2019 Field Work in SW WA.

[SWWASAS]

Slipped my leash yesterday and got out into the field.   Talk about social distancing,   I never saw another human.    The objectives were to visit my old research area and show my companion as many of the contact locations as I could.   Both to add context to my encounters and look for any signs of present activities.    I pulled into the road leading to the NEON site, and a large sign indicated that the area was now off limits due to the COVID 19 thing.     Worried about something getting the virus?     I wonder.     What was puzzling was that I passed a popular county park getting there and it was packed with vehicles and people hiking around.     I nearly blew off the trip but being so familiar with the area, knew a way in, that would not take me near any warning signs.     We parked and hiked in.      The first location was where I had been subjected to chest beating because I had peed in front of a watching bigfoot.       I have mentioned,   that after reporting that encounter to the BFRO,   I noticed two trees had been marked with blue paint about a month later.     When I pointed that out to my hiking companion I noticed for the first time that the paint on both trees had a blue FU.   Now I am wondering who did that and what FU means.    We slipped around a locked gate and hiked into the area on an abandoned logging road.        The next location was the collapsed lava tube and the spring that bubbles out of it.   Near that was the log which I was hiking past that got me zapped.     A tree had blown down and now rested on top of the rotting log.    It is larger than I remember. It is about 4 feet in diameter and a BF could easily have hidden next to it and not been seen.       The stick that I had found inside the log  and left there was not in it but laying nearby.     The log is definitely full of termites.   I could see the side of the log full of termite borrows.    No indication that it had been messed with further since I had last been there,   other than the stick was no longer inserted into it.      

 

From that point we went to the location where I got growled at.    While there was some down threes when that happened,  there were many more there now.   When you clear cut,   the trees at the edge of it are exposed to unrestricted wind and blow down at horrific rates.      Some of the root balls were 20 feet in diameter.     After traversing the clear cut, we went into a area where a creek runs downhill in a forested area and I have found many footprints crossing the human trail.     Another human had been there recently,  but no BF prints.     The next location visited was where I had my first encounter.     Standing in the same spot,  I described the approaching whoops,  pointing in their direction, and how I was standing in the trail with no nearby cover to hide behind.    I just stood there,   expecting to be run over by the producer of the heavy footfalls headed right at me.   When I finished telling about the event and we took a different route back to the truck.  My companion was surprised that I knew the area so well.      On the abandoned logging road,   I showed the location where I was hit on the back pack by a rock.     The wonderful thing about the area was that is was so active yet was in just a few square miles.   I was really lucky to have found it.    But at the same time it hurts to have it go inactive.       We managed to get back to the truck and be home before night fall.     

 

 

[wiiawiwb]

SWWASAS, thanks for sharing and you've had some amazing experiences. How far in different directions from the site of these events are there any residential homes and human activity?

 

The FU has me curious too.

[Huntster]

4 hours ago, SWWASAS said:

.........No indication that it had been messed with further since I had last been there.......

 

When were you last there?

[SWWASAS]

There are no homes within 10 miles.    I have not been there to the area for about 2 years.    Mostly due to a series of lung issues and the lack of foot print finds after all the clear cutting.    All of the events I mentioned and a couple more event locations that I did not visit,   are within a mile of each other.       My first footprint find was 7 miles North of there, beside a trail that runs to the cluster of events.      While it was clear cutting that  finally stopped the activity there in my research area,   before that clear cutting pushed me along the trail,  in the direction of the cluster of events.      So clear cutting both started and ended my research area activity.   

 

   Footprint finds are rare.      But if an area is active they will be found with enough frequency to signal you have found the right place.     The problem being that you have to spend a lot of time, boots on the ground,  hiking around looking for them.   Probably more time than most would want to spend.  That put me in the mix to have contact.    My gut feeling is that there was something there to hold them in the area as the clear cutting moved closer.   Has to be something like a cave or lava tube where they had shelter.   I cannot imagine that spring bubbling up was the only draw.     At this point,  I am too old to continue that kind of field presence.   I was pretty tired after I got home.    Had I found anything the other day,   I would be back but there is so little cover there now,  I cannot imagine BF are even in the area any longer.      My gut feeling is that they moved East,  deeper into the Gifford Pinchot where there is very little logging.   That has to have pushed them into a winter survival quandary, because they would be in snow much longer each year.     My research area was at an elevation it was in and out of the snow level most of the winter.       They could move up and down to avoid snow, move to more moderate temperatures,   and still avoid humans.  I could also take the field year round.   But East has snow cover most of the winter, closed roads, and limited access.     Just getting deeper into the GP makes a day trip very difficult.    I took a few pictures so will post them.     

[SWWASAS]

This is the picture of the rotting log where I was hit with infrasound when I walked passed.       My hiking pole is about 4 feet tall.     You can see that it is a big log.   Same log as I found a stick pushed inside the end.    The other picture is where I think the BF was hiding when I passed it and got zapped.    The log is just to the right of the depression.    The vegetation was all matted down there.    Makes me wonder if the BF was looking for termites when I came along the trail.    The third picture is the creek that runs through the area.     It runs year round.   

[Huntster]

On 3/28/2020 at 11:31 AM, SWWASAS said:

........  Footprint finds are rare.      But if an area is active they will be found with enough frequency to signal you have found the right place.     The problem being that you have to spend a lot of time, boots on the ground,  hiking around looking for them.   Probably more time than most would want to spend.........

 

Plussed for this observation. I agree. If footprints are found in an area, odds are high that you've found a rare hot spot. 

[SWWASAS]

16 hours ago, Huntster said:

 

Plussed for this observation. I agree. If footprints are found in an area, odds are high that you've found a rare hot spot. 

I suspect most footprint finds are entirely accidental.    During the dry months they were very hard to find even though the area was active.     I have stated it before but my footprint findings and active area location was not entirely accidental.    At the danger of boring the reader,    let me detail the process of finding my research area so that others can use it with similar circumstances.         I started my field research by reviewing BFRO and published book sighting reports.    I found a small cluster in an area fairly close to where I live.   I was able to visit the exact locations of each sighting report.    Looking around and trying to figure out at the location what the BF was doing in the area.    One sighting by a newspaper carrier near the Lewis River was easy to find the exact spot from the BFRO report.    Logic said that the BF was coming to water.     Possibly to fish at night because the river has a Steelhead run or just to drink.    Across the road I noticed sign of a game trail coming straight down the hill to the road.   Examination showed use but no hoof prints for deer or elk.     It was quite steep and while a human could come down,   there were easier spots fairly close a human could do.    Since the game trail pointed that direction,   and  across the river was a named mountain with a history of vocalizations in the mid 1990s,   I wondered if the BF was traveling that direction and crossing the river.     I was able to get to the other side of the river opposite to where the game trail came down to the road.    Sure enough,   a faint game trail came up from the river up a steep embankment.    The human trail in that location was steep and a series of switchbacks.    I could not follow the game trail directly but could by using the human trail with switch backs.     At the side margin of the human trail,  I found a partial footprint in the gravely soil,   that was 5.5 inchs wide at the toes,  and plainly showed toes.    Based on the width that makes the foot likely over 20 inches long.     The footprint and a smeared print on the other side indicated the BF had stepped across the muddy human trail and continued straight up the mountain on a faint game path.     I followed that up the mountain as far as i could.    

 

Ok recent footprint and old vocalizations sure pointed to that mountain.   I climbed it several times,   summer and winter but never found any more footprint evidence.    Then to my dismay they began clear cutting the Northern flank of the mountain.    That continued across the top and down the East side to the Southern flank.     Anything there would be pushed South.      The trail up and over the mountain was not fun because of the climb,  so I located the end of the trail to the South with easier vehicle access and began to explore that area.    Pretty much being chased by the logging I began to hike around an area by a year round creek.    One July day,   it was hot,    the trail was getting overgrown and I was wearing shorts, so I turned around went South instead of North,  then turned again to explore a side trail,   heard distant whoops back and forth,  that were coming my direction, one headed directly for me.       Heavy footsteps, breaking underbrush,  heading towards me, I had no place to hide near the trail and waited to get run over.     It saw or smelled me and went into a crouch with a big thud.     Seconds later 4 rapid wood knocks, then silence.   Moving towards the sounds camera ready,  I got my picture of the juvenile peeking over the ferns at me.     Well at that point the encounter and  the BF traveling into that area seemed significant.      I targeted that area as my research area,   found footprints periodically.   and had several encounters with what seemed to be a family of them.    That continued until clear cutting rolled though the area and displaced them.      That was the entire evolution of how I found my research area and others likely could use the same process to find an active area.  

[hiflier]

Nice wrap-up, SWWASAS. Your method was sound in how you zeroed in on your research area and you responded to the early game trails in fine logical progression. Your pattern of deducing location from even subtle signs is a lesson in observation for all of us. These creatures cannot be in an area for an extended period without leaving indications of their presence. Determining early on the fact that there were no signs of hoof prints is a very important key point. Thank you for sharing this information.

[SWWASAS]

Deduction is not everything.     A big dose of luck and a lot of intuition can help.   

[hiflier]

You're right, of course, but you're research in the beginning was very important in setting up your "luck". It gave you the area you focused on. You put the pieces together and went out there. I also think intuition is actually the result of one's subconscious organizing data which then gets brought forward when in the field. We end up noticing thing in the field that we would otherwise miss. Sure, there some luck involved when it comes to discovering trace evidence, but there's more to it than that. 

Edited March 31, 2020 by hiflier

[SWWASAS]

My hope is that other people in other areas can use my experience and process to find their own active areas.     As a side note,  I have been unable to find where the BF family that I was interacting with went when they moved out.  I suspect this group was very adept at being around people.    Many popular trails and a couple of parks were in their area and lots of humans around on weekends.       So wherever they moved,   they are very good at avoiding people and not being seen to generate recent reports.     The one that seemed to interact with me was an older juvenile.    Much of what he did (gender just a guess) was likely play to him but seemed to involve him getting close to me to do some prank and getting away without being seen.    That may be play but it is a very valuable skill to a BF.  I would not be surprised if that was encouraged by the adults in the family.    Certainly they knew I was not going to harm them and I would be a safe victim to play with.    I wish that would have included me getting a good look at the older juvenile or one of the adults.  If the game was mess with me and not be seen,   the juvenile certainly was very good at it.   He will be a very stealthy adult.   

[MIB]

On 3/31/2020 at 1:45 PM, SWWASAS said:

seemed to involve him getting close to me to do some prank and getting away without being seen.

 

Yep!  BTDT.  

 

On 3/31/2020 at 1:45 PM, SWWASAS said:

Certainly they knew I was not going to harm them and I would be a safe victim to play with.

 

I share that assessment.   In two close approach instances, I was hunting with a stainless steel rifle in my hands plain as day.   I can only assume that I .. me, MIB, not a generic human .. had been watched over a period of years, patterned, probably tested without even knowing I was tested, and deemed not to be the panic and shoot or shoot first and ask questions later type.    My father, who has spent many more years in one of those locations than I ever will, has never seen the vaguest hint of a bigfoot there.   If you were to sit with us for a half hour, it would be very very clear why our results are different.

 

MIB

[SWWASAS]

While I had a weapon with me during my first encounter,    it was not visible because I had been hiking in a county park that is posted no weapons.     I had taken it off and put it in my pack.      All the rest of the time I was plainly wearing a side arm.    I guess I got a pass because of being within a few feet of a juvenile and not harming it.   I would guess I was under surveillance pretty much all the time I was in my research area.     I certainly felt like I was being watched much of the time.    I wonder what behavior would be deemed as dangerous by a watching bigfoot other than shooting everything in sight?     I never so much as shot a can because nothing ever happened when someone was shooting anywhere close enough to hear.    Maybe they did not think I knew how to shoot?     I saw nothing to make me believe they can read minds.    If they could, one might have humored me and showed itself. 

Edited April 2, 2020 by SWWASAS