Sadly I must write this, here I am sitting, thinking and wondering how to sum up a great expedition.
I guess I should start back when this was only a thought, a mere vision that occurred while I was in the woods listening, looking and wondering where Bigfoot was. The next thought was how can anyone prove the existence of the Sasquatch when we use a reactive method, storming into a place where a sighting might have occurred.
Then it hit me, why not try an old technique that was used by hunters for hundreds of years. Let's broadcast alleged Bigfoot screams and see what happens. Great idea, right? Well, I thought so, so much so that I downloaded some Bigfoot screams from my computer, transferred them to tape and set out on a mission, to lure Bigfoot to me.
Here I was in the middle of the woods, carrying a small tape player, volume turned up to the max, sending out what sounded like an old 78 record, with the calls barely sounding like anything more than a bunch of background hiss. OK, so I have a great idea, but a lousy way to deliver it! So I obtain a CD from a previous acquaintance of Bigfoot calls he recorded in Ohio that he had filtered all of the noise off of. Wow this is great, now I have everything to try this experiment out -- including a boom box CD player!
Well that turned out OK, in fact when we were playing the sounds up at "Squatch Central" (my cabin) we had a lot of activity (I will have more on this at a later date). But one problem I experienced is the weather, can't leave a boom box in the rain, and with the annual rainfall over 140 inches, you get the picture. Well, to make a long story short, I was looking everywhere in search of a system that is loud, weather resistant and durable.... Viola...I found it! A recycled siren box, a loud speaker that was once used on a battle ship!
Well, now I have improved the amplifier, added another speaker, and increased the wattage so much that if you're standing in front of the speakers, you will feel the noise and quickly become deaf. What a feeling!!!!!
Another problem... so I get a return call, kind of know where it is coming from, but if I go to the area and investigate, what happens if this thing goes around me and I never see it? ... ANSWER... I get a lot of people together and ask them if they would like to go along on a Bigfoot hunt.
I start e-mailing invitations to researchers on the west coast. Well, after about 50 e-mails and a sore finger (hunt and peck type) I located about 20 that were interested and could come to this event. As time went on, I lost a few and gained a few researchers, but whatever the outcome was on who was showing up would not deter me in the quest.
Joel Borges, one who has spent a hundreds of hours, and tons of money in the field with me, started helping me organize this project. His insight and clear attitude kept this project on track, and very well documented. He made placards for the vehicles, business cards and all the other things that I didn't think of. I couldn't have completed this project without his help.
So, we decided on a date for the project and e-mailed the researchers. After trying the e-mail thing for about a week, I decided to start a webpage with all the information included on it. If there were any questions, everybody knew the answer.
Another thought.... what if I go live with field reports, wow what an idea....
Here it is May 28th 1999, on my way to Patrick Creek Lodge. It keeps crossing my mind, what if no one shows up?... I was worried but one thing was certain, this project was going on, with just 2 or 20 it didn't matter. As I pull into the parking lot of the lodge, I see.....Manuel, and Lance...GREAT....GREAT.... I won't be alone. Well, by 7pm 16 researchers were in the meeting room, ready, willing and able to get this project on the road.
Manuel talked about casts and also showed what he collected. We all talked about what to look for and what we were going to do, got to know one another and became excited about getting started.
We started heading out from the lodge, eastbound on HWY 199 to the Snow Camp cutoff. Up the road for about 10 miles where we started getting into the forest. First sound blast.... No return, up another 4 miles, another blast... still nothing. This went on for a while until, I got stuck in the snow... at Snow Camp... well, I guess I should have known.
OK so now we are headed back towards HWY 199 but why waste anymore time, let's do some sound surveying...
Another blast....nothing, move on another 4 miles...another one...nothing.... blast, nothing. This went on until the radio crackles..."I hear something", another crackle "I got something down here"... WOW!!!!!!! talk about excited, I can feel my heart pound, thinking perimeter team... response team.... what's next... take a deep breath John... OK, I am fine. I listen, and listen, but can't hear a thing. I keep telling myself I should have worn that hearing protection when I was on the firing range.
Another transmission from Joel "John, come up here", so down the road I go where Joel is in the lead vehicle. He tells me that there are some campers right around the corner and that might be the source of the noise. I walked down the road and listened, nothing, a little further, I hear it! ... country music. Yes, folks Merle Haggard, that's what was playing. I talked to Lance, Manuel, Autumn and a few other researchers and they said it sounded more like a scream. To me their description sounded like a Squatch scream but we have to determine where this is coming from. Next move, let's eliminate this source and go around behind this location. Two hours later we are behind the original area on a road called Oregon Mountain Road.
We continued with sound blast every 3 miles when...... SCREECH....... I heard this one very loud and clear, To me it sounded like a bird screaming but it was after midnight! What was that I kept asking myself? One thing was for sure, it was close, possibly 100 feet away. We searched the area but came up empty handed. After being there for about 30 minutes, we decided to get going and try to get on Walker Road (where the Redwood Video was filmed). We pulled in around two or three in the morning, set up camp and because the speaker mount broke, I went to Crescent City to have it repaired.
Well at about 10:15 am I pulled into the Walker Road camp. We all decided that we should investigate the footprint Autumn and Guillermo found the previous day. Off we go down the road near the entrance where the footprint was found. Being careful to keep the integrity of the site, just Autumn and Guillermo and myself go into the area and locate the print. At first glance it looks very good with lateral slippage because it was on an inclined area. We called in Manuel (footprint expert) and he decided it was a bear print.
We combed the area and approximately 200 feet west of this print we found five trees that were broken at about the 5 foot level. The trees were found in an old apple orchard that was part of the Walker's residence back in the early 80's, and since then transferred over to the U.S Government.
Two trees had hair attached to them where the tree was twisted and broke. The color was red, and the length was about 3 inches long. The evidence was collected and put into plastic bags to be sent to be analyzed.
Now on our way towards the Hayfork area where there was four sightings in the last month.
We arrived in Hayfork in the late afternoon, tired anxious and anticipating a sighting. Funny thing happened while driving through town, kids waving smiling, it seemed like they were waiting for us. As we exit the town, deer were running across the road as if they didn't have a care in the world. As we started to go toward Hyampom, up a now narrow dirt road, we stop. Blast a call, and something calls back! Again I did not hear it but several people heard what sounded like a howl. All of us get out of our vehicles and set up a perimeter line. Because it was still light, Lance, Manuel and myself head out into the Forest. I go straight and Lance and Manuel go to the right. While looking for anything, I find a skeleton of a mountain lion. We continued looking and other than the bones, nothing.
Down the road we go blasting calls every 4 miles. Late in the evening we arrive in a gravel pit, set up camp, eat dinner and set up for a night of sound surveying.
We set out in a small team that consisted of Manuel, Lance, Autumn, Kelly,and myself and surveyed the surrounding area. We went into the Indian Camp area and blasted out sounds. We worked the area for about two hours with no success. We then returned to base camp at the gravel pit and called it quits for the night.
We had a quick debriefing at the camp and looked at the maps to
find the best way out if the Hayfork area. We decided to take back roads all the way
back to the 299 Hwy. This way we could keep blasting sounds and surveying the
whole way out, and not lose the whole day driving. Our goal for the day was to
reach the Bluff Creek area by sundown and work that area for the night. We surveyed
all the way back to the 299 Hwy. and had little success. We did find a few prints in
an area about fifteen miles northwest of our gravel pit base camp, but we were unable to
take casts due to the hard soil. We finally reached to 299 Hwy. and made our
way up to Bluff Creek. On the way we went through Hoopa, and Weitchpec. We
reached the Bluff Creek area about 8:30 PM and started sound surveying.
Once in the Bluff Creek area, we were disappointed that so many gates were locked (Port Orford Cedar root rot), but continued to blast calls every three or so miles. At one location we had stopped because someone in the back of this convoy heard something. Having starter problems, I had to keep my engine running, so I headed up past the lead vehicle and stopped about 600 feet ahead, so the other researchers could record without an engine sound in the background. As I was sitting there, I heard an owl like coo. I got out of the truck and walked down the road about 100 feet. While standing there, I heard a LOUD crash just down the hill from me. Because I was alone, I started walking backwards towards the safety of my truck, filming as I walked. Whatever it was, it was huge, it sounded like a locomotive pushing it's way through timber. Unfortunately, after about 45 minutes we did not hear anything more and we decided to move along towards Dry Lake.
Up the Dry Lake turnoff that turned out to be a four wheel drive road (I guess the U.S. Forest Service doesn't like to maintain any roads), and again LOCKED GATE!!! I am thinking to myself why on earth is this still locked, dry roads will not increases the danger of this fungus. As soon as I get home I am going to write my Congressman and let them know this is not acceptable. Anyway, enough said about one of the most inept departments in the U.S.
Well this is about as close as we will get so we set up camp, no return calls no movement, no bears, no nothing or if there was I was too tired to hear it.
We pulled up camp, and decided to go over to Fish Lake and have a look around, wow a lot of people there camping!!! Most of the other researchers had to go home and we all said goodbye, but Lance, Autumn and Manuel started our last leg of the mission, Klamath. I showed them Hunter Creek where a very good recording was made, and also where a Bigfoot was filmed.
Well this sums up this project, the recording will be analyzed along with the hair samples we got. The next big mission will be later this summer where the same researchers will participate, although this time covering a lot less territory.
I want to thank everyone that has shown an interest and sent letters of support, the researchers for being a part of this, Joel for helping out so much with planning and organization, Becco communications for radio support, Coast Auto (Curt), George at Cybersquatch for his interest and support.
Until next time -
When I get the results from the recordings and hair sample I will post them on the front page.