Expediton Notes from Kathy Moskowitz
(U.S. Forest Service Archeologist)
OK - here are my notes from the expedition.
I borrowed heavily from Kristine W., a BFRO Investigator.
Wednesday, August 4: We arrived
in the Olympic Peninsula on Wednesday evening. We call blasted
all over the area with no response.
Thursday, August 5: All participants
and BFRO members had arrived, as had Bob Gimlin. The day was
spent looking for sasquatch evidence, and several prints (adult
and child) were found. In the early evening, everyone broke
up into groups and walked the old roads in the area. Almost
everyone was outfitted with first, second, or third generation
nightvision, plus there was a thermal camera.
The highlight of the night was when
one group had two unidentified bipedal animals trailing them,
about 150 feet away, on a road called Spooky Road. When the
group walked, the animals walked, when they stopped, the animals
stopped. Through the nightvision scopes, two participants
observed a large ?blob? separate into two animals?. They could
see arm swing and two legs. One animal headed away from them
while the other one headed right for the group. The group
decided to go back to camp at that point, while others entered
the area to handle the situation. Nothing further happened
that night.
Later that night it began to rain and
it continued to rain.
Friday, August 6: It rained all day. Most participants
and BFRO members were out of camp looking for prints and several
were found. When they returned, they found that the camp had
been turned into a lake by the rain. The group found alternative
housing at Spooky House (located next to Spooky Road). The
group enjoyed a sing-along by Tom Y and A. A. Miller.
Bob Gimlin talked with everyone, and a great time was had
by all.
Folks headed out at dark, including
some down Spooky Road. One group reported that on a secondary
road, they were being trailed aggressively by something that
was just inside the tree line. Nightvision did not reveal
what the animal was.
Saturday, August 7: Things began to dry out from the
rain. Most participants and BFRO members were out looking
for prints and several sets were found. That night, two major
events occurred.
First Event: The women
of the group: Kathy H., Tracy, Kristine, and myself headed
out to Spooky Road. We had bear spray and a .357 magnum for
protection. Three had first generation nightvision scopes
and one had a third generation scope. The women decided to
take a different approach than the men. The men insisted on
being VERY quiet and NO flashlights on, with the only way
to see being by the scopes. When the women went out, we decided
to be noisy, whooping, screaming bigfoot calls, and singing.
About 1/2 mile down Spooky Road, and 45 minutes after broadcasted
BF screams, we began to hear a series of chirps and whistles.
One was making the bird noises on one side of the road and
the other was answering from the other side. The brave women
decided to continue heading toward the sounds. Three of us:
Kathy H, Tracy, and me were looking forward while Kristine
was watching our backs. The front three suddenly experienced
an overwhelming fear response (like your hair standing on
end) at the same time. Just then, the front three women saw
a head, shoulder, and part of a leg of a bipedal animal move
out from behind a tree in front of us, and then pop back behind
the tree. We had been singing Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star
just prior to the sighting. We decided to continue toward
the animal, using calm, soft voices. By the time we moved
about 150 feet, the animal had left (or so we thought). Strangely
enough, before we even reached the location, we reported all
feeling ?relieved? of the fear we had felt prior.
About five minutes later, because we
had called for radio silence and had turned the radios down,
we were unaware that a BFRO vehicle was on its way down Spooky
Road. Needless to say, if the animals had still been in the
area, it wasn?t likely they still were.
The women decided to walk down the
road to another group waiting at the Spooky Road intersection.
We walked around for a while before finding a large vomit
pile at the Spooky Road intersection. We had baited with plums
earlier and there was a pile of very fresh (still warm) plum
vomit. The stomach contents included what looked like part
of a frog, and plum pits, skin, and pulp. The vomit was so
fresh that the scanner code stickers on the plum skins were
still present. We collected the evidence using a DNA collection
kit, following all protocols. The animal didn't vomit only
in one place, but vomited as it walked across the road and
into the north side of the forest. The samples were kept refrigerated
and are currently in a freezer. Research is being conducted
by Alton Higgins and Chris Whitter whether DNA can be recovered
from stomach contents.
Second Event: BFRO investigator Mel and ten
men were staking out a location a few miles from Spooky Road.
They were doing their own vocalizations, when Mel did a ?whoop?.
He then saw something cross the road about 1/4 mile away.
Two minutes later, someone's dogs started going wild. Mel
then ?whooped? again after they positioned themselves on another
logging road where the crosser was seen. Mel started hearing
big footfalls, growling, and a lot of brush moving. Whatever
it was, was on two legs and moving quickly. The animal ended
up within 75 feet of them, but hidden in the woods. Five others
witnessed the events. Several others also reported seeing
glowing red eyes in the area as well. Mel called for the thermal
camera and it arrived, but after staying in the area until
4:30 a.m., no visuals were made and the thermal camera did
not capture anything on film.
Sunday, August 8: Most of us, after having a great
time, packed up and left.
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Notes from Mel Skahan
(Forestry Technician, Yakima Reservation)
During my encounter I wanted
to act normal. Here's the scenario that I presented with
my partner, who was a [new] participant:
We were broke down on the road
and with no vehicle traffic to be seen on this particular
road, we were walking out to find assistance for our vehicle.
We didn't want to make these things nervous that we are
out looking for them, so we just acted normal and talked
with our regular voice and hoped something would find
us. Guess what? ... Something did.
With other teams stationed along
the area we concentrated our efforts. I decided to take
another walk The first one was uneventful, and did not
feel like sitting down. As we passed a team my partner
decided he did not want to continue so he asked if someone
else wanted to continue the walk with me. Another participant
liked the idea of walking and away we went. It was a clear
night and the moon and stars were out. We were three quarters
a mile away from the team we just left All of sudden an
approximate four second growl came from my two o'clock
position. I stopped my partner who asked "What is it?",
he did not hear it clearly, and thought it was a cow and
asked me if that what it was. I replied that the growl
I just heard was no cow, then I asked that he be quiet.
I could hear shuffling beyond the road in the brush and
trees.
I then pulled my gen 3 monocular
out of my pocket and scanned the area. As I was scanning
in the distance I could hear off to my five o'clock position,
more than 100 yards away a faint, "whhhhhhhaaaaaaooop",
then I heard dogs [from an isolated trailer home further
up the main road].
I got on the radio and notified
the team behind us that there was activity and we were
going to proceed to the next team and I hoped that this
growler would follow us so they could record as we led
it past them,.
I told my partner to continue talking
as before like nothing happened and maybe we could get
this thing to follow us past the next team staged in the
brush. As we were walking I could tell it was not going
to do so, because as we walked down the road I could not
hear it following. We made it to the next team down the
road with subject behind us where we had left it. The
team down the road confirmed the did not hear anything
either.
BUT, that team earlier that night
was in the same area and heard something walking in the
trees, however, so I asked if someone else would like
to walk back through the area. I did not think of that
participant, who was a riot to talk with before our encounter,
but he had told me that his hearing was not keen and everything
that I was listening to, he did not hear. When a member
of the other team joined me, we walked back through the
area. As we passed the point of the growl, I pointed the
area out and we proceeded down the road.
I remembered another road that
went away from the road we were walking and asked if they
would like to walk that one, we all agreed. As we walked
the road, I decided to try some vocalizations, I did and
we waited for any response, NOTHING. I then told them
I would like to try it again and we walked up the road
about another 50 yards. I then made the second set of
vocalizations, and the dogs went nuts.
Then the subject was on the move.
My partner from the other team that joined us, heard at
the same time I did, something approaching from the south.
It did not stop at any time. It had heard my last set
of vocals was honed in on where we were. At no time did
we move, and it came right at us.
Two sets of nightvision flipped
on and we watched the area it was walking. I then turned
on my recorder and moved behind my partners so that they
could have freedom of moving around to see the subject
coming right at us. It stopped within 70 feet and nobody,
NOBODY with the nightvision could see it.
During the follow up investigation
to the stop by one of the guys there, we found out why
it was not seen and at that time it made total sense why
we did not see it.
It was walking on two legs and
it was heavy, it was not trying to be quiet about it's
approach. It was breaking and snapping sticks, twigs,
and crunching other forest debris. This is all that I
can share for now..... Will post more soon.
Notes from
Kathy Harper
(Genealogist and outdoorswoman, Curator
for the BFRO)
RE: 2004 BFRO August Expedition in the Olympic Rain Forest
(Northwest Washington State):
The area itself was beautiful beyond words. There was a
bounty of berries present, which accounted for the numerous
bear tracks and scat. I also saw a lot of elk and deer sign.
Some of the group saw cougar tracks. I did not. Some of
the berries noted were Red Huckleberry, Salmonberry, Blackberry
(trailing and evergreen) Dull Oregon grape, Salal, and Thimbleberry.
Some were done and others were just ripening.
Here are my notes:
Thursday, August 5: I arrived in the early evening and got
acquainted with fellow members and participants. At nightfall,
I headed out with a group consisting of Bob S, Tom Y, Investigator
Kristine W. and two participants. We drove to a particular
FS road to walk along it in the dark. We did hear movement
in the treeline, but it was obscured slightly by the sound
of a creek. At one point a participant and I both stated
at the same time that we heard breathing. We couldn't see
anything on the nightvision.
We remained in the area
until meeting up with a second group and exchanged one participant.
We then met up with the group that had seen the large upright
figures in the nightvision scopes. Kris and I remained with
one of the witnesses to this and another participant (not
a visual witness, but had heard movement)
The participant who
had seen the two figures in the nightvision scope was EXTREMELY
jumpy and nervous, even had me jumping at a large squeaky
bat.
The rains began, and
there was talk of building an ark.
Friday, August 6: Rain,
rain and more rain. I took off with a small team and scouted
the FS roads. Some tree breaks were noted.
Upon returning to camp
we were enchanted with the lovely waterfall that was feeding
a small but sturdy little stream flowing through camp and
several tents. It gleefully gathered into a shallow lake
at the entrance to camp. It was decided to dry out some
participants and members at an abandoned house down the
road.
While some team members
headed back out into the storm, the others (myself included)
spent the evening singing with Tom Y, A. A. Miller, Dave
J, and chatting with Bob Gimlin. It was a true delight.
The hot cocoa was delish!
The remaining teams
began to filter in. They stated that they had been followed
by something, but could not identify what it was.
Saturday, August 7:
Rain subsided by noon and I headed into town with Kristine
to shower and dry out my clothes that had been soaked through
the day before. We got back to camp and socialized a bit
then headed out at nightfall.
The all-female team
decided to take a different approach than what had been
used previously. We headed out with flashlights, told jokes
and sang songs. I had a first generation nightvision scope.
Three of the others did too, one had a third generation.
We chose to head down Spooky road. I started vocalizing
"whoops" and got an immediate response from a seemingly
lovesick owl. It was rather amusing and when I went quiet,
it tried to engage me back into vocalizing. As we got a
half mile down the road, we heard a chirping whistle sound
from our right and a response to this call from our left.
We extinguished our flashlights and kept using calm voices.
I began to feel uneasy, the uneasiness turned into a feeling
of utter fear.
I am not a fearful person
and I often hike at night, However, the hair on the back
of my neck rose, I felt like I had lead in my belly, and
my voice began to quiver when I sang. Tracy (participant)
and Kathy M. (curator) commented on the same feeling. The
investigator, Kristine W.,in back of us did not.
I raised my nightvision
and saw something large about 40 yds ahead of us on the
right. It was a large head/shoulder and what looked like
a leg seemingly peeking out from behind a tree and moved
back. We remained as calm as possible, and moved toward
it.
Since we had been singing
prior to the sighting, we started singing again, this time
it was Brahms's Lullaby. The feeling of fear had subsided
by this time and we could see nothing in the nightvision.
Moments later we saw a truck heading our way. This was the
group that had been five miles up the road call blasting.
After a very brief update,
they departed and we tried to engage our visitor once again.
It was unsuccessful so we moved back toward the main FS
road to meet up with another team.
It was my thought that
perhaps the animal used the distraction of the vehicle to
vacate the area.
We met up with the two
other team members Tom Y. and a participant at the end of
the road and decided to hike out a bit on the main FS road.
Nothing of real interest was noted until we started back
toward base camp. Kristine commented that something was
paralleling us in the tree line on the Spooky road side.
We decided to continue moving along and try to act casual
with some members scanning the tree line while we walked.
As we came to the junction
of Spooky Rd and the FS rd we were on, some of us noted
what at first looked like wet leaves, but upon closer inspection
was obviously plums that had been eaten whole and vomited
out onto the road. A call was made to base camp and Bob
S brought Kathy M a DNA kit. Kathy M gave a great lesson
on DNA collection protocol while she collected the samples.
The samples are currently in deep freeze and it is hoped
that they can be analyzed in September upon the short return
of our DNA specialist from a trip abroad.
We returned to camp
to discuss our findings and met with some balking at the
fact the female group used a less traditional approach.
While chatting around
the fire, we got a call on the radio that Mel had something
large, walking bipedally in front of him and requested the
thermal camera. I wet with this team to the area. I was
stationed on the main road with a group while some team
members headed into Mel's area with the camera.
While on the main road
some members of our team saw red eyes in the tree line across
the road. We saw nothing in our first generation nightvision.
We got a call on radio to head up to Mel's location and
we all headed back to camp at around 4:30 am.
The following morning,
I joined a small team heading to Spooky road to check for
tracks from the previous evening's adventure. I headed back
for more equipment and returned to join Dave J on a hike
down the road. I found one pile of scat that looked like
elk, but had no smell at all and was made up of all vegetation
with no seeds or bones present.
We found a possible
track and I photographed it with a ruler alongside it for
scale. It is not very good, but I will post it as soon as
the film is developed within a few days. We headed back
to camp and packed up. I arrived home Sunday evening.
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