Sw Washington Field Work 2016

[SWWASAS]

Went deep into the GPNF yesterday.     Wanted to check out a creek bed I had seen from the air and look for footprints.   From the air it looked like it had a lot more sandbars that it did boots on the ground.   Sadly it was mostly fist to bowling ball sized rocks and very few sandbars.     I only got about a mile in before I came to a place blocked by a log jam with no way around.  Nothing found.      So came out and continued up the road to a place called Cussed Hollow.    You are halfway between Mt St Helens and Mt Adams.      Figure the place was named that for some reason.   Devil or Skookum in names of places are all associated with BF.     So why not Cussed?      Anyway I need to get up there camping so I have more time to spend looking around.   The place looked very good for BF habitat.     Remote, not many people,  and heavily forested.    It was a long drive relative to where I have been doing research.   On the way out my truck started having a strange wheel noise so worried a bearing was going out or something.     Made it home fine after stopping because the noise quit.       Might have been a rock rubbing on a brake or something because the auto repair place could not find anything today.       

[BigTreeWalker]

Yes very interesting area. Cussed Hollow is also a very descriptive name. That's where we elk hunt. 

Edited July 15, 2016 by BigTreeWalker

[SWWASAS]

Went again into the Northern part of the PGNF yesterday.      One long trip but interesting area.     Was interested in an area where there have been some sightings.    Anyway on entering the area heard some strange knocks.    Sounded like a woodpecker sending Morse code with dots and dashes.   Normally woodpecker knocks are fairly regular.   It only happened one time and never repeated. It was also unlike BF knocks I have heard in the past so will blame it on a woodpecker practicing Morse Code.     I also heard a deep thud.   Could have been a tree fall.     I need to see if I can find both on the recording I made in the field.     This was mature forest with large trees, lots of dead trees,  and many about to fall over.   On my way out,  I saw something in the distance out in the middle of a meadow.    I got as close as I could through the trees and took some telephoto pictures.     Looking at them today, blown up, I have no idea what it was.     My first impression at the time was that it was a Native American woman, in full costume, sitting with her back to me,   with a lance or spear stuck in the ground next to her.   I wondered if I was seeing some sort of ghost specter in broad daylight.      Looking at the picture today,  I get the impression of long hair and something sitting with its back to me or it could just be a stump or rock with branches near it.    Earlier I had found bear footprints then heard something that sounded like a bear so did not leave the wood line to go out into the meadow to get any closer.  Figured it very well could be a bear out there eating roots or something.    The wind was blowing at me so it would not have picked up my scent.      The image was taken with 40X telephoto so whatever it is, is some distance away and fairly large.    

Edited August 2, 2016 by SWWASAS

[MIB]

Are you talking about the white ish thing in the open area in the center of the picture?   That's a dead tree.   On my 24" monitor it is very very clearly a dead tree.   Is there something else I should be looking at in the picture?   Or is this the wrong picture?

 

MIB

Edited August 2, 2016 by MIB

[TritonTr196]

Very clearly just an old small dead tree. But like MIB said, maybe you posted the wrong picture.

[SWWASAS]

I guess I need a 24 inch monitor.   You have to realize that the picture was taken with 40X telephoto so all I could see at the time was some strange thing out in the meadow that seemed to show motion.   There were no other stumps.    Blowing all the pictures up and comparing them,  it does look to me like a hollow log with the hollow facing me.    I do not think it is a stump.      I was wondering why I was seeing motion and comparing the series of pictures I took,  I think there is something in the hollow log  that was moving around.   When I blow the pictures up to the point where they start to pixelate,  one picture suggests a raccoon face looking out of the hollow that is not in other pictures.    That is one reason I took a series of pictures so I could see some change if something moved.    I don't think the resolution of the posted picture would show that.  At least I cannot see that looking at the picture in the post.  

[MIB]

It's not a stump, it's a small, twisted up dead tree bleached mostly white with very clear branches sticking out.   I wonder if you've got something cached on your computer showing you something other than what we're seeing.

 

MIB

[SWWASAS]

It is not the picture I posted that shows anything.    But the one I took before it.    Comparing the original picture with the post it is obvious that some resolution is lost in the process so not sure it would do any good to post that picture to the forum anyway.       May be pareidolia at play but I see a face in one of the pictures inside the hollow of the log.       Looks like something like a raccoon.    Anyway to keep the skeptics off my back I always figured it was some animal other than BF.    

[SWWASAS]

An interesting note from BTW about the area where I took the above photograph.     The last time he was there a road  was closed off because Native Americans were having a vision quest.   Isn't it strange that I would have a vision of an Native American woman in period clothing sitting in the stump location?     The NA must attach some spiritual significance to the area.       

[BigTreeWalker]

Because of the huckleberry fields throughout that area it was an important part of their yearly food source. They also harvested cedar bark from the cedars in the lower elevations. Also the reason for some of the names in the area. Spirit Lake, Skookum meadows, Indian Heaven, Indian racetrack, Loowit (Mt St Helens). 

[SWWASAS]

I wanted to say that I have taken a sabbatical from BF field work for a couple of months.      Couple of good reasons.   Some travel to see kids and grand dogs.   Playing some golf.     Right now we have abnormally high temperatures in the PNW, near or in the 100's.   I would think and could be very wrong, that these temperatures drive BF into the high mountains, places that are difficult for me to get to, and places were the berries are plentiful and ripe.    Anyway I needed a break anyway and will get back into the field when it is not only more comfortable for me, but safer at the same time.     

[BigTreeWalker]

I can attest the fact that there are lots of huckleberries in the high country. As well as bears (and probably sasquatch as well). But as far as cooler, not really. One nice thing is if there is old growth in the area it is cooler in the shade and huckleberries as well. A great combination in my book.

[SWWASAS]

I have to disagree to part of your statement.      The temperature with a standard adiabatic atmosphere drops 2 degrees Celsius per 1000 feet gain in altitude.    While this interior heat low we have in place modifies that to some extent, looking at the present conditions,  and actual readings by weather balloons,    at my house right now it is 82 degrees.    At 6000 feet it is 68.    At 9000 it is 55 degrees.     These are actual reported temperatures and more than a couple of thousand feet above the ground are pretty stable and not much affected by surface temperatures.   Depends on the stability of the atmosphere which results in mixing and can vary.    You can interpolate to get an idea of what the temperatures in BF habitat below the timber line might be.      These are conditions over Portland and representative of the region around here.    Beyond that,   along river valleys that come out of the mountains,  in the afternoon, you often get cool breezes that come out of the mountains like a river of cool air especially when there are still snowfields present.      I get that at my house near the Lewis River,   the winds will come up about 4PM  in the afternoon and it results in a temperature consistently 3 or 4 degrees cooler than official weather reports from a few miles away away from the river.    BF has to know all of this better than we do and knows where to go during hot weather where it is cooler and water is available.       

Edited August 19, 2016 by SWWASAS

[BigTreeWalker]

I agree with and do understand the science behind it all. It is also usually 10 degrees cooler at my house at 800' than it is in the valley most of the year. But I was speaking from my own experience from last week just as this hot weather was beginning. It was very warm, in the 80's at 4000'. We did find cold water up there. That was the first thing I looked for. It is also near where we heard the rock clacks in two separate locations. But I do agree that any animal up there knows where to find the cooler locations. Just inside the old growth the temperature is more comfortable.

 

We were out today up the Toutle and it was right at a hundred. We figured anything wanting to feel comfortable in that weather probably has a nice cool secluded pool of water to hang out in in a nearby creek.

[SWWASAS]

I still think the key to locating BF in hot weather is that they cannot be too far from water sources.     Who knows how many artesian springs they know that we don't so that does not necessarily mean a stream is needed.      My zapping location had that artesian spring I found that was a total surprise to me.     If I had not followed what looked like a collapsed lava tube I would not have found that.    I will have to check it this fall to see if it produces water year round.    Not that I expect BF to be there any more.