Thoughts on a Bleecker Sasquatch

Yeah yeah, I know.  Earl thinks I'm nuts too.

I am a skeptic.  I'm skeptical about the Loch Ness Monster, the Lake Champlain Monster (I can give you encounter stories on that one.  Click here.), UFOs, and Bigfoot.  I never really thought about a sasquatch until  last summer while here at the Unabomber Cabin.  There was a loud, odd animal noise not far from the cabin, making the dogs bark like crazy.  The dogs were outside, but wouldn't run off into the woods like they usually do to chase coyotes, deer, and whatever else is out there.  So I took my camera, set it to video mode, and recorded it.  What is that?  I posted it on the blog and on Facebook, and no one could positively identify it.  Most thought it was a coyote, some thought foxes, I thought an odd owl.  I jokingly said that maybe it's Bigfoot.  That got the wheels turning.  Pam and I started paying attention.

If you follow this blog, you've seen several photos of footprints.  I also had an amazing, gigantic hand print on the back of my car that appeared after driving down a dusty dirt road, effectively "dusting" the back of my car for fingerprints.  That photo was on this blog too.

So for the past few weeks, I've been scanning the internet for photos and first person sasquatch reports.  Most can be dismissed as hoaxes, and they're easy to spot.  Since sasquatches are thought to be apes, most of the videos are guys in gorilla suits.  The fake photographs are always fuzzy and out of focus.   But some of them took me aback.  If this video of a sleeping sasquatch is fake, it's very well done.  Maybe it's someone in a Wookie costume.

I read the blog of an area sasquatch researcher who finally, after repeated trips, had a very brief encounter.  He was standing watch with night vision googles with a group in Hamilton County, not far from here.  He saw what he believes was a sasquatch, spooked, who ran away from him very quickly.  He was so shaken that he dropped his goggles.  Based on the time he saw it, about two seconds from the time it appeared until it disappeared, measurements show that it was travelling at 28 MPH.  And it moved noiselessly.  Through the woods, silently, you wonder?   Well, Indians were said to be able to do the same thing, and claimed that white men made all kinds of racket when they traveled through a forest.  So I guess if your survival means you must be stealthy, you learn how to move quietly.

No, I still don't have any photos on the game cam, and Harry (and the Hendersons) haven't shown up on my doorstep, but I am now a solid believer that there is something out there.  Something ape-like, but not mountain gorilla like.  Mountain gorillas walk upright, but also use their hands for balance.  This is something that walks upright, like a human.  But it is certainly not human, not if it can run at 28 MPH.  That's pretty fast, especially in the woods.  Fast enough to catch young deer.

I also found two eye witness sasquatch sighting reports from Caroga Lake, which is only about 8 miles from here.  Another from Mayfield, just down the mountain, reports that a father and young son found huge footprints travelling across a field.  The sasquatch must have been running.  The prints were 12 to 14 feet apart.  Think about that.

So I've decided to really research the sasquatch, to try to separate fact from fiction.  I've ordered several books from Amazon.  Books that don't sound half baked.  I've also been contacted by a few sasquatch groups.  One from Georgia seems pretty sincere, and they're sending me a DVD (gratis) about how to track and gather evidence of a sasquatch.

Yeah, I completely understand.  Some of you think I've quaffed a few too many victory beers after sniffing boat paint.  That's probably true, but it doesn't change anything.  Those photos are still convincing, especially the hand print.

We're leaving here in early November so I'm running out of time.   Sammy (yep, I've named our sasquatch) might have to wait until next year.