Nw indiana hiking and backpacking club t rip list.

“Hey whats going on tt'ers?Well I added a trip list to the clubs website.Go check it out and let me know what ya think.

Happy hiking...:)”

“Cool, so you're coming my way May 25-27?? COOL!!”

“Is that Memorial Day weekend? You realize I know this forest like the back of my hand.... :-)”

“Cool......:)You have to come with us.”

“February 1, 2002



Ape-like animal reportedly spotted in Hoosier National Forest

HARRODSBURG, Ind.(AP) - Wildlife officials and witnesses alike say they're puzzled by an ape-like creature that
reportedly has been seen more than once in the Hoosier National Forest.
Whatever it was left foot prints that remain unidentified.
After the latest reported sighting Wednesday by four people, biologists with the Indiana
Fish and Wildlife Division said they could not discount the possibility that a non-native animal is in the remote area.
Biologists referred the case to Indiana University anthropologist Dick Adams, who offered the theory that it could be a primate that escaped its owner.

``This sounds very much like an orang,'' Adams told The Herald-Times of Bloomington, referring to an orangutan, the large, shaggy-haired ape that some people keep as exotic pets.

But the people reporting the latest sighting described a creature with long, nearly black fur or hair, unlike the reddish-brown hair of orangutans. Also, they estimated the creature's weight at 200 pounds.

``That doesn't sound like an ape to me,'' veteran state conservation officer Marlin Dodge Dodge said. ``The only ape that I know of that would weigh 200 pounds is a gorilla.''

Wednesday afternoon's sighting was along a remote road west of the entrance to the Hoosier National Forest's Hardin Ridge Recreation Area, south of Lake Monroe.

Dale Moore and Penny Howell had just driven up to the house of some friends, Rick Deckard and his sister, Sue Taylor, when they reportedly spotted the animal about 200 feet away at the back of the cleared property.

They described it as standing in a sort of crouch on its rear legs, and guessed its height at about 5 feet, The Herald-Times reported.

They said when the creature saw them, it turned and moved away, down the slope into the woods.

Deckard's German shepard dog was about 30 feet from the creature, and didn't bark, Howell and Moore said.

``It was twice as big as that dog,'' Howell said. ``I've never seen an animal like that in my life ... It's got me scared.''

Footprints that the group said the creature left were still visible Thursday.

The prints were about 4-by-5 inches, with four toe impressions and a heel mark, similar to cougar tracks, wildlife officials said, except for the fact that many of the toeprints were tipped by deep punctures in the clay, possibly from long claws.

At the Hardin Ridge Store, employee Christi Kline said the sighting was the third she'd heard of in the past six months to a year, all describing a similar animal.

She said a woman had seen it at the Hardin Ridge area entrance, and that it didn't seem to show any fear and didn't run away.

Kline also said that one night a delivery man came in shaking with fear and saying he had just seen ``Bigfoot.''

``We know it's not Bigfoot, but whatever it was, it scared him,'' she said.”

“This is going to be fun....:)”

“i slept in Hoosier last night”