Searching the Gifford Pinchot for Sasquatch | Washington

0:00 Welcome to big for Society. If you have Bigfoot activity to report from the same areas discussed in this episode, please reach out to me directly after this episode. And if you'd like to be on the podcast to discuss a personal Bigfoot encounter, please reach out to me directly at Bigfoot Society at gmail dot com. Do you wish there was more big for Society to listen to you every week? Well there is now. If you become a supporting member over at Patreon, you get a special members only episode every single week on Wednesdays, and sometimes even more episodes. Head on over to patreon dot com. Forward slash the Bigfoot Society and now let's get on with the show. Three to one.

0:40 All right, Bigfoot Society. I've got the privilege of talking to Steve today. Steve's an individual from Vancouver, Washington. He's a bigfoot researcher out there, and I'm a big fan of Steve's YouTube channel, Steve Searches. I kind of ran into it. I believe in one of the Bigfoot Men. Any Bigfoot Facebook groups, I'm in Sweet Home one. But Steve, it's a privilege to have you on the show today. How's it going man. Good, thank you, thank you for having me on. You know, your channel is so awesome because you can go into that Gifford, Pinchot, Mount Saint Helen's area.

1:23 Correct, Yes, yeah, it's I mean I've I go to a few places, other places here and there, but that's as a general rule, that's pretty much where I operate is on the south side of Mount Saint Helen's in the Gifford Bencho. That's awesome. You know, Steve, Before we get headed too far, do you mind sharing with the listeners what it was that first got you into the Bigfoot subject and research to begin with. Oh yeah, sure, Well, I think probably, like a lot of researchers, that was probably something started when I was a kid. There was a there was a movie that that had come out when I was in grade school.

2:08 It was called The Legend of Boggie Creek, and I think that kind of got a lot of a lot of people started. But then of course over the years it was really just sort of like it just really I guess more of an interest and it really really became a serious subject to me, just maybe in this last few years involved in missing persons, helping with missing persons cases, back in about twenty ten, and I also I'm also a drafter by trade. In my first few years as a young drafter, I was a map maker, and that was sort of a skill that I had that later on led me into helping out with missing persons.

2:57 Well then, I guess it was. It must have been about twenty twelve or so. I was with a group and somebody had said, oh, we should we should get a we should get one of those drones, and I kind of thought about that for a while, and a few years ago I had I had started purchasing drones because I started using those in in map making. Well anyhow, anyhow, going back to about it must have been about two thousand and eight, two thousand and nine, I had an experience up well, up in Mount Saint An. It's up by eight Cave where I was hig on the trail and there's a there's a trail that goes from the main entrance to to what there's there's a smaller entrance which is actually at that at the very end of Epe Cave, which course is not actually a cave, it's a lava tube. And it was on that trail. It must have been it must have been about April. About March or April, the snow is just clearing out up there, and and it was I found this. It was it wasn't a clear cut it was just sort of like this big open area where there was some bunch of lava rock and stuff. It's people that have been on the trail and where it's at. And I was standing out there one time, and it must have been about

4:29 maybe seven eight in the morning, and and I had been up there a lot of times, and it was there was something really different about it, and it was that there was no sound up there. I was just standing there and all of the forest creatures just went quiet. So I'm standing there and I was by myself, and I thought, wow, you know, this is pretty weird. And I smelt something really kind of rancid, and you know, sometimes, you know, people talk about how they get that feeling they've been being that they're being watched, and this was really that time. And I just kept thinking, there's there's something behind that tree line. And I never really took the sasquatch stuff that seriously before up until that moment, So that kind of stuck with me for a few years, and I started going back up there to see if I could figure out what that what that was and then yeah, then then it must have been about maybe four years ago, three or four years ago somebody had I had been contacted by some local researches and they had they had seen some of my maps and they

6:03 had asked if I would go and drone some areas to help them look for bigfoot. It was there was a small bigfoot group that was out of Woodland, and so I said, yeah, sure, and so I kind of and I started getting involved with that. Then I just started going out then on my own. So I started I started Steve Searches about a year ago, and that was that was something that I wanted to Originally I put it together for to kind of keep track and in showcase some of the work that I was doing with miss with missing persons cases. In fact, there was a case that I was working in Boise a couple of years ago, and I had put this blog together to kind of to keep track of all of the mapping and stuff that we were doing on that, and it just it's sort of Steve Searches sort of sort of just became more every bigfoot research project and it's just kind of gone from there. You know. It was about I think it was last spring of last year.

7:17 Then I had gotten in contact with Michelle Att with the Sweet Home, the Sweet Home Sasquatch Research Group in her group, and I started we began collaborating last spring. So we've had quite a few outings, not only down in their area, but up in Mount Saint Helens. Listeners are where Sweet Home is going to be down the Lammett National Forest down in Oregon. So you guys were going back and forth between the two areas. It sounds like, yeah, well I went down there. I went down there for a few of the functions that they had for the group. In fact, we had I think the first function that we had was a camp out with a bunch of us down there. That was like that was like back in April. But then since then, they they've had members that have come up here and we've gone out, We've gone on outings in the in the area where that I work. It's sort of a collaboration that that we started. But yeah, we've had we've had a couple of experiences up there through through muster.

8:29 Been in about June, June and July we've heard things like rock clacking, rocks clacking early in the mornings. And I at one time had a creature that came into my camp and hung around my cant probably for beginning, must have been about early evening on into well into the morning the next day. And that that ended up with with it throwing limbs and stuff across the road right down from my camp. That was one experience that we had up there. But yeah, I mean that's that's pretty much the gist of it.

9:12 Oh wow, So that that encounter happened in Gifford Pinchot then. Yes, yeah, in fact it was. I have a main camp that that said, I frequent. I call it the main camp because it's when I go to the most. It's up in sort of an area just above eight Cave. It's right about between that area between eight Cave and eight Valley is a lot of I spent a lot of time up there last year. I probably will again this next year, especially because of that encounter. So the time that you had something walking around your campsite, how how close do you think they were getting to your tent at that time?

9:56 Oh? It came right up to the tent really, Yeah, Yeah, it was pretty weird. It was must have been on must have been on a Friday. I had gone up there, and I had spent the afternoon setting up. I had set some trail cans up, and then I think I must have knocked off it about it must have been six thirty seven that night, and I went, I said, I set camp up. And it was after i'd set the camp up, I was sitting and working on some videos and stuff, and I heard what sounded like a tree fall, and I thought, oh, that's kind of weird. And you know, how often are you out in the woods and just all of a sudden the tree falls.

10:41 And really I didn't really think too much of it. In fact, I was I had been texting Michelle with the Sweet Home group. I'd been texting her some photos of the camp and stuff, and I had text her and my toy. Yeah, that's kind of some kind of weird that a tree foul, Or at least that's what I said. It sounded like it came. See that camp has sort of like a little little road that goes into it. It's not on the road, but you can see down the road probably one hundred yards, and that's where it sounded like it came from I'm standing out fast forward the clock I woke up about. I think it was must have been about one thirty in the morning, which is pretty common for me and I and I don't know what woke me up, but I thought, well, hackened, Well, I'm up as working some video that we took the laptop and working videos and stuff, and so it must have been about an hour later, it was about two thirty.

11:41 I heard something walking around in my camp and it was kind of peculiar because the ground in this camp it's sort of it's it's kind of flat, and it's packed and it always has so I was covered with needles and leaves and stuff from the fallout. And but it didn't sound like you know, when you spend enough time out in the woods and you hear things walking around, it sound like something that had This is what caught me word about it was was it didn't sound like something that had hooks. It just sounded like somebody barefoot walking around because you could just barely hear, you know, like a like a footpad coming onto the ground. And I thought, well, that's okay. So then I just kind of kind of sat there and I thought, well, listen to it for a little bit and see what it does.

12:38 And it would it would take a few steps, and it would stop, and it would take a few steps and stop. And then I had to thinking. And you know, I didn't think really at first about it being a sasquatch. I was thinking more in the minds of because I usually backed my truck up to the camp and I put my tailgate down. I use that for a camp table, and I have these plastic tubs that I usually keep on my food in and I remember I left the tailgate down, and I thought, well, maybe it might be a deer out there, a porcupine or something getting into and then I thought, well, I probably should run it off, something about running it off. And then I hear this kind of crackling noise, and it dawned on me that the crackling noise that I was hearing it was the cheap tarp that I always put my tent on to protect the bottom of it. So whatever it was was stepping right on that few inches of tarp that was sticking out, and I thought, oh, wow, it's right up to the tent. So I just sat there and listened to it for maybe fifteen twenty seconds then, so then I made that and I thought at that time, I was still thinking maybe it might have been raccoon or something.

14:00 But whatever it was was had to been pretty heavy to be stepping and making that crackling noise. So I made a hissing sound like you know, like you know, like when you shoe off a cat. And then it was quiet, and then I yelled at it. I yelled a get and then it just stayed quiet. So I sat there for a little while and then I just looked out there and there was nothing out there. So whatever it was, whatever was left. So that was about by that time, it was probably about three o'clock anyhow, So fast forward the clock again to about it must have been about maybe six thirty six forty five, and I had woke up, and I thought I decided that I was just going to go ahead and pack up camp.

14:48 Big for a society who will be right back after these messages. Anyhow, I was pulling out anyhow that day, but I wanted to check those trail camps for those trail cams were really quick on my way out. So I was here, I was packing my camp and I kept hearing what sounded like like limbs snapping, like something breaking limbs, and I kept looking down the road because it was coming from that same spot that it was coming from, the same spot where I thought I heard the tree fall.

15:42 By this time, it was starting to get kind of weird, and so I just kept packing up the camp. And then I heard it again. And then right about the time I had everything in the back, I heard it a third time. This time I had walked around the truck and I was standing there and I was looking down the road where that where that sound was coming from, and there was a big limb went flying across the road down there, and it was probably, yeah, it was probably maybe a hundred yards down. I went back there, Actually I went back there. It must have been that next weekend. I went back there with the video camera and I did sort of a step by step. But I haven't finished put that video out yet, but I probably will do that here this next week or two.

16:33 So I see this limb go flying across the across the road, and of course, obviously, I mean, what kind of an animal throw breaks limbs and throws them across the road. So I decided, well, maybe that was going to be a good time to get out of there, because I was packed up anyhow. So I got my truck and then I just kind of creeped down the road and I was actually kind of I was kind of I was kind of nervous about it because as I was going down the road, I mean, this this little road, there's only one way in, one way out, and that's the road. So I was half expecting to get you know, like a long log or a limb or something like that on the trock. I had my GoPro going at the same time, but then nothing happened.

17:23 So I just I got out, got to the end of the road that went up the road to this uh place where this clear cut was where I had set these game cams up, and I got out, and I thought, well, check these game cams quick, and I was all the all the all the time, I was still looking sort of like over my shoulder back to where I'd just come from. And as I was walking out to check those game cams, I could still hear it breaking limbs, but it was staying right inside of the tree line, but it was following where I was going. So I just decided that I'm gonna I'm gonna wrap this one up. So that was yeah, that was in there must have been a mountain mid July.

18:12 Oh wow, so justice just this summer, just a few months ago. Oh man? Yeah, did you have any time to it sounded like you you started to pack up camp pretty quick. Did you have any time to look around and see if there were any tracks or anything weird like that inside camp? Well, I went up there, of course, I went up there. It must have been about five days later. But I go up there all the time, especially in the summer. I'm up there probably twice a week, at least least every weekend. And I had gone up there. But see, it's kind of the way I need to put that video out because it explains a little bit better. But when when you and you know a lot of these places in the different pinch Old when you go out you're walking around in the woods in there, you know you're you're walking on layers and layers and layers of of needles and such. So you don't really get much for prints in most of these places there. I mean, things can be walking around. I mean unless it's you know, you can you can find prints a lot more a lot easier of things right there. Now you know, of course obviously because they have hooks, but you know, something with flat feet won't make much for prints up there.

19:31 But so I went back and I've come through that area where the limbs were being thrown around, and of course up there you can't there's there's so many limbs laying around back there you can tell one from another. But there were definitely freshly snapped limbs there in that area. But that was the same That was the same area. In fact, that was the same campsite that only a few weeks early here Michelle from the I mean a couple of the other members from the Sweet Home Group. That's that was that same camp spot where we heard the rocks clacking. That was pretty weird too. It was it was Michelle and Sarah and Derek from from the Sweet Home Group. They had gone up there, and it was it was the morning after the first night up there.

20:24 And see that that camp is only a couple hundred yards from there's a creek down there. It's kind of down the hill from where the camp is. Michelle and I had it must have been about six in the morning and we were up and we were just sitting there bs and I was making coffee. We kept hearing these rocks clacking, and she was telling me this this funny story, and I don't remember what it was about, but this went on for probably ten minutes, and then I asked her, you know, do you hear the do you have rocks clicking together? And she's like, yeah, yeah. So we got up and so we sat there and we listened to it for a minute or two, and then we kept hearing it, kept hearing it, and this was coming from the creek area. And this cricket course is, like I said, it's downhill, so it's it's not within line of sight, and plus, you know, you get noise from the water moving, so these rocks clacking together would have had to have been some pretty big rocks for us to hear it like that. So we got up and we walked over and right about the time we got to the top of the hill to where you could you could kind of start to look down and see the creek, it stopped. And we hung around there for probably twenty minutes, walked up and down the trail there, but it never shut up again. So yeah, the as I understand it, the only the only animal that really

21:59 clasp X rocks together like that are I think they're a ranking at least according to what but I find online. But yeah, and that that was the same that was same camp, same campsite. That's so extremely interesting that you would say that around about the Orangutans, because more than a few of the accounts that I take there, it's usually described with some features like in Orangutan. Have you ever heard anything like that up up where you're at in the Pacific Northwest where what people are seeing is kind of has features like in Orangutan? Or is it something else completely different?

22:45 Well, I have heard, I have heard a lot of there's I've heard a lot of people that have been up around here that have said the same thing. They heard rocks clacking, So that that seems to be pretty common for this for this area, seems to be pretty common for Pinch, for the different pincho Is rocks clacking other areas. I'm not really sure, But the kind of the gist that I get is I think that I'm just kind of going out on the land because I don't really know. But but it seems to me that different areas that the populations in different areas almost have maybe their own culture or they have kind of similar habits because I've known you know, when you see these other groups that are and you know, like on the East Coast and the Midwest, and they do a lot of things like gifting stations and stuff, and people people are saying that they like live with them and make friends with them stuff. And then but the most Helen's brand of Sasquatch, they seem to be kind of island.

24:00 I mean there there, there's these you know, it's like the stories of those gold miners that were up there in the valley that got ran out of the cabin was it? I think it was back in the thirties, And it seems like a lot of the the lot of the interactions and them in around a different pincho. They seem like a squad ship there. They don't really seem to be big fans of humans. So that's interesting. You're referring to the Ape Canyon attack of nineteen twenty four, right, yeah, right, perfect, Yeah, about I mean one hundred years, Well, no, we're past one hundred years now, because it's generally one hundred and one years, it's.

24:45 One years, yeah, yeah, yeah, And of course as the crow Flies where where I operating, where it's where my main camp is as the crow Flies, it's like maybe four miles five miles from there. Oh that's interesting, Okay, wow. So yeah, I mean that's it's all in that. It's all in that that area. Now, are there any other things that you've heard about Gifford Pinchot that would make you think that potentially the Sasquatch that are in this area are violent besides the Ape Canyon account?

25:26 Well, you know, I don't, I don't. I think for the most part when I'm when I comes to mind is is really it's just a lot of the scuttle but that you see on social media and when I when I share these accounts on say like like when I share on Facebook, or the comments sometimes that I get on on on YouTube I get, I seem to get a lot of people that say, yeah, you know, yeah, we we had we were camped in such and such an eighty five or ninety one or whenever, and they had something similar happened with you know, limbs of breaking and stuff like that. So that's just really kind of the gist that I get of it.

26:12 It's interesting, is there an area within the National Forest, like a area known for within bigfoot research that you just won't really go to because of the history that's associated with it. Well some of it. I don't know if I don't know if there's really any place that I that I wouldn't go, but some of it is less accessible, of course, I mean there there are some there are some places that that I really don't go. But it's not necessarily because of the because of the Sasquatch and there it would be because of the because of the terrain or the weather, things of that nature. But yeah, I mean there, there, there are I have encountered a few people that have said that they used to hunt up there, but that they won't go up there now. In fact, somebody was just commenting on a video I put out a couple of days ago and about about the area that I was up and give up in and give Giford Pinchell last weekend, and the one guy was saying that he hunted up in there for forty years and he had some and he just called it an interaction. But he said after the interaction said he won't go back there.

27:37 So so so yeah, yeah, I don't know, I mean you know when when I had that, when I had that experience back in back in July with with the branches or the limbs being thrown, I didn't I went back there, but I didn't camp again back there. I didn't camp again. And then of course pretty of course it was the part of that was because then hunt and season came around the corner, and the hunters take take to take up the camping spots up there. But but yeah, yeah, so there there's every kind of a few people that would say that then they won't go back there.

28:22 Absolutely. I mean, it's such an interesting area because you have, you know, the area where you're focused on, but then you can go even further north, you can go to you know, I believe you'd consider Packwood as a part of that potentially maybe south of Randall. That whole area seems to be pretty wild too. But I think that's that's a little bit out of your research area, right. Yeah, Well, I go up there. I go up there maybe a few times to the summer, but I haven't really researched too much of there because the whole the whole idea behind where I was researching one area was it was the the project that I that I started last year. Is what what I was doing was is I was setting up gifting stations back and there. I was setting up just food stations with the game cams.

29:19 And what what I was trying to do really is is I was trying to get them used to me being up there. You know. Put I would put a peanut butter around, I'd put apples out, and I wanted them to get sort of get used to my scent up there and then and so they would just get I was trying to get sort of condition them to correlate me with food or you know, just so they correlate me with being a friendly I guess. And so that was why I decided to stay with that same area. That was really that was really the project that I was involved with last year doing that. But yeah, those other those other areas where you go up over Windy Ridge and places like that, there's a lot of squashing to do up there. I mean, I might venture up there maybe a little bit more this year, a little higher.

30:18 Out Big for Society will be right back after these messages, so you were so you're saying the gifting area, that area where you had something walk around your tent. You were also doing a gifting area at that campsite too, Yeah. That was well. I didn't I wasn't really doing it at the site because I didn't I didn't want to camp where I was gifting. I wanted to kind of keep the two separate because I was afraid if I was camped there, they might not want to come around.

31:06 So what I was I had a couple of different places down the road from there. There was a there's a big clear cut that's nearby, and I was gifting in there. And then there's another spot down the road to where it's heavily wooded and I was gifting in there as well. Yeah. I was kind of weird too because when I first started it, when I first started the gifting, and it was also when I first started using game cams, and I have a video that I just put out a couple of days ago, and I kind of told this story really quick. But there was an area that it was nice. It was nice and open, so I could set the game can up because the game cams I use are pretty sensitive, so if there's grass or there's limbs moving things like that, it'll just keep setting them off. So you know sometimes I'll go on up pull a card in the four hundred frames in there, and there's nothing in there. It's because of the because things moving well. Anyhow, I found a really nice spot. It was nice and open and it was probably fifty sixty feet and I set I took a bag of one of the Windco bags of Gala apples of the three pound bag, and I draw a peanut butter and I set them all up in this area.

32:25 And I went back about four or five days later, and of course the food was gone, but I never got a single hit on that camera. I mean there's there was no apples left, there's no peanut butter left, and they were well, I mean everything was well within range of that camera, and it was just like something came in and got the food and the camera had the camera didn't even see them. I mean, in fact, there were there were five frames on that card. Two of them were where my backside, me walking away the day I set the camera up, and then three of them were also of me when I was walking in to pull the card. But other than that, I never got one had on the camera. That's like maybe that's like maybe a mile down the road. I guess from where the main site is.

33:19 Was the bag there at all? No? No, well I didn't leave the bag. I didn't leave the bag there, Okay, but I left it. I mean, you know, in those three pound bags of apples you get from Windko, you get, I mean, there's probably a dozen apples in there. I put them all different spots. Same thing with the peanut butter. I took a big jar of peanut butter down there, and I put like little piles here and there, probably five or six piles, you know, with the whole jar in this whole area. You know, it was just like a big buffet. Well I went back, it was all gone, no hits on the camera. That's really interesting. Do you ever go out out in set up an area like that without game cams?

34:06 Oh? Yeah, yeah, there has been. I did. When I first started doing it. I would set these gifting stations up like that. It's just that you'd go out there and this food would be gone, but there was no way of telling what was taking the food. So that was when I that was why I started using the game cams. Was I wanted to see what was taking the food, and then of course it was it was kind of and it was kind of And it's it's not that the cameras don't catch them, because I have literally I have hundreds and hundreds of of photos on these cams of things like coyotes taking the kyotes. Do you tend to like apples for some reason? And yeah, I mean I'll get other animals taking the food that.

34:57 Every once in a while, I'll get food that is the spear. Just this one was weird. Was was really weird because because of all of the food out there, I mean, there was not a single frame. I mean, if I was doing that kind of thing, I think that would drive me nuts. It would be like, Okay, give me a track or something. Guys, you know, like that's wild. Yeah, yeah, right right, But it's yeah, well it's it's kind of something that I think when you get a little bit of practice, maybe you get a little bit better at it. I'm hoping that, I'm hoping I have a lot I have higher hopes for this this this year getting things in game cams. But I don't know.

35:47 I mean, when when food like that disappears and there's no hits on the cam, that they must be something is finding a way around the camp, or at least that's that's what it seemed. But yeah, we'll see absolutely. You put out a few videos around actually just after the unfortunate situation with the two researchers that went out Christmas Eve, which I thought it was is fascinating to see because you drove up into well, I guess it was the general area, correct, Yeah, it was.

36:29 There where where they were where they were at me, it was there they were they were at I was actually up there. That seemed to me that they were up there. That was Christmas Eve. I would have been I would have been just a few miles west of where they were. But I did that. I put that video together. But mainly, mainly the reason I put that video together was because there were a lot of people that there are a lot of people of course on social media, there's always a lot of fluff that there. There was a lot of people that didn't seem to understand how that could happen in that area. And to me, it's pretty easy to understand, just because I work up there.

37:13 I know how I know how easy it is to get turned around, and I know that that you know, once you get turned around up there in this time of year. I mean, it's the party's over. I was thinking about that too today because I was up there trads and around. I was up today up above Mary Lake, and I had gone off and I was on a trail and and I was maybe five minutes away from my trock, and I stopped for a second. I thought, Gee, it was a good thing I was still on the trail because you can tell where you were, and that's that's that's really all it takes up there. I mean, it's un plus it starts, you know, it gets dark market for thirty five o'clock right now. And yeah, So the reason that I mostly the reason that video is sort of to kind of show people what the terrain is like up there, because there were people that were kind of scratching their heads and saying things like, well, why didn't they just spell a fire this and that. Yeah, I just I wanted to dispel a lot of those a lot of things like that kind of show how easy it is to get messed up up there. But yeah, so yeah, that was right up there in that area where they were.

38:37 I think it was fascinating how you showed that. When you're down the valley out there, the weather is completely different. You drive up there, it changes in just sense. I even said, there were people that lived right there in Canis in Washugle that we're saying, well, gee, they were saying, well, the weather was really mild, and they could figure out how that could happen. Well, the weather, Yeah, sure, the weather was mild. If you're in Canvas or in Washugle, or if you're in Vancouver in the the city's down down in the in the valley. But at the minute you go up, you go up in the mountains, it's it's totally different. It's another world up there. And then you know around here, you know that that that happens in a mile plus right plus that area they were in, there's a small river that ran through there, so they would have had at least they would have had at least one water crossing, and they they I'm figuring that they may have gotten wet on the water crossing and once that happens. I mean, even if even if a person could build a fire, which is I mean, I can't really say it's impossible to build a fire in those areas, but it's pretty difficult because you know, it snows and it rains, and it snows and it rains up there, and everything's wet. There's there's not really things

40:08 up there, especially right in that area. There's not really things up there to make fires wet. And of course, you know most people, you know, when they're out in about and they're out hanking trails and stuff. By the time by the time it dawns on them that they're in trouble, well, they're they're by that time, they're already hypothermia is already setting in, you know what I mean, they're already their hands or numb, and and I don't know, I suppose maybe a person like a person could just drive up there and maybe build a fire in three four hours or something like that, whatever it would take to do, which seems pretty difficult. I don't think that's somebody that by that time, by the time they were already suffering and figured out that they were in trouble, they I don't think they would be able to do something like that. And of course, you know, once it gets dark, mhm, that's it's it's it's over then. So I'm I'm sure that's what I'm sure that's what happened.

41:12 And it's more than plausible. It's for me, it's more than plausible. Are there things that you you make sure are on your person or in your bag when you go out to places like that in that type of weather situation. Yeah, Well, one thing that I do is I tend to operate with a pretty wide margin of safety. And what I mean by that is is say, if I'm out hiking, you know, once once things you know, it's a little bit different animal from from when it's in the if it's July or August or something like that, if you get turned around, you know, you can you can usually stand stay in the night up there or something.

42:03 But that's that's that's really that's totally different in the winter time. So in the wintertime, generally I try to stay within line the sight of where my vehicle is. But another thing is that since I'm since I make maps, I am fairly decent and navigating, so I usually will have I always will have my Army issue compass with me, but I have I usually use I have a little garment e tracks that I normally will will take with me, and it's that's a pretty good tool. But yeah, generally I just make sure that if there's a trail or something up there. I'll stick with the trail because if you you know, once you step off of the trail, you don't have a trail anymore. It's it's so easy to get turned around up there because you know, when you go up in there, there's like this constant fog that sets in, and it's it's there all winter. It almost never left, and so when you're up there, you can't see the sun. There's there's no way to get a bearing up there. So I mean, the very minute you get turned around up there, it's pretty much over, you're pretty much screwed. But I usually take I usually at least have a small pack that I'll I'll put

43:34 some water in there and keep my compasses. And of course it's I do that because I put that I keep things like the GoPro on extra batteries in it and stuff like that. But also one good good thing to take is I still have my old army issue rain poncho and those those are pretty good because they're big and they have gramets and you can you can make a little tint out of it and stuff like that. I need be that. Yeah, I think probably the most important there the probably The most used tool that that I use when I go up there is a rain jacket. I think that's great stuff to have in your your bag for shirt. The garment thing you called out is that like a personal locator beacon type thing.

44:21 Well, it's those are actually what you're talking about. Those. I've never had one of those, but I would definitely recommend one of those. In fact, I'm going to get one myself. I should have gotten one before. But the garment that I'm talking about is the garment e tracts. It's sort of like it's like a GPS for backpackers. Got it and there's they're small, they're there, they'll fit right in the palm of your hand, and they'll you can get clips for them. You can clip them like on your shirt. I always keep mind clipped on just on the shoulder step strap on my pack or my d pack. But to see the thing is is a lot of those places up there in Gifford Pincho there's no self service up there, so if you're in trouble, you can't call anybody. And that's that's part that's that's another problem that those two hikers had up there. The two guys up there on Christmas. Christmas Eve was there's no self service up there, so they can call anybody when they got turned around they got into trouble. But those beacons, that what you talk about, I'm not even sure what they're called off hand, but I've had several people tell me, yeah, you should get one of those, and I think that would be a good idea to get because those those go through the satellites.

45:40 Big for society, who will be right back after these messages. So it wasn't contact satellite. Sure, Yeah, I've. Heard a lot a lot of other researchers recommend people check them out, so I would say yeah. I mean, if I was out there, I definitely would be all about that. I do want to say our thoughts are with the families of the two researchers that did pass away.

46:24 It's very, very tough situation. Even though we don't know who they are, still remains that two people did pass away, and our thoughts are with those families. You talked about an Army issued compass. Has there ever been any places that you're out in the forest and you've been looking at your compass and you've noticed that maybe it starts acting weird or it starts just spinning around in circles. Yeah, not really anywheres around here. I've had that happen. I've had it. I've had it happen in Iraq. I've had it happen in the desert in place like Saudi Arabia.

47:08 Oh wow. I have had some some areas where that you'd be going one way, You'd be going one way and then it would change, it would switch. Yeah, but I have I haven't really had that here too much. But at the same time, I don't really use it much around up here, so I just keep it with me in case the garment craps out, which pretty much never happens because I always keep spare batteries and things like that. Sure, but I would. I would expect for something, though. I mean I if it happened, especially Mount Saint Helens or in the different INChO for that matter, I would.

47:51 I would not be surprised if that were to happen, because I swear every time I go up there, something weird happen. Oh yeah, I mean did the stories here come out of that place and also out of further south into the east, the Columbia River Gorge, The whole area there is weird. I mean the limit national force by itself is weird. I haven't even gotten to north where you guys are yet, but it's just it's just a while. So talking about you know down there, when you've gone down there with the the individuals down that group, have you had anything weird happened down around the Sweet Home area? Well, the only the only time that I spent down we camped down there when I when I first met them, and we had a we we camp down there for the weekend. But there wasn't really anything that that really happened when we were camping down there. But they they have kind of a lot of their own stories themselves.

48:53 There's there's seems to be a lot of activity down there, and of course Michelle could probably from the Sweet Home group could probably elaborate more on it. But I have early researched some much other than just camping down there that one time. And of course we had we had a few like picnics down there where events where we all got together and stuff, But it wasn't we didn't go squatching down there, But there is there are several members in that group that have come that have come up with some pretty interesting stuff absolutely down there. But yeah, yeah, yeah, a different this area that I work. It's one of the reasons that I that I tend to stick to this area is just because of all the weird stuff.

49:39 In fact, just last weekend I was up I was up there on the trail and my GoPro kept kept dying, and I thought the heck, and I was looking at it, and the battery wasn't long. I still had probably sixty percent. It died about three times. So I stopped and I thought, well, maybe I'll just change batteries anyhow, because they can't figure out why it was why I was dying. So as I'm looking at this, I saw what looked like another There was another hiker coming up that trail, and they're probably maybe fifty sixty yards down the trail, and I didn't think too much of it at the time, so I stopped, and I was just kind of thinking the back of my mind. You know, by the time I get this battery switched to hycer, be up there and I'll ask them to see if I was going to ask them if they sig any of the gifting stations.

50:38 So I changed my battery out and my go proal quick, which takes what ten seconds, and the hiker was gone. Oh, and so I thought, well, that was kind of weird. I would swear that I saw a hiker there. And so I walked down the trail light and there was mud. It was plenty of mud on the trail. Oh, there's no tracks I saw. I hike back up the trail and I never found a hiker. So when I got back to the truck, I thought, well, what I'll do is I'll go out to the road and I'll go up and down the road a little bit and see where they parked, because I mean it was cold and raining and there was still some snow flying, and I mean obviously they would have parked somewhere nearby. But they never found a vehicle, never found a hiker, never found a vehicle. That was just last weekend. That I mean, it's that's where every time, every time I go up there, there's always something weird, and there there's always something weird going out there. Mane, it's the weirdest place I've ever been. Yeah.

51:51 So, and it sounds like you haven't had a visual yet, like myself, I haven't had one either. But from what you know so far. What is your viewpoint of what sasquatches? If you have one, I. Guess, well, yeah, just well it's just like like you just said, I've never actually had a visual I mean everything, everything that I've encountered just seems to be circumstantial. It's like, you know, it's just like that stuff with the stick's flowing. I mean, you know when you look at all the creatures that live in a different pinch on, none of them throw break lens and throw them around. I mean, you know what I mean. I mean, so my outlook is is that it's it's kind of funny because when somebody says, oh, you believe in you believe in Bigfoot, and what I always say is really is that for me, it's it's not really a matter of belief, because it's like, you know, it's you believe it, or if you don't, you believe in leper crowns are centering you don't. It's not a matter of belief for me. I had a I had a chemistry teacher one time that put it eloquently, and he said that you can't prove stuff. He said everything, that all the knowledge that we have is really a

53:22 matter of probability, it's it's it's it's how sure you are of something that's going to happen or if something is or something isn't. And for me it's it's kind of like I think it's kind of that it's on it's about on that same line. I mean, to me, it's it's more of probability. Does do things like decryptids like sasquatch exist? And even if even if I were, even if I believed that the probability was low, it's still enough for me to justify spending the time and the money on it that I do. I mean, really, if you think about all the thousands and thousands of sightings and stories that have come the light over what centuries, it really only takes one of those to be true and it's true. So that's pretty much that's pretty much my outlook on it.

54:32 Yeah, I mean, I agree with you on that because I mean, for me, every day it's another five to ten emails of people that just had a sighting that day or they're seventy years old, and they're like, hey, I don't care anymore, here's what happened, and it's all over the country. It's like, man, We're just going to keep rolling the dice in somewhere. Someday someone is going to get like the next Patterson Gimlin film, although with AI, I don't think that would do it anymore unfortunately. I mean, AI is just getting too crazy, especially with the video side of things. I would hope that, you know, we'd still would get an amazing real video someday. But yeah, I mean, doing this podcast for a few years and realizing slowly how big places like Gifford Pinchot National Forest are.

55:27 I mean, it's massive. It's like Saint Helen's to Adams, and then like I mean even up to up near Vernier, right kind of to the east of Vernier, south of that a little bit, and and you realize just how big this is. And you don't have thousands of bigfoot researchers going out there, but you still have enough things happening so that if a few bigfoot researchers go out there, they're still having interactions, which to me is just incredible and tells me, hey, there's stuff going on in this area and in many other areas out there too. But Steve, it has been just a privileged to have you on the show. In the chat about what you're doing out there in the southern part of Gifford Pinchot. Definitely keep us in the in the loop. If you have anything else to share besides your YouTube channel or or if there's a way for people to reach out to you, feel free to share that at this time.

56:34 Okay, Well, I do have an Instagram Steve Searches. I don't really use it very much that I use for the most part. There's I have a Facebook page Steve Searches and YouTube channel Steve Searches, and those are really the tools that I use the most. So that's that would be the best way to be the best way to see what I'm up to and what kind of trouble I'm getting into and where you get a hold of me. Fantastic, And I'll have your YouTube channel linked in the show notes. People can go check that out, subscribe and he puts out some good stuff over there. But thanks again for coming on the show, Steve.

57:14 Oh yeah, perfect, Yeah, Hey, thanks a lot, thank you for having me on. Just wanted to take a few minutes to say thank you to you all my listeners for listening to the podcast. Please take a minute to help out the show by subscribing on YouTube, making sure you hit the bell so you don't miss any notifications, and share the episode on YouTube with a friend. Also, if you're listening to us on a podcast, thank you so much, make sure that you're subscribed share the show with a friend. Really, it's all about sharing the show wherever you can. If you've had a Bigfoot encounter related to the following or know someone who has, please reach out to me at Bigfoot Society at gmail dot com or pass on my email.

58:00 Here's the list. Number one encounters from Franklin County, Texas. Number two encounters from the entire state of Iowa. Number three encounters from Oakridge, Oregon or the surrounding area. Number four any individuals that know about Bigfoot being flown off after the Mount Saint Helens eruption. Number five individuals that have had a Bigfoot encounter while in the military. Number six those that have had a bigfoot encounter in the southern New Hampshire or north central Massachusetts area, including Franklin County, Massachusetts. Number seven individuals that have had a Bigfoot encounter in a Bible camp or boy Scout camp setting. Number eight individuals that have had bigfoot try to enter their house forcibly while they were living inside. Number nine individuals that have actively have a bigfoot living on their property, and lastly, any sightings that are in the Wachitaw National Forest area of Oklahoma or Arkansas. A special thank you to all the Bigfoot Society, Patreon and YouTube channel members. It's your support that helps keep the show going and I extremely appreciate it. I'll see you back next time. Listeners. Sasat Summerfest this year July eleventh through the twelfth. It's gonna be fantastic July eleventh through twelfth in Greenwaters Park and Oakridge, Oregon.

59:18 And listeners, if you're going to go, you can get a two day ticket for the cost of one if you use the code b f S like Bigfoot Society, but BFS, I'll get you some off your cost. Priscilla was nice enough to provide that for my listeners. So there you go. I look forward to seeing you there, so make sure you head over to www dot Sasquatch Summerfest dot com and pick up your tickets today.