Thursday, July 28, 2016

Flash update! Marble Lost! Marten Found!

Flash update! Just got back from hiking Bluff Creek and the Patterson-Gimlin Bigfoot film site with State Park Ranger Robert Leiterman and we ended up servicing all the trail cameras, repairing damaged stations, and installing new cameras. We were working for about eight hours down on the creek and got a bunch of work done.

So two weeks ago on July 9th we were able to retrieve the memory cards of the cams but the winter storms had drained most of the cameras and only two of the ten remained on through the spring. This was super disappointing since we were trying to capture a super rare and cryptic Humboldt Marten. While we were down at the Patterson-Gimlin Bigfoot film site, our project member Rowdy Kelley brought a single marble with him to hide down at the Patterson-Gimlin film site, we had no idea what he was doing but we just went with it. He ended up hiding it in a big tree that is visible in the 1967 film. This was to become one of the prized treasures of the Worlds Biggest Marble Hunt and was worth several hundred dollars. It would surely be a most difficult journey for any family that ventured to visit the Patterson-Gimlin Bigfoot film site! You can read more about the marble here on the Facebook Page:

Facebook Page for The Worlds Biggest Marble Hunt!


Here is Rowdy's clue video:




On today's trip, ranger Robert and I headed down to service the cams and do some much needed trail maintenance so no one could get lost down there. We could tell that people had been there from the trampled grass and when we got to the film site and checked the marble hiding spot, it was gone! Someone got it! When we check the log book the last person on the log had written that they were unsuccessful in finding it.

The missing Marble, about two inches in diameter.
Well, when I got home this evening about 10pm I went right away to check the memory cards to see who took the marble, I discovered we had captured some really great photos of a marten! He has been living at the Patterson-Gimlin Bigfoot film site! We also checked with the three other parties (via facebook) that had been to the Bigfoot site since we hid it, and they didn't find it! We had cameras on the location and they clearly show only three groups at the site! The hole the marble was in is the perfect spot for a Humboldt Marten to find an interesting new toy to play with... So for now the marble is lost! Displaced by some playful forest critter!? Perhaps a curious Bigfoot!? Can you help us find the lost marble? It has a value of several hundred dollars and is currently missing at the Patterson-Gimlin Bigfoot film site. Just be careful on your journey down to Bluff Creek! We recently caught another creature prowling the old road from the parking area that goes the creek!


















Wednesday, June 22, 2016

Mystery at Elk Valley...

June 7th 2016

I had been in contact with researcher Wolfgang Moser for a few months and he had expressed interest in going to the Patterson film site in June. As we watched the countdown to the end of the seasonal Port Oreford Cedar closure we saw it was extended due to recent rains in the area. Our schedules lined up for a trip to the Klamath high country above Bluff Creek where we could make an attempt to hike into the remote valleys at the headwaters of Blue Creek and retrieve the three trail camera that we had installed last year with Robert Leiterman.

Bald Hills Rd looking out over Williams Ridge
I left Orick about 10am and headed over the Bald Hills, the location of many bigfoot sightings. The road is very pretty on top and I stopped to photograph some elk along the way. When I got into Marten's Ferry I noticed some recent graffiti on the stop sign that said "STOP forest service harassment". I thought this was interesting. I arrived at the Bluff Creek Lodge about 11:45 where I met Wolfgang and his friend. After talking for a be we proceeded to drive up to Orleans, about 15 minutes from the Bluff Creek Lodge. We headed up Eyesee Rd (the GO road) and stopped at the pull off for cedar camp rd to look down on Bluff Creek. We continued up to GO road until we got to mile marker 28 at the Elk Valley Rd. The gate to Elk Valley was open and we were able to drive in. There was a small camp there and a couple cars. It looked like a long term camp as it was well established with canvas tents. We continued in our vehicles to the end of the road which is the start of the Flatiron Lake trail.
Chimney Peak and Turtle Rock looking over Elk Valley in the Yurok High Country. This is the headwaters of Blue Creek.


At the trailhead we had some lunch before we headed out. We were unarmed as usual and had only walking sticks and bear spray. The trail to the camera location was greatly overgrown and was lost easily. Right away we noticed large track impressions on the trail that we had assumed to be from bears. The mud on the trail had hardened and the animal that made the tracks did so in the mud as the impressions were deep in the dry ground and our footfalls only produced compression of the grasses, which leads me to believe that the trackmaker was there at least a week before when it was raining. The tracks were indistinct and only a few registered, the width was about six inches at the ball of the foot and about four inches wide at the heel. None of the tracks that I saw had any clear indication of toes. Some of the better registered tracks measured over 15 inches in length dwarfing my size 12 heeled logging boots with no obvious indications of a composite register or "one track on the other one". I had assumed that there were bear tracks at the time as bears are common in the area. I didn't think much of them at the time and proceeded to check the trail cameras. This is where things got interesting.







Photo of the Reconyx after it had been recovered
When I approached the first camera i did not see it on the tree from afar like i should have been able to. That was the Reconyx HC500 that Bart Cutino had donated to us. When i got close enough i saw that the camera had been spun around the tree 180 degrees and was now facing backwards. The plastic buckle had been snapped. It was only attached to the tree by the security knot i tied with the excess strap. It had also been opened up and was exposed to the elements. The memory card was intact and the camera had not been fouled by exposure. The batteries had been strewn on the ground as well. Only after i cut the strap with my knife did i think it necessary to start taking pictures (hindsight is 20/20).
The location of the Reconyx camera

Second Camera on ground as found
I left my gear at the first camera location and proceeded to look for the other cameras. I located the second camera location but the camera was missing. I could see impressions and compressed grass all around but no sign of the camera. After a bit of searching i found it under an adjacent tree on the ground. The connecting buckle had been snapped by great force. The camera itself was facing up was covered in a light coating of mud, dirt, and dust. It had remained sealed and there was no major damage to it. A quick inspection revealed no obvious damage to the the camera itself.

I then attempted to locate the third camera, a Bushnell Trophy Cam. Once located i could see that the buckle had been snapped on this camera as well, it was held on to the tree only by the safety knot that tied the two end of the strap together. It was spun around the tree about 60 degrees and resting on the ground.I was able to locate a small hair attached to the third camera that had been stuck in a spiders web. I was able to save the hair and secure is in a band-aid for testing at a later date.

I had not expected to be in this position of having to possibly deduce an encounter. I had assumed we would check to footage and see a bear clearly assaulting the camera. I cannot explain what happened or why it happened to all three camera at once. In the five years that the Bluff Creek Project has been operating I have never seen a bear snap a buckle like that, let alone three in such a short period of time. I am not a believer in Bigfoot but i struggle to explain what happened.



Monday, June 6, 2016

Bluff Creek campout! July 7-10!


Hey all! We are hosting an open invite camping trip to Bluff Creek and the Patterson-Gimlin Bigfoot film site! The trip is scheduled on July 7-10 at Louse camp. The campground is great and is only three miles from the PG film site. No donations are necessary but we ask that everyone contribute to the trip in someway, beer, food, equipment etc. This is an informal trip and it it should be a blast! Lots of beer, barbecue, and Bigfoot right on Bluff Creek! Bring the family and friends! Plenty of spots to set up and there's even a swimming hole in the creek! Please send a message to me Jamie at bluffcreekproject@gmail.com to let us know you are coming! Hope to see you there!

Friday, May 6, 2016

On the trail of Sasquatch: The Sierras footage

     This is the full investigation of the Bart Cutino thermal footage in 2012. During the encounter Bart filmed multiple Sasquatch individuals observing the camp at the alleged Sierra Bigfoot kill site. There was a subsequent investigation of the footage done by ranger Robert Leiterman. This is that investigation.


Sunday, April 17, 2016

Dr. Richard Stepp speaks on Bigfoot, Freshwater Grange 4/15/2016

Recently HSU professor emeritus Dr. Richard Stepp spoke at the Freshwater grange hall about the existence of Bigfoot and how fringe science is often viewed as crackpottery. Here is a recording of that lecture: