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And here I thought it was a deer with an oddly configured antler rack!

Well, yesterday the air quality in Salem Oregon went from 375 to 417, which is very hazardous to 24, which is very good, no pollution issues at all! amazing what an on shore flow can do in 24 hrs.

Did an overnight backpack into one of my favorite general areas. There are lots of ponds and we passed several along the way. Went farther into the inner ponds than ever before, so it was new territory for me. The trek in was slow going until we hit a cedar swamp which became impassable, try as we might. Went about halfway along the right edge of the cedar swamp and the sun was getting low so backtracked and set up camp near a small beaver pond. It got bitterly cold last night. No tracks found nor sasquatch sounds but the sky above was twinkling with more stars than I thought possible and barred owls were hooting and screeching all night long. Going to make it a point to go back there and get to the destination pond. We'll be sure to steer clear of the cedar swamps near our target pond.

I went backpacking into Emigrant Wilderness over labor day weekend. I read an old report of a daylight BF sighting on the southern end of the Relief Reservoir and wanted to explore that area. Went in at Kennedy Meadows trail-head and climbed up to Upper Relief Valley. Distance was about 9.6 miles and climb about 3,600 ft. Took me 2 days to climb. Unfortunately, the Creek Fire (NE of Fresno) dumped ash and soot on the whole area on Saturday afternoon and I decided to bail out on Sunday (instead of Monday). At 5 pm on Saturday, I could not see the sun and it was a dark as night. But the worst part was that my mesh tent and everything inside was covered with black soot and I was breathing that bad air. I was disappointed with this trip because: 1) Both lower and upper relief valley had cattle grazing (Don't like cows in wilderness areas because they change the wilderness and make non-local sounds). At least the cows did not have bells, like they have in other wilderness areas that I have been to! 2) Kennedy Meadows during labor day weekend is a ghetto - too many people crowded together (though not many people were climbing 3,600 ft to see Upper Relief Valley) I heard a bear at midnight and at 2 am on Sunday, but my Tascam DR-05 died on Friday (day 1). It was probably far away from my location because the granite walls of that area carry sound very well. My FLIR only captured rabbits, squirrels, and cows. Below are some photos of that beautiful area. Probably best to visit on a non-holiday weekend. There were lots of horse back riding into that area via that trail. So I took a photo of a group of horseback riding on the 2nd bridge from KM.

Archery season 2020 1st leg - Selkirks Bear and Wolf tracks, heard Wolves in Harvey crick. Cut one set of fresh elk tracks on way out by Petit lake. :/ One weird 3 toed track too. Pics 1-10 2nd Leg - William O Douglas Wilderness/Cascades Pics 11-19 Only spent two days in there. Into bulls both days. Calling on ridge and something came in silent and spooked out. Made us jump. Had a hot bull at camp this morn at 5 am. But spike only area. Elk sign out of sight. Every step. Wyatts GF Holly came with us over weekend. She hiked with Wyatt for Saturday morn hunt. I also love, love, love my camper....

Good luck with the H3 BC Witness! Thanks for the reports @Explorer, @wiiawiwbJust back this am from Baxter State Park, mainly a hike up Katahdin and given the campground atmosphere I wasn't expecting any activity but kept me ears and eyes alert to the small possibility. There was a sighting on the other side of the mountain in 2003, throwing small rocks and a good visual of a hairy nighttime visitor in camp, multiple witnesses and well lit with flashlights as it raised its arm to block the light. No such luck for us. Beautiful nonetheless-- On the way up the Abol, a lot of real estate for the Sasquatch: At the peak looking towards the Knife Edge: And Katahdin from Daicy Pond: Chilly morning pond smoke on the way out, a la wiiawiwb:

The footprint, who's measurement became my screen name here, was found just outside the edge of the fire line immediately following the Biscuit Fire. 17x7

Speaking for myself, definitely. However, the best of the best failed this year. Dunno why, but it was **empty**. MIB

Thanks PG and Explorer. It's an interesting area. It's also the only place I've backpacked into where I am never at ease and always alert, and I've backpacked in a number of places around the country. There's something that's just not right there and I can't put my finger on it. I get little sleep at night so I can listen carefully to my surroundings which I'm hoping works to my advantage. The thick forest presents challenges but also offers opportunities. The going isn't easy so few people go there. That's a good thing. The endless number of small beaver ponds and cedar swamps, which increase and decrease in size depending on the season and amount of rainfall, redirect you in order to get around it. In some cases, not a good thing. We got a late start which didn't allow for any unforeseen delays. That won't happen next time. I'm hoping that a sasquatch will know I'm in the area and will come to watch me at night from behind a tree across the beaver pond. That's where I'm betting the thermal imager is the my best chance to get a night-time sighting and hopefully be lucky enough to record it. Explorer, you must be loving your FLIR. What options do you have for a lens? Pulsar has (or had?) the option of buying and interchanging 30mm, 38mm, and 50mm lenses if you had an imager in the XP series. I can't do that as I have an XQ. Oh well, life does have it compromises.

It is very awesome! Being in an area so rich with opportunity allows you to try out new locations more easily. Similar to drilling for oil...if I miss it on this spot, I can just try again and hit oil over there. As the number of spots you've been to increases, are there one or two you consider your honey holes? The place you've tucked away in your memory that you'll go that because it has your highest confidence level? I know I do and I work my two spots pretty hard. Others may prefer to find new locations based on sighting reports or because they've studied the region and know these particular spots offer food, water, and cover better than other areas.

Good luck getting your meat Norse, enjoy some quality time with your boy too !

Interesting picture. I can't really tell. Correct me if I'm wrong, please, but my impression is this. It looks like rather than having the forest floor duff pressed into the mud underneath by the weight of whatever made the track, instead, that duff stuck to the foot and was lifted away. I suspect there are 2 more toes that are on that duff at the left side of the track, that that part broke off from the part that was lifted away with the foot. Why it was lifted away .. it stuck to pitch or mud on the foot bottom. I don't know how big the track is, but it could be a bear hind foot .. a partial. That's be my first guess. Those toe-like marks don't seem to show any joints or bends and they are oddly shaped, almost triangular. With tracks that far apart I would look in between for additional prints that would point to something with shorter rather than longer legs. Evergreen forest floor duff is a booger to track in on the best of days. MIB

Thank you very much for the response. My first impression was a bear. Knowing your expertise as a hunter and outdoorsman is why I did not dismiss it.

Ironically, I was just visiting a friend of mine at work in his building and we were talking about weekend plans. This guy lives a couple of blocks away from me in a tiny town and I've known him for a few years, but we've never really hung out outside of work. So we were in his cubicle and his wife and a co-worker stopped by. The co-worker is also a friend of mine and she starts telling us how she and her husband reserved a cabin up at the Lochsa Lodge, which is just a few miles from where I had my only personal encounter, and are headed up there tomorrow. I've known this woman for about the same amount of time and am friends with relatives of hers. I joked that I had a Bigfoot encounter near there, she laughs, and my buddy Mike gets wide-eyed and said so did he. What? He looks around to make sure no one else can hear us, then says he was up there a couple of years ago in the summer camping in a roadside camping area next to the river just a couple of miles away from my "sighting". He said he and his wife were in their RV and just about to go to sleep. They had a window open and he said he heard something on two feet walk slowly by the RV and it blotted out the moonlight in the upper window as it passed by. This was in an empty camping area. He said there were no other campers there and the next morning went out and figured that in order for the figure to blot out the light, it had to have been at least a foot taller than him, and he's 6'5". He said it made no noise or smell, other than the sound of footsteps on the loose dirt/gravel outside the camper. Then he said he had another experience just last year, but over on the Western side of Washington while on a hike to the lookout near Pilchuck State Park. That story was pretty creepy. He said he and his wife had hiked up to the lookout and were on their way back and it had gotten dark. He said he heard an owl hooting, so he stopped and tried to make a hooting sound. He said what he got in response was a God-awful scream/whoop sound that made the hair on the back of his neck stand up. He said the woods went dead quiet. He and his wife tried to make their way back down the mountain, but it was dark and they had to go slow. They heard the sound a few more times, getting closer, then something threw a rock near them from the other direction. He said he foolishly didn't bring a flashlight with him, or a gun, or even a phone. After a couple of rock throws, it was quiet. Then about 15 minutes later, another couple came down the mountain behind them with flashlights. He said they were an older super nice couple that insisted on guiding them back to their camp. This guy does quite a bit of hiking and says he's had other experiences and found tracks and is definitely a believer in Bigfoot. He said he's never seen one, but he's seen their tracks, heard them, and saw the shadow of the one outside his camper. So thankful I brought it up since now I have someone else to discuss it with and to possibly go on a search with. He's apparently a magnet for them, lol.

He made both trips AND to his 13th birthday on August 28th! We have just returned home from the vet after finally saying good-bye to our lovely friend. He will be greatly missed. Have another trip in two weeks for yet another two-week stay. It just won't be the same without him, but we are taking his ashes with us to leave there. It was his favorite haunt for his entire life and we have always said we would make sure it would be his place of rest. We miss him already