Thursday, September 30, 2010

BIGFOOT WARS, Episode 3: THE REVENGE OF THE JIMITES, THE BIGFOOTERY ENQUIRER STRIKES BACK; Bigfoot's bLog Featured in NORTHCOAST JOURNAL COVER STORY

Blog Reader Bryan Puzzles over the NCJ Bigfoot Article
Image Courtesy of the Reader
BIGFOOT'S BLOG, LATE-SEPTEMBER 2010 EDITION,
a.k.a, WTF Does This All Have to Do with BIGFOOT, Anyway?

OK, so this "news" came up, and we'll just have to deal with it somehow, even though the disgust we felt about it kept us away from wanting to blog for nearly three weeks. Hence, the Willow Creek BIGFOOT DAYS and BLUFF CREEK TRIP, Part Two blog entries will just have to wait a while more... not to mention our second Bluff Creek film site documentary filming expedition, and the follow-up trip up the creek to the P-G site upcoming. Let these be nuts stashed away for the fall and coming winter. So it goes, to the back burner, along with so many other crazy topics boiling over back there (yes, the Bluff Creek Massacre has raised its ugly head again). Sorry, but it isn't every week that one gets accused of being the next Charles Manson. We admit it, it's funny. Nor does one find oneself often in the cover story of the best local paper. Read on, we dare ye....

There's a LOT crammed into this blog entry. Sorry about that! Don't miss the great new Bigfoot painting from JESSE WIEDEL, found below.

"I am still LOVE, LOVE, LOVING your blog!  I have finally made it through almost all the posts of the last ~21 months. Highly anticipating your next Blog entry!"
---N., a blog reader

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NEWS!
North Coast Journal of Politics, People, Art,
...and BIGFOOT? 9/23/2010
In the September 23rd issue of THE NORTHCOAST JOURNAL, published out of Eureka, CA, we were featured in a story written by Heidi Walters, concerning our battles against the Trolls formerly in control of the BIGFOOT FORUMS, erstwhile known as the "Jimites."

"Bigfoot and the Trolls: How a Bookseller in Willow Creek Caused the Biggest Bigfoot Forum on the Web to Be Shut Down. Or Did He?"
Click the title above to read the 8-page article.
Go to the photo gallery HERE.
Be sure to read the COMMENTS section at the bottom of each page of the article. We invite our readers to take a stand and leave comments of their own.

This article was mentioned by The Bigfoot Lunch Club--a blog we like--so read their entry here:
Bigfoot Wars II: Beware of the Trolls

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Let's see... the GCBRO Forum says I am Evil. The JREF says I am a Weirdo. And now the Bigfootery Enquirer says I have "Charlie Manson eyes." I suppose I must be doing SOMETHING RIGHT with the blog...!


Patty Manson? Confirms on
googly eyes, evasive and suspicious
disposition, hippie beard and hair,
swastika forehead and cone head.
(Yes, we, too, read "Find Bigfoot"
on Facebook!)
SOMETIMES ONE JUST HAS TO GOOGLE ONESELF.

We guess it's all fair, in love, Bigfooting and war; but there are crucial distinctions to be made in terms of both motive and execution. In our protest against the tyranny of unfairness and crony-culture that had come to dominate the old BIGFOOT FORUMS (BFF), we had used over-the-top and sometimes ridiculous satire to get our point across. We called forth the ghosts of Stalinism, Nazism and Orwell's Big Brother to reveal the absurdity of a discussion board presided over by an oligarchy of "administrators" and "moderators" who were anything but moderate or impartial in their application of the "rules" by which the Forums were supposed to be governed. AND IT WORKED (well, maybe... see below for an update). The BFF was shut down and reconstituted under a new administration, new rules, and a new internet host. The load was taken from its founder, Brian Brown, and yet the BFF was preserved, with the archives hopefully soon to follow. The power, too, was taken away from the "dogs" and trolls who were controlling it. Away from a group that has jokingly been called the "Jimites."

BFE: A Blog About the People of Bigfootery... and their BS.
A recent blog entry by the BIGFOOTERY ENQUIRER took digs at us, calling us a "Gorilla."
Read it here: GORILLAS IN OUR MIDST, if you care. BFE-guy had been getting a bit edgy lately, as we along with Steve Kulls of SquatchDetective Radio and some secret others tried to unearth his secretive identity. What concerns us here is the COMMENTS on this entry (see below the main text through the link above, and quoted here, below). We had left a comment, to which he replied, "Steve S, you have Charlie Manson eyes." This puzzled us a bit, but our suspicion led us to Google ourselves; and lo, we found an evidential trail connecting the BFE author to the BIGFOOT DISCUSSIONS Board, the true home and den of Bigfooting iniquity of THE JIMITES. Yes, all of those nasties, for the most part anyway, have retreated back to this boggy hollow (if not the JREF). In any case, The BFE had also said this: "One gorilla is a blogger that one week says he is done with the politics and drama and the next week is right back in it." This statement, referring to us, was also a clue. The implication is of bipolar indecision or emotional extremism (which we do NOT suffer from), and was confirmed as sourced from the Jimite faction on the BFD Board, where we were not only compared to Manson, but also called "BipolarBigfootBoy." Talk about our blog (and person) on the Jimite-dominated BFD started a week before the BFE blog entry, culminating on the presentation of Manson photos (compared to us) on the BFD on the SAME DAY as on the Bigfootery Enquirer. OUR CONCLUSION?? BFE IS A JIMITE, or at least sources heavily from that discussion board. We think many of his "stringer" sources are also Jimites. With only 750 total members on the BFD, surely mostly inactive and non-posting, it should be a piece of cake to identify the screen name and posts of the BFE author. We will be looking....

BFD: The Last Great Mystery, i.e., Why Are Some People
in Bigfooting Compelled to be Such Jerks?
Serious? Seriously... BAD.
Look at the members role of the BFD forum and you'll see a lot of familiar names from the old BFF: Teresa, RedWolf, MasterBarber, etc., etc.

The thing is, we did satire based upon something real: their behavior in the past, and their recent conduct on the BFF. It was all clear as day, right there in the discussion threads, how absurdly in violation of the original spirit of the BFF they were acting. What do we get as a return salvo from the so-called Jimites? Mocking implications that we are "psycho," and attempts to get under our skin (or rather, make themselves, low as they are, feel better) by making fun of how our eyes look. We can't help it if they feel uncomfortable with our gaze, as it really is the truth they are afraid of, their reflection of their own composite visage that we throw back at them. Anyway, that googly-eyed photo was meant to be... funny, you freaks.
Jimite Jim's OWN self-
representation on the BFD.
Who needs satire when this is
how they show themselves?

There are no Jimites, really. As a matter of fact, it's all dark. They are all just a loose confederacy of TROLLS.


Do we really "believe" in the "Jimite" conspiracy? NO. Obviously, there is safety in numbers for cowards and snark-masters; and yes, they have done great kinds of damage to the Bigfooting community in the past. But do they have any real power of effect? No longer. Are they some kind of grand Illuminati? Hardly. It is more like a dive bar down the road from the trailer park. They all hang out there, sharing their squalor. We hope to dispense with them from here on out as NOT WORTHY OF OUR ATTENTION.

Read the relevant thread on the BFD here:
http://bigfootdiscussions.invisionzone.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=3461
and focus around here:
http://bigfootdiscussions.invisionzone.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=3461&pid=1406400&mode=threaded&start=#entry1406400

Examples of slander from the BFD posts:

From "Masterbarber": Loren has "issues" and everyone knows it.
Amen and anyone who had doubts about that probably doesn't after reading his latest re-posting of rumors from America's favorite internet sh*t rag- BipolarBigfootBoy's blog.

"Ty" Avatar on BFD

"Ty" on BFD
From "Ty": "Those eyes just scream mental patient....LOL"

Now, it is one thing to satirically comment on the behavior of some annoying trolls on an internet forum, as we did; but it is another thing altogether to actually come out and say someone is a "mental patient" or is "bipolar." As these are NOT TRUE (we have never been institutionalized, nor ever needed the help of the field of Psychiatry), these statements go beyond jokes to real, legal slander. Ah well, we don't really care, you wankers.

What we did on our blog was like a POLITICAL CARTOON. If you know how those work, their effect is achieved by exaggeration of features or situations for a comical but also critical result. They are a form of commentary. Though it did make us chuckle to see the Manson thing, really, to accuse us of having problems of psychological health and specific disorders goes beyond that. It is not only petty, but also slanderous. Having NOTHING productive to say in response to our criticisms, and obviously incapable of doing so intelligently, the BIGFOOT DISCUSSIONS folks can only get cheap jabs in, not a pertinent response nor an acceptable excuse for their sorry behavior on the BFF. Oh well.

Read the "controversial" CRYPTOMUNDO article posted by Loren Coleman here:
BFF Shenanigans Unmasked.

BFE: Fake BF Statue Standing
in the Mud?
THE BIGFOOTERY ENQUIRER RUNS AND HIDES, and then Returns. We Feel a Tiny Blip of Disturbance in The Force.

NOTE: All the clues you need to figure out whom SquatchDetective, Steve Kulls, has concluded is the anonymous author of this blog are contained below. Only the true BF insider will know what it all means.

The heat was on, with Steve Kulls announcing to us back in very early August that he knew who was the author of the Bigfootery Enquirer gossip blog. We investigated it too, and we're not 100% sure Kulls is right. There were subtle signs on the BFE blog, though, that he was getting a bit cagey and defensive, all while leaving odd clues in a "Treasure Hunt" to tempt his readers to discover his location and perhaps identity. Building up the heat, Kulls invited us to appear on his show along with Henry May to discuss this odd blog and its mystery author.

Our appearance on Steve Kull's SQUATCHDETECTIVE show on BlogTalkRadio, September 6th, 2010: BIGFOOTERY ENQUIRER
Listen to it and the context will become more clear.

After that show, where Kull's decided NOT to out the blog author, we started taunting him a bit on the Comments section of his blog. This came right after Brian Vargo said to BFE, "YOU ARE AN IDIOT." Anyway, we tried to be a bit more civil. Here is a transcript of the comments and the brief BFE replies:

S. on September 7, 2010 at 12:22 pm: Mr. Clay, is that you?

Manson Foot? Or just a reflection of
Jimite paranoia?
[BFE] We Reply: Steve S, you have Charlie Manson eyes. Trying to shut down places with contrary points of view is unamerican, and scary.

Steve says: (Your comment is awaiting moderation.) September 10, 2010 at 7:30 am
Huh? I didn’t try to “shut down” anyone. Those dogs came after me! All I did was point out the lack of civility and fairness on that site, the hypocrisy of their “rules,” violated by administrators. What single view can the BFF be said to have, anyway? I don't try to shut down views, just BS. Oh, and thanks for that kind thing about the eyes. If you were not so cowardly perhaps I could make fun of the shape of your nose?

We [BFE] reply: And this is just parody, sarcasm, hyperbole or something other that what you really think, right?
From your blog: "Perhaps this conspiracy and the coming documentary he’s [Kitakaze] supposedly making can be shut down just like all of us stopped the Bluff Creek Massacre theory in its bloody tracks before they could make books and films based on it. If not, watch out Kit–the Gimlin Guard is coming to get you! Mooohaaahahhahaaa."

Humorous and goofy profile image
we used on Facebook. Do we really
look like Charlie Manson? Making a
funny face does not make one crazy.
Steve says: (Your comment is awaiting moderation.) September 10, 2010 at 7:32 am
Manson? Such a high level of discourse over here! What is this, elementary school?


Steve says: (Your comment is awaiting moderation.) September 10, 2010 at 7:36 am
Sorry if my intensity scares you, Gregg.


So, protest is "un-American"? What about the Revolution this country was founded upon? What about the Civil Rights Movement? Should they have shut up and not said anything, too? "Scary"? Only to those hiding in the shadows behind anonymous screen names and blogs. Only to those who cannot conduct themselves within the confines of ethical discussion. What I did was point out the problems, with some satire; and lo, the place changed, hopefully for the better. A success, unmitigated!
I dare you to publish this. I will. Anyway, I was the one who said some good things about BFE on Kulls' show. Keep up the good parts of what you do, it's fine with me.


on September 14, 2010 at 8:36 am | Reply Steven Streufert, Bigfoot's bLog
Discrediting a bogus theory like the “Bluff Creek Massacre” is not censorship; it is more like peer review. No? If Kitakaze’s documentary trying to debunk the PGF hinges upon the flawed stories of Bob Heironimus, then it, too, will fall by the wayside as Bigfootery detritus. If he is able to actually prove something as fact with real evidence beyond tall tales and speculative imagination, then more power to him. Yes, at times I do use exaggeration and satire on my blog, for effect, and I assume my readers are smart enough to identify the distinction.
Look at this with googly crossed Manson eyes and you might just see
the cool 3-D effect! Click to Enlarge.
Oddly enough, the BFE actually published most of the above. The site normally does not let many comments through save by those written by its own cronies, or when a joking attack may be made upon the comments' author.

Then a strange thing happened. The blog became PRIVATE, requiring an invitation to read it, along with a user name and password. Very strange! What was going on here? Was he chicken? Couldn't he handle the heat? Well, we still don't really know. He came back a few days later chuckling about it all. We suppose he's just playing what he thinks is a clever game. Well, we're glad the blog is back up and running, as it is one more crazy wheel turning in the weird machine of Bigfootery. We're always up for more of the strange, even if it is a bit nasty. At least the BFE has a sense of humor, which, decidedly, the Jimites DO NOT!

So folks, let's laugh about the silly stuff, and get on with the better things in life.

[DID YOU GUESS THE BFE IDENTITY FROM THE CLUES ABOVE??? What do you think? Is that the right guy, or not?]

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BFF UPDATE: Are Things Going Sour Already on the "New" Bigfoot Forums?
Vargo's Facebook Avatar
On Facebook one of our Bigfooting online friends voiced his concern about the BFF, and told the story of how he has already been "WARNED." This, he says, was for standing up to the negativism of skeptics and skoffers.We hope things have not gone bad already; but these days we have been reluctant to get back into Forums lurking ourselves. We quote:


Brian Vargo says: "The BFF should be renamed ... the BSF: big skeptic forum. I may be warned for this post too. Maybe Mr. green or Mr. purple will warn me??? Whatever you do... do not make any derogatory statements to a skeptic on that forum no matter how many they make to you. And by all means do not indicate you believe in BF on the BFF, You may be warned.


I made the mistake of letting the skeptics get the best of me. Sat there patiently reading sarcastic derogatory stabs at believers. Had enough so i just made a comment that the BFF is called the BFF for a reason. its about bf. and the skeptics are getting in the way of good bf discussion. I made the suggestion they go to the JREF and beat their chests. MISTAKE. Think mod. Mr. green and Mr. purple are skeptics themselves. They didn't raise my "warn" level, however i was told they would not tolerate such rhetoric. Wonder if the scoftics are getting the same attention. LOL for some reason I don't think so. I may just be a whine bag to. oh well. Speaking my mind only gets me in trouble Steven. :( Didn't even call them idiots... LOL, i just said they may be a little ignorant to the subject since they are so quick to down everything. As the Go-Go's once said...."My Lips are Sealed" :|


NOTE: Vargo is fairly new to the Bigfooting pursuit, but he has already drawn ire from some of the nabobs. After calling the BIGFOOTERY ENQUIRER an "Idiot" he even got a BFE blog entry all his own. Read it here: A Big Thank You to Brian Vargo

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From this blog's COMMENTS on past entries:

Anonymous said...
Hello my name is angela. im in colleage and i am writting a paper on a Persuvive speach. Iv been using a lot of jeff meldrums sites and info becasue he provides the largest amount of proof i can find. im tring to include encounters and believers. my biggest issue with this is that i have to answer the question why. why should people care weither he exists or not. For scientific reasons i can think of many but for the average person i am struggling. how would you answer this question?
September 18, 2010 5:41 PM

Yours Truly, at the ATL
Sasquatch Film Night,
photo by Bob Doran.
Steven Streufert said...
Angela, as they say about climbing Mt. Everest--because it is there! Why should people care? Well, they should care about the realities of their world, the universe they live in, every bit as much as they care about stupid things like American Idol. Sadly, the "average person" does not really care, a lot of them, and the world spins on without them. We should care, as if Bigfoot is proven to be real it will be an utterly devastating blow to the false sense that humanity has that it dominates and understands the world. Obviously, we are helpless before most of the fundamental realities of existence. Bigfoot, on the other hand, demonstrates freedom, strength, independence, and the Mysterious.

PLUS, A "Mr. Mike" Backyard Bigfoot Update!

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "BIGFOOT WARS 2: The Mr. Mike Debacle, CryptoMundo ...":

"We investigated the Mr. Mike story after contact with Lan. Mike is a nice man with Night Blindness and an active imagination. He is very lonely and there are absolutely is no way there could be a Sasquatch, much less ten in his backyard. He started to cry when he realized he was seeing things. He needs medical attention and not to be exploited by a talk show host for ratings."

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BIGFOOT painting courtesy of the
Genius of Eureka, JESSE WIEDEL
HANDY ONLINE FORUMS INSULT TEMPLATE

We offer you the following for fun. If you ever find yourself on a Bigfoot forum with nothing nice to say, or nothing about Bigfoot in your brain, just post some or all of this. It's Great! You don't even have to think of a logical response... just copy and paste!

(Found in a very old folder on our computer, we could not find out its original context nor source.)


"You swine. You vulgar little maggot. You worthless bag of filth. As they say in Texas, I'll bet you couldn't pour piss out of a boot with instructions on the heel. You are a canker. A sore that won't go away. I would rather kiss a lawyer than be seen with you.
You're a putrescent mass, a walking vomit. You are a spineless little worm deserving nothing but the profoundest contempt. You are a jerk, a cad, a weasel. Your life is a monument to stupidity. You are a stench, a revulsion, a big suck on a sour lemon. You are a bleating foal, a curdled staggering mutant dwarf smeared richly with the effluvia and offal accompanying your alleged birth into this world. An insensate, blinking calf, meaningful to nobody, abandoned by the puke-drooling, giggling beasts who sired you and then killed themselves in recognition of what they had done.
I will never get over the embarrassment of belonging to the same species as you. You are a monster, an ogre, a malformation. I barf at the very thought of you. You have all the appeal of a paper cut. Lepers avoid you. You are vile, worthless, less than nothing. You are a weed, a fungus, the dregs of this earth. And did I mention you smell?
Try to edit your responses of unnecessary blather before attempting to impress us with your insight. The evidence that you are a nincompoop will still be available to all, but they will be able to access it more rapidly.
You snail-skulled little rabbit. Would that a hawk pick you up, drive its beak into your brain, and upon finding it rancid set you loose to fly briefly before spattering the ocean rocks with the frothy pink shame of your ignoble blood. May you choke on the queasy, convulsing nausea of your own trite, foolish beliefs.
Master-satirist,brilliant nutcase,
Manson mocks straight society.
You are weary, stale, flat and unprofitable. You are grimy, squalid, nasty and profane. You are foul and disgusting. You're a fool, an ignoramus. Monkeys look down on you. Even sheep won't have sex with you. You are unreservedly pathetic, starved for attention, and lost in a land that reality forgot.
And what meaning do you expect your delusionally self-important statements of unknowing, inexperienced opinion to have with us? What fantasy do you hold that you would believe that your tiny-fisted tantrums would have more weight than that of a leprous desert rat, spinning rabidly in a circle, waiting for the bite of the snake?
You are a waste of flesh. You have no rhythm. You are ridiculous and obnoxious. You are the moral equivalent of a leech. You are a living emptiness, a meaningless void. You are sour and senile. You are a disease, you puerile one-handed slack-jawed drooling meatslapper.
On a good day you're a half-wit. You remind me of drool. You are deficient in all that lends character. You have the personality of wallpaper. You are dank and filthy. You are asinine and benighted. You are the source of all unpleasantness. You spread misery and sorrow wherever you go.
You smarmy lager-lout git. You bloody woofter sod. Bugger off, pillock. You grotty wanking oik artless base-court apple-john. You clouted boggish foot-licking twit. You dankish clack-dish plonker. You gormless crook-pated tosser. You churlish boil-brained clotpole ponce. You cockered bum-bailey poofter. You craven dewberry piss-head cock-up pratting naff. You gob-kissing gleeking flap-mouthed coxcomb. You dread-bolted fobbing beef-witted clapper-clawed flirt-gill.
You are a fiend and a coward, and you have bad hair. You are degenerate, noxious and depraved. I feel debased just for knowing you exist. I despise everything about you, and I wish you would go away.
I cannot believe how incredibly stupid you are. I mean rock-hard stupid. Dehydrated-rock-hard stupid. Stupid so stupid that it goes way beyond the stupid we know into a whole different dimension of stupid. You are trans-stupid stupid. Meta-stupid. Stupid collapsed on itself so far that even the neutrons have collapsed. Stupid gotten so dense that no intellect can escape. Singularity stupid. Blazing hot mid-day sun on Mercury stupid. You emit more stupid in one second than our entire galaxy emits in a year. Quasar stupid. Your writing has to be a troll. Nothing in our universe can really be this stupid. Perhaps this is some primordial fragment from the original big bang of stupid. Some pure essence of a stupid so uncontaminated by anything else as to be beyond the laws of physics that we know. I'm sorry. I can't go on. This is an epiphany of stupid for me. After this, you may not hear from me again for a while. I don't have enough strength left to deride your ignorant questions and half baked comments about unimportant trivia, or any of the rest of this drivel."


HAVE FUN! Use Judiciously!


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ANGRY BIGFOOT SPEAKS!

wHAT mE sAY, hU-mAN? YOU tHE aNGRY oNE! yOU aND aLL iNTERNET hU-mANS. mE jUST wANT tO sTAY iN hILLS, eAT hARVEST oN fARM, wAIT fOR sALMON rUN. mE sTAY aWAY fROM yOUR bOOK sTORE, aND mE NOT tRY rEAD aNY oF wHAT yOU wRITE tHIS tIME!!!

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This blog copyright, save for "fair use" materials, 2003-2010, Bigfoot Books and Steven Streufert. Please cite the blog's main page with a link if quoting or borrowing. Notification of doing so is always greatly appreciated, too. Thanks!

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

EXPLORING BLUFF CREEK BIGFOOT HISTORY, August 2010 Trip, PART 1; Arcata SASQUATCH MOVIE NIGHT; BIGFOOT DAYS

BIGFOOT'S BLOG, EARLY SEPTEMBER 2010 EDITION

Mid-August always brings the call of the Bluff Creek basin and perfect weather and conditions for the exploration of Bigfooting history. The famous Onion Mountain and Blue Creek Mountain footprint trackway finds, investigated by Rene Dahinden and John Green, occurred at this time of year in 1967. This is the season that made Bluff Creek famous, leading up to the October 20th date when the Patterson-Gimlin Film was shot, and when the weather typically sours enough to bring snow and mudslides to the upper watershed roads.

Images: All shots (excluding maps) taken by Steven Streufert, 2009 (top three) and 2010 (the rest). CLICK TO ENLARGE, especially the MAPS.


FROM HIGHWAY 96 TO THE PGF SITE, 
Bluff Creek Trip, Part One

So it was that for three days our associate, "C.I." and ourselves ventured up Highway 96 from Willow Creek and up past Weitchpec to explore our favorite historical issues and locales, and maybe have an encounter with the Big Hairy Dudes ourselves. Here is Part One of our annotated pictorial presentation, complete with topo maps that may help you fine readers find some of these spots. Note--some aspects of this trip have been kept secret to protect current on-going investigations by other researchers of Bigfoot activity in the area. We will not disclose details at this time. Read on...

Just past Weitchpec, where one crosses the bridge over the Klamath River at its confluence with the Trinity River, one takes a right heading northward on Highway 96, the official scenic "Bigfoot Byway." One passes the historic Bluff Creek Company store, now known as Bluff Creek Resort, just south a few dozen yards from the southern end of Bluff Creek Road. Just ahead, staying on the 96, is the bridge over Bluff Creek where it meets with the Klamath (and a sweet river access spot). On this particular trip we proceeded just a touch less than a mile farther north to a left on Slate Creek Road, officially identified as Forest Road 11N05.


 [At this point the traveler will dearly be wishing they had asked for and purchased the Six Rivers National Forest Atlas at the Lower Trinity Ranger Station just outside of Willow Creek. This book is worth every over-priced penny. Ask for it at the desk, where he keeps them hidden for some reason. Do note, the roads on the topo maps in this presentation are not quite as they appear in the Atlas and on the ground today.]

We headed up some seven miles of nicely paved or well graded dirt but narrow road to Twin Lakes, a nice spot with two lakes entirely covered in lily pads at this time of year. There are a few primitive camping spots here along the shore, but there are no facilities, and we would not exactly recommend drinking the water without filtration.
It being warm and lighted by an essentially full moon, we decided to have no campfire (was it legal to, anyway? probably not at this spot), and spent the night scanning the area with Gen-3 military spec. night vision monoculars. When night had fully set in and the moon had not fully risen, sounds kept coming to us from the lake shore to the southeast. Finally, scanning with the green view eyepiece, we saw something dark and mysterious moving in the brush and reeds. It was heading our way.

Was it a Bigfoot???

It was creeping around mysteriously, its visible parts appearing and then being obscured, much like one often sees in thermal night shots claimed to be of Sasquatch. Just as the suspense had risen to quite a high degree the creature's head rose up---and we saw its puffy, round ears. It was a black bear, apparently not smelling nor hearing us, ambling along right toward the edge of our camp. After a few moments we decided we'd better spotlight it, especially as our traveling partner did not have his second night vision scope unpacked at that time and could not see it in the darkness. The thing bolted rather quickly at the sudden change in lumens. This was to be one of three bear sightings on this three-day trip.

During the night we heard something that kind of sounded like a wood knock and then a smashing wood break, as if a limb had broken off a tree (at totally normal, non-Bigfoot-related occurrence). Later, way off in the distance, we heard some kind of vocalization, a barking sound that, however incongruous way out here in the middle of nowhere (we only saw three other vehicles up there the whole weekend), we'd have to ascribe to a dog rather than a Bigfoot. But who knows, eh? Twin Lakes are, after all, just a couple of miles directly east of Big Foot Creek, which flows into Bluff Creek at that point.

From our camp at the lakes we headed back out the next day toward Cedar Camp, up onto the ridge, heading toward Road 12N12. We stopped and found some cell phone reception up there (believe it or not!), while looking down at the fine westward view toward Bluff Creek, looking down the Fish Creek canyon. Somehow we drove right past Cedar Camp, which is apparently unmarked; but we did see a lot of lovely cedar trees. Up here they seem unaffected by the root rot fungus that plagues the Port Orford Cedar down at Fish Lake and Blue Lake on the south end of the Bluff Creek Road.


One cruises along on 12N12 and without realizing it the green metal gate to 12N13, the left turn onto the "Sasquatch Road" according to local old-timers, suddenly sneaks up on one. Watch for it, or you will end up on the G-O Road (F.R. 15N01) and miss the turnoff to the PGF site. Any Bigfooter worth their salt, and with a decent high-clearance vehicle, will want to head down to the creek to set foot on that sacred and historical Bigfooting ground. 
About three miles from the gate you will pass three vague old road spurs to the right. When you see a steep one on your left you're almost there. Soon you will come to a wide, flat pull-out log landing area, and to your right you'll see the 12N13H spur. You will see a small road marker sign at the entrance. Keep to your right once on the road. THIS is the road down to the film site, which is 2.1 miles down a rather steep course. Beware the treacherous rock slide down at the bottom, and be sure to keep your wheels UP on the slide's side, lest you slip off the edge and plummet down the near vertical drop through the woods to an untimely death on the film site below. 
One thing that we found utterly astonishing, once on the familiar roads after Cedar Camp Road, was that all of these roads have been RECENTLY RE-GRADED. It is amazing to see the formerly hellish, shrubbery covered, pot-holed and rocky, tree-branch covered tunnel of the film site spur graded FLAT and clean, and fairly widely at that. It was that way all the way down to the big rock slide at the bottom. Those who have been to the site before will recall that it was essentially impossible to navigate this road without scratching the hell out of one's vehicle's paint job. All of those trees and bushes have been cleared away off the road. It is now like a Disneyland ride cruise down to the once nearly inaccessible site

Now we understood the purpose of the construction vehicles we'd seen up at the top on 12N13. Don't let it fool you, though. One should still use a 4WD vehicle to traverse the last part with its rain gulches and all. At this point, before the rock slide, there are a few turnouts that can now be used to pull off and safely park your low-clearance car, and then walk the last little bit to the bottom. 
We, of course, drove on through, and we survived it. Down at the bottom one finds a flat landing area where one can park, and a fire-ring and primitive camping area. When we arrived here, like everywhere else on this trip, no one else was there. Very strange.
Here's a photo of the nasty rock slide at the bottom of the road to the P-G site. WATCH OUT! Many have nearly gone the way of Roger Patterson on this spot.

We put on our knee-high river boots and started up the creek about a quarter of a mile at most to the bottom of what most consider the general Patterson-Gimlin Film Site. It's a big gulch with the creek running in two branches with big piles of logjam debris, fallen giant old-growth firs, and some large root balls (just like the ones in the "Big Bend" described by Bob Gimlin). In the map above you may see the lower film site right above the "A" and the road, where the small unnamed creek flows into Bluff Creek Some believe this is where Patty walked, but others believe it is in the smaller sand bar (white in the map) area right beyond there, just before the spot where the creek juts in a straight "bowling alley" line northward. We sought to explore both options, looking of course for "the big tree" seen in the film, or any other markers of verification.

Images: Just below the film site, large fallen firs typical of the area. Below, trees above the lower film site.

SEE OUR PREVIOUS BLOG ENTRIES HERE, HERE, HEREHERE AND HERE for our earlier exploration of the film site. There is also A LOT of Bluff Creek and PGF information found in our extensive INTERVIEW WITH AL HODGSON, Willow Creek Bigfoot Elder, viewable here: PART ONE, PART TWO, and PART THREE.

Here we were interested in esoteric dimensions like trees, stumps, and sand types. We walked up the creek past the film site to investigate another sand bar up there at the top of the "bowling alley." When we headed back we crossed up onto the now quite elevated and forested sand/gravel bar, and walked across both prospective film site locations. BOTH are  plausible, especially as they were obviously both part of one single sandbar, now greatly eroded with the creek down in a much deeper gulch than it was after the 1964 flood's deposits were washed away over the years. 

Since everyone seems to disagree slightly, and the older guys like John Green and Bob Gimlin can hardly recognize the significantly changed site, we may never be able to exactly locate the route and situation of the Patty trackway. Adding to that problem, there has been significant erosion of the creekbed, possibly taking away a large part of the former film site sandbar; and the familiar and distinct filmed trees in the background have either been toppled or logged, from all we can tell. John Green told us in an email today that he could not locate the "big tree" he remembered.

We'll present the rest of this part of our travelogue as images with brief captions. Again, there are a lot of photos of the film site on our earlier blogs (check the left hand links) that we don't have room to replicate here. Enjoy!
Lower PGF sandbar, with downed tree roots.

Root ball in "Big Bend" Gulch, just like Gimlin describes.

Film Site alder trees, like the ones Patty walks among.

Slanting alders with big firs visible in background, northern sand bar.The "soil" below is actually forest duff over deep deposits of dark blue-gray sand.

Marshy spring and pool on PGF site. Possibly accounting for the "wet spot" one sees in the first few frames of the film, often mistaken for the creek itself. This one is mid-sandbar.

Big Tree? This one is found at the northern back side of the sandbar, located up beyond the marshy spring. This is one of the largest, most obvious candidates for the tree, growing just up from the level sand/soil.


Just past the eastern edge of the PGF sandbar, looking north up the "bowling alley." Just above where Patty probably crossed the creek and headed up the hill above the site, as per Bob Titmus.

Straight on north, up the alley a bit farther.

At the top of the alley there is another nice looking prospective sandbar. From here the creek turns right on directly eastward. This is where we stopped.

For perspective, here is one from one of last year's trips: looking up the gravel bar from the creekside at the site we feel pretty darn sure is the PGF site. Notice the large fir trees at the back. This would probably have been the embankment area Patterson ran up once crossing the creek, already filming.

***END OF PART ONE*** 
See the thrilling second part of the adventure next week, same time and channel!

We would like to thank TopoQuest for making their nice, scalable maps of the area available. One may even click to center on a spot and get the GPS co-ordinates for it. Great! Check it out here:
Lonesome Ridge, California Topographic Map on TopoQuest
Here are the approximate co-ordinate we got in using the site. Your results may vary. The MK Davis site, as told to us by Weaverville researcher, Sean Fries, is 500 yards downstream from the "bat boxes."

Upper sand bar (Barackman location)
Map Center:  N41.44069°  W123.70039°

Daniel Perez' "X" (after Dahinden, as in Bigfoot at Bluff Creek)
Map Center:  N41.44047°  W123.70082°

Lower bar and gulch (as Christopher Murphy places it, and where Perez was seen walking around in 2003 and 2006)
Map Center:  N41.43942°  W123.70186°

Ferris Camp (historical) Locale [NEWS TO US!]
N41.44151° W123.70145°

Northern top of "Bowling Alley"
Map Center:  N41.44347°  W123.69975°

Bat Boxes (approximate) car/log landing
Map Center:  N41.43854°  W123.70453°

Datum: NAD27
USGS Map Name:  Lonesome Ridge, CA    Map MRC: 41123D6


Image: a broad view of the Bluff Creek basin, centered near Louse Camp. CLICK TO ENLARGE. Get the USFS Forest Atlas if you need better, more reliable road markings. Other one: from the Cibachrome of Patty. Enjoy!

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The ARCATA THEATER LOUNGE SCIENCE FICTION PINT AND PIZZA NIGHT, featuring SASQUATCH

This event was a pretty big hit, with a long line out the door at 6:00, constituting a nearly full house for viewings of THE SNOW CREATURE and then THE LEGEND OF BOGGY CREEK. Interspersed were give-aways of cryptic novelties like a Bigfoot Pez dispenser, hosted by Matt Jackson of MISSING LINK RECORDS and some Bigfooty film clips and songs assembled from our samples by event coordinator Mike Sargent. This was pop-culture Bigfoot with a twist: there was more than just the usual monster focus.

We of BIGFOOT BOOKS had a book table in the back along with Patterson-Gimlin film subject casts brought along by James "Bobo" Fay. Bobo heroically appeared despite having had surgery just a day or two earlier. Attendee/customer questions proved to be generally sincere concerning the possibility of Bigfoot's existence, with only the slightest traces of mocking humor (though good-natured) from a few. There was, unfortunately, no time for the planned discussion panel.
We sold a good bunch of Bigfoot books and maps, so we could tell interest was high, and pretty darn serious despite all the pints of strong beer consumed by the viewers (and the hosts). We are hoping that there will be a repeat of this event next year, perhaps with more non-fictional and serious content.

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Willow Creek's BIGFOOT DAYS 2010,

"Bigfoot's Nifty Fifty" Anniversary of the celebration, was really great and quite unusually Bigfooty this year. Watch for our next blog post for a complete pictorial coverage of the parade, and the decidedly less Squatchy celebration in the park afterwards. It was fun, for sure; but someday we are hoping that the organizing committee will actually go along with our suggestion that they add some Bigfoot speakers to the event. We suppose that most folks think that would be boring compared to reggae music, fireman's water competitions, axe-throwing, and  sno-cones.

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ANGRY BIGFOOT SPEAKS!

Hu-man! Me real angry now. You give away all me secret hiding spot! Now where me go?
Wait until next week, Bigfoot!
Wha', Hu-man? What you talk?
We have pictures of where you live, Sasquatch!
Me not name Sa'quatch. That me trailer park trash brother. He like reach arm through trailer window, scare hu-man sitting on poop throne. You listen Bigfoot, hu-man. Me SMASH camera! Me STOMP compute machine! You go out to truck think drive to Bluff Creek? You find engine down hillside.
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This blog is copyright and all that jazz, save for occasional small elements borrowed for "research" and information or satirical purposes only, 2010, Bigfoot Books and Steven Streufert. Borrowings will be tolerated without the revenge of Angry Bigfoot, if credit, citation and a kindly web-link are given, preferably after contacting us and saying, Hello, like a normal person would before taking a cup of salt.