of it. We gathered wood for a fire and began to set up camp. Since the weather was nice, we decided to not to mess with tents and hammocks. After about thirty minutes of laying down, I heard a noise in the tree line on the left side of our camp. It sounded like an animal moving through the brush. I dismissed it and tried to go back to sleep. I continued to hear the noise for several minutes. I have spent alot of time in the woods hiking and camping. The next thing I heard was like nothing I had ever heard before. I heard a grunt and then a scream that did not sound like any other animal. It sounded like it came from maybe fifty to a hundred yards away. I asked what it was and my friends did not have an answer. We began kidding saying that we were out a good way and it could be a sasquatch. I did not go to sleep for awhile after the scream. Finally, I drifted asleep and slept until day break. As we got up to get our gear packed, we noticed prints next to the fire pit that none of us had ever scene before. They definitely were not human, but were to big for any animal known to be in indigenous to that area. We quickly loaded up and left the area.