http://www.thewavemag.com/pagegen.php?page...articleid=22651
QUOTE
Cable television addicts will recognize Scott Herriott as the former anchor of TechTV’s defunct nightly program, Internet Tonight. But the road-comic-turned-broadcast journalist leads a double life. When he isn’t slaying audiences at comedy clubs or making one of his semi-regular appearances on CNN’s Newsnight with Aaron Brown, Herriott spends his free time investigating the existence of Bigfoot.
As a curator for the Bigfoot Field Research Organization (BFRO), Herriott has led dozens of expeditions into the forests of the Pacific Northwest, including a memorable trip in 1992 during which he claims to have videotaped a Sasquatch hiding in a bush. We caught up with Herriott a few days before he was scheduled to take a camera crew on a helicopter expedition over a remote area of Northern California.
The Wave: Tell me about one of your Bigfoot sightings.
Scott Herriott: Actually, I’ll first tell you about a “hearing.” I went camping knowing that the odds were against [having a sighting]. I had just started dating this girl, and at the very least it’s a nice camping trip. Lo and behold at 1:15 in the morning – this is like 8,000 feet up in the southern Sierras – I’m woken up by this just incredibly loud siren-like bellowing scream, which I would estimate was about 1/3 to 1/2 mile away. No one knew I was going there on that specific date. And it was just loud, man. It didn’t sound like a bobcat or any kind of bird. It sounded a lot like what I had heard on tapes of purported Sasquatch screams. And it wasn’t just one scream; it was like seven or eight. Whatever this thing was, it sounded big. It sounded huge, with a gigantic lung capacity. And I can honestly say it was the most scared I’ve ever been in my adult life. It was so loud and so scary that we literally dragged the tent to the car and drove 20 miles down the mountain. It was unbelievable.
TW: On another expedition, you and a friend were hiking with video cameras when you came across a possible Bigfoot.
SH: We’d been hiking for about two hours up this nasty 45-degree angle thistle-ridden hill. No trails. Creepy. All of a sudden I noticed, about 40 feet up the hill there was this dark patch of dense vegetation, part of which I could tell was a log that was on the ground. It was very dark and I peered into the darkness and noticed what appeared to be these two big brown eyes just staring out of this darkness, locked onto us. Daryl [the friend] saw it and we started videotaping. It was definitely an animal and the face appeared to be pretty big, but it was shadowed. All you could see was the reflection of the eyes. So we’re videotaping this for about 10 minutes. At this point we’re not freaked out. Maybe a little freaked, because Bigfoot is on our minds. But this thing was not acting like a bear. It never took its eyes off us, it just locked on. We decided, “Why don’t we try to get this thing to move a little bit so we can see more of it and get it on video.” So I take one, maybe two steps towards this thing, and God as my witness, the eyes of this animal gave off this reddish glow. You could see the eyes dilating. And when I say glow I mean like a bioluminescent shine. Not like you’d see at night with a deer or a dog or a cat. You know how red an exit sign is in a darkened movie theater? Imagine 2/3 of that brightness coming at you. It was like Christopher Lee’s eyes in a Hammer film. It was like “Holy f*ck!” So that stopped us dead in our tracks.
TW: What was it?
SH: This was obviously a fear response from this animal, a warning or whatever. As soon as I saw that – and after I changed my underwear – the probability that this was a Sasquatch increased, because if you read the stories, this reddish eye glow is commonly reported. It was there, dude. That stopped us in our tracks; we didn’t have a gun. It was a little freaky. I then got the idea that we should separate and if we do that it will think we’re trying to surround it, and as a result maybe it will get up and move and we’ll get some real videotape. So I start moving and all of a sudden I hear Daryl say, “ Uh, ok.” His voice has gone up about an octave. He videotapes for about more 30 seconds and all of sudden the video camera goes limp in his hand and he starts crying, “We gotta get outta here, man!” He was really shaken up. It was looking right at him.
TW: What did people think when you showed them these videos?
SH: At the time I was doing stand-up comedy, which is the worst profession if you’re interested in Bigfoot and want people to take you seriously. I still have the videotape and it was shown on an A&E Special called Bigfoot about seven or eight years ago.
TW: Since you’ve already been a subject of Bigfoot documentaries, what made you decide to start making one yourself?
SH: There have been a lot of good films about Bigfoot on Discovery and TLC, so I was just trying to think of a way to do something new. About seven years ago I made this little 22-minute thing called Journey Toward Squatchdom, which is totally comedic. If you watched it and didn’t know me, you might infer that I don’t believe Bigfoot exists and that I’m making fun of everything that’s going on, when in fact that’s not true. I interviewed the real fringe guys. The guy who had 14 sightings and the guy who every time he goes out he finds a piece of a skeleton. I love comedy and I love the challenge of taking this topic and having comedy with it and trying to convey the seriousness in a comedic manner. It’s a paradox. I just find it pretentious when people go on and they’re really, really serious about it. So that’s the goal: a documentary about my interest in it. And the thrust of it is basically going on little mini-expeditions with people that I know who have varying degrees of belief on the subject. We go to different areas and talk about Bigfoot. It’s like My Camping With Andre. I shot one with TechTV’s Surf Guru Ed Marquez and it was great.
TW: What other kinds of expeditions have you taken part in?
SH: I’ve done some called blastings. Another member of the BFRO, John Freitas, has this huge stadium speaker. He had a CD made of gorilla calls and alleged Bigfoot calls. We blast out the calls and then listen for a response. I admit we haven’t heard anything responding back.
In 10 days I’m going up with a helicopter crew and we’re going to fly over a few areas. I have a certain theory on where to look, and where possible Sasquatch nesting areas might be. The odds of encountering a Bigfoot are astronomical, but if they make these nests, those things remain for a long time.
Mainly, you gotta go and just be in that area. Actively searching usually decreases your chances. You’ve got to go to an area and let them come to you. You’re not going to trounce through and find them. When I go out on foot, I have four cam-trackers. They’re devices that deer hunters use. They’re 35mm cameras with an infrared sensibility that you can chain to a tree. You put ‘em up and you can leave them for up to five weeks and they’ll take up to 36 pictures night or day with flash. Those have been effective.
TW: Do any of your expeditions involve attempts to capture a Bigfoot?
SH: Oh, no. Let me go firmly on the record: I am against the capturing or killing of Sasquatch. Then again, if I was alone and starving, I would hammer one like a flank steak. And you can quote me on that. Seriously, though, the only reason I could see for doing that would be for helping it. But it’s not just Sasquatch, the older I get the more I hate zoos. Who are we to do that? Just let the f*cking things live. The thrill of it is just to try and encounter that which is rare. And that it’s a difficult task. And when you throw in the element that it’s just something that a lot of people just don’t think is real, it gives it an extra charge, and it helps to sustain that sense of wonder.
TW: Are you surprised that more people don’t believe in Bigfoot?
SH: Nah. Part of the problem is the name. We don’t have a non-goofy sounding name yet. There’s “Bigfoot.” That will always be goofy. “Sasquatch” isn’t much better. I call them “Squatches,” ‘cause I like it, but it’s still goofy. We need a serious name. Why don’t we call him “Rumsfeld?” If the name weren’t as goofy, it might help the credibility.
TW: Most people won’t be convinced until one is captured. Do you foresee that happening?
SH: I’m not sure one will be captured. When other “Bigfooters” talk, we ask, “Well, what’s the most likely scenario of discovery?” And it usually comes around to a Sasquatch being hit by a car. That’s much more likely, I think.
TW: How does Bigfoot rank against his nemesis, the Loch Ness Monster?
SH: Actually, I have become very skeptical of the Loch Ness Monster phenomenon. I was very much believing that it existed and then I saw a really good show and it offered some explanations for some of the things people have seen. And then I witnessed for myself one of these phenomenon that they talked about. I live on the water and I was walking and I saw this wave. It was three humps, it was kind of moving from left to right and then it kind of disappeared. I thought, “Oh my God, you would totally think that was Nessie!” I leave open the possibility it could be real, but I’m very skeptical.
As a curator for the Bigfoot Field Research Organization (BFRO), Herriott has led dozens of expeditions into the forests of the Pacific Northwest, including a memorable trip in 1992 during which he claims to have videotaped a Sasquatch hiding in a bush. We caught up with Herriott a few days before he was scheduled to take a camera crew on a helicopter expedition over a remote area of Northern California.
The Wave: Tell me about one of your Bigfoot sightings.
Scott Herriott: Actually, I’ll first tell you about a “hearing.” I went camping knowing that the odds were against [having a sighting]. I had just started dating this girl, and at the very least it’s a nice camping trip. Lo and behold at 1:15 in the morning – this is like 8,000 feet up in the southern Sierras – I’m woken up by this just incredibly loud siren-like bellowing scream, which I would estimate was about 1/3 to 1/2 mile away. No one knew I was going there on that specific date. And it was just loud, man. It didn’t sound like a bobcat or any kind of bird. It sounded a lot like what I had heard on tapes of purported Sasquatch screams. And it wasn’t just one scream; it was like seven or eight. Whatever this thing was, it sounded big. It sounded huge, with a gigantic lung capacity. And I can honestly say it was the most scared I’ve ever been in my adult life. It was so loud and so scary that we literally dragged the tent to the car and drove 20 miles down the mountain. It was unbelievable.
TW: On another expedition, you and a friend were hiking with video cameras when you came across a possible Bigfoot.
SH: We’d been hiking for about two hours up this nasty 45-degree angle thistle-ridden hill. No trails. Creepy. All of a sudden I noticed, about 40 feet up the hill there was this dark patch of dense vegetation, part of which I could tell was a log that was on the ground. It was very dark and I peered into the darkness and noticed what appeared to be these two big brown eyes just staring out of this darkness, locked onto us. Daryl [the friend] saw it and we started videotaping. It was definitely an animal and the face appeared to be pretty big, but it was shadowed. All you could see was the reflection of the eyes. So we’re videotaping this for about 10 minutes. At this point we’re not freaked out. Maybe a little freaked, because Bigfoot is on our minds. But this thing was not acting like a bear. It never took its eyes off us, it just locked on. We decided, “Why don’t we try to get this thing to move a little bit so we can see more of it and get it on video.” So I take one, maybe two steps towards this thing, and God as my witness, the eyes of this animal gave off this reddish glow. You could see the eyes dilating. And when I say glow I mean like a bioluminescent shine. Not like you’d see at night with a deer or a dog or a cat. You know how red an exit sign is in a darkened movie theater? Imagine 2/3 of that brightness coming at you. It was like Christopher Lee’s eyes in a Hammer film. It was like “Holy f*ck!” So that stopped us dead in our tracks.
TW: What was it?
SH: This was obviously a fear response from this animal, a warning or whatever. As soon as I saw that – and after I changed my underwear – the probability that this was a Sasquatch increased, because if you read the stories, this reddish eye glow is commonly reported. It was there, dude. That stopped us in our tracks; we didn’t have a gun. It was a little freaky. I then got the idea that we should separate and if we do that it will think we’re trying to surround it, and as a result maybe it will get up and move and we’ll get some real videotape. So I start moving and all of a sudden I hear Daryl say, “ Uh, ok.” His voice has gone up about an octave. He videotapes for about more 30 seconds and all of sudden the video camera goes limp in his hand and he starts crying, “We gotta get outta here, man!” He was really shaken up. It was looking right at him.
TW: What did people think when you showed them these videos?
SH: At the time I was doing stand-up comedy, which is the worst profession if you’re interested in Bigfoot and want people to take you seriously. I still have the videotape and it was shown on an A&E Special called Bigfoot about seven or eight years ago.
TW: Since you’ve already been a subject of Bigfoot documentaries, what made you decide to start making one yourself?
SH: There have been a lot of good films about Bigfoot on Discovery and TLC, so I was just trying to think of a way to do something new. About seven years ago I made this little 22-minute thing called Journey Toward Squatchdom, which is totally comedic. If you watched it and didn’t know me, you might infer that I don’t believe Bigfoot exists and that I’m making fun of everything that’s going on, when in fact that’s not true. I interviewed the real fringe guys. The guy who had 14 sightings and the guy who every time he goes out he finds a piece of a skeleton. I love comedy and I love the challenge of taking this topic and having comedy with it and trying to convey the seriousness in a comedic manner. It’s a paradox. I just find it pretentious when people go on and they’re really, really serious about it. So that’s the goal: a documentary about my interest in it. And the thrust of it is basically going on little mini-expeditions with people that I know who have varying degrees of belief on the subject. We go to different areas and talk about Bigfoot. It’s like My Camping With Andre. I shot one with TechTV’s Surf Guru Ed Marquez and it was great.
TW: What other kinds of expeditions have you taken part in?
SH: I’ve done some called blastings. Another member of the BFRO, John Freitas, has this huge stadium speaker. He had a CD made of gorilla calls and alleged Bigfoot calls. We blast out the calls and then listen for a response. I admit we haven’t heard anything responding back.
In 10 days I’m going up with a helicopter crew and we’re going to fly over a few areas. I have a certain theory on where to look, and where possible Sasquatch nesting areas might be. The odds of encountering a Bigfoot are astronomical, but if they make these nests, those things remain for a long time.
Mainly, you gotta go and just be in that area. Actively searching usually decreases your chances. You’ve got to go to an area and let them come to you. You’re not going to trounce through and find them. When I go out on foot, I have four cam-trackers. They’re devices that deer hunters use. They’re 35mm cameras with an infrared sensibility that you can chain to a tree. You put ‘em up and you can leave them for up to five weeks and they’ll take up to 36 pictures night or day with flash. Those have been effective.
TW: Do any of your expeditions involve attempts to capture a Bigfoot?
SH: Oh, no. Let me go firmly on the record: I am against the capturing or killing of Sasquatch. Then again, if I was alone and starving, I would hammer one like a flank steak. And you can quote me on that. Seriously, though, the only reason I could see for doing that would be for helping it. But it’s not just Sasquatch, the older I get the more I hate zoos. Who are we to do that? Just let the f*cking things live. The thrill of it is just to try and encounter that which is rare. And that it’s a difficult task. And when you throw in the element that it’s just something that a lot of people just don’t think is real, it gives it an extra charge, and it helps to sustain that sense of wonder.
TW: Are you surprised that more people don’t believe in Bigfoot?
SH: Nah. Part of the problem is the name. We don’t have a non-goofy sounding name yet. There’s “Bigfoot.” That will always be goofy. “Sasquatch” isn’t much better. I call them “Squatches,” ‘cause I like it, but it’s still goofy. We need a serious name. Why don’t we call him “Rumsfeld?” If the name weren’t as goofy, it might help the credibility.
TW: Most people won’t be convinced until one is captured. Do you foresee that happening?
SH: I’m not sure one will be captured. When other “Bigfooters” talk, we ask, “Well, what’s the most likely scenario of discovery?” And it usually comes around to a Sasquatch being hit by a car. That’s much more likely, I think.
TW: How does Bigfoot rank against his nemesis, the Loch Ness Monster?
SH: Actually, I have become very skeptical of the Loch Ness Monster phenomenon. I was very much believing that it existed and then I saw a really good show and it offered some explanations for some of the things people have seen. And then I witnessed for myself one of these phenomenon that they talked about. I live on the water and I was walking and I saw this wave. It was three humps, it was kind of moving from left to right and then it kind of disappeared. I thought, “Oh my God, you would totally think that was Nessie!” I leave open the possibility it could be real, but I’m very skeptical.
