The Dangers of Bluff Creek / Post BC19 Expedition with Tate Hieronymus and Ron Read

0:02 People fell down. Several times, we were dark, shins were bloodied and cut. If we kept going, someone was going to get really hurt. Welcome back to another episode of the Big Society Podcast. In this episode, I talked to good friends of the podcast, t Aeronymous and Ron Reid and Bandit Too all about their BC nineteen expedition out there in northern California in what actually all went down. So you're not going to want to miss this episode. If you're new to the podcast, make sure that you subscribe. Doesn't cost a thing, and do me a favor please share this episode with a friend that also doesn't cost a thing either. I've already taken up enough of your time, so let's get on with this week's episode at the Bigfoot Society Podcast. All right, Big Society, you've got the privilege of talking to mister Tate, Haronymous and mister Ron Read about their BC nineteen expedition. They are still out there in the California area, the northern California area. But Tate and Ron, how are we doing today? Beat up and battered?

1:22 Yeah, I've heard some things and I've read some things, but I haven't read and watched all of it because I wanted to hear the story directly from you guys. Yeah, that's probably good. Let's start with this. Where are you guys at right now. We're actually on the side of the China Flat Museum in Willow Creek, California. Yeah, that's where they have a lot of the famous big Foot collection, the footprints, original footprint casts of Bob titmus Al Hodson and like all these just different original tracks from the Bluff Creek area here. That's awesome. So it's like the museum where you have the very large wooden cut out of the big Foot on the side of the museum, right Yeah, Yeah, that's right there. We're pretty close to the Jim McClaren Omas statue as well. Yeah. I had some biscuits and cravy, some hash browns at the big Foot Steakhouse. It's like my place to go to at any time here in town. So yeah, it's the first time Ron had a steak there at the big Foot Steakhouse. Ron, how is bandit doing? Band It's doing good. He's anxious right now because there's some dogs just in the across the field here. Even more dogs are coming. Yeah, people, everyone's bringing their dogs here. To hang out in the shade next to the museum. I don't know what that's about.

2:53 But he's doing okay. He's been walking around with me. He's been following me on all my my little adventure up and down the trails looking for hair samples out in Bluff Creek. So he's he's doing pretty good right now. I don't want to assume that all listeners know who you guys are, because I do have some new ones because of recent episodes. So do you mind if we take a few minutes, I'll have you introduced what listeners should know about who you are, and then we'll head on over to Ron. Yeah, let me address the elephant in the room. So any people listening there's a lot of background noise is because we're in town and we're doing the interview.

3:37 We had the scheduled, so we did the first roe with you a while back before this trip and this is the and so we're in town doing that. That's what the background noises. But that's to get the elephant out of the elephant in the room to address that. But okay, me on t Horonymous, I'm a big Foot researcher. I've been researching big foot in California, Florida, a couple of times in Oregon, once in Washington, kind of all over US. And then I'm working. I've been working on my documentary series Sasquatches Search for SAB and that's what we're currently up here for.

4:27 So that's a little bit about me, all right. If I name Gron, I've been a researcher for for oh gosh, I'm like as a as an armchair and field researcher. I've almost hit twenty years. I think it's like I'm like eighteen years in it. But I manage a Facebook page called Trailing Giants where I'm gonna have some content blossom from that. And uh, I I don't know. I guess I'm a big foot researcher and I've got a little training and certification in environmental Field Technician role and and that's got some emphasis on conducting outline surveys and stuff like that. And then my dog band It has been my big footing travel companion for twelve years now, and he is a he's a great dog. Listeners if you haven't already there, well, there's like seventy episodes would take because he's the man and there is one full episode with Ron. I'll have those linked in the show notes so you can go back and find out some more about these guys from earlier as well. But you guys are specifically out there in northern California for the expedition, really excited to hear how that when the great news is that you guys are alive, which is you know number one. We can tell that because

5:57 we're talking to you. But how did things go, you guys, Well, we didn't really go nineteen miles. We went not even one mile. Let's just let's just address that real quickly. We were kind of aware, like at the beginning part of the hype was going to be really really like hard, but we didn't think it was going to be like a constant battle the whole way through with no breaks in between. So you know, it started out fine, but nature has a really good way of humbling you, and it just shows you how hard the terrain hit is here in the area.

6:42 And we how far did we get? We do even get a mile and a mile in and then hiped a mile out and we were physically exhausted and drained, and it's like if we kept going, we were going to get hurt and hit. Moral was really good and suggesting that we turned around and go back in camp at this one spot we kind of saw earlier in the day, and that's basically what we did. We hiked up and we turned around and went back because we were just all just exhausted. My feet were killing me, just people fell down several times. We were our shins were bloodied and cut and if we kept going, someone was going to get really hurt. And so Ki made a suggestion and we all agreed on it, and that's what we did, and because of it, everything worked out for the best. I'm pretty sure that that kip probably saved at least one life or kept people from getting very hurt. So I'm glad that you guys made that decision. Yeah. The weird thing was when we were doing it, It's like when we were standing up and walking, we felt like we had an energy, but as soon as we down and lay down for a minute, our bodies could feel the fatigue, and we're like, oh man, yeah, if we kept going, we were for the daylight ends and you're walking downstream and it's not like little rocks. You're boulder hopping over like

8:16 five foot tall boulders and blogs and bushwhacking and crazy creek crossing and and some of the creek crossing areas the current's pretty strong and you're up to your waist in it. So it was definitely a wise decision to do what we did. And even though even though we didn't reach our goal, you know, we still got to see areas of Bluff Creek. I don't think anybody is seen, and I don't know how long. Yeah, I mean we only made it that one mile up, but we didn't see a single piece of trash or litter, nope, from any any time. Like I was expecting to see like an old with cours can from like forty years ago, some drunk that made his way up there. But not even not even that.

9:07 Just like, no, no trash rappers, know anything like that. Was that was a little weird, just and just so that listeners are aware, if you forget, forget the other interviewed, you were hiking up the middle of the creek, which I mean, these are rapids, very high water. You're trying to you know, go over wet, wet logs and stones and potentially almost twisting your ankle or worse. Yeah, yeah, it was definitely not for the faint of heart. And I think the other reason we turned around it because we realized our packs are also just a lot of weight.

9:52 Like without our packs, it would have been a lot more doable. I think we were talking about this when we camp at night, where it's like thinking, man, if you really wanted to do this, you could, but it would still be a pain in the block. You would have to have like a twenty pound pack, but just the bare essentials of stuff. Yeah, and that's really about it essentially, Like we had determined, like you'd have to run the shoot the four mile distance until our next checkpoint with ultralight gear that if you got hurt, you could overnight it and you'd have provisions, right like, but like, yeah, to get such a load out down to a science, you'd really have to like be into backpacking for several years. Like I think I had some I have some suggestions to get that weight down, but then I don't know. It's it's it was just like we weren't really equipped for ultralight hike and the conditions were just were pretty brutal, unforgiving, and there would there was never a survey or anybody of information of how long that was going to be like that, and whether or not there would be game trails we could dive off and walk for half a mile or so. We were really hoping there would be something working in our favor, and then once we started our hike, it was just the same or working against us conditions like the whole mile. And it wasn't addicted that that was going to continue for a four miles stretch, Yeah, because it wasn't. It wasn't like you boulder hops a few boulders for about fifty

11:26 feet and then there's like one hundred feet of you know, flat creek walk. No, it was like boulder hopping by foot rocks and another five foot boulder hopping creek crossing, then you bushwhacked and you go back into the creek. Then you boulder hopped over into the more bushwhacking. It was just one thing after another. I took the first spill of the hike. No, I don't think anybody saw that so on GoPro And honestly, it was kind of refreshing pulling down that cold water creek because you get todd up there when you're hiking that. But nobody, nobody got seriously or hurt, which is the main thing. And again, it's just a cool story to tell now, and then it's gonna it's gonna give us a lot more information when we revisit this and revisit this in the future. For sure, absolutely, Ron, How did how did it Bandit do with going through that water? It's it seemed like it was pretty deep from what I've heard, so it we find out that the water wasn't really the issue with Bandit. So, I mean there was stuff that none of us would cross, right, there was white water torrents. You know, even if we dug in our poles and we just fought it, we were still gonna we were top heavy and we would have tumbled over and all of our camera equipment would have been ruined.

12:48 So we were avoiding a lot of the water that would sweep Bandit downstream, because it's sweep anybody downstream. Bandit had some trouble like getting up and over the bowl there, and you know, looking at it now, I mean, he's he's a thirteen year old dog and I don't really know. I mean, we were wondering if he could navigate his own way around some areas along stream banks, but those steep canyon walls wouldn't really allow him to do that. So I mean, I literally I had like a life jacket on him with a handle, and I picked him up like a suitcase for every rock, every boulder that I had to then climb up myself and bandit kind of the smart old man, and he just kind of looked at me and was like, I'm not going to try to jump over that. I can't do that, you know, so he really just had to eat once I picked him up and lifted him to that level. But that started to take a toll on like my lower back after doing that for a full day, you know, seven or eight hours of hiking, and it's like and I was lifting a sixty pound pack and a seventy pound dog, and it was like it was a little bit too much after a while, and I started to feel that strain, and I knew that if I left Bandit to his own devices, he was just going to stay in one spot or or injure himself trying to navigate around. So he a little bit, but mostly he just kind of looked at me like I'm not capable of doing this, so you're helping me, right, dad, you know, right, yeah, there you go. Yep, dear the dog Dad. So you gotta make it happen. The water aspect of it. That was one thing is his

14:22 bandit was as little as he would put effort. He was tired, you know, being lifted and picked around and and stuff. But when we get in the water, he still had enough reserve strength. I was kind of impressed with him. He was still a strong swimmer and all I had to do was like guide him in the right direction when we got across the stream crossings. He's he's become quite the swimmer. We've been doing a little bit of swimming and creeks and stuff, and I put his life jacket and that's kind of like, you know, as he's older and he has a little bit of arthritis and stuff, we do that what they call it aqua therapy or something like that, you know. And uh and you know, so so that was really in some cases that was a strong suit. But there are a few times Tate had to wait halfway out and catch him before he got swept into a current. So definitely work that we had to work out, Like you know, Jonathan had to help me pick band it up a little bit and Tate had to wait out and meet me halfway and some of the stronger currents. We'll be back with more big Foot society after these words from our sponsors, and I'd hand off the dog to him. I'd crossed twice because I'd crossed, dropped my pack, come back for the top three times. Yeah, yeah, I had to wait back out. Yeah, so I had to go across the stream crossings like three times. And then uh, Like Kip was staying pretty busy trying to find the pathways that all of us could walk, you know, his situational awareness as a retired fire

15:54 firefighter, Like he was really like blazing the trail and helping us find out where to where to plan our feet. And it was in flazing the trail. I think it was a team effort because we would look at a creek crossing be like, hey, what do you think about this? Where should we cross? There's really a methodical of how we would do it so we wouldn't get hurt. I was the rock climber. I tried to get the high ground and look down and see what we could see. So every time everybody had an important role in the hike because of those people. I think maybe if it had been other people, things would have gone worse, you know. Yea, like you never know, like with the situation, but like I know, with a group of people that we had for sure, it went really well. Yeah, it's definitely, definitely would kick your butt.

16:45 It was funny because the day of the hike, Len was like ground dwarf. He was like, yeah, I'm not not feeling good, so I'm going to stay back and we get back after the high, you know, And He's like, yeah, I knew it was gonna be a painious last wedding. Go how many people ended up going on that on the BC nineteen then, so it was myself, Ron kit Moral and Jonathan Easily and bandit. Okay, gotcha. Were you guys able to get actual footage of the of that that mile of hike? Oh yeah, oh yeah we did.

17:29 Yeah. So that'll be out in the They'll be out in the Search for Sabway episode to me now probably in a few months. It'll also be in Western Bigfoot Explorations documentary Jonathan Easley's and then I'm sure you were gonna have all working into something somewhere on Facebook at all. Yeah, So yeah, the hike. You know. Unfortunately we didn't reach our goal, but things worked out for the best. And you know what, there's gonna be a lot of people. There's definitely a lot of eyes looking at me. I know that because I talked about it a lot. But at the same time, it's like we do. The people that went on my eye had the balls to do it, and we all parts of bluff people that nobody's seen him a long time, and you know, obviously doing this it's gonna be better. Especially it helps us to be to go about the hike differently when we revisit this in a couple of years. Kip Kip kipt telling me, you know, we talked about this after the fact, and he kept telling us, you know, hindsights twenty twenty, you know, and you didn't you going into it. We don't know what we don't know, ye And so like now, like all the times that we were out there wondering, well how do we get in this situation? Oh, it's because we didn't get this beforehand, you know, So now you know what we'll be doing.

19:03 You know, if we reattempt something like it, you know, we'll do some more scouting and take a few less risks, you know, like I think bandit's retired from any any bluff creek hiking, you know, he's He's still doing a lot of like trail walking and stuff with me, but I would never ask him to go through a creek like that again. Yeah, so we we do plan on revisiting, revisiting this in the future. We have a better game plan. I don't really want to say what that is because for what I don't really want to be responsible for anybody else trying our game plan and getting hurt because of it. So I'm not saying that what the plan is. But we do have a plan. We I think we have a longer timeframe of what the time frame should be to do the hike, because you know, the place where we're gonna start out next time, you could hike up a one mile and then it could be really bad.

20:02 So you don't really know how bad the creek will be because what nineteen miles of that creek, I think maybe five or six miles of it, maybe eight has been explored total, So that's still like ten miles of creek that's unexplored. Yeah, so that could all be very bad. You know, you decided we're not going to go any further, and you had the emergency camp you had to make emergency camp. Can you talk a little bit about what that was like to have to make an emergency camp that wasn't the place that you were planning to stay at that night. Yeah, so it was let me put this in perspective, like boulder crossing, you're talking about five foot rocks and then one after another bushwhagging, Like, how can they only make not even a mile in a day? How many hours it take?

21:03 It took like four or five hours to just do what we did. Yeah, I thought we did six or more, so six hours maybe you're right, six or five or six hours. Yeah, so it was a long time. That just shows you how bad the terrain is. And then you had it. There's four more miles you would have to do and I think there was only four hours of daylight and left with four miles ut of creek walking. Yeah, there's no way we're gonna make it. And so to make the decision, it was a little disappointing, but it was the right call in the end, like I said, And uh, and the place we found wasn't terrible. It was actually pretty cool. Yeah, I didn't mind it. It was actually after taking some time to get the camp read us, it's kind of comfortable. It worked, you know. Yeah.

21:57 I think Ron was like, if you spend a couple more days or you could get it pretty nice to camp out for a few days. Yeah, you had to, you had to. I was constantly digging rocks out from under my back as I was laying there. But then it's like, once you get a good bed laid out, then it wouldn't be bad. Feel like you're underneath this overhang. There's like a creek right there. You're you're where nobody can get to you, so you're pretty safe from human wise, any animal. I take it. You'll hear him coming for sure. And the stars are beautiful right there, and it's pretty cool cowboy camping just on the creek like that, and cowboy camping on the creek where nobody is probably cowboy camper camps ever. Yeah, so that's cool. So as far as I know, we're the first people to do that. So that was special. And at the end of the day, you did get to a spot that was pretty remote, which which is awesome. And it sounds like in the future this may lead to even further expedition, which would which would be very cool. So after, did you guys go back to the headwaters to exit the expedition or what was your kind of you know, how did you leave this whole creek area? Yeah, so the you know, you have to exit and restarted from uh, either side, you probably canyon walls

23:29 that you're not going to climb out of those, You're gonna have to walk back to the way you came. So we walked upstream when we started the hike, and we had to walk down the same stream, which hiking downstream is actually more dangerous than hiking upstream because when you're hiking downstream slippery rocks, the current is working with you and it gets up your feet a lot easier than if you're walking against the current, Which that sounds kind of backwards, but it's not. I think anybody who's done a lot of creek walking would probably say the same. It's better to go upstream than downstream if you're doing a creek there's a lot less risk involved by doing so. Absolutely, And so after after you made it out of the creek, and then I would assume you're making some phone calls. Was that was it then go up to the film site or what was the Uh you know, you kind of had to make new plans pretty quick of what you were going to do. I would guess, Yeah, we kind of we we we kind of abandoned the hike idea to table it for a future year and then we're just kind of focused on doing research at that point. So we stayed. I think we stayed at the cell site. We went down to the burm one night.

24:56 We went down and then we just drove our all around the whole Bluff Creek area camping or have different spots and stuff like that. And that's really how the rest of the trip went, was just paying up different spots we wanted to camp out for a few nights, and you know, it worked out okay, So it wasn't it wasn't like a waste of time or anything. It was all good. You know. Obviously, like I said, there's gonna be a lot more planning we're gonna do for this hike in the future, so when we do it, we can we can get to our goal and reach it, you know and stuff. But we did go down to the film site for a few hours. Yeah, we hung out. We had a good time down there. Yeah. And then actually the day we were gonna go to No Go Valley, we actually went to the film site instead, but there was was it a couple? I think it was a couple right that, Yeah, it was Aaron. I can't it was Aaron, and I can't remember what his name was that was with Aaron. But they recognized us, apparently because Jonathan went and talked to them, and I guess she's like, oh, I know you, Jonathan, and she's like, watched Jonathan's videos. And then I came up, Oh, it's Hue Tate and then I was like, Ron's over there with Banda and she's like, oh my god. And she saw us from like small town Monsters and

26:27 stuff. And she had Robert Lyderman's Bluff Peak Project book and so we me and Ron signed that for her and Jonathan Ron I took pictures with her and was it her boyfriend or husband, I'm not sure. I don't know, man, I don't know whoever whoever she was with, We took pictures with them and stuff. So that was cool. We got recognized for our hard work. There you go, There you go. So how was the how did the film site look when you guys got down there, to look the same as the last time you were or any any changes. I think some of the gravel got redistributed from from some some waters, some rains and stuff and snow melt. Yeah, it looks a little more clear in there because the block the Bluff Freed project. They'll just kind of remove dead trees that have fallen over to kind of clear the path. They don't cut any live trees at all, so it's just more so just clare cutting, just like dead fall and dead trees and broken over, just kind of getting those out of the way. So they have so the film site can be less cluttered.

27:34 So that's kind of what they do. I don't want to have you give away the farm tape because I know you are coming out with some things for your YouTube channel. Is there any interesting things that happened when you guys were camping around the area there? Should I say? No comment? What do you think? It's? No? No comment? All right? All right? Fair enough? Hey? Who else? Who else was with the group once? I would assume the group was bigger once you guys got you were at Low's camp, right, Uh, we never actually camped at last camp, you know, but no, like after the hike, it was still it was me. After the hike, we went to Twin Lakes and it was you, me, Robert, Robert, sun Patrick, Stevie, Terry, and Richard. He capt a couple of nights, he had a he had an interesting thing was his car that happened, So that was fun.

28:56 Yeah, he's got quite the blog right up and a video as well. I'll have those links in the show notes so people can check that out too. But it sounds like Richard had quite the time getting out of there, and then there was what should we mention? What happened? We'd oh, what what wo him? Like star walking you know the hill? Yeah, I don't know, man, Yeah, we we don't have to know. We don't have to We had we had some some more uh misadventures with bandit. You know. She was uh kind of customed with how dark it is out there, and I'm pretty convinced, like he can still pretty he can still see pretty good at night, but without any like light pollution and and without like a full moon, like he couldn't see all that well.

29:52 And so we were hiking some high ridges and Bandit like stumbled off and an edge and like like s down twenty something fat and grab them and help them get back up. We'll be back with more big Foot Society after these words from our sponsors. So we had a lot. This was like the trip of close Calls. There really was the whole BC nineteen and all of the the danger from that. We had bandit fall off a cliff, we had a flat like Richards, like a flat tire and stuff. Oh yeah, really bad. And then and then we had I almost messed up my car.

30:37 You got stuck on a rock and we had a wench. Yeah, but I mean we're no worse for wear, but wow, yeah, I think that was that's, if anything, that's what made the trip pretty memorable. It's like all the misadventures that we had. Every trip we come up here seems to have a theme for the whole trip. Like last year the theme was finding evidence. This year the trip was close Calls twenty one. It was just a bunch of action we were getting. So it's like each year has a different theme and you never know what the theme was going to be. Were we lucky in terms of like finding Bigfoot this year, I don't know. We'd we'd we'll never know our audio recordings and stuff that we haven't played back yet. But but in the sense of, like, did we come out of bluff creak alive despite the presence of danger. Yeah, so we're still lucky in that regard. We're joking about the DC nineteen hike for like after after you know, after hike interviews, and we're like, we put one of our arms in our shirts and like, what was what did you say? Acteel like you're we're gonna end up losing limbs just at the end of the post interview would be like, well we learned something, but well, we did learn something, but we still have all of our limbs, so that's good. So all of our limbs are attached to our

32:12 body. Who was it, Who was it that called it the BC one? Oh, I think I think I heard Kip and Jonathan say it too. I think it was kind of job the DC one. You should make T shirts with the nine crusted out. That awesome, But it's for good reason. That was the BC one. So oh man, we're gonna return with vengeance and we're gonna we're gonna accomplish the hike. And as far as I know, I think I think that one thing I took away from it too, was we went through such rough country that Bigfoot himself wouldn't go through there. No, So it's it's easier for me to say, well, hey, we were thinking about alternate access points, and now that that idea does make a lot of sense, because nothing's just going along those barren canyon walls and just hanging out, you know, like that's that's like where you chase the Foot at the end of the Monster movie. It doesn't have anywhere to go, and then all the hunters like shooting, Like, yeah, but that's not a place he would actively choose to go and live, you know. No, no, no, it's not even a place where animals should choose to go. There's no rhyme or reason for them to go in that canyon. Yeah, there's better water access throughout six Rivers. So we

33:45 just went there because we thought we could, and then then we had to reevaluate a little bit. So yeah, Like so it was cool, cool to see what we saw, and you know, it's experienced what we all won't forget, and like I said, I'm excited to revisit this in the future. Absolutely, so there's a there's gonna be a lot things that we do a lot differently at this time, but we're planning a longer time frame, stuff like that, and there's always gonna be naysayers about this hike. I know that people are going to comment we're doing this now. They're gonna say some kind of garbage, you know how it goes Jeremiah, Yeah, maybe, but who cares. That's that's where I'm That's where I'm at.

34:37 You know, they can say what they want, so it's it's whatever. Hey, I've got a question that maybe I'm gonna you know, maybe an observant listener might have picked up on on this when you said it. But what is this? Uh no, go Valley? You you spoke of really quickly, So then go Valley as a code name. We gave a place that I cannot say the name at all, and what it is I don't really I don't really want to say too much about it, so I know there is a lot of people who will be listening and nit picking at it and trying to figure out where it is. So we call it the valley out of respect. And that's really all I want to say about it.

35:29 Publicly. Sure sounds like it could be a pretty squatchy place. Maybe we'll find out more in a future documentary episode. Who knows it was in? It was in my California episode first one I released, We no go Valley place, but a lot more there this time. Yeah, we did a lot more there this time. But we call a no go Valley just out of respect. And I think anybody who really knows the area might know what we're talking about. But outside that, yeah, nobody's gonna know and do it that way because like I said, it's it's being respectful of people in the area and other people who go to this area too. So yeah, that's really that's what that is. Absolutely. You know, something I like about you guys is that you you do very unique research methods. And this can be anything from you know, tape playing bass or musical instrument, or you guys sometimes having I think you had a disco ball type thing once or even like a didgery. Dude, Were you able to incorporate any unique unorthodox methods that you can talk about this time? Yes, yeah, so I

36:59 can't out with a couple of things in my arsenal on this trip. One of the things I got was a hunting blind that they have blinds now that when you when you're looking from the outside, you can't really see anything on the inside, but then when you walk in, it's like a one way window and you can actually see throughout the entire wall. So we sat in some hunting blinds a few times and had some other people kind of out squatching, like knocking and whooping, and just kind of waited to see if anything approached. It was kind of cool to have that technology and to sit kind of in a blind and change our approach a little bit and go stealth, like go stealth mode a few more times. But ultimately I don't think that really like nothing really became of that, but it's something that could work in the future. We keep utilizing that, yeah, sure. But the other thing that I think we leaned more into because it was way more fun for us, was we had a a big Bluetooth speaker and a sound activated laser light show that would that would generate images like laser images of like dolphins and like when women dancing and stuff and like, and we projected like far up in like like a hundred feet away into some like big trees and play music to it, and uh, we're playing like eighties like eighties music, you

38:30 know, like time cop and stuff like that, and then we're just playing absolutely absurd songs. Yeah, there's there's one we played last night called the Fart Song. Yeah, we camped out of a place called Bean's Camp and uh, and then we we finished off our squatch research to the Fart Song at Bean's Camp. And it's literally just like eighties style song with just farts, like like techno and yeah, sound effects. I'm definitely gonna have to have that linked in the show notes for sure. And it's so good. But yeah, we were that was the last song we played that night.

39:15 That is funny. Tell me more about Bean's Camp. I don't think I've heard of this one before. Hold on, so we have we have a dog encounter going on. Oh okay, yeah, all right, take care of the dog. You're okay? No, that Bean's Camp. I've learned about Bean's Camp all, you know, since I've been coming up here. But we finally got to camp there this time. That was my first time camping there. It's a cool little camp ground. There's like three camp there's three little camp spots. There's like a little pond area, yeah, like a watering hole. Yeah, and then this is like the only this is like the only fixed bathroom, like you would have a public campground in the Six Rivers or the Bluff Creek area. I would say, yeah, so that was kind of cool. But the problem with it is there was like no refuse in the actual toilet area. There's just water. There's a ton of mosquitoes in it. So I would spray like mosquito spray down in the hole, the hole where the toilet is, and like hundreds of mosquitos would just come flying out. And then you saw the picture I sent earlier in the group chat. But I don't know what it is about the deer and the Bluff Creak area, man, but they're very bold. I will come

40:49 up to you, like within ten feet of you. And then this one deer one a couple of nights ago in our camp that beans camped, just came right up there next to my car and I was two feet away from it, just filming it like nothing that was going on. It was a weirdness, say, but it was really cool. So yeah, it's strange. Deer are weird out of here? Are there a lot of deer in that area. Yeah. Yeah, a lot of deer and a lot of bear really entered the area I was doing. I'd be walking along the trails, game trails and like camp trails and old roads and stuff, and I think I took like I took samples hair samples from like seven or eight different areas out here in the Bluff Creek area that like they were they were banged up, chewed up trees and there's always hairs on them. And uh, but that's pretty pretty typical like bear like marking. They're like marking their scent and chewing up a tree and and uh, you see that along the game trails a lot. But it was It's still kind of astounded me because we found a couple of them like that last year and this year is like every camp we went to, i'd like come back to my car after like a ten minute, HI could be like take some more hairs, and then grabbed my little evidence kit and walked back out. Yeah, it'll be interesting to see if anything happens. It sounds like, yes, some quite a bit

42:21 of hair samples. That'll be cool. Just I don't know if you're able to send those off or I'm sure you have some plan for those ron good thing. The good thing about like especially we found this out last year when we were at Meldrums and we looked at several hair samples at his lab and at Idaho State University was we realized that there were Even though the bear might have shoot up the tree to market and markets territory and stuff, it was still on an established game trail, so other animals would brush up against the sticky resin from the bleeding sap, and so other animal hairs were found on the bear tree essentially. So so I tried to find as many different looking hairs as I could from each spot. And I think, you know, if I start filtering through them, we might get a couple of different hair types and we might have to compare them to what we can interesting. That's the thing is he might a bear might have chewed up the tree and left a lot of its hair, but you might find some deer or elk or some other animal hairs on it as well. And that means big foot too.

43:28 Yeah, guys, have you have you heard of any recent in counters or sightings of any sort in that area in the areas that you were before you got there. No. The only thing, yeah, we heard of was those tracks that Todd Samples and Doug Shay found and we we we we we talked to them allows Camp, we interviewed them, so we talked about it. We went to go, we went to the mile market that they found the tracks at, and we like. But the way Bluff Creek is, the ground is so dry and hard packed, it's not really good for tracks. It would have to be in really soft soiled like near creeks or right near like a little pond area. Other than that, you're just gonna have scuff marks in the ground that something did go through there, but you don't know what it is. So unfortunately, finding tracks is extremely hard here.

44:40 But that's why I todder Than got so lucky, is because especially on the Go road, it's it's thirty miles of road that cuts through the Bluff creaky area, so it's just like a private highway for animals, especially in the wintertime, and it easier to walk that in the wintertimes and walking through ridges and stuff. So a lot of animal's gonna be walking on that, and it makes sense like that sasquatches would utilize that and it would be easier to find a track in the snow than the wood anywhere else in Bluff Creek during the summer. So yeah, I think I think people looking for tracks in the wintertime, especially here, might have their chance and looking for them in the summer here. We'll be back with more Bigfoot Society after these words from our sponsors. It'll be interesting. I hope, I can. I can hope that perhaps Todd and Doug might make an appearance in one of your episodes. We'll see fingers crossed. It was fun talking to them on Bigfoot Society. They are just a blast, so we'll see. Yeah, I really like them. They're cool guys. Deluge Shade plays guitars. He had like three guitars and we were playing some guitars with them when we got to allows camp and everything. And he has a pretty cool rig for camping,

46:15 so that's that was cool. Nice. He's like, you're in the area, you can stay with us. I'm like, heck, yeah, well do you? Yeah exactly. That's the thing, you know. From one I chat with him, it's like they are the home team. They have the home team advantage. They're able to just pretty much go whenever they want, which is pretty pretty solid that you have great researchers there that are in close proximity. Do this is a question for both of you guys. Do you view the area that that film site area as an active Bigfoot area or a historical area that is kind of kept up as a memorial. I think it just depends on where the big Foot are really at that given moment, because you can have a really squatchy area that's known for really good activity, but there's not there, so you're not gonna get any action if you're there, you know. It's the true thing with the whole needle in the haystack.

47:30 The film site has trail cares everywhere, so I don't knows maybe that plays a part in it or not, but I feel like I feel like the film site area is squatchy because just above that the berm, there's some stuff that happens there that's pretty weird all that, and that's like maybe that's like not even a mile from like as the crow flies from the film side of the berm, and there's some more things that happen there. And then above that there's there's some things that happened in the cell site, which is just above that quite literally, just the general area allows camp. It's only five miles from there. As the co flies, there's weird stuff that happens there. So the whole area is active. It just depends on what time of year you go. And then if they're there any time of the year, I should say it's pretty good. It just depends on if they're there or not at that time. I So, so this might be getting into like some of the conclusions that I draw later on or some of the things that Kate and I will discuss in his content. But like this year, like I don't know if you figured it out at this point, but but it's we're still kind of going through all of our stuff, but it seems like it was a lighter year and we're trying to figure out, like what was the cause of that, you know, And the last couple of years

49:00 we had some really good activity that we felt strongly was tied to Bigfoot. And I think there's so many people that come out and they'll and they might be a big time Colorado Bigfoot researcher or big time Washington and they come through Bluff Creek every now and then, and if they don't time it right, like it's easy to make that assumption that it's it's all squashed out, there's not a lot going on. But I think Bluff Creek has enough space and wilderness and resources to where, like, whatever population is here, it's not strictly bound to what we know is historical Bigfoot hot spots. And so we were looking at the map of six Rivers and we realized there's a lot of conditions that are just like Bluff Creek, just a little bit to the east or a little bit up to the north before you hit the siski Us or south or west. Yeah, and then even even beyond that, it's still pretty doable habitat or something like big Foot. You because if there's a lot of fresh water, there's creeks everywhere. There's berries everywhere, fresh natural berries that Ronald is eaten and stuff, and so is Jonathan and I've had them before. There's berries here. And then the trail camera photo doesn't be saw in an in person. We saw there's a lot of deer. The terrain is full for them, but it's a million acres or more. It's something ridiculous. I don't know, it's massive. It's some of the most remote country Yeah, I mean like an uninterrupted, like continuous. This place is

50:34 smote like you can get lost very easy and no one Paul would ever ever find you. And that's something we found, you know, And you're talking about anile that doesn't want to be fine and like a million or something acres or more that's gonna be very very very hard. But there's something like and before Like this is kind of how I would sum it up, is there's something about Bluff Creek where they do come back. Like there's a couple of places I've been through as a researcher where Bigfoot research is consistent and doesn't cease. And you're talking about a century of reports and the Bluff Creek area is one of them, and like, well those tracks hot and Dug found prow that. Yeah. The other spot that that kind of is like that for me is foul Arkansas. You know, you have a lot of like man reports in there, so like I don't think that like Bigfoot's ever gonna leave like permanently, Like it's not. It's definitely not like somebody's building condos there and his own stomping grounds, Like it's still wilderness out there. It's primitive campus a lot of people who can take our vas out there. They're coming and going. And so one of the things that I thought I wanted to do on this trip was I wanted to find a little bit of cell service and deploy a cam to monitor an area in Bluff Creek remotely and so destially do that. We got a trail camera. We got two trail cameras out, one cellular one non cellular yea, and they're both in areas where we've

52:04 had stuff kind of happened in the past, and one of them will give me like live updates if it ever like fires off. And so so that's something like hopefully we can get a little more cell reception, find different ways, different access points that have coverage, and kind of add to like what the Bluff Creek Projects started with their camera deployment and start putting cell cams in appropriate areas to kind of monitor when we're halfway across or further across the United States. Yeah, so Ron will be able to marr that. Yeah, from Wisconsin, I'll be getting updates about whatever's walking around. That's incredible.

52:45 How Ron does out, I mean it has to be batteries involved, Like batteries involved with those right or yeah, So the cell cameras are solar charged, well, I got I got a panel on that one. So the other camera, like it'll go six months to a year. But I've got a battery cartridge that's supposed to be do better than standard batteries and a solar panel with a battery pack in it, and so like it should it should work for quite some time. I'm hoping anywhere from a year to a year and a half, and then the two year mark, we'll go back in and we'll we'll replace it, but I'll get low resolution photos from it, and then the SD cards will have a higher resolution saved one to the unit itself. Let's say you get a low resolution photo and it looks like Bigfoot, but you're halfway across the US where you are, what's the game plan?

53:44 Find out here? Well pointing ticket, No todd, pryt ticket. We're flying, they're flying wrong, we're flying Hey, you tell you tell me about it. I'm getting on a plane on flying. Yeah, and probably in most situations I think I could I can manage one flight out. You know. Yeah, we like it. We gotta go, we gotta go, we gotta go. We can't. We gotta get on that. We gotta get on that. I'm gonna just yep, we're gonna fly out here on. I mean, if it was me, I would I would be flying. I would. I mean I Todd and Doug are great, but man, if there's a big foot, I'm like, I'm flying out area we placed for flying out there to get it look for ourselves. It's like it's like, dude, it's I feel like Ron is saying, Oh, we put we put a trail career here, we kept capture a leprechron with the pot of gold here. Let me call a local person. Here's a pot of gold up there, go get it. Okay, that's what you're saying though. First of all, Okay, if it was a bit of a photo, yes, I would come out. But here's here's where I would call Todd. I'd call it because I don't know if I could secure a roadworthy rental, Oh okay, then no, you just for one.

55:10 You could fly into like Sacramento or San Francisco. Then they would have the chiefs there. Yeah, I rented a cheap in Portland. M H. So yeah, I guess well, we still are figuring that part out yeah, I would yea too, i'd walker. It's just a short nineteen miles. Yeah, yeah, exactly, Yeah, that's nineteen No problem, Well borrow Richard Harris. Guys. Last question, and I appreciate you hanging out with me for it's almost two an hour already, It's gone by quick.

55:52 But what's next for you guys? Do you guys have plans for future research experts already or what's coming up? Pretty much, sasquatch charts for SABA is going international next year, so our first out of the country episode will be felt next year. That's the plan. That's the plan. Of the plan is we're looking at a spot that is intimous for sasquatch activity, but for whatever reason, people haven't really been out to it all that much.

56:35 But yeah, I mean my plan, my plan is to go there regardless I cannot. I'm already skipping out on Bluff Creek to do it, so I'm too invested in it to not pull the trigger out. Wow, if you're skipping out on Bluff Creek, it must be something pretty special. So yeah, that's what But that's more on that later. I guess the thing that immediately, like we just spent three weeks at Bluff Creek. We're not even done with the California run, and we got a couple of spots that before I met these guys around the house camp and the Bluff Creek area, I had a couple of spots. So like the next couple of nights, I guess the next three four nights, we're gonna be like in some areas where I kind of started my big footing, Like in twenty ten, there's a spot that I heard some some interesting knocks while I was waiting at a trailhead for somebody to come in and pick me up out of the Trinity Alps, and we're gonna try to We're gonna check the status of that area and see about going out there. Then from there we're going to where I saw something that I thought was possibly a Sasquatch in twenty eighteen while hiking the big Foot Trail, and Kate's going to be the first person, like in our group besides myself and bandit to check that area out. And then they were doing so southern California for a couple of days, and then we're wrapping it

58:09 up. Yeah, then were we wrap it up in Aisle with you with me and and a few other friends of mine who are not big fotters. But there's actually one other person joining us that is a big flooter with brow and then there's a couple of people, like three other people that aren't. Yeah, everyone, I hope. So I'm extremely excited about about I mean, it's just a few weekends away. I'm super excited about it. That's crazy. You know what's crazy is when you're up in the mountains, you lose track of town. How sometimes you don't even know what day it is or how many days you have left, and when things have been going the way they are, the days are long here, I would say. Pretty pretty pretty fair assessment in my opinion. Well, yeah, I'm excited to see both of you guys, and it will be my first time being able to do some expedition work with Ron, so that'll be a good time.

59:20 But I appreciate you both coming back on for a post expedition interview. This has been a fun time. Do you mind Do you guys mind sharing where people can keep up to date with what you've been putting out with different Bigfoot related things. Yeah, so right now, my platform is just a Facebook page where I put a lot of leaks to my other stuff. I got a YouTube account, but it's my name Ron Reid and that's r R owin r Ead. I don't know how easily people will find it, but but I think if you search that name with like big foot, sass watch, you know, then it should should pop up there. But then yeah, all of that stuff get shared on my Facebook page. If anybody has Facebook, it's uh, it's Trailing Giants is the Facebook page, and then me and then me it's just Tate heeronymous, Hi, r y m us just my name. It's on YouTube and Facebook and you'll if you look my name up, you'll see all the podcasts I'm probably on and all that. And make sure that's make sure you watch the Iowa episode because I hear it's the highest viewed one. So I don't know why. Why guys, I'll be seeing you in a few weeks and have a have a good time with the

1:00:53 last few nights out there in California. Guys, we should thanks for coming on here at Bigfoot Society. Article is to provide a platform for those that have encountered Bigfoot to share their encounter in a safe and respected environment. But we need to hear your story. If you've experienced something that you just can't explain, please send me an email at Bigfoot Society at gmail dot com. Then we can start the conversation. I know a lot of you have not shared your encounter at all. It's been twenty years and it's time that you get this off your chest and then you can get some well deserved for rest, because I know you haven't been sleeping. I understand what you're going through, and I appreciate every one of you listening