Now 34, from the age of about 9 I hunted every weekend I could. Deer, dove, duck, rabbit, etcetera. Well, looking back on all those times I entered the woods at night, spent the whole day in the woods - I recall numerous times I would hear something walking, clearly - it was a bipedal walking through the woods. Well, I would hear it to a certian point and then nothing.....eerie! Other times I heard wood knocks and didn't know enough to think anything about them. Now, I am very....scared, for lack of a better word - of the woods at night. Not to sound like a wuss, I still venture out to hunt from time to time, but I always have my .357 Glock, handy. Is this stupid, I'm a grown man and I find a love/fear type obsession with Bigfoot. Does everyone feel something similar - is the thrill of this unknown creature approaching you, at night - while his senses are heightened (I believe these animal possess unprecedented sensory perception - example: sharks can sense blood in the water miles away.....I think BF can sense the mangentic forces that are emitted from batteries in cameras or similar equipment. Hence the reason for photos [especially by those cameras you place in the woods and leave] being so difficult to obtain of these creatures) Or, am I just a candy azz who finds these so called 'gentle giants,' very intimidating and the thought of crossing ones path in the deep woods very daunting? After reading all the encounters where someone is camping and they awake to footsteps and heavy deep breathing - this is one heck of a precarious position to find ones self in - But I digress with the point that I would love, cherrish the chance to see a Bigfoot. I guess I'm just curious wether others find the same paradox within their viewpoint. Thanks. GB :hide:

Fear factor discussion.

On some/many level(s)I'm scared as hell of a sasquatch. I have no idea how I'd react if I was suddenly confronted with one.
I hope to find out.


RF

Here's a thing about hearing bipedal walking in the woods.

Once my wife and I went camping. Right after we'd set up the camp and gotten into the tent we started to hear very heavy footfalls.. stomp.. stomp.. like someone deliberately being loud. We were a little worried because before we started out someone warned us about the "Parkway Killer".. It was getting dark, but still light enough to see, so I told my wife to get ready to run, and I headed out the front to confront the very heavy footed person I expected to find. By this time he had worked his way to the back of the tent, about fifteen feet away. I turned the corner and RIGHT THERE WAS..

A black bear. He was slapping his front feet on the ground on purpose. I didn't know that they did that, but I've seen them do it.

So not every time you hear heavy footfalls is it necesarilly a BF.

I've also been stopped in my tracks while walking in the woods.... (never said anything to my field group about it 'cause it's so dumb! )

Several times I'd hear some noise from behind me and to one side. Every time I stepped, I'd hear the noise. Didn't really sound like a crunching in the brush, more like a muted thud. When I stopped, it would stop. Finally I realized that it was something in my backpack shifting and thudding with every step I took. I've often wondered if anybody else has ever mistaken sounds like that, and reported it as being shadowed in the woods.

Big C,
If you are seriously worried about something bipedal (and I think it is hard to determine if the noises are bipedal or not most of the time) following you in the woods at night - be very careful, odds are astronomical that it will be human not BF related.
Carrying that gun doesn't make you safer really, if your concern is BF. I think it makes you more likely to make a serious error in judgement.
You of course are the best judge of your temperment and your ability to remain cool, but a buddy might be a better altenative than a gun.
Just MHO.
Jan

dbdonlon,

Whitetail deer will also stomp their hooves. They seem to do this when aggravated by a particular situation. (I.E., They know you're there... and they don't like it, but their not ready to run, and they want everyone else to know.)

I have had deer stomp at me a lot, and I always get a kick out of it. (Although... I might not think it's so funny to have a "Bear" stomping my way!)

The bear thing is cool! I didn't know that bears stomped their feet!

Donnie

I used to solo hike and camp in the Olympics and Cascades, sometimes up to a week or more at a time. Now I'm spooked in the woods in broad daylight....slowly working my courage back and I only arm myself with a blade anyway. But I do know the feeling and it's not a 'candy azz' thing.

Ha! Well I would never camp alone because then I'd have no one to talk to.. except myself. But I can't hold my own interest all that long.

Donnie, I was as surprised as anyone to find out the stomping had been a black bear. Had I been thinking about BF at that time, I probably would have thought that's what it was, and never left my tent! As it turned out, we were surrounded by black bears all night. Most of them were small, but it was enough to keep me awake until the wee hours..

The stomper was good sized. Bigger than a big dog, but not the biggest bear you'd ever seen by any stretch.

big C, don't sweat it. I was raised in the woods (East and Central Texas), and I get spooked out there sometimes, too.

These days, I spend quite a bit of my time as a field investigator for BFRO and TBRC. Every time I go out in the woods in the search, I get a feeling not of fear, per se, but more of an adrenaline buzz. It's the coolest thing. It's the same kind of feeling that I used to get when launching on a mission in USAF. Now, I do go out armed - not so much because of big, honkin' hairy primates, but because of big, stinky, mean, wild hogs.

But I don't think it's a big deal for someone to admit when they're spooked. I've definitely been spooked before - and it's a nasty feeling. It's kind of a helpless feeling, like, "oh my gosh, I'm not in control here."

One night, when Alton Higgins and I, along with my wife and stepson were staying in some cabins in an extremely remote area in Southeastern Oklahoma, I definitely got spooked. And it was down to my core. I was armed to the teeth with a .30-30 and a Desert Eagle, but I still could not shake the feeling.

The place of our research is deep in the Kiamichis, and it takes no less than three hours just to get there from the closest highway. The road in is rocky, very steep in places and replete with strewn branches and logs, not to mention huge, sharp rocks. It can be treacherous just riding to the research area.

The second night we were there, I got a little spooked after we retired for the night. About 4am, my wife and I were awakened by what sounded like rocks or hickory nuts hitting the side of the cabin. We lay there for about twenty minutes, just listening. Every ten - twenty seconds, something would tap on the side of the cabin. We finally decided to get up and investigate. As soon as we got up and the floor creaked, the sounds stopped. We looked out the window but could see nothing but the thick deciduous woods that surrounded the cabin. We turned on the lantern and took turns going to the bathroom. It was then that I pulled all the shades on the windows in the entire cabin. I was downright spooked. Alton had awakened and kind of chuckled that I was covering the windows and said while grinning, something like, "What? You don't want sasquatches peering in the windows?" I told him, outright, "Nope." He just grinned.

After we got back into our bunks, and turned out the lanterns, the taps resumed. Finally, I remember going to sleep still listening to those sounds. Later, my wife and I heard the taps again, before rising. Once we got out of bed, the taps stopped.

Once it became light, we went outside to determine the source of the sounds. My wife stayed inside while I threw the hickory nuts onto the side of the cabin. That was exactly the sound we had been hearing through the night that had stopped only when we stirred to get up.

I was definitely spooked that night, Big C.

Do I get scared? Yes

Although I know only beeing in the woods, activly looking for it and finding it or evidence will satisify me. That far outweighs my fear.

On our last Michigan trip we split up in groups and went on long walks in the middle of the night. I was in a group of 4. I was sick, weezing, and breathing pretty hevily. I am only 5'7", Nuclearice has to be about 6'6", Rabidmonkey is about 6'4", and another member of the group was no small guy. I was constantly wondering if a bear, cat, etc was in the mood to naturally thin out the pack. I knew that I would have been their pick. That was a little unnerving.

I think the fear thing might also be another variation of wht you alluded to: BF (as well as other animals) might have perception abilities beyond our knowledge. In many of these encounters, you read about people's hair literally standing up even when there is no sensory evidence that something is watching them. I think we've all experienced it; we suddenly turn around and make eye contact with someone who has been looking at us. My guess is that there are some innate survival instincts at work--and these encounters might trigger those instincts, hence the fear factor.

Not to mention the absolute weight of sitting in the middle of the woods on a cloudy, moonless night--very frightening even when you're armed!

I completely understand your fear. I have always been scared of the woods in the dark, but have just dealt with it while hunting. When I had my encounter a few weeks ago, my buddy and I had a 30-30 and 7mm but I was still scared out of my mind. It will be hard for me to go hunting while the sun is still down, but I guess I will have to learn to overcome that fear, as I am sure running into bigfoot again isnt good odds.

Mike

- Well, I would never shoot first and ask later. As a hunter for 'many a years' I clearly identify anything I even think @ shooting. I honestly wouldn't want to shoot a BF. I would only do so if I felt my life or the life of my family was threatened. And you are probably right on time @ the footfalls not being a BF...but, what was it? The odd smells, the times where I heard something very loud, not a tree rat or possum or racoon...it was something big and it was close and I never saw a thing. Never heard it leave, nothing. ----I am glad to hear that I am not alone in my....shall we say anticipation of the woods. It is just a little un-nerving to know these creatures are so intelligent and so illusive. Therefore, I will carry my Glock and consider it to be a very reliable buddy. GB

Fear in the woods, good topic.

Wondering out loud, is anyone’s fear derived from a simple thought, “that you WANT to either see or hear something”? Having sat alone in the woods a number of times, you do tend to hear a lot of different sounds. Or as I have realized and never paid much attention to this, sometimes there is a true dead silence. Neither of which I have ever considered to be unusual.

But going back to wanting to either see or hear something, depending on ones imagination, given this subject; Bigfoot, do people psyche themselves up or out? If, and I haven’t, so I may approach this much differently, you’ve had some kind of experience that has affected you in the past, this will add to your perceptions. Once you allow fear to enter into this equation, you’re going to be jumping at every sound and seeing something peering behind every bush. The very reason we see so many blobsquatch photographs, people who want to see something, so every shadow becomes a monster! Adding the dark of night, whistling winds and the ruffling of leaves or brush, this situation just continues to compound.

Just like hunting, once you settle into a blind or find that perfect spot. You (should) settle down and become very aware of your surroundings. I know in my experience, which I will admit is limited, you tend to react to every sound. Be it the crunch of leaves, wind whipping through the trees, causing them to ruffle or pop and crack. Add to this your senses become heightened because you “want to see something”. Once while deer hunting at my fathers, just before daybreak, I became very alert to the sound of heavy slow steps to side, along a neighbors fence row, I became very alert, turned out to be a donkey, just grazing his way through the morning. Still a 4 legged animal, just not the one I was looking for. I was expecting something and allowed myself to become psyched.

In all this, I’ll say, I don’t particularly care for being in the deep woods all by myself,. Although it’s for reasons more than seeing or meeting something other than what I know to be out there.

Well, my fear factor has signifigantly decreased through two methods. 1: I got control over my imagination. I must maintain this control, as my imagination is quite active and easily slips its leash. When I was a kid it ran so riot that I couldn't look out the windows at night. 2: The sheer volume of bigfoot reports I've read. Very few of them creep me out now, and most of those that could be frightening I find a bit silly and somewhat tabloid-ish, although not always. That one about the bigfoot "smiling" at the kid and motioning him to come outside... yeah, I think that would definately be a case of locate the front sight and fire for effect. Still, every time I have to go out in the dark I'm armed. If I bumped into a bigfoot I'd be scared. For one thing, this is a very large, powerful animal that could easily tear me limb from limb if it wanted to. For another, it would fit the qualifications for all the mythological ogres/giants/grendels and as such it would set off a very deep-seated, ativistic (and wholly human) fear.

When I was thirteen or so, we lived on seventeen acres in MD, with one next door neighbor, and then no one for miles in any direction. I used to walk out in the back woods and just keep going in one direction to see what was out there. This was in the mid 70s, and there was nothing out there.. except squirrels. I wasn't afraid then, but this was daylight too. And I had reasons to think my house was scary..

If BF was out there then, he kept his distance. But some BFers speculate that their numbers have been increasing in the East for the last 50 years or so. Could be the population density of BF in MD was not high at this time, which meant no one had to live anywhere near me. If they had, they could have gotten chickens, goats, fresh produce, dog food, and whatever I was carrying at the time..

I think it's all a fear of the unknown. Getting lost mainly.

The woods aren't like the Urban streets where you know most of the time what you're going to encounter and what to look out for.

I am reminded of the movie: "The Village." Those of you who know about it, know what I am talking about. It all takes guts, and, overcoming fear.

Mankind has the ability to overcome fear when he applies it. Otherwise we would have never discovered the New World or taken voyages to the bottom of the sea or into space.

Fear is something that is within one's head. Fight or flight response.

One wonders if anyone has ever had a friendly encounter with BF. One of where some kind of social welcome and hello is exchanged. It may be something like a simple barter...where both parties are present the entire time.

I think BF is afraid of mankind, just like mankind is afraid of BF.

Only the man who truly has enough guts to overcome fear of BF will be able to prove his existence.

Scariest sound I've ever heard in the woods? Hearing " Dueling Banjos".... Nuff said.

"You sure got a purdy mouth."






RF

THAT area is my third fav place on the planet
I was there duing a full moon, and the shadows, the sounds , the stream, the screams, simply awesome !!! I parked about a mile away and backpacked in the rest of the way. I hope to return one day. BEST d*mned spring water i've tasted .... sandstone filtered ya know
The owners are THE most friendly i've met in years.


Woods fear - the longer you stay out there, the more familar youll become with the normal night sounds of the forest, the less fearful you'll become.
Fear is in the mind. It exists only because you allow it. Therefore, if you dont allow it to be, it can NOT be. Then it doesnt exist.

I maintain a healthy respect for the Big Guys. I know they wont hurt me unless i provoke it. Therefore, they are not a threat, so have no fear of them. Well ... except for that dream i had, of them running over me in the dark because they didnt see me, crushing me into the leaves with those enormous feet

Worried?
you shoulndt be. Maybe a little but on the most part...no. I have always been interested about bigfoot myself. I really got into reading and talking alot about bigfoot last spring. I was wondering how I would act when I would venture out for the first time this year hunting. Well when it came my wife made remarks like watchout for Bigfoot and I bet you will be watching your back. But when the time came I was not worried at all. Pitch black woods and swamps and nothing. Bigfoot is really the last thing on my mind. Noises that I hear get me excited thinking of deer or hogs. Being around this site for a while really puts the Bigfoot fear factor in the back of my head. I now hope that I would see one some day.

High-larry-us!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Love it!