'Staring contest....GO!'
As the owner and writer of this Blog since 2005 I have focused on the weird stories I have come across, mostly as reported on the BFRO database, as it is the best, most detailed source available in the world. I chose to use the term 'Bigfoot' on most of the post titles to maintain a theme consistent with the Blog title of Bizarre Bigfoot, but as the reports pile up I think the term itself has become a bit jaded and even inaccurate.
Yes, these creatures seem to have oversize feet, as documented in observer accounts and myriad plaster casts, but the most compelling parts of the phenomena are about its size and form.
This is a giant, for one thing, and it apparently exists in the out of doors year round without the need for clothing or a heat source. For these reasons, and for the purpose of brevity while typing, I have sometimes come to refer to Sasquatches as 'GHH' or Giant Hairy Humanoids.
(Another part of my reason for the GHH designation is Thom Powells suggestion that the name 'BIGFOOT' may have become offensive to the ear of dedicated researchers.)
So, with that stated, the other notable feature that the BFRO database provides is what I think is THE most important aspect of any discovery science: locations.
'Stump or GHH?'
The BFRO database numbers over 4500 reports and climbing, and of those reports from 39 separate counties, the highest number of researched, investigated stories comes from Pierce County, (76 to date) where I have a homebase.
Further distillation of places in Pierce County turns up a near tie between the Yelm/Spanaway/Joint Base Lewis McChord areas and that of Greenwater/Upper Greenwater/Mt. Rainier areas.
I know all of these places fairly well having visited them and hiked through them for years.
In even closer examination, the woods above the town of Greenwater (which have had weird things happening there since 1970 until 2016) edges out the Spanaway area for visual sightings, as opposed to track finds, sounds etc., which I maintain are more important for the fleshing out of what this creature is about.
'I KNOW I left my keys here somewhere!'
Heres is an excerpt from a favorite Upper Greenwater BFRO report.
http://www.bfro.net/gdb/show_report.asp?id=28898
YEAR: 2008
SEASON: Spring
MONTH: June
DATE: 7
STATE: Washington
COUNTY: Pierce County
LOCATION DETAILS: Please read account
NEAREST TOWN: Greenwater
NEAREST ROAD: Fs rd connecting to 410
OBSERVED: My husband and I were up off of highway 410, about 5 miles outside of Greenwater (on the FS road right after the fire station on the left side of the road)around the first part of June in 2008. We had come from Tacoma and I was trying to get my husband acquainted with being in the woods at night, so we headed up to a place I liked to go occasionally to start a fire and cook some food and relax. It was a site for what looked like an old rock quarry alongside the right hand side of the woods. I chose the spot because it was fairly open to the road and there were also a large number of campers dotted throughout the woods and along the river at the time. It should also be noted that it was foggy.
'Don't make me tell you again.'
We pulled into the muddy rock pit(we were driving a '69 220 Mercedes) drove in about 50 feet and then noticed something in front of the car. My husband seemed panicked and wondered what the hell it was. It was gray(light colored)big, human shape, visible right in front of our car no more than 15 feet from the front bumper. Even though I knew it wasn't human or a known animal, I told him it was a deer's butt and not to be scared. He has stopped the car at this point and then we both witnessed the creature climb up the side of the quarry at a high rate of speed. He was terrified, but for some reason, I wasn't scared at all even though I had just something unexplainable. I convinced him to park and we got the stuff out the trunk headed up the other side of the quarry and started the fire. By the time it was really going it was dark out and we were just sitting and talking. It also started to rain a little. I had the unnerving feeling that we were being watched. That was when we saw headlights coming up the road and turning into the quarry.
'Park Ranger Jones - RIP'
It was the sheriff. He stopped at our car then came up the side of the quarry in his truck, shining his search beam on us as he ascended. After asking what we were doing he left and headed down the side of the quarry in which we had seen the creature earlier. I noticed about a quarter of the way down he stopped and shone his light into the woods at which time the previously viewed creature was spotted standing at the edge of the woods. It turned around and headed back into the woods and the sheriff sped down the side of the quarry. I bet he remembers it, but I don't remember his name.
The lady who made the report goes in to include this unusual statement, 'We left immediatelly. It should also be noted that I didn't feel scared at all and I almost forgot that I had seen the creature until we drove home and my husband reminded me. It was almost like my mind was trying to dismiss it because I didn't know or could make sense out of what I had seen.'
The BFRO invesigator who took this report, Kirk Brandenburg, wrote,
'The
female witness could not explain why she was not frightened by the
sighting and does not understand her own reaction. She did get an
uncomfortable feeling of being watched as they sat by the fire. The male
witness was frightened by the sighting and continued to be unsettled.
After the second sighting, the witnesses quickly packed up and left at
the husband's insistence. As the wife indicates in her narrative, her
response was possibly due to a mental defense mechanism engaging to help
her cope with what she saw. '
The woman's lack of fear COULD be explained as a 'defense mechanism', but it is one that I've never heard of, as her own husband can attest, fear is a the natural reaction humans have when they encounter what most would agree is a boogeyman.
An additional detail is important too. Both witnesses are members of a Western Washington Native American Tribe.
'I don't FEEL scary..'
I have been to the location of this sighting a number of times, and I've walked up around the general area the witnesses said they saw the creature walk to, and though the quarry has been altered, overall it is a fairly steep and rugged route out of the area. It is not easy to climb around much less depart from 'at a high rate of speed', as the woman wrote in her account.
One last thing: The cop who came through immediatly after. Who summoned him? Ostensibly, there could be a police report about this, but Brandenberg does not mention it.
These are the stories that keep me interested in the whole crazy subject. My last post, 'Bigfoot Doesn't Exist' was a dour, bout of frustration on my part, because the answers remain so elusive.
But I'm still interested, as I believe that a more complete understanding of the GHH that explains how they have eluded us will almost certainly usher humans into a new paradigm of our place in the world.
