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Hoaxers make field work more difficult. When you have to sort of what might have been done by humans and what was done by something else. I consider call blasting, making vocal calls, and making wood knocks nearly in the same category as hoaxing. It forces field researchers to have to figure out if humans are in the area making those sounds. Even worse than that, I have seen little evidence that it increases the chance of having visual contact with BF. Evidence seems to show that it just scares BF away once they determine that the sounds were made by humans. Another factor related to that is what those who have had extended contact with groups of BF tell me. BF do not like humans to be deceitful or tricksters. They seem to have no sense of humor about that sort of thing. I guess it is a matter of trust. They need some level of trust with a human to want to have contact. Trying to lure BF in with vocalizations and knocking would create an atmosphere of distrust.

About the only thing worse than hoaxing is the people who spend all of their time rooting out potential hoaxers. Only in this field can people who are basically self appointed hall monitors gain fame. And, that's often why they spend so much time looking for hoaxers... because they themselves like the attention. So, on one side you have people commiting hoaxes for attention, while on the other side you have people trying to constantly expose hoaxers...also for attention. Also, let's be honest here...a lot of people involved in this field are proverbial crabs in a bucket. If they see someone getting the attention that they themselves want...they are going to do their best to tear that person down. As far as I am concerned, either people are smart enough to see through a hoax for themselves...or they are just going to believe anything that is presented to them the right way. Why spend any time at all trying to disprove someone like Khat Hansen or Dr Johnson? Their followers are just going to latch onto another cult to follow in short order. People who spend all of their time attempting to disprove stuff are just trying to get that same attention fix themselves.

Definitely, but it sounds like you're quite a bit older than I am. I was introduced to the topic via reading some copies of The Bigfoot Bulletin back in the early 70s on my great grandfather's porch. Many of the write ups from Coos and Curry counties involved people I knew of via my grandfather (mom's dad) and great grandfather (dad's mom's dad) who seemed to respect them as being solid citizens. Both grandpa's were. So when I found a track line in '74, though I was only 11 .. 10 going on 11, maybe ... I knew exactly what I was looking at and I didn't want to be right there anymore. I had an extended sighting in '76 .. probably 5 minutes-ish? .. long enough for it to cover over a quarter mile moving down the middle of the river. Looking back there was a fair bit of weird, unexplainable stuff we shrugged off which may well have been bigfoot activity but i never paid it much mind, they just "were". Some stuff happened about 2007 that drew me into the community actively and headed me down the path of investigating reports for a group. In 2013 I had a second sighting, that one in broad daylight, open / sparse 2nd growth forest with scattered firs and a good bit of grassy area between them. No doubt at all. None. So I research / investigate. My general area is SW Oregon from the coast to about Highway 97 and from about Eugene south to the OR/CA state line. Within that I focus a lot on the Cascades south of Crater Lake (where Paulides says he won't go alone ... I go alone), into the edge of the siskiyous, and the SE part of the coast range ... kind of a circle around the Rogue Valley. There is a lot of activity .. a lot that never gets formally reported. Lot of stuff a local with their ears open can pick up on and follow up on. MIB

Still pretty hot & dry....hope you guys aren't sick of seeing the Sotol snacks, but the easiest way to follow the Hairyman's movements this time of year, plus they are eating it pretty good. First pick shows one of their trails, and the discarded Sotol leaves as they drop them along the way.....Hansel & Gretel dropped bread crumbs, the Hairyman drops Sotol leaves, in the South anyway:)

I have never took stick structures very serious. Mostly made by humans not hoaxing and declared as Sasquatch by hope.

I suppose hoaxing is like bad weather -- there is nothing I can say or do that will change it. Do I approve? Obviously not. One of the reasons I try to get off the beaten path is to avoid hoaxed footprints. Let's face it, a hoaxer wants his (or her) creations seen by as many people as possible. It is highly unlikely they will go to great lengths to do their misdeeds in the hinterlands. The good news is you can generally spot human footprints near or around a questionable footprint. I have yet to see any human prints around the few prints I have found I think are legitimate.

Hoaxing is lying. It's dishonesty. I dislike it.

Yeah. Northern Rockies have BF reports. "South", for practical purposes, has to be upwards of 1000 miles, otherwise they're still in snow with seriously sub-zero temperatures. I don't think that's too realistic. I think they are physically adapted to cold and compound that with seasonal behavioral adaptations. The east slope of the Cascades has winter temperatures not too dissimilar from the foothills of the Rockies. The east slope of the Cascades is active in winter. Same for the Rockies. The challenge for humans is getting into the right places during very very cold temperatures with deep snow to stumble across the sign that is there. MIB

Oh wow, BobbyO, I hope you get there! It's been on my bucket list as well but past years have seen a lot of wildfire smoke and last year we toured Eastern Canada. Now THAT was an experience I'll never forget because we were on Prince Edward Island when hurricane Dorian roared through the Canadian Maritimes and right over our heads. What a ride! Our little 16 ft. trailer was rocking pretty good behind a windbreak of good strong trees. We succeeded in getting no sleep and 2:00 am was the worst when the wind wrapped around to broadside us. PEI had closed the bridge to the mainland (New Brunswick) to high profile vehicles. But our tiny house didn't get turned into a soccer ball, I think because I had kept it attached to the truck with it's stabilizer bars on- AND because we were just plain lucky so...here I am

I remember reading about them using caves/a cave system in the Glacier View Wilderness near Mt Rainier on the BFRO, that's always stuck with me as it's where one of the hikes i want to do is.

One time I spent hours reading about a "narrowback" Bigfoot sighting that turned out to be a hoax. I was very disappointed.

Sorry my choice of words is probably confusing! What I'm saying is it gets on my nerves / irritates me when people deliberately mislead others for personal gain such as hoaxing etc. Considering the well established community you have in the States and elsewhere internationally with members investing serious time and money into quality research, any attempt to deliberately waste that resource for the sake of a laugh or some attention is just pathetic (in my opinion) I echo the sentiments of most in this thread, it doesn't sit well with me. Edit: punctuation

I'm fairly neutral on this. It can sometimes bring some entertainment. All part of the fun, or an annoyance that discredits the BF phenomenon?