WTF big day in tiny town? I go run a couple errands and there's two more pages of this stuff by the time I get back.
carcharodon, to answer your questions;
"Why? He was a reknowned tracker and hunter wasn't he?"
Again laughable. Mack was a legend and a great hunting/fishing guide, but a great tracker/stalker, no. I believe he did have three record BC bear to his credit at one time, thou. Common knowledge says that one does not have to be a great tracker to be a great guide. Mack mostly worked the tributaries and flats, quite often doing his spotting from boat and/or air, he also had a network of locals spotting for him. Hunting flats and tribs is very basic, bears are habitual creatures. Again, Scott-Donelan, Brown and Hardin are in a league of their own, what these men can see is nothing short of phenomenal.
Macks true claim to fame was his storytelling, he was funnier than s#!t. But to be quite honest (IMO) very few would know of him today if American Sportsman had not done a few shows with him. Then Dr. Thommason (also a colorful fella) met Mack and instantly knew that not only could he get the Nuxalk history/legends from a very popular Elder but there was also this whole guide hook (celebrity/rich and famous name adventures) that could be used. There is a fair bit of embellishment in the books that these two had published. Unfortunately for Mack he never saw his stories in print.
Don't get me wrong, I have a great amount of respect for Mr. Mack, if the guy liked you he would give you the shirt off his back. It was common knowledge that on occasion he would let his guide fees slide simply telling the hunter to get to Bella Coola and he would take care of the rest.
"Presumably, by that analogy you'd disregard the likes of Jim Corbett too coz he was 'in the olden days when everything was black and white' and not as real as it is in colour today and shooting tigers back then was like shooting fish in a barrel."
Jim Corbett was a stalking/tactical tracker, Clayton Mack was not well known for this and came up empty many times because of it. He did on rare occasion track bear inland but again he almost always worked the tribs and flats. Mack tracked many blood trails but when following a blood trail one uses a completely different set of tactics. You simply cannot compare the two because they hunted using two distinctly different methods.
"Roger Patterson got something....and it's unlike any man in a bigfoot suit that I've ever seen....but still it's 'nothing' to the scoftics."
Roger Patterson certainly did get something on film, the question is what? Since there is no baseline for comparison one certainly cannot verify with any degree of certainty what it is. Simply because one is of the opinion that the film subject is indeed of a living breathing sasquatch does not make it so. No there is no comparable suit to date (IMO) but this does not create a problem for me. Why would there be? It could be as simple as no one has put as much effort into making a suit as Patterson, why would they? This was Pattersons claim to fame something that he possibly worked on for years, we know he researched bigfoot for many, many years. I would wager to guess that Patterson as well as most others living in the valleys and mountains around Yakima at that time were in fact quite handy with leather and awl. There is also the fact that anyone can go to Yakima, Wa., talk to the old timers and most will state that they believe it was a hoax.
In reality this film is of no value to anyone except the pro bigfoot community. This community is extremely small, the majority have at one time or another posted on these internet forums. Most of these people are simply regular folk like you and I that have opinions/speculations about this myth (very few of these people actually put serious dirt time in). At present date like it or not that is all we have, a myth.
For every Meldrum there are hundreds if not thousands in his discipline that do not see what he does, he (as well as Krantz) has tried very hard for years to convince his peers, to no avail. Green, Coleman, they're authors, they research and write about this subject for profit. Chilcutt, well IMO he was blown out of the water by Crowley. Nolls Skookum cast, Dr. Anton put a bullet in that, hell Noll probably still thinks there are tule elk in Wa. State.
Bigfoot had a good run (and I'm not embarrassed to admit that I ran right with it for the majority of my adult life) but science is catching up and placing some good kill shots on the poor guy/girl. I still entertain the possibility and I will continue to hold a couple threads of hope, but come on there just isn't much more than half-ass evidence out there.
The internet IMO has also contributed greatly to bigfoots slow demise, for me anyway. The fact that we are all here discussing this subject simply amazes me. To have both pro and con opinions on every frick-in detail no matter how minute is a great feat. I just wish that something credible would come along so I could dive back in.
One other tidbit, being that there are suppose to be so few sasquatch the number of sightings reported is astronomical compared to many/most other endangered/rare species. What's up with that?
I lied I have one more, no that's a reporters mistake, I only have
time for one more. As far as MDF goes I do not believe it's ever been mentioned that there is in essence a campground at the head of Lake Chopaka, it's not maintained but it has been there for years and can hold several tents, homemade picnic table . . . there is also much evidence of folks bivouacking between the MDF subject area and Bowers Lake as well as everywhere from the BLM campground to the head of the lake. Now I'm not saying that the bigfoot was going to one of these camping spots I'm simply stating a reason for it to be on the upper trail. Just a few details that seemed to have been misplaced I guess.
BTW Patterson film-speed has not been established there is only speculation, this still remains a critical question. Crap I lied again, no, I must have been mistaken.
Carry-on
m
