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Thanks for the advice, BRB, and everyone. Well, I finally did it. I pulled the trigger on a FLIR TK Scout just moments ago. It seemed like it took forever to save up for! Now the waiting begins. @Madison5716 , I hope we can make it out to one of our lakes one of these nights soon!

I’m not sure if I ever told my stories here on the BFF. And though I live in Oregon, all three of my "experiences" happened in Florida, less than ten miles from Myakka River State Park about fifteen years ago. I was living at a country club / older folk’s community while I was in Florida going to school for a couple of years. Whenever I could, I would get out into nature by hiking up at Myakka River State Park and surrounding areas. Beautiful place, but it can be dangerous. There’s a lot of wildlife and it seems everything out there is looking to hurt or kill you. Lots of gators, poisonous snakes, spiders, boars, panthers, and my wife and I even saw two jaguarundis once at Myakka River State Park. My experiences though, happened at the golf course, strangely enough. The first experience we had, I was with my wife and we were out sitting on our screened in porch on the second floor enjoying a cigar and a cold fermented malt beverage. It was very late at night, I would say maybe 2AM, and we had the lights out so I wouldn’t get busted for smoking a cigar. Just talking and relaxing. This second-floor porch overlooked maybe 20 feet of grass, then a retaining pond (lake), and the golf course itself. We could see none of it though, it was a very dark night. Well this night was very quiet. Suddenly, we heard bipedal footsteps sloshing through the water. Big. Deliberate. Not fast, but not slow. It was covering a lot of ground with those steps. Now it was too dark to see, but I knew at the time there are only two things in the water at night in Florida. Gators, and gator food. If you are not one, you are the other. But even though you could hear the sloshing of the steps, you could almost feel the ground thumping as whatever it was moved. It wouldn’t make sense that a person would be walking through the water at night after midnight with no flashlight (or even with one for that matter). But this was no gator. Whatever it was was walking on two legs. As it passed the “lanai”, we were both afraid to even look to see what it was. Not that we could have anyway. But we didn’t even want to get close to the screen. It passed right by us. I would say no more than 30 feet away, max. It never broke stride. We were both too afraid to even speak. And when we did, we whispered and didn’t pronounce our “s’s” because we didn’t want to be heard by whatever it was.We sat there a long while after this thing was gone, trying to figure out what it was. I joked “skunk ape” with her, but the truth was that I was pretty certain that’s what we heard. I have seen deer out there and tons of birds. But this was no deer. No wild pig. Not a bear. Not a panther. It was bigger than those for certain. I still don’t KNOW what it was But if I had to put money down on something, I would have to go with a skunk ape because nothing else fits. That was the first experience. The second and third ones are tied together. Let me set the stage a little. I had an old dog. He was awesome. Always quiet and mild mannered. Unless there was danger. Then he became 120 pounds of growling snarling canine badassery. Mix of black lab, German shepherd, chow, akita, and coyote. I had to walk him when I got home from school. Usually that was after midnight or so. Outside the gate of the community though, there was swamp land, and general native Florida wilderness. When I say “gate”, I mean there was a drop-down arm to block vehicles, but people could just walk around it. Boy, I miss the sounds of the gators and frogs at night! I would take Tucker out there to do his business next to the road. I always carried my pistol because it was scary out there with just a flashlight. This particular night, I was walking Tucker towards the gate to get out to the road to his happy pooping grounds, when he started walking slower. His head was lowered, and he was growling softly. Now we were still in the golf course community, mind you. But right next to a small pond that was completely blocked off with trees. You couldn’t even see this pond. Not even the landscapers went in there. I know, because I was curious and went in there one day. Very thick native Florida bush. Then swampy pond. Almost perfectly circular. Maybe fifty feet across is all. It’s own little nature preserve in miniature. It was right next to a man-made retaining pond that had gators and fish and frogs and snakes and the like in it. As we were passing this pond which you cannot see, Tucker’s hackles went up and he started growling loud, and baring his teeth. His eyes were fixed on the small trees next to us. These trees were maybe 20 feet tall. Almost like tall bushes, really. Just as I was really realizing that something was in there, that something growled from the cover of those trees. Loud as hell. I could feel it in my chest, even. I could feel my hair stand up. That had never happened to me before, and it was a really strange sensation. That growl was so low in pitch and loud! It was not a gator, as I have heard those sounds before many times. Then the trees began shaking VIOLENTLY. I thought whatever it was was either going to rip them down or come charging out, so I had my 1911 drawn. We backed away from those trees without turning around. I did not want to turn my back to them. My heart was pounding. I was scared crapless. We finally came home from a different route (we actually walked all the way around the community because I didn’t want to pass those bushes again. My wife asked where I had been and I explained everything. She thought it was funny. Well I was not amused. A few weeks went by, and my mother in law came to visit from Texas. We had an extra room, so it was no big deal. She always loved to go outside and see the nature there. She loved to walk the dog, too. I told her to stay away from the “growly bushes” as they had become to be known as. She teased me and I tried to explain I was NOT kidding and I was deadly serious. It piqued her curiousity. Well late one night maybe here or four weeks after the first “growly-bush” experience, we had been tipping a few drinks out on the lanai. It was late, and the dog needed to go out one last time. She volunteered, and asked me to go with her because she wanted to see the “growly-bushes”. I decided to show here where it happened. So foolishly, we headed down there. Tucker again started growling slow and low, with his head down as we approached the bushes. My mother in law started getting freaked out. Then as we got near them, the thing growled loud at us and shook the trees again, exactly as it had done before. My mother in law was terrified, and so was I. When we got back up to the safety of the condo, she swore that she would never doubt me again. Neither of us know for certain what growled at us. But whatever it was, had to be huge to shake the trees like that. I tried shaking them in the day time some time later, and could get them to move, but nothing like what we experienced. The good thing is that I had a witness this time. And she was able to relay what happened to my wife. Now my wife knows I was not joking about it. Folks there are strange things out there. And now that I am in Oregon and my kids are grown, I want to find out. That’s why I go out to the woods when I can and search for these beings. While I have never laid eyes on one that I know of, I know they are out there. And I hope to be able to find enough proof to make a difference. If not, maybe just enough to satisfy my own curiosity, which I think will never be satisfied.

If BF is not an animal then they are certainly considered equivalent and governable by DOI policies concerning NA tribes.

These things stick with you your whole life. Mine is an experience rather than a sighting, and most likely it was a bear or cougar or even a feral dog. Thirty-four years ago we’d moved to Cleveland, Tennessee. We were staying in an apartment several miles out of town in a very rural, forested area. It was a small complex, and our unit bumped up to the woods. We stepped out our door and two steps away was a steep incline leading into hundreds of acres of woods. My mom and I initially enjoyed hiking around back there, but we finally quit due to a very spooky feeling of being watched. I was raised in the country, as was my mom, so we weren’t city clickers frightened by a chickadee tweet. So, one day my dumb teenaged self decided to go for a walk alone in the woods. I’ve no idea what was going through my head. I remember heading up the incline, then my next memory is rounding the path curve about 50 feet in. That’s where I lose time. I believe Bigfoot is flesh and blood, so this dissociation isn’t a paranormal thing because later learned in therapy I did dissociate on occasion. Seeing a bear or cougar in stalk mode would’ve just as easily caused me to go blank. My next memory is walking back in a panic but keeping my walk calm. I knew something was right behind me stalking me, had been stalking me for awhile, and I knew not to run. I also knew not to look back because it would cause me to lose control and run. I can’t convey how powerful that specific impression was. At this point when my memory returned I was within 10 feet of the top of the incline, the exit out of the woods. I could see our apartment. It took all my willpower to not break into a run because I was so close, but I kept walking quickly but calmly. I think I saw something as I rounded the corner, and that’s when I blanked out. I assume at that point I turned around and headed back and “came to” around 10 feet from the incline. Statistically this was probably a black bear. They’re silent stalkers. Maybe I was overreacting, but my life depending on not running is the single most powerful feeling associated with the experience to this day. In the intervening decades I’ve read a lot of animal attack stories, and so many of them involve the victims seeming to have sudden instinctive feelings of what to do or not do. My mom had a less intense experience. One day she climbed half way up the hill to sit and eat lunch in the warm sun. Her back was to the woods. About half way through her sandwich she suddenly felt a menacing presence behind her. She got back into the apartment immediately. With her sandwich!. I asked, haha. Make note, researchers: it’s possible baloney sandwiches may be the secret weapon to attracting a Bigfoot.

Wasn't the DOI involved in the Manifest Destiny policy which robbed the NA of their ancestral lands? If so, the bigfoot cover up may be closely tied or part of that. Disclose the reasons for keeping a lid on bigfoot and you open the government up to lawsuits on behalf of bigfoot. Manifest destiny worked because NA either complied with the government relocation policies or fought with and were defeated by the US military before relocation. Bigfoot would not comply and would be difficult to justify public military actions against them. They have not been openly raiding and killing human populations as did the NA. (The man in Oklahoma might dispute that) Perhaps rumors of military actions against bigfoot are a modern attempt to implement Manifest Destiny policies before existence is divulged accidently by a body becoming available? The government likely knows about pro kill groups.

I browse some bushcraft forums. I may take my channel that direction some day. Sometimes the folks doing primitive stuff in the woods attract curious bigfoots. One of my YouTube followers has thousands of followers, and he has been open about his encounter of 20 years ago on his channel. We had a great messaging conversation about it. Then his people chimed in and a dozen more folks told of their encounters, too. I would like to think i helped.

This is actually one of my favorite things to do. When you go on a Bigfoot or paranormal themed message board, you can count on a somewhat sympathetic audience. Posting about your experiences or beliefs on another type of message board really opens you up to continual attacks. The people who do so (and aren't obvious trolls) are usually the sort of people whose encounters have left a real mark on them and they feel compelled to speak about it no matter how hostile the audience. A couple of the accounts that I have found in threads like that have been the best, most believable accounts that I have read. A user on a popular gun forum went into a very detailed description of an encounter that he and his wife had years ago in Utah. He was a Mormon, so he immediately associated the creature that he saw with Cain from the Bible. There is a story in the Mormon faith concerning a man and his meeting with Cain on a lonely road. This man described Cain as being naked, covered with hair, large, and possessing a palpable hostility towards all men. The gentleman who posted his account on the board said that description matched what he saw to a tee. Regardless of my disagreement with his interpretation of the creature's origins, his account never wavered over the years. It was a great account. The poster was an offensive tackle at BYU and later played in the NFL for a short time...so he was uniquely qualified to judge the creature's size and speed. He was terrified by what he saw.

As always, it's about money. Specifically, mine. Or the lack thereof, lol! I can't even afford to fix my truck, much less pay for DNA testing, probably repeatedly. Because no one i know or have heard of reports sightings to the BFRO or anyone else. There are too many interesting people to contact and collaborate with! Why would I want to post on an anonymous data page when I could chat with an experienced researcher after a bit of networking? Really, I could name almost a dozen reports right off the top of my head, seriously, and I would bet real money that they aren't reported anywhere. I'm researching four of them currently!

I'm late in replying on this. I recognize your track photo without even looking at the report; that's the Mt. Baldy track in Broadwater Co. Mont. I know I've mentioned the report a couple of times in the past. It's a very compelling report. When I read the report. I couldn't see any way the tracks could have been faked by a person. They were clean tracks, no drag marks, went diagonally uphill in a single line; the hunter had to leap just to match the estimated 5 ft. stride length; they were 15 miles from the nearest road, which was a dirt road, in a rough, remote area at 7,500 ft. where the hunter said he had never seen another human. He also states he knows the tracks weren't made by snowshoes.

Thank you. And heck yes I carry. Always.

So very true...26 years and I think of my encounter every day.

If you go to that forum you might notice strange similarities between what some guy posts there and what I post here. Hmmm. (If you catch me contradicting myself us contradicting each other, please let me us know so I we can clarify.) iFish is good. Lot of hecklers when BF comes up, but it still does come up. As above ... MIB

I still think the overpass/underpass cameras should have produced some viable images from WDOT by now.

I think it chickened out on snowboarding down to Hwy 20 That thing is stiffer than the cast of Expedition Bigfoot (oops I think that's what his girlfriend told him). That twitter feed is hilarious, I'm addicted

I belong to a hunting forum part of Ifish.com for primarily Oregon, Washington, and Idaho. Sasquatch comes up from time to time with the usual light hearted banter, but also samurai chatter, tree twists, etc. have been discussed. I also , being a taxidermist, belong to Taxidermy.net and there have been several lengthy Saquatch threads on there.

I have a Pulsar thermal and am miffed by the recording taken on the show. For a TV series, it should be safe to assume they have the best equipment money can buy. They've spared no expense as far as I can see. I've replayed the thermal scene a number of times and there is something I am unsure about. Clearly, the bigfoot (or whatever it was) was recorded in red hot mode. Why does the deer appear to be shot in white hot mode? There isn't a speck of red on the deer. There's something else that's bothering me about the video and I'll mention it once I review a few more things. I've posted a thermal video shot in red hot of a chipmunk at 40 yards. If it is distinguishable, a cow should be as well. If we could clearly see the deer in the thermal, a larger creature (cow or sasquatch) should be easier to identify. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLtaIbiS9qM Here are a few videos using a Pulsar thermal some with cattle https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpST9VheRGE - has cattle and pigs. At 5:30 you can see the legs of a cattle. At 6:05, the recording is from a distance and one can still see cow legs moving. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijW-eiQ0VMo - here are rabbits in a field in red hot. You can clearly see the legs and ears. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFC3FiDYpIk - deer in a field, some at a distance, and still identifiable One lesson to be learned when using a thermal is to never use red hot. It distorts. Use black hot or white hot. Red looks "cool" but if you're serious about identifying your target, use black or white.

Handguns have been "restricted weapons", available only after a police check, and for limited purposes (target shooting at a club, prospecting, timber surveying, trapping) for as long as I've been an adult, so at least from the '60s. Long guns are much easier to obtain, once you've passed a safety program, and passed a basic background check to get a PAL (possession and acquisition license) Possession of any firearm for "personal protection" against another person is not allowed, except for police, military, and armoured car personnel. Of course, criminals ignore all of this. Actually, I had both, as I was both hunting, and prospecting at the same time, but the 3 rounds to stop it were from the '06, which was then empty as the bear nosed into the dirt about 15' in front of me. It was still breathing, so I circled around behind it and gave it a 240 grain 44 headache for good measure.

Interesting on the FLIR as back end of a cow analogy. Then the thing they noted as legs stepping over could have been a tail switch or leg twitch I suppose. I was squatching with Thom Powell using thermal near a river bank/sandbar one night and both of us swore we were looking at a biped near the river when it was a deer with head down and legs oriented so as to appear as two. It lifted it's head and we did an aha! within minutes.

A fine piece of fiction.

Some people just want to be on TV and are willing to almost anything to accomplish that goal. Agreed. They had to have scouted the area before filming. Either they already knew and are acting surprised when they 'discover' certain features of the areA, or they were purposely kept in the dark by the production team.

Watch the PGF again. Under careful scrutiny, Patty's leg proportions and step motion are decidedly non-human. Notice how much shorter Patty's lower leg is than the upper, then also notice how high she lifts her heel. It is consistent with the characteristics of the snow trackways without requiring the exceptional effort it would take a human to make even 2-3 such steps with the resulting characteristics that are reported, never mind going for miles without breaking stride or screwing up. MIB

We were hiking in short sleeves. We haven't really gotten a winter here at all so far... Lol. Remember when I posted about being contacted about doing a non-scripted cryptozoology show? It certainly wasn't because of my ugly mug....

First axiom of Sasquatch: Sasquatch finds you, you do not find Sasquatch. One can not buy an encounter. Sightings are related to 'worthiness' and as I have previously posted, related to positive and negative personalities to put it lightly. Cursory review of sightings shows that some people try for a lifetime and have zero success. Others have 2 sightings and then nothing for the rest of their lives. Check the '2 sighting' scenario to determine if the action was a 'lead away' procedure. They hide and stay hidden. The smart ones know that if they mess with humans, more humans show up.

This is our American Department of Interior, and their wildlife biologists are doing a fine job studying most of the animals and plants in the forest. However there are no funds to study Sasquatches. Why?. Why did they want to withhold this information from the general public back in 1970? It kind of makes sense......... speculate? Is it necessary to keep confirmation of bigfoot in 2020? The public can handle the confirmation. The chief DOI official should inform the public that bigfoot is real. This will help to protect the pu;blic's health, safety, and welfare from bigfoot attacks. We know bigfoot is a large forest carnivore along side Black Bears and Cougars that live in many states. We probably have one or two DOI biologist on our forum, and they are valued by me . Those in the huge building are working for the Department of Interior. Our tax dollars fund this department. Their hands are probably tied so it takes a brave individual to forward some bigfoot reports. The public can handle confirmation of Sasquatch or Bigfoot. We need to know the true story behind the M S Helens bigfoot event and the Battle Mountain report. The Columbus Day Storm bigfoot can be relooked at too. What happened in Bander Texas? The Sasquatch Detective could look at these events again or for the first time.