Bigfoot ??

[MultnomahVet]

Hey everyone,

I have had absolutely no time to post anything the last few months. In fact, this is only my second post ever. I am actually posting this because its Fall and time to talk about Ghosts, Goblins and the like. However, I wanted to put my feelers out the and actually ask the question : Have you ever seen Bigfoot or traces of Him/Her/Them, while out on a back country hike? You would think that with all the locals scurrying around the well known trails (Horsetail, Multnomah etc) that if there truly are any Sasquatch out there, that they will most likely be found up towards the Bull Run or at higher more secluded areas on the Gorge. That said, tell me what you have seen, heard and perhaps even smelt during your travels. This should be a fun and excellent post to get us all ready for those darker and more mysterious Fall hikes to come.

To start things of, I will tell of an experience I had while hiking the Eagle Creek trail a few months back:

I arrived at the trail head about 9:45 on a Monday morning in what must have been late June. It was absolutely fantastic out on the trail with very few people to speak of and, even less as I got to about mile mark 4. It was also around this time that out of the brush to my left, I heard a sort of grunt like bird type sound. I know it sounds strange to say the least but I had this image of some large Jurassic Stork, stalking me to my left. I was on a portion of the trail right around where you pass a huge rock slide to your left (must have been just before it). I heard this sound rather close by twice and decided to hike a little faster . Luckily for myself, I never actually ran into what it was that had made the sounds. Interestingly, my in-law who is an experienced hunter and life long Oregonian, could not place the sound at all in comparison against anything he had ever heard anywhere while out and about the wilds of the state. I never have found out what it was and my search for any rational answer has come up with no answers. I suppose it could easily be a Bear but I wonder .

So there you have it everyone. Jump on in and join the fun. by the way, the views at Tunnel and Twister Falls were amazing that day as was the warm, "Bigfoot free" hike, back down later that afternoon

[anna in boots]

I used to hike with a guy who wore size 15 Merrells and had a long, grey ponytail. That's about as close as I've ever come to a giant, hairy biped on the trail.

But, as always, I keep my eyes open and the camera battery charged.

anna in (smaller) boots

[raven]

I heard such a cry once each on two subsequent days while in the Wallowas. Raised the hairs on the back of my neck, it most certainly did. I didn't get to see the varmint, but decided it was most likely a raven.

On the bigger story of signs of an unknown large critter: I have done a fair amount of travel over snow-covered Oregon and nearby terrain, and I have seen no suspicious footprints that could have been left by large creatures.

Steve

[pdxgene]

I was out at the coast on an exceptionally stormy day taking pictures of the waves and also what ended up being a nice waterspout that was actually touching just off Roads End Beach. In the film equal to dead batteries for a digital camera I was on picture 25 from a roll of 24 when I saw this...

Like all 'Bigfoot' shots, it's a little blurry since it was the last picture. By the time I avoided an incoming sneaker wave and got another roll of film loaded with my back turned, it had vanished...
So close......

[Cattrapper]

A few summers ago a friend and myself had been up in the Coast Range doing some scouting in preparation for hunting season. Dusk found us sitting on a ridgetop taking in the lay of the land. Shortly after darkness fell, we began to hear an odd sound, almost like a low roar, off in the distance. Both my friend and I have spent most of our lives in the outdoors, hunting, fishing, hiking, camping, and many other activities. However, neither of us had heard this sound before. Each instance of the sound lasted only seconds, its duration and tone varied only slightly, but the interval fluctuated greatly. We sat there listening for close to an hour, by now the sounds were coming from multiple directions almost as if in response to one another. After sitting there listening for that long and being unable to figure out what on earth was making this noice, we concluded that it could only be a group of Sasquach, so we desided to get the heck outta dodge.

It wasn't until about two years latter, while out solo bear hunt/scouting for deer and elk, that I heard this strange noice again. Only this time it was much closer and seemed to be coming form all directions. Furtunately, this time it was broad daylight, so it didn't take me long to discover the source of the sound. It turns out it was a bird, which was repeatedly swooping down over my head like a dive bomber. When I got home and looked it up, I was able to ID it as the Common Nighthawk. Apparently, I must have gotten to close to the birds nest and it was attempting to scare me away.

For those not familiar with the Common Nighthawk, the sound my friend and I had heard that night was nothing more than the sound of air rushing over the wings of the bird as they dive.

[Jane]

For a rich "story", I recommend Molly Gloss's "Wildlife"...

publishers comments:
In her highly original new novel, award-winning author Molly Gloss delivers a rare blend of "heady cerebral satisfactions, gorgeous prose, and page-turning adventure" (Karen Joy Fowler). Set among lava sinkholes and logging camps at the fringe of the Northwest frontier in the early 1900s, Wild Life charts the life — both real and imagined — of the free-thinking, cigar-smoking, trouser-wearing Charlotte Bridger Drummond, who supports her five boys by writing popular women's adventure stories. One day, when a little girl gets lost in the woods, Charlotte anxiously joins the search and embarks on an adventure all her own. With great assurance and skill, Molly Gloss quickly transforms what at first seems "pitch-perfect historical fiction...[into] a kind of wild and woolly mystery story" (Amazon.com), as Charlotte herself becomes lost in the dark and tangled woods and falls into the company of an elusive band of mountain giants. Putting a surprising and revitalizing feminist spin on the classic legend of Tarzan and other wild-man sagas, Gloss takes us from the wilds of the western frontier to the wilds of the human heart. "Never has there been a more authentic, persuasive, or moving evocation of this elusive legend: [Wild Life is] a masterpiece" (Kirkus Reviews).

[Arioto]

While summitting Mt. Adams around '97 my climbing(if you want to call it climbing) partner and I wittnessed two strange looking beings strolling at an fast click on a different ridge. They were too far away to get a good look, but they didn't seem to have polls or packs and they looked large. He swore for years to come that we saw 2 sasquatch, but I can't make that claim. It did make the hair on the back of my neck stand on end.

[Splintercat]

CubFan, that story reminded me of an incident at High Prairie, many years ago, when I thought I saw some sort of bipedal creatures walking among the trees on the far side of the meadow from the old lookout road (now a trail). I finally figured out that I was looking at bow hunters, ducking in and out of the trees, when I ran into one of their companions on my side of the meadow, though my heart rate was rather accelerated by that time! They always creep me out when I see them on the trail (as does the thought of being mistaken for game!).

Related story: way back when I worked at summer camps, we used to tell a campfire story about the "Sugar Bear", a gigantic creature who was addicted to camp junk food, and would tear open tents at the slightest smell of candy bars (can you tell what the moral of that story was?). Depending on the storyteller, the kids would be pretty jittery by the time the story wrapped up, but a bit later -- as they were eating their hot cobbler, and had resumed chattering -- a couple of staff out in the trees would start up the "bear" sound effect. It was VERY scary, and probably not something that would be PC in camps today, but something the kids would talk about all week (and it also helped a lot with flashlight and battery sales at the trading post!)

The "bear" noise was quite simple to make: take a number 10 tin can, and cut one end out. Punch a small hole in the bottom, and then thread a wet, 18" leather boot lace through the hole from the inside, forming a tail, with a knot in one end to keep it from pulling all the way through. Then hold the can facing away from you with one hand, and with a wet piece of leather in the other hand, give a long, steady pull on the lace. You'll get a most convincing "bear" moaning and roaring..!

Then, there was the story of the "Cricket Man"...

Tom

[mdvaden]

Seen no Bigfeet yet.

Before we moved from southern Oregon, I made sure to get some pics of the only real Bigfoot trap in the country.

Built in the 70s. It could last into the next century, or a fire or tree falling could end it's existence. Time will tell.

[Arioto]

Hmmm.... the trap seems to be empty. =)