daveedoe Posted February 23, 2015 Posted February 23, 2015 I heard a lot of gunfire yesterday too everywhere I stopped.
BC witness Posted February 24, 2015 Author Posted February 24, 2015 Jason C. just showed me the edited version of a short video of Thomas Steenburg that we taped on our last outing, and gunshots are heard in the background often during the talk. This is a fairly recent thing in this area of BC, and I'm sure it has to do with the huge population growth in this corner of the province, along with the loss of several large gun clubs/shooting ranges in the region, due of course to suburban expansion into the once rural land where the clubs were. The houses are built near shooting ranges, people move in, knowing the ranges are there, then complain to the local authorities that their peace and quiet are disturbed by gunshots. DUH!!! As SWWAS states above, any self respecting Squatch is long gone when the gong show starts up on the weekends. The only bear we saw that day was certainly making tracks for other parts when the noise started.
SWWASAS Posted February 24, 2015 BFF Patron Posted February 24, 2015 (edited) As a human I get very leery driving or walking past a group of humans shooting. I don't know them. I don't know how careful they are being or if they have been drinking. I carry probably $1500 of electronic gear and side arm when I am in the field. Certainly a group of armed humans is in the best position to take any of that away from me. While I don't know how much BF knows about guns, they have probably watched deer hunters enough to have some idea of what guns can do. Since I am nervous about that situation, I can well imagine BF would be too. We have a local gun range near here. The range has been there for a long time but people have built houses nearby. Well one couple has found several bullet holes in their house and lots of spent rounds in the yard. Then recently the woman got hit in the head with a ricochet round. It crazed her scalp and the wound was pretty superficial but could have been much worse. Now they want the range shut down. Edited February 24, 2015 by SWWASASQUATCHPROJECT
Guest Posted February 25, 2015 Posted February 25, 2015 The houses are built near shooting ranges, people move in, knowing the ranges are there, then complain to the local authorities that their peace and quiet are disturbed by gunshots. DUH!!! Yah, that stuff really grinds my gears, happens to motor racing venues, small airfields,even businesses that are ultimately useful to everyone like wrecking yards. (You ding a fender and want the only option available to be the dealer??? Even if you do buy it at the dealer it's the wrecker keeping him honest.) There should be a "It was here first" exception, but of course, if the neighbourhood house values double if it goes away, municipal tax revenues double with them, so they're gonna collude when they can. We have a local gun range near here. The range has been there for a long time but people have built houses nearby. Well one couple has found several bullet holes in their house and lots of spent rounds in the yard. Then recently the woman got hit in the head with a ricochet round. It crazed her scalp and the wound was pretty superficial but could have been much worse. Now they want the range shut down. Although that does sound like a pretty careless range.
SWWASAS Posted February 25, 2015 BFF Patron Posted February 25, 2015 Good example of that is the Denver Airport was built way out of town, and when it was built, there was nothing around it. Now there are industrial areas, housing developments, and hotels. All of which generate noise complaints about those noisy airplanes.
BC witness Posted March 1, 2015 Author Posted March 1, 2015 AAR for Feb 28th night op.We (Thomas S., Jason C., MagniAesir, myself) left Thomas' place in Mission at 1500, in my Trailblazer and Magni's Sierra, headed for our primary research area. We reached our pre-chosen base site, at the very end of a deactivated logging branch road, just before 1600, and set up our table, chairs, fire ring, and other gear (spotting scope, video cam, both on tripods), and spent the next 45 min or so collecting and cutting firewood, as the predicted low was 0C (32F).The site we chose was about 1/2km below the main access road, 100 m above the large creek that drains the valley. There is heavy 2nd growth timber, on a steep slope, between the site and the creek, and a recent clearcut of about 500m x 300m extending uphill above our position. As we set up, we could hear gunshots from 2 makeshift target ranges, each around a km away. By sunset (1820) the shooting quit, and in the next couple of hours, we could hear numerous trucks and ATVs departing the valley via the main road above us on the mountainside. While that was going on, we boiled a kettle for coffee, tea, and hot apple cider (my fav), and ate the the huge "log" sub that Magni's wife had sent along (thanks, Pauline), with nacho chips, followed with Tim Hortons doughnuts for desert, of course. The temp very quickly dropped from the pleasant 8C when we arrived, to the predicted 0C shortly after dark, so some time was spent in "layering up" to stay warm for the evening.As the 3/4 moon rose, it became quite bright out, as the sky was crystal clear, with a beautiful "moon dog" halo around our sattelite, and visibility was close to a km in the open, so our only NV scope didn't get used much, except to occasionally scan the forest at the edges of the clearcut. Jason and Thomas did a walk back along our entry route, while Magni and I kept the fire stoked, and scanned the area around the base. We heard a coyote chorus in the far distance at one point, and the occasional bark nearby. There were the usual branch cracks and bumps in the night, but nothing really noteworthy. When Jason and Thomas returned from their walk, we sat around the fire, and Jason set up the video, then Thomas did an interview with me as the subject, discussing my sighting, my son's sighting, and my trackway find, all of which occured in this same valley, about 35 years ago. We all carried on about the Sasquatch field in general, with the camera running, so there's probably 30 min of video that will appear on thomassteenburg.com as soon as Jason gets it all cleaned up and edited. By midnight, we were getting low on firewood, and tired, so we packed it up, and returned home to our warm beds.I had a couple of personal misadventures during the evening, but survived with everything but my dignity intact. The first occured while I was tending the fire; in stepping around the fire ring to grab a piece of wood, my foot slipped off an unseen branch on the ground, I stumbled, and fell sideways, landing right on the edge of the bed of coals. I managed to get out of there quickly, with a little shove from the others, and only burned a small area on the seat of my outer layer, my good camo pants. The second happened as we were loading up. As i approached the rear of my truck, with the liftgate raised, I whacked my head against the edge of it. The ground sloped upwards just enough at the rear of the truck, that the liftgate, which I can normally walk right under, was relatively lower, and almost knocked me back off my feet! I have a small scrape on my scalp, which might have been a lot worse, if I hadn't been wearing my touque.The group is looking forward to some weekend campouts as the weather warms, but this was a good start, at least taking care of our urge to "get out there" for the time being.
daveedoe Posted March 1, 2015 Posted March 1, 2015 Looking forward to the video. Glad your OK after the misadventures, great story.
Guest Posted March 2, 2015 Posted March 2, 2015 Heh you got tail-blazed then trailblazed.... if nothing else, should keep your membership of the group in good standing, as "Guy most likely to trip and take one for the team when pursued by horde of angry boogers", I jest of course, glad the injuries were more to your pride. One thought, if you're having fires, take a bag full of hickory chips, many tales of the raiding of smokehouses.
BC witness Posted March 2, 2015 Author Posted March 2, 2015 Good one, Flashman2.0, you're on your game tonight! ;-)
BC witness Posted March 17, 2015 Author Posted March 17, 2015 (edited) Another installment in the adventures of the "Southwest BC Sasquatch Search Team" took place on Sunday, March 15th. On Fri. evening, we had planned an outing for Sunday, given the forecast for a nice sunny day, following a predicted deluge on Sat. Of course, they got that wrong, and Sunday at 0600 was wet and miserable, but we went ahead regardless, meeting at Thomas' at 0700, and finally getting on the highway about 40 minutes later, after a return to my place to exchange the loafers I had forgotten to change out for boots before leaving. Our destination was the same watershed we had checked out last fall, during the salmon run, with the aim of penetrating further along the logging roads and trails in the area. After driving in as far as possible on the logging road, we parked the 2 trucks, rucked up, in our rain gear, and set out along what started out initially as an ATV trail, but soon became a steep footpath, too narrow for any 4 wheel ATV. Even in the rain, the area was awesome, a prime example of 100 year old second growth, with some stands of first growth where it had been too steep for the old time hand loggers to work safely. There were lots of tracks evident on the path, but they were all boots and hooves. Eventually, one of the crew had some hamstring problems from the steepness of the trail, so we returned back along our route to the vehicles. At that time the light, but steady rainfall intensified , including some sleet and snow, so we did the rest of our trip up another long and interesting branch of the road system in the comfort of the trucks, noting that it would be worthwhile to return in better weather to explore beyond the passable sections on foot. No specimens were spotted, in spite of Jason's "gut feeling" that this would be his lucky day. After turning back and calling it done for the day, we stopped at an interesting roadside diner for some good greasy burgers, then home for a late afternoon nap, to dry out, warm up, and ease our aching calves. The first pic is one of the old growth cedars, with one of the guys for scale, while the second is the wider, level part of the trail. Edited March 17, 2015 by BC witness 1
SWWASAS Posted March 17, 2015 BFF Patron Posted March 17, 2015 Nice pictures. Looks wet. You know I have always wondered if Sasquatch goes out in bad weather unless the bad weather extends for days. Anyone seen one moving around in the rain? For sure human activity all but stops in the rains. That could mean they get more active because we are less active, or they like us, choose not to get wet any more than we have to. Another question to ponder. I just don't know what the answer is. BC did Canada all but decimate the Sitka Spruce during World War I like the US did? There was lots of it here and it is hard to find now because so much was cut down to make airplanes. Just curious.
BC witness Posted March 18, 2015 Author Posted March 18, 2015 It definitely was wet, but we'd planned to go out that day (partly to avoid "honey do's"), and rationalized that fresh tracks would show much better in the damp trail surface than in dry conditions. We've also found that we usually have the woods to ourselves on wet days, too. Very few ATVers and shooters out. As to your first question, I think in the PNW (BCPSW) the creatures all have to endure rainy days, or starve. I'm sure that Sas, bear, deer, and everything else would prefer to stay dry, but hunger is a powerful force. On that note, the town of Prince Rupert, further north up the coast from us, has a real problem with wolves coming into town lately, in part because the deer have moved into town, since city bylaws prohibit shooting them in town. There were several clips of the wolves right in the resedential areas, in rainy, sleety weather, which is standard for there at this time of year. The Sitka spruce is not common in the Fraser Valley area, probably for the same reason you state. Replanting seems to be all hemlock and fir, which grow the quickest.
BigTreeWalker Posted March 18, 2015 Posted March 18, 2015 BC, Thanks for the pictures. I especially like the big cedar. Of course I'm partial since my yard is full of them. Give them another 100 years and maybe they'll be as big as that one. :-) Even a rainy day is a great day in the woods! 1
BigTreeWalker Posted March 21, 2015 Posted March 21, 2015 Made it out Thursday. My son and I planned to take Rd 81 to Rd 83. No snow but the gate is still locked past the Kalama Horse Camp. So we drove up Rd 8117. Never been up there so it was new country to us. We saw only two other vehicles the whole day. I'm just glad my work schedule allows me to get out during the week. I don't know how it is elsewhere, but around here we are gradually getting locked out of the woods except for a short period of time during the summer! Stopped by Lake Merrill on the way up (Gate was locked). And saw some elk on 8117. We stopped when we got close to Goat Mtn. I cracked a couple rocks together and over a 10 minute period heard three grunt/growls from toward the base of the Mtn. Near the end of the road, about 4000' we got some great views of Mt Hood, St Helens, and Goat Mt.
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