Field Trips

[BC witness]

Yeah, BTW, that storm dropped up to 10" on the Coquihalla and Allison passes yesterday (5800'+), though only 3" where I was, at 3200'. The Durango was on my short list when I was looking last summer, but the Chevy came up at the right price, with low miles for it's age, and I'm lovin' it so far. We're even very close in colour ;-) I guess we both have good taste

[BC witness]

Another short outing this morning, to investigate a recent sighting that had been reported to Thomas while fueling his vehicle a couple of days ago, by a man who spotted the "Sasquatch Investigations" sign on the door of his Tracker. The report was of a very brief glimpse of a tall, dark coloured creature, walking bipedally, disappearing into the roadside timber on a logging road in our area of interest, and the witness gave quite specific directions to the location.

Thomas, Jason, and I set out in the rain at 0930 this morning from Thomas' place in my truck, and found the road to the sighting in short order, then followed the directions given, to the second bridge past the end of pavement. We drove a short way past, to a spot wide enough to park out of the way, and walked back to the bridge, from where I paced off the 300' that the witness had specified the figure was beyond that bridge. Within a few feet of that distance, there was a fairly obvious game trail crossing the logging road, but it was in mossy, leaf littered timber, so no distinct prints could be found there, though Jason spotted a large foot shaped depression in the soft gravel of the shoulder nearby. Since the witness had told Thomas that his sighting took place about 2 weeks earlier, and we have had several heavy rainfalls since then, there was no definition to the impression to indicate if it had been made by a bare or booted foot, so nothing could be concluded from that find. This same road system has generated several sightings over the years, and this sighting location certainly looks "Squatchy" (Thomas hates that word ) , but no evidence could be collected here today. Thomas is awaiting a call from the witness, to conduct a full interview, but has not yet heard back from him since giving the man his card.

We spent the rest of the morning checking the rest of the logging roads in the area, some of which are old and unused, and pretty much undriveable. We walked some of these, though with the brush now leafing up, there's not much to see from these except the ground at your feet. Our only wildlife sighting was a large barred owl, which flew from a roadside tree to a larger stand of timber across the road, and perched there to watch us, ignoring Jason's attempts at "owl speak", until we drove on.

I was driving today, so didn't get any pictures, but Jason spent some time filming our travels and discussions on Sasquatch lore, so that should appear on thomassteenburg.com soon.

 

[BC witness]

 

Sunday, April 19th, I met up at 0730 with the usual crew, MagniAesir, Jason, and Thomas, for a day trip we had arranged the night before, to explore a couple of logging roads I hadn't visited in more than 30 years. We took my TB and Magni's Chey 1500 4x4, stopping on the way to top up fuel, before heading SE on the ****** road, a scenic paved 2 lane route through a deep river valley to our first turn off, at **** Cr. This potholed FSR follows the creek for a short distance before climbing quickly up the shoulder of Mt. **** into several large clearcuts, ending at a loading stage in the last one, after only about 2.5 km. We stopped to stretch our legs, offload some coffee, and take a few pics, as we watched the rising sun light up the valley of the **** River below us.

We retraced our route to the main road, then stopped at a campground to allow Jason to shoot some footage of Thomas recounting his 1986 investigation of a Sasquatch sighting at that location, for a documentary DVD they're working on. We spent an hour or so there, bushwacking into the forest a couple of times to locate the site of the incedent, and where footprints had been found and cast back in '86. I didn't supply the comic relief on this trip, that honour fell to MagniAesir this time. As we crossed a shallow, icy creek on a large moss covered log, I , Jason, and Thomas lead the way, but I think we loosened the moss covering, as when Magni was 3/4 over, the moss slipped off the log, dropping him into the creek, shin deep in glacial meltwater. His only injury was to his dignity, and his soggy socks.

 

we then got  back in the trucks, and headed up **** FSR, towards Mt. Slesse, the scene of a tragic airliner crash way back in 1956. Info here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans-Canada_Air_Lines_Flight_810

 

The road was not bad for the first 1.5 km., but got quite steep and rough as it climbed higher along the creek, with drainage trenches, a couple of rough washouts, and very rocky sections. Someone had earlier dinged an oilpan or trans. pan on one of the rough spots, as a trail of wet oily spots was visible along the trail. Fortunately, with my recent lift, I only had a few minor scrapes along the way. At km 4.5, we turned off onto a cutblock access that had a great view of Mt. Slesse, found a good spot to park, and lit a fire to boil some water for tea/coffee and have a bite of lunch, while discussing the old airplane crash. We could see the snow covered rocky snag that the plane had hit, across the valley from us, and amazingly, while we sat looking at it, there was a large avalanche down the face of the mountain! Of course, no one had a video recorder handy in time to catch it, as it was over in less than 30 seconds. The memorial to the victims, who were never recovered from the crash site, sits at the base of the mountain, across the creek from where we parked, and in light of the avalanche risk, we chose not to hike to it, at least till later in the year, when the snowpack will have melted.

Calling it a day, and having not found any evidence of Sasquatch during our wanderings, we packed up, and headed back out to the main road, turning North towards the highway, but with a stop along the way at a greasy spoon for burgers and wings served by a pretty waitress, to make the day complete.

 

Pics from the trail:

 

1 The morning sun lighting up the valley floor.

 

2 The slide we saw/heard was down the middle of this mountain.

 

3 Break time.

 

4 Heading home.

Edited April 20, 2015 by BC witness

[BigTreeWalker]

Thanks for the update BC. Great pictures!

I remember years ago I was in Abbotsford for a high school band competition and looking across the valley into some beautiful mountains. The photos of the mountain and that big valley reminded me of that view.

[Terry]

Nice going BC and thanks!

 

t.

[SWWASAS]

Thanks BC great pictures. I just attended a presentation by Larry Lund yesterday. He rubbed elbows, did field work with all the pioneers in Sasquatch research. Several of whom are dead. Someone asked him where he thought the best location would be to go to make contact. He says the Harrison Lake area in BC would be where he would go. You been there much?

Apparently tiffs between bigfoot researchers is not something new. Several of the pioneers had issues with each other at one point or another and would not speak. He even told about one decking another. He said that if Freeman had given him a handful of fur that claimed to have pulled out of the side of a willing BF he would not bother to have it tested. All you had to do to find BF tracks was tell Freeman the day before you went into the woods, and were you were going, and sure enough you would find a lot of BF tracks.

Larry has a great quote. "How can you claim to be an expert in something that you cannot prove to exist".

Edited April 20, 2015 by SWWASASQUATCHPROJECT

[BC witness]

SW, I have been around the Harrison Lake road systems for decades, but my only encounters were in a different watershed, not too far to the west of there. At one time, in the late '70s, I had a placer claim on the Lillooet River, which feeds the N end of the lake, and the shortest route to it was along the west shore, which was a 4 hour 4x4 trip, one way, on a good day. I will probably be spending a lot of time on the east side of the lake this summer, as a driver for an ATV adventure tour outfit, which I'm very much looking forward to. I'll let you know how many Sasquatches we run over with the Polaris Crew ATV.

 

I have a list of 30 sightings around the lake, spanning 100 years, and those are just the published ones. I've helped Thomas Steenburg and  Bill Miller (BigFootHunter) at "Sasquatch Days" in the village of Harrison a couple of times now, and every year we get private reports there from both locals, and visitors who come to the event, that have never been published or reported elsewhere. We try to follow up on any credible ones, and have found evidence at a few.

 

Speaking of pioneers in the field, I have the opportunity to meet Bob Gimlin, as well as John Green, whom I have already met, together for lunch later this week, and I'm REALLY excited about that!

Edited April 21, 2015 by BC witness

[SWWASAS]

I think Lund did say that the interesting area was the North end of the lake area. Anyway you probably know better than Lund where to look. With meeting Gimlin and Green, you are filling some special squares for a BF researcher. As the pioneers age, that sort of thing gets even more special. I have not particularly noticed Gimlin having problems with memory during the last few years but it will be interesting to hear your take on it. Been a few months since I have talked to him and I normally do not talk about the Bluff Creek encounter. I suppose the best measure will be if he remembers me at all since we just talk at conferences. The first time I really talked to him privately with no one else standing around, he discretely asked me if I had an encounter experience. When I said yes, he really opened up and started talking about the difficult years after Bluff Creek. It was so bad people around town would make derogatory comments to him and to his wife. I told him that I had the same experience with a neighbor that destroyed a friendship so I really do not talk about BF outside the BF community. He said it was good when he finally started going to conferences and could meet a lot of people who had encounters. Anyway I sensed a lot of hurt there with what he told me that day. I wish I had taken notes afterwards.

[MagniAesir]

SW

The four members of our group have each spent decades living in this area and we all enjoy the outdoors 

I was born in Vancouver and lived most of my life in the area

BC moved to this area before I was born (i am almost 50)

Thomas has lived here since 1986

The last member of our group moved back here a few years ago, he had been away for 20 years or so but he grew up here

 

We all love this area and have a great time exploring out there rain, snow or sunshine 

Even if I never see a single bit of evidence of Sasquatch in my life, I certainly wouldn't feel that my time was wasted

[BigTreeWalker]

SW

The four members of our group have each spent decades living in this area and we all enjoy the outdoors 

I was born in Vancouver and lived most of my life in the area

BC moved to this area before I was born (i am almost 50)

Thomas has lived here since 1986

The last member of our group moved back here a few years ago, he had been away for 20 years or so but he grew up here

 

We all love this area and have a great time exploring out there rain, snow or sunshine 

Even if I never see a single bit of evidence of Sasquatch in my life, I certainly wouldn't feel that my time was wasted

Here, here! MagniAesir. I agree about southern BC, a great area as well as northern WA. (My family originally came from the Sumas/Linden area.) However, it will be 60 yrs for me tomorrow in SW WA and have enjoyed every minute I can spend in the outdoors here... be it the Willapa Hills or the Cascades.

I feel as you do, if I never see a sasquatch it is still worth it. Although the evidence I am finding is telling me they are out there.

[BigTreeWalker]

Took a drive up the Spirit Lake Highway on April 25, 2015 to check out access from the Highway. It had been years since I had driven up that way so we decided to go take a look around. As I figured access was limited in the area. Weyerhaeuser has the gates locked to the north and once you get into the Volcanic Monument access, except by trail, is very limited. I guess that's why I stay to the south and east of Mt St Helens. But the west side has some great views. Also saw some interesting things along the way.

 

 

Mt St Helens and the Toutle River valley.

 

 

 

Coldwater Lake.

 

 

 

 

We have a little trouble with spelling in Washington. They got it right on the other side of the Highway.   

 

 

 

 

Had a sighting,

 

 

 

 

And saw some tracks.   

 

 

 

 

That gift shop had more books on Bigfoot than most bookstores do elsewhere!

Edited May 1, 2015 by BigTreeWalker

[BC witness]

Nice pics, BTW, thanks for the virtual tour. I was only up St. Helens once, back in summer '94, and it was astounding! The devestated areas were just barely starting to get a little green showing, so the extent of the damage was very obvious. My wife and I spent the night in the only motel in beautiful downtown Cougar, apparently used by loggers for decades, judging by the condition of the flooring ;-0

 

My father was sitting on the south facing patio of our home in Abbotsford, BC on the morning of the eruption, heard it blow, and watched the ash plume rise into the sky.

[BigTreeWalker]

Thanks BC. I remember that day well. I woke up to some wind chimes ringing that were hanging in our living room at the time. I thought I had left a window open. Went to check it out and saw the huge ash plume coming off the mountain to the east of Longview where our apartment was. Other than ringing the chimes we didn't hear anything. My grandparents in Bellingham heard the boom though.

I still think back at all the beauty that was lost around Spirit Lake. It is awesome to look at all the devastation that occurred in just a matter of minutes. I still have problems looking at it now, though still magnificent in its own way.

[ShadowBorn]

Yes , Very nice pictures.

[daveedoe]

nice pictures! thanks BTW, I remember May 18 1980, I was at work at the grain elevators in Vancouver Wa. A call came over the house phone "the mountain blew!!" We all went up to the top of the elevator, was the tallest structure in Vancouver and watched the eruption. It was surreal! the ash cloud rolling up slowly with lightning. It was so strange seeing our landscape change so drastically. 

 

I have to get up that way again I love the seeing regrowth. I have climbed and skied down the Mountain 5 times back in the 80's and 90's . 

 

here is a picture of me and my nephews on the top, I'm in the middle, from summer 1988