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I was mushroom hunting a couple of years ago in an area that was pretty remote. Single muddy road into the area about two miles off the "main" gravel road and 15 miles from the nearest town. I drove down the muddy road to where it dead-ended at a nice little clearing that someone had camped in a few times; campfire spot built and some leftover firewood. I parked there, then started searching up the draw that was heavily wooded and contained a little creek. I was all alone, except for my great dane/lab mix and there were no trails, other than game trails. I'd been there about 45 minutes, my eyes glued to the ground looking for Morel mushrooms when I got the sense that something was watching me. My dog also seemed to be looking into the brush, but didn't growl. I was so convinced I was being watched that I actually took pictures of the dense brush where my dog was looking just in case... I searched an area of about 50 yards wide along the small stream and went up in the dense woods about 500 yards. About 15 minutes after feeling like I was being watched, I was along the stream bed and spotted a boot print in the mud along the stream. It was a smaller print from a hiking boot and was super fresh. Like within 20 minutes fresh with water still seeping into it. The direction of travel indicated the person had come from the ridge top, down into the draw where I was searching for mushroom, then crossed the stream and back up the other side of the draw, all while I was less than 200 yards away and never heard or saw them. It was weird to encounter someone that far into the woods, with no trails or roads, that was completely off-trail, and able to elude my detection. But, apparently my dog was aware of them, but he was a big friendly guy and rarely ever barked at anyone.

Yeah, I keep forgetting the suppliers are disrupted as well. I do think things will get better eventually. My biggest fear is that somewhere around 3 November things will really hit the skids. And that is as far as I am going with that line of discussion, anything further will have to be in the Tar Pit. So in my mind, I am looking at a deadline of late October or very early November. Not to mention that I have heard from different sources that when PSA announces new stock, they sell out within 30 minutes or so. I suspect this is the case with most other dealers as well, especially for lower priced items. Even Gun Broker does not seem to have as much stock recently as they used to have, say 2-3 years ago.

Two things. One is that huge market. Lot of people who never have owned guns are buying guns because of the political situation ... Antifa, BLM, riots, etc., plus COVID, fear of people looting to steal food. My daughter and her BF bought pistol when I was down visiting them ... never had the slightest interest before. There are many many MANY thousands like them. Second is COVID, not merely fear driving the market, but also requirements placed on the arms manufacturers for distance between employees which is impossible to do with their current production lines. In other words, wildy increased demand combined with reduced supply. Some personal data points. There's rifle I want. The company is out of upstate New York with their sales crew in Montana and a new plant in Alabama. All were shut down because the New York facility was shut down for COVID-19 (state mandate) and it supplies parts for guns assembled in all of their plants. Now they're up and running but with a huge backlog of orders. I'm in line to get my rifle some time in November or early December. :( Another ... as the COVID-19 stuff was starting but hadn't gone full panic, I bought a new .22 target pistol. Same background check as any other firearm. That day I was 42nd in line and my background check (NICS ... FBI data) was finished in 40 minutes. About 3 weeks ago I bought a rifle. There were 4200-odd people in line ahead of me. They told me the "instant" checks were taking 7-10 days. I was lucky, I guess, I only had to wait for 5 days for an "instant" check to finish. Those data points demonstrate the incredibly high level of demand along with the reduced level of supply. That's just the guns. Go try to find ammo. Bwah hah hah ... it's bad. But it's not just guns and ammo. Try to buy camping gear. Tents. Backpacks. Sleeping bags. Or a canoe or kayak. One of the local stores has taken out a number of shelf units and moved the remaining ones farther apart so it doesn't look so empty. Think I know where those $600/week unemployment payments are going ... straight to anything even vaguely "survivalist-y". Don't panic, stay the course. One of these days, the credit card, etc bills are going to come due and those people who bought and hoarded thinking they'd make a windfall profit are going to have to start selling at a loss rather than for the vast profit they imagined. MIB

Alaska is definitely the land of bears, all three North American species. I couldn't possibly even remember how many black and brown bears I've seen in 44 years here, but I've never seen a polar bear in the wild (I avoid the Arctic Ocean coastal plain, because it's just not my cup of tea up there). I kicked up two grizzlies at close range less than two months ago, and I'm going bear hunting again tomorrow for 4 days. But despite that, I can't seem to get a shot at a mature brown bear boar during an open season in an open area. They are legally well protected. In that same time I've seen two wolverines and two martens, but not once in Alaska seen anything that I could call a sasquatch footprint, and this is a land of mud well conducive for leaving prints. I can only surmise that they don't exist in southcentral Alaska, unless at extremely low densities in the most remote coastal areas. Even then, with the amount of snow along the coast here, they would almost certainly have to hibernate like bears due to the absolute dearth of food for months. Southeast Alaska is very different than up here, though, and at the extreme southern end of the Alexander Archipelago there are no brown bears to compete with or protect from as well. And, sure enough, that's where Alaskan reports and tradition are highest.

"Avid hunter" here, for going on 60 years, though I don't hunt as much now, as all my old buddies have either given it up due to health, or passed on. :-( In that time, I've seen 5 cougar/puma/mtn lions, 5 grizzlies, 1 pine marten, 0 wolverine, and 1 Sasquatch. That kind of puts their rarity in perspective for me.

Gotcher 3D's on?

Pretty expensive stuff, NorthWind. It may be not be necessary unless Bigfoot has an unusual olfactory palette in which case it would only respond to top shelf fragrances. HOWEVER! A female may view it as a threat to her designs on a nice hunky Bigfoot male so she may not take too kindly to someone stepping into her territory wearing one of the best flowery smellers money can buy. So if you're gonna get pummeled, I'd definitely go with the cheap stuff.....uh.....again....except for in Madison's truck.

Do women have more BF encounters? If so, I am breaking out the Chanel #5. I am sure @Madison5716 wouldn't mind if I wore that in her little truck. LOL

The woods are VAST...and even people who hike them often are only seeing a tiny part of the area. Look a map of a good sized national forest. Established trails barely scratch the surface of the area. And the vast majority of people never get off the trail, let alone traverse the first natural barrier like a steep climb in elevation or water crossing. I get this all of the time. People tell me that they are in the Cataloochee area all of the time and that it is impossible that these creatures exist there because they would have seen them by now. They count pulling over on a paved road to look at the reintroduced elk as being intimately familiar with the entire region.

While in campsite research mode, use campfire smoke to signal human presence. I use propane for cooking and build a small fire ( when allowed ). I build '360 degree fires'.............wherever I sit, the smoke follows me so I should have a good pattern of olfactory signaling. Humans have been watching fires since we saw lightning hit trees. We watch fire and they watch us watching fire. I do not call blast or wood knock. Just basic air guitar.

In a remote area I can hear a vehicle approaching from several miles away on rough logging roads. . If I can, so can BF, especially if you have narrowed down an active area and drive into it to park. When my research area was active, I had the feeling I was being watched nearly all the time. A couple of times when I slammed the drivers door to hike, I could hear a responding wood knock. The door apparently signaled them I was there. It was not trail head that was used by anyone else. Of course in other areas where I never found any indication of activity, I rarely had the feeling I was being watched. Not sure if that was a chicken and egg relationship or not. Certainly after a footprint find, I expect BF to be in the area watching me. My first footprint find was so fresh that I must have nearly seen the BF that made it. Little bits of rock were falling of the edges of the print. I have wondered how close the BF was and if it was watching me. I played the trumpet as a young person but fell and knocked out my front teeth, ending my trumpet playing career. I wish I could go out and do that now.

How are they supposed to pay for the research then? All "scientific organizations" get paid one way or another and most have an agenda.

Yeah, there's enough acrimony out there, in bigfoot-land, to go around. We don't need to contribute. JMHO

I'm going on a short 2-day tent camping trip in Idaho with my girlfriend next week in a pretty remote area. Our main focus will be on taking the UTV on some trips to huckleberry patches and digging for garnets. Lots of bears in the area and a few wolves. Not going to be a "Bigfoot Expedition" per se. I don't have a thermal camera, or even a video camera with night vision, yet, so not sure how effective we would be going out at night. But at least we will be out in the wilderness and aware of our surroundings and looking for evidence. Better than nothing, I suppose. Area we'll be in:

^^^^ I think London.

Before the publicly available low cost FLIR, people such as Michael Green of Squeaky fame used to use Aiptek video cams hooked/wired to small thermal devices set to record movement detection (which the old aipteks allowed), quite sure that is how he captured the Squeaky thermal video in the back of a mini-van set up with open hatch as he departed the campsite in a false camp-type scenario. I have not investigated thermal movement options to trigger recording but sounds like something to pursue especially on a multinight hotspot. Great pictures Explorer, and good luck in the pursuit. It never ceases to amaze me the extent of beetle damage in the west it is quite disheartening and I am battling similar invasive pests in the east attacking our Eastern and Carolina Hemlocks.

Bet the troll didn't expect any decent, entertaining, conversation when he started the thread.