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I had vertigo for a year and a half. Two artificial discs in my neck later I’m not perfect but I am better. If this had never happened to me? I would still be in the mountains packing. Boot hunters call you when they have a big elk or moose down two ridges over. You are the apex predator of the woods if you have horses or mules. Mountain man. I miss it very much. So I’m now a yuppie on a ebike. I can still crash but it’s alot lower to the ground and it’s 100 percent my fault.🤣 Mules are hardier, more longevity, more sure footed, less prone to colic, less prone to blow up…. they also don’t forget, more stubborn and often times cost more. But I packed a Molly mule til she was 25 years old. Most horses are not doing that. She packed her last Elk out of the Selkirks 5 years before her death. I put her down. She could no longer follow the other mules up my mountain. I wept like a baby. I sold my last batch of mules two years ago and got out. If I was you I would go buy a riding mule from a outfitter in its teens. Long in tooth for outfitter work. But plenty of life left in it for recreational stuff. That mule will teach you volumes. I bought my first two in my early 20’s from the Busted Ass Ranch sale in Arlee, MT. Two mules and one decker pack saddle. It was Bennies own pack saddle. They auctioned off the mule, pulled his saddle and started bidding on it. It was a Ray Holes pack saddle with manganese bars. I had to have it. Bought it for 350 dollars.🤣 Paid like 1700 bucks for the mules. Everyone said I was crazy! Now? Everything is ridiculously priced. I don’t know where to go now to get good stock. I will poke around for you!

If you follow Matt Moneymaker's posts in the BFRO Facebook page for the past 2 years, he has been pushing aggressively on the use of drones for BF research and been sharing information on new units and techniques available. I was wondering why he was so enthused about drones since they have not yielded much fruitful information to date. Nonetheless, I think he truly believes that drones are a game changer in BF research. But 5 days ago (Feb. 2, 2023), in the BFRO Facebook page he disclosed that he wanted to start a new TV show to replace Finding Bigfoot that will be called Drone Squatchers. The new show would be all about using drones to find BF, and then a team on the ground to pursue the BF. The Facebook page link is: https://www.facebook.com/groups/62529530168/user/509704915 He also provided a link with a demo video of what the show would look like, using drone video from an Ohio BFRO expedition last year. https://dronesquatchers.com/?fbclid=IwAR1ymHip6hL6h6vXo6cmMGRMGscu9ZXnmq1uyRAiNMp0mt5Gu_5wZyX4UOA I was taken aback by MM desire and effort to start a new TV show, instead of actually spending his energy and time using the drones and techniques in the field. Granted, he has been doing some field research with drones (and Robert Evans, the drone expert who was recently interviewed by Cliff Barackman, has been helping him) in Ohio, CA and probably other states. Nonetheless, what is MM true objective? To make money on another TV show or to detect and video record BF with a drone? He probably answers that he wants to do both. But doing non commercial and private field work using drones is very different than doing a TV show in the field. I am skeptical on the main objectives of the TV show, but it is a free country and people are free to pursue their hobbies as they see fit. MM plan is that if they see a BF with a drone, then they will send a BFRO team that is already on the ground to look for it (or for whatever evidence it left on the ground). This team will be directed by GPS coordinates (provided by the drone). I am aware of a team in WA who got to see a juvenile BF with the drone close to camp (but drone user was a novice and forgot to video record) and other field team members were able to see the BF on the ground running away (daytime). Thus, the technique could work. However, going back to Hiflier's original question, then what? You might be able to get a drone video of BF and confirm its presence with other eyewitnesses but the evidence bar will not move at all for science. If the original objective for a researcher is to see a BF close to camp, then the better option is still to stay in camp and let them get close to you and not to pursue them with drones. If you have a thermal imager at camp, then you might get lucky if you could capture them in video.

.and then what? And so on and so on. After spotting a possible target from the air, going to that spot to search for tracks, DNA, a body, or whatever else floats your boat. It's a step in the process; a tool.

I’ve shot more deer and elk because I was watching my horse or mules ears than I ever did with boots on the ground.

Quality postings, Norse. I always appreciate learning skills just paying attention to your postings.

Here is a auction house with some good lookin mules in Wyoming. https://www.saddlemule.com/mules4sale-detail.php?Chrome-644 Mules have a small hard hoof. Much smaller than a horse of comparative size. They don’t do well in a bog. But in Rocky country they are superb. They can wedge that foot into stuff a horse is gonna skate on,

I didn't grow up with horses (though I did ride a few times as a kid), but my wife had a Morgan/QH gelding when we got together 13 years ago. I've always loved them, and the idea of them, so I'm getting into it at a later age. Not necessarily higher maintenance than EV's and ICE modes of transport, but they definitely have different needs. It's a lifestyle, which I'm sure you know well. My mare's colt is 16 months now, and is very receptive to training, so we'll be looking forward to riding him down the road. Don't see much for mules up here, but I'm interested to learn more about them.

The 'Falcon Project' revisited. They are born every minute. Total flight time is generally about 30 minutes. Flight time decreases with heavier payloads. What parts of a 24 hour day would one pursue a maximum 30 minute window of flight time above the forest canopy?

This migration thing should be simple. Obviously, areas which are harsher in weather are less likely to be ape country. There are many factors to consider but just food alone is a factor. If Bigfoot eats plants as part of the diet (and who knows) many plants do not grow in the winter. We tend to attribute what we think Bigfoot might eat and so on. We have no idea. We can make an educated guess based on what known same or similar animals might eat. The best concept is summed up best in the movie Silence of the Lambs: Hannibal Lecter: First principles, Clarice. Simplicity. Read Marcus Aurelius. Of each particular thing ask: what is it in itself? What is its nature? What does he do, this man you seek? Bigfoot's nature would be that of most advanced primates. It would need the typical survival instinct stuff. This would be warmth, food, shelter, drive to reproduce, and so on. You don't do much if you starve to death. This means food alone should be a driving consideration. Bigfoot would require a lot of food. Less than a whale and more than a mouse. One Bigfoot show had the scientist lady say [as she walked in the woods] state, "This is a vast wasteland" referring to the woods and food supply. Her point seemed a bit of a stretch as she was in a mild temp PNW forest which seemed plentiful to me. But she did make a great point how a large-brained animal would require a lot of calories to meet daily energy needs. Now put those woods in a winter climate with cold and snow and her point carries more weight. What are Bigfoot's needs and nature? When we can correctly guess that it can tell us what profile we could create. Until then, we will have Bobo on TV saying, "It's a Squatch" to every random twig snap and leave us all guessing about Bigfoot's needs. Just like a criminal profiler, you have to know him to catch him. This takes an accurate profile based on the facts the best we can know them. My feeling is Bigfoot could exist in Traditional Bigfoot Country. That would be the more temperate forest of the PNW. I am surprised should bigfoot eat fish we don't see more reports of Bigfoot by a stream catching salmon the way we see hours of footage of bears doing this.

MM plan to locate BF with a drone then follow it with humans on the ground is nuts. I figure a moving BF is capable of moving at least twice as fast as a human over the same terraine. The more difficult the terraine the bigger the difference in potential rates of travel between human and BF. Of course Moneymaker figures all he has to do is a few calls and they come running to him. To repeat my experience with my own airplane, I have put a lot of hours into looking for BF from the air. Flying low gives you a closer look but you are so busy avoiding hitting the ground you do not have a lot of time to look. The one time I did see something, I was probably about 200 feet away, saw a upright brown figure move behind some trees to hide,; I immediately turned to circle, and never saw it again. I cannot even be sure it was not a human in camo. Some game poacher would likely hide too. Drone operators are going to have the same issues.

Game animals definitely react differently when you're on a horse. I was riding a section of the old HBC trade trail through the mountains NW of Princeton, BC, on a sidehill section when my rented mount turned her head slightly to the left, the uphill side of the trail, and as I followed her gaze, I was looking right into the face of a doe, bedded at the base of a pine, about 12' off the trail, at my eye level. I doubt I would have come anywhere near that close on foot.

Old Action Jackson would vouch for the nostril flaring of his horse during a Sasquatch encounter too!