Leaderboard

I do a lot of off-road, Into The Middle of Nowhere, solo vehicle camping. Mostly in either the Cascades or the Olympics, both of which are in Washington state. Over the years I have learned a few safety tips. If you camp at the end of a dead end Forest Service spur or the like, put your vehicle parked facing back the way you came. This is so if anyone happens along, especially at night, you can put the lights on them. Never park sideways or facing AWAY from the approach to your site. Put the lights toward the direction of any possible human threat, or any stranger driving up on you. Get powerful flashlights and the smaller tactical ones and keep a few around at all times. HINT: If you are camped WAY out in the middle of nowhere and someone comes along in a vehicle at 2 in the morning, they may not be dangerous, but they might be drunk. Most people don't cruise Forest Service roads that far out from the main road that late at night. Most people will already be camped somewhere. It doesn't always happen that way, but if you are camped say...15 miles from the main highway at the end of some spur road...you should be cautious about anyone approaching in a vehicle after dark. The Forest rangers generally don't go out at night that far off the main road without a good reason. Mostly they are daytime folks. Mostly... Consider adding a couple of off-road lights to your vehicle. I have this old Nissan truck and too many lights. But I feel safer and if anyone comes up on me out there, I will definitely switch them on if they approach after dark. People suggest guns here and there. Sure, I have a few. But at night I will always reach for the 12 gauge first. Believe it or not, it scares the bad people a lot more than almost any pistol. Especially when you snap a shell in there at night. People hear it, they know what it means. I attached a picture of the truck I take into the wilderness. Upgraded front lighting with a couple of Hella off road lights. Combine that with a good flashlight and you will be able to see them before they see you. If people come up on your site and they are legit and harmless, they generally stop some distance off and announce themselves politely. Watch out they aren't drunk. No big deal, but I am old as dirt and have been going into the hills since well...the 70's. Never had a problem except once, but that's a different story for later.

It's been a few weeks since I've been out in the field. Relatives visiting, and staying, and the weather has been so wet this past month I can't remember a year quite like it. Creeks are flowing and ponds filled to the brink. It was overcast today and I spend most of the day poking around water and looking for prints. There was a small print, with toes, but not sure what it was. I placed a trail cam near where a pond below fed out to a creek. We'll see what, if anything, it produces. If you look at the pictures below, you can see that 10' inside the treeline it is dark and another world altogether.

That is the troubling part for me as well and one that I can't reconcile.

To get to the other side?

In the lower 48, sometimes your main danger isn't the wildlife, but humans. Here in WA state I have found discarded propane tanks, clear hose, beakers and other glassware etc...all the usual makings of a Breaking Bad operation out in the woods...at the end of little-used Forest Service roads. Now these folks are seriously dangerous because you can go to jail for many years for making that stuff, and the operators might just shoot first and forget the questions entirely. If you pull up on something like that, you should just turn around right away and leave with haste. But there are other practical things that are more useful and you would probably need more than worrying about bears or meth makers. I always carry any spare belts I replaced, the old ones, and a good tool kit. Two spare tires is a good idea, along with a tire plug kit and a pump. I went out in the hills above Naches, WA once and found out it WAS possible to get two flat tires on the same trip. Using the plug kit on the second flat, I still had to shove a bolt into the hole on the tire (pretty big hole) and made it back to civilization. Slowly. Recently, I picked up the item shown below and an Amazon return 50 watt solar panel and ditched the little gas generator I was using previously. I gave it a five star video review at Amazon. This one even beats the Jackery portable power units. It uses not just a lithium battery, but the LI-PO 4 battery, which will take many more charges than straight lithium and is far less dangerous. But it is a heavier unit due to the lithium iron phosphate battery. However, this unit comes with a nice little zipper case that includes the charging connectors for wall power, cigarette lighter, AND solar panel. It also comes with a built-in MPPT solar controller, if you can believe that. So you can plug a solar panel of any type right into the thing and it will stop charging automatically when it's full up. I personally recommend this 300-watt hour unit. Last trip I took was a group campout north of Rainier and the group generator stopped putting out power. Still, I was able to run a Samsung 32" TV and a small DVD player from this box and watch two complete movies...ran it down only to 40%. That's pretty good. LI-PO 4 battery will also give you full power right up (almost) to the point where you need to recharge. Some units get fading power and the cheapies that use a bunch of strung-together 18650 flashlight batteries aren't worth your time. You get one or two bad batteries in that series and the entire unit works much less. Here is the link to the unit at Amazon. Currently it is 265 with a 50 buck off coupon. You will never be sorry with this one. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08GPL38M3/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o09_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Basically a matter of national location. "Sasquatch" is an attempt to say the native Chehalis (S'Tailis) word in English, and was first published in a McLeans Magazine article written by J.W Burns in 1927, a teacher and Indian Agent on the Chehalis Reserve in B.C., Canada, and is therefore the usual term used in western Canada. The name Bigfoot was coined by a newspaper reporter in a story about the tracks found in N.California in the '50s, and has become the common term used in the US of A.

My dog is terrified of thunder, but apparently loves loud metal music. While I was cranking a Steely Dan (on topic?) metal cover from Leo Moracchioli and Mary Spender yesterday, and my old hound dog came downstairs to relax on the comforter I have set up behind me. (the beagle will have none of that. This picture was taken during a quiet morning)

Put on some Steely Dan. He'll thank you!

I wouldn't state that as a universal truth ... I don't find this to be true. Quite the opposite: as a researcher, I start with what amounts to an anecdote (report) and do the research to find the evidence. Expecting that to be provided for me is putting the cart in front of the horse. MIB

While this question wasn't addressed to me, it's important to me to address it. I would consider such a string of reports as very strong even if not accompanied by castable footprints, pics, hair samples, etc. The reports outline an excellent area, season, and tine to hang out in to possibly enjoy a sighting.

My God! You actually believe that, don't you! I would ask for your source material, but you would probably just come back with' "Just do the research and find out for yourself!" And don't tell me you formed a belief in Sasquatch artwork such as, 'braiding'(?) by just looking at pictures! You should not say something like, "They have a very strong family hierarchy, bury their dead,regional boundaries, and hunting parties..unless you state your source for this information! Or, am I just supposed to believe this as gospel?