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I guess my favorite would have to be my 1974 photo of the actual site where the Patterson film was shot. Although I had spent the month of May in 1972 at Bluff Creek, well actually Orleans but made the drive to the sandbar maybe 6 or 8 times. Really regret not taking notes but I was only 23 at the time and thought I knew a lot about the Bigfoot. Spent most of the month just looking at the whole Bluff Creek stream. Had thought Bigfoot Creek was where the film was taken. Late May a forest ranger told me about the sandbar. It was quite the adventure at the time and have no regrets at all about looking for Bigfoot. I do remember going to Al Hodgson's store and meeting him. He was very helpful and said he would have people there if I found anything. He also sold John Green's book at the time which I of course bought! After being there for that month without finding anything I thought I would call Roger Patterson himself and see if he could give me any advice. You can imagine how I felt when a lady answered and said he had passed away a short time before! After that I decided to end my trip. I later moved to Oregon in 1973 and worked there until 1979. Looking back I wouldn't change a thing! Also another thanks to Bill here on the forum for reversing my original photo and to Sweati Yeti for confirming that was indeed the site!

Today at my work, a young kid (about 6 or so) saw my Bigfoot figure and started asking me a bit about it as he too liked Squatchy stuff. We made small talk and I mentioned I was glad I wasn't Bigfoot today as I would be hot under all that hair. He told me they were going to the lake to play in the water and he was going to watch for Bigfoot because he probably liked to play in the water too to cool off...just like his dog in the his backyard wading pool. It tickled me a youngster was even thinking about it. Nope...not a hot topic (no pun intended). But just something sort of amusing today and you know...he is probably right.

Enjoying the reading so far i have had a few experiences. These interesting creatures are here in great falls im close to a box canyon ive seen them up high and lowlands.

I will make 1 editorial suggestion to your first sentence. A reason for hoaxing is it is supposed to give the hoaxer a psychological feeling of gratification, thinking they are outsmarting people. Sadly, many politicians, criminals, and other shady characters use a similar principle to justify their actions. For BF hoaxing in particular, it's a lot of work to be convincing. Even with powerful video and imaging tools these days, a person would have to be really into their own psychological bubble to spend time doing that. It's like a job to plan all of it out and try to pull it all together. This is how law enforcement approaches profiling for serious cases. There are only so many unhinged people spinning like that. They don't just leave the clues of the crime or hoax. They have left traces of their practice runs somewhere else to be found. In fact, the hoaxer always leaves that easter egg, intentionally or not, that leads to their undoing. They want to see how far their act can go. What funs is causing mayhem if there is no chance they will get caught?

Went to the convention today. Was not able to make it yesterday as I spent it with family. This was my first Bigfoot conference, so I have nothing to compare it to. Also, I attended the second day of a two day event so I missed out on much of the headliner activity. I have not had a direct interaction with Bigfoot and my status is I am open to the idea of Bigfoot existing, have seen and experienced things in the woods while hiking and hunting that are typically attributed to Bigfoot, have started to journal and record these experiences, but I'm not a complete believer. I went in hoping to learn more about Bigfoot hunting, activities on the East Coast, and just in general useful things. First impressions: The event is held at the New Hope Community Center. New Hope is a tiny rural town that is about ten to fifteen minutes from larger population areas. Small, mostly farming area. The community center was built probably between WWI and WWII and it shows. The building is fairly rundown, no running hot water, they were using a 50" tv as a viewing screen for the movies, etc, and a karaoke machine as a loudspeaker. Folding chair seating for approx 130ppl. Vendors were a mix of Bigfoot related and crafty stuff like concealed carry purses and tie dyed hair. There were about 30ppl there to listen to the speakers when I started and about 50ppl when I left. The event was not sold out. Tickets were available at the door for $15. Sunday they had also heavily discounted their t-shirts. The She Squatchers still had a table there day two and were talking to people. A lot of their belief seems to come from the idea that everything has a frequency to it and that they are attuned to the BF frequency. As noted above they also believe that BF is attuned more to female interactions and no firearms in the woods. The Squatch Watchers were supposed to start at 11am. I believe it was about 11:25 when they finally got started with their "presentation". I use quotes because, as they said, they had no script, no video clips, nada prepared in advance. It seemed their hope was to get the audience talking about their own experiences, which fell fairly flat. So, they finally talked about some of their stuff which was meh and sprinkled with lots of "you can see this on our YouTube". They seemed to be highly against any sort of debunking and convinced that no creature in North Carolina with sharp claws can open a pickle jar (spoiler alert, black bears are more than capable of doing so). They devolved into talking about their latest gadget, a spirit box, with the belief that it allows them to communicate with Bigfoot and that one of them is also attuned to the BF frequency that the She Squatchers are into. And there was something about a UFO. I got up to stretch my legs (had sat through an hour of their presentation) and had the hope that they would stick to the schedule and let Zach make his presentation. Came back about 10min later and the Watchers were still at it with their presentation now sounding more like a church revival meeting talking about how if you go BF hunting without having a relationship with God that you are running the serious risk of getting fucked up. Yeah..at that point I gave up on the conference and heeded the call of a brewery I knew down the road with a pretty decent blonde ale. I think Saturday would have been more interesting....I also think it would have been murder to park. TLDR: 2nd day of this conference was boring and heavily into the paranormal woo side of Bigfoot. It wasn't well structured, ran late, and otherwise didn't feel well run. If you were a skeptic to start this conference would do nothing to sway you to believe in BF nor would it add any sort of validity to the efforts of researchers.

So prove it.

Benefits of hiking poles: Over long distances, impact on knees/joints reduced. Push through thorny brush/spider webs. Detect depth of water/cross slippery streams (ankles & feet important). Hold down/up wire, branches, etc. Good for back, abs, arms. #1 Scare away bears, cougars, etc. by clanging loudly. H/T to Matt M.

Sorry to go somewhat off topic. I don't have poles, but if I was going off trail I would. I imagine there are lots of aluminum kinds. I remember Matt M talking and tweeting about the values of poles. There was one tweet of him in some rugged PNW type terrain walking on down trees, using them to test possible rotted areas. He said it would prevent one falling into a cave formed by ancient trees/logs, etc., possibly unable to climb out and ask how he knows! Anyway, it makes sense to me, yeah multi-use is always good.