Vocalization heard at close range on Appalachian Trail (Gooch Mountain Shelter) witnessed in Union County, Georgia

Open Map

I was hiking the Appalachian Trail in July of 2005 and I stopped to spend the night at the Gooch Mountain shelter. There was a hiker there at 16:00 but he left around 18:00 to get in a few more miles. It was a normal night on the AT until around 2:30 in the morning. I was awakened by a very heavy rustling sound. I immediately jumped up in the sleeping bag thinking it was a bear. I was sleeping in the loft upstairs, for just this reason, and I had seen a bear earlier that day. When I shined my headlamp out the front of the shelter there came a tremendous whooping sound. It was a mmoooooopp. It was pitch dark and dead silent except for this tremendous whoop. I was almost painful to the ears it was so loud. I could not see anything. The sound seemed to be about 50 feet away and moved from left to right out of range of my headlamp repeating this loud whoop. There were no other sounds in the woods, nothing, not even the crickets or frogs until 3 or 4 minutes after the sound ...