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| Bluff Creek Road Sign, on Forest Road 12N13, heading toward PGF Site. All non-promotional photos in this blog entry by Steven Streufert, and yes, they are hereby Copyrighted. |
Mid-Late August 2011 Edition
NOTE: THIS BLOG ENTRY HAS BEEN TEMPORARILY PARTIALLY CENSORED AS SOME OF THE THINGS IN IT APPARENTLY REVEALED TOO MUCH ABOUT THE RECENT FINDING BIGFOOT FILMING IN WILLOW CREEK. WE ARE JUST GOING TO CUT THOSE PARTS OUT FOR NOW. SORRY. WE WILL REPOST THE ENTRY IN ENTIRETY WHEN WE FIND OUT EXACTLY WHAT WE DID THAT WE APPARENTLY SHOULD NOT HAVE DONE.
The rest of this blog entry will be left just as it was. Hopefully the producers of the show will see from what remains that we WERE NOT trying to "scoop" their episode, but rather to PROMOTE it, as many other journalistic outlets have done with prior episodes. We sought, also, to defend our friends involved in the show from attacks upon it from within the Bigfooting Community.
Sorry if it now seems disjoint. None of this will be an issue once the episode is aired in October.
"EDITORIAL EXCISION" here means something was cut out entirely. The rest remains just as it was. You can still read about the BFRO Bluff Creek Expedition... or will we have to edit that out too? I dunno.
This sleepy little hamlet of Willow Creek often bustles with Squatching enthusiasts, but the last month or so has been simply ridiculous. What Mecca is to Islam, what Jerusalem is to those other religions, this place seems to be for Bigfooters. On top of the usual parade of Bigfoot-interested tourists, the BFRO came to town to hold an expedition up in Bluff Creek, and then another down in the coast redwoods area. After that the four stars of Animal Planet's FINDING BIGFOOT came knocking on our door, trailing behind them a vast retinue of camera people, boom mikes, lighting arrays, producers, location scouts, managers and a large U-Haul trailer. The Bigfoot Motel read "No Vacancy" for nearly two weeks, and the townsfolk woke up again to the fact that they are, indeed, living in the "Gateway to Bigfoot Country," whether or not they even care for a moment about the hirsute legend.
*EDITORIAL EXCISION*
For those few of you who do not know, FINDING BIGFOOT is a new television show on Animal Planet, featuring BFRO director, Matt Moneymaker, Cliff Barackman, James Bobo Fay and a woman known as Ranae (why doesn't their website tell us her last name?). Okay, her last name is Holland (but why did we have to look it up?) "MEET THE TEAM": http://www.cliffbarackman.com/finding-bigfoot-meet-the-team.php
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| It's weird to see your friends on TV. |
It all started in late July when the BFRO invited us (me, that is) to give a talk at their expedition up in Bluff Creek. That public speaking prospect was unnerving, but we've been told it was pretty good. The topic was The History of Bigfoot in Bluff Creek. We met some very cool folks there, including a family from Utah and a fellow all the way from England.
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| Fish Lake, just up off Bluff Creek, base of the BFRO expedition. It is known for its civilized campground, as well as a whole heck of a lot of Bigfoot activity around the area. |
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| A rustic high-tech presentation on animal sounds found in the woods. This included some very interesting barred owl calls, which are all too often mistaken for Bigfoot vocalizations. They can sound like apes. |
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| Like the Illuminati and the Bilderberg Group, the BFRO has sinister, secret meetings, where vast conspiracies are hatched. Here ranger Robert Leiterman films a talk, proving a great governnent cover-up. |
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| Leiterman casts on display at Fish Lake Campground. |
Here are some more images from our experiences on that BFRO expedition, presented without revealing "trade secrets." Read on below for more on Finding Bigfoot!
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| On the road to Onion Mountain and some night squatching. |
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| The famous Louse Camp on Bluff Creek, before the BFRO. |
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| Louse Camp, after the BFRO invasion. |
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| Hiking up Bluff Creek to the PGF Site, with BFRO expedition. |
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| PGF Big Tree??? This is one of the prospects. Lower PGF site sandbar. |
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| The area on Bluff Creek where Rene Dahinden put his mark for the PGF site on Daniel Perez' map. Just upstream. |
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| The area of the "X" as above, seen from just downstream. |
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| Big old growth Douglas fir, with vine maples, upper PGF site area sandbar. |
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| Could this one be one of the big trees? We will find out in October |
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| "Root balls as big as a room." Remains of the 1965-66 salvage logging, downstream at the "Big bend in the creek." |
And then, shortly afterwards, Finding Bigfoot came to town....
Though we're not going to give it all away, here are a few pictures around about before and after the filming scenarios.
*EDITORIAL EXCISION*
*EDITORIAL EXCISION*
On the second day they were in town a full house assembled at the Willow Creek Veterans' of Foreign Wars Hall to tell their stories of Bigfoot encounters. Word of mouth around town was enough to gather the crowd, and surely many more would have flooded the place had the event been formally advertised. A few historical notables showed up, as well as some noted Bigfoot Researcher types. We were happy to encounter Tom from Jefferson State Bigfoot Research, veteran but now-retired BFer Rip Lyttle, and some others.
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| Sign announcing the Town Hall Meeting, outside Veterans' Park. |
*EDITORIAL EXCISION*
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| Bobo's dog Mountain Monkey was a prominent figure playing with her ball at the feet of the stars of the show all during the filming of the meeting. |
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| Bigfoot bros... Bobo Fay, Matt Moneymaker, and researcher Rip Lyttle. At the FINDING BIGFOOT town hall meeting in Willow Creek August 10th. |
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| Thomas Graham of Jefferson State Sasquatch Research, with Folksinger and researcher Tom Yamarone, whose song about Jerry Crew helped facilitate the sons getting back into the Bigfoot world. Photo provided by Tom Yamarone. |
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| Afterwards it was beer with Bobo at the Forks Lounge. Bobo actually defeated an arm-wrestling champ here that night. |
And here is a clincher, perhaps of of the true Holy Grail items to emerge from the historic return of the *EDITORIAL EXCISION* to the world of Bigfooting.... *EDITORIAL EXCISION*
(SORRY!)
(SORRY!)
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| Disclaimer: Though this blogger is affiliated in a friendly, non-formal way with the BFRO, and we are indeed friendly with a number of members of that organization, we'd like to say that we have never actually signed the NDA, and are in no way obliged or beholden to follow any rules or censorship from that organization. Neither are we "an informant" for the BFRO. That having been said, we spent a good bit of time hanging out with Mr. Matt Moneymaker, head of the group and quite a controversial figure, and we found NOT ONE moment of displeasure in doing so. The conversation was good, and fair, and nearly entirely free of judgment of other researchers. We understand that there are a lot of you out there who have reason to feel otherwise, but it has been our own experience over the last few years that Matt is really a cool dude. Strange, you might say, but true.... Go figure. Maybe it is because this blog has nothing to prove to ANYONE. |
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| A slightly melodramatic promo pic from Animal Planet. Enough techie gear to scare off the biggest squatch. Bobo, what is there in that "Evidence" bag? |
We were interviewed for a story by the Hoopa Valley tribal newspaper on the topic of the TV show coming to our area. If you go to the bottom of the online article you can even read the reporter's sketch notes from the talk, for some reason also published. Read it here: Shooting Bigfoot with Film not Bullets.
For the rest of the story, tune in to Animal Planet in October. We've heard the special two-part episode on the Klamath-Trinity area is supposed to air on Halloween. After that we will surely have yet another blog entry to write.
*EDITORIAL EXCISION*
Hanging out with the rest of the gang, especially our friends Cliff, Tom Yams, Paul Graves, Craig Flipy and Rowdy from the production crew was also quite fun. It involved a lot of great Bigfoot discussion, endless planning sessions for the filming (which we were not really part of), and lots of sitting around while the filming sessions were going on.
*EDITORIAL EXCISION*
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| Ever quizzical and inquiring, Cliff Barackman considers the Evidence. Willow Creek Museum Gift Shop. |
Next blog entry we will have some more detailed *EDITORIAL EXCISION*
Sorry to leave you all hanging a bit, but there's only so much we can put into one blog entry, and there is only so much we can tell you out of respect for our friends involved with the FINDING BIGFOOT TV show. You'll see it all soon enough; and after we'll tell you about all the stuff that ended up on the cutting room floor.
Until then, see ya....
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| Bobo, Bigger than Bigfoot. |
Go to the web page for the show for updates, here:
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ANGRY BIGFOOT SPEAKS!
Me HATE the hate. Me "Angry," that true. But Bigfoot not like be cause of all hu-man hate each other. You KNOW me? No. You know ABOUT me? Not. Me still laugh at hu-man in woods with silly headlamp and goggle on face. But me not hate them. They like TV to me. But when me see them use me to hate other, then me say, phooey. Me not EVER let you see me. Me not EVER let you even come close. Me go far away so you not EVER even hear me laugh, and me laugh harder and harder every day, hu-man.
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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 for non-commercial purposes will be tolerated without the revenge of Angry Bigfoot, if notification, 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. No serious rip-offs of our material for vulgar commercial gain will be tolerated without major BF stomping action coming down on you, hu-man.