CHAPTER SIX: PROOF? WHAT REALLY HAPPENED (an excerpt)

This is the chapter of the book I’m most excited about sharing, but at the same time I have great reservations. Why? Well for those of you who are on the outside looking in, the bigfoot community can be very suspicious and paranoid. I caught glimpses of this world when I first started reading bigfoot books and started hearing stories of various falling-outs among the founding fathers. I was further introduced to this world when I got involved in the bigfoot chat rooms and forums that are available online.

It might be hard for some to believe, but there is a sort of bigfoot social hierarchy complete with well-known people and their followers. These people and their supporters come with their own ideas and perspective on what bigfoot is and is not. Since bigfoot is considered a cryptid that hasn’t been proven yet, there is scant evidence one can dredge up to prove that you’ve truly had an encounter. All pictures, recordings, and everything else are suspect when you say you have had an experience. I call all of this bigfoot politics! With all that said, I have decided it is important for me to share the experiences my son and I shared one strange weekend in July of 2004. After all, this is what we signed up for! You can decide for yourself what you think!

After our previous summer of “Bigfoot Lite,” I decided it was time to take our exploring up a notch. I had attended a couple of bigfoot conferences in the prior years and felt like I had a better grip on how to get out in the forests and really start looking. I had joined a bigfoot forum and started posting and meeting other bigfoot enthusiasts online. Over the length of several months, I got involved with a group that was planning a trip to the Bluff Creek area to do some exploration. Jake and I were excited and started making plans with those involved in the venture. For a few reasons that will remain undisclosed, the trip fell through. I was really upset and I knew Jake would be devastated when I told him the news. I had really talked up the trip to Jake so he figured it was a done deal. I had gotten to know one of the members of the expedition better than the others and called him and shared my thoughts. I explained how my son would be crushed when I told him the news and asked if there any way a few of us could still go out? Doug (not his real name) agreed to go out with Jake and I. He would see if he could get a few others to join us. We both agreed on the new idea, but Doug explained it would not be a good idea to go to Bluff Creek since some of the people he was having problems with might be there and he didn’t want to run into them.

Doug and I discussed various places we could go in Northern California but since Doug was new to the field, he thought he might ask someone that he knew for some suggestions. He shared with me he had a friend who was very knowledgeable and might have some ideas. I agreed it was a good idea, as I wanted to get out in the field with my son and meet some kindred spirits. A few days later Doug called me back. His friend had tipped him to an area that was experiencing recent bigfoot activity. Man was I excited! I was going to a place I had never been to before and there was a chance we might actually stumble onto something. I excitedly packed for the trip. I couldn’t load up the trailer or the back of the truck fast enough!

One of the problems with being a bigfoot enthusiast living in Southern California is you are a long ways away from areas of bigfoot activity. However the area we were going to was only about eight hours away. This meant it would only be about a 400-mile drive, much better than the 800 plus to Willow Creek. We tried to get an early start, but as things go we didn’t get going until close to 10 am. We were pulling our 22-foot trailer so everything moves kind of slow. Our route out of Los Angeles took us over the Grapevine and we stayed on the I-5 until the 99 forms a wishbone. We stayed on the 99 until Modesto. From there we took the 134 on up into Tuolumne County and into the Stanislaus National forest.

I will keep my promise and keep exact details of the location vague out of respect to the person who tipped us to this great area. However, if you want to get an idea of the history of the area go to the BFRO website and click on California and go to Tuolumne county. That is where you should look. You might be amazed at what goes on in this frequently overlooked backwater of bigfoot activity. The Western Sierras have a rich history of bigfoot sightings and encounters. We spent our first night on the road Tuesday night at a small private RV park in Jamestown.

The next day Jake and I made it to the campground where we had agreed to meet Doug. We got there in the early afternoon on Wednesday. This off-the-beaten-path campground was only a short drive from our Jamestown site. The area is about 5400 ft. elevation and is a coniferous forest. There was a trailer in the campground host area and a woman who had her car parked there left soon after we had arrived. We now were the only people in this lonely campground in the middle of nowhere. I quickly started setting up camp and making dinner. The campground was lined out on a long dirt strip. A large RV pulled in sometime at twilight but went to the far end of the campground, which was out of sight, and easily a quarter of a mile away. Jake started exploring the deserted campground and eventually wandered across the creek that bordered our camping area.

A few minutes later, Jake came running back to the trailer out of breath. “Dad, I think I found a footprint across the creek!” To be honest I’d been looking for bigfoot evidence for years and had found nothing so I didn’t get too excited when Jake pulled me out of the trailer to see his find. As a dutiful father I jumped the rocks of the creek to get to the other side. I climbed up a short embankment and saw Jake’s find. Actually the imprint was quite impressive. It was a very deep track imbedded in the pine duff. It appeared to have a dermal ridge and the shape of a foot. We took measurements, and marked it so we could show Doug when he arrived the next day.

I went back to making dinner in the galley within our trailer. I had explained to Jake how people think that bigfoot may communicate by banging wood on trees and clacking rocks together. Well, as I was putting the finishing touches on dinner, Jake came tearing into the trailer again. “Dad, I heard rocks clacked together up the creek and then down below they clacked back!” Ok I thought, I don’t want to disbelieve my son but could this be the result of a child with an overactive imagination?

I went outside with Jake and told him to find a couple of rocks to clack together. He clacked the rocks together once and about 10 seconds later we heard one loud ‘clack!’ back. Jake and I looked at each other in amazement. I didn’t want to believe it! No way could this be a bigfoot. My skeptical attitude told me there must be an explanation but after over two years of camping in the area I have never ever heard anything like that again. I looked at Jake and said, “Cool, maybe the bigfoot is communicating with us.” Jake smiled and didn’t appear to be scared. I wasn’t frightened and I merely entertained how amazing it would be if a bigfoot was really communicating with us.

Jake kept on clacking rocks together hoping to get another response but all was quiet after that. We ate our dinner outside on the picnic table and started a cozy campfire. We sat around in the dark talking and enjoying the outdoors. Sometime around 9:00 pm Jake said that he was feeling scared and wanted to go inside. I got him snuggled in bed and went outside for a little longer. Eventually I came inside and read some bigfoot literature to get in the mood. I believe I perused one of John Green’s books. I brushed my teeth and settled in for the night. I must admit that Jake’s jitters had gotten to me a little bit. I lay in bed and tried to sleep but the absolute black and quiet of the night was unsettling.

I usually sleep like a baby on camping trips. Since we bought the trailer, I’m off the ground, it’s warm, and there is a bathroom that I don’t have to leave the tent to use. All said and done, I’m a happy camper. Well as things go, I drifted off to sleep but not the sound sleep I usually have. I eventually woke up about 2:00 AM and couldn’t go back to sleep. The quiet of the forest was almost deafening. I really started to want it to be morning in a bad way. This is when things started getting interesting.