Monday, July 29, 2013

Smoky Mountain Research Update…

This past weekend (7/28/13) I made a trip to my research area in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. It had been 6 days since my last visit and I found some things that are starting to become regular occurrences. Food gifts are always taken. Whether it is an animal taking the food or Bigfoot is technically up for debate, although I believe the latter is the guilty party! But, when non-food gifts are rearranged, moved or completely missing, that’s when it becomes serious to me. When a ball that is wedged under heavy limbs is moved to a completely different part of the research area once, that’s interesting. When it keeps happening, well…you get the picture...


On the ground in this picture you can see the ball as I found it...again. I always put the ball under the limbs you see crossing over the log in an "X" fashion. 


How it looked a week ago...


I did find what I believe were a couple of “gifts” left for me. Right where I have been leaving items on the fallen tree was a small stick balanced perfectly over the trunk. And at the other end of the tree was a small mushroom that looked like it had been picked from the ground very recently and placed for me to find. The bottom of the mushroom still had topsoil attached to it and it was lying perfectly on its side just like someone had placed it there. I always take these “gifts” whether they leave them or not and I say “Thank you!” placing them in my backpack. I left in its place a small candy bar. I always try to consider that something so simple to us could have such great meaning to them. You just don’t ever know…


The mushroom as I found it...



 

I decided to try something different this week. Up until now I have been leaving the food gifts on a fallen tree or placing apples up in tree limbs nearby. They are always taken, but the question always lingers whether or not an animal took the food. Candy and snack wrappers are almost always left lying on the ground nearby.

I thought I’d try putting the food gifts in a small basket, hang the basket from a rope that I threw over a tree limb and tied the other end to a nearby tree. The basket is hanging about 7 feet off the ground and about 3 feet down from the limb. I even put a little thought into what color the basket should be. The store had several colors available, but after researching I found the color “white” means peace to most Native American tribes.



I put a couple apples, a peach, a honey bun and a couple candy bars in the basket. I also put in a small green glow-stick bracelet I picked up at the dollar store. They glow for several days and it will be interesting to see if they take it.

Maybe this will help more solidly determine what is getting the items. If I can try to rule out small animals I want to do so.



 

Next, I went up the hill about 20 yards and built a small tee-pee structure with surrounding fallen limbs. Not sure what kind of response I’ll get from the structure, but so far they seem to be ok with me rebuilding the one I found nearby after it had fallen from a bad storm. I had been leaving food on it before then and still am now. The food is always gone when I return and usually not a single small limb will be out of place.


Structure I built...


 

I wanted to post a picture of a star structure I found. This is right beside the same creek my research area is on only about 50 yards upstream. It’s the first of its kind I have ever found. I don’t know why, but I always get a strange feeling when I’m around it. I always go out of my way to walk around and never mess with it. It’s almost like it has a sacred feeling to it. Either way, I avoid it out of respect.


Star structure I found...



 The past few times I’ve been there I’ve played music for the big guys. I have a couple small battery powered laptop speakers I pack in with me and connect to my phone. I have a few downloaded Native American flute songs I like to play for them. I had a friend with me this trip and the whole time we were there it felt like we were being watched. 

 

 

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Bigfoot Activity At Home

I have been researching in multiple areas of the Smoky Mountain National Park for about eight years now. Back in April of 2012 we moved into a cabin on 5 acres approximately 15 minutes from my original research area.
 It seemed almost instantly after moving in that we started having strange occurrences. With our home so secluded and extremely close to the research area I was already suspicious if we were going to have any activity there…

Our home during the winter...




 
For about a month before we actually moved in, I would make several trips a week by myself...each time bringing a full truckload of our belongings. Sometimes I wouldn’t get there until late in the evening.
The first occurrence I remember was around 11pm on a weeknight. I had been installing new window blinds for several hours and was about to leave when I heard a very loud screech owl calling right outside the house. I was standing in the window at the time and couldn’t see a thing outside as it was so dark. I finished up what I was doing, locked up and started toward my truck. At that moment I heard what sounded like a single cat "meow" come from up the hill in the woods. As I turned to look in that direction another single "meow" came from behind me down the hill. I turned to look down the hill and then heard another "meow" coming  from down the driveway! This went on for what seemed like over a minute. There were about 10 seconds between each "meow" and each time it came from a complete opposite direction. It felt like I was surrounded by cats in all directions. Right after the last "meow" which came from the direction of down the driveway there was a loud  "Whoooop!" that came from up on the hill. Suddenly I had a strong feeling I knew what was making these sounds and at the time I wasn’t too comfortable with it! I quickly got into my truck and left.
 
During the time we lived here, we had several gifts left for us. One of the oddest instances was a gift that was left in a fairly disturbing way. After moving in we decided to hide a key to the cabin outside somewhere for emergencies. I chose a small river rock to put the spare key under and set it beside a tree about 30 yards away from our front door. My wife and I were the only ones living there and the only ones that knew anything about this key. I made it a habit to always check to make sure it was still there whenever I would go around the property with the weedeater. Several weeks went by and each time I checked it would always be there. THEN one day something very odd happened. At the time, I had a small pile of firewood laying next to the tree where the rock and key were. On this particular day while weedeating,  I noticed the rock was missing, but the spare key was still laying where it had always been. After looking around for a few seconds I noticed the rock had been moved and placed on top of the wood pile! This blew my mind! All I could think about was WHO saw me put the key there?? My nearest neighbor was over 10 acres away and always kept to themselves, never coming around our home. If a person had done this it would only seem logical that they would keep the key and put the rock back so we wouldn’t notice.

The following pic was taken moments after I found the rock. You can see where "something" placed the rock in the wood pile. If you look closely you can also see our house key just as I had left it...where the tree and landscape timber meet. Only earlier, the rock had been on top of the key to hide it. 



Was someone messing with me? If so, I hadn’t the slightest idea who it could be. Whoever or "whatever" it was had to have been watching when I put the key there. That had me extremely concerned. Was it possibly the Bigfoot letting me know in some strange way that they were around?  I had no idea...until the gift showed up.
 
I immediately took the key up and from then on never kept one outside anymore. About one week later I was out in the yard and noticed something laying exactly where the spare key and rock were earlier. It was an old metal Skoal can lid! I’m not very familiar with snuff cans, but I’m pretty sure this style had not been produced in several years. Please feel free to inform me if you know what years this lid was produced. 

The "gift"


Wednesday, July 17, 2013

The "Expedition" Part 2

Exactly one month after my experiences on the hiking trail my buddy and I arrived for a three night stay. Camp was set up and we were ready to explore the area. We made our way down several nearby trails making plans for the next three nights. Prior to the camping trip I had looked online at a few Bigfoot researching sites and found a design for a basic call blaster. I researched a little bit further and was able to find and download a few supposed recordings of Bigfoot whoops, howls and primate screams. At the time I thought it was the best route to take in trying to lure one in. Fact of the matter was that I had no clue what these recordings were actually saying and probably were more offensive toward the local Bigfoot than anything else. If anything they possibly felt like a "stranger" was in the area and things could have turned ugly…who knows. I look back now and realize how disrespectful I was being. Needless to say, I no longer use call blasters nor do I make screams or howls myself. 


This link was my friend with the call blaster that weekend about a quarter of a mile away from me. He was down close to the creek area in the woods. I was at our campsite with my recorder going.




Campsite that weekend 



 
 
 
 
 
 
An abundance of water sources in this area.
 




 


That weekend was supposed to be the brightest full moon in over 20 years. Well, let me tell you it was definitely that… no need for flashlights at all. We were able to see quite well along the trails and surrounding areas at night. We tried several different calls on the call blaster the first night with no response at all.
The second day we hiked along the trail where I had the rock thrown at me only further back. Several times we even call blasted (during the day) along the trail with no response.
That night we tried a few call blast and wood knocks, but still no response. So far this trip had been completely Bigfoot free or so we thought.



The "20 Year" full moon coming over the mountains.




On our last day (day 3) we decided to just relax and build a fire. We wanted to enjoy what time we had left and just hang out. Around 11pm we were sitting by the fire talking when all of a sudden my friend said "Did you hear that?" I said "No, what is it?" He then said "I just heard what sounded like 3 wood knocks down by the creek. It sounded like someone chopping wood." I told him that I probably didn’t hear it because I was talking at the time when it happened. We both sat there completely quiet and listened for a few minutes when we heard another set of wood knocks coming from the opposite side of the campground. It sounded like it was answering the first set that my friend had heard. This time we both heard it! It was a little shocking, as we had heard absolutely nothing the entire trip until then.

We had already scanned the entire campground earlier and there were very few campers present as it was a Monday night, very late and most of the weekend campers had already left the day before.
We stayed put at the campsite listening and speaking very little. It was now about 12am and we were standing around the campfire. Right about then we heard 3-4 consecutive screams/howls from the direction of the first set of wood knocks down by the creek. We were at full attention by that time and decided to start walking up the road that headed in that general direction. We had walked about 50 yards when we saw up ahead what looked like a flashlight in the woods close to where the screams had came from. We slowly made our way toward the woods where we saw the light. Once we were about 20 yards away we could see that the light was actually the reflection of the full moon on a small sign by the road.

We stood there for a few minutes listening. All was extremely quiet. Suddenly we started seeing a very small reddish orange light moving around in the woods right across the road from where we were standing. It wasn't very far from the small sign that had been reflecting moonlight earlier. It was about 15 feet inside the treeline and was moving around. Side to side, up and down...
It first appeared like it was the glowing end of a cigarette that someone was lifting up to their mouth and back down (if that makes sense). After a minute or two it dawned on me that when a person inhales on a cigarette the end glows bright, but when they put it down the glow at the tip dies down. This wasn't the case. It was staying a constant bright orange/red color. Then it happened... it blinked. This was no cigarette. It was one single glowing eye. We could actually see the upper and lower eyelids slowly close together and then open back up. The eye was absolutely not lit up due to an outside lighting source, but emitting its own amber colored glow. There is most definitely a difference and anyone who has seen this phenomenon knows exactly what I mean. We froze and didn't quite know what to do. There was a moment when you could just tell that all parties involved knew we could see one another... very odd moment, almost like a stare down.

At this point my friend and I were more than slightly disturbed and very concerned for our safety thus we began to slowly back off, eventually loosing sight of the eye. We quickly returned to our campsite to discuss what had just happened. After about another hour we heard another fairly loud "whoop" from down toward the creek area. After this there was no more activity that night.

The next morning we went to where we had seen the eyes the night before. We had noticed that night that the subject appeared to be average human height (possibly 6 foot or so) when compared to where the road was. What we didn't know at the time was that once you step off the road and into the woods where the subject was, the ground drops down about 2 feet. This would have made the subject around 8 feet tall!
This was one of the first of many amazing trips indeed.

Tuesday, July 16, 2013

The "Expedition" Part 1

Part 1 of 2

I have a really good friend who at the time used to live in Texas. He now lives here in East Tennessee and occasionally goes with me on research outings. We've both always shared the same interest in Bigfoot so naturally he was one of the first that I talked to about the "whoop" experience on my Labor Day camping trip. Instantly, plans were made to have a multi-day camping trip/Bigfoot expedition ASAP.
We planned the trip for early spring, March 2011. About a month before the trip I decided to head out and scout the area as it had been some time since my first camping trip experience there. I took my digital recorder and a backpack walking a few of the trails and doing my best imitation of the "whoop" I had heard a few months earlier. Using a couple rocks I had picked up along the way, I made a few attempts at "rock clacking". Not very long after, I heard what sounded like a whoop not too far away.
I kept hiking and listening then decided to get off trail. I wanted to find a place to just sit and listen. While sitting there I made a few whoop calls, but received no response. After about an hour of sitting and listening, I decided to head on back as it was getting late. Just as I stepped out of the woods back onto the trail I started getting a very strong feeling that I was not alone and being watched. This was the first time I had ever felt anything like this. I know now to always pay attention to that feeling! It usually means they're close by and more than likely watching.
Not used to this feeling I picked up the pace headed back to my vehicle. About 15 seconds after I got back on the trail I heard something smack against a tree behind me. As I quickly spun around, I caught sight of a rock as it landed on the ground after hitting a tree right beside the trail about 10 feet behind me! This was a very secluded trail and I had not seen a single person all day so I was just a little caught off guard. Needless to say I didn't waste any time getting back to my vehicle.
It would be exactly one month later on our "expedition" before I would be out there again.
This would be the trip that sealed the deal for me as a believer and created a new desire to learn as much as possible about what I know now to be a highly inteligent people that need nothing from us. If we are to learn about and have any sort of relationship with them it will completely be due to their choosing. The more I learn it seems the less I know.

Part 2 of 2 soon to come...

 
Trail where the rock was thrown.




Click on this link to hear the "whoop" I recorded on this hike.
https://soundcloud.com/user-20625344/horse-trail-whoop


Click on this link to hear my experience with the rock hitting the tree on this hike.
I have just stepped out of the woods and back onto the gravel trail. As I start to head back to my vehicle you'll hear me say I have a weird feeling and need to get out of there.
At 19 seconds you'll hear the rock smack the tree. I go back to where the tree is and stop to look around before quickly heading back to my vehicle.
https://soundcloud.com/user-20625344/rock-throw

Wednesday, July 3, 2013

A day in the woods

I made a visit out to the gift exchange area yesterday after work and well, I must say it was an interesting trip. Although I've been to the night visiting area several times lately, it's been about three weeks since I've actually been back in the woods to check on my items. Due to family and friends visiting from out of state my schedule got a little thrown off. Starting today we're getting A LOT of rain through the weekend so I wanted to get on out there. 
I found several items moved or missing completely and heard movement around me while replenishing the exchange area.  We had come to the night visiting area the previous night (July 1st) and had left a pack of poptarts and an apple before we left. Yesterday (July 2nd) when I returned the food was gone and what looks like a footprint  was right next to it....

After the past two pinwheels I have left have been "disassembled", I thought I'd leave a much larger one. I returned to find it gone completely. I searched the entire area and couldn't find a trace of it anywhere...

Three weeks ago...

Yesterday...


A flowered necklace I hung on a limb 8 feet off the ground. 
Three weeks ago...


Yesterday... Notice the limb it was hanging on is snapped off. 


Oh, I like this one. A little ball I've been leaving in the middle of what looks to me like a small stick structure on the gift exchange log. 
Picture from three weeks ago...
Notice I had the ball wedged under a few sticks. 


Yesterday... The ball has been moved onto the ground at the opposite end of the log. 


The bottom of the above pictured stick structure is at the top of this picture. Notice the paints and a container I had full of peanuts on the ground that were on the log. 


These steps lead down to the picnic area that we visit at night. I had placed poptarts and an apple where you see my owl call laying. The footprint is at the bottom. 




Toe impressions...??


I do realize that it's possible a majority of things that I find could be from small animals or rodents getting into the food or "bumping" into the items, but coincidence just doesn't happen again and again... over and over. I don't know many animals that would pull a ball out from under sticks and move it 20 feet away. What animal would snap a limb off by pulling a flowered necklace down from 8 feet up (and then take it with them). What would take the pinwheel?? Coincidence after coincidence things start adding up...