|
 Thank you to all our Veterans! |
|
|
|
Table of Contents
Home
Links
Our sponsors:
An ATTORNEY You Can Count On!
click logo for info
click logo for info
To learn how the finest nutritionals on planet Earth can help you get what you want Click Here
Contact: Jan Terry
760-635-5645
Other site links:
Chat11's Bigfoot
Cryptozoology @ Hive
AnswerSleuth's Bigfoot
[Java Bob's Bigfoot Deli]
Home
Links
|
SEE THE MOVIE EVERYONE IS TALKING ABOUT  Purchase the DVD by clicking the picture
|
Our sponsors:
CYBERSIZZLE
click logo for info
Hola!
A FINE PLACE TO EAT with three locations to serve you!click logo for info
WANT FREEDOM?
Financial, Health & TimeTo learn how the finest nutritionals on planet Earth can help you get what you want Click Here
Contact: Jan Terry
760-635-5645
Other site links:
Chat11's Bigfoot
Cryptozoology @ Hive
AnswerSleuth's Bigfoot
[Java Bob's Bigfoot Deli]
Other facts: Popular movies in 1958 included Half-Human, The Abominable Snowman of the Himalayas, and I Was A Teenage Werewolf, starring Michael Landon
Source: [Searching For Bigfoot]
NEW MEXICO 06/08
LUKACHUKAI MONSTER... YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE LAST OF US YET!
That is how we left off our last visit to the Lukachukai Mountains... We had taken a trip up to the "saddle" and found some tracks, but the weather forced us to leave early. Now we are back with a plan to stay or be chased away by the creature! Our contacts in the area; JC Johnson, Jonathan Lee, David Ortiz, and Leonard Dan had shared stories with us about several groups of people, even teams of hunters, who had dared to go up to the "saddle" and spend the night. All of these people had been chased off the mountain by groups of creatures throwing rocks and making loud and scary noises! The Searching for Bigfoot team wanted to see if we could be chased off the mountain too! We thought it would be a great opportunity to get some quality pictures of the creatures or even attempt a live capture!We were very excited to have the opportunity to get this close to our subject and could hardly wait for the opportunity to attempt this encounter!
You can clearly see the "bones" or vertical pillars of granite that form the plateau of the top of the mountain, another 3000+ feet above us. At the base of those "bones" is a small saddle of land that is flat enough for us to camp on. That is the area where all the action has taken place in the past. That is the area we wanted to get to and see if we could be chased away from! Our problem now, was to find a way up to those areas and bring all of our equipment with us. We needed to pack and carry all of the supplies needed for our team to remain on the mountain for at least a week. That included our food and water (at least 200 pounds of water alone!), all of our high tech equipment, batteries enough for a week, clothing and all of our tools and camera gear. We had to bring enough for our four man core team, the two camera men that would stay the first two days, and two additional men scheduled to come up on the last two days of our expedition.
On the morning of Saturday, 05/31/08, we checked the weather for the upcoming week. We found that there was a 20% chance of showers for the coming Thursday for areas far north of where we were headed, but clear weather predicted for the upcoming week. So we headed up the mountain. There were no roads to follow for much of the journey. We followed some old sheep herder trails and washouts for most of the trip. Fortunately, this was the area where Leonard Dan was born and had grown up. He was able to guide us to our destination with only a few detours created by washed out creek crossings and broken down bridges. This trip was definitely a four wheel drive adventure and would take a great deal of patience and know how to accomplish! We had our work cut out for us!
We worked our way up about 2/3's of the way and took a short break. We wanted to stretch our legs and allow the trucks to cool down a bit before pushing on up the mountain. We could begin to see just how far up the mountain we had traveled. The view was quite spectacular. There were no sounds other than the ones we were making and a feeling of isolation was beginning to surround us. I have to admit, it was a little spooky!
About 5 hours after we started, we finally reached our first base camp. We set up as quickly as possible to get ready for the cold night we expected. The area was relatively flat with lots of scrub oak hugging the mountain side and broad flat areas below that with grasses and cactus patches spread evenly through out the "saddle". There were plenty of food items growing around us and a good source of water about 1/4 mile down the hill from our camp. The Navajo tribe had put in a well for the sheep herders some years earlier. All in all, good areas to sustain a large primate like the one we are seeking.
We began checking all of our gear as we unloaded it from the truck. Much to our surprise, most of a large battery packs were very low in charge, even though they had all been fully charged the night before? Also, all six of our radio signal infra-red remote cameras failed to work? This was very strange to us and an issue we had never faced before? There clearly was something unusual about this area! Leonard Dan, our guide, who is also a geologist, theorized that there must be some geological annomolies in this area that effect the electronics of some of the equipment.
We couldn't let any of this stop us, so we made due with everything else. Our trip cameras were working, my hand held night vision camera worked, all of the night vision equipment checked out OK, the radios worked, and the thermal imaging equipment was all in good working order. We were able to recharge the battery packs directly from the truck and so we made due with what we had available.
The weather was hot and dry with a slightly cooler breeze dropping down off the mountain plateau behind us. JC Johnson, Leonard Dan, Louis Gonzales, and David Ortiz all set up their tents. TJ Biscardi and I made ready to sleep in the camper shell on our truck. The shell is insulated and there is a four inch foam pad on the bed of the truck. This makes for a reasonably comfortable sleeper while we drive in shifts and when we stop in areas like this.
I started a fire some distance away from our sleeping area and TJ began digging a blind facing the fire. We had heard that the creatures came out at night and surrounded the camp fires of previous visitors and created such a commotion by throwing rocks and banging sticks or rocks together, that the people there would pack up and leave the area in fear! If they were to surround the fire, we wanted to be where we could see them clearly, so the blind seemed like a great idea. We would man it in shifts while the rest of the team went about there normal activities or slept in their tents.
We did a quick check of the area looking for any unusual markings or signs before settling in for the night. We found the prints still in place from our previous visit. They were still as we left them, although just barely visible now. We didn't see anything unusual any where around the camp, so we settled in. We grabbed some MREs and enjoyed some camp fire time before TJ Biscardi and JC Johnson began the first shift in the blind while Leonard Dan and I would sleep for four hours before our shift began.
We readied ourselves for the night to come. We manned the blind along with night vision equipment, cameras, spot lights, thermal imaging equipment, and bionic listening devices. The rest of us did all we could do to appear like normal campers. We joked around the fire and before climbing into our tents and sleeping bags, we put some bacon on the rocks around the fire. The smell of the bacon should help draw in any curious animals.
It was hard to sleep that first night, but we did our best. To our disappointment, nothing happened to any of us. Nothing showed up at our fire and no unusual noises were heard by anyone... The only thing that happened was that soon after sun down the wind picked up drastically and raced through our camp. We did not know if this was normal or not, but we simply ignored it. From the blind, the only animal observed was a coyote checking out our camp.
Perhaps our guests would appear the next night???? Maybe, we had to spend enough time on the mountain to make the creatures feel threatened by our presence? We would have to sit tight to find out.
The morning came early as the sun rose and began to heat everything up to an oppressive searing heat. We got up and began searching the area for any new signs of our "friends".
We split up into teams and spent most of the day getting to know our general area. Some of us hiked over to the edge of the saddle, away from the wall of granite to our back. We got to the edge of the saddle and found it to be nearly as steep as the wall to our rear.
Other teams went into the scrub oaks to look for any signs. They found that at one time, very large rocks had fallen from the wall of granite behind us and come to rest in or on the trees below. The trees had been broken down by these rocks and then grown back up around them. We could see how much danger we were in if any more rocks might fall, or if our friends might push down rocks on us from above!?! It gave us all reason to be a little bit more apprehensive, but we had a job to do and agreed to take the risk.
The steep walls behind us were made up of many loose boulders and rocks. We would have no place to find shelter from them if they were to break loose and begin to roll on down towards us. We had to think about the wisdom of our choice of camp site. However, for the time being, we decided to stay at least one more night at the base of the wall of pillars behind us.
We prepared to settle in for our second night on the mountain. The plan was the same as the night before. However, this time we set up some trip cameras in the area where the coyote had been spotted the nigh before. We wanted to attempt to get some pictures of it this coming night, so we baited the area with some sardines and a few MRE entries. We manned the blind again and put more bacon on our campfire to attempt to tempt our "friends" to come pay us a visit. As afternoon came upon us, we noticed that there were more animal noises around us. It was as if the forest was beginning to accept us and coming to life. We even had some visitors stroll through our camp. They were free range cattle and they didn't seem to care about us at all!
As the afternoon moved on the wind began to grow even stronger than the day before. As it grew, our fears of rocks being dislodged grew along with it. We planned on staying a few more days at this spot, but it was becoming clear to us that decision might just be a little fool hardy. We started looking for another location that might be a little more sheltered from the wind and a little bit removed from the direct line of any boulders coming our way...
We made the decision to stay tonight, but we would move camp in the morning. We finally settled in for the evening, it was too windy to go out into our blind, but we had already set up our trip cameras and we moved our night vision equipment and thermo image equipment to the back of our truck. We positioned the truck so that we could keep watch on the fire pit area throughout the night. The rest of the team climbed into their tents and attempted to get some sleep through the raging wind storm.
About two thirty that morning, JC Johnson and Leonard Dan came to the back of our truck to tell us that they thought they heard something outside of their tents. Leonard Dan said he believed he had seen a silhouette outside his tent that resembled two legs walking by! JC and Leonard began searching the area with their spot lights, but found nothing. I waited until they were done and then went out myself with the night vision equipment, but again to no avail. After a few hours of inspections with no success, we decided to go back to bed and re-inspect the area in the daylight.
In the light of day, we began our inspections of the area in detail. We began by checking our trip cameras. We did find some pictures of the coyote we had seen the night before, but nothing else unusual. There were some pictures tripped with nothing but branches in them, but that is normal for a windy night.
As we checked the area for anything that was changed or unusual, we began finding some oddities. We found some strange marks in the fresh dust that had collected from the wind. We found what looked like foot prints, but they were so faint in the dust that we had to spray them with water so they would show up on camera. They looked impressive, but because they were so faint, we cannot say with any authority what they were. You can see them for yourself and make up your own mind:
We also found some sticks stacked in the fork of a tree. None of us could remember them from the day before and there were no other people around the area that we were aware of. We could not explain how they would have gotten there, or why. They were all similar in size and had one end that was cleanly saw cut. They were old and sun bleached so they were not recently cut. We found similar sized and sun bleached sticks in the surrounding area, but they were not saw cut and not used in the bundle placed in the fork of the tree. The base of the tree seemed dampened by something. We concluded that this might be some kind of a marker placed there in the night. If the dampness was from an animals urination, as is common in animal markers, it might indicate a territory marker. I made the decision to urinate over the sticks. If this was a marker, it should anger the animal who placed it here.
I was hopeful that it would anger the maker enough to make it want to drive me off the mountain! Hopefully, we would find out tonight!
We did make the decision to move our camp about 200 yards down the trail. This new area was out of the wind and had a little more tree coverage between us and the mountain. It was also closer to the water and should have more animal traffic. Being the only source of water for miles around, any animals in the area would have to come by some time or another. We felt safer from the falling rocks, but we would be in a worse place to defend if we were attacked by a pod of our "friends". The area was less open and it gave our "friends" better cover to allow them closer access to us before we could be aware of their presence. We agreed that the greater danger was from the wind and the falling rocks, so we went ahead and moved camp.
Once we settled in, we began a search of the new area. We found many new signs of animal predation here. There were many bones and skulls scattered throughout the underbrush. Some cow bones, elk bones, and many sheep bones. We also found signs of bear activity very close by. This was clearly an area used by many predators as a hunting area. We were very hopeful that we would be approached by the "keeper of these mountains" during our stay in this area.
That night we all stayed on high alert, but once again nothing happened. There were no screams, no smells, no rocks thrown, no tree knocking or rock knocking... nothing to tell us we were trespassing! Nothing tried to scare us off this mountain... We tried everything we could think of to attract the creature. We tree knocked, we made calls, we fried bacon on the fire, we scent marked over it's markers, we set up trip cameras in the woods and near the watering holes... nothing seemed to be working. We were getting close to the end of our week on the mountain and we had nothing to show for it! We did find some things that were unusual, but we did not find any definite proof that this creature was up in these mountains at this particular time. Perhaps we had set our sites too high for this mission. We had been told by reliable people that the creatures up here would not tolerate any intruders on their mountain and they protected the water source fiercely. If we intruded for more than a day, it would come out and make an effort to chase us off the mountain! Here it had been three full days and nothing more than some iffy tracks in the dust and some markers we could not explain! There had to be more of all of this... We continued to explore the area in hopes of finding more...
Later that day, we hiked up the hills towards the water holes. We hadn't gone far before we came upon some rock pilings in places we did not expect to find any. We could not explain why any person would place markers on a trail that paralleled the main trail to the water so closely? We followed the markers and they did lead directly to the watering holes, but we could not understand who or what had placed them there, or for what reason... It just didn't make any sense?
On the fourth day, we awaited our guests from town. They were bringing us some needed supplies and goodies such as peanut butter and some fresh bread! All items we were craving! They didn't show up until late in the afternoon, but it was a great joy for us and we appreciated the company. With new blood in the field with new ideas, we explored some new areas with the hope of unveiling this mystery. Perhaps with the new people and added commotion, tonight would be the night we would be run off the mountain!
To our surprise, one of the people who came up with our supplies was Darin and his two young sons David and Blain. Darin was not a part of our expedition and just came up to bring Jonathan Lee and some of our supplies. However, we were glad to have his company and appreciated him bringing up Johnathan and the supplies. His boys were eager and well behaved and joined right in on the adventure. They accompanied their dad as he searched the area with us. On one of the trips through the woods, we heard something trailing us off in the cover of the trees. We eventually saw what was following us and it turned out to be a young mountain lion who seemed to be very interested in the young boys with us. We ran the lion off and never saw it again, but we did make sure the boys were never out of our sight or away from camp alone! Later that night it began to sprinkle lightly, and we were a bit concerned about what rain might do to the trail back down the mountain. We tucked in for the night, planning on leaving the following morning. To our surprise and horror, we awoke to about 3 inches of snow on the ground! We were afraid we might be trapped on the mountain for another day or more... but as the sun came up, the snow began to melt away. We hoped that it would not make too much mud for us to get stuck in, but we knew it had not snowed at the lower altitudes. We did not let it interfere with our plans to head on down the mountain that afternoon.
We gathered up our field trip cameras and broke camp. The cameras showed deer and lots of cows, but nothing unusual, so we packed up and headed back to Farmington. The first few miles of our trip was little more than a controlled slide down the mountain, but we made it without any problems. We cannot say we weren't disappointed, but we were glad to be on our way home and ready for hot showers and soft beds! We may not have been chased off the mountain, but we did spend quality time with some good friends and researchers.... We got to work with fine people in a wonderful place. Our sincere thanks go out to all the people that worked alongside of us and without who's support this trip would not have been possible. Our hats are off to:
TJ Biscardi, myself, JavaBob Schmalzbach, and the rest of the Searching for Bigfoot team want to give our leader and mentor Tom Biscardi Sr. a special thank you for his passion, commitment, and driving energy to make these types of expeditions a reality. We also need to stop and let you, our supporters and audience know just how important your help is to us. None of this would be possible without the inputs from you and your continued support. It is the synergistic efforts off all of you and all of us that will eventually solve this mystery. To all of you, from all of us.... THANK YOU!
Written by JavaBob - posted by JavaBob
GO TO OUR LAST STOP; ALABAMA 05/08 or NEW MEXICO 05/08 or the TABLE OF CONTENTS or RETURN T0; HomePage
Departments
- Bigfoot Articles
- Bigfoot Headlines - Comprehensive list of news stories about Bigfoot
- Bigfoot Webpages - Growing list of various Bigfoot sites around the net
- Bigfoot Quotes
- Bigfoot State By State
- Link To Us
|
(RADIO SHOW) 
Listen to Tom live every Wednesday at 7PM pacific time at “www.bigfootliveradioshow.com” |
Copyright Searching for Bigfoot Inc., © Searching for Bigfoot Inc. 2005-2006-2007-2008-2009
This entire website is covered by this copyright. Any unauthorized use of any materials on this site can and will be punished to the fullest extent of the lawThe information contained on this site is privileged, confidential and solely intended for the readers on this site. Any forwarding, distribution or copying of the information contained within, is strictly prohibited without the consent of its author and as such is protected under the Electronics Privacy Act (1986)
