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I want to share some good fortune. Maybe not all that relevant but things on this forum have been kinda slow lately. Last week (July 17, 0800 hours) my nephew and I were leaving Goat Lake headed down to Snograss Flats. Progress was very slow because I was cutting steps across the snowfields. We had a lot of rain and lightning the night before so things were just treacherous. We had a short segment of clear trail allowing us to get round a corner when I saw an adult wolverine running straight up the snowfield ahead of us. It ran with a characteristic lope and turned its head in our direction as it ran up the 60 degree slope from our lower right to our upper left. It had already seen us so I yelled to the nephew and he was able to get his binoculars up on it right away. My binocs and camera were stowed away for protection while I cut steps. The wolverine ran with a lope that made it seem almost happy. Despite running straight up the icy snowfield it kept turning its head watching us. Then it was joined by a second that had already been above and to our left but not at all noticeable. And then I lost sight of both. Total time of sighting was maybe 10 seconds. I have read there may be 300 wolverine in the lower 48 states. I contacted a wolverine study group and gave them the details. We really felt fortunate. We had good success the previous night counting mountain goat but it was seeing the wolverine that really made our day. Goat Lake July 17 Red circle is site of wolverine encounter Mountain goat inventory.

Had an opportunity to go to Oregon on business recently and I made sure I made some time to do some camping in the beautiful PNW. Got a hold of a local squatcher who recommended the Wilson River area of Tillamook State Forest. Although I went on late night solo hikes deep up the trail with IR binos and patience well in hand, I didn't see or hear anything "squatchy". I did however see some beautiful country ( us flatlanders are truly jealous of you PNW residents) and had an opportunity to hear about a few encounters from locals. I will detail them here. Here is where I camped. Elk Creek Campgrounds in the confluence of Elk Creek and the Wilson River. My meager camping spot. The sound of Elk Creek lapping at the rocks knocked me out like a light every night.

Plus 1 Slab ! You have no idea how glad it makes me to be able to see people going out and getting their boots dirty. Keep going back , go off trail , note the weather conditions/environmental factors , log food sources coming into season and note your interesting finds on a map. THIS thread is fine example of what I am trying to advocate, people spending time in the great outdoors with 2 things on their minds. { 1 collecting data. AND 2 enjoying the great outdoors with or without squatches near by. ) I crappy squatching trip is still an awesome camping trip that is good for mind and body. Very glad for you sir.

Ahh C'mon! Ya gotta love Teddy! OK, so on day 2 I drove to the coast to get some gas (and just to see the beautiful coast line...again, you PNW types are spoiled! You better be appreciative!) So I stop in to this small "to go" food shop in the Netarts / Oceaside area. (Netarts Bay area) (disclaimer...not my picture) Small little ocean side community. So small, the the gal that ran the oddities / gift shop in town seemed shocked to see me there. "What are you doing here?" she said. (the local chamber of commerce must not be too good ehh?) Admittedly, I thought I was going to "Seaside, OR"...there is a place there called "Bigfoot Steakhouse" that I have been years ago and wanted to pic up some new swag. No such luck. Anyhoo.. I stopped at this little "to go" place and I notice that the logo is of a hairy foot. I asked the gal at the counter what it symbolized and she told me "Bigfoot". (Duhh...) I asked her why they chose that logo and she explained the cultural / regional significance of Bigfoot. (she was not the owner) I busted out my nerd question "Bigfoot...real or not real?" She immediately got kind of strange. There was an immediate change in her demeanor. She was hesitant to discuss any further. I told her I was genuinely interested in the subject and not looking to poke fun at her. She looked back to her boyfriend (working in the kitchen who was now walked towards the counter to be a part of the convo.) "He's asking about Bigfoot" she say to him. I asked "Have you ever seen one?" she responded she had not... ..however... She related that she and her boyfriend are avid hiker / campers / nature lovers who will delve deep into the coastal mountain range for week long camping trips. (the dreads and nut and granola attire pretty much confirmed that ) She said "something is going on out there." She said that when they are deep in the woods camping that often times "something" is whistling at them, throwing rocks at them, huffing, screaming and making loud "knock" noises (like gunfire) at them. She reiterated that she has never "seen" anything. The boyfriend then took over the convo. He related how his brother was hunting last season in the same general area that they camp (cant remember if he said it was for deer or elk). He said that his brother heard some strange noises (can't recall if he said screams or huffing...I was so engrossed at this point) soon followed up with a near by tree being "violently shaken in the tree line as if by something with incredible strength and two hands". He said his brother high tailed it out of there and has not been back. He said his bro was pretty spooked. Now I have to tell you. I'm a body language guy. Trust me when I say that...I am. And no, I won't explain. I detected no signs of deception with these people. Not only that, I found it notable that I had to essentially "drag" the conversation out of them. And once the conversation was flowing, they didn't take it "over the top" by claiming to have actually "seen one". So my next question to them - as I planned next year's trip in my head - "If you were me, and wanted to see and hear the things that you have experienced... where would you go?" The answer: "Blaine / Beaver, Oregon...due South...desolate...virtually no people are there. Better fill up your gas tank" Beaver, OR I checked the ol' Google map and saw what they were talking about. Desolate. Methinks I have next years PNW trip figured out. (lemme know if you wanna go Norse! ) Just before I left (after buying a dozen Oysters and a lemon to throw on the ol' fire pit grate that evening for din din -which goes great with a Leinenkugel's Summer Shandy multipack by the way) the woman shared one more tid-bit with me. She said that she was a long time resident of that area. She said many of the long time locals consider the existence of Sasquatch to simply be a fact. She then told me a story about a few local boys who were playing on the beach of the bay. The kids suddenly came screaming their way up back into town and - quite out of breath and scared - explained that "a Bigfoot had swum up out of the bay, walked up the shore and into the tree line". Fascinating... Now Imagine if your a couple kids and you want to come up with a whopper about Bigfoot? "Swimming out of the bay" doesn't seem to be at the top of the list of possible made up interactions. __________________________ So in conclusion, I ain't say'n that ANY OF THIS is true of course. I didn't see ANYTHING squatchy on this trip and the stories I was told could either be just that or possibly truths that were simply confusion over natural events. Still petty cool though. And pretty fun. I wanna go back! Nope. I figured just act like a regular camper. That's how my bud Bart had his sighting.

I’ve mulling over the comments posted by our Alaskan correspondent…namely what is, or is not, wilderness, and if the difference should have any impact on my view of NAWAC’s evidence coming out of Area X. Like a lot of words that come freighted with history and emotion, “wilderness†has many present interpretations. When the founders of Jamestown looked out from their redoubts into the woods surrounding them, they described this as “wilderness.†(Often preceded by the adjective “howlingâ€â€¦the absolute worst conditions for these self-styled “civilized†Europeans). That they were actually looking at a landscape that had been modified (through controlled fire) by natives for centuries, and had only recently been depopulated by European pathogens would not have crossed their minds. Wilderness it was to them, even though this very idea would have been amusing to the locals, I’m sure. In the American psyche there has always been this longing for the lost Garden of Eden, while also being somewhat unsettled with the actual thing, rare though it was then and now. The idea was made federal law with the Wilderness Act. The Act tried to come to some accepted definition, and largely succeeded I think, but it left us with this legacy of defining wilderness by what is not present (i.e.: Man) instead of what IS there. More than that, it has served to further scramble our mutual understanding of the word. Wilderness (big “Wâ€) is now a legal/political construct. Wilderness (small “wâ€) is now more than ever in the eyes of the beholder. I like DWA’s definition myself, which is just one of many descriptors you could list: Wilderness is where you should be looking over your shoulder for the thing that can kill you. Does that include Area X? Well, I think the NAWAC folks on site will confirm that for you. And yes, it includes a lot of Alaska. At the time the designation of the Sipsey Wilderness here in Alabama was proposed, many went on record as stating there was no wilderness in the East, so there was no land worthy of this protection in their view. Obviously, this was an overly narrow view of the matter and I’m glad to say it did not get much traction over the years. I also believe it stemmed from a view I think our Alaskan friend might share. That is, somehow, wilderness is a function of size, not complexity. It is certainly not equivalent to “pristine†because, if so, not much of what we have left fits the definition. I think it as ridiculous to say a small land area can’t be [W]ilderness as it is to say a large area is presumed to be. To my way of thinking, the absence of human activity is not as crucial. I know it when I see it, to quote Justice Brandeis. I’ve found it 20 minutes outside of town, and I’ve failed to find it at the end of a 30 mile one-way trail. The fact that thousands of people traverse Wilderness areas each year, from “The Bob†in Montana to the Cohutta in N.Ga. matters not a bit to my feelings about it being wilderness, Wilderness or any degree of wild on that scale. But does this matter at all as to the NAWAC’s claims? No to me, no. If there were strong evidence a population of Wood Apes can only sustain itself in virgin timber and boundless expanses, I might be open to that idea. There isn’t. If you put credence in the encounter narratives, BF are found in a remarkable range of habitats. This seems to be one of them, or at least that is what the NAWAC is proposing, and trying to prove. Do their claims depend on you believing how wild an area this is? No again. I think it is only somewhat useful to appreciate how difficult a place to operate this area likely is. That, and you have to turn loose of your idea that this whole area was somehow transformed into a biological desert in the 19th-20th centuries. That never happened. But even if it did, we have many designated Wilderness areas in this country that were politically expedient choices for the designation only because they were so devastated no moneyed interest saw any further use for them. If you go to some of those, as I have, that history is not likely to make any impression on you to detract from your feelings of just how wild they are now. If there is one overarching lesson it is that wildness is very resilient. Whatever ecological insults we’ve lavished on Area X over the centuries, don’t think they’ve been permanent.