Encounter with Bigfoot in New Mexico
Posted by: Craig Woolheater on January 24th, 2007
Interesting find becomes scary experience for Costilla man
By Jerry A. Padilla
Thursday, January 18, 2007
Pg B10 – The Taos News
Arturo “Homie” Mart’nez with a naturally formed object he found the same day he and a friend had a “hair-raising experience” in the mountains.
Gerald Garner Jr.
In the interest of protecting a fragile ecosystem and a potentially rare and misunderstood species, the exact location of the following experience is best not revealed. Suffice it to say, the unusual encounter occurred in a canyon of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains near the Colorado-New Mexico border in northern Taos County.
Arturo “Homie” Mart’nez, 67, of Costilla said he decided “to tell The Taos News about my experience because many people I’ve shared the information with don’t seem to take me serious. However, many do, and they have encouraged me to come forward with my story.”
Mart’nez, originally of Arroyo Hondo, has spent a lifetime in the mountains, canyons and wilds of Northern New Mexico and southern Colorado, and can identify all the native wildlife, plants and animals, whatever the season or conditions. Not long ago, he and a person he calls a “super friend” had a frightening, but very interesting experience while scouting for elk in preparation for a hunt. His friend has chosen to remain anonymous.
Mart’nez made personal notes about what happened in this mountain canyon area Sept. 27. “I, myself, and my friend set out to scout for game, but something weird happened.”
He explained that earlier the first day, while scouting in stands of aspens within sight of the community of Amalia from up high, Mart’nez found an interesting, naturally formed piece of aspen tree that strongly resembled a human face. “Nobody carved it, it grew that way and I decided to bring it back.”
After leaving the object at home, Mart’nez and friend returned to another area several miles away from where they had been earlier in the day. This time, while driving on another fork of the rough road, they found many tops of aspen trees cleanly broken off that were strewn over the road. “We decided to investigate who was breaking the trees and throwing them on the road. I asked my friend, ‘Who would want to do this?’” Mart’nez explained, “These were aspens ranging in size from 3 to 4 inches to 6 to 8 inches in diameter, cleanly broken about 13 to 15 feet up the trunk of the trees. There were no tracks of bear or elk, or human tracks — no tracks of any kind, no sawdust at the bottom of the trees and what was strange, it was as if they were thrown several feet away from where they were broken. There were two big aspens completely uprooted and thrown away from where they had been growing. If bears had broken them, they would have left claw marks. Bears leave a smell on trees they scratch or break.”
“Elk in rutting battles leave the ground very disturbed. It wasn’t, and seeing many broken trees we continued on to investigate who or what was breaking them. The broken tree tops were lying in the road as if something or someone wanted to say, ‘Nobody is welcome here.’ Rounding a curve, my tire blew out and things started getting very scary,” he continued.
“We could hear elk bugling up higher and we decided to walk back down since it was late afternoon,” Mart’nez said. “We needed to get a spare, and come back to change the tire. We were taking our time checking out more broken trees, and there was easily over a 100 broken the same way. That’s when I heard the scariest noise I have ever heard in my life.”
“It started at first, sounding like an elk bugling, then turned into a scary roar so loud it kept echoing through the canyon,” he continued. “The elk up high stopped bugling. It kept making that noise at us, it reminded me of the noise the devil made in ‘The Exorcist’ movie. Whatever was making the noise started breaking trees and throwing them in our direction a few seconds later.”
“Then I saw a huge creature moving through the edge of an aspen grove, about 30 to 40 feet from me. It walked upright, but hunched over, maybe 6 feet tall bent over, and standing straight was 7 to 8 feet tall with very dark fur all over. It was not a bear. Bears don’t walk like humans. I am convinced I saw what many call Sasquatch. Even with my gun, I was very scared and we left in a hurry. It seemed to be following in the edge of the trees, breaking more, throwing them toward us and making that awful noise. It was almost dark and we had to get out of there,” he recounted.
The two men fled down the mountain, and Mart’nez said every time the creature roared the noise continued reverberating through the entire area. “I felt like at any moment something was going to grab me from behind all the way out of there.”
They arrived on foot in Costilla well after dark, deciding no matter how scared they felt, it was necessary to return to the canyon, change the blown tire and bring Mart’nez’s vehicle back.
The two men returned to where the vehicle was parked, and by the time they changed the spare it was after 2 a.m. on Sept. 28.
“We decided to stay until daylight and try to find out what it really was we had experienced,” Mart’nez continued, “It was deathly quiet the whole time, nothing moving, no elk bugling, not a sound at all. At sunrise, we checked around, found more aspens broken the same way. Nothing else happened to us. There was no sign of anything out of the ordinary except more broken trees.”
Not finding any other evidence of their frightening experience of the afternoon before, Mart’nez and his friend returned home.
“Like I said, I know what I saw. I know it is not a bear or any other of the wildlife I have seen around here all my life. I decided to tell my story because America, wake up, these creatures exist,” he said. “Every time I go into the mountains anywhere from now on I will have a camera and an audio recorder with me. I have had other people tell me that even though they wish to remain anonymous, they have had similar experiences over the years, but don’t say much because they get ridiculed. I know what I saw and heard.”Jerry A. Padilla
Co-founder of Cryptomundo in 2005.
I have appeared in or contributed to the following TV programs, documentaries and films:
OLN's Mysterious Encounters: "Caddo Critter", Southern Fried Bigfoot, Travel Channel's Weird Travels: "Bigfoot", History Channel's MonsterQuest: "Swamp Stalker", The Wild Man of the Navidad, Destination America's Monsters and Mysteries in America: Texas Terror - Lake Worth Monster, Animal Planet's Finding Bigfoot: Return to Boggy Creek and Beast of the Bayou.
“Every time I go into the mountains anywhere from now on I will have a camera and an audio recorder with me.” If Mr. Mart’nez remains true to his word, we may actually be blessed with some good photos/recordings in the near future. Here’s an experienced outdoorsman who is very familiar with the area he frequents (and cares about), and who knows that the big fella is there. I’m wishing him all the best.
What, in the name of Peter Paul and Mary, does a piece of aspen tree that doesn’t look like anything have to do with this story?
I’m sorry, but that’s a laugh. And it makes me wonder about the whole sighting report. If this isn’t one of numerous sighting records from this area, most of which involve people who don’t See Signs, I’d be tempted to put this one in the Discard pile.
It nothing-short-of-amazes me that people continue to miss an essential point: muddying the waters with Signs, or the paranormal, is going to make people’s noses wrinkle. Particularly the noses of serious scientists.
Stick to the animal you saw, and the evidence for that animal. Thanks.
I found an amazing series of footprints in the mountains of this same county about seven years ago.
Beautiful country.
Alton Higgins: The link that you provided does not seem to work. Perhaps, it is, as your group the TBRC says, the “bigfoot curse.”
The part about the aspens that had been broken and uprooted sounds similar to the story my great uncle told us, except for him the items thrown around were 50 gallon barrels of oil and fuel and a caterpillar that was turned on its side. These creatures are something of massive strength and when they get mad or feel threatened you do not want to be on the receiving end. Some people wonder how come (or completely dismiss) bigfoot is attached to paranormal events. I have always said there is a logical reason for myths and stories, especially from the ancient people before our ancestors. Who knows exactly what we are talking about here in reference to the big guy. I especially wonder that after I read the account here about the giant orb that landed in Pennsylvania and 2 sasquatch looking beings got out and then it disappeared. But I digress, we will never know until one is captured and studied.
Interesting sighting, only time will tell if any more will come out of ths area. I wonder why he didn’t fire his gun, at least to warn the creature.
hey craig & everyone this is definetly a very interesting new article about a new nm sasquatch encounter. i hope researchers go to the sighting location soon to look for evidence. thanks bill
Really interesting eyewitness account. It bothers me that he did not find any footprints around the broken aspens “as if they were thrown a few feet”. Well, what about a few feet away, were there footprints there? These things must have been walking all over the place to have broken that many trees. I would have expected an area with so many signs of apparent sasquatch activity to be covered with footprints, especially if the animals were in an agitated state which is what the broken trees suggest.
As far as links to the paranormal, if people want to take that angle, fine. People do that with known natural phenomena too and it’s their business. But you don’t see real zoologists out there suggesting paranormal explanations for animals they find strange or for creatures they are trying to look for. When real zoologists are faced with a unique species or totally new, unexpected, and unique ecosystem (like the communities of animals around underwater thermal vents), there is no inclination to make paranormal connections. Even exobiologists who speculate on totally unknown, imagined creatures in alien ecosystems do not make paranormal connections do they?
This is how I personally try to approach things in cryptozoology, as a biologist. I’m out to study real animals that are undiscovered or thought to be extinct, not to delve into the paranormal or UFOs any more than any biologist would. I don’t mean to say that these things do not exist, they are just not what I am out to study.
So if Bigfoot and other cryptids DID turn out to be spirits, aliens, or whatever, then cool as that may be, I guess I’d just stick to studying known animals.
The one thing that struck me as the oddest, was that this gentleman when going back to fix his truck, didn’t bring a camera, camcorder, or tape player just in case the creature came back. Furthermore, why didn’t he take pics of these Aspen trees scattered about the place, as well as the ones broken off or uprooted. At least take pics of the trees so we can believe at least some of the story! Uprooted and broken trees don’t go anywhere, so take some pics!
Another interesting story. True? Who knows. I myself from time to time get tired of reading about these encounters. Why? Because most of them end with the same results: nothing is proven. Anyone can write a story (basically about anything), juice it up a little bit (there are no limits, right?), send it in for all of us to read and then we get to write in and give our opinion about it. I am really torn between belief and disbelief in our quest for sasquatch, even though I have had several “Class B” encounters of my own over the past several years. Often, I find myself questioning my own mind about whether what I heard or smelled could have been something else? I know we all want to be believers of bigfoot, and before I began reading alot of online encounters and such, I was 100% sure, but now… face it people, we have a lot, I mean a lot of dishonest people out there. And yes, the statement arises: these are people who have nothing to gain by telling thier story. Right, they have nothing to gain, but still they lie for a reason. What that reason is, we don’t know. But anyway, I try to believe these stories, because I want bigfoot to exist, if not just for the mystery of knowing something else lurks in our forests besides our normal animals. Again, who doesn’t love a good mystery movie? In closing, researchers have come and gone, with nothing much proven. Someday, our children will be talking and writing about people like Jeff Meldrum, Craig Woolheater, Matt Money, etc., and hopefully looking at new “grainy” videos of our very elusive creature(s). Comments?
Interesting post, arbigfoothunter.
(How ’bout some things that might have been tracks, and you’ve never seen anything that looked that much like tracks that wasn’t tracks, and if they were, the biped that made them was ten feet tall, but they were old and you’re not sure? Abandoned road bed, Siskiyou Wilderness, CA, June 1986. That’s all for me. What class is that?)
But for me it is NOT about belief, or wanting to believe. It is about evidence. For whatever reason, the evidence hasn’t reached the tipping point yet, but there is lots of it, way too much to support a reasonable all-faked-or-misidentified scenario. (What North American animal can be confused with an eight-foot ape? Don’t say bear; I’ve seen lots of those, and I’ve never read a BF sighting report that had a chance of being a bear.)
When I get tired of reading, ar, I rest, recharge, and get back to reading. I think there are too many reports to support a Great Creative Writing Scenario. And some of them — like the Texas hog hunter on his stand who watched a female sas kill a 125-pound hog in about four seconds, and then ‘ring the dinner bell’ to a nearby conspecific — are really cool! But cool sighting reports do not an animal make. Followup, ending in irrefutable evidence, will tell us there’s an animal. If there is one. And there is or isn’t, no matter what we think about it.
People tend to forget, I think, what our encounters with confirmed animals in the wilderness tend to be like. I try to imagine all of my bear sightings being of an unidentified animal. What would I have come out of the woods with, at the end of any of those days, that would have convinced anyone?
Never question your mind on this. OK, don’t kill yourself with it. Ask the questions an investigator who really wanted to get to the bottom of it would ask you. When you’re satisfied, you plumb are. Let science catch up in its own good time.
As Craig W says: seeing is KNOWING. it’s how we live, on visual (and sound, and smell, and taste and touch) evidence. What makes this different? Give me THAT scenario, debunkers.
Mystery_man has a good point. Why weren’t there any Sasquatch tracks? “No tracks of any kind”. Hmmm.
Broken trees with no tracks. Broken trees and disheveled objects with no tracks present could be from a small twister or a strong straight-line wind.
They seem to have been surprised that there were no bear tracks, etc., so that leads me to believe that they thought the conditions were right for an animal to leave tracks. If Sasquatch really weigh hundreds of pounds, they would leave tracks if anything would.
I’m not saying the gentlemen are lying or anything. It just seems to me that if they thought there should have been bear tracks then there certainly should have been Sasquatch tracks if Sasquatch broke the trees.
They didn’t check for tracks because in the first case, they were being threatened with charging displays, and were scared to death.
The other broken trees could have been sign, as they suggested, and could have been done some time back. This makes me wonder if there are young beyond that point (or were).
In the second case, it was 2 a.m. Kinda hard to see much at that time of night.
What surprises me is that they went back up there in the dark.
Otherwise this is one of the most believable sightings I’ve read of.
Good point sschaper, but if he was too scared to check, then why would he state there were no tracks of any kind? He could have just said he did not notice any tracks but there COULD have been tracks. He obviously examined the trees enough to even tell that there was no sawdust at the bottom of them, nor any bear claw marks on them, which I think would be harder to spot than giant footprints of agitated animals all over the place and it suggests he took a good look. He also even mentioned that rutting elks would disturb the ground a lot yet he was sure this wasn’t the case here. “Elk in rutting battles leave the ground very disturbed. It wasn’t, and seeing many broken trees we continued on to investigate who or what was breaking them.” Also, he says they continued to investigate after finding the trees which suggests they were not under attack at that time. According to his account, things got scary AFTER they examined the trees. So I still ask, why were there no tracks?
I think this is one of those, “You log it in as an encounter” and then see what else is happening in the area.
I have a bad taste in my mouth about the idea that they were so frightened, but still went back up after the vehicle in the dark to change the tire (it sounded like they went a long way). If I was that scared…and if I had seen something like that I would have had to change my pants, to say nothing of a tire…and I would have waited until morning…so either they were not that scared or they are embellishing.
There’s no way to corroborate their tale other than to catalogue other sightings in the area to see if there are other incidents that match what they “saw”.
I am one who likes empirical evidence, but I value the testimony of eye witnesses. My skeptical friends will roll their eyes and regurgitate the inaccuracies of eye-witness testimony line, but I don’t buy it. Eyes can be fooled, but only for a few moments. If you see a big 8ft hairy something wading across your path for more than a few seconds, you are going to figure out whether you are seeing something you are acquainted with or something unknown.
The trick with eye witnesses is, to build a large file. You get enoug people seeing similar things independant of one another (or in groups), then you can start filling in the gaps.
Alright, off my soapbox once again. As I said, this is one incident best to add to a file and see what else is going on in the area.
Springheeledjack: I’d love to hold a “People Who Don’t Value Eyewitness Testimony” convention sometime.
Just to see how people like this get dressed in the morning. WE LIVE BY VISUAL EVIDENCE, coupled with experience. Pretty basic, but some people need the handbook.
There is no greater leap of illogic, among the many made by sasquatch denialists (I can’t call them skeptics anymore; I”M a skeptic), than the one that we can toss all the sightings as poor evidence.
Sure. And we can click our heels three times, close our eyes, and no sasquatch! Thanks, Aunty Em!
Sightings are evidence. How good – like any evidence – depends upon many factors. They can’t be proof; but they have the tendency to point one in that direction when you suss for the good ones. The four most powerful words in jurisprudence, before the verdict, are: “We have an eyewitness.” Ask any lawyer, cop or judge; and he better come up with a better one if he denies this, or don’t let him try to help you.
If lots and lots of people out there are seeing what sounds from sighting reports like the same animal, there’s something weirder going on than an eight-foot bipedal ape.
Sightings are evidence, but sadly they are not ever going to prove anything. Even in a court of law, eyewitness testimony alone, without any hard evidence, is not going to be enough to convict someone. Unfortunately, it seems the only hard evidence anyone is prepared to accept is an actual body. Eyewitness accounts can be very useful, especially when you have unconnected people reporting exactly the same thing. Sightings can be cross checked, the witnesses carefully interviewed and I think a lot of good information can be gleaned from them if they turn out to be reliable. Eyewitness accounts can have a lot of benefits. They can point researchers to a location of sasquatch activity, indicate possible new behavior, possible food requirements, even what times of year the sasquatch might be more active. But alas, sightings are never going to be enough and there will always be those who will discount them outright. DWA is right to say that we shouldn’t toss all these eyewitness accounts out the window, and I think springheeledjack is spot on when he said it is important to build a file of reports for cross checking. In the end though, it’s empirical evidence that is going to matter.
Mystery_man: I couldn’t have written your post any better.
This is exactly what I’m saying. Now, I think it’s the skeptics’ (I don’t like ‘denialists’ either; I’ll just have to trust context here) major problem, I think, that they totally disregard eyewitness reports. Not saying specifically what one does with sightings — other than blanket-condemning them as poor evidence — is disregarding them, regardless any lip service to the contrary.
That having been said: I’m a skeptic for one reason: there’s no body. There’s no film other than P/G; and no one can go conclusive one way or the other on that one because…there’s no body. There are too many footprints for any all-faked scenario yet discussed (i.e., none) to hold water…but there’s no body. In other words: the existence of the animal, and the scenario where there simply isn’t one, and all these people are lying or deluded or sense-impaired, appear too close to equally absurd to accept either one on its face.
I haven’t seen a real nice painting in a scientific journal, of a sasquatch in its natural habitat, 90 degrees mis-pasted, OK I’ll stop now, like there is for a certain cloud-forest rat of Peru…because scientists have no body. He’s on, or was on, a Canadian postage stamp. But then so is the kraken.
You cannot ignore sightings.
But some sightings, you just have to ignore.
Not saying the subject of this thread is in the latter category. But not saying this is an easy field, either.
Especially for all the people looking at threads like this, shaking their heads, I hope not grinding their teeth, and saying: dammit, I saw one of these things. It’s more real than these posts, to me.
I KNOW.
This may be the last word on sightings, for now. From Marjorie Halpin, in the book Manlike Monsters on Trial:
“As long as Sasquatch is a personal rather than a collectively sanctioned experience it will remain hallucinatory as officially defined by Western culture.”
Which brings to mind Gandhi’s quote, when asked what he thought of Western civilization: “I think it would be a good idea.”
DWA- I actually kind of like the term “denialist” for people who disregard all evidence not pertaining to their preconceived notion that “Bigfoot does not exist”. I am a skeptic (not a denialist! lol) myself and your posts often reflect my own opinions very closely. In the case of eyewitness testimony, I agree that it is a major problem when sightings are disregarded out of hand. I feel it is very irresponsible to throw out anything that could be gleaned from these accounts without at least investigating a little. A field biologist would at least listen to testimony from natives, etc, when dealing with known animals so why should the viability of witness sightings drop to nothing when dealing with an unknown? It doesn’t seem to me to be a very careful way to go about getting to the bottom of it. But then again, the denialists are much the same as the “professionalists” in that their livlihood depends on Bigfoot NOT existing.
OK, OK, mystery_man! We’ll go with “denialist”! Shheesh, I gotta bring something to the table. Why not a new term? :0D
Maybe this will get the Radfords of the world off their intellectual duffs, eh? 😉
I’d like, as a simple intellectual proposition, to see the evidence investigated. And as I have nothing to prove here, no, I’m not interested in personally doing it myself. For one thing, there are many better-qualified people at hand, who could use a little help as they have real jobs and can’t do this full time. For another, I can’t deny a nagging feeling that wanting science to pursue this animal is selfish. Can’t we just leave him alone? I really actually am, totally, satisfied with the animal at its current status of completely plausible proposition. And with mine as philosopher prince/cheerleader for true investigative skepticism.
And if I found out a scientific expedition were going to East Texas next week, I might throw a party to celebrate. It’s like that with me.
But if you’re going to tell me there isn’t anything for anyone to hang his hat — or his research money — on, I’m simply going to tell you you’re wrong.
I really don’t want to call folks like Ben Radford Professionals. They have too much to bring to the table to settle for that, I’d hope.
As the director of the TBRC, and without confirming nor denying ANYTHING, me thinks that DWA should break out the party hats…
Craig: if it’s a TBRC expedition you’re talking about, please tell me that Ted Turner has funded it for a year’s stay. Shoot, a month would be good. Better than a long weekend.
You guys find fresh tracks; hear vocalizations; have close sound encounters and even sightings…and THEN HAVE TO GO HOME TO YOUR JOBS. Maybe this is why I’m not a field researcher. If my job called after a sighting, I’d be fired. Then, no more moola for research. 🙁
I don’t know what to say about the BFRO’s field work. I hear stripes of commentary on it here, good and bad. But anybody who thinks there’s nothing out there ought to go to the TBRC website with an open mind, and read the expedition reports. As well as the sightings.
Whenever I talk about science throwing its hat into the ring to supplement amateur field work, I know full well why amateur researchers might not embrace that. Scientific arrogance can be particularly galling if they’re standing on your shoulders.
This is one of many interesting and entertaining stories of our local “Cocoman” expert. Homie and his un-named friend have many stories of aliens, brujas and diablos who roam the highcountry in the Costilla area. First and foremost, I’ve scoured the highcountry for many years in quest of trophy bull elk and other big game animals abundant on the 82,000 acre priavte ranch; Rio Costilla Park a private property according to Homie where he had his encounter with the beast. In the over 20 years I have hunted the ranch I agree, I have seen some pretty amazing things. The most amazing being a golden eagle stratigically swooping down on a bull elk forcing him to fall to his death as he perched amoungst some cliffs. Or the time I found the remains of twenty two cows in the highcountry apparently killed by lightning…the clue from the burned remains and 5 acre timber patch which evendently burned. But Big Foot? Never! The tops of aspen trees sheared…I’ve seen ice and storms shear the tops of an entire small mountainside. I have some problems with Homie and his friend James’ story. Oop! Sorry James. First, as a member owner of the Rio Costilla Park ranch, Homie had no business hunting on the Rio and the RCCLA should have investigated trespassing charges as Homie is not a owner/member. Second, had the news reporter investigated Homie’s crediability…talked to the local “pleve” his creditablility may have put his story in the trash instead of the local Newspaper. I don’t doubt the existence of Big Foot…nor do I doubt that Homie in his usual state saw something…pink elephants are next.
I find it interesting to read this story. I know that my story may be downplayed by many readers but I know of what I heard in the exact mountain range. To keep things short, sweet and obviously not fabricated i will leave out a lot of the unimportant details. Well let me just start off by saying I don’t live in the costilla region and I am not an avid scouter. My experience took place prior to this story in the summer of 2004 and 05 in a similar but different location, which is still part of the sangre de cristo mountain range. Well this story begins with a group of friends going camping in upper midnight which is roughly 20 miles south-east of the the previous story’s location. Our group of friends decided to have a summer camping trip by some private cabins in midnight. We were not supposed to be in the location because it is private property but we snuck in anyways and set up a small tent camp. The first night went well. Me and 2 other friends woke up early in the morning because of the cold and humid conditions. We exited our tents and sat around in the morning mist to enjoy the morning sunrise. During this time we could hear cows mooing off in the distance of about 2 miles. One of my friends, who loves to mess around, started to moo back in hopes of stimulating the cows. He let out a couple of loud moos, which we laughed at after but had no response. A couple tries later he mooed and all became silent. After that we all heard one of the loudest sounds we ever heard in our lives. It sounded like a really deep voiced male yelling as loud as they can in distress. I have heard similar to this from the friend that was trying to stimulate the cows but this was a hell of a lot louder. I have had a lot of experience with all the animals from around this area ( bear, cougar, elk, deer, fox) but have never heard anything quite like this. It echoed for about 10 seconds through all the near by canyons. the following year we were once again in the same location. I really didn’t want to go but i decided to stay for the second night, which was a Saturday of ’05, being that the last time I had heard the strange noise on Saturday morning. Here we were having a good time on Saturday night. The festivities for the night had ended and we all went to sleep. At about 3 in the morning I was awakened by the sound of howling coyotes. I stayed awake in panic because of the fact that we were only protected by the thin walls of our tent. Soon after my friend woke up and was wondering what was going on. We were both sitting there listening to the coyotes howl when once again I heard that horrid sound from the previous year. This time it was followed by a series of coyote howls. We laid in our tent terrified beyond belief hoping that the sound would stop. Finally after 3 outbursts it ended. I then tried to sleep but could not for I was too terrified. During both of these occasions we were unarmed. Ever since I have tried to share this occurrence with my close trusted friends and have since heard of 2 other people having similar and even more frightening events happen to them in the same near distant area. I do not wish to elaborate on other’s events because I know my account would not be the solid truth. I only know of what I experienced and only feel comfortable sharing MY own story. I can close with this though. I have lived in this region my whole life and I have been camping a long time in it and have had chances to observe a lot of wild life. What I heard those two instances will always terrify and haunt me. I have never in my life heard anything like what I heard those nights. verbally attack me if you will. I care less. I only posted this story because it hit very close to home for me.
Lee Vigil: I appreciate your perspective on Homie; however, I have no special reason to believe or disbelieve either one of you more than the other.
I’ve only lived in Taos County for about 2 1/2 years, but each and every of my three summers here, I have regularly heard LOUD vocalizations from the hills east of town. These are quite similar to vocalizations found on BFRO’s site and others. In the summer of 2006 I heard speechlike – speechLIKE vocalizations out in back of my house. It occurs to me that some BF groups may possess some rudimentary speech patterns. These were DEFINITELY NOT human voices, although they shared some common characteristics. Whatever it was had a VERY large chest cavity – it sounded a LOT like the famous “Sierra Samurai” vocalizations. At one point, one said quite loudly, “reetZAH?”
My daughter had a sighting in Virginia – interestingly on the same day I moved to Taos. Last week she smelled the same stench on a hike in the mountains, in a little side canyon. She found some hairs as well. YES, we DID save ’em!
So yes, I definitely believe there is clear evidence of BF in Taos County. Maybe an expedition should be put together for next summer. Whether Homie was in his cups or not.