On Thursday, I made a daytime foray to the Mogollon Rim area of Arizona. It's a high elevation, was nice and cool, and the woods were simply gorgeous. My co-partner in exploration was a well seasoned squatcher who had many encounters up on The Rim. He was taking me to the sites he'd had these encounters. I have a tendency to attack a place forensically. I notice the smallest things that don't seem right, looking for clues, studying tree branches for any that snapped off from weight, things that seem unnatural like purposefully set up sticks.
If anyone tells you Squatch cannot hide here, try looking at the vast amounts of Arizona land we are not allowed to develop. We only live on under 10% of the land in the state. The rest is Native land, state and federal and the high country is alpine-like with aspens and pines, wild grapes and berries, loads of lakes and creeks.
We found tons and tons of fossils all over the ground. They were everywhere! And, I had to stop and photograph the tons of mushrooms (they're so cute!)
I also have an obsession with dead trees and driftwood -
Photography aside, we four-wheeled deep into some very rustic areas. Trees fell across some roadways and stopped passage any further. Interestingly, one enormous tree that was so big we couldn't climb over it, but had to crawl under it, had been there for over a year. That means for over a year, no vehicles had driven past there. So, we hiked it to a spot where my fellow researcher had many strange encounters including seeing a female Bigfoot up close with nightvision.
As the researcher showed me the place he'd encountered a Bigfoot, something was bothering me on the ground. I paced back and forth, studying, puzzling, and amazed. This spot was the top of a steep ravine. The squatch had come up from the creek below and he had other times heard them making sounds from the other hillside. The rocks around me looked all broken, some of them left in the shapes they used to be, like a broken stone city of ruins. Chips of rock lay around and spots on the rock showed that large rocks were clanked down and broken against other rocks. Then, it dawned on me. What a fantastic sound that would make in the echoing area of the ravine? You're atop a hillside, you bang the rocks. And others hear.
We stopped at a site where Bigfooters have had lots of encounters and it had become known by them as a sure thing. Some people had camped there, not knowing about Bigfoot, and rushed from the site during the night in terror. This time, we saw a tent. My companion called out and no one answered. He approached the tent and called out "it's abandoned." It looked abandoned for a while. Something had torn up the fabric. Rain had filled the inside. And, it was still zipped closed. Very odd situation.
We went down a path and stood around, listening and getting acclimated. Then, we came back down the path and there in the middle of it was scat. Fresh, wet, and flies on it. We studied the ground for fossils as we walked up the path, so this was something new. I took a stick and squashed one stool open to see what its contents were; seeds and fibrous material.
I often run across X's and arches in the woods. They can happen naturally on young trees with heavy snowfall and such, but sometimes, things seem a bit arranged -
I saw large rocks set atop of tree stumps all over the place and had to wonder if that was used as a place to smash things open.
All in all, the trek taught me a lot. It gave me the perspective of how vast the land was -
to understand how easy it is for the Sasquatch to find lots of places to exist without any interruption and with so very little of Arizona allowed to be developed, the high country is a dream come true for a healthy population.
I also learned more about using all the senses - scent, sound, the feeling of being watched, shifts in animal sounds, looking up trees, looking at one spot searching for movement, and all the acute senses necessary in research. It is very much like ghost hunting.
And that, is an interesting realization....
If anyone tells you Squatch cannot hide here, try looking at the vast amounts of Arizona land we are not allowed to develop. We only live on under 10% of the land in the state. The rest is Native land, state and federal and the high country is alpine-like with aspens and pines, wild grapes and berries, loads of lakes and creeks.
We found tons and tons of fossils all over the ground. They were everywhere! And, I had to stop and photograph the tons of mushrooms (they're so cute!)
I also have an obsession with dead trees and driftwood -
Photography aside, we four-wheeled deep into some very rustic areas. Trees fell across some roadways and stopped passage any further. Interestingly, one enormous tree that was so big we couldn't climb over it, but had to crawl under it, had been there for over a year. That means for over a year, no vehicles had driven past there. So, we hiked it to a spot where my fellow researcher had many strange encounters including seeing a female Bigfoot up close with nightvision.
As the researcher showed me the place he'd encountered a Bigfoot, something was bothering me on the ground. I paced back and forth, studying, puzzling, and amazed. This spot was the top of a steep ravine. The squatch had come up from the creek below and he had other times heard them making sounds from the other hillside. The rocks around me looked all broken, some of them left in the shapes they used to be, like a broken stone city of ruins. Chips of rock lay around and spots on the rock showed that large rocks were clanked down and broken against other rocks. Then, it dawned on me. What a fantastic sound that would make in the echoing area of the ravine? You're atop a hillside, you bang the rocks. And others hear.
We stopped at a site where Bigfooters have had lots of encounters and it had become known by them as a sure thing. Some people had camped there, not knowing about Bigfoot, and rushed from the site during the night in terror. This time, we saw a tent. My companion called out and no one answered. He approached the tent and called out "it's abandoned." It looked abandoned for a while. Something had torn up the fabric. Rain had filled the inside. And, it was still zipped closed. Very odd situation.
We went down a path and stood around, listening and getting acclimated. Then, we came back down the path and there in the middle of it was scat. Fresh, wet, and flies on it. We studied the ground for fossils as we walked up the path, so this was something new. I took a stick and squashed one stool open to see what its contents were; seeds and fibrous material.
I often run across X's and arches in the woods. They can happen naturally on young trees with heavy snowfall and such, but sometimes, things seem a bit arranged -
I saw large rocks set atop of tree stumps all over the place and had to wonder if that was used as a place to smash things open.
All in all, the trek taught me a lot. It gave me the perspective of how vast the land was -
to understand how easy it is for the Sasquatch to find lots of places to exist without any interruption and with so very little of Arizona allowed to be developed, the high country is a dream come true for a healthy population.
I also learned more about using all the senses - scent, sound, the feeling of being watched, shifts in animal sounds, looking up trees, looking at one spot searching for movement, and all the acute senses necessary in research. It is very much like ghost hunting.
And that, is an interesting realization....
It sounds like you had great and interesting day looking for squatches or any evidence of their existence. I know you have been wanting to take this trip for a while, so I am glad it finally happened.
ReplyDeleteThat big tree is amazing !
ReplyDeleteI see you were at Broken Mirror. The tent was left there to keep others out. There has been much activity there this year. We have trail cams out and about there to see if anything happens around the other trails outside of the camp site. So we'll see when we retreve the cameras. Either karl or Steve must of taken you there? If not I wonder Who? If it was Alex Hearn I suggest you stay clear of Him. Hes a, should I say Just a story teller! if you get what I mean.
ReplyDeleteghosthuntingtheories@gmail.com let me know what kind of action has been going on up there. I definitely felt intensely watched and that's a rare sensation for me.
Delete