Need Help In Central Texas.........

[Bigtex]

Here are a coupe of interesting print pictures. I saw both of these Thursday evening while hiking in a remote area, and on one of the main creeks used to get in and out of town stealthfully. The creek was about one week dry when I went through there Thursday, as were the prints, and had been made when there was water in the creek. With the sticky-tacky mud, they will form nicely, even under water. They looked pretty good then dry, but my camera had no juice. It rained Friday night, hiked again Saturday evening, and the prints were under about half inch of water. The rain had 'freshioned' the prints just a bit, and they had fairly good outline & depth. One was a larger print, and the other smaller. There were several of both visible heading towards town, and these pics came out the best. 

[Bigtex]

I was up late watching a few Finding Bigfoot episodes the other night on my DVR. I had posted these picks before on another thread, but wanted to see what you guys who follow this thread think.

 

The crew had one of the better thermal images I had seen on the series, and the subject appeared to be up in a tree hiding behind it. Renee & Cliff went to investigate the location, and Renee can be seen in the photo on her walkie-talkie reporting back that nothing is there. I could barely see what appeared to be eye blink, then look away, but was able to freeze the frame, and took a picture with my cell phone of the TV. Whatever made this eye shine appeared to be hiding in some brush behind Renee. The height looks to be a bit taller than Renee, with eyes the right distance apart........did anyone else notice this?

[David NC]

Bigtex . A good thing to wash off skunk spray is warm water and baking soda, followed by warm water with a little apple cider vinegar to neutralize the heavy base that baking soda can cause. should leave the dog hair at around normal ph. you can follow it then with tomato juice if the first wash does not get it all but just rinse the tomato juice off really well because it is an acid as well. the baking soda and water followed by cider vinegar and water has worked good on our huskys , sometimes we have to do this twice when they get a full frontal at point blank range lol.

I wanted to ask you if you ever tried putting the sticks you find in your path parallel with the trail and see if they end up back across the trail at a later date?

[Guest WesT]

Hi BigTex, I noted a trail blocked with pine branches this spring. The trail is rather wide and leads to a very bizarre structure. I also noted the branches were ripped, not sawed, from the parent tree. If I didn't know any better, I'd say it was put there to discourage pink bi-pedal monkeys from snooping around it's handi-work. So that may be the intent, to discourage you from venturing any further and finding something.

 

 

[Bigtex]

Thanks David NC for the skunk tip! I ended up using 'Simple Green', sprayed it on good, and rubba-dub........wolfy just has too many layers of thick fur, and is pretty much impossible to bath that animal. It is amazing how clean she keeps herself though, and never has that stinky dog smell. However, there is something very wild smelling about her, not a bad smell, but definitely a wild animal scent. The smell seems to really upset other dogs & animals when they first meet her, like they know she's got a wild side.

 

Hey WesT, interesting picture.......did you get a picture of the bizarre structure? Please post if you did:)

 

Here's an old picture, and was posted in the old Forum, I looked and didn't see it here on the new site. Anyway, here's the story, and was approximately 10 years ago.....one of my buddies and wife was down for a visit, fellow Bigfooter Craig Woolheater, and we went to a place where I had been finding some unusual animal kills. We were walking in a wooded area along Lake Travis (aka Colorado River), and came across a grisly scene. There was the head of a Deer, and this leg bone, both were just hours fresh, The rest of this poor fellow was nowhere in site, and we looked for it. The head totally creeped us out, and let me describe; the head was ripped off the body, it was totally de-fleshed, the eyes were missing, the jaw was pulled down beyond 90 degrees & broken with the tongue missing, and the nose was bitten off with the imprints of huge molar teeth.......it just made the hair stand on end looking at it. I collected the leg bone, but the head was too knarly, and decided I would come back for it later with a plastic bag, but was gone the next morning. Craig took pictures, but I never got any copies.

 

A few days later, I took this picture of the leg bone. After careful inspection by myself and others with magnification, we couldn't find any teeth marks, as the leg bone was broken by 'hand', the skin peeled back like a banana, and the marrow sucked out. The was the best single bit of evidence I have ever found that I would attribute to a BF kill.  

[Guest WesT]

No problem BigTex. When the pic was taken it had already been abandoned, partially disassembled, and in a state of degredation. The pic shows an estimated 1/4 of it's original construct.

 

 

Here's a pic of it a few months later. You can see the path (that is blocked on the other end) to the right.

 

Edited July 30, 2013 by WesT

[Bigtex]

Very interesting Wes........I posted these picks a while back, but worth a re-post because it is quite similar to what you found - a make-shift hunting blind set up on/near a large animal game trail, would be my guess.

[Guest WesT]

Yeah, it's a hunting blind alright. The game trail passes between the tree bow and the structure.

 

Yours looks of a similar design. Interesting, since yours is in Texas and mine is in Virginia. Were you ever able to determine how it operated?

[Bigtex]

In both of my pictures, the main trail is just to the left in the photos, and a major creek is just another 50 yards......so it's got animal traffic. Judging by the size, tracks, and clearances, it is used by Deer frequently. The side facing the trail has much more material pilled up than the backside, and is probably by design for easy access. They just hang there in ambush mode, and wait for something to come by would be my guess.

[Guest WesT]

You mentioned clearances. When you examined these clearances, did they appear to possibly be of artificial construction?

[Bigtex]

Hey Wes......I mention clearances pertaining to the animal game trails, and the height of the animals using them. Some have very low clearances, and used by smaller animals, and the higher clearances, used by Deer, Hog, and other types of larger game. There are a few trails in my area with very high clearances, with many being old settler & Indian trails. Of course, my main trails I keep the clearances just over my head. Interestingly, I have had to do lots of trimming the last few years as the drought conditions have taken hold - all of the trees are suffering, and the limbs have drooped considerably due to lack of rain.    

[Guest WesT]

Hey Bigtex, I didn't want to lead you in my last question. But in retrospect, I should have just shown you what I was asking about when refering to clearances.

 

 

This is a clearance, the game trail has, that leads to the bizarre structure. I pondered it's function, and pondered if it even had a function in the scheme of things. But I finally settled that, if it did have a function, it was a size filter. I was wondering if you might have seen something similar.

 

One more thing BigTex,  it may prompt more game hunting activity there since the vegetation is stressed due to the lack of rain.

[Bigtex]

Took 2 weeks off from the hiking and woods, it's too dang hot......it's always hot in central Texas this time of year, but just seems more intense than normal. Took a quick trip down to the creek, and found this excellent battle ax head, you could definitely crack a few noggins with this thing.

Edited August 11, 2013 by Bigtex

[Guest Cervelo]

How big is that? ....with that flat side almost looks like a butchering tool.

[Guest Rex]

How big is that? ....with that flat side almost looks like a butchering tool.

 

 

It is... it is a scraper for fleshing hides.