Found this report on the Southern Oregon Bigfoot Society webpage

http://www.sobsresearch.com

November 14th-16th 2003 Expedition Results
This expedition was to be our first winter expedition in our 3+ years of Bigfoot research. This outing proved to be very rainy, wet but more productive than we thought it would be, or soon we would find out. Friday night proved to be challenging due to the weather and putting up a new tent in complete darkness, it was chilly in the air and the wind chill didn't help any. I built a fire for our members to de-frost to while setting up for the weekends chilly activities. After a 2 hour battle we managed to get the tent up into a similar shape as the instructions requested, all was well or so it seemed. We blasted out some screams into the canyon and listened for sounds echoing from the canyon back at us. The rain came and went and came again, the usual weather for this time of year. A cold front had moved in and the wind blowing up the canyon put a damper on movement except for under the cover of a sleeping bag and three layers of clothing tossing and turning to get warm.

The rain pelted the tent until it could take no more and that's when the flood gates opened up inside the tent, everything was soaked as the water flooded in from all sides of the tent. It's at this point most people would ask themselves Why am I doing this I must be crazy? This trip was for hard core members, not the ones that run to hide when a sprinkle drizzles down upon your head. There is a point though where you know you must be insane for doing this in this rancid weather, but hey “there are worse hobbies, and after all this is Scientific Research”.
After surviving the night we assembled the group and headed to the baitpiles to check on the cameras, business as usual right?, not this time. When we went to look at the camera at our end baitpile we couldn't believe what we found. The camera had been un-tied from the tree and opened up and laid down on the baitpile face up, film in and batteries in place. Next to the camera was an empty Mackerel can that had been chewed on with some impressive bite marks on it. This can was laying next to the camera on the baitpile. The camera showed no chew marks or sign of being dragged along the ground, it had been taken off the tree and placed on the baitpile, possibly as a sign of aggression? If a human were to do it then why not just steal the camera altogether? Why not take the film?
The can suggests the animal played there a while. We believe that the flash disturbed the animal enough to cause it to take it off the tree. You must be able to have thumbs to untie a knot, and you must have thumbs to open the case on this camera, and since it was not forced open there is only one answer it had to be the Bigfoot. The evidence left on the can suggests a strong bite and the hairs caught in the can will have to be analyzed to see if indeed the animal that bit into the can was indeed Bigfoot. The day progressed as usual and we dried out our gear for another night of rain and pure hell with the weather and tried to ponder the reason why a Bigfoot might mess with our camera. Night fell on Saturday and we found ourselves getting closer to the fire the harder it rained, we just love the mucky weather. It was around 11p.m. and everyone retired at the same time as we didn't get much sleep the night before with the wet tent and bone-chilling temperatures. Only after about 1-2 hours of laying there half asleep we heard a rustling of a tin cup and a grunting noise “bear perhaps”? The creature heard us asking what was that noise? Then it went silent for awhile. Later we thought we heard something circling our tent and then something acting like it threw something at the tent then “crunch” “what was that” then LARGE HEAVY FOOTSTEPS RUNNING AWAY FROM THE TENT! We heard 5-6 really heavy footsteps running away down the road! I hurriedly put on my boots and in my pajamas I took chase, but in vain as this guy was FAST! I noticed it was strangely quiet and foggy but the moon gave the appearance of light for about 50-75 feet. John was right behind me and we looked for tracks, but the saturation level was compromised with the soil, so it was impossible to see conclusive tracks. We all heard the Bigfoot take off, it sounded like an earthquake. Now it all made sense in my mind the can, the camera, the Bigfoot running off. Curiosity will get us to capture him on film, but he is evasive, very evasive! This is the ultimate roller coaster ride one minute your down and the next you're up…up…up…

We retired for the night once John got back from trekking down the road for a bit to hopefully get a visual but the animal was long gone once again, scared off by human voices, but curious enough to check us out. The next day we checked the area well and loaded up the baitpiles and headed out to resume our weekly human duties, all the while wondering why is Bigfoot so curious but yet so elusive, only time will tell.
Raymond Rosa President S.O.B.S. November 18th 2003

This suggests that although the camera was opened up and the film exposed to the light, it may have gotten off at least one shot before it was untied from the tree. I wonder if they had the film developed to see if they could at least get any vague images from the film?

Sounds like an exciting weekend, anyway!

Sometimes, with all these close calls one reads in these field reports, I almost get the impression that humans are the ones being researched by them, or at least they like messing with humans. LOL

BIGFOOT: "First, we'll untie the camera and set it on the "bait." Then, lets throw a few things at their tent for good measure, that'll really freak 'em out. Wait awhile, sneak into camp and walk around loud enough so they can hear us. As soon as you hear a human jumping up in a panic, RUN!"

(I know, I am being sarcastic) :rolleyes:
It isn't anything against the researchers. They are really doing the best they can with what they know seems to work so far. And I really have to applaud their efforts!! These guys and gals are out there exhausting themselves to search for that "big guy" we are all so fascinated with.

It just seems that these creatures may by far be much more intelligent than we think. I am sure they know much more about us than we do them.

I used to work at a zoo many years ago. The head keeper felt the gorillas were getting too bored in their compound. So, to liven them up a bit, a large, thick rubber ball (about the size of a hoppity-hop) was put in their compound. (a little mental stimulation, I guess)
We had 2 male gorillas in the compound at the time. Tino was the large male silverback of the 2. (He was da man!) We were all sitting there watching him to see what he would do.

He approached that ball with extreme caution. With the other gorilla watching and seemingly ready to flee. Tino circled that ball for quite sometime. I guess to make sure it wasn't going to move or jump. He finally, ever so carefully reaches out a finger and touches that ball, just enough for it to move. They both ran away some distance eyeing that ball the whole time, but this just piqued their curiousity even further. So an hour or so goes by with Tino approaching that ball and touching it, the b*lls moves slightly, Tino backs off. I guess he finally realized that ball wasn't going to do anything, so he beats on his chest in gorilla victory and ignored the ball afterwards for the most part.
(They later did play with the ball a little now and then, but really lost interest quickly)


Sorry I've rambled. But my point is when I read a field report like this one Mr. Tug has been so polite to post for our perusal, and I've read several that are similar in that there was "something" there, but no visual. It reminds me of that ball and Tino. They may be testing us out of their own curiousity, just to see what we do next.

Or, I am just another jackass out here pondering nonsense.. lol

I really love this report.
It shows the lengths people will go to to research BF. It shows planning, committment, and analysis. And it shows the willingness to share the experience which I for one really appreciate.
But IMO it also shows a fundamental weakness that many people who research BF have. In their minds the culprit is BF right out of the box and there isn't much thought about what else it might be.
As much as we would like this to be a BF event there is no proof (at this point) that it was.
Could it have been BF?.. yes.
Could it have been human? .... yes.
Were the events at the baitpile and tent even related?
Are the can and the camera found on the bait pile the work of the same enitity? Could be but perhaps not.
The splashing footsteps ....could they have been human or BF or some other animal entirely?
What was it that hit the tent? ( I have slept in tents and had forest debris land on them many times. If it is windy and wet and you are sleeping under or near trees it happens more often than not.
What was the crunch? Was there any evidence of disturbance? Were there any prints at either the bait piles or the tent that made it conclusively BF?
Please don't get me wrong. I applaud this type of effort. And it is possible that the events were all related and the BF conclusion completely sound.
All I am suggesting is that it is worthwhile to subject each aspect of the multiple incidents to individual scrutiny. Look for what else may have been happening. Look hard for the most likely explanation. And BF is not it! One could still come to the same conclusions as the SOBS have. Just be careful not to make the leap of association that seems so apparent in this report.

BUT!
If it was BF, then I think that leaving the opened camera on the baitpile was a great touch. I don't think it could be interpreted as aggression, rather as a "we know you want to see us .......neener, neener, neener! NO WAY! We are smarter than you are....neener, neener, neener."
What a clever move.

Again it would be interesting to see if any of the shots were developed!! It might be a good idea to put a camera up high, like about 30-40 feet so really there would be no chance of "sabotage". My thoughts anyway.

No chance of sabotage huh? Talk to DDA about that.

Go to page three of this thread...
DDA's game cams or what's left of them.

why the hell werent they using night vision equipment????? thats like going fishing without poles!!!! DUH!

So these guys are recognizing trees with cameras in them and knocking them down? Seems mighty strange. How about multiple cameras in one location? All facing each other so if one camera is effected, we can see how it happened? Were the cameras damaged?