Bigfoot - Sasquatch Field Notes

March 7 - 9, 1999

Trip to the NW Oregon Coastal Mountain Range with a Companion

Due to the nature of ongoing research by my companion on this trip, specifics concerning location, neat stuff, accessories and techniques are not included in this summary. I can say that my companion is internationally recognized in the Sasquatch research field, has excellent field techniques and an exceptional set of equipment to use in the field. Look forward to his coming book.

(Update: companion was Todd Neiss of Mt Hood, Oregon)

One thing that we did not have along that would have been very helpful on this trip was a set of the little field two-way radios that are now available at a reasonable price.

March 7th

Hooked up to a tent trailer. I had went down to U-Haul and had a light controller installed. Fortunately, I had double checked the connection and got the right style. The style I had ordered wouldn't have fit. I should have had a drop hitch installed, but I didn't, so the trailer was at an angle. Didn't hurt anything, just looked a little funny.

It was a nice early spring day in Portland, but as we got into the mountains, it got blustery and stayed that way, until it got worse.

Got to the camp site he had selected earlier. Nice wind protection, good view across a wide expanse of forest. There was a mountain across the valley and we were on the lee side of a mountain. It should provide some protection from storms off the coast.

We took my truck and it was full to the brim. Equipment and supplies were tied down and the bed was heaped with gear. I have a bunch of bungee cords that came in real handy tying the mess down. Had no problems at all on the drive. Gassed up at a little country store so would have a full tank. Only about 10 miles back to the store if we started getting short on gas.

Set up the baits and lures and sensors. Went for a scout walk. Wet, but not raining. Quite cool, but not chilling. A little breeze. The mountain tops had snow and there was a heavy thick gray overcast. The clouds were moving right along, so we thought a storm might get in tonight. We unpacked almost the whole bed of the truck and set boxes under the extensions of the tent trailer.

Since we knew it would be wet and the local firewood soaked, I had brought enough wood products for two good fires. I had a box of wax logs to get things going, several boxes of pressed sawdust logs and some left-over cord wood from the house. I had put all in different plastic garbage sacks to keep it dry. The cord wood I had put in big cardboard boxes that we could burn on site. Tonight, I started a fire with the cord wood, set up my really nice new comfortable, but very inexpensive camp chairs.

We ate and drank and talked and watched the storm approach from the SW. We had steaks and while they looked big in the store, they weren't too big at all for our hunger. We had beans and we had a touch of scotch whiskey. We were cold, but put on our felt lined boots and heavy coats and caps and threw some more wood on the fire and talked into the night.

There were no lights as far as we could see, except for one on a mountain top. It was a tower beacon and it was a long ways away. Very occasionally, we could hear the jake brake of a big truck in the far distance, beyond the hills and trees. It was dark, real dark out there. The talk was excellent. We burned most of the cord wood and then it started to rain about 1AM. We put the chairs under the trailer and went to bed.

Before we went to bed, we peed ourselves dry at various points around the trailer.

Companion had this nifty old style propane heater that worked!! It kept the chill off nicely in the tent trailer. Had to leave a window on the door open a good bit, but that just gave us a nip of genuine night air. Probably would have been a good idea to have a carbon dioxide sensor when using one of the things. Fortunately, I had brought plenty of little propane bottles. We eventually used most of them up, many more than we expected to use.

After things went dark, the coyotes started barking at us. They didn't howl, they barked like dogs and the barks were harsh. They were close. There was also other strange noises. The forest zamboni (brush cutter) had been through, probably just a few days ago and had scared off the elk and deer. Companion had picked this area with care. There were already indications that this was a good spot.

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