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1) I don't understand your sarcasm. By your own group's admission there were other Bigfoot organizations active in the area
prior to and during the time you were there (27:30). Billy Willard mentioned he believes MonsterQuest Ohio Grass Man episode has greatly increased the number of Bigfoot enthusiasts in the area and that he was amazed the number of other footers that were in the area even on a Thursday night in the park
(50:00). Member
Toby Tollman noted the situation was particularly bad with other Bigfoot groups in the area on Friday and Saturday. He noted that Friday night alone while gearing up in the parking lot that
4 or 5 other Bigfoot researchers had stopped there. He goes on to say that it got so bad that proper radio communication was not possible because of other Bigfoot searchers messing around on the expedition's radio channel
(51:20) and that he later saw
4 flashlights in the area he was researching.
You understand my sarcasm all to well. You are a master of it. The radio problems are not bad if you just change the channel on the radio.
The date for the ABS expedition in Mid April was set for over six months. Don Keating's conference was originally scheduled on May 16. Because they scheduled the Yakima Round-up that same day, Don unfortunately had to move his conference up to May 2. This moved the ABS expedition closer to conference time and thus is a reason for there being so many yahoos in the woods doing their pre-conference hoaxing. Also, there was a BFRO pay per camp expedition that weekend in near-by Beaver Creek. Yes it sucked that there were too many people around.
Right? It was unfortunately crowded. The thing is you are trying to make it seem like there were 100 people running around the area when there were 20.But yes even that many were too much. I am used to just going out with 2 or 3 people. What can we do? We are there we may as well try.
You sarcastically brush off the idea of rival Bigfoot groups and yet Toby noted how every Bigfoot searcher from another group out there had something bad to say about Don Keating of the Eastern Ohio Bigfoot Investigation Center who briefly visited your expedition and was the organizer of the Ohio Bigfoot conference happening May 1st-3rd
in Salt Fork only two weeks after your expedition.
Right? Don is a gruff old man, lots of people don't like that. The ABS has no problem with and work with Don.
What kind of Bigfoot gong show was going on out there? You were in the handicapped picnic area which was said to have multiple encounters and said to be the place where most Bigfoot researchers go
(30:20) that was chosen because Eric Altman had a sighting in area
(45:07). This is the same freakout sighting that Eric Altman speaks about
here where he's right in the exact area of the sighting pointing to the bush at 7:40 the Bigfoot stood behind. Earlier in response to that video you said this:
Bigfoot gong show
...and I am the one being sarcastic? That is funny though.
We did plenty of good things that weekend. There were training seminars for the new researchers in the group. There were great hikes in a beautiful park.
Eric did not freak out, the person he was with did. Eric still does not say that he saw anything except a large shadowy figure. He does not say it was a Bigfoot
You just before said the park pimps the idea they have Bigfoot sightings to you guys. Did it ever occur to you that park staff might be doing some of the hoaxing? A little funny business can go a long way amongst Bigfoot enthusiasts and they stand to greatly profit from it with the
big annual conference and flood of paying footers.
Of course they promote the conference to bring in guests.
2) A group of Bigfoot hoaxers was known to be active in the area. A giant stick structure was found 75 yards from the picnic area that measured 12 ft high by 18 ft across, required multiple people to create, and literally had bark squareknots used in its construction
(25:50). Multiple similar structures were seen around the park
28:50. Now in 2006 one of your fellow ABS expedition members, Joedy Cook
(MonsterQuest Ohio Grassman episode - from 4:20), found a baboon skull in a roost area of the park where he had seen buzzards featured by MQ. The skull was perfectly clean and fleshless and identified as being a baboon by Esteban Sarmiento. How interesting. A nice perfect baboon skull left out in the open in a place where Bigfoot enthusiasts poke about. How easy to hoax is that?
If the park staff is doing the hoaxing what can we do about that? Hoaxing is hoaxing, it is a hurdle we always deal with no matter where you research. It is easily identified in most cases. The yahoos who fall for some of the easily spotted hoaxes deserve it. The structure was hilarious it even had square knots used to tie it together. We spent half the conference weekend explaining to casual Bigfoot enthusiasts who did not know better that it was a hoax.I remember some one mentioning it during the conference presentations to NOT present anything found that weekend as evidence.
3) At least half a mile from any known trail? What happened to in your group's own words
at least 300 feet from the trail (16:40)? The sounds like a bit of exaggeration. The apparent track was 6 inches long
(20:10) with only two clear digits and was found by Joedy Cook in a creek area after a noise was heard in that general direction. 20 feet away from where that imprint was found up on a bank Joedy Cook found what was the second imprint which in your group's words was what the group believed to be probably a knuckle print
(17:40) which was said to be in very good condition with clear digits.
There are hiking trails, game trails and then there are marked trails that are used by the park guests. The print was found at least a half mile or even more off the marked trails used by the park guests. It was not an exaggeration. When Billy says the print was 300 feet off trail, he meant a game trail.
I was not present in the area when the tracks were found, so I can't comment on what happened. I was hiking in a different area. I arrived in the area after getting a call on my radio they were already casting them.
BTW, Melissa said that there would be a full report with pictures released to the general public
(33:50). I feel confident that no such report will be released to the general public.
We shall see.
I am not seeking to discredit the ABS. I am laying out the events by your group's own words and setting them against the realities of the area. Here are the park's hours:
Yes you are seeking to discredit the ABS, stop fibbing. If you are out in that park ANYWHERE after dark the Rangers will stop you, ask you what you are doing. Sometimes they will ask you to return to the lodge, your camp site or LEAVE the park. I have gotten stopped several times when driving to a area. We tell them we are with Don and they leave us alone.
http://www.dnr.state.oh.us/parks/faq/tabid/84/Default.aspx
Billy Willard states that he had searched for Bigfoot in the park before with Eric Altman and the Pennsylvania Bigfoot Society
(49:30). He also says that he ran into fellow Bigfoot enthusiasts from other groups that he had been in the field with (Blue Tracker, Phil Brocko (SP), Nancy from West Virginia who was poking about shining her flashlight on ABS people asking who they were)
(51:45). The fact is that in
this video from 1:30 we see Treba and Terry Jahn (they were featured witnesses in the Ohio Grassman episode seen
here from 7:00) along with Don Keating discussing how they are in the park every weekend till 3 or 4 am. The MQ clip says that when they had their sighting it was not until just after midnight when a ranger had come to visit them asking them when they were going to leave.
The people you mentioned came out there to say hi to all of us because they are our friends. After saying goodbye they went to another area of the park or left. Sometimes the Rangers do not see you sometimes they do. It is a large park.Terry and Treba were in the actual picnic area sitting at a bonfire when their encounter happened. A Ranger will not ask you to leave if you are just sitting around a fire and you are a frequent park visitor.
I think I've made my point overwhelmingly clear. By the facts as your own group acknowledged, SFSP was a pretty ridiculous place to have an expedition. It seems like it was a location influenced most of all by convenience.
That depends on what you expect to get from it. We got to meet friends and teach new researchers techniques and experience a great wildlife area. It is a good place to research when there are not too many people around. This is just a negative spin from a skeptic.
Are you sure? Because in that video it starts out with Don Keating motioning towards the nearby pavilion and later in the video Eric Altman is recounting his sighting tale and is definitely in the area where you guys were as is made clear by Billy Willard's own words speaking to Eric where he acknowledges that they went to that handicapped area due to Eric's sighting there
(45:07). If you look closely it seems to be the same area as the beginning of the video and Don Keating can barely be made out standing off-frame to the side of Eric and Mike. I don't think I was mistaken.
Yes, I was mistaken. That is the handicapped area. I was just able to watch the video. I cannot watch you tube videos at work. I thought you were talking about the video with Don standing on the picnic table.
The one where he is standing on the picnic table is the area where Terry and Treba had their encounter.
Why don't you just use the Google map or one of the other two I posted and indicate where the handicapped picnic area you were in? You just said the ABS won't return there so it's not like it affects your report and you admit that there already is hoaxing in the area.
You will need to get someone more experienced at map reading to point out the area to you. I can only get there myself by driving. Remember I am inexperienced in the woods
Here, I'll even give you a SFSP camprground map to make it even easier:
http://www.dnr.state.oh.us/Portals/2/parkmaps/saltforkcampmap.pdf
Yes, VI is one of those very special places in the world. I'm not painting SFSP as something it's not. It may be Ohio's biggest park but it's still relatively quite wee. If you think it's remote, just take the google map I linked and zoom around so you can see the way the land actually looks. It may feel remote but it's not remote. Most importantly is ludicrous to think that a species of 9 ft wood ape could slink around the park and get the many thousands of calories it needs in a day without ever being discovered by science. Really, really silly.
That is just your opinion.
Yes. Yes, I do. I love checking out silly Bigfoot enthusiast videos on youtube because they love putting them up. Youtube killed Bigfoot, don't you know? Here's some great silly video - cop talks to West Virginia footers:
Yes I can see that you love watching silly you tube Bigfoot videos. I don't.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDIAe-VWl-0
I love that lady's voice starting at 00:50. Recognize anybody?
See, Im trying to get some kind of answer from you about when you will...
a) Seek counselling.
And...
b) Get in touch with the appropriate wildlife officials to get some concrete answers.