Almost 1 year ago I had joined a group of fellow Sasquatch investigators called SIR (Sasquatch Investigations of the Rockies).  There were several main factors on why I joined this group.  The 3 factors that I liked about SIR-why they investigate, how they do their investigations and their intent.  Egos and hidden agendas are not for me.  Life is too short and I don't have the time or patience for that.

SIR's approach in their investigations is a more respectful and gentler way.  The intent is not to be portrayed in a negative manner to Sasquatch.  Since SIR is willing to use patience and time at their spots, the Sasquatch groups there will interact with them.  It is this mindset that had me join SIR.  Mike, one of the co-founders have repeated many times, "Would you like to have someone come to your house and behave in a negative manner?  The same thing applies to Sasquatch when you go to their home in the forest."  Screaming, howling, shooting guns, big bad male egos, hunter mindset and dogs all are negative factors to Sasquatch.  The concept of "You can catch more flies with honey than vinegar" should be used when investigating Sasquatch.

The reason I bring up SIR's mindset is to explain how I and SIR operate when we out investigating.  I want to be a respectful friend to Sasquatch and not a hunter of one.  Your approach and intent is conveyed through your body language and persona when you go out.  If you go having a he-man and a hunter mentality then they will avoid you.  They are almost impossible to find as it is.  Why make it even harder?  I wonder if that is the main reason Sasquatch gravitate more towards women and children?  It make sense.  That is why I have an advantage over some of my fellow investigators.  Being male isn't wrong but it helps being female.

One of the gentle techniques used is offering a friendship plate of food.  This usually takes a while before they trust you enough to eat what you leave them.  Would you eat food that a stranger offers you?  The same thing applies to them.  By going back consistently and offering the friendship plate of food will have them get comfortable enough so they will come and eat.  In the case at one of SIR's research spots you can see them come in with them using their eye shine.  It is amazing and something special.

This approach was used at a friend's spot this past weekend.  Two years ago a "baby monkey" was spotted in a large pine tree.  Since then the friend and his wife have been trying to establish a positive relationship with that group of Sasquatch.  Saturday afternoon, four of us went to the friendship spot to leave an offering of food.  While there, I had walked a little bit away from the others and was scanning around.  I saw 3 black shapes watching us.  They were big.  The one in the middle was swaying sideways back and forth on its feet.   I called the others over and showed them what I saw.  One of us decided to move closer and he saw the face and noticed the brow line and cone head shape.  I told him not to move any closer.  I had seen the big one in the middle turned its head to watch him.  I thought at first they would take off but they stayed where they were.  We left a few minutes later.

If we had been screaming, yelling or doing other negative actions the chances of 4 people seeing 3 Sasquatches would have been zero.  Those Sasquatches would have left and avoided us the whole time we were there camping.  By being respectful, offering friendship and doing human things had this group curious enough to come in to watch and stay.  Starting on Friday and going through Sunday we saw and heard them.

I hope I explained a little of my mindset in this endeavor.  This is a labor of love.  I am on a voyage of discovery.  This journey has been surprising and helped me grow to be a better person by learning from my mistakes and using a lot of patience.  This bipedal primate is an amazing being.  I hope I have shown them the better side of human nature.

SQUATCH ON!    

The adage that when it rains it pours could be applied to me.  I really do need to go out and buy a lottery ticket.  My journey is so unexpected and exciting.  I had another visual this weekend.  This place was over a hundred miles from my research spot and about 50 miles from the other one I had a couple of weeks ago.  I consider all of my recent sightings lucky but this one was truly a chance encounter.  If I wasn't being diligent about looking up and scanning the area then they would have stayed hidden while watching us.

They were black and very big.  One was swaying back and forth on its legs and turned its head to watch one of us as he walked a little bit closer.  He said he could see the face and the cone head shape of its head.  We stayed and watched for a couple more minutes and then left.  We went back the next day.  I found an impression on the game trail that goes right to the spot.

I have no doubt on what I saw.  There were three of them.  All a different size.  The one in the middle was the biggest.  I went from wishing to see one to seeing several in a few short weeks.  WOW!

Ya gotta love it!

SQUATCH ON!

Last weekend was one of my favorite things to do.  I combined my love of Sasquatch with the joy of a child.  A friend of mine has a 9 nine year old son who is fascinated with Sasquatch.  I had taken him out several months ago and had so much fun that we went out again to a different spot.  One of the advantages of living here in Colorado is the choice of where to look.  This time I picked a spot purely on how squatchy it was.  It just called out to me.

Jordan and I started out on designated trails but there was nothing of interest.  I noticed up on top of a hill some aspens and pines that may have a ravine with a stream nearby.  I climbed up and sure enough the area was showing some promising signs.  I had Jordan join me and we went down into the spot.  As we went down to the stream, we came across a game trail.  I found 3 tree breaks in a row.  I found some tree structures too.  We did not find any prints but maybe next time.

We explored another spot that goes directly up from this spot that pointed to even more signs.  They are in the area.  I'm hoping to see signs that they are in there often and may even live close by.  I had to curtail the investigation because poor Jordan was worn out.  He keep wondering why our forest friends live in such hilly and hard to walk places.  I smiled and said that is why they do.

Children are unpredictable and impulsive.  Their joy of exploring and openness to possibilities make them the perfect squatching buddy.  Jordan played with his whistle.  He picked things up.  He examined just about everything and his drive to figure things out is the perfect partner.  I absolutely loved it.

The best part of my day was when Jordan was eating his ice cream and asked when will we go out again.  I couldn't ask for a better partner.

SQUATCH ON!   

Big Foot sighted in Colorado!

The three things that I find pretty amazing about Colorado is the climate, geography and how wildlife thrives.  Nature always finds a way.  Water is worth more than gold here for a reason.  We have limited moisture and high altitude.  How can we have these lush forests that sustains abundant wildlife with limited amount of precipitation?  The answer to this is our mountains.  They capture enough moisture for this to happen.  The water moves down, forms streams which in turns travels  into ravines and canyons and finally finds the rivers that eventually empties into an ocean.  In the ravines and canyons pockets of water will form into ponds, lakes or lush meadows.  It is so amazing to drive and see nothing but dry conditions and then you turn onto a road following a ravine/canyon that goes up towards the mountains.  Then you go around a corner and a lush and green forest greets you.  It is another world.  It is these areas where wildlife and our forest friends thrive even in dry areas such as Canon City, Alamosa or Gunnison.

The reason I brought this up is to explain how Colorado have reports of Big Foot even in our drier regions of our state.  The answer is the mountains.  Our mountains give nature and our wildlife the ability to thrive even when the surrounding areas of the mountains are bone dry with dry creek beds, cactus and no trees.  As long as they can move undetected, have water within walking distance, elk and deer in enough numbers, then our forest friends will use the area.

I didn't know this about Colorado until a couple of years ago.  I have traveled all over Colorado since moving here 15 years ago but couldn't figure out why there were hunting in our drier regions.  There seemed to be as many hunters hunting for elk in our dryer regions as there are in the greener parts of the state.  The light clicked on after I started researching for Big Foot.  An excellent example of this was the time I had met my husband in the mountains while he was working.  While he was at work there I had decided to do some squatching.  I had read about a sighting that was about 10 miles away.  When I arrived at the town I couldn't figure out how there could be a sighting close by.  Where we were staying was dry.  Very little vegetation, mostly rocky outcrops and dirt.  The Colorado River was there but it was dry 20 yards past the river.  I had some misgivings about going.  I decided to try anyways.  When I followed the road up, I literally turned a dry rocky corner and a lush ravine/canyon area appeared.  It was a different world!  It was alive with wildlife, pine trees, aspens, vegetation, clear running water and many little ponds and marches.

It is one of those types of places that I went to do a little camping and squatching this past 5 days.  It is always nice to get away from your normal routine and go do something different.  I have been at this spot for one night previously a few weeks ago.  It has signs of Big Foot activity and there are 2 reports close by.  I liked the odds.

We had visitors during 2 nights.  My husband woke up at 2 AM the first night to rapid knocks.   We had them walking around the tent for 2 nights.  Early Thursday morning around 5 AM I heard one walking by me when it hit the side of the tent by my head.  I was proud of myself I did not panic or scream.  On 2 evenings I heard howls.  They were in the distance and not close.

My husband and I decided to explore an area that I would say was squatchy.  It was calling me.  What an area!  We found many Big Foot signs in there.  As we were coming down to go back to our campsite, we were following a ravine.  Back behind a structure and some tree breaks I looked up at the top of the ravine about 30 feet away because something caught my attention.  Something BIG, I mean HUGE brown upright "thing" was looking at me and then turned ran to my left and then turned into the trees and was gone.  It was much bigger than an elk or moose.  There was no ears or a back that you would expect to see when it turned.  When it moved it was smooth and fast.  No bounding or leaping you would expect from elk or deer or moose.  I stood there with my mouth open.  My adrenaline was going a mile a minute.  I couldn't get my mind around what I saw.

My mind is still trying to grasp what I have seen 2 days ago and also at my research spot.  I have seen them in 2 different places hundreds of miles apart.  The odds are too fantastic.  I think I need to go buy a lottery ticket.

This journey is so fascinating and incredible.

SQUATCH ON!       

With anticipation I went back.  As I was going in I found a track of prints that looked like one chased a deer.  I followed the tracks up to a game trail that was closer to where I had my 3 glimpses last year.  Then I decided to follow the game trail.  Guess what I found?  A 14 inch print!  Actually several.  I followed the 14 inch prints to the perfect rock spot.  Secluded but open enough around me with enough foliage for them.  Almost like I was led there.  Interesting.

Just before I came upon the rock I saw movement.  When I looked closely I saw a brown shape bend down from some trees by the cliff to watch me.  It had long hair!!!!  It looked at me and then turned around and climbed up the rock that was behind him/her.  This was not a bear, deer, mountain lion, elk, squirrel or coyote.  The color, size and length  of hair indicated that it was not any of those animals.  My 3 glimpses I had last year were black.  This is the first brown one for me to see.

I sat in my new spot for 2 hours.  Guess what happen during this time?  Over to my right by a bus-sized boulder between 2 trees I saw a black shape watch me!!!!  I moved my head to the right and the shape did the same thing.  So I talked with the shape.  For 20 minutes I would look, talk and move.  The black shape did what I did (except the talking part).  Several times I clearly saw the head and shoulders.  Interesting, interesting, very interesting.

About 20 minutes before I left a young buck came within 10-15 feet of me.  He watched me and I talked with him.  I heard some knocks and he did too.  In fact he got very nervous.  He licked his nose, flicked his tail up and stomped his front foreleg while glancing towards the knocks.  I kept telling him he will be dinner for my friends if he doesn't leave soon.  I was getting nervous that I may see him hunted down in front of me.  He finally left while looking back behind him where the knocks were.

Well, this visit was much more than I expected.  I have no doubt about what I saw.  I saw a brown and black Sasquatch or Big Foot.  I am still wrapping my mind around what I saw and experienced on that day.  If they were not Big Foot what were they? 

Who knows what will happen next?

SQUATCH ON!

As I was walking into my research spot to continue my new approach, I spotted this 14 inch print in a ravine.  There was another faint print a little farther away about 5 feet going up.  In the past I have spotted several similar 14 inch prints.  This is the game trail I now use.  It is harder to get to and more remote.  I took this as a good sign that they are using the same game trail as me.  They have been very careful so far this year about leaving prints.  This is a lucky find.

I have for 2 weeks now used my new approach.  The results are mixed and what I expected.  I have seen signs of them around me.  Their knocks and clacks indicate they are watching.  I am still trying to find the perfect spot.  The first 2 places were OK but I felt that they were not perfect for what I am wanting to do.  I am hoping this weekend to find it.  A secluded, open spot for me with enough cover/foliage in close enough for them.  The first spot was good but not remote enough and the other was too open.  I will keep looking.  I may go over closer to where I had glimpses of them last year.

This endeavor will be what I consider the tortoise and the hare story.  I will be patient.  I know this will take time.  They are shy, elusive and naturally suspicious of humans.  This will not happen over night or in a matter of days.  The 2 positive things going for me is that I am female and a known person.  What I have to do is to get them to cross that divide and risk what their instincts are telling them not to do.  Their humanity and primate sides will have to be reached by making it irresistible.  In other words I am banking on their curiosity. 

So my friends onward I go.

SQUATCH ON!    

New method of discovering Big Foot.

I have stated in previous posts that I have changed my way of doing things at my research spot.  I can keep looking around and find more physical evidence but in many ways it is wasted time on my part.  I know where they are and where they live.  This group has shown their willingness to let me in their territory and explore their nesting area.  I have returned this willingness with keeping my distance and respecting their space.

So what more can I do? 

That is what had me in a pickle.  Do I find somewhere else to explore or what more can I do?

This is where my love of searching for all facts have been a blessing.  Since they are primates and related to great apes and possibly humans I have done a little research on both.  I read about great ape facts and behavior along with primitive human facts and behavior.  In many ways they are similar and quite different.  After reading about both I can see a lot of each in Big Foot.  I have decided to reach out to this family of forest beings as a human and use innate primate information and behavior to draw them to me. 

How will I do this? 

I will be honest with you.  I will not divulge my methods.  There are people out there who would use this to hurt or kill these elusive primates.  I know most people are like me who have no evil intent but what if my methods reaches that one person?  I could not live with myself if this happens.  My intent has never been to hurt or put them in danger.  My hope is to have them "discovered" and put under protection from our society to live like they have been doing for hundreds of years.  My love of puzzles and mystery had started my journey of discovery.  Now my fascination of this elusive bipedal primate compels me.  Nothing else.

I tried my new method today.  I had some positive results.  I had some knocks, rock clacks and a possible glimpse of one for about 2-3 minutes.  I suspect that there was 2-3 of them watching me for about 2 hours.  I think the knocks and clacks were used to get a reaction from me.  They were probably trying to figure out what in the world I was doing.  I enjoyed myself.  I will be returning to my spot tomorrow.  Can't wait.

How will I tell you my results if I don't disclose my methods or worry about inadvertently doing so?  I have no answer to this.  I will tell you this, I started this clueless journey with you in this blog and I will continue.  I will figure this out as it unfolds.

SQUATCH ON!