Do Bigfoots Like To Play Jokes On Us?

[Branco]

A few years ago several of us arranged with Mark Green and Keith Tyler in Talladega County Alabama to spend three days and two nights on their hunting group’s large lease in the mountains just a few miles NW of Sylacauga.  I pulled my small camper to the lease on Thursday, and Keith led me to the selected camp site. The rest of the group arrived on Friday.

The site was near the base of a mountain, and it adjoined an old, abandoned open- pit rock quarry which was now a small lake, ringed by large trees and brush. When the rock was being removed, the quarriers left a section of the bedrock intact to form a dam on the down-slope side of the mountain. The spillway of the dam had been sloped and trenched slightly by machinery. There was a thin flow of water over the dam. There was a cleared camp site on each side of the spillway.

The better camp site was on the south side of the spillway. A good sized area had been leveled a little, and had been covered with crushed rock. The area was large enough for a few tents or small RV’s. The far side of that area was lined with trees, and there was a steep, tree covered drop-off into a small creek along that side. That creek itself looked like a small swamp, as the beaver had dammed it not far downstream.

I chose to set up my camper a few feet from the drop-off with the door and awning facing the dam, spillway and the campsite on the other side of them.  After placing and leveling it, I walked around it and noticed a well worn trail down the steep incline to the creek. Since the camp sites were often used by hunting club members and their families, I didn’t give it much more thought. (I had looked closely at the trail at first, but saw no tracks of any kind.) During the walk-around, I noticed that the ends of two limbs on a sweet gum tree were close to the back corner of the camper. I realized the limbs would brush against the camper if there was any wind at all, so I used a machete to cut them off at the tree truck and threw them down the slope and off to the side of the trail.    

 After setting up my gear, I cooked a good meal and ate. Mark and Keith drove down and we talked a good while. After they left I sat outside for about an hour listening to the owls in the creek bottom and to the coyotes up on the mountains. I was dead tired from the long drive and the work of setting up my camp, so I went inside, hit the bed and was out like a cheap light bulb.

About 2:00 I had to get up and go outside. It was a clear, still night and I could not hear a sound of any kind, I went back to bed and zonked out again. An hour or so before day break, I awoke to the sounds of something loudly scraping against the upper part of my camper. Still half asleep I thought, “Dang it, I knew I should have cut off those sweet gum limbs!” When my sleepy brain remembered that I HAD cut off those limbs, I became fully alert. I sat upright, slipped on my boots, and reached for a flash light. Then I clearly heard the sounds of fast bipedal footstep in the rocks beside the camper that were moving quickly past the hitch end, and going parallel to the dam’s overflow channel that entered the heavily wooded creek bottoms. By the time I got outside with the flash light I saw nothing moving, saw no eye shine and heard nothing moving in the creek bottoms. I stood listening for some time, and then sat outside in a camp chair a little while. Not a sound, so I went back to the bed and slept until dawn.

I fixed my breakfast, ate and put on my hiking clothes and gear. About mid-morning some of the other began to arrive as Keith led them to the site. After the meeting and greetings, three of the folks and I began hiking along a creek hollow a mile or so from the camps. Beautiful country and we were able to follow an old road alongside the creek. At one location, I saw what appeared to be an overhang cave on the side of a bluff. Two of us climbed the foot of the bluff and entered the cave. That’s where if found the two old ax handled I mentioned in an earlier post. We then returned to the camp site. By that time the rest of the folks had arrived.

Before dark everyone had eaten and all were sitting around a campfire socializing. The campfire was only a few yards from my trailer. After a few hours of listening, I told the group good night, and I went to bed. The weather was a little warm, and three windows were open on my camper. The volume and tone of a fellow doing most of the talking was not conductive to sleeping, so I closed the windows on the rear and side nearest the orator.

I need to describe my camper. It is simply a six feet by 12 feet commercial trailer that I had custom built. It is tough and has good ground clearance. I had the factory to insulate it and panel the inside walls.   The roof is galvanized metal and the exterior is painted metal over metal wall framing.

After sun down, the temperature dropped noticeably. In a short time the metal on some part of the camper contracted and made a loud pop. (I was used to hearing that, and paid no attention to it.) Someone at the camp fire spoke loudly to tell me that a rock had hit my camper. I opened the window and told them what had made the noise. Some insisted the camper had been hit by a rock, but I told them to forget about it and I would check the next morning.

The next morning I got up and made a big pot of coffee. Some of the others came over to share the coffee.  One of them asked if I had checked to see if a rock had hit the camper, and when I told him I had not, he and Mike McLain (a good and honorable man and close friend who passed away just a few years later) walked around the camper but found no evidence of damage. One of them mentioned that the rock might have hit on the roof and wanted to borrow the short ladder that I used to put up the awning. Of course, I told them that it was OK.

By that time some of the others were up and about and came over for coffee. In a few minutes Mike and the other person (which I think was Keith, but not certain of that) walked up to me, both with a strange look on their faces, and Mike said, “Mr. Tal, you need to come look at something.” A little puzzled, I followed them, as did the others, to the back side of the camper near the taillight end. They had the ladder leaning against the camper, and Mike suggested I climb up and look on the roof. When I did, I saw a large rock on roof, about two feet from the back side.  I looked a few seconds, laughed, called them both “jerks” and started back down. Mike put his hand on my boots and said, “Wait Mr. Tal, we really didn’t do that!” Mike then turned to the others who were standing around listening, and asked if any of them had put a rock on top of my trailer. All of them said no they had not, and someone said, “We told last night a rock hit his trailer.”

I had told them about the scraping noise I had heard early Friday morning, but was convinced whatever made the noise just brushing the side of the trailer in walking past it.  Suddenly, the hair on my neck seemed to stand up. I went back up the ladder, leaned over to look closely. When I did, I know the hair on my neck and arms stood up because I saw that the rock (which actually weighs nine and one half pounds) had been set down and pushed across the roof about one foot. During that movement, the weight of the rock and its rough surface cut straight-line gouges through the galvanized coating and exposed the subsurface metal. That part of the roof was about seven and one half foot off the ground.

I asked Mike to get his camera and photograph the rock and the abraded galvanized coating before anyone else went up to look at the situation. Mike did that, and later posted the photos on the Alabama Bigfoot web site.

[Gotta Know]

Thanks, Tal. That was indeed a story worth waiting for! Pretty impressive (and spooky) that the big fella would place and push the big rock with all your guests nearby. Practical joke or warning? All in the interpretation, I suppose. Good stuff!

[Branco]

2 hours ago, Gotta Know said:

Thanks, Tal. That was indeed a story worth waiting for! Pretty impressive (and spooky) that the big fella would place and push the big rock with all your guests nearby. Practical joke or warning? All in the interpretation, I suppose. Good stuff!

 

No, no! That was Thursday night (actually early Friday morning) when I heard the scrapping noise on the upper part of the trailer. There was no one there but me It was the next night when the metal popped and the others thought something had hit my camper with a rock. The guys found the rock Saturday morning.   

[Gotta Know]

Ahh. Got it. I think I read into it that the sound of the expanding metal roof HAD in fact been the sound of the rock being placed. Thanks for the clarification.

 

 

[Twist]

I read it the same way originally Gk, but then after reading his response and the story again it made sense.  

 

I know you name names in your post Branco but I am not familiar with them, are they notorious people in the field of "BF" ?

 

Did you meet these people to camp with the common interest of researching BF ?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 7, 2016 by Twist

[Branco]

Twist: When I first started doing field work in AL, several men and women in Clarke County became very interested in that work and became members of the research group I had started in Arkansas; The RFP Research Project. Mike McLain and his wife were some of the first in that county to do so. Mike wanted to start a web site if I would allow him to post my field investigation reports on it. I agreed, and he created the Alabama Bigfoot web site. The site became popular in AL and many residents from all over the state began contacting Mike about their encounters with the Boogers. Mike would then call or e-mail me their reports and contact information. The next time I was in the state - and I was there very often doing work for attorneys - I would arrange to meet as many of the witnesses as possible at their encounter locations.  

 

Although both Mark Green and Keith Tyler live in Talladega County, Mark had experienced a visual encounter while hunting in Lowndes County. After receiving his report, he, Keith and I agreed to meet at the Southern Sportsman Hunting Lodge which was not far from his encounter site inside a State WMA. We drove, then walked into that area. We didn't see a Bigfoot that day, but we saw very clear evidence that there were Bigfoot foraging in the area.

 

Mark and Kieth told me about very interesting Bigfoot activities, vocalizations and encounters on their hunting club's lease, and asked that I spend some time on the lease with them. I made several trips to the lease before the "rock on top of trailer" event. I wrote several field reports from the lease, which were published on MIke's web site. In addition, Mark and Keith wrote some of their own which were also published. 

 

When writing the book this year, I conferred with many of the witnesses directly involved in the Alabama reports that were being included. My objective was to ask what pseudonym they wished me to use for their real names. Several of them, including Mark and Keith, asked that I just go ahead and use their real names, which I did. Although I was totally unaware of it at the time, Mark told me the producers of the Finding Bigfoot TV series had previously called him - after the field reports on Mike's web had been published - to get the hunted club's permission to film one of their shows from the lease, and the club approved it. That show was reportedly aired, but I have not seen it. In addition, Mark told me he had been on one of the internet's Bigfoot talk shows, and used his real name for the interview.

 

Mark nor Keith are not "notorious" in the way most people use and understand the meaning of that word - and as the dictionary defines it. Both are very knowledgeable woodsmen who have had several personal experiences with Bigfoot. They are straight shooting, no nonsense kind of very intelligent country folks. 

 

Yes, all the people there to try to hear, see and discuss Bigfoot. Only about five were actually members of  my project, and the others were members of Mike's web forum. 

 

[Twist]

Thanks for the reply.  Must be nice to have access to property with activity.  I'm jealous.

 

How often do you get to camp out there?

 

By notorious I meant known in the community, not questioning their character in any way.

 

Thanks again, look forward to any more encounters you share.

 

[BobbyO]

I very much doubt they play jokes on people.

 

It strikes me that humour is only really a human concept and not one overly seen in the animal kingdom and when we think it is, it's normally anthropomorphism.

 

Id imagine that Sasquatch have more pressing issues to think about other than playing jokes on humans, like food.

[Branco]

13 hours ago, BobbyO said:

I very much doubt they play jokes on people.

 

It strikes me that humour is only really a human concept and not one overly seen in the animal kingdom and when we think it is, it's normally anthropomorphism.

 

Id imagine that Sasquatch have more pressing issues to think about other than playing jokes on humans, like food.

Well, Bobby; there is not a doubt in my mind, or in the minds of hundreds of other people that I have met, Bigfoot does indeed prank with humans. It is NOT only Bigfoot that does that. Nearly all typical domestic animals in the South - except swine - are known to prank with humans, dogs and horses being the most obvious and repetitive. 

 

The larger wild and domesticated primates are noted for their propensity in playing pranks on other animals as well as those of their kind. South American monkeys - wild and those kept as pets - are notorious for playing pranks on humans. If their pranks are directed at some human that has offended them, the pranks can be pretty nasty or even dangerous. 

 

The humor in a particular prank is usually only appreciated by the entity that initiated it.

 

Bigfoot may work the night shift to obtain the "bread and butter" for he and his family, but I expect he takes time out for fun and recreation just like we do. Since they don't have television, radio, or I-phones, we are no doubt their prime entertainment when we go into their back yard. They are very intelligent, have a language of their own and do not, for good reason, care to directly associate with us. From that standpoint, they may be the last hominid standing after we've wiped ourselves out.  

 

 

  

[BobbyO]

Not for me Branco, anthropomorphism is a real thing.

 

I may be wrong though, who knows.

[Branco]

8 hours ago, BobbyO said:

Not for me Branco, anthropomorphism is a real thing.

 

I may be wrong though, who knows.

Bobby, I sincerely respect you and any thoughts you have expressed on this forum. Without belaboring the point of this particular thread, I would like to ask you to consider if the following described events and decide if they may indicate anthropomorphous actions.

 

A little over fifty years ago I bought six acres of land that had been untouched for the previous forty years. It was was such a jungle that a person could not walk through it. I spent over a year clearing enough of it with an ax, brush hook and chainsaw to build our house. After the house was built, we moved onto the land, but only about 1/4 of it was cleared, but I continued to work to clear more.

 

Then a nephew who had enlisted in the Navy, asked that if he helped me, could we fence part of the land so that he could leave a beautiful red mare with us until he got out of service. I agreed, we fenced about three acres, he brought the mare over and left her, and he left for boot camp.

 

The mare was very docile, behaved well around kids and content in her new "digs". When I worked to clear more ground in the fenced area she followed me to my work area every morning and stayed so close that I continually had to slap her and make her leave when I was using the work tools. Even the chainsaw motor running would not cause her to leave. It got to the point that while I was working, she would slip up behind me and suddenly place her nose against my back and lift her head, pushing me forward. Sometimes I would loose my balance.

 

She became so pesky, I had to cut a long switch and keep it handy. I would swat her with it when she got too close, and shout for her to "Get out'a here". She obviously did not like to be ignored or chastised for messing with me. Very soon after I started using that long mulberry switch, I was working in a small creek bed, with the switch leaning against a tree behind me. I heard the clicking of her feet on the rocks in the creek, I turned to see her ****** the long switch in her mouth, and wheeled around and ran with it at top speed. She stopped about 50 yards away, and was throwing her head up and down while nickering loudly. When I started toward her she galloped off, with the switch in her mouth. I had to laugh, and went back to work. (I found the switch later; it was chewed and broken.)

 

While using the chain saw two days in a row, she slipped in and picked up my ax by the handle and walked off with it. Both times she dropped it in the cleared area about 20 yards away. Both days, she stood over the ax, shaking her head and nickering to get my attention.

 

I had begun to become amused at her antics until one cold morning she really made me angry. I had just bought a new hunting coat with a game pouch and elastic shotgun shell holders. I worked in the coat in the cold morning hours, but took it off about mid day and hung it over one of the barbed wire fence's "T" posts. While I was throwing cut brush on the burn pile, she slipped in behind me, grabbed the coat's collar and pulled the coat off the "T", ripping the seam apart between the collar and one sleeve by that action. I threw a cursing fit, and chased her, throwing anything I could find at her until she dropped the coat,. 

 

About and hour later I saw her walking so slowly toward me with her head down so low that thought she was hurt or sick. I watched her as she plodded to within a few feet of me. I walked to her to check her feet and legs, raising each of the ground for inspection. After I did, and saw no injury, she raised her head and looked directly at my face, then nodded her head a few times. That was what she always did when she wanted anyone to pet her or rub her head. To me, it seemed she was - in a horse's way, apologizing. I reacted to her tearing my coat in such a angry fashion, she realized she had gone over the line. I patted her and rubbed her neck, and she became her typical perky self. Although she would follow and hang around me while I was working, she quit her "horse playing" after the "coat" incident.

 

[Incorrigible1]

That is an amazing account, Branco. Thank you for giving me food for thought, today.

[Guest Cryptic Megafauna]

Anthropomorphism is not a necessary intellectual exercise when thinking about a Sasquatch like animal/person (you decide).

As out closest relative it's behaviors would be largely withing the realm of human expression.

Think about a Chimp or Orangutan which would be less closely related by many millions of years. the kiss, hold hands, have a sense of humor, and have the same drives and instincts. They can also process language in the same way we would.

The difference is in level of complexity, social culture, language complexity.

So a difference of type but not a difference of kind.

We are all great apes and primates so get used to your new family.

They are not human but "we" are not different.

A chimp is 99% of our DNA so I guess Sasquatch could be 99.5-99.8%

[Branco]

CM: Bigfoot in a nut shell. Thanks.

[JKH]

22 hours ago, Branco said:

Bigfoot may work the night shift to obtain the "bread and butter" for he and his family, but I expect he takes time out for fun and recreation just like we do. Since they don't have television, radio, or I-phones, we are no doubt their prime entertainment when we go into their back yard. They are very intelligent, have a language of their own and do not, for good reason, care to directly associate with us. From that standpoint, they may be the last hominid standing after we've wiped ourselves out. 

Plussed.

 

Although it's true that most of the time they prefer to avoid us, often enough they appear to unnecessarily draw attention to their presence with these little and big pranks. Makes a person wonder, for sure.