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I was sitting in my blind set up at the edge of the forest in the shores of a pond. Across the pond, 130 yards away, was my bear bait site. A small sow black bear had been hanging out for the past two days. She was at or near the bait as I sat reading. I was waiting for a grizzly. I caught movement out of the corner of my eye at the end of the pond @ 225 yards away. I looked up to see an absolutely gorgeous Toklat grizzly. I grabbed my binocs and started watching him. He was platinum blonde with chocolate color legs and @ 500-650 lbs. He was definitely the bear I was waiting fir. I watched him sniff around for a couple minutes. He popped out if the forest in the same spot as most of the other game showed up, which was clearly a popular game trail. I just knew he would follow the black bear's trail to the bait, so I just watched him. Then, suddenly, he stopped and looked up right at me. I didn't move. After a moment he went on sniffing around, then turned and walked away. I watched him fade away into the forest. The memory is still clear, and I certainly savor it, but I sure wish I had shot him at 225 yards. I'll probably never get another shot at a boar that beautiful again.

This is something i believe to be very underestimated by many as is the shock that so many would face with a first time sighting. Seeing one of these things for the first time would really affect many people, even ones that would think they would be more mentally prepared than others. Self confirmation of the existence of this animal via a sighting and the huge mental toll that it would take on someone is very real, especially if it isn't deemed to be on completely friendly terms or isn't in a situation where you feel completely safe.

The almost-always retreat issue along with fear of potential danger, uncertainty of what's happening, and shock from the moment would all combine to immobilize nearly everyone out in the forest. Only those waiting and ready for it would be able to calmly capture the moment. I'll add another factor that each of us has to wrestle with. What's the decision--savor every precise second and watch it carefully unfold or take your eyes off the prize in hopes of capturing it with your camera, recorder, or other device? I know my choice. I would listen to and watch it for a period of time and only reach for my device after having gotten the enrichment I've searched many years to find. The "moment" is almost always fleeting and I'd want to observe every breathtaking second. There is no promise that once you reach for your device, the sasquatch wouldn't have silently slipped away and vanished into the forest. You'd be left not having the evidence you sought nor having taken in the moment yourself. I think technology that is available to ordinary folks has been more of a hindrance rather than a better tool. An exception to this would be thermal imagers. Snoring used as bait is as good as any other technique people employ.

If you dig in to those sightings, i think you'll find none are for any real length of time and none are much more but a fleeting glimpse and/or obstructed. I don't think these things go through the length of time they have 'not existing' if posing for pictures and by that i obviously don't mean literally, but just in general, you don't get too many reports of them that give the opportunity for good pics. They do occur but they're not common, and appear only when they've made a pretty bad mistake which has led to exposure. Camoflauge > Retreat appear to be the go to for these things and one thing that i think that doesn't get anywhere near enough emphasised when we talk about researchers taking pics, unless the researcher who has the sighting has seen one before, the shock that would come of what would be conformation would outweigh the 'quick let me grab a camera' mentality all day, every day. Add in the mixer the thinking of potential danger and uncertainty of the situation and i think it's much more understandable why there are so few, if any, decent pics of these things, PGF aside.

When in doubt I return to the second book I ever read on the topic(#1being Mysterious Monsters, I think it was) John Green's On The Track of Sasquatch, which my folks first bought for me at the Seattle Science Center on a trip up the coast, then into B.C. and Alberta. So it was like "here's a book on hairy giants" right as we travel through the heart of its territory in a 25' mobile home, with me an impressionable 7-8 year old lad....

The Creature: Personal Experiences With Bigfoot- anonymous author/professor in southwestern Pennsylvania who went by the pen name Jan Clement. First print edition 1976. Author's notes and sketches were added into current revised editions.

I always have some Sasquatch book on go, usually one I'm re-reading for the fourth/fifth/sixth, etc., time. When I'm working on an indoor project or in the shop, I like to listen to the Bigfoot & Beyond podcast. So many great guests over the years. Rick Noll, Larry Lund, Michael Freeman, and Todd Prescott are a few of the better recent episodes.

Hope you’re OK. I like the old stuff. Leonard Nimoy, etc. I just found this one again.