Hikers hear possible vocalizations near Cascade Locks along the Columbia River witnessed in Hood River County, Oregon

Open Map

My friend B.P. and I decided to spend an evening at Eagle Creek State Park along the Columbia River on I-84 at milepost 41 East of Portland, OR. We had a cook out camp fire in the Community Kitchen there. It was on April 9th, 2001, a Monday, which we purposely chose to avoid the crowds. Not that there are many people out there in the Winter but a Monday evening will usually guarantee no others will be around. It was cold out, just above freezing, and it had been raining quite a bit earlier. We had a nice dinner. We had cooked on our portable BBQ earlier in the evening which had included BBQ steak. We had already picked up and put away all of our gear so we were ready to go when we wanted to. At 11:50 PM we had just looked at our watches thinking it was time to go, when from across the creek, about 200 yards away, came a shrieking yell that both startled and shocked us. The yell came from across the creek, up on a ridge due west of us. At first I thought it was an emergency...