Bigfoot Tracking
Date: 07-Aug-01
Colorado Bowhunters,
This information is just to help any of you that want to do a little bigfoot tracking for yourself. Most of you might not be interested, so just ignore this post and move on to something else. Nobody said anyone has to read posts they are not interested in. This post is very relevant to bowhunting because bowhunters are the ones encountering the animal involved most often. Guess we are stealthier and in the right places more than the general public which increases our chances of viewing rare wildlife.
After some recent incidents, some at CDOW are a little more open to the idea that there is something running around Colorado that makes huge tracks. In January 2001 a coyote hunter found a line of really huge tracks with a step length of 50 to 60 inches in an area where no one had been for over two weeks. This occurred near the road that leads in toward the west edge of the Lost Creek Wilderness (about 5 miles west of Monkey Creek). Somewhere in that area just outside the west edge of that wilderness is something huge. The coyote hunter followed them for nearly 1/2 mile before giving up the tracking because the snow was too deep and tiring to walk in. In any event, that animal will likely be in that general area again this winter and may be there right now. When the snow is on, about anyone should be able to find some tracks there somewhere to follow. Anyone with a snowmobile might be able to get close enough to it to get some good video. The reason I am writing this is that I may have some funding in the near future to send a good hunter or two into the area to recon, find tracks and track down one of the buggers. Any good clear film of the animal itself should result in $ of at least 6 figures if you want to go for it yourself. Does not matter to me, as I am not after $, but just want to solve the mystery.
That area is very near to where a Colorado bowhunting guide bugled in a large male bigfoot while bowhunting for elk and had a 30 yard distant daytime viewing of it. That bigfoot evidently thought the guide was a bull elk bugling and moved in on him to the surprise of both of them.
About 40 miles to the southeast of that location is where yet another Colorado bowhunting guide, Jeff Dysinger, a fellow guide and 6 clients had a bigfoot cross in front of them while they were packing out of the Raspberry Mountain area on horseback in 1998, and where Dysinger again saw one by a beaver pond in 1999 while bowhunting there. We think the bigfoot involved near Raspberry Mountain thought that Dysingers party was a herd of elk moving down the trail and was waiting beside the trail to waylay the elk, only moving off when it realized its mistake. All of them saw it from close range as it walked across the trail and away. When Dysinger saw it again in 1999, he got to watch it for about 10 minutes as it messed around near the beaver pond in the open. In any event, these creatures seem to hang around the elk and so elk bowhunters should stay alert in those areas for bigfoot or its sign.
Other areas with recent bigfoot sightings and track finds in Colorado are in the San Juans in and near the north edge of the South San Juan Wilderness. That particular area definitely has more than one of them as you will sometimes hear them calling back and forth there when they are hunting and several people have seen more than one of them at a time there traveling together. This is also near the area where officer Joe Taylor Jr video taped two sets of tracks in 1993. For snow tracking the bigfoot there in winter the bigfoot seem to follow the elk out to lower elevation, so wherever the large herds of elk go, that is where to look for bigfoot tracks in snow. Another area to look for bigfoot during archery season is down south of Silverton in the Twin Sisters Peak area or along timberline in forested areas east of Silverton about 40 miles as we get sightings from bowhunters there. I am not sure where these go in winter, but I think it is just to the south at lower elevation. Wherever the elk winter in that area I suspect there will be one or more bigfoot casing the larger winter herds, so that would be where to look for tracks in winter.
We did get tracks documented from the Gypsum/Eagle area last spring, but few sightings come from there anymore. Used to be lots of sightings from that general area in the 1960’s and 1970’s, but there are evidently few left there. The tracks from last spring there were investigated by the local CDOW biologist Bill Heicher and the Eagle County Sheriff Department and tagged by both as “real tracks”, “not fakes” and “not bear”. Those tracks were 19 inches long and over 9 inches across the toes. Several professional anatomists and tracking experts also tagged those tracks as real. Though there don’t seem to be many left in that general area, one might find tracks in snow in or near the lower elevations of the Flat Tops Wilderness where elk winter. I just mention this for those who frequent or live in that area.
There also seem to be a few in the northeast portion and just outside the Southern Ute Reservation for those that live in that area. A local hunting guide there had a sighting too, along with some other hunters through the years. This bigfoot or bigfoots may be associated with the ones in the SSJWilderness, as it is not too far away.
As you all know, finding tracks of bear or other soft footed animals in areas with no snow is rare in Colorado because of the rocky soils and pine needles, but when the snow is on the tracking is easier. You bowhunters that live in Colorado and hunt in snow in those areas mentioned have a chance to solve a mystery that has been going on for hundreds of years. If you find tracks and don’t have time to track down the bugger and get you film of one of them, let me know asap at kfoster@gcnet.com or call CDOW or your local Sheriff Department immediately so they can attempt to track it down. There are just not very many bigfoot in Colorado, and so finding even tracks is a rare thing, but it happens more often than most realize. Some day you might find some yourself as I have. I spent over 300 days in the SSJWilderness before finding my first set of bigfoot tracks to give you an idea of how rare even tracks are, but they are there to be found nonetheless. During those bowhunting years I took over 20 deer with a bow, 5 or which are Pope and Young Qualifying mule deer, to give you some idea of my wildlife experience. I have done a lot of tracking of many species, having bowhunted for elk, bear, moose, deer and antelope. Bigfoot tracks are real, and real huge, I can tell you from experience. I know 4 professional Colorado hunting guides who have seen them, and 3 more that have cut their tracks in Colorado. These 7 experienced outdoorsmen all describe the same exact kind of animal and the same kind of tracks. These 7 are not the only ones seeing these things or finding tracks either, as many bowhunters and rifle hunters have reported the same thing through the years in the same areas where the guides had their encounters with the impossible.
Bigfoot may be impossible, but it is seen regularly and tracked often in the areas mentioned by professionals and nonprofessionals alike. Go there and see for yourself some tracks that defy logic or see an animal that can’t possibly really exist. You won’t see bigfoot or its sign in the city, but in some locations in Colorado your chances are better than most.
You might want to be a little slow to ridicule this subject because we may have some real definitive proof coming soon that we already have on hand awaiting test. As Albert Einstein said “The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science.” Help us find the answers to this mystery for the sake of science. I need other old bowhunters with wildlife experience to be on the alert for this creature of mystery. To quote an old 1880 Leadville Evening Chronicle article……”so many area miners and hunters have seen this creature that the existance of this wonder of the natural sciences can no longer be denied”. That old Colorado newspaper statement still applies today, 120 years later.
It is about time we put this mystery to rest while a few of them still roam the Colorado forests. You guys find the tracks in snow and I will see if I can get it tracked down to its source if you don’t want to try yourself. They have huge lungs, long legs and can walk fast and walk for long periods, so you will need to have at least a snowmobile to have any hope of catching up, or you can go along quiet and hope it laid down to rest so you can catch up to it. These things don’t seem to be interested in killing people, but one should remember that they can kill a full grown elk when they want to and so some caution is called for. I would try to avoid making one mad at you or be well armed if you do. We are talking about an animal the size and weight of a polar bear when they are full grown. Following one in snow could be dangerous so be prepared to protect yourself. It may rush at you and scream at you if it sees you following, but most all charges will be a bluff, just as gorillas bluff charge. Get it on film as you back away and everything should be okay.
The tracks will be out there waiting for you this winter. When you personally find a set and follow them, you will see what I have been talking about. Hopefully you will get to see the maker of the tracks too. If you get a good clear film of a large male bigfoot in its full glory and size, you will certainly retire a very wealthy individual. If you do get the film, be sure to take video of humans of known height in the same exact location and from the same place where the filming was done for comparisons later.
Keith Foster
Date: 07-Aug-01
beartr, there is a hunting guide in Ignacio that had a sighting and knows a good area east to the Reservation where he has guided elk hunters for years. I don’t have his permission to give out his name, but I can give it to you and he can tell you where to go. If you want it, send me an email.
JDM, I can’t say too much about the evidence in hand yet because I don’t want to get the persons involved in trouble with their superiors. It involves two biologists from Wyoming Game and Fish, one of which is retiring soon and will release the information upon retirement hopefully. They have both seen these animals and one of them ran one through a barb wire fence and collected hairs afterward while they were documenting the tracks. Hopefully the hairs will result in some positive mitochondrial DNA tests that we can compare to other species. Even though one of them is a senior biologist, evidently his superiors have kept him from getting the proper analysis of the samples for several years. Fear of ridicule keeps this stuff out of the public eye for the most part. Only one of the many guides I mentioned with sightings from Colorado has allowed his name to go public, which is the fault of people that only know how to joke about this subject because they are so certain that the animal can not exist even though they have not studied this at all. There are over 4000 cougars in Colorado yet they are rarely seen or tracks found, and there may be only a dozen or two sasquatch left in the entire state to leave tracks or be seen. Such a rare creature is a rare sight indeed. Sightings have remained fairly constant during the last 40 years in Colorado, in spite of more people out there to see them or find tracks, so they must be getting rarer each year. Soon the sightings and the tracks will stop.
It is very selfish to think your hunting will be shut down to protect a rare species. CDOW already hid the last of the Colorado grizzlies from the EPA/USFWS to keep hunting and grazing open in the SSJWilderness and adjacent areas, so it is pretty safe to say that CDOW would trash any evidence of bigfoot that might come into their hands. The wildlife lived there first and are worth some protection aren’t they? My sighting maps show that there are several areas involved and so no one area will have to be shut down if the creatures are confirmed to exist. Yes, an area might be shut down if no one has my research to show that more than one area is involved, so hopefully the biologists will look at my research and realize that no shut down of hunting will be needed. Actually my current research will keep your hunting areas open if bigfoot is confirmed to exist, rather than the opposite. What is needed will be more preservation of winter habitat for not only the bigfoot, but also the elk they depend on. If you have not noticed, housing developments are swallowing up winter elk habitat faster than ever right now in Colorado. Pretty soon houses will gobble up all the lower elevation elk grazing areas and cut into your elk herds over time. Private lower elevation ranchlands are becoming housing developments rather than grazing land for wintering elk. Colorado is fine with high elevation summer habitat, but elk can only survive the weakest link which is the winter habitat areas that are disappearing. On your drive to your elk hunting areas this fall, just notice how many houses have gone up in areas that used to be only meadows and pastures only a few years ago. It is up to Colorado people to start something that will preserve this habitat for wildlife. Hunters should be friends of wildlife, not just worried about their hunting. I have bowhunted big game for almost 30 years now, in many western states, and my contact with wildlife has made me conservation and habitat minded. Look for the weak habitat links in your area and point them out to officials before it is too late. Help the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation buy more winter habitat next to higher elevation summer habitat. This is what the elk and the bigfoot need. It is hard for an elk to winter graze on asphalt, curbs and gutters. Hunting will only be preserved if there is something left out there to hunt in the future. Don’t worry about hunting, but rather start worrying about wildlife and wildlife habitat, so we can continue to hunt. I am willing to skip a year or two of elk hunting to preserve them and another species.
Why do we bowhunt? To enjoy nature? To get away from the crowds? To take up a challange? To get cheap meat? Elk meat is very expensive when you consider how much you spend on equipment, travel and time to bow kill one of them, so it must mostly be the challange and the enjoyment of wildlife that we are after. If it is the challange and the enjoyment of wildlife you are after, why not hunt bigfoot with a camcorder. No permit fees required and no closed seasons. Bigfoot is certainly the most challanging species out there to hunt, and the enjoyment of other wildlife and nature is the same as with any other hunting. The only difference is that you have to buy beef at home to eat, which is much cheaper than wild game in the long run anyway. I like to bowhunt as much as the next guy. In fact I love bowhunting, love wild meat to eat and antlers on the wall, but that is not why I bowhunt. I bowhunt because it is simply fun and a challange. Bigfoot chasing is also a blast and a challange. One of the biggest wildlife challanges I have ever pursued in fact. If you didn’t get that elk permit you were hoping for, go after bigfoot this fall and winter with a camcorder instead. If you happen to succeed, you can go brown bear hunting in Kamchatka every year right after your annual Marco Polo Sheep hunts with proceeds from the film. I have already done your scouting for you and told you where to go hunting for it. I can also tell you that they are attracted to cow elk and calf elk sounds, hoof sounds of elk or horses traveling along. They are attracted to even penny whistle sounds because they evidently think it is an elk sound sometimes. Dysinger, another guide and six client on horseback all traveling along made a bunch of noise and yet encountered a bigfoot from only 25 feet away. This was no accident. That bigfoot heard them coming for sure, and was waiting for them beside the trail. Why? Well, it thought a herd of elk was coming down the trail and was surprised as Dysinger and crew when they met. Why did the bigfoot come to the elk bugles and cow talk sounds of Colorado hunting guide W.E.?
Now you know where the bigfoot are and you know what they are out there doing, and this should help you have a better chance of success. If you don’t believe in bigfoot, go into one of the specific areas I mentioned at night and squeal away with cow and calf elk sounds and see what eventually shows up. If enough of us do this, one of us will have a kind of scary experience with something very large that is not supposed to exist and if you get it all on film you will have it made.
If nothing else, at least maybe we took some time to consider wildlife, consider habitat, and consider why we bowhunt. I think bowhunting goes way beyond just killing something with an arrow. That is almost an anticlimax to my hunts. Many times I have been sorry I harvested even a trophy animal, as I was not ready for the hunt to end yet. Some of you other long time bowhunters know what I am talking about. It is the experience that counts, not the kill.
Date: 08-Aug-01
It constantly amazes me how many professional outdoorsmen report seeing these bigfoot and that their descriptions exactly match each other. Even before there was any media attention to the creature, people were seeing and reporting the same thing. Sometimes the color is a little different, ranging from black to a chocolate or reddish brown, but besides that the descriptions are the same. Sometimes a really large bigfoot will be described as silvered or whitish, which may be a result of graying similar to how humans and gorillas get gray or white haired with age. When Dysinger sat and watched one next to that beaver pond in 1999 through binoculars, he could even see how its hands were kind of longer than expected through the palm, and that its nose seemed low down toward its mouth. The face was very gorilla like, but the body was like a very muscular man in proportion. Many are really impressed with the immense shoulder structure and how deep the chest is built. They seem to be very round through the chest, whereas humans have more of an oval chest. Because of this they might be very good at getting oxygen to the lungs and thus be able to really cover some ground while walking. I think of bigfoot as a huge super-oxygen-charged human-like hiker, which is why I think it would be almost useless to try to track one down on foot even in fresh snow. It might ge worth a try though if one could track quietly and hope the bigfoot had laid down to rest nearby. Anyone who tried to find tracks in the snow in the areas I mentioned, especially from Pikes Peak up to the Lost Creek Wilderness, could find some if they looked around enough. Many sets are found every winter by snowmobilers, cross country skiers and 4wheel drivers along the backcountry roads or trails. Finding a set might be no problem, but tracking one down would be very tough. I thought about using a helicopter, but it is so dangerous to fly helicopters in that country that no pilot will take me in anything but a really big chopper that costs too much to rent. Maybe some day I will get to do that anyway and film one from the air.
If anyone comes across a set of tracks in snow, let me know asap. You will know a set of sasquatch tracks when you see them up close.
Date: 09-Aug-01
Good Luck WOLVES. Hope you get a bigfoot to come in to your elk bugling and cow talk. There are at least two mature male bigfoot in the Conejos drainage area somewhere if tracks are any indication of size. A local law officer got video of their tracks in 1993 (19 and 20 inches long respectively) and I suppose they may still be around. If you get one of them on film you will have it made. Will make Shaq O’Neal look like a toddler. If you hear unusual sounds, record those with your camcorder even if you can’t see anything. 17 and 15 inch tracks have been found on the Lake Fork drainage and Rito Gato drainage just off the Conejos in the last 10 years. There was a sighting in the Wiminueche Wilderness last year, and a few sightings over near Silverton in the last few years. A long history of sightings just outside the east edge of the Southern Ute Reservation in the more remote areas there at higher elevations. Bigfoot seem to like the more secluded areas, so the farther from roads or trails you get, the better your chance probably. That is where the elk end up too, after the hunting action starts.
There are so few of them evidently that your chances of encounter are about nil. There are likely fewer than 1 bigfoot for every 30 cougars and you will likely not even see one wild cougar while hunting the San Juans. If you do see 30 different wild cougars, then you might see a bigfoot by odds catching up to you. I have spent over 500 days in the San Juans backpacking, hiking, fishing and bowhunting and have not seen a cougar or a bigfoot there. But, I have found bigfoot tracks there. Hopefully you will too. If you do, document them best you can and let me know. Odds are, you will never have any indication that cougars or bigfoot are around, but that does not mean they are not close by.
Have fun and watch out for the greatest danger there, which is lightning.
