Group searches for Bigfoot in Uinta Mountains

ap on Riverside Press Enterprise ^ | 7/21/07 | AP

[NormsRevenge]

KAMAS, Utah

A group of about 45 people spent two days in the Uinta Mountains searching for the legendary Bigfoot.

Members of the Bigfoot Field Research Organization used sophisticated equipment such as parabolic microphones and night vision goggles to search for the beast on Thursday and Friday.

BFRO director Matt Moneymaker, a lawyer from Capistrano, Calif., said he founded the organization to be a clearinghouse for Bigfoot sightings nationwide. He says he once was as close as 15 feet from a Sasquatch in 1994 in Portage County, Ohio.

"Utah has a reputation of being a place with enough sightings and steep terrain where it is possible to see one," he said

However, acting Kamas District Ranger Dave Ream of the U.S. Forest Service said he was not aware of any Bigfoot sightings. He said that campers should be more worried about bears, which are coming closer than usual to campgrounds because of dry conditions and wildfires.

Still, those who say they have heard or seen Sasquatch are never quite the same.

Scott Taylor of Tacoma, Wash., says he saw a Bigfoot in 2005 while deer hunting on the coast of Washington.

"It's not like going out and watching deer and elk," said Taylor. "These are creatures that don't want to be seen. But when you see one, it changes your life forever."

[Inyo-Mono]

I live in an extremely rural area, in fact you'd be hard pressed to find an area in the lower 48 more isolated than this, with thousands of square miles of wilderness and open Federal land. In over 40 years of hiking, hunting, fishing and exploring this vast area, I have never come across the bones or even the claw of a bear, yet I see them all the time. Two huge black bears ran within 50 yards my brother and I just two weeks ago while we were fishing (we almost jumped in the lake).

For the other poster to say that "most of America [is] covered by hunters, fishermen, hikers, climbers, trail bikes, ATVs..." and thus someone should have found bones of a Bigfoot by now is wrong. Most folks do not venture off the beaten path, whether it is a trail or dirt road and most animals go to die in heavy brush or are carried there to be eaten by predators. How may bird bones does one find in his own backyard? With all the birds flying about, there should be thousands of bird skeletons all over the place.

[river rat]

"He was speaking of the millions of bones that should have been there collecting on the plains during the last 40,000 years but weren't."

Those "old" bones are probably in the same place as the millions of years worth of dinosaur bones from the animals that wondered upon our plains..........buried by overlay, consumed or disintegrated by weather action....

Notice that the Big Foot believer didn't ask why we haven't found any of the bones from dinosaurs that have been dead for ions?
Because we HAVE -- yet we haven't found even ONE piece of physical evidence for "Big Foot"....

Without evidence - believers in Big Foot appear to be Big Fools.

[Inyo-Mono]

There is indeed evidence. Read this:

http://www.uiowa.edu/~nathist/Site/giganto.html

[jazusamo]

Bears are slower.

Slower that what? Certainly not man.

Running Speed: Lean bears can exceed 30 mph. Can run uphill, downhill, or on level ground. Fat bears in winter coats overheat and tire quickly.

Black Bear Facts

[roamer_1]

In a purely subjective opinion, I'd say the odds of an average hiker or hunter stumbling upon the remains of ANY animal was small to none. Nature, as this guy points out, soon erases all traces of even the biggest critters.

I would not go as far as your statement- It is not uncommon to find deer and elk kill sites (I am in the Rockies). It is less common to find a moose or bear though, as their populations are much smaller.

But I will defend your comment in it's general sense. In particular I would point out that a carcass is naturally disarticulated in a very short period of time- In the course of a couple weeks all that is left is scattered bone and hair.

With the exception of the skull (which is often times dragged away), and considering the natural bias against crypto-zoological creatures, I find it quite plausible that the remains of such a creature might be misidentified by the non-critical eye of a casual observer.

Even so, it is the skull that would stand against your statement. Skulls can last for years in the wild, and especially the skull of a large animal. It seems unlikely that a skull has not been found in all these years.

It is also unlikely that one has not been killed by a hunter, considering the notoriety such a kill would bring.

That being said:

Once while I was in the deep woods I was awakened by a long mournful cry that raised the hair on my neck. The cry was repeated twice more and then fell silent. For the life of me I do not know what made that eerie sound, but my normally fearless dog tried to crawl into the sleeping bag with me, and spent the remainder of the night huddled against me.

Something VERY out-of-the-ordinary was out there.

That experience leaves me open to the idea of Bigfoot's existence, even when considering the odds against it.

-Bruce

[California Patriot]

I guess if they’re as intelligent as other great apes (or more intelligent, probably), they could manage in unlikely places like Ohio. Might have come down from the north woods, I guess.

[California Patriot]

I know grizzlies are fast. But I assume they’re slightly slower than mountain lions. Am I wrong?

[TheLawyerFormerlyKnownAsAl]

It is strange that no skeleton has been found.

Did you stop to think that maybe they never die? Huh?

[COBOL2Java]

I didn’t know Janet Reno moved to Utah!

[COBOL2Java]

LOL! Great minds think alike!

[mad_as_he$$]

The last two big cats I shot were in heavy juniper forests. The one before that was in pines.

[mad_as_he$$]

In the forests in the West you often cannot even find a discernible deer track (a hoofed animal as opposed to barefooted)in a heavy traveled games trail. They get pounded to dust or are heavily covered in needles and leaves and unless it is right after rain or snow melt there is no visible specific type of sign.

[California Patriot]

I’m talking about denser, Northwest-style forests. That’s where most of the bigfoots are, if they exist.

[mad_as_he$$]

I understand, but even when they are wet it is difficult to track. Here’s an experiment. Put a friend of yours in real moccasins and try to track him through a forest. Unless he breaks a limb or slips on a surface it is very hard to do.

[Trteamer]

I’ll bet our Marines could track down old big foot.

[mad_as_he$$]

lol About 90 miles South of here is the Marines Mountain Warfare Training Center. Now I love Marines but mountain men they ain’t. Most spend the first two weeks groaning about the altitude (8500 feet)and the last two trying to stay warm. In winter they send them out with one rabbit and they have to kill it and eat it. It is basically their only grub for a week. During the summer they run simulated missions and I have more than once helped a Marine get his bearings in the mountains - even with GPS - which often can’t see enough satellites to get a good lock. I will say at the end of the month many are running around doing quite well with the lack of oxygen. Says a lot about their conditioning which is great. Oh and many suffer from altitude sickness which is a real pain and can be life threatening. Corpsman keep a good eye on them. To be fair I don’t carry 75 pound packs at that altitude but a 30 pound with two weapons and plenty of clean water. I am suffering from chronological impairment that they don’t have to deal with.

[Ditter]

Take it from one who has been on numerous bear hunts, bears are NOT slow. From their hefty size and shape you might expect they were, but you would be wrong.

[California Patriot]

Didn’t say they were slow. Said they were probably somewhat slower than mountain lions.

[California Patriot]

I agree.

[Ditter]

I doubt if they are any slower than mountain lions and I doubt the existence of bigfoot too. Sorry but there are too many people here and remote areas are hunted and fished by lots of people. There are hoaxes and those who honestly think they saw bigfoot, have seen a bear.

I believe in ghosts though, so I am not entirely straight and level headed.