Murphy's Law Prevented Man's Trail Cam From Taking Photo Of Bigfoot, But Was Able To Capture Footstep Audio
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| Trackway in yard showing classic tightrope pattern. |
Murphy's Law is a useful scapegoat for human error: "If something can go wrong, it will." Perhaps this is the reason why no one has been able to get a good shot of Bigfoot's face.
On January 22, a man in Lewis County, WA, looked out his window at his backyard and noticed some unusual tracks in the snow. The huge tracks measured 5 feet or more from heel to heel. It made a path from one tree in the back of his yard directly to a large tree in the middle of the yard. The man thought it was weird how the footsteps went directly towards the tree and not around it.
A few days later, he decided to deploy a trail camera on the path by placing it on one of the trees in his backyard. When it was time to check his camera, he discovered that the photos came out black (no flash) since he forgot to check the batteries before setting up the camera. Imagine that!
All was not lost though; the camera managed to record audio that sounds like "heavy bipedal walking".
Listen here via BFRO: Bipedal Walking
BFRO report below:
YEAR: 2012
SEASON: Winter
MONTH: January
DATE: 22
STATE: Washington
COUNTY: Lewis County
LOCATION DETAILS: Very rural - national forest very close.
NEAREST TOWN: Cinebar, WA
NEAREST ROAD: WA Hwy 508
OBSERVED: Live pretty far into the foothills of the cascades near Cinebar, WA. Had a camera (Astak Mole) out on my back porch to capture animals in my yard (for fun in the summer - we see Deer frequently and Bear occasionally). I was laying in bed listening to the audio through the camera (it has a pretty sensitive mic) and heard some odd "wooping" in the distance. Luckily a moth or something set the camera off and it recorded two of them. I think I heard about 4 total - two are on the video file I have and will mail it to you. They sound like they're loud but distant (resonates off the hills a bit it sounds like). This was Aug. 27, 2011 at 11:41 PM.
Sunday morning, January 22, 2012 got up and looked out my bedroom window to look at the snow (we had almost 2 feet total but it had been raining for days so it was dwindling). The tracks were starting to really show up as the snow melted - noticed my ATV tracks through the back yard from Monday or so, several sets of footprints from my son and dog, then an odd "dotted line" set in between all of them. Took a picture from my window, went to church, then came back and took more close up shots and measured the distance between the "steps" which were between 5 and 6 feet consistently. They were in a straight line going from one tree in the back of my yard directly to a large tree in the middle of the yard (not around it, but directly to it which I thought was weird) then a set of prints turn right and head to another tree at my property line with my neighbor to the East and don't know where from there. I also couldn't track the steps out the back of the property - the snow was melted a lot more and there was no obvious direction. There's a private dirt road behind my property and on the other side of that, acres of trees.
On January 27, wondering if this is some frequent path I set up a trail cam on the path and captured what sounds to me like walking up to the camera (the IR's didn't fire due to low battery I think) but the picture's black - but you can take a listen and see what you think...not conclusive, but interesting I think anyway. Got some fresh batteries out there now.
ALSO NOTICED: Nothing of interest
OTHER WITNESSES: Wife, son saw the tracks...took pictures.
OTHER STORIES: Only sound recordings of woops in August...and the footsteps from 1/27 which may or may not be anything...sounds like a person but there were no people out there.
TIME AND CONDITIONS: Not sure - snowed sometime during the previous week before 1/22.
ENVIRONMENT: Open area between trees.
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| Measurement of heel to heel step length is 5 to 6 feet. |
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| Zoom in of melted print with tape measure. |
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| The tree cages can serve as scale items in the photos and they are all between 5 and 6 feet wide and 6 feet tall. |
Ridiculous
ReplyDeleteMaybe it would be better to follow up on where the prints went. Should be able to track them right to whatever made them.
If you read above, he says toward the end, "I also couldn't track the steps out the back of the property - the snow was melted a lot more and there was no obvious direction."
DeleteI don't think I'd want to track something that made those at least not alone.
DeleteDoesn't sound like footsteps in snow. Sounds more like someone walking on dry plant matter, on the forest floor...or someone eating a bag of potato chips. It also sounds like the steps stay in one place. The volume level of the the steps doesn't diminish much, if at all, during the audio. Dead batteries?...how convenient. Nope, ain't buyin' this pile of horse crap.
ReplyDeleteA squirrel bounding through the snow would leave body impressions that would look like foot tracks after the snow melted slightly.I'm not saying that's what it was, but the fact that the head straight for a tree is suggestive.
ReplyDeleteThe only observation I would make is that the soil should have been soft and if the snow melted you would see the heavy prints in the mud going on and on......unless the soil in WA is completely different from soil in IL as to water retention and mud making ability.
ReplyDeletenew anony
"The soil should have been soft"? The ground is frozen dude!
ReplyDeleteI love seeing footprints, just not in the snow. Given the fact they look quite melted, they could be human prints that simply grew as they melted. Still, if he keeps it up with his camera (and batteries), perhaps he can get something good. I am curious about this tightrope walking pattern. From a body mechhanics POV, you get a human who is very overweight and the first thing to go is his knees. Our pelvises make it so that we step basically close to shoulder width apart which means that as we step off, all our weight is on one leg or the other. Now, something as huge as a BF, it adapted a different pelvis, it would have a bent knee, tightrope walking pattern to keep all weight in the center of balance (core) of his body. It actually makes sense from an evolutionary standpoint. Intriguing.
ReplyDeleteStop making sense!
DeleteI agree that the prints when melted/melting could easily be human prints that have grown. However, I am still on the fence about the tightrope walking pattern. In my time in the woods I have rarely seen animals (multiple species) walk in a completely straight line and never stumble, turn or step off their path. However, I haven't had a lot of experience in tracking many bipedal things
DeleteHuman prints 5 to 6 feet apart in a straight line? Does anybody read these articles before they comment?
DeleteIt is heel to heel and I don't know if you know it, but snow/mud can distort tracks as the weather changes. They can get wider, longer, and all together difference. Do YOU have any knowledge of things other than what you have read on the internet? It could be made by several different things. A squirrel could have been jumping from spot to spot then moving around a bit before jumping again. It could end up looking similar
DeleteLogan:
DeleteAs the snow tracks melt, they enlarge. The heel of each track moves back and gets wider as the snow melts. So if every track heel is melting and moving back, then the distance from heel to heel remains consistent. Thus the step and stride length remains consistent. A 5-6 ft step length in a straight tight rope pattern over several yards is not the work of a squirrel. The tracks themselves are too deteriorated to be of much value. The actual value in this trackway is in the step length and the straight tightrope pattern. Both of which are commonly associated with sasquatch trackways.
To add to what studysquatch says above, I discovered the tracks and took the pictures. I tried to reproduce the distance between them by jumping and couldn't do it and I'm 6' tall - there was only about 2 inches of snow left when I tried this let alone in 1-2 feet of snow, which is what was there when the prints were likely made (it melted down to about 2 inches and the prints showed up) - impossible. It dumped snow for about 2 days piling up about 2 feet when it switched to rain for 3 solid days when prior to when I noticed the tracks appear..super nasty weather.
Delete@ Studysquatch -
DeleteYou assume that each track distorts and changes in the same way at the same amount...that doesn't happen a lot (due to amount of sun the area gets, how the weight was distributed in the track, etc).
I'm not saying the tracks aren't valid but was simply offering a possible explanation. If the snow was as high as Anon says, it adds more validity to the photos.
These tracks are obviously from a subspecies of Sasquatch that experts refer to as a HotFoot. It is still heavily debated if this is a real subspecies or a case of tinea pedis.
ReplyDeleteno flash because the batteries were dead but the audio worked?
ReplyDeleteThe soil may not be frozen, especially in WA and if their was a thaw....in IL this winter I have to wipe the mud off my dogs feet with each thaw / rain due to the soft soil which the refreezes...dude.
ReplyDeletenew anony
Exactly. Just because it snows doesn't mean the ground is frozen at all. The article also said it was raining.
DeleteLook at the grass photos...clearly not frozen!
ReplyDeletenew anony
Also clearly grass and debris covered, idiot.
DeleteI was the Investigator for this report and will try to answer people's questions.
ReplyDeleteThe walking audio was recorded five days after the snow trackway was photographed and all the snow was melted by then. So the steps you hear are being made on grass and tree debris. There is no mud because of the thick grass and type of soil. The soil near Cinebar, WA is much different than the soil in IL.
Try listening to the audio thinking of TWO creatures walking past, one after another. In other snow track photos not posted, there were indications of two creatures being there. The bipedal walking audio was recorded in temperatures in the mid to low 30's.
Low batteries in the trail cam means it won't fire an IR flash because it takes so much power. But recording audio does not take as much power, so it can continue after the IR flash is done.
You did your job Mr. Study Sasquatch. I'm sure this report would never have been published if you did not deem the witness credible. I have read it on the BFRO site. Tracks in snow can deteriorated so fast, but they certainly appear that they could be real. The audio is neat ( I always listen with a good pair of headphones for enhanced sound. ) I like your analysis of one behind the other, definitely bipedal and not an animal. Also the dog is barking at something which spooked him. I appreciate your investigation, and keep up the good work. I would not pay to much attention to some of the nay sayers here. You went to the site, they did not. Good Luck
DeleteChuck
Thanks Chuck. I appreciate your post.
DeleteWhat are the mud prints in the grass photos?
ReplyDeletenew anony
The piles of dirt in the grass photos are the remnants of mole hills. Western Washington has an animal called a mole that digs tunnels below the surface and pushes up piles of dirt in the process.
ReplyDeleteI want to believe, but it's always something. Other then this guy, who doesn't check the batteries on a machines that's power source is batteries.
ReplyDeleteAlways some clever excuse as to why the camera doesn't get the pictures. Thewse footprint photos are just not enough to convince anyone of anything. How often do the researchers that go out on these calls, feel they are being played a fool like the rest of us?
ReplyDeleteo0
Hmmm? Murphy's Law huh? How convenient.
ReplyDeleteWell as the guy that set the camera, it is a Bushnell Black Ops and doesn't have the most fantastic trigger time or IR range so you almost have to be lucky to get good video even when the IR is working - the camera shuts down the IR if the batteries get too low which may have happened since they were alkaline and it was cold out (below freezing)...or the walker just wasn't in the range of the video and it triggered late. Trail cams are hardly a sure thing as those that use them can attest to.
Delete