Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Backpack Hunting Big Foot, Yeti, and other woodland haints..........

In an increasingly bland, sanitised world, I would like to believe in these crypto zoological 'mythical' beasts, however, I have serious doubts.

I suspect these creatures which inhabit the shadows are a product of the way the human brain and the senses, interprets and collects information. I do not doubt people, even experienced country people, have not spooked themselves with shadows in their peripheral vision. However, the solution lies in neuroscience.

Animals work on fight or flight and the rapid collection and analysis of data. Split second decision, based upon incomplete data can have survival consequences. The brain tries to make sense of the data - like a jigsaw missing several pieces and fills in the missing bits itself - "run" or "fight" because there is a partially concealed / obscure threat stalking up on you. Magicians make use of the way people take in information too.

For a yeti type animal to exist, it needs food, water and shelter. It needs a wilderness area without significant human encroachment. It also needs certain numbers within these wilderness areas to maintain a breeding population. So putting the aspects together, there should be more, unambiguous sightings, tracks and signs. Ok cats bury their scat but they leave paw prints and hair rubbed off against obstructions. Also, dead bodies would turn up occasionally. With the indigenous Americans and the Mountain Men, I would have thought a skin / body / bones would have turned up by now.

There is a closed foot tunnel beneath the River Thames in London. It is now used as an electric cable tunnel etc. Maintenance people visit not infrequently and it is 'spooky'. Story is it is haunted - the bad feeling, a 'presence' experienced by technicians working in the tunnel. It turned out, people were subconsciously picking up very low frequency, background 'earth noises' and vibrations. the human brain, in an attempt to make sense of these stimuli provided it's 'interpretation.

I want to hear more. This is interesting to me.

Thanks for the stories guys. Very interesting reads.

Not that I don't believe, just that I've never seen one or heard one or anything else. I've never seen Niagara Falls either...but it's there. I've seen pictures of Niagara Falls.

But I do have a question. Why, with all these stories of broken branches, large objects thrown, foot prints 2 foot long, trees scrapped bare for 40' up, don't we have a picture of any of it?

I'd be OK with a PM of them if you don't want to post here, but I'd love to see some of the things described in the stories.

Thanks again for sharing.

I would like to see them also.

I have considered staying out of this discussion, not being a believer. But I have a couple of things to add. I think that they are relevant.

The article link was interesting, and brought back memories. I note that no one seemed to accept it as fact, at least not in this discussion. Just the lack of bruising on the “victims” face should have been enough. But if you go to the bottom you will find a disclaimer that says “World News Daily Report assumes all responsibility for the satirical nature of its articles and for the fictional nature of their content. All characters appearing in the articles in this website – even those based on real people – are entirely fictional and any resemblance between them and any person, living, dead or undead, is purely a miracle.“ Clear enough.

We live with Tabloid Magazines for sale at the checkout lanes of many grocery stores, all flashing sensational news across their front page. Alien abductions of course, children with three hands, anything and everything. Now the internet has expanded this to full blown “Fake News” (not a political statement). Some even advertise on this website.

OK, personal story #1... In my youth I was involved with a civic organization which ran a state wide camp for handicapped children. We were fundraising constantly to upgrade and support this camp.

At a state meeting of the organization they announced that a photographer was present representing a publication (I think in Baltimore) that was basically a tabloid as mentioned. Anyone who agreed to have their picture taken would “earn” a $10 donation to the camp, and if the publication decided to use one of your pictures then $100 would be donated to the camp.

I found a slot and sat for the man. I gave him sad faces, happy faces, wild faces, angry faces, stupid faces (this came naturally, I guess)... anything I could think of.

A couple of months later I got a call from the publisher. They wanted to use one of the takes. So the camp got its $100...

And I became the President (and probably the only member) of a charitable organization called “Howl No More”, an organization like the AA for alcoholics but for werewolves. We worked with the werewolves to try to get them to stay home during the nights of the full moon for their family's sake. They were definitely “running around” on their wives, and the howling was disturbing the neighbors. We had worked with many werewolves, and could furnish success stories upon request. And donations would be appreciated.

Still would be. Make your checks out to “Howl No More” and send them to me. I must still be the president... No one else could be elected since I didn't call a meeting.

There has been fake news for a long time. It just wasn't on NBC in the old days.

Personal story #2 - I too have heard strange things in the woods. Once I heard a Pterosaurs... but that's a different story. Until I found out better, it was a Pterosaurs. Never mind... I never thought of Bigfoot.

One night I was in the GSMNP . I was tent camping with a floorless tent with a plastic ground cloth, and is my habit in good weather I had the front opened up so I could monitor the campsite.

I was almost asleep when I heard something in the woods. It had to be several things in the woods. There was crunching and clicking and movement, what sounded like brush being swept aside and let go... what the Hades??? I got up on my elbows and stared into the darkness. The noises continued.

I quietly got my arm out of the bag and grabbed my flashlight. It wasn't much, an old two cell type, but I pointed it at the noises and turned it on. Nothing...

But I could still hear noises coming from that direction. My imagination was running, from deer to bear, to panthers or wild boar, coyotes, or whatever. Definitely not people. And definitely good sized beasts. I stared and listened into the dark and when I thought I had it right, I turned on the light again!

Nothing. I scanned right, then left. Nothing. No glowing eyes, no moving brush, no moving dark shadows... nothing!

But I could still hear it, or them! (Actually this was before the Bigfoot stunts/publicity/rumors, so that never crossed my mind). I waited, then I tried again!

Then I saw it.

There was a two inch centipede crawling on my plastic groundcloth about 8 inches in front of my nose. Its feet were beating strange patterns of sound on the thick plastic. My imagination was doing the rest.

Did you know that the human ears can tell left and right with great accuracy, but they can't tell up and down at all? I can prove that if you wish. So what I thought I heard off in the woods at a distance was actually very, very close and below my nose.

If I had not finally discovered the beastly bug then I would have had a great story for life. The night when SOMETHING in the woods threatened me with imminent disaster… All I had to do would be to let my imagination keep rolling... and believe me, it was rolling!

I flicked that bug out with my finger, and pretty well forgot about it until now.

Just call me “Howl No More”.

They should've asked him if it proved true........what women say about men with big feet.

Does it mean since you didn't sen pics of any of the sign mean you don had any or don't want to share. I really am interested. To google search was pretty useless showing the same 3 fuzzy pics and pictures on one track, never more than one print.

Let me start by saying i do not believe in bigfoot. I think one would have been found by now, either dead or alive. However, i have run into something strange in the past in Northern Wisconsin in the middle of the night that made me question my belief. Again, still don't believe but something was around that spooked me and my dog.

anyway, we got a dog, it was just out of puppy stage around this time about 9 months old. I was at my cabin and in the middle of the night the dog started whinning which meant he had to go outside and do his thing. I get up, take the dog downstairs, open the front door and let him out. It was a very nice summer night so i went out and waiting for him just taking in the air. Almost immediately he started pointing.. he was like a statue starring directly into the woods. He would not listen to me or any command i gave him, wouldn't pee, just stood there starring like he was frozen. Then he started a quiet growl and showed a little teeth. This was very uncommon for my dog since he never growled and shows no aggression even with kids picking him up and tossing him around like a stuffed animal. It was pitch black outside as there was zero light, and i was in the building stage of the cabin. I kept calling him and he just ignored and stood there. Now, this dog has seen deer before and other animals such as racoons, skunks, etc.... never really paid much attention to them other than to chase after them thinking they were playmates.

so i opened the screen door and turned on the porch light which at the time was a $.99 fixture with a 40 watt bulb in it. Hardly enough to see the door knob to unlock the door when i get there if you know what i mean.

within a split second of turning on the light, a large crash happened in the woods about 75 feet from where i was standing. The woods was alot of popler and dead trees, some bigger healthy trees but the kind of forest that needed some clearing of undergrowth. This crash was loud.. it sounds like something very large, not a deer, not a black bear which is all we have there in the area as the biggest predator. It sounded like some trees where pushed over and hit the ground. After this happened the dog make a direct dash to the front door and ran directly into the glass screen door. I picked him up and went inside. He was shaking uncontrollably (maybe from hitting the door) but this continued for about 45 min. i went back upstairs and shined a huge halogen where i heard the noise and saw nothing. Needless to say i kept my gun bedside all night. i was freaked out too and jumped back in the house about as fast as i could.

The next morning i found a 6" dia dead tree pushed over in the woods that was not there the day before. I could not have pushed this over even at 200lbs and in shape. It was about 30feet tall. But it was laying there broken off at the bottom.

The dog was never comfortable going outside at night and hated our cabin from that day forward. We ended up selling the place a few years back. But like most dogs, they love up north Wisc. He never wanted to go out after dark at this place.

The ironic part was, the following year the city repaved our roads. The road crew painting bigfoot tracks on the road just in front of my neighbors driveway. i found that kind of weird. I ran into them one day as they were paving and asked why they did that.. They said they thought it was funny after so many reported sightings in the area. I never reported mine or told anyone but apparently others in the area think they saw something.

Really enjoying this post, great read.

Not a believer or non believer, just interested and would like to see T O M continue. I appreciate the effort putting all his info to print.

I'm a guy that sees things others don't and I'm sure the opposite is true at times. I try to always be aware of my surroundings and have heard and seen things I can't explain. I've felt the hair stand up on the back of my neck and not know why.

I was elk hunting south central Colorado years ago with a buddy. It was midday and I decided to quietly make my way up a drainage and walked up on a bedded coyote at 20 yards. We became aware of each other at the same time. He jumped up and quickly left but not in an all out panic, don't think he knew what I was. I stood there for a while listening before continuing. I hadn't gone more than a few steps when I came to the top of a small ridge and stopped to look at the other side of a small gully. Trees and undergrowth blocked the upper part but I was able to see the bottom half of what looked to me like the rear legs of a large bear. That was the first impression of what I had seen as it walked out of sight in a couple of steps. As I stood there and thought about what I had just seen I realized it wasn't a bear but I'll be damned if I can figure out exactly what "IT" was to this day after 35 years. There was enough open area around the animal to see the front legs if there were any front legs. It had feet and was hairy but that's all I can say for sure. It moved away slowly but directly out of sight. I followed as quietly as possible but didn't hear or see anything else.

Hello. Re - reading this thread I realised Rooster7 expressed some interest in some part of my post on human perception and senses - interpretation.

If you look up infrasound on Wikipedia you will see some interesting references to low frequencies and human perception. The experiments in the 17, 18 & 19Hz frequencies are particularly interesting. Adult humans generally loose their hearing ability at around 20Hz, although the human body appears able to 'feel' it in some ways without clearly being able to 'hear' - vibrations etc. The articles include information about the frequencies which affect human health - vibrating machinery. NASA states the human eyeball resonates at frequencies of circa 18Hz, this along with human psychology and the way the brain interprets stimulation / signals may explain in part 'ghost' stories.

He is one link:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infrasound

No offense robthom but I believe I was referring to the sightings. Not that what you posted isn't interesting as well of course.

No question in my mind and I am convinced they exist. I've seen and heard things that can't be explained especially when I've backpacked off trail into certain areas.

You've seen and heard things that can't be explained, so you explain them as being a yeti?

I'm an avid sportsman, I've run traplines for a good part of my life, spent three years living in a tent in the northwoods of WI and spend months at a time out hunting coyotes around the west. I've never seen a BF, never heard one or have I ever seen any evidence of one. I live out on the Olympic Peninsula and as I drive the back roads at night I always expect to have one run across the road. I think it is the country, it is thick and in some places seems impenetrable, yet I've seen huge elk just trot through stuff I can barely wade through you can imagine a BF spending time here and never being seen. I would love to see one in my life time but am running out of time.

I consider myself of pretty normal disposition as a hunter and outdoorsman, and have never seriously considered BF as an actual creature that I would be running into when out hunting. My buddies call me "No Trail Roy", the guy that pretty much goes anywhere and everywhere he wants to go in pursuit of game. I backpack and sleep out anyplace that gives me a shot at game. Bears give me the willy's when I'm in a tent, but I've learned to deal with it, both in Alaska and here in Oregon. Bigfoot has never been on my radar as a realistic part of any outdoors equation, even with my healthy fear of bears.

With that said, my mother tells me of a time when her and dad were mule deer hunting near LaPine, Oregon. They were tracking a multitude of deer in the snow. She characterized it as if they were being concentrated, herded, or otherwise artificially condensed, migration maybe?

Anyway, a large set of bare footprints was on top of the fresh game sign. After following the trail an unknown (by me) distance, dad says whatever that is, I don't want to find it carrying only a 30-30. So they turned around and left. Like anyone that hears an account like that, I didn't know what to make of it, so I didn't process it all. If I was intellectually honest, it would require processing to conclude something, rather than just leave it there, untouched, after all this was my own parents telling me this. But, at any rate, I never touched it.

Fast forward to last year, I'm 50 years old, dad is gone near 20 years, and a buddy invites me on a September deer hunt in an area dad had logged and we had camped in when I was a kid. I didn't have a tag but wanted to go along, maybe to rekindle memories of dad, I don't know, but found myself going at any rate. I figured I'd hunt grouse and bear, and scout for deer for him while I was out. Maybe the huckleberry's would still be on.

My friend John has a trailer he custom built for camping and hauling quads, but I took our 25' travel trailer to give us a place to cook, sleep, and wash free from yellow jackets. The other fellow in camp was also within 40' or so. We had quads, tables, trucks, gear everywhere. Since I was just going along to play, I took our Jack Russell dog for companionship and to get her out of the house. At that time she went everywhere outdoors I could take her and she loves going along. We've "chased" grouse and bears together for 8 years and she is fearless about going after anything in the woods. (Now she has a bad heart and can't).

One of the first two nights there, I don't remember which now, the dog and I awoke to the trailer moving. John was sound asleep. Her ears perked up and she was on full alert. A few seconds later it moved again and John woke up. "What was that?", he asked. I jumped up and shined a light around, but didn't see anything. It was large enough to move a 25' trailer with the stabilizers down so it had to be a bear, I let Delilah get to the open door thinking she'd run out there and give him hell. (I don't know why I thought that was a good idea). She hit that doorway, locked them up, and ran straight back and jumped on the bed and got under the blankets. We couldn't figure out what it was but when I got back in bed Delilah was shaking like a leaf. She didn't stop for about 30 minutes. We were camped in an old gravel quarry so no tracks the next day. I just assumed a bear but the dog acting scared was different for her. It wasn't the other guy in camp.

Two old guys showed up the next day from a different camp and we ended up inviting them to move their camp up there with us. One was a preacher and both spent a couple months a year in the general area there between deer, bear, and elk hunting. Without going into long detail, they got real quiet on the subject of strange goings-on up there. Eventually we got out of the preacher he had actually seen a BF step into an opening when his stepson was making a deer drive for him. He described it as very tall, upright, and dark. It stopped in a narrow opening and looked back at the sound of the driver, then turned and walked into the trees the opposite direction of the driver. It fully freaked him out and he was very reluctant to talk about it. Another time the two of them were standing around the fire when a 6" diameter stick came flying into camp from the hillside above camp. Considering the re-prod timber was only 20-30 feet tall there, it wasn't a falling branch. It landed on the ground next to them. The next day in daylight the nearest concealed location that it could have come from was 30-40 yards away. Much too far for any man to have thrown it. Not to mention it was dark outside and they were camped at a dead end road way out in the woods.

Still not really thinking much of any of this, it's all just campfire stories and who knows what rocked the trailer. I'd been looking for deer for John and I found what looked like the perfect clear cut. All the food was right, the surrounding old growth providing perfect cover, water there, it was perfect. When I cruised it looking for sign I had predicted where they would come out of the timber to feed, where the trails would be. When I got there, nothing. When I say nothing, I mean, nothing, and there had not been a deer walk in that entire clearcut for at least a few years. Not a single new track, not even an old dent from sign from years past. Like it was swept clean. Food, cover, water, and damn few precious clearcuts should have spelled huge concentration of deer. Nothing. OK, so maybe a cougars range. But in my experience, deer will feed in a place this rare no matter. Just found it odd, but still no bells.

So this is where things took a turn. John comes in that night and says he saw two giant footprints on a ridge top, in the wilderness, in the white volcanic pumice, at mid day. He wears a size 12 boot, and they were longer and wider than his boot. He tried a flip cell phone photo but the sun was directly overhead and all you could see was "white" WTH, John's not the least bit excitable, never even heard him raise his voice in 12 years, even when we had a life threatening injury on a job we worked together. Calm as a cucumber. He just stated matter of factly there are two big footprints up there and I couldn't get a good photo of them.

I was more in disbelief that he couldn't get photos than of his account of the footprints. You'd have to know John.

I found a few more unusually barren spots that should have held game, which was odd, including the last one that comes with a truly unexplainable experience. On my last day there, I went to a place called "bear mountain" because I had discovered very few huckleberry's anywhere I had been, but they were thick there. No doubt why it got it's name right? I spent a few hours picking huckleberry's to take home. Expecting lots of bear activity, I had a 358 carbine over my shoulder. As I waded thru this huckleberry patch, on BEAR MOUNTAIN, I was struck how not one bush showed any signs of bear feeding. Bush after bush hanging heavy with fruit, and no bear sign to be seen. No scat, no old or new trails, no signs of foraging bears, ever. I've never seen a huckleberry patch in remote hunting country that didn't have bear sign in it. I'm convinced they'll come from miles away to eat huckleberry's in season, especially in tight years. Again, odd, but still no connection to BF.

I was 30-40 yards above the rig, I'd been picking for several hours when down below the road, way down in a steep timbered canyon, I hear this "scream" or roar, for lack of any other term for it. Not a fear filled scream like a woman dying, just a vocalization of some kind, that did not sound human. It was much too powerful and resonated deeply as if made by a very large animal of some kind. It seemed to be several hundred yards away., in a very remote canyon, very steep. It didn't sound like a cougar or bear, I've heard both. Definitely not elk. There hadn't been anybody drive by and there was only one road into that area, and I was parked on it. I am pretty sure there was no one in that entire area hunting, and most surely not down in there. All activity was light, and centered around road hunting by old farts. I heard it long enough, and clear enough, after I stopped what I was doing and paid attention, that the sound was, to me, not anything that "should" be there.

I did stick around for a bit hoping to hear more, but I found myself not wanting to deal with it. What do I make of that, and why do I want to try to explain this to anyone? I left with the feeling that there is something "wrong" with the area. No game where it should be. Strange things happened that can't be explained by bears or cougars. A general weirdness, unpredictability maybe, to where game was. We were never able to get much going because game related things seemed so out of synch for both John and I.

I could explain away everything with the trailer moving and the weird game patterns, but I have no worldly explanation for the sound I heard come out of that timbered canyon. I also have zero problem believing John's accounts of the footprints he saw in the pumice.

That's all I got.

Very interesting!!!!

Good stories and facts but still No bigfoot.

Good read, Tom I see most of the doubters are from Iowa, Pa , Colo.. Been to all of them.. No Bigfoot’s there.. Only people with too little country too many people!.. No wilderness, nothing like the mountains of the Northwest.. Sure Colo. has some wilderness, but gee greenies are in all the western states trying to get away from each other.. You have some awesome country... I have often wondered if any human has set foot in all of it. If folks haven’t experienced the NW, then they just don’t understand the immenseness of that area.. The dense forests, high peaks, unreal.. BF doesn’t live in Iowa corn fields, but not much worthwhile does I guess. You experiences are a great read.. Thanks for sharing.

John and I each got Cascade Elk tags this year. Coincidentally, that season opened yesterday. John is headed back up to that area Monday to meet up with friends already there. I was invited along but I don't feel like dragging the trailer up there with all the drama involved since it's already winterized and stored. There's snow on the ground and I don't want to tent camp in the snow, so I'm not going. I'd love to run up in the Jeep and look around but I can't tow the trailer with the Jeep and I'm not snow camping in the freezing cold to go chase BF. Who cares about elk right?LOL.

I've thought about what happened up there a few times and I am no closer to explaining any of those things. The oddest to me is the game patterns. One of the great things about hunting blacktail bucks is when you find great habitat, they will be there, without fail. But up there, not so. Game was flat out avoiding some prime areas up there. I can only imagine what it takes to drive game from prime mountain habitat, and it wasn't hunting pressure.

I'll go out on a limb here as to the what a BF really is.

1) We have no physical proof of them

2)The food requirements of an 800 pound animal would force it to leave sign everywhere.

3) They have not physically harmed anybody.

4) There have been thousands of sightings, around the world and transcending time. This isn't a cultural phenomenon unique to kooks in North America or recent years.


If you read the Bible you've read about the Nephilim that came to the earth and bred with women. Hard to understand. You've also read about angels hundreds of times, fallen angles, and demons. These things are mysterious because we can't see them with our eyes, at least not commonly. If there is an explanation for the thousands of sightings, I believe it is that they have to be spiritual beings. We know that when Satan went to God and petitioned Him to torment Job into denying God, God laid down the rules of the encounter, and Satan had to obey. We know that the Holy Spirit is busy restraining evil in this world, so spiritual beings are not having a free for all. That would explain the lack of harm or contact from BF to humans, and the restraint and even lack of photos. If you believe in God and the Bible, you must believe in spiritual beings, and the implications of that. One possible manifestation of spiritual beings could be these sightings.

I know one thing for sure, they aren't eating or we'd be seeing the evidence of that when out in the woods. Even the smartest, most elusive bears leave mountains of sign.

Bigfoot exists as an explanation for "things that can't be explained."