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Just got back from 6 days of exploring a small portion of the Six Rivers National Forest and the Siskiyou Wilderness in Northern California. Spent 2 nights car camping in the SRNF and 3 nights backpacking into the wilderness. The best part of the trip was the backpacking part, since I went deeper into the wilderness and I saw plenty of wildlife. Below are some pictures of the wilderness area and the lake where I camped the first night. Also showing a picture of my thermal imager setup. This was the first time that I backpacked with a large lithium battery (the Jackery 240 Wh portable power bank). I had backpacked before with my full size tripod, since the image quality is better when stable. I wanted to test the ability to run the thermal imager and video record all night (8 hours) for 3 nights (without having to monitor and replace the 4 AA lithium batteries every 7 to 8 hours). First night, I heard noises coming from the brush, got out of the tent ~9:38 PM, started recording on the thermal, and saw the buck in the photo. The unit recorded as the buck came out of the bush and walked in front of thermal imager. The time stamp and date on this FLIR unit is not correct and cannot be fixed (apparently the battery that runs the clock is internal to the unit and cannot be replaced unless I ship the unit to manufacturer; this is a design flaw). The 2nd FLIR photo was the 2nd night and occurred down 600 ft in the valley. Again, I left the unit running all night for 8 hours and it captured this bear walking towards the creek. While the photo is not clear (because the bear is far), the video shows its bear shape and motions more clearly. BTW, the buck moved on to the other side of the lake and disturbed the only other backpacker there from 1 to 4 AM. I saw the guy in the morning and he was so scared that he did not sleep and started a fire. He never saw what was making all the noises and stumping the ground. I told him it was the buck, since it did the same in my campground earlier that night. Not sure what was the problem with this buck, but I also captured a doe in the imager that came later, so maybe the buck wanted to clear the area? I was happy to have a thermal imager and see what was making the noises.

Let's say someone has developed an interest in sasquatching. They see things on TV and want to participate but, never having led an outdoor life, they ask themselves -- where do I start? None of my friends of family are believers. I think a BFRO expedition would be an awesome way to segue into that world. How is it any different than paying a photographer to teach you how to use a manual camera, a ski instructor showing you how to downhill ski, an artist teaching how to paint, or even an attorney for advice? We all have to begin somewhere and if no one in your life has any experience with sasquatching, you pay for it. I call that a smart thing to do. People have to recognize, and accept, that they don't know what they don't know. If it's a painting, and you do it on your own and fail, you've wasted some materials. If you venture into the woods, trying to be emulate the bigfooting you saw on TV, and fail, you could end up on the ugly side of a SAR rescue. In the end, they may develop friendships which allow them to go sasquatching again and again as a member of BFRO or a local group of similarly-interested people. Friendships develop and flourish. That, to me, is a very small deposit to make for a large payoff in the future.

Some of the coolest things I've seen in the woods have been while turkey hunting. We turkey hunt by going out the previous afternoon and locating a flock, noting what areas they are feeding and traveling in, then seeing where they roost at night. Then, we pick a spot where we think they will go to in the morning and get there before light, set up a blind, or do a makeshift blind, and set up a couple of decoys. We are totally camouflaged, head to toe, and stay absolutely still since turkeys can detect the slightest movement at great distances. Then we just sit there dead silent and motionless until it gets light out and the turkeys (hopefully) fly down to within shooting distance of our hiding spots. I've had deer walk up to me and sniff my boots, and birds land on my hat. I've seen cougars stalking deer, and tons of wildlife that never knew I was there. If I knew of a spot that had heavy BF activity, I would use the turkey hunting method to spot one.

Hoaxers make field work more difficult. When you have to sort of what might have been done by humans and what was done by something else. I consider call blasting, making vocal calls, and making wood knocks nearly in the same category as hoaxing. It forces field researchers to have to figure out if humans are in the area making those sounds. Even worse than that, I have seen little evidence that it increases the chance of having visual contact with BF. Evidence seems to show that it just scares BF away once they determine that the sounds were made by humans. Another factor related to that is what those who have had extended contact with groups of BF tell me. BF do not like humans to be deceitful or tricksters. They seem to have no sense of humor about that sort of thing. I guess it is a matter of trust. They need some level of trust with a human to want to have contact. Trying to lure BF in with vocalizations and knocking would create an atmosphere of distrust.

Yesterday, I went on a hiking adventure rather than a sasquatching one. I hiked with a buddy and we went up and over three mountains on a peninsula. The interior forest was a bit hazy as we started up the first one. Then, as you proceed from the first mountain to the second one to the third, you walk some of the way along a ridgeline, where you are treated to a view of both sides. The area is well known for its population of timber rattlers and if bitten there is no fast or easy way back to your car. That doesn't bode well. I've been hiking and backpacking many years and this hike was the most difficult one I've ever done. That includes Yosemite, Lake Tahoe, Desolation Valley, and the Grand Canyon. Steep climbs, then sliding down nearly-vertical terrain on your backside as you proceed down the mountain. The descents, with their rock ledges and narrow pathways, were more rigorous than the ascents. One missed step, which becomes easier when you begin to get tired, and you're tumbling down nearly vertical cliffs in some areas. All-in-all it was a great day hiking and the continuous views along the way inspired us to continue forward. Edited: To add the last picture. At the summit of the first mountain there was a deer. Didn't expect that. The reason I am including it is to show why "blobsquatches" are prevalent in pictures today. I had to hurry to get a picture of the deer as it began to move away. The camera focused on the vegetation rather than the deer.

The woods are VAST...and even people who hike them often are only seeing a tiny part of the area. Look a map of a good sized national forest. Established trails barely scratch the surface of the area. And the vast majority of people never get off the trail, let alone traverse the first natural barrier like a steep climb in elevation or water crossing. I get this all of the time. People tell me that they are in the Cataloochee area all of the time and that it is impossible that these creatures exist there because they would have seen them by now. They count pulling over on a paved road to look at the reintroduced elk as being intimately familiar with the entire region.

I think they’ve done more good for this subject than bad, inadvertently or not. The tv show was just that, a tv show, no more and no less. Moneymaker gets a lot of bad press, some of it maybe warranted, but you can never knock the guys passion for the subject itself, and I respect that in a person even if I don’t necessarily agree with all he says. Their database deserves a heck of a lot of credit and praise too, and for that alone they get my thumbs up personally.

My son and I went on a mini expedition to Moscow mountain today. He rode his old dirt bike and I took my UTV. Neither of our girlfriends were interested in looking for Bigfoot, lol. We rode all over the mountain and checked a lot of areas for tracks. Nothing. Then we went up to the old lookout spot where there was a sighting featured on the show Finding Bigfoot. It's also reported on the BFRO sightings page: http://bfro.net/GDB/show_report.asp?id=12913 I'm familiar with this spot as I used to party there in high school. I went there today and thought it would be interesting to take pics of where the reported sighting was. Now, the sighting was 15 years prior, so a lot of what they said they could see back then is no longer possible. First photo is approaching the rock outcropping where the sighting took place. Second photo is looking directly at the area where the creature was. Third photo is my ugly mug standing right where the witnesses were with the sighting spot in the background.

We have a few contacts, and are always making more. I have business cards I hand out. I also sometimes (not too often) get leads from the YouTube Channel (and some of those folks are just flat out crazy anyway). And when I run into someone at a gas station or supermarket or wherever I am, I talk to people about it. They know me as the crazy bigfoot guy, but they always remember me, and oftentimes later will relay stories they or their friends or family had. There are other methods I use as well. Google Earth is very helpful in locating possible spots. But I am not an expert by any means. And sometimes it seems like I am trying to find patterns where there are no patterns to be found. @Madison5716 has a few contacts, too, and sometimes we go with those reports. It's all really, really fun. I have another idea for locating spots that I want to try out, but I don't care to elaborate on that right now..it may not work at all. I haven't tried it yet. And sometimes we just go explore. But I would say that 99% of the stories I hear from people were never reported to LE or the BFRO because I do ask them. If you are looking for "unreported reports", my suggestion would be to talk to people. Get a BF t-shirt or two. A sticker on your rig, maybe. People will comment on them. Bam. Converstation started. And then there are leads like the one MIB just posted. LOL, thanks, @MIB!

Hi Kerry,/Madison, As a survivor of breast cancer myself, my heart goes out to you. I’m glad to see other members’ supportive posts including some cancer survivors. When I got my diagnosis a little less than a year ago, I was amazed at how many friends came to my side. Two were survivors themselves who gave me loads of advice re: hospitals, doctors, procedures to avoid, etc. If this happens to you, pick what feels right for you. Only you (and the doctor you feel comfortable with ) are the arbiters of your choices. Actually, each person’s story will help you hang tough and get thru it. Now I can pass on the compassion and encouragement to you. Go for it, friend. Heal well. We’ll see ya’ around the forum when you are able. Diane/Wolfjewel

@wiiawiwb, Survived yet another close call!! Bet the gaiters are on next time and you never see another. That "print" looks as if a sas was running on its toes. Does seem to have potential. Love hearing the loons at night, nothing like it. I had 2 run-ins with rattlers in 4 days while in the AZ strip. I saw the first before stepping down off of a rock onto it, the second I didn't see but the warning sent me flying, don't think I've ever jumped so far. Did a bit of research on gaiters after that. The latter encountered in the appropriately named Snake Gulch and pictured below, a Grand Canyon rattler I believe: Screen Shot 2020-07-17 at 7.56.59 PM by LIght Pirate, on Flickr

I got back yesterday from a quick sasquatching adventure. Went in at 6am Friday, poked around by day looking for tracks, then did night ops and left Saturday morning. For the second time in three weeks, I came across a Timber rattler...up close and personal. For decades, I've hiked and backpacked in an area known to have them but never once saw them nor knew anyone that did. Why, suddenly, the recent encounters? This incident was about 2 1/2 miles from the one three weeks ago. I went with a fellow sasquatching buddy and we decided to approach this general area from a different location. To get there, we had to ascend over 1,100' with full packs so I cut weight wherever I could. I wrestled with my decision, but the snake gaiters got left in the car. It allowed me to save a whopping 22 ounces! We set up camp then hiked to an area a mile away and poked around looking for fresh tracks. We saw one that was really deep but only about the length of a quart-sized Gatorade bottle. Our footprints barely sunk 1/4" whereas this was 2" deep. I couldn't pull away litter without unearthing soil. Maybe it was nothing. As we returned, the Timber Rattler was on the trail and nearly impossible to see until I was almost on it. I was closest with my buddy behind. It rattled and I stopped, then I kept my eyes fixed on its head, as it was clearly upset. I was near the business end. I "guessed" it was ~5' while my friend said longer. In either case it was big, camouflaged, and in no mood for visitors. It crawled into the brush and I tried to get a picture before it disappeared but wasn't too successful. I was only interested in knowing where its head was. Taking my eye off it to view settings was not going to happen. Clearly, this rattler, and the other one a few weeks ago, just wanted to be left alone and chose to exit when it could. That doesn't change the fact that I couldn't initially see either and got way too close for comfort with both. If I was motoring along on the trail, as I would if I wanted to get back to camp, I might have stepped on it. Three weeks ago, I said I would always wear the SP gaiters when in this area. This time, I rationalized that saving a small amount of weight was more important as lightning rarely strikes twice. Shame on me as I was in further this time and, if bitten, the hike back to the car would have taken close to three hours with no cell service anywhere around. That said, all-in-all it was a fun time filled with adventure and a loon happily provided melodic entertainment all night. The view of the area around this secluded pond was gorgeous.

http://bigfootevidence.blogspot.com/2018/07/border-patrol-agent-has-bigfoot.html#more U.S. Border Patrol Agent's Bigfoot Story Few places are more wild and eerie than the vast barren lands of the U.S./Mexico border. The California section of the border is a hotspot for the U.S. Border Patrol to find undocumented immigrants before they make their way into the county. Many of these folks find their way through the treacherous Otay Mountains, which lie just north of the border near San Diego CA. A spooky sighting from border patrol agent Rocky Elmore indicates that it is not only immigrants who frequent these mountains. Bigfoot may actually call this region home. This harsh terrain has been the backdrop of many tales over the years, including crashed phantom pilots, faceless ghosts, and according to Agent Elmore, Sasquatch. After two decades of service along the border, Elmore thought he’d seen it all, which he details in his book ‘Out on Foot’. That changed the night that he came within close proximity to what he later came to find out was likely Bigfoot. According to Elmore, he was hot on the trail of some immigrants along the Otay River. A thick, creeping fog settled in when he heard a heavy splash in the water. Although the fog prevented him from seeing who or what crashed into the water, he could sense something that was both large and frightening. A chill zapped down his spine as intense fear filled his body. He wasn’t alone in his terror; coyotes near the water ran past Elmore, retreating from whatever had suddenly made itself known in the black waters beyond the fog. A colleague operating a thermal scope later confided in Elmore that he had seen a big, bipedal creature with an intense heat signature that appeared to be stalking two agents who were on foot. They never saw the creature, but they were given the order to abandon the area immediately once the scope operator observed the unknown creature, who he termed a large “predator,” noting that the creature had come within just a few steps of the pair of unsuspecting government workers. This tale is among the most eerie Bigfoot sightings on record. What could have possibly created that enormous heat profile? This account just goes to show that wherever there are vast expanses of nearly uninhabited wilderness, there seem to always be wandering Sasquatch in the fog nearby.

@BlackRockBigfoot and @ShadowBorn i appreciate both of your POVs here. Text format can be a pain to "read in to" and is often misinterpreted. So no harm no foul on SBs end, again thanks for the input. As for the ridges, I'm going to try amd get better images, of the toe area. The smaller rock that was captured in the track 100% forced the toes to dig that deep from the step off. It measures at 11in with the ridge of the foot bent downward and toes curled, with that in mind the foot was likely 12-13in in real life. so its small for a alledged sasquatch but ive found 10-11in tracks before in this area previously. The likelyhood of someone being barefoot in the area is pretty low, as its a pretty good bit off any trails and out a creek a little ways but I cant rule out the possibility. I always err on the side of casting everything if for no other reason than to keep your skills up to snuff. Ill post up close shots of the toes shortly.

I'd bet that 98%+ of people who venture into the forest never leave the trail. I go off trail all the time and never see anyone nor any indications someone came through. Why would they? You'll see a hunter during hunting season and someone into birding. Hikers stay on the trail and backpackers generally tend to hike to a lean-to or an allowable or prescribed tent area. I've seen avid fishermen go back to secluded ponds to fish but that's pretty much it. Look at Maine. It is 90% forested, which the highest percent of any state. It has 17 million acres of forest with a population of 1.4 million people. I think a sasquatch could find lots of space to enjoy itself without ever being noticed.

My father is like that. He claims they can't exist because he hasn't seen one (*). While he truly is surrounded by National Forest land on all sides, and he is in a good spot, aside from a couple days a year in deer season, he doesn't go into the woods. He takes pride in killing his deer the first time he goes out and ridicules others (like me) who take longer as "wasting time". Despite all of the potential, he doesn't actually have the exposure he thinks he does. It has proven impossible to get him to see that. (*) He does have a story ... he told me of seeing something that looked just like a sasquatch would look "if they existed." (truly, what do you do with that level of deliberate blindness?) Knowing him as I do, I guarantee if they were proved to exist tomorrow, he'd be an expert, has known about them all his life. Some people .. y' just gotta give up on. 'til 2 years ago, I had never seen a marten. I caught one on trail camera about 3-4 years ago, and possibly another. Then one day I saw two, separately, over a mile apart. It's just a matter of being in the right place at the right time. Sometimes the odds of that are not what we expect them to be. MIB

Upvote from me for telling it like it is. I also followed up on a BFRO report in Montana when I was working in the oilfield. The location was not the location. There was no way to know if I was 500 yards away from the sighting or 5 miles. Science is grounded on testable, repeatable results. Not secret handshakes and hidden data. I can’t go measure a tree at a sighting location if you hide the location from me but post it on your website as if it’s legit.

I think that's bullcrap. 4 days, 3 nights. For $300. Consider the alternatives. Theme park? How far is that $300 going to go towards 3 nights of hotel, gate fees, and ride tickets? Something else .. ok, I want to hear it. A cruise? For under $300? I want to see something where you're staying away from home, not with relatives, and participating in something, 3 nights 4 days, so cheap that $300 appears out of line. I'm waiting. Truly, if there is something you enjoy that is so much less expensive for the same amount of time and gives you equal enjoyment ... go do that. Stop trying to piss in others' cheerios just 'cause you're too cheap to buy your own. MIB

Um, those are found in the Paranormal section. Bigfoot whisperers. Or not. YMMV

Sure, V. Like with MUFON (Mutual UFO Network), government gets first crack at anything sensitive before it gets to the public. And it is my opinion that the BFRO also gives first crack at sensitive data to the government. It is therefore my further opinion that what we get has been "sanitized" along with other Bigfoot studies and resources. This is in order to keep knowledge and truth from the public and in the hands of stakeholders like government and corporations whose revenue and wealth management is most important above all else. My opinion but it's based on a lot of logical deduction regarding habitat surveillance capabilities and many other things- such as science's total hands off attitude. WHY? Because public disclosure of the Sasquatch's existence would be a nightmare scenario that would affect the flow of money in a big way. The BFRO is the big dog on the BF data collection block and so if I were government I would give them an offer they couldn't refuse....even if they wanted to. People have discussed certain undesirable outcomes, both personally and professionally, for anyone out to prove the creature's existence via physically collected evidence- such as a body or body part, and tries to get that evidence to science. Subsequently there's a lot of fear here in even confronting agencies to tell the truth. 99% of the public will submit their witness reports to the BFRO because of it's exposure just about everywhere in the media. How much of that exposure came in the form free advertising in the interest of keeping the public informed? There IS no interest in keeping the public informed. There IS interest, however, in making sure that information is channeled and controlled for the purposed of keeping the public off balance and in the dark. It's what governments do. So government was never about to let the BFRO run loose with their data. We only get the watered down version of things coupled with the neither-confirm-nor-deny-just-ignore answer to the question of Bigfoots existence. The BFRO? Neither confirm nor deny. There's no difference between the two, government OR the BFRO. All the TV shows were designed to do was drive the public to the BFRO. My opinion.....

The proper response in this area of interest would be to try and dig up dirt on the people who came up with the idea that you didn't find believable, write a blog about it, go on a couple of podcasts to really go after them, and then finish by writing lengthy diatribes on social media. You're never going to get an invite to Beachfoot with that attitude, man.

I have a few choices for my woods guns...

I have run across a few reports over the year of bigfoots fighting each other. Here is what is probably the best report to date: https://bigfootforest.com/deer-hunter-witnesses-two-huge-bigfoot-like-creatures-fighting/

He's been in bigfootery for a while from what I can tell and I think he has an idea about himself as an expert. Everyone else (with the exception of researchers he respects) is beneath him. I never would have noticed him except he created and publicized numerous, repetitive anti-Mike Paterson videos. I'm not aware of him going over the edge like that against other people. So maybe he is losing his grip. That is an unfortunate pattern of some BF researchers.

I'm going on a short 2-day tent camping trip in Idaho with my girlfriend next week in a pretty remote area. Our main focus will be on taking the UTV on some trips to huckleberry patches and digging for garnets. Lots of bears in the area and a few wolves. Not going to be a "Bigfoot Expedition" per se. I don't have a thermal camera, or even a video camera with night vision, yet, so not sure how effective we would be going out at night. But at least we will be out in the wilderness and aware of our surroundings and looking for evidence. Better than nothing, I suppose. Area we'll be in:

Kent is the same guy as The Truth and Todd Prescott.

Sounds like a plan NW.........hey gigantor, hope you are safe & well,! These woods around here, like most places, turn into something different at night, lotta stuff I wouldn't want her messing with, other wolves, packs of Coyotes, hogs, maybe even a hungry hairyman, can't take a chance of loosing my best gal:)

You say that now, but your tune will change when Hulkamania runs wild on you.

Yes but Patty leaves tracks and has some pretty good torque movement. Hulk Hogan can barely walk and leaves Segway tracks, easy to spot.

If my former research area was still active, I know exactly where I would go to collect DNA. It took me years to find, but I could not really fathom why a particular area seemed so active as indicated by frequent footprint finds. Nothing seemed special about the place and a free running year round creek was some distance away. Finally I figured out that what I had been assuming to be a very old logging road was not that, but a collapsed lava tube. It had finally occurred to me that trees growing in what I had assumed to be the logging road were too old to have allowed that to be a road in over 150 years. So the the only thing geologically that could account for the feature was that it was a collapsed lava tube. Following the lava tube in hopes of finding an opening where BF may have been sheltering, I finally found the reason BF were frequenting the area. An artesian spring was bubbling up out of of the collapsed lava tube. That provided pristinely clean water year round. Apparently good enough that the local BF would ignore the year round creek nearby in preference to drinking out of the artesian spring. There have to be other such unique features in other locations. Certainly that much discernment about what is safe to drink might be a clue to look for in finding other locations. A spring coming out of rock would be much safer than a free running stream that could be contaminated by a dead animal at any point in time. The need for water has to be a key factor in finding areas that BF frequent.

Definitely, but it sounds like you're quite a bit older than I am. I was introduced to the topic via reading some copies of The Bigfoot Bulletin back in the early 70s on my great grandfather's porch. Many of the write ups from Coos and Curry counties involved people I knew of via my grandfather (mom's dad) and great grandfather (dad's mom's dad) who seemed to respect them as being solid citizens. Both grandpa's were. So when I found a track line in '74, though I was only 11 .. 10 going on 11, maybe ... I knew exactly what I was looking at and I didn't want to be right there anymore. I had an extended sighting in '76 .. probably 5 minutes-ish? .. long enough for it to cover over a quarter mile moving down the middle of the river. Looking back there was a fair bit of weird, unexplainable stuff we shrugged off which may well have been bigfoot activity but i never paid it much mind, they just "were". Some stuff happened about 2007 that drew me into the community actively and headed me down the path of investigating reports for a group. In 2013 I had a second sighting, that one in broad daylight, open / sparse 2nd growth forest with scattered firs and a good bit of grassy area between them. No doubt at all. None. So I research / investigate. My general area is SW Oregon from the coast to about Highway 97 and from about Eugene south to the OR/CA state line. Within that I focus a lot on the Cascades south of Crater Lake (where Paulides says he won't go alone ... I go alone), into the edge of the siskiyous, and the SE part of the coast range ... kind of a circle around the Rogue Valley. There is a lot of activity .. a lot that never gets formally reported. Lot of stuff a local with their ears open can pick up on and follow up on. MIB

Still pretty hot & dry....hope you guys aren't sick of seeing the Sotol snacks, but the easiest way to follow the Hairyman's movements this time of year, plus they are eating it pretty good. First pick shows one of their trails, and the discarded Sotol leaves as they drop them along the way.....Hansel & Gretel dropped bread crumbs, the Hairyman drops Sotol leaves, in the South anyway:)

About the only thing worse than hoaxing is the people who spend all of their time rooting out potential hoaxers. Only in this field can people who are basically self appointed hall monitors gain fame. And, that's often why they spend so much time looking for hoaxers... because they themselves like the attention. So, on one side you have people commiting hoaxes for attention, while on the other side you have people trying to constantly expose hoaxers...also for attention. Also, let's be honest here...a lot of people involved in this field are proverbial crabs in a bucket. If they see someone getting the attention that they themselves want...they are going to do their best to tear that person down. As far as I am concerned, either people are smart enough to see through a hoax for themselves...or they are just going to believe anything that is presented to them the right way. Why spend any time at all trying to disprove someone like Khat Hansen or Dr Johnson? Their followers are just going to latch onto another cult to follow in short order. People who spend all of their time attempting to disprove stuff are just trying to get that same attention fix themselves.

Hoaxing is lying. It's dishonesty. I dislike it.

We get into semantic games. Definitely if you go far enough back, the ancestors were from Africa, but depending on which expert you listen to .. and they all have degrees enough to back their claims .. those ancestors were or were not "human" yet , so it might also be equally right to say HUMANS developed in many places. One of the things that seems to keep coming up which is inconvenient for people who like nice neat packages for easy consumption is that we seem to have more people crossing oceans they "shouldn't be able to cross" than expected. If you are good at filtering fact from interpretation, I do highly recommend reading Lloyd Pye and Zacheria Sitchin. The facts of seemingly shared archeology across groups that "couldn't" have communicated is indeed interesting. You can decide for yourself among 3 choices ... 1) ancient aliens, 2) ancient humans were more mobile than we think, and 3) parallel development. (I suppose a 4th argument would be that the stuff is not as similar as claimed.) I'm not claiming anything specific, just saying the story we believe about how humans arrived where we are now seemingly can't be accurate, it requires deliberate, careful omission of inconvenient data that is just as solid as the stuff we choose to keep. "hmmmmm ...." MIB

No experience at all. My favorite area requires backpacking in. I've done it as a round trip day hike but it's pretty brutal. Climb 1700 feet in 3.5 miles, then back down 500 feet in a mile. Trail is pretty rough, big loose rocks, some places stairsteps in the rocks, plus it traps runoff so it continually gets carved deeper. There is another way in, not as steep, but a mile farther and more exposure to direct sun .. hotter. There is no chicken out option. If you're not well on your way back to the trailhead 2 hours before dark, you are committed to staying. The trail is bad enough that a twisted or even broken ankle in the dark is a real good possibility. If you buy the ticket, you have to ride the train. I've had two fairly terrifying experiences in there. We had bipedal visitors the very first night I was ever there, at least 3 of them, and I got introduced to infrasound. It sucks. And the last night I spent there, last summer, started pretty cool with an hour or so of light wood knocks coming from 30 feet or so away in the dark while I laid in my sleeping bag and bivy. It stopped being cool when "whatever it was" decided to leave. It was the most chilling, "alien", crazy sound I've heard in over 50 years in the woods. I thought I knew what was knocking, now I'm not sure. 7-1/2 miles back to the trailhead, in the dark, on a barely maintained trail .. nope, the die was cast, we had to stay and ride it out. Fortunately nothing further happened. MIB

No, not exactly, but would not be surprised if they manage something similar using various landmarks, seasonal weather changes, and celestial events.

Date & Time - Saturday, July 11, 2020 from 8pm-1230am Location - The Charmed Lake environs, Oregon Cascades Weather - 60 degrees, no wind, perfect What Happened - NorthWind and I went out in the woods and practiced using the FLIR. We went to several spots, and saw several deer and a fox, lots of campers, but no bigfoot. Lookind down into a meadow, and the treeline. What NorthWind looks like 20 feet away on my phone FLIR. Note - if you're gonna buy one, don't go cheap and buy the phone attachment. Save up for the real thing. It's limited. I will basically see something when it's right on top of me, at about 50 feet away. Still, anything like this gives you a bit of peace of mind in the pitch black night.

I had posted this article a while back on June 22: https://www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/researchers-detect-land-animals-using-dna-in-nearby-water-bodies-67481 the article mentioned this scientist: https://beta.salford.ac.uk/our-staff/allan-mcdevitt I immediately shot off an email to him regarding the subject of this thread and the idea of looking for NOTCH2NL genes via environmental DNA sampling- specifically where I might apply to detecting Great Ape NOTCH2NL pseudogenes in North American habitats. Well, it took a while to get a response which finally came in on July 16. Bottom line is the approach may have to stay with mtDNA research instead of trying to find more recent whole cell evidence for testing. I'm still waiting for a second email from the person who returned my email from https://genidaqs.com/ before I actually make that phone call. In the mean time here is the email from Dr. Allan Mcdevitt: "This came to mind again after reading some bigfoot tweets, I apologize that it slipped my mind to reply at the time! As things stand, looking for variation within certain genes like these (or identifying pseudogenes) would be very challenging with eDNA due to the very degraded nature of eDNA and amplifying small fragments. The sequencing technology used creates quite a few errors which is what makes looking at intra specific type variation difficult to detect. That is not to say that it won't be possible in the near future as the field is moving in that direction. At the moment, it is still very targeted towards mtDNA and I guess could be following a similar trajectory as the field of ancient DNA. Admittedly I am not an expert in human or functional genetics as I am primarily an ecologist. But from the methodology you are proposing (which is in theory makes sense, don't worry!), the field of eDNA is not at the stage to look for that type of variation as yet in environmental samples. I would also add that a proposed wide ranging mammal (and presumably existing at low densities) would also present a real challenge for eDNA-based monitoring. Even for smaller carnivores, we're still struggling with sampling in the right way to optimise things. Allan" I sent a nice follow up email. As one can see from what Dr. McDevitt said (especially what I underlined in his parenthesis) my hypothesis is still a good one although it may be ahead of any current technology to deploy. The important thing for me was to keep getting positive response for scientists on its feasibility. I think I have enough not to say it is a good hypothesis However, like I said, it does appear that the field of e-DNA s it stands need to catch up some to pull off a viable program for Sasquatch discovery. The person at Genidaqs said it is a less expensive to target a single species as opposed to running a metabarcoding program that would detect all species in a given environment. That said, I still need a dialogue with the lab to nail down just what that means vs. what they can do vs. how expensive targeting primates is. But hey, Rome wasn't built in a day and the most critical thing we have going right now is that we are getting answers from science!! Once a few more get addressed then we'll know the best approach to have and what we can expect and for how much money. IMHO right now? It's all GOOD.

Date & Time - Saturday, July 18, 2020 from 4:30 pm until 1:30am Location - Oregon Cascades, mountain roads Weather - Spectacular, from 85 to 70 degrees, no wind, clear skies What Happened - NorthWind, my son and I went out to explore 2 sites recommended to us by fellow researchers in the area, waaayy out in the woods. The whole area looked like great habitat. We found a hill with prints coming down it, but just who made them was unclear. Could have been bear, cougar or bigfoot. On the drive out, we found an odd structure. It was s white, distinctive 5-foot tall "Y" branch, shoved into the ground, with a bark strip across the Y. Very obvious. Might have found an "X", also and a bend. There was as path, larger than a typical game trail, leading away from between the X and the bend. We may explore it at a later date. We don't explore trails at 6pm! A beautiful evening under BIG, old growth trees. We also saw the comet far, far from city lights. Awesome! The "Y" structure. Indeterminate prints coming down a hill to the road. I tried climbing up, but couldn't. The "X". The only broken tree in the vicinity. The break is about 12 feet up. Just an amazing view. My son on the forest path. NorthWind and a huge, old growth tree. The forest was full of these 10-20 foot in diameter trees. An old forest road, more of a path now, off another small dirt road at dusk. Friends saw creepy forest lights here, but we just saw a beautiful sunset.

I have seen the white-tailed bucks do that stomping in the Blue Ridge, they have a loud low toned blowing and even a higher pitched screeching blow they do and it takes some getting used to to understand what you are hearing. I ran into one on the AT once and froze as I saw it first. It didn't realize what I was and tried the stomping trick to get me to move. I have since learned they will stomp you too if you get too close so I don't try the freezing tricks any more when at ground level eyeball to eyeball close to them. The stomping is an alert signal like the blows and the flashing of the white-tail as they run.

With Elk and Deer calves? They are born odorless. And they instinctively lay perfectly still. Using their brown coat and spots to blend in. The mother will attempt to draw predators away from the area. Higher Primates? Orangutan babies never lose physical contact with their mothers for 5-6 years after birth. Not once. To do so means the chance of falling out of the canopy to almost certain death. I think Gorillas and Chimps are similar good moms and so I don’t see a benefit for the newborn to smell distinctive. If it’s clinging to its mother her scent is going to overpower it anyhow.

I've a healthy dose of skepticism regarding the subject, but am not quite so wont to douse other's desire to research on their own efforts. Perhaps consider not being such a Debbie Downer.

Beautiful area and great ideas about the thermal. Does your thermal begin to overheat when it has been recording for a period of time? I've noticed that when I have my Pulsar on "pause", and ready to record at a moment's notice, it tends to heat up. I wonder if there is a way to connect a IR detector that would trigger the thermal to record.

No. Your BF Wikipedia would be overrun by trolls and all different types of BF folks claiming and editing things as fact. A central BF website that takes a stance on what they believe (F&B, paranormal, whatever) that covers what you said? Sure. But by definition, it can't be crowd/publically (or at least heavily moderated) generated/editable.

No no.... you hear banjos at the ones over here. Although the lack of soap may still be a problem.... instead of patchouli oil you will probably smell a combination of sweat, manure, smoke and beer. 😜

That Capitol State Forest has been absolutely hammered for bike tracks etc now i think you'll find, it's MotoX heaven in there. There does appear to be a thing with these west facing ridges though H no doubt, the new finds earlier this year were also positioned on them. Let me add too regarding the huckleberry element that i found last month, especially the Evergreen Huckleberry (otherwise known as Florist Huckleberry, Californian Huckleberry, Shot Huckleberry and Florist's Huckleberry) which is the Huckleberry found within the areas of the nest finds. Check this out, i think it's very cool..;) "The leaves are antiseptic, astringent, carminative and hypoglycaemic. An infusion of the leaves and sugar have been given to a mother after childbirth to help her regain her strength." Shane talks more about the nests and the Huckleberry angle here - http://strangeharbor.net/speaker/shane-corson/ It should be noted that not all Huckleberry is/was used where childbirth is concerned. Evergreen Huckleberry, Bog Bilberry and the Black Huckleberry are the only Vaccinium to have "birthing aid" confirmed within their medicinal purposes. I have also read that Rubus Spectabilis (Salmonberry) was used by the Quinault women a long time back for medicinal purposes including after childbirth. Also bear in mind the huge piles of leaves found directly at these nest areas, huge piles just sitting there. This is the only thing that has got me excited about this subject in a long, long time..;)

Yep. Not "child" voices as depicted on the show exactly. I've heard the little mumbly / giggly voices once in 2013. I had a clear daylight sighting about 45 minutes later. Another time I was walking up a somewhat seldom used USFS trail approaching a bend. I heard what I thought was a teen girl "shush" ing a dog, assumed she knew I was approaching, and was commanding it to sit. Couldn't make out the words, that was just the tone. Turned the corner ... nobody. I could see 100 yards or more ahead, behind, up the ridge above the trail, and quite a bit farther on a open timbered flat by the creek. There was nobody there. Beats me.

Some, but not always, not even in the extreme cases. A friend reports a habituation setting at her father's house. They saw a bigfoot duck slightly to go under a branch on a tree by the shop. Might have hit, might not have, but very close. She says they measured that branch from the ground and it is very very near 14 feet. The first one I saw was .. well, I spent a lot of years and a lot of brain sweat trying to make it more acceptably short, but with water 4-1/2 to 5 feet deep .. hits me under the chin and I'm 5'9" .. hitting the bigfoot at crotch level, and their leg length is proportionally less than ours, I can't see any way to conveniently turn what I saw into a more acceptable 9-1/2 feet, it had to be 10-1/2 feet or a little taller. So part of the question of estimating height is "do you have a reliable yardstick of some sort you can compare the bigfoot to, then measure later." And in both cases, hers and mine, there were indeed things for reliable comparison. So you can either accept my report of what I saw, and the size, or you can call me a liar. There is no third option. What you could do, if you want an educated understanding of height, is take a look at Henner Fahrenbach's data. Real biological critters' physical attributes will generally follow a bell curve distribution. Delusions and attention getting attempts do not. So look at the data and decide. One caution ... the big ones start small and grow. Also, we are more likely to see adolescent males out misbehaving as our own adolescent males do than mature adults who are more cautious. Taken together, that skews the data slightly downward regarding average size. While you're looking at his height data, take a look at the height vs foot size comparisons. 3/4ths of a mile from where I saw the very large dude walking down the river, I found a line of tracks that were 24-1/2 inches long with 6-1/2 feet between consecutive steps, left and right. It was in thin mud over a layer of hard rock so any tracks of a hoaxer within 15-20 feet would have been glaringly obvious. If it was a hoax, someone managed to step, walking, not running, 6-1/2 feet in 24-1/2 inch long "shoes" carrying upwards of 800 pounds on their back. To me .. not feasible. Those tracks were what they appeared to be, nothing more, nothing less. MIB