sawone
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Post by sawone on Apr 14, 2014 0:34:46 GMT -5
Since I don't see a thread for discussing field trip experiences, I thought I'd get one going.
Today, Sun, April 13th, 4 of us from this forum got together for a trip to a local area to do some hiking, and looking for signs of Sasquatch, such as prints, scat, hair, and of course hoping for a full-on sighting. We got on the road early, on the assumption that our target, like most other forest dwellers, would be most active in the 2 hours after sunrise, and the last 2 hours before sunset. We arrived at our chosen trail right at official sunrise, 6:30, and set off along the well maintained trail, paralleling the creek for a few km, then the trail crossed over to the FSR for another several km. The hard ground, covered in dead leaves, made spotting tracks on the trail problematic, but the damp areas along the edges of the FSR held more promise of spotting any tracks that might be there. Our wildlife encounters were limited to a blacktail deer crossing the road as we drove up the main road in, and a raven sentry announcing our presence at the point we made our hike turnaround.
No evidence of any sort was found, but we all got several hours of good healthy exercise in a beautiful setting, so it was certainly time well spent, with good friends. We plan to do this sort of thing on a regular basis, and strongly encourage other groups of members to get together and do the same.
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Richard
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Thinking I should be out in the bush ...
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Post by Richard on Apr 14, 2014 21:48:28 GMT -5
Since I don't see a thread for discussing field trip experiences, I thought I'd get one going. Today, Sun, April 13th, 4 of us from this forum got together for a trip to a local area to do some hiking, and looking for signs of Sasquatch, such as prints, scat, hair, and of course hoping for a full-on sighting. We got on the road early, on the assumption that our target, like most other forest dwellers, would be most active in the 2 hours after sunrise, and the last 2 hours before sunset. We arrived at our chosen trail right at official sunrise, 6:30, and set off along the well maintained trail, paralleling the creek for a few km, then the trail crossed over to the FSR for another several km. The hard ground, covered in dead leaves, made spotting tracks on the trail problematic, but the damp areas along the edges of the FSR held more promise of spotting any tracks that might be there. Our wildlife encounters were limited to a blacktail deer crossing the road as we drove up the main road in, and a raven sentry announcing our presence at the point we made our hike turnaround. No evidence of any sort was found, but we all got several hours of good healthy exercise in a beautiful setting, so it was certainly time well spent, with good friends. We plan to do this sort of thing on a regular basis, and strongly encourage other groups of members to get together and do the same. I should be in for the next outing! Hard to plan on my end, but will do my best! Any plans for coffee this weekend? Sunday is out of the question, but perhaps another day/night? R
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sawone
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Post by sawone on Jul 27, 2014 12:43:40 GMT -5
I've been terribly lax about keeping this thread up, my apologies.
The regular group of 4 has made several more trips out to an area that we chose for research, exploring a little of the valley, from creekside to the top of the divide of the next watershed valley. So far, we have found no physical evidence, but we did have a curious incedent on one outing, when we heard what sounded like rocks passing through foliage 3 times over a 10 minute period, each time from a different location, relative to our lunch break point. That certainly caught our attention.
Yesterday, I took a couple of old hunting buddies for a day trip up into the Placer Mtn./Placer Lake area, east of Manning Park. I know of 1 sighting report from the lake, and several others in the Ashnola Valley, which forms the southern slope of the range that Placer is part of. The surface of the logging roads was still a little soft from our recent heavy rains, making for ideal tracking, but all we found were hundreds of cattle prints, and a few deer tracks. The area has been extensively clear cut in the last few years, to salvage pine beetle killed wood, and that has completely changed the ecology of the area. We notice4d that the meadows that used to be home to thousands of ground squirrels, and the coyotes that lived on them, were devoid of any burrows now.
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sawone
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Post by sawone on Jul 28, 2014 3:39:11 GMT -5
billr and I did an evening run up our research valley today, going in at a little after 6, as the last of the daytrippers were coming out, drove to the end of the main logging road, and started back out, taking every branch that we could get into. The final one we entered was blocked earlier in the season with a rockslide, but had been cleared just enough to get through today (well, almost, I did bend my running board coming back out!), so we were seeing new ground. We finally reached a point where I felt the trail was getting too rough and overgrown to continue, found a spot wide enough to turn around, and started back out. Shortly after, I spotted headlights coming up from behind, so someone had been in a bit further, but as soon as they spotted my tail lights, they dropped back, and though I was crawling down in low/low, we never saw them again. A Google search later showed that we had been very close to the end of that trail.
We got back to pavement about 11PM without seeing any animals other than a small furry tail scooting into the weeds well after dark. No prints, no eye reflections, nothing of interest at all. It was a different way to spend a Sunday evening, though.
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sawone
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Post by sawone on Sept 2, 2014 1:17:11 GMT -5
Another episode today. I was getting a serious case of cabin fever this past week, so I called up some of the group for a Labour Day foray into our "Area X". Yep, some of them were game to go, when I called a few days ago, but today, I couldn't reach a couple of them, and the 3rd was bagged from 2 days with no sleep, so I went to plan B, and called my oldest boy, Steve, who happened to have had his own sighting in our AO about 35 years ago. He was happy to get out in the woods with Dad for the day, so I loaded up the cooler, camera, and other "Squatchin" gear, and we hit the road. The roads have changed a lot in the 30 years since we spent a fair bit of time in that valley, with old logging roads deactivated, and new ones run to new areas, so it took us a while to locate the right one to get us to the spot we had stopped at all those years ago, where Steve had seen a huge black figure walk upright along the timberline at the top edge of a clearcut while I was tinkering with camping gear, and missed the creature. The clearcut now has almost mature 2nd growth timber on it, but we were at the same location, at least, and hiked a km down to the lakeshore below the road, and trekked along the shore, Steve on the West side, and I on the East, looking for tracks. All he saw was a lone deer trackway, and I came across several human shoe trails, even though the shore was quite wide, since the water level was down about 15' from maximum.
During the rest of the afternoon, we drove to the end of every branch of the road system, took several more hikes along old roads that were no longer passable, and spoke to a few other people we met out there, and saw no more tracks of anything, and no game animals at all. I think we've had that result often enough in this area during our outings this season, that it's safe to write it off for this year, and concentrate our efforts elsewhere.
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sawone
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Post by sawone on Sept 8, 2014 1:45:22 GMT -5
Since we have chosen to write off our earlier research area as a "dead zone' for the present, Thomas, Magniaesir, and I decided to scout another nearby creek valley this afternoon, one with a long history of sightings, including the famous Ruby Creek "home invasion" of 1941, and a sighting by a bear hunter as recently as 2008, which was investigated by Thomas, who found and cast a large footprint in the mud near the sighting.
We knew that there was a major power transmission line being built through this valley, and across many others in the region, as well, and wanted to see how much of the valley was affected by the construction. We were only 2.5km up the logging road when we got the first clue; 5 large trucks from the utility company came rumbling through in convoy, raising huge clouds of dust, on Sunday afternoon! The lead truck stopped, and asked us to let the others clear before proceeding, which we did, and let us know that they were the last outbound for the day. We continued on to the site of the hunter's report to Thomas, which Thomas said had changed dramatically since that time, as the electric company had filled several acres of a swampy area, to build a large capacitor station,almost on top of the incedent location.
The rest of the day was spent following the roads deeper into the valley, until we reached a high point that gave us a good view of the whole upper end of the watershed, from which we could glass a large area of clearcuts and the powerline right of way, so we stopped to stretch our legs, check the topo map, and let Thomas load his pipe for a good smoke.
We found no sign at all, and think there's too much construction and logging activity right now to devote more time here, so it's on to the next area next weekend.
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sawone
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Post by sawone on Sept 21, 2014 20:18:18 GMT -5
The group managed another outing this month, on the first day of fall, which felt like the middle of summer, with bright sunshine, and temperature at 29C most of the afternoon. We chose to check out a valley near the east end of the Fraser Valley, south of Hwy 1. The start of the FSR is a little obscure, but we managed to locate it, and found the road to be in decent shape, as there is some active logging ongoing at the extreme end of one of the branch roads. The road climbs steeply for almost all of its 11km length, with a number of clearcuts in various stages of regrowth along the way, eventually ending at the present logging operation, near the crest of the eastern ridge of the drainage, at a spectacular lookout area with a view of most of the watershed.With the soil still damp from rain earlier in the week, we hads hopes of spotting tracks, but that didn't happen.
We drove back down the valley, and back on to HWY 1, past Hope to the site of a report from about 2000, to have a look around. The site is already quite overgrown, compared to its open state at the time of the incedent. On another side trip along one of the valleys south of the highway, we found a very nice campsite, and a member of the group is planning a late fall campout there.
It was wonderful to get out "on the hunt" for the day, see some new terrain, and spend time with friends and family who enjoy the search. A nice late afternoon lunch in Hope topped the day off, and the drive home went so smoothly, that the youngest member of the party (15) managed a good nap on the way.
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billr
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Post by billr on Sept 23, 2014 11:57:15 GMT -5
Yes she was quite the trooper Hanging out with the old guys
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sawone
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Post by sawone on Nov 1, 2014 23:39:47 GMT -5
Road trip!!
billr and I got together for a combined road trip, Sasquatch search, and hunting safari today. We set off at 8AM, headed 1.5 hours east, then spent the rest of the morning on a muddy, rutted logging road, looking for tracks of deer (both types open, bucks only), black bear, spike/fork moose, and large hairy bipeds. We not only found zero critters, we found zero tracks, too. This was a surprise, as the road surface was soft from a week of rain, and should have shown where animals were crossing. After heading out to Merrit for lunch, we spent the afternoon on the plateau where I got a cinnamon colour black bear a month ago, with the same negative results over about 40 km of dirt roads. We were back home for supper by 7:30, tired, dirty, hungry, and glad to have had a day out in the woods. Next weekend is a campout with several other local researchers.
sawone
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sawone
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Post by sawone on Nov 9, 2014 23:51:38 GMT -5
The campout generally went well, with only minor glitches. The first member arrived on Thurs. to set upcamp, the second arrived Fri., though a bit late, and myself and and a guest got in Sat., again, later than planned,as the road that was in great shape 6 weeks ago, when we scouted the area, had deteriorated badly with the arrival of the fall monsoons, now very soft and rutted in some areas, and potholed badly in others, for long stretches. What should have been a 20 min. drive in to the camp was more than an hour of bone jarring bounces. The weather co-operated up to Sat. night, when the rain hit, and continued into Sun. AM, so camp was cleaned up and vacated by the last parties by 11.
The hunt for Sasquatch was unproductive, with no specimens showing themselves, and no tracks found on the muddy trails and roads. As always, it was still well worth the effort to get out there and spend some quality time with good people.
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billr
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Post by billr on Nov 11, 2014 4:50:41 GMT -5
Set my soaking wet tent up in my front yard Monday afternoon to dry and air out Around 1:30 my pit bull starts going nuts at the front window I get out of bed to hush him and see that someone trying to steal the tent So now the collapsed tent is on my back porch
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sawone
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Post by sawone on Dec 15, 2014 1:42:19 GMT -5
We headed out at 0800 this morning, the only hitch was that billr had a plumbing problem at his house, so couldn't make it. That left myself, Jason C., and Thomas Steenburg to do all the work . Heading north along Hwy 7, we saw numerous eagles along the slough, as well as lots of gulls, so there is obviously still a fish run going on, a good sign for spotting hungry wildlife. We even saw a flock of whooping cranes, all snowy white and long necked, fly over the road just in front of us. Eventually we were at our turnoff, but to my dismay, found that both the truck ahead of me, and the SUV behind me, were both making the same turn into the river valley. To be expected, I guess, as today is the last Sunday of deer and grouse/ptarmigan season here. A km or so up the logging road, I let the following SUV pass, while we pulled over to get out cameras to be ready for that brief few seconds of excitement when the quary is sighted, which unfortunately never did happen. The only wildlife seen on the off hwy portion of the trip was a large owl, species undetermined, sitting on a stump in a clearcut about 100 yds away. The head and wings were dark coloured, while the breast was off white or very light tan, hard to tell in the shaded clearing, as the sun was not yet above the peaks to the east. The logging roads we followed had survived the recent heavy rains very well, with no washouts or mudslides, but were blocked by some large downed trees, marking the limit of our travel up that particular creek. Jason swears that he'll get a chainsaw before our next trip out! Other branches that we explored all ended at deactivation trenches well beyond the capabilities of my TrailBlazer to cross. The temp., during the morning, varied from 0 C to -3 C, so it was frosty, but no tracks were found, though Thomas did check out a few spots that turned out to be just frost heaves in the forest floor. We eventually called it a day, and headed back out to pavement, and stopped for a late lunch at a cafe which caters to the local loggers, hunters, and bikers travelling through the area. The food is very good, the waitresses buxom, and the prices reasonable, so it was a worthwhile stop. We're already talking about future, and longer, outings, so I will keep you all up to date as we carry on.
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sawone
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Post by sawone on Jan 18, 2015 19:54:19 GMT -5
The group made it out for our first recce of the new year today, hitting the road at 0700, and at the target area by 0800. We went to the same watershed as the previous outing during the late fall salmon run, to see if there was any remains of the fish carcasses left to feed the wildlife. The few bodies that remained were almost totally decayed, so there's not much left there for any scavengers. We drove further up the logging road, till it became a little too icy for the 2 wheel drive truck we used for this trip, parked it, then hiked another couple of km in, looking for tracks in the inch or 2 of melting snow that was being washed away by the steady drizzle. There were numerous deer prints, including one very large set, and a couple of sets of coyote prints, but nothing else except tire tracks and boot treads. The area will be explored further as the year goes on, since it looks promising, and there have been nearby sightings in the last decade. There are numerous side branches of the main logging road, and a well marked hiking trail through part of the valley, so lots of area to check out.
Jason C. shot some more video interview clips featuring Thomas, which should be up on youtube on Thomas' new channel in a day or 2.
We stopped for lunch at around 1300, and discussed future trips, then solved all the country's problems over coffee, before heading home to dry out the damp hiking gear.
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Sheldon
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Post by Sheldon on Jan 22, 2015 7:52:39 GMT -5
Good reads SawOne, be enjoyable to join you chaps one day.
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sawone
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Post by sawone on Feb 1, 2015 22:28:16 GMT -5
Another day trip today, back to the area we concentrated on early last year, to see if there had been any changes to access, or to the ongoing powerline project in the region. It rained all day, giving a surface that would show fresh tracks easily on the normally hard road, but all we found were tracks from a large coyote, no deer, bear, or Sasquatch. We did stop to shoot 3 videos with Thomas, for his ongoing website. These should be posted in the next few days on www.thomassteenburg.com along with some more written material from his files. We did hike in to the lake that my son and I had walked the shores of last summer, but the rains had filled it so high that there was no open shore area to scout for tracks at all. The only excitement of the day was being splashed with muddy water by some idiot in his "Off Road Special" F150 tearing up the trail toward us at stupid speed, then having him come up from behind 40 minutes later on his way out, and do the same. I thought we might wind up scraping him and his truck off a rockface, or the bottom of the creek gorge, further on, but no luck there, dammit.
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