May 2008

NEW MEXICO 05/08

The areas of interest for the Searching for Bigfoot team, on this visit, were a bed and breakfast inn just outside of Farmington New Mexico, on the San Jaun river, and up in the Lukachukai mountains just over the border in Arizona.

Being in the “Four Corners” region of the United States, we could easily run between Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, and Colorado. We spent the majority of our time in New Mexico working with our good friends; Leonard Dan, JC Johnson, David Ortiz, Jonny Lee, and Raymond Malhman of the Crypto Four Corners research group.

We were very excited to be back with our Dine’ friends in this beautiful part of the world. The Navajo Nation (Diné in Navajo language) is a Native American homeland covering about 26,000 square miles (67,339 square kilometres, 17 million acres), occupying all of northeastern Arizona, the southeast portion of Utah, and northwestern New Mexico. It is the largest land area assigned primarily to a Native American jurisdiction within the United States. The Nation encompasses all things important to the Navajo people: the land, kinship, language, religion and the right to govern themselves. Members of the Nation are often known as Navajo (or Navaho) but traditionally call themselves Diné (sometimes spelled in English as Dineh) which means Navajo people.

The 2000 census reported 298,215 Navajo people living throughout the United States, of which 173,987 were living within the Navajo Nation boundaries. 131,166 lived in Arizona and 17,512 of these lived in Maricopa County, which includes the city of Phoenix. Because the Navajo Nation encompasses land in three states, its Division of Economic Development extracts census data for the Navajo Nation as a whole, and sends a representative to the Census Board. Another group lives on the Colorado River Indian Tribes reservation along the Colorado River in California and Arizona. The reservation also completely surrounds the Hopi Indian Reservation; the Hopi tribe is also known as “Navajo Land Island”.

We began our expedition by interviewing a few of the local people about some recent sightings in the area. The first place to visit was the: Silver River Adobe Inn B & B http://www.silveradobe.com 3151 W Main St, Farmington - (505) 325-8219
Owned and operated by David Beers and Diana Ohlson.

One of our contacts, Jim Jasso Jr. and his partner Kimber Badoni had shared an encounter with JC Johnson who writes: “I’ve guided on the non-commercial non-populated sections on the San Juan River for over six years now. Over the years we have witnessed many a strange situation in and near the river involving our furry friends. Our prospects of having a thriving river running outfit were dashed on the rocks when we had regular visits from furry upright walking homonids in our river camps. Many a guest of ours went home with memories of a sleepless night, and feelings of terror. This is not something beneficial to print in a brochure, or to drum up business.

It came as no surprise to me, when a friend of mine (Jimmy) and his wife reported that they had seen something large, black, hairy, and upright, standing in the middle of the river near a sand-bar behind the Bed and Breakfast!

’We were not looking for anything. We were just driving by, and saw this massive thing standing in the water and looking up-river.’ said Jimmy.

Here is Jimmy telling his story to Anne Mc Cormick of KRQE-13 News

I then told Jimmy; Take these binoculars, go back and give the area, a real good once over. I wanted them to be sure of what they had seen. When they returned, they informed me what they had seen was gone.”

The Searching for Bigfoot team went to the point up on the highway to see the area that Jimmy had seen from the road. Next, we headed on down to the B&B to look at the river closest to where Jimmy had his sighting. There we met with the owners of the B&B to get permission to film from their property.

The view from the road and our hosts from the B&B

David and Diana, the owners, were more than gracious and not only gave us their permission, but offered to take us to their property on the other side of the river to aid our investigation.

We all loaded up in the trucks, our team, the local news, David and Diana, and even David and Diana’s grand kids to check things out from the far side of the river.

The bottom, possible haul out, and the B&B thru the bushes

On the other side of the river, we could clearly see the area Jimmy had described. We had a view of the B&B and found a clear patch of river bottom where it appeared that the creature might have been heading.

Keeping our eyes open and checking for game trails, we finally found what appeared to be a “haul out” site.

JC and JavaBob giving the "grandkids" some pointers on what to look for... imprints at the "haul out" point... and where something came out of the game trail away from the river!

Although we did find a lot of physical evidence that would suggest that there had been some type of bipedal creature coming up out of the river, verifying Jimmy's sighting, there were no prints or other evidence that was clear enough for us to make a positive decision. Jimmy's sighting was, by now, a week old. We decided to move on out to our next sighting in the area.

We decided to go back out to the Lukachukai mountains and investigate the area where a few short weeks ago, our own TJ Biscardi saw something high up on a ridge, that he could not identify.

We thanked our hosts and packed up, heading towards Arizona and the mountains.

Lukachukai, a Diné, (Navajo), word translated as "Many White Reeds" is the birth place of our good friend, “Chief” Leonard Dan. (We refer to him as “Chief” because of his wisdom and tracking abilities). We headed on out to Leonard's family land to attempt to find a way to get up to the area of TJ's possible sighting. (See our last visit at: NEW MEXICO MARCH 08 )

TJ and Steve Kulls checking out the area where TJ had his unusual sighting on our previous trip to New Mexico

Chief Dan told us that some native sheep herders had filled in some of the wash-outs going up to the “saddle” where TJ’s possible sighting took place. He said we may be able to get up to it if we were lucky and if our vehicles could hold up. We made the decision to give it a try!

Before heading up we though we should make a quick stop and check out the cave we had found the corn husks in on our last couple of visits. The KRQE-13 News crew went on along with us to document what we might find at the cave and also, what we might find in the mountains, if we could make it that far up.

We drove out to the cave area and our team and the KRQE-13 News crew hiked up to the entrance of the cave to check it out. It was a very dry and hot day and hiking in this area was not easy, especially for someone hauling up the heavy equipment needed to film what lied ahead. However, Louis (the camerman) and Anne of KRQE-13 had no issues with following Tom Biscardi and his crew up the hills and into the cave!

The team climbing up.. meeting just inside.. and coming out the other side of the mountain..

While at the caves, we discovered a few more corn cobs that had been carried inside to be eaten. Although there was not much evidence inside the cave, we did find some very telling signs outside and near by. There had been a recent rain that left the steep sides of the dry mud covered mountain sides streaked by water run off and clear of any other markings. It was on these freshly "erased" sides that Rex Houdyshel of the Searching for Bigfoot team, found some of our most compelling evidence.

Tom and Rex pointing out the new climb marks and footprints found in the mud!

With a weather front moving in, it was time to leave the cave and attempt our climb up the Lukachukai to the area Chief Dan calls the "Saddle". We parked the trailer and packed up all we might need into the truck. The News Crew packed their equipment into their four wheel drive mini SUV and we headed off to the mountains. Our thinking was that if we could get to the area by late afternoon, we would be able to stay until early the next morning. We kept a close eye on the weather via our GPS systems.

We had to drive from the desert floor to over 9000-ft up the mountain!

TJ and Annie Mc Cormick on a "cool down stop"

About two thirds of the way up, Rex Houdyshel caught a quick glimpse of something large and grey that disappeared down a ravine as we drove past. We stopped the truck and got out to investigate the area, but were unable to find enough physical evidence to verify his sighting. We did find a possible hand hold at the edge of the ravine, but not clear enough to be positive, so we continued our climb.

After several more hours of "white knuckle" four wheeling, we made it to the "Saddle". An area just at the base of a sheer wall of vertical volcanic rock formations that harbors the only permanent water source for many miles around. The "Saddle" is a small, flat area with many trees and clearings at the base of the rock wall.

Once there, we set up a base camp and began to investigate the area. TJ and Rex Houdyshel headed up towards the rock wall to investigate some small caves and other possible areas of habitation. The rest of us monitored his progress from the base camp.

TJ and Rex where only a short way up towards the rocks when Tom Sr. and a few others noticed a large black animal of some sort, in a tree near TJ and Rex. What ever it was, was clearly monitoring TJ and Rex's progress. We radioed up to TJ and Rex so that they could get a closer look.

What ever was up the tree, climbed down and quickly disappeared into the underbrush. TJ and Rex kept searching for at least another 1/2 hour, but found no sign of it. By now, the rest of us had started up to help in the search. Several of the team began finding large prints in the soft powder like dust that covered the rock hard soil beneath it.

We found at least a dozen partial prints and several full prints as well. They were all intermingled with elk prints in the same area. We marked some of the prints with rocks and climbed back to get a camera.

One of the better full prints we found! ... Note the radio for size comparison..

The print we show above measured 20" long and 9" wide across the splay of the toes. We measured a stride of over eight feet!

As we were checking for more prints, we got an alert that the weather front had moved into our area. We wanted to stay, but safety comes first and we knew if we got caught in a storm up on the mountain, we could not get back down for several days. We packed up and headed back down towards town. We knew we would be back again, but had to head out towards Alabama for our next mission.

LUKACHUKAI MONSTER... YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE LAST OF US YET!

ALABAMA 05/08

After our exciting time in New Mexico, we headed to Alabama to meet with Mike Clark. Mike is a native of the area and has been following the "Skunk Ape" for over 20 years. According to Mike, who we refer to as Dr. Mike, the "Skunk Ape" is a different animal than the "Big Foot". Dr. Mike tells us that this animal is similar, but has a much more aggressive attitude and slightly different foot prints. He tells us that there are "Bigfoot" here in the Alabama and Florida bottom areas, but they are found much less often than the more common "Skunk Ape".

Some photos of a plaster cast that Dr. Mike had made in the past..

The river bottom areas here are made up mostly from the drainage of the CHOCTAWHATCHEE RIVER ( “river of the Choctaws”)and the PEA RIVER. Starting in the swampy wetlands near Clayton in Barbour County, the east and west forks of the Choctawhatchee River travel through boggy stretches of beautiful bald cypress with Spanish moss and a host of deciduous and evergreen trees. In fact, the forks run through an area with more species of trees than any other forest in temperate North America. It is one of the longest free-flowing rivers remaining in Alabama.

Near Ozark and Newton, the forks merge to form the Choctawhatchee River which flows generally southwest for about 48 miles to Geneva, Alabama. Its main tributary, the Pea River, joins it below Geneva.

PEA RIVER; The Pea River basin drains an area west of the Choctawhatchee River. It rises in Bullock County southeast of Union Springs Alabama and is the largest tributary to the Choctawhatchee River.

The river flows southwest in Alabama for about 68 miles to Elba, then south for about 30 miles to the west of Samson, then gradually turns east and dips slightly into Florida before joining the Choctawhatchee River just south of Geneva, Alabama. The total length of the river is 128 miles and drains an area of 1,452 square miles. The total drainage contains more than 2,328,000 acres.
We took a quick tour of some areas of both the Choctawhatchee and Pea Rivers to get a general lay of the land.

To the left is the "Little Choctawhatchee", to the right is the "Pea", all join in the center to form the CHOCTAWHATCHEE RIVER

Here is Greg Worthington, another of our local contacts, alongside of Leonard Dan
We began our search in earnest after hearing Dr. Mike's stories and looking over his extensive notes from the past two decades, we decided to team up with some of our local contacts, Chuck Creel and Mike Sims, and get our butts out into the swamps where Dr. Mike believes the creatures are living. Mike Sims has a large flat bottom boat that we were able to use. Dr. Mike has a canoe and Chuck has a smaller flat bottom boat. We strapped them all together and were able to carry all of our equipment between them.

After seeing how well Mike Sims was able to thread us through all of the snags sand bars, we changed his handle to Captain Mike. Now we are able to keep the two Mikes straight. We have Dr. Mike and Capt. Mike!

Our crew; Dr. Mike, JC Johnson, Leonard Dan, TJ Biscardi, and Chuck Creel...
along with Capt. Mike

We took our band of intrepid adventurers deep into the swamps on the Dead River, near the Alabama / Florida borders and began fighting the mosquitoes and chiggers to look for signs of our elusive friends.

The type of area where our search began... We were looking for islands and haul outs where we might find prints or other signs of a large hominid type creature feeding or moving around.. (even a picture of me, JavaBob , because I don't just take pictures!)

After a few hours exploring the swamp, in the 80 degree heat with 99% humidity, we found some islands that showed game trails moving on and off of them. We pulled up the boats and climbed ashore.. The ground was mushy and muddy and almost completely covered with signs of wild feral pigs. We saw hundreds of prints of smallish pigs and one set of a very large pig. Our Navajo tracker, Leonard Dan, said this one pig must have weighed from 800 to 1000 pounds! We knew if we found any tracks in this type of terrain, that they would have to be very fresh because the area was so turned over by the work of the pigs. We hiked about for several hours when TJ found a line of tracks that were unlike anything we had ever seen before! The tracks were not very clear, but they were from something bipedal with a stride of about 42 inches. We took pictures, but they did not show up very well in the low light and rainy conditions. I show here, one of the better views and the same photo with an approximate highlighted outline of the print alongside of the original.

We talked to many of the local people to see if they knew of any strange goings on in the general area. Most of them told us they did not, however, most people told us they would occasionally hear very unusual screams late at night that no one could identify. We set up a camp to see if we could hear anything unusual that evening. We sat up listening all night sitting by our campfire and enjoying some fresh caught cat fish for super.

The fire, our only source of light and warmth.. and TJ cooking our fresh fish..

The locals had also told us about a person who lost some pigs to an unknown animal. This person had called the Fish and Game people to come and help identify what ever was taking their animals. The Fish and Game came out to investigate but could not identify what ever it was. They instructed the locals not to discuss what was going on here???? The next day, we tracked down the people who lost those animals. They are Loyd and Ann Stinson who own a small store on the highway near the Dead River. We went out and met the Stinsons and interviewed them. They agreed to share their story on the Bigfoot Live Radio show. You can hear their story live on the May 21st 2008 show, 7pm PST! (http://www.bigfootliveradioshow.com) If you miss the live show, it will be posted in the archives as well.

Ann Stinson with TJ and her husband Loyd behind the counter of their local store

We are still in Alabama and continuing our investigations. Follow along with us as we follow up on other reports from local residents who have seen or heard strange things in this wonderland of swamps, bayous, and river bottom lands!

Written by JavaBob - posted by JavaBob

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