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They course of this thread got me thinking (l know.."oh, great...here we go again...") Over the cycles of glaciation and ice sheet formation covering large expanses of this continent, with the concurrent ice bridges/significantly lowered sea levels, there may very well have been successive migrational events or periods. So, just possibly, say the first time around, a species or population is pushed out of a region, as described by MIB, and crosses over to the new world. Either through continued movement, or expanding numbers, this group comes to occupy this new territory as it opens up with the receding ice sheets, absent the more assertive competitors that got them moving in the first place. Then, as the cycle repeats and the ice sheets return, this first wave of hominids get pushed south as the ice extends, depriving them of food sources and manageable weather. But, just as these guys are moving south, to the north, the land bridge is reforming and the sea levels drop once again allowing a next wave of migration. However, this second wave is comprised of "a species" which, while initially may have been of the same stock as the first group, has developed faster, in that by the time of the second cycle they have had to compete and survive with those that drove out the first group. This results in a population more advanced, to some degree, than the first, moving through the same corridors, into the new territory. As this cycle repeats, the original forms get pushed father and farther south by successive ice formations, while more developed(socially, physically, cognitively) forms cross over and expand into the regions emptied by the glaciers and opened by their receeding. Of course, these distinct groups or forms will inevitably come to cross paths, resulting in either domination of habitat, or zones of integration. Meanwhile, those of the latest group to migrate who didn't get across, will once again face the selective pressures of the original habitat, and either evolve or perish. One would think that over repeated cycles the numbers of the stragglers populations would progressively diminish. This paradigm would account for the seeming gradiation of form from the more ape like forms seem in the south east to the "I couldn't shoot cuz it looked so human" forms of the PNW. Of course, the population dispersion of the various forms and integrations hasn't stopped, resulting in diverse populations, as reported by witnesses in recent times, with numerous types observed within the same region... Just a thought..... I realize this may have been proposed previously, but I'm now old enough not to remember that occurring, which also allows me to feel insightful, rather than grasping that I just formatted something I read in the past as original thinking on my part....

Drew - The first mountain was mined for gold from the 1860s to the very early 1900s. There were no rock trucks, Henry Ford hadn't even built the Model A yet. By the 1940s the area was essentially abandoned except for some small claims that are still maintained today on a mom-n-pop recreational weekend scale. The ore was partially processed on-site and the concentrate was hauled out by pack train. The roads post-date the industrial scale mining activity. The other mountain ... that's a good question, I don't know how the material from the top was removed. The present road was never suitable for a normal dump truck, never mind a big earth mover. There's a logging trunk, a very major one, somewhat down on the west flank. They may have used a conveyor, that was done here some. The current road to the top is a collection of hairpin switchbacks too short for a double cab pickup to go up without backing an jockeying around them. It was built to access a fire watch tower that sat on one corner of the leveled off mountain top. That was removed in the 1970s and the road hasn't been maintained since. Dangerous? Yes. So? There was no OSHA, little if any regulation, lives were cheap and many were lost ... that's the history of building the west. No different mining, road building, logging, farming. I'm not divulging the specific locations. MIB

These critters are troubling. To be sure. But knowing that there are people out there like you? That's frightening. While this sarcastic suggestion is tongue-in-cheek, thinking like this is exactly why all the big groups, all the big money fail to find diddly squat. Knowing folks know that helicopters in mountains is a bit tricky - and they have their own sets of limitations. Noise, being the first. Lighter-than-Air craft in mountains are very unstable, and with some of the winds that come up - they'll be blown across three counties - or caught in an updraft and possibly lose control. When I heard a group was going to hunt these things with a blimp - I laughed out loud. Oh. I was a commercial lighter-than-air pilot - so I know a bit about it. Cryptic, from your limited suggestions, which indicate a certain level of inexperience in equipment, terrain, and men, maybe you should stick to something else. There's always Barber College.

Apparently, the Paiute did - caught up with what was believe the be the last ones troubling them in a cave. Set a big fire at the cave entrance, killed the red giants that came out, while the others died inside. They had plagued the Paiute for decades, but they finally seem to have wiped out the local population of red-haired giants. So that shoots down your first postulation - and then we have other narratives of Native Americans, including Inuit of them killing these things that were tormenting them. One doesn't take toddlers hunting - at least none of the guys I've ever hunted with did. And if 10% of the narratives of folks getting the crap scared out of them - including kids at schools - are true, your next postulation falls apart. I see you're big on practicing. Practicing this, practicing that. Each spring around here, the birds lay eggs, and the eggs hatch and there are baby birds in the nest. I must get real busy or am not paying attention, but somehow, year after year, I miss these young birds going through flight school. Somehow I miss all the instruction, and all the practice. But then one day, they must graduate from flight school - as they're just gone. Same with mountain goats. Those little bitty mountain goats are jumping around on a few square inches of rock like they've been doing it all their lives - and somehow, we seem to not be able to film or otherwise document their leaping training, their jumping skill training, and their escape tactics. How can we miss all that? Oh. That's right. There are lots of reports of these things barely avoiding traffic on a highway - sometimes getting hit! And sometimes getting shot while snooping around a house. Your postulations/questions ignore the fact that many of the projections you suggest - occur. Here's the deal. Nature has her ways.