[Wrao]

Got new tires put on my car today, and I'm sitting around waiting for the service, when this guy in his mid-late 40s sits down near me and strikes up a conversation.


To start with, the guy was well dressed, well groomed and he drove a nice car. He very clearly looked well off, and the way he spoke exuded the kind of confidence that you tend to find amongst successful people. On top of that he had two sons with him, and the way he communicated very well with them as well. In short, this guy wasn't crazy.

So we're chatting(small talk, tires, girls...etc.), and I mention to him that I have been living in Washington for the past year. At this he turns to his sons(who are about 6 and they are just puttering around in their own little world) and says "hey guys, you know what's in washington?... it's bigfoot country, it's the bigfoot capital". I didn't think anything of it, he was just playing around with his boys. They responded with wide-eyed enthusiasm and interest, but then the guy turns to me again and looks me straight in the eyes and says. "I'm going to find them"

He proceeds to tell me all about bigfoot facts, conjectures and the possibilities. He outlines a plan of his that he has apparently had for a long time to assemble a crew to be on call 24/7 for 3 weeks out in the forests of washington and oregon, lining the places with infrared cameras, and other modern equipment. He goes on and on telling me about his various friends that have seen bigfoots, and their various encounters, as well as why they are so difficult to find.

He was getting so into it that he even stuck around for an extra couple minutes after his car was done just to finish a story to me.



Now, he was a nice guy, and he had a good sense of humor, and by all accounts appeared very normal. At first I thought he was just fucking around with the bigfoot stuff, but as minutes went by and his excitement only increased. I realized that he was legit.

I think that it was probably one of the strangest conversations I have ever had with a stranger, one of the strangest I've ever heard of even, specifically because of the setting and the type of person that he was. It is one thing for a hobo to start rambling about random crap or conspiracies or whatever. That is 'normal weird', this was definitely a type of weird that doesn't come up very often.


So, who wants to go find bigfoots with me?

[psmith2.0]

Sign me up. I love that stuff.

[Wrao]

Originally Posted by pscates2.0 Sign me up. I love that stuff.

Yeah, Cryptozoology as they like to say... it's fun, but this guy was dead serious, the way he spoke of it, it was as if his best friend was killed by a bigfoot and he wanted revenge. When in fact, his friend came toe-to-toe with one and managed to get away by jumping in a river. Because, you see, Bigfoots aren't very aggressive, but they are territorial and will actively run you out of their land if you wander into it.

[Yontsey]

Originally Posted by pscates2.0 Sign me up. I love that stuff.

I agree. I always watch that shit on History Channel and such but that is a strange conversation.

I dunno how I woulda handled it. Whether I woulda been creeped out or not.....

[Kickaha]

Oh hells yeah. I loves the Bigfeets. Gigantopithicus FTW.

I used to hike around the North Cascades solo quite a bit as a teenager. Nothing way out in the sticks, but a few miles from fire roads, etc, so it was a ways from most humans. Sometimes I'd be out for three of four days and never see another person.

One night I heard the fucking *strangest* noise from a ridge a bit over from where I was camped - kind of reminded me of a howler monkey. Then I heard a response from a second... something... across the valley. Asked my grandfather (who spent most of his youth hiking, camping, and riding around the Cascades) if he knew what it was. Nope... but he'd heard it too, from time to time.

Finally found something online that sounded like it: http://www.oregonbigfoot.com/sounds/...no_screams.mp3

Those were recorded about 50 miles from where I was that night.

Now imagine those echoing out of the darkness... you're hours on foot during daylight from the nearest way out... you're alone... and you have a thin piece of nylon between you and... it.

No idea what it was. Mutant woodchuck, Sasquatch, or something else, but it was definitely... different.

[Wrao]

Right, hearing a noise like that would be pretty disturbing, if you were to assume it was a bigfoot. Especially when you consider that if our descriptions of bigfoots are accurate, they would be able to *very* quickly be where you are moments after hearing the noises.

[kieran]

Damn Kick. sounds like Blair Witch project.

I'd be scared shitless. Camping's not for me strictly for that reason alone. I don't want to be that far away from civilization if anything happens.

[Kickaha]

Yeah, I had no idea what the hell it was. I grew up with stories of Sasquatch, but they never bothered me, and I'd never heard any audio of supposed ones, so it didn't occur to me to think "OMG! Bigfeets!" I just wondered what kind of fricked up animal it was. I mean, I've heard marmots scream, and they sound pretty nasty, so I didn't leap to 8' primates in my head.

Years later, when I ran across that clip though, all the hairs on my neck stood straight up on end.

Still have no idea what it, or rather, they were.

[709]

Originally Posted by Kickaha http://www.oregonbigfoot.com/sounds/...no_screams.mp3

*cold chills*

Alone, in the dark and hearing that....I would promptly soil myself and make similar high pitched noises resembling "HEEEEAAAALLLPPPP!!!!"

That said, I've always been a cryptozoology nut and would surely sign up for this trek of his. I'll bring Depends™.

[Kickaha]

Originally Posted by kieran23kk Damn Kick. sounds like Blair Witch project. I'd be scared shitless. Camping's not for me strictly for that reason alone. I don't want to be that far away from civilization if anything happens.

Pfft. Prepare ahead of time, and most situations are dealable. You can get yourself out of deep woods short of two busted legs (and even then, you could fight like hell), and for everything else, there's a 9mm. Redneck MasterCard.

[Wrao]

The 'angle' of his expedition was that the only reason we do not have conclusive proof is because no one has really gone out there prepared to find a bigfoot. People go out on trips with cameras and audio recording equipment, and they come back with nothing, or crappy pictures and audio. His reasoning is that you have to track it with heat signatures, since it is so large and it would stand out in the cold northwest forests. But specifically you have to have a crew, out of the area(so as to not disturb the thing) ready to be in the area in scramble times. The only reason no one has done this, he reckons, is because it would simply cost way too much to have a crew ready to go 24/7 for 3-4 weeks straight, and the risk of not finding anything outweighs the reward of finding something.

It is funny, because, while he was talking to me, I had to literally hold back my laughter over how absurd it all sounded. But the truth of it is, I am just as into cryptids as the next nerd, and I would totally be down to go bigfoot hunting. Even though I don't really believe its real.

[psmith2.0]

Originally Posted by Kickaha Oh hells yeah. I loves the Bigfeets. Gigantopithicus FTW. I used to hike around the North Cascades solo quite a bit as a teenager. Nothing way out in the sticks, but a few miles from fire roads, etc, so it was a ways from most humans. Sometimes I'd be out for three of four days and never see another person. One night I heard the fucking *strangest* noise from a ridge a bit over from where I was camped - kind of reminded me of a howler monkey. Then I heard a response from a second... something... across the valley. Asked my grandfather (who spent most of his youth hiking, camping, and riding around the Cascades) if he knew what it was. Nope... but he'd heard it too, from time to time. Finally found something online that sounded like it: http://www.oregonbigfoot.com/sounds/...no_screams.mp3 Those were recorded about 50 miles from where I was that night. Now imagine those echoing out of the darkness... you're hours on foot during daylight from the nearest way out... you're alone... and you have a thin piece of nylon between you and... it. No idea what it was. Mutant woodchuck, Sasquatch, or something else, but it was definitely... different.

I wonder how fast I would've filled my tent up with involuntary piss?

Yikes, that's eerie listening to right now, safe in my lit, locked house. Out where you were? I'd just lie there and hope for a quick death.

[Windowsrookie]

He stole my motorcycle!!!!

[Kickaha]

I don't know if it's true, but I wouldn't doubt it. Too many sightings over too many years, over too large an area... and there are huge swathes of old forest stretching up far into Canada. Hell, we're still finding new species all the time, even large mammals. (Vietnamese aquatic deer, anyone?)

If an animal has a modicum of intelligence, and wants to remain hidden... well...

[709]

I'm still holding out hope for a Megalodon.

That would rule.

[Kickaha]

Bloop!

[psmith2.0]

I can easily believe something strange and unknown is out there. Face it...for all our talk of "man encroaching on nature" and so forth, fact is there are thousands upon thousands of acres we humans have never once set foot on (and probably never will).

It's not nutty at all to me to imagine something safely tucked away in some of these regions.

I'm not 100% convinced, but I certainly don't ding the notion outright. I'm open to it, definitely. I'd love to know for sure someday.

The day I win the lottery, you're going to read about me because I'll be that nutty sumbitch funding the largest bigfoot-searching expedition ever witnessed. I'll make NASA look like sissy amateurs.



"Last week's winner, Mr. Scates, upon receiving his check for $132 million in the Georgia Mega Millions jackpot, prompty spent $118 million on - and we quote - 'a lot of cool, expensive shit' in his quest to settle the bigfoot question once and for all."

We've never gone to the bottom of all our oceans, or looked into every nook and cranny, miles below the surface. We probably don't know nearly as much about this planet - and things living on it - as we think we do.

I've always believed that. We know what we know, only because that's all we've been able to grasp and figure out.

[709]

Originally Posted by Kickaha Bloop!

I'm hoping that's something else entirely. Basilosaurus? That would equally rule.

[Kickaha]

Originally Posted by pscates2.0 I wonder how fast I would've filled my tent up with involuntary piss? Yikes, that's eerie listening to right now, safe in my lit, locked house. Out where you were? I'd just lie there and hope for a quick death.

That's the funny thing - I'd heard all sorts of things by that point - I mean cripes, a raccoon walking by your tent, 2' from your head at 3am sounds like a damned herd of killer vampire wildebeest. A marmot getting hit by an eagle sounds like a woman screaming her frickin' head off, even in the middle of the day. You figure out what everything sounds like. I figured that howl was just something I hadn't run across before.

It literally wasn't until I ran across that audio that I went "Oh holy crap..."

[psmith2.0]

You know the worst sound on the planet, in terms of giving me the total creeps? Sometimes a neighborhood cat will be around my place and start yowling around 3:00am or so. Maybe they're in heat or something? You know that horrible sound?

And the more I listen to it, the more human and eerie it sounds, and then I'm lying there in bed and I start thinking goofy stuff like "it sounds like the ghosts of little kids who were murdered under my house 100 years ago, and they're calling for their mother" or whatever.



And then I freak myself out and lie there for two hours, eyes wide open and whistling to myself.



Why I can't just get up and throw a shoe at the damn thing like Dagwood does is beyond me. Instead I'll lie there, put my imagination in gear and scare the living hell out of myself thinking all kinds of weirdo stuff, waiting for the next eerie, unearthly meow to see how freaky that one sounds...

[Kickaha]

Originally Posted by pscates2.0 You know the worst sound on the planet, in terms of giving me the total creeps? Sometimes a neighborhood cat will be around my place and start yowling around 3:00am or so. Maybe they're in heat or something? You know that horrible sound?

*lol* After you've had a cougar scream just above your head on a cliff after pacing you down a canyon... when you're on skis... well, those little kitties in heat are just pussies.

[Wrao]

Originally Posted by pscates2.0 You know the worst sound on the planet, in terms of giving me the total creeps? Sometimes a neighborhood cat will be around my place and start yowling around 3:00am or so. Maybe they're in heat or something? You know that horrible sound?

Geez. I had dinner with some friends not too long ago and when I pulled up to their house I heard what sounded like a crying child, but like... seriously crying in the worst most 'holy crap, what horrible thing has just happened' sort of way. During Dinner, I brought it up, and the host said "it is this fucking cat! it has been making these twisted miserable howls all night long for 2 weeks, it is driving me insane!".

The Cat belonged to a homeless man who keeps a bunch of cats on leashes and in boxes on his bicycle. Apparently he hangs out at the house next to my friend's from time to time, and from time to time he will leave a cat or two there.

So this cat that sounded like it was giving birth to death, was a scraggly old street cat that had been on a short leash for the past 2 weeks, maybe starving to death, maybe not. Uncertain of the specifics, but, having gotten kind of tipsy from dinner, we decided to act. I have a Kabar in my car, which we grabbed and used to cut the cat free. The cat ran away immediately.


The next day, it was back. Eventually, it left for good though, but still...

[kieran]

Originally Posted by pscates2.0 "Last week's winner, Mr. Scates, upon receiving his check for $132 million in the Georgia Mega Millions jackpot, prompty spent $118 million on - and we quote - 'a lot of cool, expensive shit' in his quest to settle the bigfoot question once and for all."

and may I ask where the other $14 million is going?

[Kickaha]

Originally Posted by Wrao Geez. I had dinner with some friends not too long ago and when I pulled up to their house I heard what sounded like a crying child, but like... seriously crying in the worst most 'holy crap, what horrible thing has just happened' sort of way.

Yeah, animals can make the most *horrible* noises. Hence, why I didn't worry too much about that noise in the night, alone in the woods.

[psmith2.0]

Originally Posted by kieran23kk and may I ask where the other $14 million is going?

I'm buying Mariska Hargitay, the Fender Custom Shop and a yacht.

[Yontsey]

Originally Posted by kieran23kk and may I ask where the other $14 million is going?

I was gonna suggest porn

[psmith2.0]

If I've got Mariska and the ability to have any type of guitar made for me at a moment's whim, what in the hell would I need porn for? I think "big picture", boys.

[709]

When I was growing up, my family thought that humor of the highest order was to scare the living shit out of their sons. We had hunting dogs, and the pen was about 50 yards from the house. My brother and I would have to switch off nights, each being the ones to feed them. It was fucking horrible. We'd run our tiny asses like hell through the dark to the dog shed, turn the light on, feed them, turn the light off....and then wait for the inevitable scare.

Would they be behind the willow trees? In the pines? Around the corner? Laying flat beside the path only to grab my unsuspecting ankle as I bolted back to the 'safety' of the back porch light? Yes. All of those and more. It became something of a game to find new and more horrifying ways to make us shit ourselves.

One night, it was my charge to go and feed the dogs. I bolted as I usually did, my father turned off the back porch light as he usually did....leaving me in complete darkness. I heard "HHOOOFFF"....then, "HHHHOOOOOFFFF!!!!!!"...and went fucking balls out towards the shed. There was a BEAST outside, and I was completely sure it was Bigfoot. No question. Fucking Bigfoot. Ready to skin my tiny ass and feast upon my bones. Coming to some sense, I was guessing it was some elaborate trickery by my parents, no doubt using some large mechanical beast they had rented for just this occassion. I did my duty, turned the lights off, waited for silence.....and "whooosh". I'd never made it between the shed and the back porch so quickly.

Making it back inside the house safely, I howled "HaHAA!!"...very happy with myself that I had thwarted the plans of whomever of my family planned to have me crushed and/or eaten that night...only to see them all in the family room looking at me like "WTF?". I think I went white. "Bigfoot!" "Outside!!!"


Long story short, we found out the next morning that one of the neighbor's horses got loose and was wandering around near our fence that night. Scared the living shit out of me, obviously.


I still think it was Bigfoot.

[Yontsey]

Originally Posted by pscates2.0 If I've got Mariska and the ability to have any type of guitar made for me at a moment's whim, what in the hell would I need porn for? I think "big picture", boys.

Touche. I had no idea who Mariska was until I just googled her. I think youll be a-ok with your initial investments.

[kieran]

Originally Posted by 709 ....snip......

I just laughed my ass off at that post 709. I'm by myself and I still laughed out loud.