Lotsa great answers here. Went to american cyclery and they suspected many of the same things, they whisked the bike onto the stand and proceeded to tighten the chain ring bolts, they were tight except for one, the one that needed tightening actually gave the same kind of creak as it was torqued down. I thought that would be it.

It's still there

All along my left foot has been telling me left crank arm. It happens only once in a given direction, if it were the bottom bracket it would happen every rotation.

We can forget everything else drive train related because I'm can still get it with the chain removed. When I find my crank puller I'm gonna pull the arm off and reseat it.