a little over 30 years ago, i had set up my elk camp in eastern utah....i located where i wanted to be by scouting from the air....it was on the edge of a very old and abandoned logging camp....it was hard to get to with a 4-wheel pickup, and i selected it for its' remoteness and water and feed for elk....i set up my tent and got everything ready for a before dawn walk of about 2 miles to get to a saddle that i know elk crossed frequently....i was by myself, and that first night had a little trouble going to sleep....about 1 o'clock in the morning, i heard something slap the side of my 10' x 14' tent...i wasn't sure what it was, but it definitely woke me up...i was thinking maybe a branch snapped back from a critter walking by....a few minutes went by, and i started to settle back in my sleeping bag, when a quick shadow (partial moon) passed over the side of my tent just above my head, followed by the slap on the side of the tent...i was no **** awake now, i rolled to the center of the tent, and flipped the safety off my remington 350 mag, and waited....several minutes went by with nothing, i was getting cold and was about to get back in the bag when something again slapped the side of the tent, this time on the dark side of the tent where one of the vertical support poles was....my coleman stove was there, with a pot on it, which clattered to the ground, and almost made me fire through the tent...i heard something with considerable weight make a couple of steps away from the tent, and then total quiet....an awesome feeling of tension and presence of something besides myself being there...i quietly got dressed and was about to put on my boots when i heard one of the most god-awful gutteral screams with a short grunt on the end....i've spent much time in the woods and outback, most of it by myself and feel very comfortable there, but this was beyond disconcerting...i didn't sleep at all, and at get-up time ate some cold food before taking off....i got my elk about 9:30 that morning, i've never cleaned and quartered an elk so fast...it took 4 round trips back to camp, and i packed and was out of there by 7:30 that night...if i would have have to stay, it would have been in the truck...never heard anymore from the creature, and i've camped there almost every elk season since and never heard anything like it again