The Sasquatch Handprint

Since our finding of apparent sasquatch signs, I've been studying sasquatches.  Are they real or not?  I have books and the internet for tools, and it is all pretty convincing.  Footprints, videos, photos, and audio recordings.  But as near as I can tell, while there have been hundreds of plaster casts made of sasquatch  footprints, but nothing of a hand print except one muddy print many years ago.

Remember this?

I found this print on the back of our car after driving down a dusty dirt road in Bleecker, which covered the stern of the car in dust, effectively dusting for fingerprints.

First, look to the left of the window.  See the smudges?  Something rubbed up against the side of the car.  But that's not it.

Well, look at the base of the thumb in the photo above.  See those parallel horizontal lines?  Those had me baffled, and kept me from being 100% sure this was from a sasquatch.  What is that?

I had joined a Facebook sasquatch page, posted that photo, and asked for feedback.  About half weren't sure, the other half tried to explain it away as being human, or faked.  The lines on the thumb print were thought to be a knit cuff of a jacket.

Well, it wouldn't be a knit cuff.  First, the lines go the wrong way.  Secondly, this was September.  We don't wear winter jackets with knit cuffs in September.  Besides, there was also a second thumb print to the right of this one, with the same marks.

I was at the end of Dr. Jeff Meldrum's excellent book, Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science and I got to the chapter on hand and foot prints.  Meldrum says that sasquatches aren't human, of course.  He believes they are a type of North American Ape.  In talking about the plaster casts of sasquatch foot prints, he says that casts of the real ones (as opposed to the hoaxes) have dermal ridges.  Apes have "friction skin" he said that aids them in climbing.  Friction Skin are dermal ridges and are found on the soles of feet and the palms of hands of apes.  PALMS OF HANDS!!   DERMAL RIDGES!!  THAT'S IT!!

Now, there is no doubt in my mind whatsoever that we have at least one, but I suspect a family of sasquatches living by us in Bleecker.   While the hand print is the most convincing bit of evidence I've seen, here are the rest of my sasquatch photos.

Some fun facts I've learned...  sasquatches are omnivores, and eat meat.  Like deer, dogs, and probably people.  They have a very,  very loud howl, starting below the range that humans can hear, and use the low tones to stun their prey.

They'll shake trees to let you know that you're annoying them, like in this pic, as well as knock sticks against trees, something I heard in the summer of 2013 and thought was male deer knocking felt off their antlers.

They build nests by bending over trees and weighing them down with logs, and then covering them with small branches and leaves.  Like this.

And they mark their territory by twisting small trees and branches.  Like this.

And sometimes trees are bent in odd fashions to mark... something.   Like this.

But most people don't know that.   Their first sasquatch sign  is usually a huge human-like footprint, like these.

When we return to Bleecker this spring, I'm going to buy plaster so we can cast the foot prints.  Meanwhile, Pam and I are just outside the Ocala National Forest, a sasquatch hot spot.  Maybe we'll look around.  Then again... they are omnivores...