Field trips 2.0

[Madison5716]

Here's where I went yesterday, in the rain. When it began to clear, right before I had to leave, it was so pretty. I love living in Oregon!

[NathanFooter]

On 11/20/2018 at 10:04 AM, gigantor said:

 

Several members have drones and have tried them; unfortunately, they are impractical unless equipped with FLIR. because the camera cannot penetrate the tree canopy.

 

 

 I have been working on this.   

Edited November 26, 2018 by NathanFooter
sentence structure change.

[SWWASAS]

There are commercial quality drones that do have FLIR systems.     When FLIR is mentioned I wonder if ultraviolet could be a better choice due to cost and resolution at the best visual light cameras.     A FLIR system above 620P resolution is very expensive.    Most normal light  optical cameras can be converted to ultraviolet simply by removing a filter that filters out ultraviolet at the sensor array.        Ultraviolet is considered spooky because of the images.    But maybe spooky is what we want.   Throw in the likelihood that BF may see into the IR part of the spectrum and I think it worth a try.     If that is correct,   the BF could plainly see any illuminaters and simply hide behind trees.    

 

Another factor with drones is noise.      The angry beehive drone sound would get the attention of any BF.     I have seem military drones that use slow speed and much quieter propellers.      They put out much less noise than the hobby high speed drone propellers.    

[wiiawiwb]

I can see the use of drones in areas that have some open terrain such as Colorado, Idaho, maybe Montana.  I'm just not convinced they're worth the hefty price tag, training, and additional weight and space they require for places that are thickly wooded.

 

I'd be sick if it hit a cross wind and I lost the drone, with high-tech cameras or thermal equipment, in one of the pines tree top 80' off the ground and 15 miles from civilization.  A lot of money down the tube.

 

[MIB]

^^^^ One of the down sides of drones is my areas of interest are primarily designated federal wilderness areas.    Flight rules require aircraft of all sorts to remain at least 1200 feet above the surface.   Drone rules require them to stay less than 400 feet above the surface.   There's no overlap, no legal opportunity to use one for my application making them a cute toy and a total waste of money.   

 

MIB

[hiflier]

FLIR reads surface temperature. If there is a canopy or heavy ground cover then they are useless. Leaves will block a heat signature of something hiding behind them unless the heat source is close enough to the foliage to transfer its heat to the leaf surfaces. So the only way to detect anything under a canopy is if it the subject happens to be standing in a gap in the canopy. We see this all the time when a supposed BF is hiding behind any growth in the understory. It comes across as a little bit of white showing between or above the brush.

Edited November 27, 2018 by hiflier

[SWWASAS]

MIB    getting a good size drone with good on board gear into a wilderness area is problematic.    Good ones are large, heavy, and relatively fragile.   You cannot drive in to fly them.   No roads so you would pretty much only be able to carry the drone and  transmitter and not have much other gear with you.   Probably not a  good thing in a wilderness area.      Your concerns about legalities are legitimate, but other than people who have been caught operating drones close to commercial airports,  I have not heard of anyone being prosecuted for breaking the altitude rules.   I nearly ran into one flying over the Columbia River Gorge.   It was commercial in nature and in violation of the rules.    There is a commercial drone company in one of the towns there.    The American Modelers Association has fought the FAA and pushed back on a lot of restrictions.    They have been safely operating radio control aircraft for decades, self policing, and have had few problems.     FAA regulations are in place and the people that violate them, are the kind that do not learn or follow rules anyway.   Enforcement so far seems to be focused on those endangering others like airliners close to airports.  I see so few Forest Rangers in the back country away from roads that you are probably more likely to image a BF than get caught flying a drone.    

  

 

My experience with full size aircraft confirms that aircraft or drones are probably more useful in areas with less dense forestation.     Colorado, Montana,  Idaho,  the High Sierra, and Eastern Oregon and Washington are such areas.   You have to be scary low in a manned aircraft to get a good image of something.   Too high and you could not resolve if what you are seeing is a human in Camo or a BF.     Rather than cameras in forested areas maybe LIDAR would be better than a camera.    It pretty much strips away the vegetation depending on how it is set up.   But the resolution of LIDAR is poorer than FLIR.    

[hiflier]

7 minutes ago, SWWASAS said:

My experience with full size aircraft confirms that aircraft or drones are probably more useful in areas with less dense forestation.     Colorado, Montana,  Idaho,  the High Sierra, and Eastern Oregon and Washington are such areas.   You have to be scary low in a manned aircraft to get a good image of something.   Too high and you could not resolve if what you are seeing is a human in Camo or a BF.     Rather than cameras in forested areas maybe LIDAR would be better than a camera.    It pretty much strips away the vegetation depending on how it is set up.   But the resolution of LIDAR is poorer than FLIR

 

Boots on the ground is what it boils down to. Or, in the case of Norseman, HOOVES on the ground. 

[MIB]

Very much problematical.    The access is by major trail with fairly frequent USFS crews and a whole lot of hikers with cameras.    Bad idea.     If I can't be legal at least I need to be sneaky.   I see no way to be sneaky.  

 

The area I'm interested was photographed by satellite a few years ago and appeared to be a very large sphagnum bog .. nearly a mile long and almost a half mile wide in spots .. with a couple of winding water courses going through it.   However, the north side, at ground level, seems to be 12-20 foot tall willows instead.    It's possible that's just a fringe layer with open area beyond it.    I'm going in from the south side eventually.   It'd be nice to know what I'm getting into because it might tell me whether I want to pack trail cameras in for deployment or just go for the fun of exploring.    I'm not sure you'd see enough from legal airplane level to know though binocs would help.    That's not appealing ... a couple friends of mine when I was in high school were drug enforcement cops.   They said looking down out of an airplane with binocs was a sure way to get vertigo, air sickness, and puke your guts out.  

 

MIB

[MichaelX]

On 11/20/2018 at 6:14 PM, Kiwakwe said:

I’m just back from 2 months or so out West.

 

Excellent trip report and awesome pics Kiwakwe, thanks for sharing!

 

On 11/20/2018 at 6:14 PM, Kiwakwe said:

At the end of my journey, after a sojourn in SLC, UT and along with a fellow conspirator  we made the trip out to Skinwalker Ranch, a place I’d heard of but not really known much about.

 

Always been interested in making a trip out to that area of Utah, based on all the stories, podcasts, Coast to Coast AM shows, etc. I've listened to/read about. If you haven't read the book by George Knapp and Colm Kelleher (a scientist employed by Robert Bigelow when his outfit NIDS was researching on-site), you definitely should! Some very hair-raising high strangeness incidents occurred on the property back when it was first purchased by the "Gormans" (a pseudonym for Sherman).

[Kiwakwe]

7 hours ago, MichaelX said:

 

Excellent trip report and awesome pics Kiwakwe, thanks for sharing!

 

Glad You enjoyed!

I haven't read their book though I'm interested and know it's received great reviews. I've listened to Knapp talk about it and you are right, high strangeness indeed!

It's an interesting area and we'd like to get back for a more thorough exploration. Another locale quite a bit further S into AZ is the Black Mesa/Shonto/Crossroads Trading Post area on the Navajo Reservation. That area just seems ripe:) And i love the network of dirt tracks out there, like a caffeinated spider web, a whole series of shortest distance between two points portentous mishmash...

 

 

 

 

[Guest Gilly Bean]

I'm brand new to the Sasquatch realm I haven't had an encounter just vivid dreaming, I live about 50 miles from the Smoky Mountains, any advice for a first time field trip please ?

[NCBFr]

Sure, have fun.  Pack a picnic and enjoy the mountains.  

[Kiwakwe]

1 hour ago, Gilly Bean said:

I'm brand new to the Sasquatch realm I haven't had an encounter just vivid dreaming, I live about 50 miles from the Smoky Mountains, any advice for a first time field trip please ?

Welcome GB! About your first field trip, tell us what your outdoor experience is. Are you going for a day? For a night or more?  I think you'll get better info once the crew has that narrowed down a bit. And for kicks, if you haven't already, check out what David Paulides has to say about Dennis Martin. 

The Bigfoot Observers Field Manual has some good info IMO, might be worth a look. If you've read a lot of sighting reports you'll find that they happen in every possible circumstance and activity...

 

 

Edited December 6, 2018 by Kiwakwe

[gigantor]

I'm tired of looking at that cold, rainy, dark picture of Oregon in the slider. The pic below is not from a field trip, but I need some warm, sunny, beautiful beach...  Longboat Key, Florida.