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Oh, our perception of counter-intuitive behavior is all on us. We, and I include myself - think/thought we were the apex predators - and that was one very uncomfortable realization. We look at their bulk and assume they'd be clumsy, maybe slow, possibly uncoordinated to a degree - and the opposite is true. Fast, very coordinated, and have the ability to go into stealth mode at will - much better than we can. That's a real eye-opener. Nothing like I would have expected. We look at their primitive appearance, and assume they're dumb. Just a big, dumb animal. Just the opposite - very clever, very adapted to their environment, and skilled enough to avoid us at will, although I think some of the youngsters get careless time to time and get spotted. But even they can cover lots of ground fast, and quickly disappear. We think we can surely see something so large if one is around. BS. Masters of camouflage, masters at concealing themselves low and in the shadows. And don't forget to look up in the big stuff! And since only one is seen as a general rule - it would be natural to assume they're somewhat loners. Another big mistake. We only see the one they wish to show - and just like the ape families, and just like the human families - both are very social creatures. There are a few exceptions in each, but the bulk like and prefer contact with others, and it helps by sharing the workload/tasks that working together provides. Counter-intuitive to be sure. But that's our fault.

One thing they do that we don't think to consider is belly crawl for extended distances to get up on us and watch. And they don't mind what they're crawling through. At the lakes where we used to camp in the 70s there was some bird that made a hell of a loud Whoop with a rising pitch toward the end. Every so often it would call from a very close distance, from the two foot high vegetation along the bank about fifty to thirty feet from us. Every time I would stand up, walk to the edge of the camp and look for it, wanting to just get a look at the dang thing. Never saw it over the course of about four years. It wasn't until after my encounters that I began to put two and two together.

After my first close encounter, just like many other folks, I thought I was dealing with a simple animal. Things then started happening that suggested a higher level of intelligence here that went beyond mere chance. I also observed incredible physical abilities that defied simple explanations. Through it all, I kept an open mind and continued my quest for answers. At some time, I reached a point where nothing surprised me and I quit trying to prove anything to the skeptical minds and just enjoy the ride!

For those hardy enough or foolish enough to do field work in the winter, it does have one big advantage. It is very difficult for a living hunter gatherer to move around on snow covered landscape without leaving footprints. I hope a clear day opportunity comes up soon so I can scout deep in the snow covered back country of Skamania County with my airplane. Footprints in the snow 30 miles from the nearest road are unlikely to be human without snowmobile tracks nearby. I can differentiate snow shoe tracks from boot or bare footprint tracks from the air. Just cannot measure or determine if they were a bare footprint or boot from the air. If some area is active, miles from the nearest road, it might point out active areas worth checking out when the snow cover allows. .

Here you go - it's an older collection and likely lot's of dead links, but it's a start. http://www.stancourtney.com/squatchmarks.html

No, not really. The key is finding the location where some bigfoot or other will pass at a predictable enough time that you can anticipate and "ambush". It's the same scheme I used when I was guiding. We never target a specific fish. We identify places where fish are most probably going to be at the time we wish to fish and catch whichever ones are present when we get there. To some degree, the reason the old time footers didn't find bigfoot was they were chasing reports of individuals who'd already left instead of positioning themselves in advance of the next bigfoot to come along. Reactive instead of proactive. They didn't have the data we do. It's still spotty but in some places it is enough to make a heck of a start. MIB