Becky and I went out into the backyard, closer to the sounds, and listened until we were shivering. Was it some kind of strange owl just passing through? Coyotes that had discovered punk rock? At first I was baffled, then realized, it was elk!   

The last time I’d heard weird sounds like these was when I ran a hike in the Tetons years ago during the elk rut. This time, I thought I could distinguish three different animals, and they were very vocal, kept crying out for half an hour.   

The next morning, when hiking up the ridge trail, I found three fresh scrapes in the ground, and there was one small red maple next to one of the scrapes that had been broken across the trail. Lusty boy! 

I knew the elk herd introduced to Cataloochee years ago was expanding and moving out of the park, and a couple of elk were seen last year on upper Caney Fork. But this was a first encounter for Becky and me.  

It was a breezy, full-moon night, with a clear sky. Clouds were moving fast, the recent rainy weather being broken up and blown south by a dry north wind. 

And with this dramatic sky and these strange sounds coming from the woods, the mountains suddenly seem to regain some of the wildness they lost when the pioneers moved in and killed off the big wild animals that had lived here. That “bugling” is a sound that had been lost to this area for 200 years. Who knows, maybe someday mountain lion, bison and wolf will return to scream and snort and howl.

But that night, for sure, there were bigger animals in our forest than just deer. 

If you want to hear what we heard, it went something like this: www.youtube.com/watch?v=20PET6-Hr_c

Editor’s note: This account of a nighttime encounter with elk came in from Cullowhee area resident and outdoorsman Burt Kornegay, and we had to share. Kornegay and his wife Becky knew that the elk herd was expanding but were surprised to hear their mating calls pierce through the night from their backyard.