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Post by rastaman on Feb 3, 2015 13:43:09 GMT -5
You guys ever checkout the area around Chilliwack Lake at the end of Chilliwack Lake road? Lots of wild and desolate country still left in that area, close to the US border. Not many people to be seen there in the winter months.
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vilnoori
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Post by vilnoori on Feb 3, 2015 17:41:45 GMT -5
I have been in times past and found prints I thought were either a squatch or some madman walking barefoot in the sand at south beach in early winter. I've walked there with a friend and had stones fall or thrown though because there is a cliff it could be just chance...though very strange how the stones fall just as we pass by. Freaked me out some. Then there is the nearby bible camp that I camp in for 2 weeks every summer. First night out there was the strangest sound from not far off which freaked everyone out, though it might have been a coyote or cougar vocalization...plenty of those tracks around and campers did see a young male cougar several times. But I figure there are the usual draws, teenage girls, kids shrieking, smells of cooking food and it is good wilderness so who knows. Oh, campers in times past have seen big figures standing in the woods nearby also, and bad smells. lol We still go, I tent the whole time with bear spray beside me. Oh, that reminds me, that area now has grizzly that came over the border from the Mt. Baker area where they were reintroduced by parks so be aware. One staff member saw a big one in camp just 3 years ago. Chances are pretty good they are spreading up into the Chilliwack River Valley.
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sawone
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Post by sawone on Feb 3, 2015 17:42:45 GMT -5
Actually, rastaman, there are a lot of people out there during the winter months, as the Chilliwack River supports a pretty good winter Steelhead run, and Steelhead fishermen are crazy enough to stand in the freezing water in their waders for hours to get that elusive bite.
We don't usually give a specific location for the outings, as we are aware of local hoaxers who might find amusement in planting "evidence" if they knew exactly where we were going at any specific time. That said, yes, we have ventured there in the past.
ETA: Hi, vilnoori, we were obviously posting at the same time. It's nice to see you here, I missed your posts recently.
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billr
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Post by billr on Feb 7, 2015 0:10:22 GMT -5
I have been in times past and found prints I thought were either a squatch or some madman walking barefoot in the sand at south beach in early winter. I've walked there with a friend and had stones fall or thrown though because there is a cliff it could be just chance...though very strange how the stones fall just as we pass by. Freaked me out some. Then there is the nearby bible camp that I camp in for 2 weeks every summer. First night out there was the strangest sound from not far off which freaked everyone out, though it might have been a coyote or cougar vocalization...plenty of those tracks around and campers did see a young male cougar several times. But I figure there are the usual draws, teenage girls, kids shrieking, smells of cooking food and it is good wilderness so who knows. Oh, campers in times past have seen big figures standing in the woods nearby also, and bad smells. lol We still go, I tent the whole time with bear spray beside me. Oh, that reminds me, that area now has grizzly that came over the border from the Mt. Baker area where they were reintroduced by parks so be aware. One staff member saw a big one in camp just 3 years ago. Chances are pretty good they are spreading up into the Chilliwack River Valley. Glad to see that you are back posting again
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Post by Jason C. on Feb 14, 2015 22:46:45 GMT -5
Oh, that reminds me, that area now has grizzly that came over the border from the Mt. Baker area where they were reintroduced by parks so be aware. One staff member saw a big one in camp just 3 years ago. Chances are pretty good they are spreading up into the Chilliwack River Valley. Good information on the North Cascades Grizzly... www.conservationnw.org/what-we-do/northcascades/north-cascades-grizzly-bearGood to see you back Vilnoori.
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sawone
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Post by sawone on Feb 15, 2015 1:25:28 GMT -5
Good link to the bear project, Jason. Thanks.
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sawone
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Post by sawone on Feb 15, 2015 19:42:27 GMT -5
The group got out for another look in our chosen research area today, in beautiful sunny weather. The problem with the bright weather was that it attracted every 4x4, ATV, and shooter in the Fraser Valley into the woods. We had about 40 minutes of quiet time on a hike in the morning, before it got to be like your average urban mall in the timber! We did 2 hikes, and found that once we got away from the easy roads/trails, we did have the trail to ourselves, though the gunshots and explosions (what the hell?) were still audible. Our total wildlife evidence for the day amounted to a few coyote tracks, some old bear tracks, and one smallish black bear hightailing it to the next valley to get some peace and quiet, though I suspect that was a hopeless mission.We called it a day after about 4 hours of noise and mayhem out there, and headed back to our usual hangout for a late lunch, and planning for future missions. Jason did get a couple of videos with Thomas on some related topics, which will appear on his website in due course.
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sawone
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Post by sawone on Mar 1, 2015 20:53:19 GMT -5
Feb. 28th outing
We (Thomas S., Jason C., MagniAesir, myself) left Thomas' place in Mission at 1500, in my Trailblazer and Magni's Sierra, headed for our primary research area. We reached our pre-chosen base site, at the very end of a deactivated logging branch road, just before 1600, and set up our table, chairs, fire ring, and other gear (spotting scope, video cam, both on tripods), and spent the next 45 min or so collecting and cutting firewood, as the predicted low was 0C (32F).
The site we chose was about 1/2km below the main access road, 100 m above the large creek that drains the valley. There is heavy 2nd growth timber, on a steep slope, between the site and the creek, and a recent clearcut of about 500m x 300m extending uphill above our position. As we set up, we could hear gunshots from 2 makeshift target ranges, each around a km away. By sunset (1820) the shooting quit, and in the next couple of hours, we could hear numerous trucks and ATVs departing the valley via the main road above us on the mountainside. While that was going on, we boiled a kettle for coffee, tea, and hot apple cider (my fav), and ate the the huge "log" sub that Magni's wife had sent along (thanks, Pauline), with nacho chips, followed with Tim Hortons doughnuts for desert, of course. The temp very quickly dropped from the pleasant 8C when we arrived, to the predicted 0C shortly after dark, so some time was spent in "layering up" to stay warm for the evening.
As the 3/4 moon rose, it became quite bright out, as the sky was crystal clear, with a beautiful "moon dog" halo around our sattelite, and visibility was close to a km in the open, so our only NV scope didn't get used much, except to occasionally scan the forest at the edges of the clearcut. Jason and Thomas did a walk back along our entry route, while Magni and I kept the fire stoked, and scanned the area around the base. We heard a coyote chorus in the far distance at one point, and the occasional bark nearby. There were the usual branch cracks and bumps in the night, but nothing really noteworthy. When Jason and Thomas returned from their walk, we sat around the fire, and Jason set up the video, then Thomas did an interview with me as the subject, discussing my sighting, my son's sighting, and my trackway find, all of which occured in this same valley, about 35 years ago. We all carried on about the Sasquatch field in general, with the camera running, so there's probably 30 min of video that will appear on thomassteenburg.com as soon as Jason gets it all cleaned up and edited. By midnight, we were getting low on firewood, and tired, so we packed it up, and returned home to our warm beds.
I had a couple of personal misadventures during the evening, but survived with everything but my dignity intact. The first occured while I was tending the fire; in stepping around the fire ring to grab a piece of wood, my foot slipped off an unseen branch on the ground, I stumbled, and fell sideways, landing right on the edge of the bed of coals. I managed to get out of there quickly, with a little shove from the others, and only burned a small area on the seat of my outer layer, my good camo pants. The second happened as we were loading up. As i approached the rear of my truck, with the liftgate raised, I whacked my head against the edge of it. The ground sloped upwards just enough at the rear of the truck, that the liftgate, which I can normally walk right under, was relatively lower, and almost knocked me back off my feet! I have a small scrape on my scalp, which might have been a lot worse, if I hadn't been wearing my touque.
The group is looking forward to some weekend campouts as the weather warms, but this was a good start, at least taking care of our urge to "get out there" for the time being.
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Post by rastaman on Nov 4, 2015 1:11:01 GMT -5
Any new research outing reports? The fall and early winter are good times to get out into the great outdoors.
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sawone
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Post by sawone on Nov 4, 2015 23:54:01 GMT -5
Yes, numerous day trips, a couple of late night campfire outings, and 2 longer camps, involving our usual group of 4 plus a couple of extras each time, 1 on the Aug. long weekend, to correspond with the BC Cryptozoology picnic near Harrison, and another 4 day camp from the 22 Oct to the 25th, which included multiple trail cams and some night searching. Non of these resulted in any tangible evidence, though I did find a few interesting "maybe" tracks on the most recent Oct camp.
I just got back this evening from a 4 day deer/moose hunt in the Hurley River region with a couple of non-squatchers, but of course I was on the lookout all the time while there. Not only did I come up dry on Sasquatch sign, but I never even saw any deer or moose, and there's lots of them there! Maybe I need new glasses?
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sawone
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Post by sawone on Feb 7, 2016 2:58:45 GMT -5
Definitely do post them, novice, with pics if you have 'em.
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sawone
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Post by sawone on Feb 9, 2016 0:27:31 GMT -5
Got out with the crew (Thomas and Jason; billr was dealing with an overnight break in at his daughter's new business) for a half day in one of the watersheds on the N side of the Fraser River with a few sightings recorded, one of which we investigated about this same time last year.. The day was unseasonably warm, and sunny, and being a stat. hol. (Family Day) here in BC, unfortunately every 4x4, ATV, and shooter had the same idea. :-( Every side trail we got to had a group shooting down it, a 4x4 bouncing down it, or a quad swarm tearing up and down it. We did stop to check out a newly installed suspension bridge across one of the creeks, at a nice waterfall. Thomas and I hiked up the steep trail to the falls, while Jason stayed behind at the truck. Since we were walking alongside the noisy creek, we couldn't hear much else, but J called on the 2 way to let us know that we'd spooked up a pack of coyotes, who made a ruckus about our presence. We eventually got beyond the worst of the crowds, into the section of road that still had some snow, where we could cruise along looking for tracks. Sadly, we saw virtually no tracks of anything other than trucks and people. Reaching the point where the snow was dragging the truck's underside, I opted to turn around, as I have no chains yet, and only moderately effective A/T tires. The chains and nice meaty off road tires are coming, just waiting on adequate funding. We called it a day by noon, making a note to ourselves to avoid long weekends in the areas close to the Big Smoke. I did get a few shots for your enjoyment, most too big to upload here.
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billr
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Post by billr on Feb 9, 2016 0:33:52 GMT -5
Thanks
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Post by Captain Morgan on Feb 9, 2016 12:51:39 GMT -5
THX
Too bad 1\2 the country side is spoiled due to human activity. I'm fairly committed to a week on Vancouver Island this year and I want to completely avoid this where possible.
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Cryptosaurian
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Change is in the air...and so is the Search!
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Post by Cryptosaurian on Feb 9, 2016 18:01:43 GMT -5
Definitely do post them, novice, with pics if you have 'em. Okay everyone, here are my Okanagan lake Fieldwork 2014 journal entries (unfortunately the pictures I had were on another laptop of mine which broke down. don't worry: the sighting wasn't on there): What do you guys think? May. 7th/2014- Day 1 Weather: Sunny, no clouds Water conditions: very good; smooth, hardly any waves. Sightings: none Location Gellatly Bay Beach, West Kelowna, BC –Kalamoir Regional Park, BC Sighting description: N/A Summary: *11:45 location change to Kalamoir Regional Park.* At Gellatly: Observed lots of waterfowl and logs; possible explanations sightings in Gellatly perhaps? (Consider buying trail cameras for further surveilence; sighting in 2014 by A. Bennett may act as catalyst/further reason for this). At Kalamoir Park: Water conditions became choppy & windy. No sightings. Evidence (at both locations) none. Summary: No sightings but saw a quite a bit of logs there too. Overall: At both locations, good start to fieldwork, though no sightings were reported. May. 14/14—Day 2 Weather: Sunny Water conditions: Calm & Glass smooth Location: Peachland Park (relocated to Antlers Beach at 1:25 pm). Sightings: None Current Time (as noted): 10:42 am -- 12:34 pm Summary: A very good location, optimum conditions, lots of boats, logs and waterfowl but no lake cryptids. Did take note of waterfowl (such as a loon I saw) and logs as plausible explanations for smaller Ogopogo sightings. Location: Antlers Beach Current time (then): 1:25 pm—1:45 (got a really bad sunburn and was close to picking up Mom so that’s why it was so short). OVERALL: No sightings but it was a beautiful day & very enjoyable. Did see lots of logs and waterfowl that could account for some of the sightings. Same for boats & boat wakes. Search continues…. May. 26th/14 (Day 3) Weather: Sunny, windy & cloudy Water conditions: slightly choppy Location: Bear Creek Park (near Chaplin footage film site location) Current time (then): 10:40 am –1:34 pm Sightings: none Findings/summary: Plenty of geese; possible misidentification suspect (though unlikely). Also a possible food source for a population of large freshwater predators. Saw bunch of logs & saw a cartoon Ogpogo depiction on Bear Creek wildlife sign but no signs of the creatures themselves. OVERALL: Very enjoyable & plenty of geese but no lake cryptid. June 1st/14 (Day 4) Weather: Sunny Water conditions: placid and glass smooth Location: Peachland boat landing (need to look up actual name) Sightings: possibly 1 Description: Saw a disturbance far out onto the lake, on my left side. No boats were around at the time, seem to be moving under own power. Did not see any characteristic features. Am cautiously optimistic. Could very well be created by boats (lots of boat out on lake that day); however somewhat similar to 2nd Demara footage. Details: Black & elongated, large disturbance appeared about 3 feet (guesstimate) or more out of water. Elongated and flexible. Took place at 12:55 pm, ended at 12:58 pm. Reaction: surprised but reacted properly with camera nearby. Passengers in boats oblivious. Did not appear afterwards. (Note: I’m willing to be wrong with what I saw; this was just a disturbance which I could not identify source from. Open-minded enough that it could be a weird wave.) Findings/OVERALL: There were plenty of boat wakes that could account for sightings. With a possible observation, combined with beautiful weather made it a very good day of fieldwork. I’ll keep searching. June 5th/2014 Weather: sunny with overcast Water conditions: fairly calm Location: near Knox Mountain Current Time (then): 11:44 am – 2:00 pm Sightings: none Overall: No encounters but a nice day out & enjoyable. Saw a few boats and logs. Didn’t find any circumstantial evidence. June. 8th/14 Weather: sunny, overcast, breezy Water Condition: fairly good Location: Peachland Boat Landing Current Time (then): 12:02 am---2:30 pm Overall: No encounters or evidence gathered but still a nice day. Actually saw a beaver which reminded me of the Cottam photos. Good day of field work. June 22nd/14 Weather: sunny, breezy Location: Peachland Boat Landing Current Time (then): 12:14 pm – 2:50 pm Sightings: none Overall: Found some candidates, lots of boats & a few waterfowl but no lake cryptid. Goodday of observation though. August. 10th/14 Weather: overcast Location: Gellatly Bay, Westbank, BC Sighting: none Time (then): 12:00 pm – 2:41 pm Overall: good day. Boats, ducks and wakes were seen but no lake cryptid. Had a blast doing fieldwork; would definitely do it again. Who knows what I might find.
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