Man hears late night howl in the Emigrant Wilderness witnessed in Tuolumne County, California

Open Map

My girlfriend and I were finishing a week long backpack trip south of Sonora pass and we spent our last night on a ridge line seperating two deep canyons. To the east was Kennedy canyon which we had hiked up that day, to the west was another canyon of which I don't know the given name, only that it was very deep and rugged. I was a bit concerned about our campsite due to the lack of decent trees to hang our food in (this was before bear cannisters, and packers still hung their food in trees to keep it away from bears), they were all very small due to our elevation. I awoke about 1 a.m. to the sound of rockfall off one of the peaks above us and I sat awake because I thought it was possibly the sound of a bear coming up the nearby creekbed. Quite suddenly the sound of what I assumed was a large gust of wind came barrelling up the western canyon. This immedietly struck me as odd as the night was very still. The sound started as a low moan, growing in strength and intensity and even...