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For believers; do family/friends believe/support you?


PNWexplorer

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I'm sure the topic has been discussed before, but search didn't find anything.  So I apologize if it's been discussed to death before.

 

Out of my entire family, no one else believes.  But, they don't judge me or ridicule me for my belief.  It's not a topic that comes up often, so not really a big deal.

 

My daughter thinks my belief is entertaining and has bought me a Bigfoot coffee mug and an official Bobo "Gone Squatchin'" trucker cap.   They are proudly on display in my china cabinet, lol.  My dad lives right where there was a sighting a couple of years ago and I was just out at his place doing some repairs on his home for him and I pressed him on the issue.

 

If anyone was a prime candidate for seeing something, it would be him.  He is now in his 80's and was a former professional big game hunter.  He used to write for Field & Stream and has been around the world hunting just about every creature that you would think to hunt.  Multiple African safaris, dozens of trips to Canada and Alaska hunting everything, a fishing/hunting trip to New Zealand, and even a trip to Siberia to hunt bear.  He even owned a couple of bush planes and had his pilot's license with hundreds of trips into the wilderness.

 

When I asked him if he had ever seen anything that resembled Bigfoot, or experienced anything he couldn't explain, he said absolutely not and said if Bigfoot existed, surely he would have seen it or someone else would have shot one.

 

My brother is a Detective for the local county in Idaho and used to be the Woods Patrol Deputy.  He had a Jeep that he drove for 3 years at night in the deepest woods in the area, hundreds of miles every week.  He knows every road in the county and he said he's never seen anything.  Being a cop, he is skeptical of eye-witness accounts and really doesn't believe anything he hasn't seen with his own eyes.

 

My girlfriend is a skeptic and refuses to watch any Bigfoot shows with me.  However, I did get her to watch the Missing 411 movie with me tonight on Amazon.  She loves mysteries and agreed that the vocalizations recorded by the hunters in California were indeed strange and believable.

 

I've got one buddy who was a former Air Force Special Forces SERE instructor who believes, but won't discuss what he saw.

 

Other than him, none of my friends or family are believers.  When I lived in Arizona, I had a good friend that believed.

 

So currently, I'm pretty much on my own.  

 

What's it like for others here that are believers?  Do any of your family or friends believe?  If not, are they at least respectful of your beliefs, or is it a sore subject?

 

 

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All of my family and friends have listened to my adventures and only a few are either skeptics or don't hold an opinion.  The lion's share ask me all the time what's new and my close friends go sasquatching with me. For me, no ridicule at all and most are ambivalent or believers.

 

Once, I had a friend who laughed when I mentioned sasquatch but after I spent a half hour explaining "things" that I had seen or heard he became very interested. He's not one of the guys who goes on expeditions with me but always asks me about them.

 

Some of the footprints I've seen, all of the wood-knock replies I've heard, all of the red-eyeshine incidents, the rock-throwing incident, and the thermal-video recording has occurred when I've been out sasquatching with buddies of mine.  That has served to raise the eyebrows of other friends of ours who don't join in on overnight or weekend expeditions and our collective description of those events has them interested.

 

People are more likely to believe in something they've seen or experienced themselves. I think the simple truth is most of my family or friends are believers but most are also profoundly afraid to be in the woods at night. They're scared, gladly admit it, and won't ever be in the woods at night. It's one thing to drive to a location knowing you can jump in the car and hightail out of there. It's a horse of a different color to backpack miles into a location knowing you're not leaving until morning.

 

One friend was very curious and joined several of us on an overnight. We went back to an area a good distance from humanity where several of us had an red-eyeshine incident a few weeks earlier.  As I'm glassing a remote, small pond with an intensely narrow-beam flashlight, don't we have another red-eyeshine encounter.  I said, "Brian, get over here now." He dashed over, saw the eyeshine moving side-to-side and, "I knew I shouldn't have come!". He was secretly hoping nothing would occur and was scared to death the rest of the evening. He'll still do day-time excursions with me but, to this day, he will leave the woods before the sun sets.

 

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Edited by wiiawiwb
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I've heard a wood knock recently while in the woods and am sure I've heard dozens over the years, but only since learning about the phenomenon the past couple of years have I actually realized what they were and the significance of them.

 

I'm sure my dad and brother have heard them or seen things that they never associated with Bigfoot since they are ignorant of the signs.  I'm afraid it will take a full Class A sighting to convince them.

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I ask people to explain to me who, or what, made the return wood knock. A lot depends on the area you are in when you hear a wood knock. If you are in an area where people can access it easily, the explanation could be it was a person who did it.  However, if you have traveled deeply in the woods and are not in an area where others would be, a return wood knock takes on a whole new meaning.

 

One time, at night, I had two return wood knocks to my single wood knock. They came from two different locations. Myself and a friend were in an area that you had to hike in for miles. It is very remote and no one else would be there in the area by day much less at night. The first return wood knock came from across a pond and the other return knock came from our side of the pond a few seconds after the first. I went back the next week and conducted echo tests in both locations. Echos came from different locations.

 

Two of my friends weren't convinced so I asked them to come during the day with me to the location. They did and we first re-enacted my wood knock and listened to the echo. They heard for themselves it came from an entirely different location to either of the return knocks I'd heard the week before. Then, we bushwhacked to both locations of the return knocks and did re-enactments there as well. They saw for themselves how inaccessible the areas were and how it was very difficult to move around by day much less at night. They whistled a different tune after having been to the spot and conducted a test themselves.

 

I think it is very helpful to bring friends or family to locations where you go. People are so accustomed to living life in suburbia where humanity is right next door.  Get them out in the woods, even during the day, and let them see for themselves how utterly vast the forests are. Then let them explain how plausible it is for a hoaxer to be out in the hinterlands just waiting for hours in the blackness of night, with a piece of wood in their hand, hoping someone else initiates a wood knock so they can scam them.

 

 

Edited by wiiawiwb
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Does your girlfriend go with you into the woods? Would she stay overnight with you in an area you are interested in?

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My only personal experience is one trackway found in the early 1970's in California. Forty five years of living in southcentral Alaska and hunting throughout Alaska has produced no further personal experience, with the possible exception of a strange wood knocking that I thought was a moose rapping his antlers on a tree. 

 

My family displays what I believe is common; amusement at my interest, but deep down inside, they're open to the possibility, and they fear it, especially the females. They know me, and if I'm so certain, they pretty much accept the likelihood that sasquatches exist, so like a grizzly bear, they are so afraid of them, they don't want to have an experience with them.

 

My youngest daughter lives to buy me sasquatch shirts and such stuff. 

 

My Dad, who grew up in a Louisiana bayou, became a quiet believer after the PG film and Argosy article was published. He was the first person who suggested to me to leave them living in peace and forget about "discovery", because it would b best for all concerned to leave them be.

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My significant other is equally interested in the subject and believes that there is something out there.

 

Other people are a mixed bag.  Several of my friends in New Orleans were very interested in these sort of things, but I haven't found very many in South Carolina.

 

Many of my girlfriend's family believe in it and have even had encounters.  Others laugh at it.  

 

At the end of the day, who cares?  As long as they are not constantly belittling you or attacking you for your interest, who cares?  Several people who I know think that it is silly.  And why wouldn't they?  An 8 foot tall ape man living undiscovered in the 21st century?  No body.  Just ambiguous audio clips, blurry video, and easily hoaxed footprints.  The topic is represented by the most cringe inducing people imaginable in media.  Why wouldn't the average person think that it is kind of silly unless they had an experience themselves?   When people look at me genuinely baffled about the subject I can only agree.  I don't blame them.  A lot of it doesn't make sense.

 

Imagine that you are someone who is slightly interested in the subject.  You go onto YouTube to check out some videos... and the very first thing that you come across is Matthew Johnson giving one of his unblinking and unhinged monologues about Zorth.  You would walk away thinyk that the subject is crazy too.

 

 A friend of mine is considered the world's top breeder and trainer of coon hounds.  He has probably spent more nights in the woods than in a bed.  He constantly gives me grief about Bigfoot.  He's never seen one and believes that it is impossible.   But, it's in a joking and loving manner. I also bust his chops about how his wife wears the pants in the family.  It's just two guys busting on each other.

 

If you are running into people who want to belittle you in order to feel better about themselves, then you can either ignore it or punch back.  "Yeah, Greg.  I look for Bigfoot in my spare time.  What about you?  What sort of #$#@# stuff do you do in your spare time?  Golf?  Golf??? Golf is for $##@##.  Here, let me tell you why". 

 

Finally, a lot of people who instantly start disparaging the subject do it because they know that people in general think that it is crazy. They don't want to be thought of as crazy themselves.  Get a couple of beers into that same person and just wait for that "Well, there was this one weird thing that happened..." story to come out.  A lot of them have had experiences with something ...they just don't want to be called crazy themselves so they don't openly talk about it.

 

 

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Admin

Good topic PNW.

 

I was a skeptic when I first found the BFF. I did allow for the possibility and was intrigued by the PGF, but was not convinced at all. It took field research and a non visual experience to convince me.

 

My wife is a believer now, but it wasn't always that way.

 

15 years ago when we were dating she thought Bigfoot did not exist and that the whole subject was silly. After we got married, she had to accept my squatching trips and started paying closer attention. Once WV Footer and I actually recorded some wood knocks, she started to allow for the possibility.

 

Then in one trip, WV footer and I got followed for about a mile through the woods....  When I got home and told her all about it, she became really interested. She then went squatchin with us a couple of times and once in the deep woods, she realized that the developed landmass is very small. That convinced her and now she's very supportive.

 

 

 

 

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Moderator
7 hours ago, PNWexplorer said:

What's it like for others here that are believers?  Do any of your family or friends believe?  If not, are they at least respectful of your beliefs, or is it a sore subject?

 

For the most part family and friends have been more supportive than I expected.    There are exceptions.   Less as time passes.   Probably the most problematical person of the past has .. well, not quite "come around", but finally told his own story.   What it tells me is that many critics were not honest skeptics, not even honest scoftics, but rather they were terrified believers who wanted it all to go away.    While things that were said were hurtful, in context, they are worthy of more pity than anger.  

 

MIB

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50 minutes ago, MIB said:

Probably the most problematical person of the past has .. well, not quite "come around", but finally told his own story.   What it tells me is that many critics were not honest skeptics, not even honest scoftics, but rather they were terrified believers who wanted it all to go away.    

 

MIB

My experience as well.  

 

 

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My family takes my word for my experiences, in fact my oldest son had a sighting while camping with me in his teens. I've only had 1 hunting partner who scoffed at the idea, others are open minded skeptics. These days, all the guys I go out in the field with are researchers, and we've had one group experience of rock throwing from several directions at the same time.

 

I drove tours for Bill Miller's "Sasquatch Adventure Tours" for 3 summers, and had lots of clients who swung from skeptical to possible believers, after hearing the local sighting stories, handling Bill's collection of print casts (Bluff Creek, Greys Harbor, "cripple foot"), seeing the PGF explained by informed guides (Bill Miller, Thomas Steenburg, and myself), and seeing the extremely wild forest country around Harrison Hot Springs that our tours on the ATV took them through.

Edited by BC witness
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8 hours ago, wiiawiwb said:

Does your girlfriend go with you into the woods? Would she stay overnight with you in an area you are interested in?

Yep, we try to go on UTV rides as much as possible.  And some of those rides are very deep into wilderness areas.

 

As far as camping overnight...  Nope.  Not until I buy a camper with a bathroom and a toilet, lol.  

 

Our last ride was on the edge of civilization near the Idaho/Montana border.  It's an area that most skeptics from other parts of the country just can't imagine.  They are familiar with the woods in their region, where you can walk in any direction for a few miles and run into a Starbucks, or at least a town.  Where we were in the photos below, you could walk for 70 miles to the East and not see a paved road.  Bigfoot could go undetected in this area for decades, or centuries.

 

 

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Since we both saw something and my family and his family know we are not crazy my gut feeling is they believe what we told them.

As to supporting it ...I don't give that much thought so not sure .

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Even though my family and friends enjoy my "bigfoot stories" only one adult grandson shares my belief and believes that when I talk about my experiences, I am telling the truth, which I am. My wife does believe that if they exist, they are demons. I don't know where she gets that from, but that's what she believes. My brother who, from two "encounters",  has seen one in the woods behind my parents house that he described as a large man in a bear suit floating through the brush and another time in the High Cascades,  he saw what appeared to be three boulders in a moonlit meadow in the timber. they stood up and chased him out of the meadow in an upright position and although he admits that it is unexplainable, he can't concede that it is bigfoot related, because he can't accept that they might exist. What a strange conundrum indeed.

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I have a very close friend that several years ago told me of the black cougar he saw while getting firewood.  He asked the conservation officer about it and got a reply that someone had probably  let a exotic Cat go. (Panther?).

 Recently I have been researching sightings and have come across several who claim BF was on all fours, And thinking it wasn't a Cat I asked my friend about his experience. He claimed not to remember the incident.

 The people I run across who claim a sighting seem to change their mind, I guess its their way of coping. Of not having to believe.

 

  My wife supports me, at least she appears to.

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