Part VIII… Bigfoot Sightings
Posted by: Rick Noll on October 9th, 2005
Dogs were barking somewhere below our position. They sounded like they were making good time coming our way. They were frantic. Their noise growing louder and louder, with deeper low tones and shrill highs, hurting our frozen ears the closer they got.
Dave and I must have had the same idea concerning the cattail. Was it a cougar? It didn’t look stiff like the others stalks. And now with a bunch of dogs baying our way and… What did we hear about a cat in that cafe? I didn’t know about Dave but my mind seemed slow. We just might be between those hunters and dogs and a cougar that may be taking non-typical chances with humans. What to do?
We began backing up towards the road, trying to stay on our feet, what with the slope and ice covering.
We got to the middle of the road when we heard the dogs step up their agitation and we began to hear people as well. Should we be on this road? Should we be in the middle of all of this?
We both started to scramble towards the road’s side, where the snow was crunchy and not ice. Maybe we could just side step and get out of the way. Unfortunately, the direction each of us chose to move right then was in line with the other person, thinking that the other would just turn around and move the same way. But that isn’t what happened. We ran smack into each other face first.
We both slipped on the ice, fell on our butts, trying to protect our cameras from hitting the ground and slid down the road. A small turn in the road was just below us and the dogs seemed to be right around it, out of view.
We finally came to a stop, digging our heels in. We must have slid 30 feet or more. My ass was sore, the icy road wasn’t that smooth.
The dogs rounded the corner and ran to either side and through us towards that frozen pond. Armed men soon rounded that turn as well, looking at us to see if maybe they should stop to help. Always the quick one, Dave looked at them and said "Nice looking dogs", then fiddled with his camera as if he was sitting there in the middle of the road on purpose. Some of them nodded their heads towards us in response and then they were above us on the road.
The barking moved away from us, as if they were chasing or following something. I had enough. It was time for us to return to the car and start home.
We never did find out if that was a cougar and what these men and dogs were after.
On the drive home we came to the following conclusions:
1. We believed Dean’s story, we believed that he had an encounter with a Sasquatch just as he said. We had seen the evidence still present days afterwards. Shell casings on the ground and dead chickens.
2. We don’t think the animal was using the cave. There was no evidence that it had plus it was way too small.
3. We decided not to work with anybody in field investigations other than with ourselves.
4. We didn’t think it was a bear visitation. A bear in tupor would have gone down lower to find food if it wanted it, but in tupor a bear would not be so active as to visit repeatedly a human dwelling to raid on chickens, especially with Dean’s dog there.
5. This made for 5 possible Sasquatch related events in the area, as to this date.
Thinking about all of this now causes me to wonder. Both of us didn’t know squat about obtaining a blood sample or DNA. Dean and his nephew shot and hit that animal. There was frozen blood on the ground but neither of us thought to collect any… I guess the odd couple, Eric sent, didn’t either. Who’s to know if some of it wasn’t from Bigfoot? Did we miss a major clue here?
About Rick Noll
Rick Noll has been actively searching for the Sasquatch since 1969 and continues his pursuit with extended field trips into the Pacific Northwest's most remote regions. Rick has worked with Peter Byrne, René Dahinden, Grover Krantz, John Green, Jeff Meldrum and the BFRO during all this. He helped with many documentaries on the subject including Animal X: The Skookum Expedition and Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science.
Where’d the impression come from that I see above?
Is that one of your finds?
Also, if you are willing to, someday can you tell us about the most important find you’ve made in your secret research location.
In response I’m certainly not asking for details, just a yes or no if one day you’ll let us in on what keeps you going back there.
It came from the hill side we went up. I had cleared away some of the snow and took a B&W picture with a cheap 110 camera along the way. Not the best picture and there was no scale included. It was about 16” long though. There was what appeared to be some toe drag leaving the tracks, and yes there were many impressions like this going up the road. The snow was about 18” deep with a crusty frozen layer on top..
Sometimes there is compression at the bottom of snow impressions, giving us a different kind of track when clearing away snow. Other times there seems to be a little bit of water running between the snow and the ground, especially on slopes. That was the case here. It looked like that interface between the ground and the snow had melted at some point, probably high sun, so there may also have been some slippage down hill… possibly enlarging the track.
I don’t know if you would call it a secret research area; certainly we try and not advertise the fact that we are studying there. But yes, I will probably be discussing some of the research results obtained from there as well. I just thought that to fully understand what I have been doing, some examples of past investigations might help.
Thanks for the info.
Totally dug this first story.