Since I was a child I have loved the the song the Teddy Bear’s Picnic.

If you go out in the woods today
You’re sure of a big surprise.
If you go out in the woods today
You’d better go in disguise.

I have a few rules setup for myself when I am in the woods. # 1rule is that if I see or hear something unusual that I take it all in, remain calm and try to remember the details and enjoy the moment.

Yesterday, the 11th of June 2012 I was driving to a location to interview a witness. Since it was close to my main research area I planned on stopping and letting my dog exercise for a couple of hours. I got to the location around 08:15 and slowly walked through the woods.

This photo was taken last fall at the general location. As many areas of Central Illinois it is a mix of wooded streams and farm fields.

I was walking along a small dirt road and as I came to a corner that overlooks a four acre field I stopped to check out the field. There were three turkeys trotting across the far end of the field and I stopped to watch. As I did so just fifty feet in front of me along a small brush and tree line an orange solid colored five foot tall animal barely broke through the foliage and then leaped straight backwards into the brush.

The sighting lasted such a brief moment that I was unable to make out any definable shape. All I can say for sure it was about five feet tall and covered with long orangish hair. I got the impression that whatever this was, it was curious about what had spooked the turkeys and didn’t realize I was that close to it.

Belle was about 50 feet behind me and hadn’t come around the corner yet. The hair on this animal was about 5 inches long and not manicured looking. More of a scruffy or shaggy look to it. I don’t believe it was a deer.

I could have walked with Belle into the exact spot but I am in this for the long haul and do not want the locals to think I am aggressive. I know of two other daytime sightings at this same area. I have recorded lots of vocals here in the last seven and a half years.

This is the same location where a group of us last spring experienced unusual howls, possible infrasound and dirt throwing.

One common occurrence from people who believe they are having visits from sasquatch is gifts. This concept is not something new as it has been reported by witnesses for quite some time. We have lived in our present home for three years now.  I do occasionally record unusual sounds coming from the woods that surround our property. We have had no sightings or found any unusual footprints. I do make note of things that just seem a little odd or strange.

On the 30th of November, 2011 I found this tail from a skunk on our front porch. At the time I assumed our dog had brought it up from the woods although she did not have any skunk smell on her.

[ Skunk’s tail left on our front porch 3oth November, 2011]

Last year when we started having activity around our home my wife’s first comment was “Do not feed, I do not want them coming up around the house.”

On the 7th of May 2012 my wife told me how unusual it was, there were four rocks, the size of a quarter, placed in our wooden platform bird feeder. Every morning after her morning walk she pours a pint of sunflower seeds into the feeder for the birds and squirrels. Then she also remembers several times finding rocks up by the door. Each time she thought it odd.

[One of several rocks that have started appearing in our wooden bird feeder.]

Now, I make no claims as to what is bringing dead animal parts or rocks and placing them on our porch. I have not seen nor heard the culprit, it just is one of those thing that make you shake your head and say “that is odd”.

For sounds that I have recorded coming from near my back yard please see:

Voices In The Woods – Pt. 1

and

Voices In The Woods – Pt. 3

This Spring I have posted about possible sightings of sasquatch riding on trains:

Railroading Sasquatches and Railroading Saasquatches, Pt. 2.

Until my experience on the 28th of March, 2012 I had never heard of or even considered the possibility of a sasquatch hitching a ride on a railroad.  As soon as my encounter was known I was contacted by a Facebook friend that stated he also had a possible sighting.

This week I was again contacted by a Facebook friend to say that he had a sighting.

From Curt Everson

I lived in eagan, minnesota 2001-2005. It is a suburb of Minneapolis, just south of the Minnesota river, Mississippi river confluence. There is a huge swamp/forrested game preserve along the Minnesota river with one train track running through it that I walked on quite frequently. One day I was walking, and a train was passing, so I got off to the side and watched it pass. Near the end of the train, I saw what I thought was an orangutang(sp?) riding between the last two cars. Weird?? Why would someone let their pet monkey ride un attended, untied there?

This was long before I had an interest in BF, and it didn’t even cross my mind until this story came out. Google earth the area, hwy77 and cr#13 in eagan, mn. If you’re interested.

Google Earth photo showing the railroad tracks mentioned by the witness that run SW – NE through the area of Eagan, Minnesota.

Is has been known for a long time that sasquatches are sighted around railroad lines. It has often been thought that they use the right-of-way as an easy access point when traveling from area to area, similar to clear cuts for power lines. There have also been sightings along abandoned rail-lines that have been converted to bicycle and hiking paths.

Last fall I was contacted by a researcher from Southern Illinois about the many sightings he had experienced. Mike related that most of his sightings were early spring just before the leaves were on the trees while he was out mushrooming. So we planned to meet up in the spring. On the 28th of March 2012 I met up with Mike at his home and headed for the woods. We stopped at one of the many railroad crossings because he had had several sightings along the tracks just south of the crossing. The latest being just four weeks ago.

We arrived around 09:30 and walked several hundred yards south along the tracks. Mike showed and explained to me the details of his sighting.

While there Mike was adamant that the sasquatch were hopping rides on the trains. I was somewhat taken aback by the idea. I had never read of a report or knew of anyone who actually had seen a sasquatch riding on a rail-car. The whole idea seemed a little bit unbelievable to me. I asked Mike why he believed that, had he witnessed that happening? He said no, but the way he had seen the sasquatch kind of standing around on this one section of track just gave him the idea, it was just “a theory he had.”

Yellow highlight showing the location of Jackson County, Illinois

As we were walking back to the car a northbound train started approaching.

One of my first loves (perhaps next to birds) has always been trains. And yes I am fortunately old enough to remember the last of the steam engines of the ’50’s. In fact the movie Heartbreak Pass was filmed in the small town in Idaho where I grew up. But I digress.

As the train was approaching I positioned myself so that I could get as close as possible but still be out of danger. I wanted to take in all the sounds and feel of this wonderful machine as it passed by. As it passed, Mike yelled for me to look north at each coupling area and he would look south so if anything or anyone was riding there we could see them from two different angles.

[The woods directly behind the railroad tracks where the train was passing.]

It was one of those trains carrying large cargo carriers, double-decker style. It was travelling at perhaps 30 mph. In between each car is a good size area. About half way through the train I saw a very large hair covered animal sitting down with its back towards the container. I only could see it for a couple of seconds and then it was gone.

I was in shock and awe. It was almost surreal. It did not look at all like Patty from the Patterson-Gimlin Film. This had five inch long dark brown hair covering it down to where I could see, it’s waist. I couldn’t make out any facial details and it was looking down and not directly towards me.

As I always audio record when I am in the woods I did record our conversation as the train passed and my reactions.

Click here to listen to this sound clip:  Railroading Sasquatch

I will be traveling back to the location this next week to take a few measurements and to film another passing train. Hopefully I can do a reenactment and at least give readers an idea of what the train looked like as it passed. I won’t hold my breath on catching on film any extra riders.

This sighting has left me with more questions than answers. In my mind sasquatch (or at least one) do ride on trains. Why? Is this just some daredevil stunt by a teenage sasquatch or is this a pattern of something much larger? Is this just a local 1/2 mile hitch or are they traveling greater distances? It does show one thing for sure. Their intelligence and abilities are far higher than many having been willing to admit.