Reasons To Be Doubtful

[Lake County Bigfooot]

I never found tracks in my backyard although I have searched for them over and over, that is a big reason I am

skeptical of any of my own experience, it has no substantive evidence, much of it could be explained by another

human or some type of unknown animal to me. Whoops could have simply been children I did not know were present,

although at 3am that is unlikely, so maybe it was a strange type of owl, although nothing I have ever found could

be matched to what I heard. Perhaps I hallucinated, but then my wife was there for the first episode that matched

the second too closely. I concede that you should not be persuaded by my own self rationalization of this belief,

I only am disclosing why I entertain it. Now factually I have never found any prints to substantiate anything, so

until I do, and I know they are beyond hoaxing, until then I remain skeptical of any conclusions I may be tempted

to believe.

Edited November 19, 2015 by Lake County Bigfooot

[dmaker]

My apologies. I thought I had read where you found tracks in your backyard, but it was a sound in your backyard that you could not identify? 

 

I'm a bit confused, LCB. Are you a believer, or not?

 

 

" I am here simply out of a compulsion to find answers to something I thought could not

exist, and honestly in many ways wish it did not."

 

"Now factually I have never found any prints to substantiate anything, so

until I do, and I know they are beyond hoaxing, until then I remain skeptical of any conclusions I may be tempted

to believe."

 

Those two statements don't strike me as clearly congruent. Again, correct me if I'm mistaken, but you reside in semi-rural, semi-suburban Chicago. You heard a noise in your backyard that you cannot ascribe to a known animal, in your experience. You jump from that to bigfoot, yet somehow think this is the rational part of your mind that keeps dragging you back to bigfoot as an explanation?

Edited November 19, 2015 by dmaker

[norseman]

It's not a horrendously difficult thing to walk away. If it's any consolation I was as avid a proponent as they get. And whether anyone agrees a person is entitled to change there minds. As a kid I saw a rather impressive trackway through a sand pit near my home. I heard a very strange roar one night right around the same time. It was scary it was pretty cool and I wasn't the only one who saw the tracks. This was BTW before the advent of bigfoot but when you're 9 years old there's lots of other monsters that'll do. In any event the region was never a bigfoot hotspot or even one where reports were made. But it was a strange sight and sound.

I consider myself lucky to have been in on the bogfoot question from the beginning and lucky to be in that young adult world of college in the late 60's early 70's immersed in the pure arts and sciences. I am a world class dreamer, an author, a musician, a technician and a science practitioner (retired). Nobody could dream better than me, not even Roger Patterson. In most respects I'd beat him hands down in terms of imagination. But it was the science that most often than not kept me out of the harms way of folly. I dreamed the bigfoot dreams, the mysterious solitary giant aloof from us new comers. The other walking being that kept it's bargain with nature and as such nature continued to shield him from us. Indeed it's a fantastically romantic view. But the other half never lost sight that eventually that which has been called real must stand and deliver, to pay it's tab, to have it's dues up to date just like the rest of us.

One day around 4 years ago I heard the first whisper of my rational half say "maybe it's all about nothing." I began to watch and wait to see how the newest plots in the saga played out. When enough of them played out in the negative and I could all but predict how the newest ones would the deal was done. For anyone wanting to get off of the fence or define their commitment to the side of the fence they truly believe all one needs to do is look and what's been then look at what is and see if either of the two are an indication of where it's going.

As for the sounds you and your wife heard they can very well have sounded like what you heard. But as with all things bigfoot there is only the word of the person presenting the evidence. Indeed the recordings out there can sound exactly like what people think bigfoot should sound like but it doesn't make them the sound of bigfoot.

So what made the trackway?

Why should you care Norse?  When I posted the images of the site and the  trajectory of the tracks you  essentially flipped me the bird and said you didn't care.

Essentially? Link please.

Obviously they were not that impressive to you, if you were talked out of something you saw with your own eyes.

[Bodhi]

Well as many of you know I claim to be a believer in Bigfoot, I claim to have heard them, and I claim

to have experienced activity, well all that being said what if I was 100% honest. Fact of the matter is

I would have to say I seriously have my doubts as to the creatures existence anywhere much less

in my surroundings here. That is an honest statement from an honest believer in this creature. I wish

I could say I have had that definitive moment, I have had moments that fostered the belief no doubt,

but like many of you I am just a believer, not a knower. I have not seen it with my own eyes, nor have

I touched it to know what I was seeing was actually real. Ok, well then why just not give up the whole

shooting match and lay the idea to rest. Well if it were that easy I sure would have liked to do it sooner,

yet I have nothing at stake in this, only more to loose by holding onto the belief, more time, energy, my

reputation, my sanity perhaps. If you are honest you might share this feeling and thought process. The

power of belief is stronger than we humans can imagine, it can make a strong man cower and a weak man

tower. I submit that such a belief, experiences or not, can cloud the mind, or make it see things that

it wants to see. So is that all this is? No, if it were just that I would be free simply by relying on the rational

mind and the facts. The rational mind is what is not letting this go, because you can see here I have

reason to desire to let it go, it is the fact that what I heard in 2013 cannot be explained, what my wife

heard also, what recordings seemed to confirm was activity, it all is compelling my rational mind to find

another explanation, so far I cannot. That is the issue. To the skeptics I say enjoy your world free of such

experiences that would force you into this quandary, but be clear that many of us are here not by our own

choice, but by circumstances that most of us wish never happened. The compulsion that accompanies those

experiences is what leads people here looking for answers. Of course many of us have not compulsion other

than we think this is entertainment. I wish I were here simply for entertainment, simply to blow off some steam

or to enjoy a good joke. I am here simply out of a compulsion to find answers to something I thought could not

exist, and honestly in many ways wish it did not.

I feel for you and wish you better luck than all of the investigators who've come before you. Many lives have been pointlessly consumed in this search, marriages destroyed and careers ruined. I really do hope you fare better.

[Guest]

Correction, many people got a lot of healthy outdoor exercise and sucked at relationships and steady jobs anyway

[Bodhi]

http://txsasquatch.blogspot.com/2005/12/biography-of-rene-dahinden.html

http://bigfootforums.com/index.php/topic/34635-what-did-rene-dahinden-do-wrong-and-right/

http://rense.com/general10/rene.htm

A cautionary tale about obsession with this topic.

[Lake County Bigfooot]

Dmaker, the preconception is that Sasquatch make a whooping type sound, particularly a long ascending

type of whoooooop. So when I heard something resembling that sound initially I blocked out the notion

of it being Sasquatch related, especially due to my proximity to civilization. It was only after dismissing

the first incidence where my wife was present, the same thing occurred 8 days later and at 3:50am in the

morning as I lie awake in bed waiting for the alarm clock to go off. I hear this very flutish sounding wooooeeeep? wooooeeeep? but in this case it was questioning in tone. Then deeper in the wood line I hear a lower and

heavier woooo wooooo, similar in tone but lower in pitch. This repeated as the sounds moved off into the marsh,

I got up after pondering for a second to see a patrol car shining his spot in my backyard as if he saw something, drove down the street and returned for a second look. That is the circumstantial part of the equation. Now as I sit back 2 1/2 years later I can break it down. I know that when I heard the initial whoops with my wife my first thought was kids in my neighbors yard reacting to his just concluded firework show, what was strange was that the whoops started moving around in the marsh, I commented this to my wife and she listened and concluded the same that they were moving around the edge of the marsh. Secondly the following situation the sounds moved into the marsh. So now I have something that makes humanish sounding vocalizations that retreats into the marsh at 3:50am. I know this could all be construed but the facts and what I heard were real, that I know. If it were human in origin I think I would have been more decisive on that, it was humanish sounding. Now since then I have recorded strange wood knocking, howls, groans, et... None of this is evidence that creatures frequent my backyard, and yes it could quite possibly be fanciful thinking. How does fanciful thinking create loud wood banging sounds that just so happen to follow coyotes going off after a siren, or wood banging and moaning as if in response. I did not create those scenarios but as you can see they feed into belief something unusual is happening. I made my share of mistakes along the way but I know that something unusual was at play during that fall, and again briefly last fall. This fall the same recordings demonstrate nothing unusual which in turn begs the question what changed?

sirens coyotes tree knocks.mp3

Banging Moan Howl.mp3

Edited November 19, 2015 by Lake County Bigfooot

[norseman]

I dont think this is fair comparison.

Why not hold John Green up as an example? He is still married and has a roof over his head at 88.

[Guest]

Ahhh Dahinden, you know that crashing round the woods with a rifle is only 2% successful when hunting black bear? (Source http://www.outdoorhub.com/stories/2014/10/16/4-largest-bears-ever-taken-hunters/) Blame bigfoot if you like but if he'd got a bee up his butt about hunting a black bear solo and spent 20 years doing that, too impatient to wait in one spot and flying all over the place to where he heard the bears were thickest right now, and likely arriving after they'rd cleared out those seasonal resources, those berries done, moving to next food source.....   he still might have had a null result.

[ShadowBorn]

http://txsasquatch.blogspot.com/2005/12/biography-of-rene-dahinden.html

http://bigfootforums.com/index.php/topic/34635-what-did-rene-dahinden-do-wrong-and-right/

http://rense.com/general10/rene.htm

A cautionary tale about obsession with this topic.

Bodhi

His obsession was the prints and what made them. If I did not see the creature my self and the prints afterwards I would be in total doubt. I would be at a point of dis belief and there would be big change in my opinions. But what I saw and the prints that it left behind each time we encountered it left me at a total Aw !

[dmaker]

Correction, many people got a lot of healthy outdoor exercise and sucked at relationships and steady jobs anyway

 

LOL. Hard to argue with that

Dmaker, the preconception is that Sasquatch make a whooping type sound, particularly a long ascending

type of whoooooop. So when I heard something resembling that sound initially I blocked out the notion

of it being Sasquatch related, especially due to my proximity to civilization. It was only after dismissing

the first incidence where my wife was present, the same thing occurred 8 days later and at 3:50am in the

morning as I lie awake in bed waiting for the alarm clock to go off. I hear this very flutish sounding wooooeeeep? wooooeeeep? but in this case it was questioning in tone. Then deeper in the wood line I hear a lower and

heavier woooo wooooo, similar in tone but lower in pitch. This repeated as the sounds moved off into the marsh,

I got up after pondering for a second to see a patrol car shining his spot in my backyard as if he saw something, drove down the street and returned for a second look. That is the circumstantial part of the equation. Now as I sit back 2 1/2 years later I can break it down. I know that when I heard the initial whoops with my wife my first thought was kids in my neighbors yard reacting to his just concluded firework show, what was strange was that the whoops started moving around in the marsh, I commented this to my wife and she listened and concluded the same that they were moving around the edge of the marsh. Secondly the following situation the sounds moved into the marsh. So now I have something that makes humanish sounding vocalizations that retreats into the marsh at 3:50am. I know this could all be construed but the facts and what I heard were real, that I know. If it were human in origin I think I would have been more decisive on that, it was humanish sounding. Now since then I have recorded strange wood knocking, howls, groans, et... None of this is evidence that creatures frequent my backyard, and yes it could quite possibly be fanciful thinking. How does fanciful thinking create loud wood banging sounds that just so happen to follow coyotes going off after a siren, or wood banging and moaning as if in response. I did not create those scenarios but as you can see they feed into belief something unusual is happening. I made my share of mistakes along the way but I know that something unusual was at play during that fall, and again briefly last fall. This fall the same recordings demonstrate nothing unusual which in turn begs the question what changed?

You have whooping cranes in your neck of the woods. It just seems to me that if you hear a whooping noise in a known whooping crane habitat area, that the parsimonious conclusion should be whooping crane, not bigfoot.

[Bodhi]

I don't think I said "ALL" and I was specifically touching on the OP's use of the word "obsession". I honestly didn't think the post would be the least bit controversial so I'm surprised and disappointed. Is there nothing upon which we can mutually agree?

[Lake County Bigfooot]

Dmaker I guess you don't give me much credit for being able to identify known species around me, I have barn owls, screech owls, great horned owls, the tone of the whoop is nothing like the bugle of a crane of any other sound that I have heard from a crane. It is safe to rule out cranes. Owls would be a far more likely scenario, I sent a recording to Brian Brown and his group attempted to identify the whoops I recorded later in the fall, they thought possibly it could be an owl, but not a positive conclusion. I would sure like to hear that owl again, although I am persuaded that it was not an owl I heard, but I can assure you it was not a whooping crane, despite the fact that I would sure love to have them frequenting my backyard, It is possible for them to pass through during spring or fall migration. No what I am describing I have not been able to find despite listening to all the owls I could locate on Cornell Universities supported animal recordings. Still looking for the culprit.

Edited November 19, 2015 by Lake County Bigfooot

[dmaker]

Have your sounds been analyzed by an expert?

[CMBigfoot]

Dmaker I guess you don't give me much credit for being able to identify known species around me, I have barn owls, screech owls, great horned owls, the tone of the whoop is nothing like the bugle of a crane of any other sound that I have heard from a crane. It is safe to rule out cranes. Owls would be a far more likely scenario, I sent a recording to Brian Brown and his group attempted to identify the whoops I recorded later in the fall, they thought possibly it could be an owl, but not a positive conclusion. I would sure like to hear that owl again, although I am persuaded that it was not an owl I heard, but I can assure you it was not a whooping crane, despite the fact that I would sure love to have them frequenting my backyard, It is possible for them to pass through during spring or fall migration. No what I am describing I have not been able to find despite listening to all the owls I could locate on Cornell Universities supported animal recordings. Still looking for the culprit.

 

Hi LCB,

 

Of all the owl sounds you've listened too which one, if any sounded the closest to what you heard?

 

Did it sound anything like the female Great Gray Owl contact whoop?

 

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Great_Gray_Owl/sounds