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Well, luckily you guys have no shortage of good habitat down there.

For sure. I get the same nostalgia driving an old Toyota land cruiser. I have surrendered to modern comforts of driving though not a fan of computerized vehicles.

Hello. I’m BathedInDeepFog from reddit. I’ve had no experiences myself but have been fascinated by this subject since around 2012. I’m somewhat regularly active on the bigfoot subreddit. Someone there sent me a link to a thread here that I’d really like to be able to look at. Thanks.

I responded to him in a similar fashion before I realized who he is... This is the guy who says "I never understand why so many here only criticize the work of others. The entire field suffers from a bucket of crabs mentality and THAT is why the subject is a laughing stock and will never yield results." in one post then proceeds to insult and criticize in the next. He's a troll. Plain and simple. I remember him from one of the Expedition Bigfoot threads. I don't blame you for your skepticism. I was shocked when I moved here at the amount of activity that appears to take place in this region. Lots of encounters still take place on a regular basis up here. There's a lot of mountain wilderness around here that is only explored by well traveled trails. People walk a thin narrow line through a pretty vast area. It's going to be interesting to see how the increase in population affects whatever is up here. There are new gated neighborhoods going up every month in the mountains around here. More people out in the woods than ever, although the overwhelming majority never get past that first natural barrier.

I've a healthy dose of skepticism regarding the subject, but am not quite so wont to douse other's desire to research on their own efforts. Perhaps consider not being such a Debbie Downer.

Maybe this is not the comparison you intended... https://www.npr.org/2019/07/11/740682753/an-alligator-surfaces-at-a-chicago-lagoon-and-a-city-snaps-to-attention

My stomping grounds. Nantahala, the Smokies, Pisgah, and Cherokee have a lot of activity... however in my experience a lot of the activity dies down in the summertime....at least in relatively easy to access areas. Asheville has blown up in recent years and most of the newcomers quickly adopt the woods hippy culture that is so prevalent there. A lot of woodland areas in that region have become absolutely swamped over the summer in recent years with hikers who are pretty clueless about outdoor activities. My pet theory is that the increased human presence is driving whatever population is left up there deeper into the mountains. The trails through there barely scratch the surface of the wild areas through there. However, if you are near an area with a relatively difficult to overcome natural barrier (and you yourself are able to traverse it) that's where you need to go. Most of these amateur hikers turn back at the first water crossing or steep path. The forests in and around Haywood County are the source of TONS of first-hand Class A encounters that are never officially reported and never show up on any of the usual resource sites. Again, a lot of those accounts seem to take place in the late fall (after the leaf peepers go back home) and continue through the winter into early spring. If you are near Haywood County I would recommend going into the woods around there. However, in all fairness, the most eventful, frightening, and impactful experiences that I have had so far took place in the Nantahala in the middle of summer...so activity doesn't necessarily cease completely.

Just got back from 6 days of exploring a small portion of the Six Rivers National Forest and the Siskiyou Wilderness in Northern California. Spent 2 nights car camping in the SRNF and 3 nights backpacking into the wilderness. The best part of the trip was the backpacking part, since I went deeper into the wilderness and I saw plenty of wildlife. Below are some pictures of the wilderness area and the lake where I camped the first night. Also showing a picture of my thermal imager setup. This was the first time that I backpacked with a large lithium battery (the Jackery 240 Wh portable power bank). I had backpacked before with my full size tripod, since the image quality is better when stable. I wanted to test the ability to run the thermal imager and video record all night (8 hours) for 3 nights (without having to monitor and replace the 4 AA lithium batteries every 7 to 8 hours). First night, I heard noises coming from the brush, got out of the tent ~9:38 PM, started recording on the thermal, and saw the buck in the photo. The unit recorded as the buck came out of the bush and walked in front of thermal imager. The time stamp and date on this FLIR unit is not correct and cannot be fixed (apparently the battery that runs the clock is internal to the unit and cannot be replaced unless I ship the unit to manufacturer; this is a design flaw). The 2nd FLIR photo was the 2nd night and occurred down 600 ft in the valley. Again, I left the unit running all night for 8 hours and it captured this bear walking towards the creek. While the photo is not clear (because the bear is far), the video shows its bear shape and motions more clearly. BTW, the buck moved on to the other side of the lake and disturbed the only other backpacker there from 1 to 4 AM. I saw the guy in the morning and he was so scared that he did not sleep and started a fire. He never saw what was making all the noises and stumping the ground. I told him it was the buck, since it did the same in my campground earlier that night. Not sure what was the problem with this buck, but I also captured a doe in the imager that came later, so maybe the buck wanted to clear the area? I was happy to have a thermal imager and see what was making the noises.

You’re as likely to find a Sasquatch in Tennessee as you are to find a gator in Chicago.