Cryptomundo
for Bigfoot, Lake Monsters, Sea Serpents and More

Allen and Mary (their real names) are both Payson residents in their 70s and are retired … and they are hiking buddies.

Allen lives alone and spends his days working around the house, walking his two dogs, hiking and getting out in the hills with his Jeep. He is a member of both the local hiking club and the local four-wheel drive club.

Mary leads a hectic life. Occasionally, though, she likes to get away for a little while, to breathe some fresh air, to put some dirt under her hiking boots and to “recharge her batteries.” When she feels that need, she calls Allen and says “Let’s go.”

Such was the case on March 3, 2013. On a beautiful, unseasonably warm day, Mary wanted to find the upper end of the Salome (pronounced Sal-oh-MAY) Canyon trail in the mountains northeast of Roosevelt Lake, the jumping-off point for the highly technical route down through the narrow slot canyon known as the Salome Jug.

The route down through the Jug is not one for the casual day hiker, and involves rope rappels and swimming across pools of ice-cold water. It takes experienced and well-equipped groups to make it through — an activity called “canyoneering.” Mary had no intention of doing any canyoneering, she just wanted to check out the entrance.

So Allen and Mary hiked into the rugged, remote area, after a 50-mile drive down from Payson, past Punkin Center, across Tonto Creek, and eastward across the north side of the lake on A Cross Road. The last few miles were on a bumpy four-wheel drive road north to the trailhead. After three hours of travel, the road ended at an old cabin. They were alone, with no other vehicles or even tire tracks and no clear sign of where the trail began.

Allen and Mary followed a few faint pathways, but couldn’t find the trail. Finally around noon they stopped for lunch on a log at the base of a steep slope covered with heavy brush and a dense stand of trees. After a short time, a sizable rock came flying through the air from the hill behind them, landing with a crash in the brush just to the right of where Allen was sitting. It did not fall or roll from anywhere, and it was not blown by the wind somehow. It was obviously thrown — by someone or something. Allen looked around, but couldn’t see anything.

Allen and Mary nervously finished their lunch and headed back down to the Jeep, wondering who would be up there throwing rocks at them, with no boot tracks or evidence of other hikers.

At first, Allen thought that they may have stumbled upon marijuana growers, despite the lack of any tracks of evidence to support that theory. The more he thought about it, the more he decided the rock must have been thrown by a Bigfoot. There really wasn’t any other logical explanation.

Allen had never believed that something like Bigfoot creatures could exist. Quite honestly, he never really thought much about it. The only reason that he knew anything about them throwing rocks was because a friend and fellow four-wheel drive club member (Chuck Jacobs, this writer) is an amateur Bigfoot investigator/researcher and Allen had heard him discussing some of their common territorial behaviors. It seemed silly at the time, but now he wondered. If it wasn’t a person, what else could it have been but a Bigfoot? The rock certainly didn’t throw itself and since it takes a good arm and an opposable thumb to throw a rock, the list of what could have done it is pretty short.

Allen thought about it a lot over the next few days, and when he next saw Chuck, he told him about the incident. Our story shifts to first-person at this point.

On hearing Allen’s story, I advised him that the location was at the edge of an area known for Bigfoot (I prefer the term Sasquatch) activity and that in the vast majority of Sasquatch encounters the people never actually see them.

Intimidation behaviors may include stick breaking, bush or tree shaking, pushing over dead trees, stomping, chest beating, and a wide variety of vocalizations, all while the creatures themselves remain hidden.

Often, the first thing people experience is an intense feeling of being watched. As in this case, rock throwing is a well-documented Sasquatch behavior when people intrude into their area. Sasquatches are very powerful and skilled rock throwers, and throw rocks to kill small game, such as rabbits, squirrels, and game birds.