Worth while heading out?

[Richard]

I thought has been bothering me for some time now - is there any merit for doing investigations?

Sure it's great to enjoy the outdoors ith like minded people, however I have to questions the scientific validity of going out in the woods making calls etc ... Does it advance the field at all?
I do think trail cams are a great idea, but actively searching for something that may not wish to be found and may not even be there seems a bit of a resource pit.

Thoughts?

I am not downplaying anyone's work, just curious as the overall consensus as to the merit of said outings.

Cheers,

Richard

[Captain Morgan]

Resource pit, roger that one. If by resource you mean time and money.

On the flip side, Sasquatch isn't going to show up at my door with a pizza any time soon.

I would say most sightings are just random "crossing the road" and down the trail glimpses, and us trekking around whooping it up and banging on trees repeatedly doesn't seem to produce anything. (except tv notoriety)


"Investigation" seems like a lofty word, even if one calls themselves a "researcher". What exactly are we investigating, how nature mocks us city folks? How mud indentations and scat prove nothing?

If it isn't on film, and if it isn't clear and well lit, and if it isn't too far away, and if somehow it actually looks impossible to fake . . . then maybe, MAYBE it's worth talking about. Everything else seems to be coyotes or Barred owls.

There are hundreds and hundreds of close encounters, having vehicle rocked, rocks thrown, direct eye sight, but no one seems to have a decent camera running at the time. It would seem that getting the footage at the time, would be more productive than trekking around where it was seen a week, month, year ago.

[Richard]

And that is the reason why Capt Morgan and I get along so well!

I have never been a fan of active calling, rather like the idea of setting up traps should one come and check us out. Again, gives us the chance to get out in the bush and have fun!

I am thinking a fall outing after Canadian Thanksgiving. Thoughts? Would be mid October....Capt M will bring the rum!

[sawone]

Active calling works surprisingly well for big game animals (deer,elk, moose)in my experience, but hunters know from long experience what calls work in which situation. That can't yet be said for calling BF, until someone actually gets it right, and calls one into view. What does a horny female 'squatch sound like? Will a hungy BF respond to a dying rabbit call?

As for getting out in the field, the cpt. has it right; they're not coming looking for us, so we had best get out there and find them. I roughly calculate my days spent out in the woods in various pursuits over the last 45+ years at 2000 or more. In that time, I've actually had as many encounters with BF (2 sightings, 1 trackway) as I've had with cougars (2), lynx (1), and bobcat (2). Could we assume from this that there are as many Sasquatch out there as there are of these elusive cats? Probably not, but it puts the quest in perspective. The more eyes out there looking, the more likey a recordable sighting.

Brad

[Captain Morgan]

Put a couple of recorders around a baited area, put a couple around a camp, put 4 on a vehicle whilst driving down roads, move those 4 on to your person while hiking around, and you'll have nearly 500 hours of video that will need to be viewed just from one weekend. There's no free lunch.

I have no idea what a female sasquatch sounds like, Nikki Manoj? I think they in general are attracted to the sounds of children, or animals in distress. To me, call blasting would be that or soothing classical music.

They may also be attracted to some perfumes and colognes.

They would need to be in that area at the time, know of your presence, have some reason to check you out, and be able to do so from some safety vantage point. Beyond that I think it truly is a craps shoot and sheer luck of being out there.

[Richard]

I agree - if we are going to get footage of them, then we need to make sure we have cameras rolling.

Brad: Game calls may work for larger game, but they are (apparently) no where near the intelligence level of what a BF is supposed to posses. Therefore I think BF may be able to tell the difference in vocalization.

I do not see a difference of sticking your head in the ocean and making dolphin sounds using your voice, or playing the sound of other animals. Dolphins won't be attracted to that, rather they come by when THEY want to... I would argue that BF are the same.

Who am I kidding, any excuse to get out with my rig, some friends and a bottle of two of liquid courage and I'm game!

[sawone]

I just got back from 3 days in the bush, deer hunting with on old Irish cop buddy, and have a couple of photos that might be of interest here, but the site only allows 1mb max size, and mine are about 2.2 mb. The program I used to download it from my iPhone doesn't seem to have a "reduce size" option. Any ideas?

Don't get too excited, I didn't get that "perfect" BF pic, but I have a shot of what appears to be a track, but isn't (I'll explain, if I can get the pic downloaded here), and a shot of a cow moose and twin calves, taken at less than 80 yards, that sadly is only a blob moose, but shows the inadequacy of the cell phone cameras, under certain conditions.

It was, of course, great fun to get out with an old friend, camping under the stars that seem so incredibly bright and numerous when you're way out there. The food tastes better, and the drinks go down so much smoother, sitting under that super clear, super starry sky. :-)

Cheers,
Brad

[Captain Morgan]

Hi Brad, it's probably best to just upload your pics to one of the image hosting sites such as Flicker etc.

www.ebizmba.com/articles/image-hosting-websites

Then you can use a url from those sites in the forum post that will create a thumbnail or link here to save on forum disk space and bandwidth.

Yeah it's hard to beat a clear night in the bush for sure. Last time I was out I'm pretty sure what we saw was satellites flying by way high in the sky (space).

[sawone]

Thanks, cpt,, for the help. I now have a flikr acct, so let's see if this works:
www.flickr.com/photos/101683699@N07/9737741014/

Hey, I got it right!
OK, here's the story: walking along a skid trail through a recent clearcut, I saw this large depression in the soil that looked like a BF print, at first glance. It's obviously somewhat larger than my size 12 shoe, and at least an inch deep, in soil that my 210 lbs only presses down about 1/4". Actually, it's 4 overlapping cattle tracks, hence the depth of the track. Would it fool a novice searcher?

[Captain Morgan]

Good work.

I clicked the link before I read the rest of the verbiage and thought "double step" but yes, I think a lot of people would claim this is a genuine BF track.

To loosely quote Phat Moneytaker "It's obvious that this is a wide heel and if you can't see that you must be blind".

You can click on the photo and use the url from that to paste in too.

farm8.staticflickr.com/7317/9737741014_d6732b0c2e_k.jpg

[sawone]

Here's the other photo I mentioned, showing that even at fairly close range, a cell camera can be woefully inadequate; at the top of the S bend there is a cow moose, with twin calves standing behind her. Though just a blob in the picture, they were very clear to the naked eye. I probably shook the phone just a wee bit while pressing the shutter. Had that been a BF, I would be kicking myself forever to have blown a shot like that. Lesson learned: in future any trips out in the woods will include my Canon Powershot. Though old and outdated at 4 Mpx, it still takes much better pics in shadow like that.

www.flickr.com/photos/101683699@N07/9737769690/lightbox/

[Captain Morgan]

I don't want to hijack Richard's thread about the validity of going out in the field with other topics, so we can pick this up in a new thread of you wish.

As for the original post, I think going out has high validity because it's the only means and mechanism for us to gather information, recordings, photos etc. Whether those means themselves have any validity or voracity is another sub topic.

I've always maintained that I have no expectations to ever see anything in my life, and that going out in the field, camping etc is just therapy with some extra labor "just in case".

Going out a time or 2 or dozen and not getting the mother of all Sasquatch photos then saying "I quit" isn't an example of a realistic expectation.

[sawone]

Sorry, I didn't mean to get too far away from the OP's subject here. I definitely agree that getting out in the field is an essential part of the quest for proof of Sasquatch's existence. Without evidence found in the field, whether found by "us", as interested searchers, or by accident by those who spend their lives out there, there will never be a chance that "serious" scientists, or the general public, will accept that existence.

It seems, from what I've read here, and elsewhere, that tracks, sighting reports, and pictures aren't going to be enough to establish the proof of our quary; it's going to take a whole or partial specimen to convince the sceptics. The only place to find that specimen, is out where they live.

Your last 2 sentences make me feel very comfortable here, as I think along the same lines. I'm very much looking forward to meeting some of the members in person, hopefully on an outing, looking for that piece of evidence that will be the "smoking gun". (figuratively, not literally) ;-)

Brad

[Richard]

Sawone and Capt'n Morgan - no worries about hijacking, I just wanted to stir up some type of conversation - too often we let this site go silent - and being that it is one of the few places that have sensible people to discuss the topic, it seems a shame not to ensure the site continues.
After all, if I have to hear from another lunatic that they are able to befriend and talk with Sasquatch, I think I am going to cry!
Richard

[sawone]

Thanks, Richard, you did stir me to conversation, though I do get a little carried away at times. I've enjoyed this exchange with captainmorgan and youself, and I hope that others will continue to keep this board alive; it would be a shame to see such a serious, rational, and objective group fade into the sunset!