All of this brings me to a difficult decision. Where do I fit in? How do I reconcile my son‘s and my strange weekend in the Sierras several summers ago? Did we share space with a hairy mystery creature over that exciting weekend or was it all a figment of our imagination? Were we and the others with us victims of group hysteria and we imagined the whole thing? Did the strange eyes we saw, the snapping sticks we heard and the strange snorts all have a logical explanation? Did the large ground impressions we found in the area the next day belong to something much more rational? Just as one can never truly prove to a believer that there is no higher power involved in running the universe, the believer can never change the skeptic‘s mind. The skeptic wants proof that can‘t be delivered at the moment.

I have to admit that I still believe in Bigfoot but it is getting harder with the lack of any firm evidence. Does that make me a “Romantic”? I don‘t think so even though my new definition says otherwise. I still think there is a flesh and blood creature out there. Well, at least I hope there is. I‘ll keep looking, working towards that clear, unobstructed sighting that very few get to experience. I‘ll keep trying to get a picture and other evidence, if I can hold myself together. If I got my clear sighting, the reality is that I would just be another person with an experience and have nothing to show for it. What must happen is one of our true skeptics needs to have conversion in the form of a life changing Bigfoot encounter, a change of belief much like Saul had on the road to Damascus. Or, one of our serious, credentialed researchers needs to come back with something tangible. I know there are lots of people out there doing hardcore research. Hey, what do you have for us? We‘re hungry! Things are changing, it‘s true. What does the future hold? I‘m not sure. Maybe Bigfoot is dead. I hope not, for if this is true, the woods will never be quite as mysterious and magical as they were before.