Scary Movies: To be or not to be

Scary movies???  What is that crazy DW talking about now?

About 7 years ago, an old research buddy of mine confided in me that he didn't watch scary movies for at least a week before he went out researching.  I was intrigued why, so I asked him.

He explained that by not watching scary movies before going out, it would free up his mind from scary thoughts, the sub-conscious mind would play tricks on you while in the woods.

 I respected this researcher and I took it to heart what he told me.  I would do the same.  Unfortunately, fate would intervene and I would fully understand what he was saying.

I had traveled down with other researchers into Southeast Oklahoma to do research in a wildlife refuge, the scene of the first recorded Bigfoot encounter in the state of Oklahoma.  There was 4 of us, and one of the researchers walked down a hiking path to check things out while the other 2 set to work to cast a track they had found.  After a little while, I thought I better go check on the researcher that had went down the path.

Well, this path went right along the river, and you could see multiple places where the alligators had been sliding in and out of the water to the banks.  Here was where the mind plays tricks on you.  My daughter had spent the entire week before I went down there watching alligator and crocodile horror movies.

My mind started making me think as I walked along, that dang it, I bet I have several alligators walking along the trail behind me just getting ready to pounce on me.  

I began walking a little faster until I finally found the other researcher.  I had been in the woods all my life, and seen all kinds of animals in the woods, including Bigfoot, but just the thought of those movies and the area that I was in, made my mind think about being followed by man-eating alligators on the trail.

Take some advice folks, unless you are just a total thrill-seeking, adrenalin junky who likes to be scared all the time while in the woods, don't watch scary movies for a while before going out into the woods, you will find your sub-conscious will not play so many tricks on your mind. 

Cheap and simple

I've been asked by folks throughout my Bigfooting "Career" whether they needed to spend a lot of money on the latest and greatest technology to do research with.  While I have invested quite a bit of money and time into having a lot of equipment to use, I always, revert back to the cheapest and most simple item that a researcher can use.  A spool of thread.

Okay, some of you are wondering, what the heck have you been smoking lately DW?  How can a spool of thread be a great researching tool?

Through the years, I have seen many folks, habituators mainly, claim that Bigfoot were coming through their property on a regular basis, but were adamant that the Bigfoot would not allow them to take pictures of them.  So if the Bigfoot would not appear when the person had a camera on them, and there was little evidence to back up their claims, how would I tell if a Bigfoot was indeed coming across the property.

Well it's simple.  You take two trees, roughly about 100 feet apart, and you string the thread between the two trees in three strands.  Start the first on at 6 feet, the second at 7 feet, and the third you place at 8 feet as shown in the picture below.

Now you could actually place these all around the property, creating a perimeter around your place, just remember though when you walk through the areas that you don't run into the thread yourself.

The MABRC will a lot of times, place this thread perimeter around their camps on expeditions, and here is the reason why we use the thread like this.

A Bigfoot comes walking through the area, but he is under 7 feet tall, he walks into the bottom thread and breaks it.

Now you know that something under 7 feet tall is coming through your area, we can't claim it's Bigfoot, because 6 feet is within the realm of a normal sized man, but hey, this will even work around your house to let you know that someone is trespassing.  You see, the Bigfoot will break the thread without even noticing it because it will feel to them like a spider web across the trail.  

Let's say you go back the next day and the lower two threads are broken, this would show that something under 8 feet tall has walked through the area.

Now you see that something large came through the area, now we really can't say Bigfoot, even though we are getting up in range with the size, you need to remember that deer, elk and even moose if they are in your area, have large antlers/racks that could have caught on the lower threads.  

So what happens if all three are broke DW?

Well, now we step back and look at all three threads are broken, this means something 8 feet tall or taller has walked through this area.  Unless you have moose in the area, you can lean towards a Bigfoot walking through the area.

AND YOU SHOULD PROBABLY CONSIDER MOVING IF ALL THREE ARE BROKE!!!  Just kidding, folks.

If you have done a perimeter of thread around your property or camp, you can actually get a good idea of which way they are coming through.  Granted, you won't know where they came in from and 

left out at in that sequence, but you will know from the broken thread, the path they did take.  Say the thread on the northwest corner of your camp was broken, and the southeast corner of your camp was broken too.  You could see that the creature came in from the northwest and exited the southeast corner or vice-versa.  While you can't say for certain which direction they were traveling, finding tracks on the ground could help you narrow down which was the actual direction taken.

And there you have it folks, a few dollars spent on thread (I recommend black as it is hard to detect visually at times) can give you a wealth of information on whether Bigfoot is actually in the area or not.

I have even used this on tall boy trails (more on these in another blog post), to let me know if they are currently being used.

Step Vs. Stride Length

One of the most overlooked points made by newer researchers, and quite a few older researchers, is the step length and the stride length measurements when multiple tracks are encountered.  The excitement of finding multiple tracks sometimes makes us as researchers to forget the important things.  So let's look at how you measure each one.

In the photo below, you see that the step length is measured from the toe of the rear track to the front toes of the forward track.  This is the distance traveled forward by a single leg.  For humans, this is usually around 2.2 feet for women, and 2.5 feet for men.  Except in the case of smaller juvenile Bigfoot, the average that I have encountered for Bigfoot has been 3.5 feet to 5 feet on the step length, depending upon the height of the Bigfoot creating it.

Stride length is the distance between two successive placements of the same foot.  It consists of two step lengths, left and right, each of which is the distance by which the named foot moved forward in front of the other one.  You can see how it is measured in the photo below, by measuring from toes of the rear footprint, to the heel of the forward footprint.

To measure the step length with multiple tracks, you need to count the number of tracks within your trackway, in this case in the photo below, we have ten tracks.  Measuring from the heel of the first track, to the toes of the 10th track, we have come up with 540".

As shown in the above photo, you divide 540 by the number of tracks, which is 10 and you end up with 54, meaning that the average step length for this Bigfoot would be 54 inches. 

To measure average stride length for multiple tracks, you would select at least 4 or more tracks of the same foot to measure.  In our example photo below, we used 4 tracks in a trackway, and total distance from the toes of the rear left foot, to the toes of the front left foot.  This gave us a total distance of 324" which we divide by 4 (which is the number of tracks being used) and we get 81" as an averaged stride length. 

When photographing a trackway, it's always recommended to use markers to show where each footprint is located at.  The MABRC Researchers use small marker flags like shown here.

Most large hardware stores carry this little flags including Lowe's in packages of 25 and in different colors.  It allows you to also maintain where all the tracks are so someone doesn't tromp on any of the tracks because they are clearly identifiable.  As you can see below, it makes the trackway easier to see in photographs whether in short vegetation or tall vegetation.  

When you are investigating tracks and trackways, while the excitement may be there that you found these tracks, it's always best to document the stride and step length in your data.

Texas Hoax/Scam???

Now I know there will be many who question why the folks I am about to write about even trusted anyone to send the amount of money to that they did, but the truth of the matter is this, this was a very detailed and elaborate con game that was perpetrated on them. And I'm sure that there are other folks out there that have been caught up with this same con game.

It actually started when Bob Garrett came crashing onto the Bigfoot radar scope about a year ago with his fanciful story of finding a campsite ransacked by Bigfoot and that the authorities were trying to shut him down over it. This made him a Bigfoot celebrity for a little while, and because of the monetizing of Sasquatch Chronicles, they embraced and ran with Bob Garrett's story.

Because of Sasquatch Chronicles, they perpetuated Bob as this great Bigfoot researcher down in Texas and even began promoting a cross-over Bigfoot Expedition program down in the Big Thicket.
To this, I think that Sasquatch Chronicles is implicit in helping Bob Garrett reaching out to more victims. Whether Sasquatch Chronicles is complicit in the con game or not, remains to be seen or proven either way.

(Updated information:  Sasquatch Chronicles is actually owned and trademarked by a media company, it's being used to generate revenue.  See this link for the confirmation on who owns the brand.  https://trademarks.justia.com/868/55/sasquatch-86855624.html .)

A company was set up in Texas called The Big Thicket Watch Guide Service, LLC on January 16, 2016. This gave them even more credibility in the eyes of those they were advertising too.
They began advertising paid expeditions to the Big Thicket, with no guarantees of a sighting, but guarantees of hearing vocalizations.

A husband and wife decided they wanted to go on one of this expeditions, and paid to attend the expeditions. They were instructed to send the money by PayPal to Robert Garrett, which PayPal says was collected by Robert Garrett.

Shortly after the money was collected, Bob Garrett suddenly claimed that the Feds had showed up at one of their expedition camps and shut down the entire operation.

The husband and wife began contacting Bob and others involved to get their money refunded. What happened now was a series of run arounds, finger pointing and outright no return calls by those who were running the Big Thicket Watch Guide service.

To this date, several people associated with this entire affair have dropped off Facebook, and have not returned messages left for them. The husband and wife have been advised by a lawyer to file charges against all those involved.

Now I am working with another researcher to uncover more information related to this, but I am also asked for help from the Coalition and Hoaxers Exposed 2.0 members to help us find more information to help this couple get their money back.

We also would like to find others who were conned out of their money by this same crew.

You will find attached all the emails and text messages from the couple to those involved with the couple's names blacked out to protect them from ridicule and give them some anonymity.

So if you folks have any further information, please let me know so we can help these folks get their money back, or some other resolution.