Getting back out....

[wiiawiwb]

I've just become unschackled from the drudgery of work. This past year offered once-in-a-lifetime challenges, and untold hours spent, on Covid-related matters. 

 

I'm used to getting out in early Spring, long before this, looking for activity, such as prints, in muddy areas. Can't wait to get out this week, backpack loaded with gear, and just focusing on the forest.  What secrets lie there waiting to reveal themselves?  I will likely miss many, perhaps almost all of them, but a few await detection.

 

I hope others revel in the beauty of Spring and rebirth of the forest. It's the time of year for enjoying outdoor adventures and allowing ourselves to experience all that lives within.

 

Better late than never....and hopeful for many "Field trips 2.0" posts in the months to come.

[NorthWind]

Awesome, and congrats! I hope to be getting out tomorrow, too!

 

Be safe, and may you find what you are looking for.

[BlackRockBigfoot]

We are in the field all through the fall and winter.  However, we’ve had a ton of other commitments over the past month and a half...and haven’t been out once.  
 

I have been speaking to two separate witnesses that are about an hour from each other, so my plan is to do a preliminary solo scout next weekend to familiarize myself with the area and met the people involved in person.  

 

My partner is actually taking a wilderness survival course this weekend, and she let me know via satellite text that the instructor has had several Class B encounters as well as a possible class A.  The messages are brief, so I look forward to learning more when she gets home.  This guy is on an area where we haven’t really had much experience in, so I am hoping that he opens up a new avenue of investigation.

 

@wiiawiwb& @NorthWind,

 

Good luck out there and be safe!  Hopefully we will all have a great summer and get plenty of interesting experiences to share with one another!
 

 

[wiiawiwb]

@Northwind   Thanks!

@ BlackRockBigfoot  Thanks also.

 

For no good reason, I've never immersed myself into encounter followup. I think it would be absolutely fascinating. Seeing and hearing about encounters and experiences, some recent, and listening to and watching the reactions of people. I think that is a great idea.

 

I've taken wilderness survival training and it was life changing. The one I took was an 80-hour course in 1995 offered by a three people who were Tom Brown survivalists that had formed their own survival group. It provided the foundation for being able to go out and survive if circumstance, or fate, required you to do so.  Friction fire, building a shelter, wilderness navigation, and so much more.  It was a confidence builder. You knew you could handle most nasty things that nature could throw your way.

 

I hope your partner will share her experiences and you both can have fun in the process.

 

 

 

 

[BlackRockBigfoot]

33 minutes ago, wiiawiwb said:

@Northwind   Thanks!

@ BlackRockBigfoot  Thanks also.

 

For no good reason, I've never immersed myself into encounter followup. I think it would be absolutely fascinating. Seeing and hearing about encounters and experiences, some recent, and listening to and watching the reactions of people. I think that is a great idea.

 

I've taken wilderness survival training and it was life changing. The one I took was an 80-hour course in 1995 offered by a three people who were Tom Brown survivalists that had formed their own survival group. It provided the foundation for being able to go out and survive if circumstance, or fate, required you to do so.  Friction fire, building a shelter, wilderness navigation, and so much more.  It was a confidence builder. You knew you could handle most nasty things that nature could throw your way.

 

I hope your partner will share her experiences and you both can have fun in the process.

 

 

 

 

I usually take the same approach as you... going into remote areas and kind of looking for whatever signs of activity that I can find.  
 

We get contacted by a fair amount of people (mostly my partner) concerning their activity or experiences.  Most of the time it’s experiences that they have had in the past.  If the area seems interesting, then we will check it out.  
 

We don’t investigate current claims of activity as much as others do...and for a few reasons.  

A) The location.  If it is beyond a reasonable days drive, I am going to need a lot of evidence before I buy that plane ticket.  Also, if they are claiming activity in a fairly populated area...I pass.  

 

B) Safety.  I am certain that one of the two families that I mentioned above is experiencing activity...but, it’s a volatile situation.  I don’t have a problem going out in the woods with a 5’2” female and being responsible for my own safety.  But, I don’t like to be around a bunch of frightened people with firearms who are going to start taking potshots in the dark.  I’m not catching a stray round...or having to end up testifying at a murder trail about a Bigfoot hunt gone wrong.  I may very well scout out the area and just focus my time on the more stable of the two families.
 

C) Other investigators.  I will talk to people who claim to have activity, but will then tell me about the people from a a Facebook group who came out and looked around already.  It’s nothing to do with competition or anything.  If the other people are competent, the everything is already in good hands and there is no need for my involvement.  If they are just random people on the internet, then the possibility of contamination or even hoaxing to help along the story just increased.  

It’s got to be something special or really close by to make me want to deal with claims of current activity.  Honestly, most of the time it’s active imaginations or a city dweller who has just moved to the country and isn’t familiar with the surrounding wildlife.

 

I did have a funny one that popped up near me.  A lady was terrified because there were creatures coming up to her fence and making monkey like noises at her dog.  She has lived in the area all of her life, so she was isn’t mistaking coyotes or anything.  I figured that this would be a great real-time investigation close to home.

 

Ended up being her new neighbors.  California transplants bought the adjacent property.  Like most of the recent arrivals from the  cities, they don’t really talk to us dumb rednecks who already lived here.  So, she had never spoken with them and didn’t know that they had brought peacocks onto their property.  
 

Peacocks.  That was the source of the monkey noises that were driving her dogs crazy.  Case closed.  If I had driven 6 hours for something like that I wouldn’t have found it as funny.
 

 

Edited May 16, 2021 by BlackRockBigfoot

[wiiawiwb]

Great stuff, BRB.  I remember a dozen years ago an acquaintence told me his co-worker had an encounter. This was a company that did work for organizations that needed an environmental impact study. I spoke with him by phone and he told me had a close encounter. Less than 20 feet.  It scared him badly and he made a being out in the woods alone.

It created enough of an issue he left the company and did no more field work.

 

I can see why you are discriminating in whom you choose to visit. You could be wasting your time. All I had at stake was a phone call. I wonder how the BFRO screens reports to avoid sending investigators out on a wild goose chase--two hundred miles away!

 

Is your partner enjoying the wilderness survival work?

[BlackRockBigfoot]

1 minute ago, wiiawiwb said:

Great stuff, BRB.  I remember a dozen years ago an acquaintence told me his co-worker had an encounter. This was a company that did work for organizations that needed an environmental impact study. I spoke with him by phone and he told me had a close encounter. Less than 20 feet.  It scared him badly and he made a being out in the woods alone.

It created enough of an issue he left the company and did no more field work.

 

I can see why you are discriminating in whom you choose to visit. You could be wasting your time. All I had at stake was a phone call. I wonder how the BFRO screens reports to avoid sending investigators out on a wild goose chase--two hundred miles away!

 

Is your partner enjoying the wilderness survival work?

She’s loving it so far...at least from what I can tell by the Inreach messages.  At this point I am just getting preset “I’m still alive “ messages.  Lol.  We’ll see how she feels when she gets home.  This was a fairly short course...three days.  

[Madison5716]

Very cool, BRB!