A Living Magazine - Day 176 - Sounds in the Ground and Sky

I woke to that pitter patter I dread so much--rain. It was light, but steady. Whenever I'm in this situation now, I plan the pack up process very carefully to make sure as few items get wet as possible. 

Basically, it involves getting the tarp off very quickly, shaking it to remove excess water, and then putting into into a plastic grocery bag before stuffing it into its canvas bag, and then taking the tent down and getting it into its bag, even more quickly. The tarp will be soaked. There's no avoiding that. But the tent (ideally) should only be damp. It will dry a bit in the pack, as long as I leave the pocket open while indoors during the day. On this day the rain was due to end by about 4:00 pm. So, I planned to dry the tarp when I returned to the sleep spot later on this night.

I followed the procedure above and made the short walk to Starbucks. For being a light rain, it didn't take long to cover me. I wasn't soaked, but I was wet. It was nice to have a place to dry off, work all day, and not be out in the wet weather. 

This would be a day like the last few--strictly writing and planning. I had yet to explore the town of Athens.

In this post I'd like to mention some strange sounds that I have heard in these journeys. I would consider myself an apt connoisseur of sound in general, being a multi-instrumentalist, recording artist, performing musician, audio engineer and producer for over three decades. Yet, the sounds I will mention still remain a mystery to me, even with much research and reflection on the context in which they were heard. 

As far as I can remember, these have not been written about yet on this blog, so I'll use them to fill a gap in my reporting.

Strange Airship?

Way back in Norwalk, Connecticut, I slept behind a church. In the hours right before the rain began, I heard what sounded like the mixture of a slow propeller plane and a strong wind-sound (though there was no wind associated with the object) pass very, very slowly over my sleep spot--taking about thirty seconds. It couldn't have been a blimp (the time of day and weather would not be conducive to blimp flight). I looked up to catch a glimpse of whatever it was, but all I saw was the rain cloud cover. It wasn't any kind of plane that I'd ever heard before.

Giant Machine in the Ground?

For a couple of the nights that I spent camped out at Tucson Mountain Park, about six miles west of the city of Tucson, while lying on the ground, I heard what sounded like a huge machine running directly below me. It vibrated as if in idle and then seemed to go into "gear" and chug along. It absolutely sounded manmade. I was on a small but steep mountain (more like a hill) in the middle of the desert. There were no manmade structures within about four square miles. When I mentioned this to my friend, Frank, he sent me the following link...

Pondering The Mysterious Santa Fe Hum

By Tom Sharpe

Frank also reminded me about the Schumann Resonances, "a set of spectrum peaks in the extremely low frequency (ELF) portion of the Earth's electromagnetic field spectrum. Schumann resonances are global electromagnetic resonances, excited by lightning discharges in the cavity formed by the Earth's surface and the ionosphere." [Wikipedia] Who knows?

Trumpet of the Apocalypse?

While staying in a motel room in Conway, Arkansas, I opened the door one afternoon and heard a very loud horn-like sound bellowing out of the sky. It didn't last long--maybe just over twenty seconds. I looked up but couldn't locate its source above the overcast. Later, I did a search of Youtube videos and found a whole bunch that sound just like it. There are even more now. This following has the most instances of what I heard. It was like a humongous horn. Sometimes it sounded like the sweep of a low synthesizer (Rush's "Tom Sawyer" style). And, at others it was like a low lion's roar, slowed down. Very freaky. There are many explanations apparently. All the wacky ones (like the subtitle I chose); aliens, electromagnetic waves, interdimensional portals...you can imagine. I'm at a loss. Anyone else ever heard this kind of thing? 

Please excuse the vulgarity of these surprised people.

On this very night I would hear something else in the ground, as we will see.

I finished writing for the day, but was still a post behind. It isn't so bad to go day by day being behind and not catching up as long as it is only by one post. The little bead of sweat begins to form if I am two or more posts tardy.

I decided to have my daily meal at a place called Rafferty's. It is a local chain place, comparable in price to an Olive Garden. I ordered a cheeseburger (as if I hadn't had enough cheeseburgers to last three lifetimes!) and the house salad, which on its own was very good. I would get just the salad at some point...

When I left the sun was just slipping below the horizon...

I thought I might walk down and look for new shoes at the Academy Sports + Outdoors store. It was rush hour and it took a long time just to get the the highway bridge, which unfortunately didn't have a sidewalk...

The lane furthest to the right is a "right turn only" lane.

There was just too much traffic so, I canceled the plan and decided to go the next day, when I could cross the highway and check out the other side of the bridge. Perhaps there would be more walking space.

I returned to the end of the fence that led into the sleep spot, and when the cars were at their maximum chaotic turning and honking, I slipped in. The woods was still pretty wet, but the ground was not saturated. I found my spot and took the sopping wet tarp out, hanging it as open as possible in a nearby tree.

The temperature had dropped considerably, and I determined the tarp was unlikely to dry on its own. So, I set up the tent which wasn't too damp. Though the temperature was low, the air was not humid anymore, and this helped. Even after an hour, the tarp was almost as wet as when I'd hung it up. The next resort was to hand dry it, which I did with my little motel towel. This worked really well; getting all of the big drops off.

When I got the tarp over the tent, it opened up the tarp's inside and allowed it to dry the rest of the way. I got Saggy into the tent and crawled in expecting a wet floor, but it was nice and dry. The wet pine needles underneath it made no difference (part of what I love so much about this tent).

I settled down for the night, lying on my left side and waiting for sleep. And, just as I felt myself beginning to drift, I hear a furious digging underneath me. I estimate it was about eight feet below--in the ground. Whatever was digging was large. For the distance from the surface, and the vibrations, I'd estimate something on the order of fifty or more pounds. What was it?

I'd been all around the place and seen no dens or holes at all. It was unsettling to think some big animal was digging around underneath my tent. But I was much more mystified by how anything could dig a tunnel without finding a way to remove the dirt as it went. If a surface den or hole was around, the creature must be taking the dirt out. I just saw no evidence of this at all. Eventually the digging stopped and I fell asleep.

So strange to think about...

The sky above us (something we actually see more of than the ground), it filled with mystery. But even beneath the ground, where hardly anyone ever puts their ear, mysteries also abound. Given another life--or maybe when I'm an old bored man in this one, I will study these phenomena more closely. I'd love to hear any of your stories! Please leave a comment!

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