Twice I have encountered a smell that is like nothing else in the woods...once in the cascades in Washington state by nooksack falls and the other on the mogollon rim in Arizona...same smell two different places...heard howling on the rim also and scarred my wife pretty good. I have spent very much of my life in the bush...grew up in the congo and lived in the jungle of PNG, I have never seen one or credible prints, but after the howling started when I was camping up on the rim I picked up a thick stick and beat it on a tree three times...about 10 seconds later it knocked back twice. Could have been a human messing with me in the middle of the night, but I don't think so...it is intelligent, not like a bear or deer, but like us. If and when I do encounter the "smell" I probably will not shoot. If they wnated me dead they already had two chances because I was close enough to smell them.
