Does anyone have the full Bell Lake Mystery article from Boundary Waters Journal? I have read it's from the Spring 2000 issue. I can't find it anywhere online. I have read people's summaries of the story but I am interested in reading the original.

dp95: "Does anyone have the full Bell Lake Mystery article from Boundary Waters Journal? I have read it's from the Spring 2000 issue. I can't find it anywhere online. I have read people's summaries of the story but I am interested in reading the original."

I have it at home. I'm out of town right now. Send me an email to remind me.

Mike

I hadn't heard of this previously...sent an email to you Mike. Thanks!

Is that the one about voices around your campsite there? If it is I think it is on the forum from like Quetico and Nelson?

Thanks for sending the story Mike! Pretty creepy. Has anyone come up with an explanation of what it could possibly have been?

Mike sent it to me too - thanks!

As for the explanation, my vote is for hare(s)? Spooky story!

As I noted to Brian backchannel, sometimes the forest floor is hollow or there is a hole underneath a particular spot. This can happen in a variety of ways, but can make an odd sound when walked on, and can resonate depending on the size, weight, and tempo of what walks across it.

My guess is it was a combo of: an animal, like a hare, on top of a hollow piece of earth outside their tent, with a tiny bit of wind, and maybe even voices carried from another lake.

Mike

Would a hare running sound similar to a human running?

Not sure hares do a lot of running, but I can attest that they are creepy when they hang around your camp. So what is the mystery anyway, can you share, it's a mystery to me why this is being kept secret via personal emails. Might be more fun if we knew what it's all about.

Here I uploaded it to google drive:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1w6cBYXexnEGnmR9XI1paAG62VTiBRfp5/view

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1w6cBYXexnEGnmR9XI1paAG62VTiBRfp5/view

The site from this story sure sounds like the site on Bell Lake I just stayed at last month. Beautiful site, jutting out on a peninsula. Had two bull moose and a cow moose calling out grunts all night when I was there. Nothing came through camp thankfully though.

Reading the story I think it might have been a bird, like a raven or crow, that swept through the campsite. This line especially: "Just the footsteps, as if someone or something had dropped from the sky, ran across the earth, and floated away again." They didn't say if they could feel the vibrations from footsteps, only the sound of footsteps. And ravens are known to have a lot of vocalizations so that could be the whispering he heard later.

But who knows, maybe it was Maymaygwayshi having a little fun.

Nice story, appropriate for upcoming Halloween. Sorry to spoil the mystery, but this has been one of my favorite sites in the last 25 years. A small peninsula near the SW end of Bell Lake, just north of a small lagoon and the narrows. The campsite is small and rocky and only 2 tent sites. Good northern fishing.

The notable item is that the landing on the east side is about 3 feet deep, with an under eroded grass edge, such that you can paddle up and pull sideways against the grass edge, steady the canoe by holding a branch, and climb out as if you were climbing out onto a grass dock.
The small waves actually go under the grass edge and give a "thump thump thump" that sounds just like someone walking. The tent sites are only a few feet away.
I am attaching photos of this site and of my son and my with our fishing success there,

Eyedocron: "Nice story, appropriate for upcoming Halloween. Sorry to spoil the mystery, but this has been one of my favorite sites in the last 25 years.
The small waves actually go under the grass edge and give a "thump thump thump" that sounds just like someone walking. The tent sites are only a few feet away.

That makes a lot of sense. And waves could sound random in cadence, almost as if someone was furtively moving around (or regular in cadence so it sounds like walking). He notes that the water was dead calm at the time of the noises... who knows.

I've heard some odd noises out there, and mostly I've come up with a plausible answers for what I thought it could be. The only thing I haven't comfortably explained away was when I was solo camping on the Gneiss Lake island site. Something on the island did something that sounded like someone had picked up two rocks and was banging them together in 3's on two occasions. "Clack-clack-clack". Similar to the story, it was a VERY quiet night, no bugs/birds/wind. It was dark, I investigated with my headlamp and didn't see eyes or anything else. I wonder if it might have been similar wave action that just sounded like rocks being clacked.

OgimaaBines: "

Eyedocron: "Nice story, appropriate for upcoming Halloween. Sorry to spoil the mystery, but this has been one of my favorite sites in the last 25 years.
The small waves actually go under the grass edge and give a "thump thump thump" that sounds just like someone walking. The tent sites are only a few feet away.

That makes a lot of sense. And waves could sound random in cadence, almost as if someone was furtively moving around (or regular in cadence so it sounds like walking).


I've heard some odd noises, and mostly come up with a plausible "answer" for what I thought it could be. The only thing I haven't comfortably explained away was when I was solo camping on the Gneiss Lake island site. Something on the island did something that sounded like someone had picked up two rocks and was banging them together in 3's on two occasions. "Clack-clack-clack". It was dark, I investigated with my headlamp and didn't see eyes or anything else. I wonder if it might have been similar wave action that just sounded like rocks being clacked to my ear.


"

Maybe it was a Yellow rail. Here's a description from wiki:

"The yellow rail are very elusive and seldom seen. They generally call at night resembling the sound of two stones being clicked together "tik-tik tik-tik-tik" in repetition."

Here's a link to the page which also has a recording of the call: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_rail

interesting

"
Maybe it was a Yellow rail. Here's a description from wiki:


"The yellow rail are very elusive and seldom seen. They generally call at night resembling the sound of two stones being clicked together "tik-tik tik-tik-tik" in repetition."


Here's a link to the page which also has a recording of the call: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_rail ""

Wow! Nice work PP! That's probably what it was. It wasn't as active as the one in the recording but that sure sounds like it could have been it. The most simple answer tends to be the right one in situations like this. :)

Eyedocron: "Nice story, appropriate for upcoming Halloween. Sorry to spoil the mystery, but this has been one of my favorite sites in the last 25 years. A small peninsula near the SW end of Bell Lake, just north of a small lagoon and the narrows. The campsite is small and rocky and only 2 tent sites. Good northern fishing.


The notable item is that the landing on the east side is about 3 feet deep, with an under eroded grass edge, such that you can paddle up and pull sideways against the grass edge, steady the canoe by holding a branch, and climb out as if you were climbing out onto a grass dock.
The small waves actually go under the grass edge and give a "thump thump thump" that sounds just like someone walking. The tent sites are only a few feet away.
I am attaching photos of this site and of my son and my with our fishing success there, "

I'm not sure if that explains it because, like OgimaaBines said, the writer said the water was calm. And I'm not sure if waves making a thumping noise would be fast enough in tempo to sound like someone running by the tent.

Seems more feasible with calm water, a couple small rogue wakes from who knows what, making it's way down the shoreline at the right angle and height to produce that sound and make it appear as though it's passing by.