2.22.13

Location: Hartstown Swamp Time: 10 P.M. Written By: Alex McCann We decided to check out a new area tonight. It was made up of some thick wooded area, mostly pines, that seemed to be very squatchy. We had three groups and tried a mini-dead man tactic. One group stayed on the outskirts of the perimeter near some railroad tracks and the rest went into the forest with the "dead man" breaking off and cutting left about 100 yards in. The remaining group went roughly another 100 yards before stopping to listen. The outter group called in an attempt to stir up some action. After about 10 minutes of waiting, some animal was heard off in the brush by the inner most group trotting around. The footsteps were fairly heavy and with the recent reports of Black Panthers in the area we decided it might not be the best idea to be out there inarmed. We called it an early night, but it wasn't a total loss. The inner group found prints that appeared to be two weeks old, with very little detail left. It was however, very easy to see toes, and we measured them at 13 to 14 feet. The age of the tracks were so old that we cannot rule out a bear "double stepping" but there is a decent sized animal in that area. Members: Alex, Stan, Tuggs, Cody, T-Mac Sidenote: A picture of the track is going to be uploaded to our site soon