My vote is for a fox or maybe a pair of them. Second guess would be an owl of some kind--they can get really rowdy, especially during full moons and in mating season. Bobcat maybe--I'm not sure what they sound like, though. I seriously doubt you would have heard a mountain lion anywhere outside of a zoo in the southeast, but it's possible. Elk are being reintroduced in several areas in the south, but not sure about Uwharrie. Probably unlikely.

Someone mentioned how they hear voices near water. I often hear that too, especially near strong moving streams. I think it's stones being moved under water, but I've always wondered about that. Sometimes it's like sleeping in Grand Central Station--I've had to move camp and use earplugs when it's really loud.

While camping in Tahoe's Desolation Wilderness, we were woken by what sounded like a bear grunting around our tent all night long... my wife was very disturbed. We discovered the next evening (as was my suspicion to begin with) that the noises were simply a small bird that would dive, suddenly jerk out of the dive at high speed, causing the bird's feathers to vibrate in an uncanny growl-grunt... we never identified the species though.

Edited by mrnlegato on 10/10/2012 07:08:00 MDT.

Same here Ken

I saw Mountain Lion tracks on top of mine, in the snow, the next day

I think it was stalking me the whole time and I never knew

Same thing with bear. And I saw a bear racing across the slope below me, then some people, I talked to the people and they never saw the bear

I think there are bears and mountain lions wandering around all over, watching and avoiding us, we never see them...

"From the lady or the raccoon?"

From the lady, I don't think the raccoon could have been more pleased at his score.

Raccoons fighting in a tree over our campsite. Like a cat fight on steroids.

Ravens can make a nasty racket and get up very early. We were camped at the north end of Vancouver Island and woke at 5:00am to a raven screaming. Sounded human. Chucked a few rocks and made coffee.

I'm suprised no one has mentioned a porcupine. One woke me up on a trip as it sounded like a baby wailing. They are very vocal and have a variety of sounds that they can make.

Found this clip online.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rn-qLAYAEc

Edited by Ocotillo on 10/10/2012 16:22:05 MDT.

I hadn't ever heard a fox at night until about a month ago, didn't know what it was until a friend told me....very interesting. Two weeks ago I decided to test my opsak. I'd had tuna for lunch and left the foil pouch closed up in the opsak along with my breakfast bar for the next morning. Hung it in my food bag. In the wee hours of the next morning I was awakened by an incredible racket, and all I could think of was, "yeah, somethings fighting over my food bag, and now I'm minus my breakfast"....it was a short hike out, so I didn't have much to lose. Turned out that wasn't the case, it wasn't disturbed...but something, likely raccoons were having a dispute over something.

@ Ken, Thanks for the warm thoughts... you are, of course right :)

Not that i've "never heard" but I had an owl hooting at night in northern VT on the Long Trail. Was fun to hear it away from the normal town/house noises.

The sounds that mountain lions can make is downright spooky. Sounds like a crying child. Any time I hear it, it instantly makes the hair on the back of my neck stand straight up. There's certain areas around here that have something of a reputation for visits from the big cats. You hear stories of people claiming "bad" feelings about these camps or that they're haunted... and they always mention the sound of a child crying off in the distance.

I encountered a new sound (for me) this weekend... The wind was blowing so hard and steady all night, it made my guylines vibrate at just the right frequency to make a whistling sound. Definitely not spooky or mysterious, but a new experience nonetheless.

My young daughter's continued begging and pleading for me to take her out hiking ever since we completed our first shared overnight adventures.

Believe it or not, a beaver can make the strangest wailing sound. The first time I heard it at night I didn't know what was coming for me :)

A couple of wierd sounding animals I've run across are a bobcat which sounded like a baby crying and a couple of opossums that were calling to each other.

Often while backpacking in the Smokies, I have heard sounds that are so low in tone (not volume)that I am not sure if I really heard it. And its a drumming sound. Eventually I followed it and found a group of grouse "drumming" to call the other sex. Its like a fast drumming but so low in tone its barely audible.

My first Mountain Lion scream fest was downright spooky. As for the noisy beaver... well I'll leave that one alone.

An orgasm. But I am trying to figure out what I'm doing wrong.....

Doug, I've been waiting patiently for you to get in on this, what took so long?

A Hr person with empathy

Had an Elk in rut scream its mating call right next to my tent. I had heard that before. What I hadn't heard before was my girlish scream.

Good man Dave :-)

Thinking about this...
One night I had a koala not far above my tent.
Every so often he would wake up and do a bit of a song and dance (mating call) then fall asleep again.
He had done that from late afternoon.
At some point during the night I heard the koala make a different sound and then heard a loud cat like growl, not a domestic/wild cat but something bigger than that.
By the time I got out of the tent to investigate it was gone and so was the koala.
No idea of what it was