How Sure Are You?

[sheri]

Squatchy, can i ask you how you became so interested in the bigfoot phenomnon. Did you grow up in an area were it was talked about a lot, like the pacific northwest ?

[Squatchy McSquatch]

Sheri, I became interested in Bigfoot as a young kid in the late 70's. I saw the PGF on tv right around the time Andre the Giant did the bigfoot for 6million dollar man.

 

I became interested, but I never believed.

 

I've read Roger's book, and many many more. 

 

I've never found the evidence for bigfoot to be compelling. It's the hoaxing element that intrigues me.

 

But I've always had an interest in the phenomenon.

[Rockape]

It's a message board. If you want to keep a question private, then use PM. Otherwise, others are likely to chime in.

Exactly. That's how this message board thing works.

[Guest Rex]

someone wanna crawl under there and cut all those weeds off that drive shaft?

[sheri]

I saw the legend of boggy creek when i was young. Never gave it a second thought. Never gave any of it a second thought. But I grew up in Chicago. In the city. Nothing but concrete. I never even stepped into a forest until i was in my twenties and then it was with a bunch of friends at the wisconsin dells, LOL. I can understand the hoaxing being interesting. Thanks for answering my questions.

Squatchy this was to you , thanks again.

[David NC]

I guess the vikings and the first europeans hoaxed the Native Americans?

[Guest UPs]

sheri.....there are many of us on the forum who never even considered bf anything other than a myth until they had some type of experience that piqued their interest. Many have had visual sightings or came across evidence such as trackways, heard unusual vocals, were followed/escorted out of the woods, or like myself finding a very unusual jawbone that didn't fit any known animal that I could match it up with other than a huge human (no I don't have it and never picked it up). As far as the members that are 100 percent certain bf doesn't exist, my feelings are probably very similar to yours as I also don't frequent forums that seriously discuss topics that I think have no basis for serious discussion. There are also folks out there who post in forums dedicated to being skeptical of just about everything and like to call themselves critical thinkers, but from what I have read, many of them are anything but a true skeptic.

As far as my own belief goes, I would rate it around 95 percent that bf does exist and that is generous for me because I have never actually seen one or even tracks that I consider authentic. There are simply too many eye witness reports over a long period of time and along with the PGF I cannot dismiss bf as just a myth. I applaud those who are attempting to prove the existence of bf once and for all and for those who put roadblocks up, I have only disdain.

There was a bit of discussion on posting pictures and privacy concerns and they can be well founded. When I fist got interested in the subject I posted a few pics along with my story and it sure wants long before someone found my remote location and trespassed on not only my land, but my neighbors. How they found it I still am not sure of, but the evidence was clear that it was a result of my postings of the net (not necessarily the BFF). I would advise anyone who decides to go public with their own encounter to take privacy into consideration. That doesn't mean to not post pictures, just be careful of what can be extracted from them along with the details that you post. For myself, privacy is more important than anything else and seeing evidence of trespassers was a wake up call.

I am sure there is a way to post digital pictures without the location embedded in them, but I am not very good with that kind of stuff. Once you are sure you are just posting the picture and nothing else, that shouldn't be a problem for anyone concerned with privacy.

[Sunflower]

UPS,

 

There are settings that you can change when sending pics.  Otherwise check your camera.  I would not use a cell phone camera EVER to send pics.  Copy them to a pc or laptop and check the properties, etc. and even then you might have to scrub them.

 

If you have a friend who is a serious photographer that might help as well.

 

I'm on your side about the privacy issue and agree with you 100%.

[MIB]

Agreed.  I don't share pictures taken with any device with GPS capability.   I've never taken any pictures of anything "footy", period, with my phone.   

[sheri]

UPs, Why oh why didn't you pick up that jaw bone. LOL.Years ago I saw what I thought was a huge skull protruding out of the side of a trail wall in Oregon. I don't remember what the name of the trail was. It was a 7 mile trail up to the top. When I saw it I tried to get it out, but couldn't. Only part of it was exposed. You could see what looked like the top part of were the nose would have been, the eye sockets, and the protruding brow ridge. My husband, one of my sons, my brother and his son and daughter and his wife were there.I couldn't get any of them to help me. Instead I got a lecture on how i was harming the forest floor. I was upset needless to say.

 

 I can understand someone being a skeptic and reading about bigfoot. I was a skeptic and would get on bfro  and read what they had on there and some of the sightings. I was introduced to bfro in 2002. That was my first real introduction to bigfoot. I didn't take it seriously. So I had no interest in getting on their forum to participate. Even if I had decided to join, it would have been to ask question's and not mock, ridicule or insinuate people are hullicinating, or liar's. I do think there are people who hoax. Why ? I have no idea. For the most part I think people are being honest about their sighting, or experiences they can't explain. It does frustrate me when someone is rude or sounds like their ridiculing. They have no idea what other's go through. It isn't easy talking about what happened and what you saw. We already have had enough being made fun of by other's. So quite frankly I think their callous and have no manner's. It would be easier for us to just keep our mouths shut. But then that's why people get on bigfoot forum's, because they figured they could talk about what they saw with other's who have had the same experience and not be ridiculed all the time. Like I said I understand if your a skeptic. I don't understand if your 100% sure they don't exist. There is no point then for that person to be on here except to ridicule, or mock or make fun of other's, or they have no life. That is disdainful to me.

 

Wow. People are ridiculous. Trespassing on your property. I can't understand that mentality either. What is wrong with people  ? Sorry to here that. I do have a few pictures i want to share, but they are not on my property . I live in the center of a town.  If they want to come check out my little back yard they are welcome. lol Take care UPs.

[JKH]

UPs, Why oh why didn't you pick up that jaw bone. LOL.Years ago I saw what I thought was a huge skull protruding out of the side of a trail wall in Oregon. I don't remember what the name of the trail was. It was a 7 mile trail up to the top. When I saw it I tried to get it out, but couldn't. Only part of it was exposed. You could see what looked like the top part of were the nose would have been, the eye sockets, and the protruding brow ridge. My husband, one of my sons, my brother and his son and daughter and his wife were there.I couldn't get any of them to help me. Instead I got a lecture on how i was harming the forest floor. I was upset needless to say.

 

Oh my word, those stories are rather heartbreaking. So you never could get back there again?

 

I'm in agreement with y'all and a little concerned about posting photos now. It's a cheap older digicam, so I don't think it identifies anything. Will need to find out, tho.

 

Re: the op, I was nearly 100 percent before I decided to start looking for myself. Finding my own evidence has been icing on the cake. Now, it's getting a little weird.

[Wheellug]

Researchers working in the rainforest of the Central African Republic followed a male silverback gorilla named Makumba (shown here) for 12 months. They found that he could turn his pungent smell on or off depending on the social context.

 

From NBC News, Weird Science..

http://www.nbcnews.com/science/weird-science/planet-stinky-apes-gorillas-use-b-o-weapon-n152391

[sheri]

JKH, I live in Illinos and I was only visiting for a week, and haven't been back since. If I lived there,  boy would I have been back out on that trail with some of my other children and gotten it out.

[Guest UPs]

Sheri.....it's a LNG story, but basically I came across a bunch of deer skeletons while searching for a wounded deer during bow hunting season. I saw the jawbone under some leaves and when I turned it over with my boot, it wasn't what I was expecting and kind of freaked me out a bit. At the time, I had no idea bf could be real so that didn't come to my mind at all. It was either some really large animals jawbone or a huge humans. When I got back from the hunting trip, I looked at all kinds of pictures of skeletal remains and nothing even came close except human, but it was too wide and square. It also had this greenish mold all over it so it had been there a while. Since I found it kind of near my own land and that whole area is my playground, I tried to forget about it. About 7 years later, I went back to search for it and the area was clear cut right up to the spot I originally found it. I have been back there over and over searching, but have only found other bones and one coyote skull. I also contacted the local search and rescue to see if there were any missing folks in that area, but I got nowhere with that although I did learn that there are many more people missing than are publicly known or promoted. Based on my own memory, this had to be a bf or a human and either one is creepy to me.

For a while, my anger was directed towards some of the skeptics and hoaxers because I blamed them for bf not being taken seriously and if people have no idea it could be real, evidence could easily be overlooked.

In the same area that I found that jawbone, I had come across some deer skeletons and all of them were missing their heads. On all but one, the bones appeared untouched like it laid down and just rotted away. One of them had the bones scattered around like any predator would do when eating. The immediate area was thickly wooded Fir, Spruce, and Balsam with very little undergrowth but mossy. The wounded deer had laid down and created a small pool of blood and from there, I could find no other sign of it. Then while doing the circle technique looking for blood drops, I found the deer skeletons, then the jawbone. By that time I was quite edgy, sensed danger and then bolted out of the area and did not want to go back.

That incident triggered my interest in bf and looking back at all of the weird things that had happened over the years, it started to make sense. The big problem for me is that I have never found a bona fide trackway or actually have seen a bf. I will never be 100 percent certain they exist unless I see me or someone collects a specimen. I think the scoftics along with the media are at least partially to blame for the lack of physical evidence by creating such a public stigma that many outdoorsmen/women wouldn't know how important one bone or part of a specimen would be to its discovery. In my case, had I known what I do now that jawbone could have been a very significant discovery and as it is, I will never know what it was actually from. That will never happen again with me.

[Incorrigible1]

You're unable to return to that location?