Leaderboard

I went backpacking into the Siskiyou Wilderness (in northern CA) the first week of July. Spent 3 nights in the mid-section of the wilderness; backpacked from end of northern portion of the GO-road (Boundary Trailhead) down to Elk Valley. This trail is north of the Blue Creek drainage. Elk Valley is where we camped and is the beginning of Blue Creek. After exiting, we drove to the northern end of the Siskiyou Wilderness and spent another 3 nights. One night at Sanger Lake and then we backpacked into Youngs Valley. Youngs Valley is where Clear Creek starts and drains south. We saw plenty of deer on the meadows. We did not see or hear any bear or bigfoot. The wild berries were not out yet. We did find what appeared to be 2 footprints on the Boundary Trail on the way back. They looked like old footprints that were imprinted when the terrain was wet and muddy. One print is human size but could be a double print from a bear or just random formation. The other print is small (like from a toddler) and gives the appearance of showing the toes pushing the mud out. They were not very good and I am not claiming they are from BF but I took pictures anyway in order to document. I doubt that children will walk barefoot where we were. The map below shows where the footprints were found relative to TH entrance and other key places in Siskiyous (like PGF site and Louse camp). First photo is a view of Youngs Valley. Second photo is a view of Blue Creek drainage on the backpack along the ridgeline. Third photo is of what appears to be a small footprint Fourth photo is of what appears to be a footprint

I've been out twelve nights this year on organizational outings. Last winter I bought a new "big" parabolic ear and two 20 mp / black flash trail cams. Guess what? I haven't had enough time to travel in the south Mt. Hood forest to set the cameras and to really use my "ear," which is a lot bigger than my old one. So what, that means nothing. Here's something that does mean something: One leader bought a number of nice thermal imagers with recording capability. Also, at least two people brought along thermal imagers they bought, some costing about $4K. Between them there are at least three possible bipedal beings imaged. Now the bad news; none of the users were prepared, under stress to use their fine focus adjustments. Allegedly, there are hopeful results from computer down loads and analysis. So, what's the lesson? One is I should not hang around with so many people from the east coast, mid-west, Colorado, Idaho, California, and Washington that I can't set my own gear. {Counting one conference with two motel nights, I've been out fourteen {14} nights since mid-May. Sure, I should drive two hours one way to get to the areas I want to set, but ...... Also, people spend lots and lots of money to travel to Oregon and go on expeditions. This last weekend, we had people from Wisconsin, Michigan, and the usual states. When I inquired on how much they had trained on their night vision and thermal imagers, I was surprised. Also only one or two had maps of the area, and absolutely none had topographical maps, or had looked at topographical maps of the area on the Internet. Sure, for most, this was just an oversight from lack of experience; but, airplane tickets, etc. cost lots of $$$. I did what I could to teach in that regard. So, what's all this rambling about? Most readers of this blog will never have the ability, or funds to do what some lucky folks have done on the last four expedition camps, since May. I'm just suggesting doing a lot of preparatory work before embarking on the journey. Sure, no matter what, if the camp hosts are good, you will have great fun. But, if you are prepared, you might have the memorable sighting, or photographs of history. With best regards, I remain truly yours, Joe Beelart near Portland, Oregon : Ps: The black flies were sure bitey. I'm still bleeding from a few of their bore holes. And yes, some hardy souls camped in a remote camp for a night north of Mt. Jefferson. Later. PsPs: My edits were just to change tenses, correct spellings, etc. I have really met great people this year. I've shared places I thought I'd never share.

I havent seen this posted here yet so forgive me if it has but I found it interesting. https://alumni.berkeley.edu/california-magazine/just-in/2018-07-12/does-science-benefit-search-sasquatch

July 14 & 15 I spent the weekend camping at Yellow River State Forest in NE Iowa. Sound familiar? Well it was the location of the Finding Bigfoot Iowa episode. Didn’t pick the place for this reason but went with the family to camp in a new place near Effigy Mounds National Monument (great place, highly recommend). Found the place online because it was only like $8/night and looked fairly rustic. After I booked it found the FB stuff. Really beautiful place, part of the Driftless Zone along the Mississippi River. Heavily wooded bluff country. Saw lots of deer, a couple turkey. It struck me as odd that on a weekend in July there was only 2 other campsites out of about 30 in use. Did some hiking and exploring Saturday. Highlight of the trip, I was walking down by the river Sunday morning and a bald eagle flew right up stream about 15 feet above me. Alas no sightings are strange occurrences. Told the wife and kid about the FB episode at the campfire Saturday night and it made them paranoid. The wife then found it necessary to wake me up at 1am to tell me she heard a small stick snap outside the tent.

There have been a number of examinations of the site, film, etc that produce a height in the 7'3" to 7'6" range. Given .. well, not consensus, but repeatability ... via different methods, and the explanations I've seen for them, this seems the most likely to me. That's a "stooped walking height", not sure how tall she'd be if she were standing straight / upright as we do. The weight that goes with this 7'3 to 7'6" height seems a closer match to the track depths reported as well than any low-ish 6 to 6.5 foot height guess. All in all, I think she'd be rather impressive to meet face to face at close range. (I can dream, right?) MIB