Read this report a long time ago and came across it again today. For those of you who have been to Catalina Island, is this even remotely possible? If so, how would the big guy have gotten there? If true this poses some interesting questions. For one, it seems like it might be easier to find him there.





http://www.gcbro.com/CAcatisland001.html

I live in south Orange County,can see Catalina from my house on a good day. I say NO WAY. The island isnt that big and every square inch has been trampled by humans. This is one of my favorite reports though just because I have to think what was going through this dudes mind. It is a long boat ride out 26 miles according to the song, there is wild life on the island but anything bigger than a squirrel is accounted for by the park service, plus they have jeep tours that go all around the island last time I was there they had a herd of buffalo and the state had a herd of goats doing brush control. I also think food would be very limited for Squatchalina.

I agree with Zoobie. Having grown up in the OC, I've been to Catalina numerous times, and it isn't possible for anything the size of sasquatch to have gone undiscovered.

Yeah, just did a Google Earth on it and it looks like even though the terrain is rugged, there are not a lot of places to hide (trees/forest). It is bigger than I thought though. I found the golf course but am not sure where the campground is, or if it is still there.

hey vafooter & everyone interesting new sasquatch sighting but i do agree with all your above replys as well. thanks bill

Just checked Wikipedia and the island is 47,986 acres (almost 75 square miles) located 22 miles off the Southern Californian coast, bigger than I thought but still very small and unable for such a creature of such size to remain hidden for long. The population density is very low however, the population being a mere 4,000 and 85% of that living in the only city, Avalon. Maybe it was just a visitor to the island (on holiday perhaps from Bluff Creek). Are Bigfoot known for being good swimmers? :biggrin:

I am sure they do swim & are capable of swimming !!

I'm sure there are Islands off of the BC Coastline that they occupy which means swimming..

Not sure about 22 miles though !!

Looking at this picture though & the area it would have to pass through & the other posts on this thread, i'm not conviced of this one..

Been there, and around the island by boat.

It isn't forested.

No way.

I might be wrong, but isn't this the Island where they found numerous Pigmy Mammoth bones? And why not swim? Polar bears are known to swim much greater distances, tigers and kodiak bears too.

Well after a 3 month hiatus I've logged back in and immediately there is a topic I have some knowledge of. I am familar with Catalina Island and it's terrain as I am of the lucky people who had access to about 96% of the island. I and my father went on a guided deer and pig hunt for about 3-4 days back in 1997 or so. The majority of the public are quaranteened to Avalon and the road to the airport. The terrain is rugged with steep canyons and mesa's. The primary cover would be small rocky subridges with scrub oak type brush/trees and lots of cactus. At the time we were there the Catalina Nature Conservency had commissioned a professional hunter to remove all goats and wild pigs on the island. The goats had successfully been exterminated or trapped and removed and the pigs were in the process of being exterminated. The professional hunter (I forget his name) employed such tactics as using a helicopter to spot and shoot these animals. A ruger mini-14 was the weapon of choice. Based upon the fact that the extermination lasted years (and could be going on now as the conservancy wanted to remove the mule deer on the island after the pigs were wiped out) I would say that if there was a Bigfoot it would have been seen and word would have gotten out one way or another.


The island was scoured for goats and pigs for years... Bigfoot if there should have been spotted. As far as bigfoot swimmig to the island well the mainland is pretty much one gigantic city now so its not as if there is a wildlife preserve he could go back and forth from.

I did take a wonderfull buck on the trip and a small pig as well. We almost went back a few years ago but instead have been going to Oregon for deer and elk.

If bigfoot lived there he would be very angry b/c his legs, arms, and especially butt would be FULL of cactus thorns. My deer's forlegs were peppered with spines in the legs and it must have been a painfull way to live.

I totally agree this sounds impossible, but someone on this board told me to always keep an open mind and out of the box. Before the Spanish came there were native Americans on these islands. How did they get there? dugouts? reed canoe-rafts? does anyone know? They were hunter-gatherers too. Were their capabilities any greater than BFs? How can we be sure? There is a debate about whether BF is human, humanoid or ape, isn't there?

What does BF know, how does he think, perceive, make decisions? What is he capable of? Where does he come from, where does he hide? How does he travel? Does he hitch hobo rides on freight trains? or does he just famously run everywhere?

What I do know is that I know almost nothing about BF, who may have already captured one, and if so what might have become of it. For example, could there have been a small Jurassic-Park style compound somewhere on the island where one was being kept, so that if it escaped it could be confined to the island?

Goats, deer , pigs, snakes, thorns..inhospitable, isolated but not that dissimilar from Siskyou County and food a plenty for BF.

I disagree with your assertation that Catalina is like Siskiyou county. Siskiyou (ok I live here in California and misspell it so sorry everyone) is mountainous with a forest canopy, many square miles with no usable roads or means of getting into an area except by foot or horseback. Catalina has roads all over, is wide open country and is surrounded by lots of deep water.

I agree that collectivley we know jack s**t about BF or even if it exists but if BF was as advanced as some credit it why in the hell haven't they evolved to the point where they are living in BF villages versus living a primitive hunter/gatherer type lifestyle. Man made that jump many thousands of years ago.

here's a play on the Gilligan's Isle theme


Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale,
a tale of a fateful trip.
That started from the San Bernadines'
with a mild pacific dip
The mate was a mighty swimming fan,
a sasquatch brave and sure.
twenty miles left to swin that day,
a three hour tour, a three hour tour………

The weather started getting rough
he backstroked to the rocks
if not for the courage of this fearless beast
he might have bit the dust, might have bit the dust

He hit ground on the shore of this tourist desert isle,
with Goats at bay, plenty of pigs too
a Million tourists, run for your life
no dense place to hide, or bigfoot bride
here on Catalina Isle.




on a more serious and less far fetched note - BF have been spotted swimming out to the remote islands off of British Columbia. Fish, tidal pool creatures, etc would be plentiful food.
Bob Timus searched in many of these area on foot and by sailboat

then again much lower population and very dense forests there

To put some perspective on it I would compare it to BF living in Central Park in New York.

There was another report that I read someplace about a guy camping in Soutern CA (about 2 miles from my house) and a "small" bigfoot went through his tent and took his flashlight and went off swinging through the eucaliptus(sp?) trees, another one of my fave's because it just seems so out of place.

Nowhere is it written that bipedal hominids have to evolve into civilized creatures. If it hadn't been for a mutation or two that made anatomically modern humans just a little bit smarter than the competition, we wouldn't have "advanced" much either. Gathering and hunting worked for millenia. Villages didn't really get started until the coming of agriculture some 11,000 years ago. Modern man's been around for 200,000.

Chimpanzees make tools and use them, make sleeping nests and have culture, of sorts, but they don't seem to be doing much farming. The differences between them and us may be in how we use the proteins.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/...61013104633.htm

There's nothing to indicate our ancestors or any of the other bipedal apes got any "further" than the chimps.

Yeah, 22 miles does seem highly unlikely, it would be like swimming the English Channel. I was wondering if maybe Bigfoot had an aversion to water? Seeing as they often reek to high heaven or is this more of a defense mechanism similar to which skunks employ? I've never heard of any reports where Bigfoots were taking a dip or escaped by swimming away but there might be some I suppose.

Its not just the distance that makes this unlikely. You also have to factor in the giant swails that occur in that part of the ocean, coupled with the water temperature being very cold. Add that to the shark infestation in those waters, makes this whole thing seem very very unlikely.

I'm not so sure about that eldonkey, just look at Polar Bears !!!!

It would take years because the number of animals or that you can barely hit the side of a barn with a mini-14?

Yes I'm aware of that. My point was that some people on this board and in the world of BF mania will argue that they are supremely intelligent beings and on par with humans. Personally my assumption is if they do exist they are a variation of an ape with ape like intelligence vs. a hairy ape who talks physics with Steven Hawking.

As far as the mini 14, there was/is a number of animals on the islands, light recoil and also the large magazine capacity was why it was a weapon of choice.

Could one be there? Anything is possible including I winning the lottery Saturday night. The % of probability imo is very low from being there and driving around on parts of the Island the average tourist never sees.

I guess he could have taken the ferry...



Any other way seems too difficult and unlikely. Swimming seems out of the question and I doubt that he floated over on a log. Lots to doubt about this one, too bad we do not have access to the person making the report.

Did it it sense that an island was out there or was it content on swimming to Japan? Does bigfoot make a habit of swimming out into the deep blue ocean in hopes of discovering land??

:doh: :doh: :doh: I could maybe entertain the thought of a bigfoot swimming across a river a hundred yards wide but to venture out into water with no land in sight!! I seriuosly doubt that!

First again I find it very hard to believe that BF could be found on Catalina for all the reasons others have pointed out. BUT I have been admonished to keep an open mind, so I am trying. As for my overbroad Siskiyou comment, I only meant to point out that Catalina island has some things in common with parts of known BF habitat in N Cal like Siskiyou and Humboldt and Trinity counties, viz., pigs=pigs and goats=ungulates for BF forage, and that both are inhospitable. Of course the topography is entirely different.

I believe it was the Chumash tribe that occupied the islands when the Spanish first arrived. I have no idea how they got there but I assume they obviously built sea-going craft. The Pacific Islands were being populated as much as 20,000 years ago by men with large sea-going dugout sailing catamarans, and some of them may even have reached California. Many of the California Indians who survived into the 19th century looked nothing like Indians east of the rockies. We really don't know that much about them and after the Spanish came most of them died from disease.

I understand there was a higher density of Indians in California than elsewhere in the US ( at least after smallpox and other diseases wiped out the Mississippi tribes before the Europeans even got there). I believe the estimate I read was that there were around 200,000-300,000 Indians in Californa when the Spanish arrived. The California tribes were all hunterer gatherers. They left nothing behind other than acorn grinding mortars and arrowheads. They made the finest baskets ever made but burned them at death of the owner. There are very few surviving examples of the baskets. None of the California Indians engaged in agriculture except in the broadest sense; they did burn large areas to promote native seed bearing grasses from which they collected seeds with their baskets, and they took care of their acorn bearing oak trees, which in parts of California were subject to individual family claims. I have always assumed that the indians protected their acorn "crops" from squirrels by shooting the squirrels out of the trees with arrows, but have not read anywhere that they did. There are early Spanish reports of whole families of California grizzley bears climbing oak trees to graze on the acorn bearing branch tips. Therefore the Indians competed with the bears for acorns salmon steelhead, etc. The first Spanish explorers reported many of the natives were horribly scarred from bear maulings. Someone figured out that the reason the California Indians did not engage in agriculture was that the it took less caloric work to hunt and gather a unit of protein here in California (year round mild weather in most of the state) than to grow corn and beans equal to the same unit of protein. Some did live in villages, but the villages were not permanent and seasonally moved from food source. to food source (salmon spawing stream to seed meadow to acorn oak savannah to bay flats for shellfish). There were also some extremely primitive triblets that had little or no culture. I believe the well known Ishi was the last member of one of these tribes

So what does this have to do with BF? It seems to me that the California Indians and BF competed for the same food and may have had similar survival strategies. I am not sure where that takes the discussion except to say that only 200 years ago the humans in California were almost at the same level of existence, and therefore because BFs seems to exist at so low a level does not prove they are dumb animals. The Indians in California did not have to evolve beyond that so they did not. If we want to keep an open mind, we should perhaps entertain the thought that BF may have cognitive powers, may be capable of learning new things, and developing new strategies for survival. Even my dogs learn new things all the time relative to food getting and staying safe from harm. So as supremely unlikely as it seems to me, and as much as I am disinclined to admit it, I suppose a BF could have figured out a way to get to Catalina Island if it had a reason for doing so, and it appears there is forage there to sustain it.

So....the general feeling is that BF might exist....but definitely not on Catalina Island. Got it.

I remember about a year or two ago a program on (I think) the History or Science Channel about a small version of the Mammoth that lived up until a couple of thousand years ago on the Channel Islands. And I think Catalina was one of the islands that had a population of these "pygmy" Mammoths. One of the last places on earth the Mammoth survived until it completely died off. So the program showed that large animals could get out to the outer islands off California.

This is not to say that a bigfoot could, or would make the same journey. Just that large animals did make the trip at one time.

And there are a number of reports of b.f.'s in rivers, lakes and the ocean. A number of these are recorded in the book Raincoast Sasquatch. Plus some more reports in Northern California. So bigfoot can and has been seen in water. As the reports of sasquatchs on the British Columbia coastal islands indecate. The question is - How far would they venture off coast. A question that will only be answered by a bunch of tourists on an Alaskian or B.C. ferry.

I understand that PAS but.............

Is Vancouver Island visible from the mainland ??

Are the Queen Charlottes visible from the BC Coastline ??

I ask this beacause these are legitimate questions as i have never been anywhere near BC but belive that BF exists on both !!

Polar Bears, i believe, venture far out in their Swimming quests BUT always stick close by to Land/Ice..

I can't believe I read thru this entire thread and no one responded to AudioToms song!! Dude you should write jingles for commercials or something, then again it might be cause it's late and I'm tired, and I really needed a good laugh, not to mention I was a big Gilligan fan!! Nah, that's not it, that was a good song!! Now I'm off to bed... Goodnite all. Bob

I read a report somewhere the other day, in which an Aleut tribal elder witnessed an exhausted sasquatch swim onto the shore of an isolated Aleutian island, and collapse. The thing laid there for 4 days and the people didn't know whether it was alive or dead. Then, the thing regained its strength, got up and walked into the interior of the island.

If we can assume that bigfoot would have at LEAST the endurance of man when it comes to swimming, a 22 mile swim should not be out of the question. There have been over 1100 successful crossings of the English Channel by human swimmers which is 21 miles at it's narrowest point. The question I have, and maybe someone can answer, is "Can you see Catalina Island from the coast"? It seems that at 22 miles the island would be over the horizon and it would not visible. If it's not visible what would prompt bigfoot to swim in that direction in the first place? I'm sure he didn't browse through some travel brochures and simply think it would be a nice place to visit and take a few days off from foraging and hiding from man for a vacation.

This was my point exactly!





If Sas is on that Island, I don't think he got there by swimming!

How many of you have been to San Clemente island? Wild place, very wild.

I cannot locate a story I read some time ago about a creature that swam out into the Gulf of Mexico and was seen by a couple of guys on a boat. They followed it for 29 miles according to them but can't remember where I saw it...so if anyone happens upon it, let us know. It's very intriguing to say the least.

Sunflower

That's interesting about the Channel Islands, if correct. Could you be referring however to the report of pygmy mammoth fossils found on large islands in British Columbia? Also, I'm only an interested amateur on these matters, but during the various ice ages lots of water was locked up in ice sheets so the sea level was much lower, the California coastline further west and many of what are now islands were part of the mainland.

I agree that BF has often been seen in and around water (e.g., surfacing among duck decoys in a B.C. report, at the water's edge I believe in a Smith River sighting, and on numerous beaches). To me that makes sense because so much relatively easily available protein sources are in and around water - shellfish & spawned out salmon, etc. However it is a very large leap and a very big deal to somehow get across the 26 miles of the Ventura channel. Unless BF is also the creature from the black lagoon (now that I think of it there is a resemblance isn't there!) I would say a swim is at the outer limits of plausibility. If on the other hand, BF was, for reasons unknown to us, determined to get there, and if we can imagine BF has some imagination and cognitive abilities, I guess I could be convinced that BF could figure out a way to do it. This presumes that he could imagine a reason to go to such great effort to get to a place that you can only barely see over the water, and looks like a bare rock at that. Now that I think of it, it might be hard for BF to estimate distances over water and I suppose it's possible that BF somewhere along the line learned that seabird eggs are a good food source and that they are available on rocky islands close off shore. Hmmm.

In one issue of The Track Record, there is an account of the crew of a shrimp boat in the Gulf of Mexico, off the west coast of Florida, being 20 miles offshore and coming upon 2 bigfoots swimming. Could that be the story you are referencing?

Yes you can see it from the coast but in order for SAS to get to the coast he would have to travel through some very thick suburbia. The only possible route he could travel from any wilderness area is via the Santa Ana riverbed. Even 30 years ago still a longshot. People do make the swim every once and a while to promote something or for whatever reason but the coast of Catalina is pretty rugged not alot of sandy beach to stroll up on after your 20+ mile swim. I do remember reading where they found a deer swimming out to the island it was about a mile out plugging away when it was "rescued". I am not so sure animals can judge distances like that so even if they can see it how would they gauge weather or not they can make it. Any reported sightings on the Catalina Express?

Savage,

Yes, I think that's the one. I'll check the Track Record later. Thanks.

Sunflower

This is the way I look at this BF and Catalina. If I wanted to be hidden on Catalina Island, I could do it. I could make my way around this island and remain unseen, yet I could not imagine how a breeding population could. I can not also figure how one single creature got there in the last 50 years. That channel is very busy. Anything like a big hairy ape man swimming from So. Cal beaches would have been spotted. If BF got there, he got there before WW2. That would make him more than 60 years old.

Being a native Californian raised in socal, I find it hard to believe there is or ever was a bf on Catalina Island. Several things lead me to this conclusion. First of all, lack of adequate ground cover, lack of land, where did this bf swim from if it did this, Long Beach Harbor? Finally, the Native Americans could barely find enough food on the islands and eventually left them, so food supply is very limited. Though this bigfoot story is a good read and the writer appears sincere, I would have to say, I just don't think it is possible a bigfoot inhabits Catalina or any of the Channel Islands. JMO

Maybe he is retired.... :biggrin:

I'm not a fan of this scenario by any means but I will allow a remote possibility that a BF could swim from island to island under the cover of night to search for food. I mean if pigs, goats and mules have roamed Catalina over the years, it may just be an easy hunt for BF since the animals are trapped on an island. Kind of like an In & Out Burger that BF can make a midnight run when he gets the munchies.

Yeah I was left wondering if it was an island hop scenario, but don't know enough about the area to know if one of the islands in that area at least is near enough any plausible wilderness corridor, or BF highway. But if greater LA pretty much blocks the waterfront miles up and down, then there's still not much hope. Though I wonder if he could have come from the mexican side, might have been trying an alternate route to the PNW from Mexico, if he decided the border had become too much trouble.

strike ONE -- if you're going to tell people about an intimate experience that you believe to be true, this is the last statement one would begin with simply because it contradicts any resemblance to "truth".


strike TWO -- recently, i fell compelled to disbelieve you why would anyone feel "compelled" to come forward with a story of this nature? i would feel compelled to tell you the world is ending next week, but compelled to tell you i once saw a BF? sorry fella.


strike THREE -- if you actually saw a BF, either you would come forward or you wouldn't. if you did, would you include in your story with a testament to your mental health?

big.Feet:

I have not been here for very long, and by "here" I mean this forum, BUT I have been here long enough to know that you won't be posting long if you keep posting with that tone. I am not trying to be a dik here, and it seems like you want to contribute in the search for the truth about bigfoot, but I think you might want to show others some respect. If you disagree with one's post(s) then do so in a somewhat professional manner, calling someone out on strikes in not very respectful and I can see a reminder of the posting guidelines coming in your direction.

I am sure you are getting frustrated with some of the opinions posted here, let me tell you that you are not alone. There are different views on nearly every topic, but most respectfully disagree without trying to belittle another member. Those who do take the negative approach are not around long. I can see some intelligence within in your posts and would like to hear what you have to contribute, but I am affraid I will not get that chance if you don't change the manner in which you post.

This is just some friendly advice, so I hope you don't take it the wrong way.

I've never been to the island but have flown over it going in and out of John Wayne. NO WAY are you hiding a Bigfoot on that island.

I dont think he means any disrespect by the "3 strike" method,its kind of a way that people pick apart a story,which is what he was quoting, the Catalina guys story. Anything that is put up here must endure extreme scrutiny and it will be relentlesly picked apart,be it a picture,a sighting report,or any experience and if it holds up then I think you gain some credibility in the internet Big Foot world, wich combined with $3 could get you a loaf of bread.

I understand what you are saying, and maybe some people don't take what was written as disrespect, but I guarantee some do see it as disrespect. I could see in big.Feet's very 1st post they seemed to rub DDA the wrong way, and I think the words and phrasing one types can be easily misinterpreted if not carefully written. It's not like we can see facial expressions or body language on a message board to tell what tone the post was meant to have.
Like I said I am just trying to give some advice to be careful how one words a post.

Catalina is easily seen from the mainland on a clear day.Indians or BF's would not be sailing blind.Plenty of wild game to eat but I wonder where a BF would get a good drink of water.Water has to be brought over by Ferry most the year.

As far as game goats, pigs, deer, and the buffalo were all introduced within the past 100 years give or take. What did the big oaf eat before then? Not saying its not possible just not likely.

http://regsourcejobs.com/catalina.html

To update the source. Goats are gone and very few pigs if any are left I presume.

I am a SoCal native and have spent several summer camps on the island, as well as diving extensively around the island. I think it is highly unlikely BF was spotted there. First, all the large mammals that exist there were imported. The Indians that used to live there ate seafood. While it is possible BF swam there, all the nearby mainland is urban Los Angeles, not a likely source for roaming bigfoot. There is little water, and little ground cover. Most of the island is grassland, with low scrubbrush and some scrub oak stands in the valleys. The island is only a couple of miles wide, with a hilly spine down the middle. As you boat around the island, you can see the whole of your side of the island. There are many campgrounds within walking distance to Avalon and Two Harbors, the two main ports. There are also many camps and anchorages around the island. The rest of the island is easily accessible to day hikers. Central Park is an apt comparison. Most likely the poster heard the snorts of the common wild pig, and saw some man who was trying to hide from him for some reason; probably taking a pee or smoking a joint. Now if the original poster has said Cocos Island in Costa Rica, I might believe him.

Not sure about the Charlottes, but Vancouver Island is less then km from the mainland at it's northern point.
Also there are a hundreds of smaller islands beween us and the mainland... easy to island hop if your a bear or a BF.

Earlier this year a grizzly made it to the island.. not the first time from what I hear

TKD