Field Trips

[Lake County Bigfooot]

Yesterday I saw a guy with his pick up towing a small pop up camper and a dirt bike in his bed, I thought that would be a perfect rig to go and do some research somewhere motorized bikes are permitted. Sounds like you guys have some sort of rigs, just curious what type of equipment anyone recommends for either long term excursions or short term. I have done some tent camping in the Boundary Water Wilderness Area bordering Ontario/Minnesota, and that always was a very satisfying experience. Usually it was hard to return to suburban Chicago with it's hustle and bustle, literally I would be on a totally different wave length, but one I certainly enjoyed. Tragic thing is that the repose that nature teaches us, most likely our natural estate, is quickly lost when forced to race around meeting our modern day demanding lifestyle. Everyone needs to get off the grid and soak up some solitude. It is a key to knowing who you are and what your purpose is in this world. I highly recommend it. One such night, I was the only person fishing for walleye on opening day, Memorial day, water temp 45 degrees, it was midnight, the northern lights ablaze, stars so dense that they blurred together, and I caught a large walleye on almost every cast and had my limit in about 1/2 hour, only because it took a while to get them on the stringer as I was standing on a rock at the base of some rapids that dumped into a beautiful serene series of pools surrounded by Canadian shield bluff formations rising 30 to 40 feet above. Times and places like that get etched into your mind.

Edited September 12, 2016 by Lake County Bigfooot

[SWWASAS]

I have a two wheeled ATV I built that can go most anyplace but most trails in my research area prohibit motorized vehicles.   That limits me to decomissioned logging roads which are getting more numerous.    The National forests require street legal vehicles on numbered forest roads.   An electric mountain bike might be a better option for using national forest roads.   They are street legal and can give you ranges in the 10's of kilometers.   Could always tow a bicycle trailer with camping gear behind either one.   The electric would be a lot quieter.   

[norseman]

[daveedoe]

My wife bought us electric assist mountain bikes, she sold our Giant peddle bikes. The electric assist is awesome! Going up hill is easy on electric assist. Makes riding with my shot 62 yr old knees a breeze, I have logged about 120 miles so far with a little on trails, so far we love these. 

[Guest littlefoot]

I read a lot in the Sasquatch Chronicles site. More than one member has said a horse is the best mode to look for them. 

7 hours ago, norseman said:

 

[ShadowBorn]

Yes, But that's not a horse but a mule that's good food for mountains. That is a nice mule Norseman. I have ridden horses and mules and love horses for some reason. I find it hard to trust a mule on a edge of a cliff or even on a slope.

 

On another note I have been out in the field collecting evidence. Evidence that I should have been collecting a long time ago when I find it. But I just did not care for it like I do now and feel that it is vital to collect it. It seems that people can learn from it if they are willing too put effort into it. Here are some pictures of my last outing or scouting trip before I go hunting for deer. Pictures : This we found  by a deer trail and it seemed like what made it was trying to drive the deer a certain way. Again I am assuming!

 

Here you can see the size by comparing it to my German Shepard :

 

Here you can see how intertwined they are:

 

This area  is where we had found tracks of various sizes that we have made casting of:

   

 

Here is a track that we had made a casting of : This track was about a 1"1/2" in the ground in this medium which we could not leave the same track. 

Here is a track being cast and yes there were more tracks inline other then just this one track and yes I have found more tracks in this area I just never cast them until now.

I have pictures of more but because I have pictures of people in them I cannot post them with out their permission. I will take pictures of the casting later and they look like they have nails or claws on their feet. There does seem to be a midtarsal break along with a flat foot but with some other odd features. Like maybe one of the toes being further back then the rest, more ape like then human. Real odd !

 

 

[Lake County Bigfooot]

Nice track find!, I would trust a mule with my life, in fact I have, on my honeymoon we went to the Grand Canyon and rode mules down, mine was named Harry, and he had some gastrointestinal issues, but aside from that was as sure footed as you could imagine. Mules are the animal of choice in such situations because they have a strong survival instinct, stronger even than a horse, they will not go over a cliff or tumble down an incline, a horse might rarely do both if flustered. I have been nearly thrown from a horse spooked by falling coconuts on the Big Island, I was more afraid of the coconuts than the horse. It reared and I hung on, then it bolted up a bank and was able to stay in the saddle. My wife rode English saddle as a youth and is an able rider, she has taken me on a few trots or near gallops, it is exhilarating but I was not skilled enough to fully enjoy it and kept banging back into the horse and just held on for dear life. Do to my 210 pound sturdy frame the rental places always give me large horses, maybe even a draft horse, I would like to try my hand on an average to smaller horse, I am sure the narrower seat would allow more control, as well as a quicker recovery.

Edited September 19, 2016 by Lake County Bigfooot

[BC witness]

I took My buddy Jim for a run up the east side of Harrison Lake today, to check out road conditions after the recent snow storms, and locate the recent sighting spot that Thomas had told me about. I won't go into details of the location, as Thomas has not yet published his interview with the witnesses, but there has been considerable snowfall since the sighting, so there was no sign of any tracks, new or old in that area. The main logging road was well plowed, though quite narrow, with high banks from the plowing in some sections, so meeting oncoming traffic was tricky, as both vehicles had to push the passenger side into the quite firm snowbank, and fold mirrors in to clear each other on the driver's side. Being the Family Day Holiday here in BC (Yes, we're a week out of sync with everyone else!!), we at least didn't have to contend with logging trucks today.

We continued N on the main road as far as the Clear Creek hot springs turnoff, though the well plowed sections ended at Big Silver Creek logging camp. Along the way, we saw no tracks other than deer, coyote, and human in the heavy wet snowpack. It was late enough in the day to turn around and return to pavement, 35 km behind us, so we did just that. Our only wildlife encounter occurred between Cogburn Creek Camp and Bear Creek campsite, when we rounded a curve and startled a couple of big Blacktail does, who bolted into the timber so fast that neither of us got our cameras aimed for a shot. The rest of the run out was uneventful, but by the time we got back to pavement, you could hardly tell what colour my truck was! With the bright sun and snowy hills, it was a very pleasant day to be out in the back country of BC.

[norseman]

Nice!

[daveedoe]

Great pics BC! I bet the Bigfoot are sunning them selves on a nice south facing rocky slope with all that snow.

 

[BC witness]

You'd think so, davedoe, but that recent sighting took place in the week between our 2 biggest snow storms, and it was seen standing on a North facing slope, about 40 yards off the road, in deep timber, watching the witnesses, just standing and swaying, before fading back out of sight. The snow had mostly melted under the heavy tree canopy, and a trackway was found in the forest duff, and at least one track was cast. Steenburg's interview states that size and spacing of the tracks is convincing, but the needles and moss under the canopy didn't show much detail of the foot, other than general shape.

[norseman]

The deer here are pawing in the tree wells were snow levels are low looking for food. Obviously were deer are so are predators. 

[BigTreeWalker]

It's good to see you out and about again BC. I especially liked the icicles along the road. It looks like it was a beautiful sunny day to be out. Thanks for the short recap of the sighting.

 

Our snow has been coming and going here in SW WA, quite a bit more than is usual for around here. It's gone now in the lower elevations but still a lot in the high country. 

[BC witness]

BigTW, it's good to be out and about again, believe me. The long recovery after last summer's surgery was harder for me to take mentally than physically, I think. I made my last visit to the wound clinic on Dec. 30th, so Jan. 1st brought me a New Year, my Birthday, and freedom from 3 times a week appointments for dressing changes, which was my biggest reason to celebrate!

 

Our snow situation here has been very similar to what you describe

[BC witness]

Got out again to the location of the Jan. 20th sighting near Sasquatch Park, with Thomas, Bill, and Jason, to have another look now that most of the snow has melted. We were able to locate the spot from where the witnesses saw the animal standing, and with Bill and Jason on the roadway in that spot , Thomas and I hiked up the hill to where they claimed the creature was located when they spotted it. Thomas had left a stake with a red survey tape at the creature's location when he did the initial investigation, so we knew we were back at the right point. Bill and Jason could see us quite clearly from the road, through the moss covered tree trunks, even though Thomas and I were both wearing camo outfits, but we only had to step a pace or 2 to either side to disappear from their view. We could still see very faint track impressions in the leafy understory, and found a bit of plaster debris from the cast making, but all definition was gone from the tracks after having 18" of snow fall on them and then melt away over the last few weeks.

 

On Tuesday, Bill heard that one of his 4 wheeling buddies was up the East Harrison FSR at the same time we were at the nearby sighting location, and rolled his 4x4 down a steep embankment while manouvering around a bad mudhole. (See my picks a couple of posts above) Fortunately, his truck had a full rollcage, and stopped against a tree, so didn't go further down the mountain, and he escaped with nothing but a few bruises, though the truck is a write-off.

I did take a dozen or so pics with my old Canon Powershot, but my new Windows 10 computer doesn't seem to want to communicate with the camera, so I can't post them till I get that sorted out, sorry.

Edited February 24, 2017 by BC witness