Ep. 355 - Shane Corson Returns!

Starting a business can be overwhelming. You're juggling multiple roles, designer, marketer, logistics manager, all while bringing your vision to life. Shopify helps millions of business sell online. Build fast with templates and AI descriptions and photos, inventory and shipping. Sign up for your one euro per month trial and start selling today at shopify.nl. That's shopify.nl. It's time to see what you can accomplish with Shopify by your side. I know you want to listen to your podcast, so I'll keep it short. Because if you think it's important to make a choice, can ASR maybe help? Well, I think, how then? Well, for example, when you're doing a lot of things that are you love to do. Will you know more about the insurance where a lot of schade can be? Go to asr.nl slash duurzamekeuzes. This does ASR for you and a sustainable society. ASR does it. So, then you can listen to your podcast now. Your hosts, Cliff Berkman and James Bobo Fay. Bobo. Clifford. Bobo. How you doing, man? Good? Good, good. Very good. Well, you know, we have a guest today. So when I tell you what I've been up to lately, it kind of dovetails well with that. Shane Corson, who is our guest today, just came by to hang out. I mean, he doesn't even have really anything to push. I guess he's doing an appearance soon, but he's just coming by to hang out because he's a cool dude. But he and I got to go to the Olympic Peninsula this past week with Survivorman himself, Les Stroud, and help him film some of his documentary work that he's doing right now. Actually, he got to go with you two. You know, that is actually correct. That is actually correct. He reached out to me about a month ago and said that he was wondering if I could get out to the woods. He had a little window of opportunity. And he had never been to the Olympic Peninsula before. What? That's what he felt the same way. It's like I couldn't believe I had never been out here. all my world travels, all my interest in Sasquatch over the years, and he'd never been to the OP. So he reached out to me and said, hey, you want to go? And I said, well, yeah, I'm always up for, you know, a trip to the Olympic Peninsula. And then he mentioned Shane, and I didn't know he knew Shane. So this seems like a good opportunity to bring in Shane. Shane, how did you get involved and roped into all this stuff? So Les, back in October, roughly a blast year, I got an email, He wanted to talk over Zoom. And so we did that late October and invited me out with him to do some documentary work. He wanted to go to the Olympics. And like you guys, I was blown away that he had never been up to the Olympics. It was kind of mind boggling. I said, oh, well, I'd love to join you. Just keep in touch. And so that's how I kind of got into it. And of course, Cliff, you got ahold of me later on and gave me the exact dates and all that, all the information. And so, yeah, it was a good time out. Well, kind of the exact dates. I extended it on one day for you on accident. Sorry about that. True. Close enough. Yeah, so I reached out to Shane. It's like, hey, you been hearing anything recently? And, you know, on this particular zone, and we won't really discuss the zone or anything like that. But we'll just suffice it to say it was on the, shall we say, the west side of the peninsula. So I reached out to him. And, of course, Shane, you know, he hadn't heard anything recently. So we use one of our superpowers, one of our aces in the hole, John Pickering, the legendary John Pickering. He's one of these, the legends that we like, the ones that aren't household names, you know, because I say Les Stroud or whatever, everybody knows who that is. But like John Pickering, that's OG. That's the real Bigfooters, like the ones who have been the lifers. They go, oh yeah, yeah, John. And then they have huge respect for the guy. You know, the ones that have climbed on board since Finding Bigfoot or something like that, probably are not familiar with John. And that is a travesty of justice, honesty. So we really need to get John on here and deliver some justice, shall we say. But anyway, John says, oh, try this one area, you know? And so we did. And it was cool. Yeah, it was great getting out with John. And like you said, we were kind of in his backyard. Those are the areas that he's traversed for years and years and years. He knows them like the back of his hand. And so when we got the recommendation from him, we took him up on it. Yeah, yeah. If Pickering says, you know, you should try this area, you'd be a fool to go anywhere else. How long have you known Pickering? I've known John since around 2012, I think, I believe so. But I've known of him for many years before that, just, you know, because I'm a Bigfoot nerd and all that stuff. But getting to know John over the years, he's one of my best friends. But also, if I had to pick maybe a few people to hit the woods with, he'd be right there at the top of the list. And so his knowledge, not just of the Sasquatch phenomenon, but just his knowledge of the backwoods and survival and edible plants and stuff of that nature. He's just awesome. And like I said before, he'd make a great guess. He's just a very humble guy. Yeah. Yeah, he's pretty amazing. Yeah, my first exposure to John Pickering actually was, I hesitate to even venture a guess on the year, but probably somewhere around 2006 or 2008 or maybe 10, somewhere in there. I went to Skooka Meadows with Bob and Kathy Strain and a bunch of other folks were out there. I think it was the same time that Daryl Collier was out there, I think, at the same time. I think that was that same trip and a bunch of the Texas folks. This is before the NAWAC when they were still the TBRC. And John, I think, got track report secondhand through Rick Knoll on the north side, no, the south side, but maybe Swift Reservoir or something out there. But it was off trail and kind of a long ways out. And John and I were the only people nuts enough to go to look at it. So my first exposure to John was trying to keep up with him as he just barreled through these ferns that were like five and a half feet tall. I could barely see over them. And they're all just like those sword ferns, you know, but John's legs are as long as they go up to my chest. You know, that guy can just hurdle over anything. He's insane. So at a first exposure was the challenge of trying to keep up with him hiking off trail. So, well, anyway, yeah, John pointed us in the right direction. So he went out and explored this particular area this past week, you know, and, you know, Les was filming the whole time. So I don't want to go too far into it or anything like that. But, you know, there's a lot of tracks on the Olympic Peninsula, man. We explored this area, John suggested, because it was still accessible because this year, has been a very weird snow year. Like normally I think this area would probably be under some snow, but it wasn't. And so we went up to go look around and thinking about it, Shane and Bobo, I'd like to know your guys' opinion on this. John said that most of the time the track or, you know, the encounters, the sightings are down lower this time of year, but yet we went to a slightly higher elevation place because there was no snow. What are your thoughts on that? Like, do you think that we didn't see any Sasquatches? We found tracks, but we didn't see any Sasquatches. And the tracks that we've found, I'm guessing, are what, two, three weeks old or more or something like that? Should we have gone lower? Because the Sasquatches don't know it's a weird year in the Pacific Northwest for snow. Do you think that these animals are maintaining their habits? Or do you think that they exploit the altitude that they normally don't have access to? The latter. You think that? but i i'm not a big snow guy but that's just from my limited and stuff around here and you just following the subject i'd say that so you think if there is an opportunity to be up higher they will take it as opposed to what they normally do year in year out and go lower i think they'll go wherever the where's wherever it's about i mean it depends what you're talking about if you just have like a two or three day warm-up i don't think that's going to change there but i mean like some of those years where we have like the whole month of january not a single well down here anyways without like not a single drop of rain and it's like getting in the 60s and 70s during the day it's like a month long like start things start blooming and all that kind of stuff like where the whole spring comes early and then it gets winter again like it causes all those problems but but yeah i mean shane would know that better than i am because he's he's there in the op you know not necessarily but yeah i got my ideas i also think we need to talk to pickering i think he sent us up there so we didn't go into some of his hot areas. That's good too. Yeah, good point. No, I'm kidding. That is a great area. And as you mentioned, Cliff, typically there's snow up there this time of year. And so we should have, you know, on the peaks, we could see a little bit of snow, but typically this time of year there's snow. Right now it's been an odd year. We've not had, we've had a pretty mild winter, not much snow. And so it's, you know, getting up there, It was amazing to see the lack of snow. But this time of year, I'm the proponent, it's just like what the elk do. As we were traversing those areas, Cliff, with Les, one of the things that stood out to me right away was just the lack of elk sign, whether that's tracks. And there was some tracks, but they were older. The lack of scat specifically. You know, because we were on trail, off trail, we covered quite a bit of ground and I just didn't see a lot of elk signs. So it stood the reason that elk were at a lower elevation. And I would assume the Sasquatch would be at a lower elevation as well, though they may traverse these areas from going from point A to point B, so to speak. They're going to be generally at a lower elevation, just like the elk and whatnot. And, you know as well, Cliff, as we did go lower, the signs of life that we saw, whether it was tracks or scat or whatever have you, was way more abundant. Yeah, it was very obvious that we were not seeing scat. It was very odd, actually, because I'm not used to that. You know, I'm usually in the, you know, very biodiverse zone when I'm out there looking for Sasquatch stuff. Yeah, but no bears, I mean, obviously no bear scat on the road. Although bears don't always hibernate, especially near the coast and stuff. you know, these warmer areas, they don't always hibernate in, but like no elk scat, very little deer scat. I did find some deer scat outside the area where camping after you left, I was walking around in there, some pretty fresh deer scat, but that's pretty much the only stuff I saw. It was very weird. So. Well, if you guys, if you guys have heard that video that the studying Sasquatch guys, and it's that frozen pond. And you heard that one of the Olympics where it's like a 25 minute where the it's it's it's gotta be a squash walks up and goes into the like breaking through the ice in the pond trying to get after a beaver den yeah yeah i study sasquatch with uh nathaniel kirk chris you know spencer kirk brandenberg nathaniel braunas and rebecca and slick and great great group doing some amazing things you know and obviously chris works with the element project as well but yeah that pond video is really cool uh they you got a lot of hypothesis when it comes to that pond there. And it's in a great area. I've been there. They hypothesized that maybe something was going after a beaver because it's kind of a beaver pond. And there have been carcasses of beaver found periodically around that pond. And so it's an idea that something was going in there after a beaver. But again, that area there specifically too this time of year usually has a lot of snow and even that area of washington it's there's no snow there no no real ice either and i would expect you know that it's pretty prevalent everywhere in washington that the sasquatch are going to be at lower elevations you know and as we talked about before you know as as it gets into you know spring and specifically summer they probably go up in elevation and it's kind of like what the elk do it really is it's a mirror image bear very similar yeah but i was just it was just i mean this jumped into my head because it's like that shows like they're not they're not people like they're not they're not wussies like us i mean i think it doesn't mind breaking through the ice and going in you know to a beaver pond after like something this small i mean a beer what typical beaver about 50 pounds you know versus going and getting like a 600 pound cow elk you know like it's just like it just seems for that kind of effort and the amount of cold like cold freezing cold water breaking thinking ice i mean you know just it just shows that they're they're a lot hardier than us like it's they're they're uh they don't think the same way we do with with cold and i mean they're gonna if the foods are that i don't think they mind the cold too much at all but yeah i mean they're gonna be at the lower elevations they're gonna be where the food is where they'll be where the elk is they're gonna yeah they're gonna be where they can survive the easiest that's what it always comes down to is like uh taking in more calories than you expend getting them right yeah yeah Yeah. And they are tough as nails. What we see is a barrier. They see is as an easy pathway. You know, stay tuned for more Bigfoot and beyond with Cliff and Bobo. We'll be right back after these messages. Starting a business can be overwhelming. You're juggling multiple roles, designer, marketer, logistics manager, all while bringing your vision to life. Shopify helps millions of business sell online. Build fast with templates and AI descriptions and photos, inventory and shipping. Sign up for your one euro per month trial and start selling today at Shopify.nl. That's Shopify.nl. It's time to see what you can accomplish with Shopify by your side. I understand that you want to listen to your podcast, so I'll keep it short. Because if you think it's important to make a cost-effective choices, maybe Acer can help. I think I'm going to think, how then? For example, when you're paying for the cost-effective things that you love are, you want to know more about the insurance where a cost-effective choice is? Go to acer.nl. This does Acer for you and a cost-effective community. Acer does it. So, now you can listen to your podcast. So we spent a couple of days with Les out there and we found some tracks. we cast them and whatever else is going to be all. I'm assuming that'll probably be in his documentary. So you can learn more about it by watching it when it comes out. But then he left at some point because he's down in like Southern Oregon somewhere. He, uh, he lives part-time down there and part-time up in Canada because everybody knows he's Canadian. So he and the camera dude, Antonio, who was super cool, they split early. And so Shane and I had a day and a night without less to go and kind of poke around. So we found some, a spur road and started walking that and And well, Shane, why don't you tell us about what we found out there? Yeah, absolutely. And again, what an amazing little area I have not traversed in. And so I was really just quite blown away and stunned that I had not spent more time up there. And so in the future, as we spoke, Cliff, I will be back out there. There's so much to check out. Some of these logging roads, they just go on and on and on and on. I mean, you can spend a long time out there walking in, looking for tracks and stuff. And that kind of what we did We got on this particular logging road somewhere we had not taken less to And so as we walking up this logging road looking for tracks and sign and just kind of enjoying the area the beautiful weather which was very unexpected as well we start seeing you know sign And one of the things we came across or you came across Cliff was some obvious tracks, some impressions in the ground. and we were seeing the same size about, was it 11 inches, I believe? Yeah, it was about 11 inches. Yeah, consistently, but periodically as we're traversing this and off the side of the road, this logging road, on the kind of the embankment or in these little gullies. And that was consistent. But I think the neatest thing that we came across after Spain, you know, the majority of the time out there in the day was some possible hand impressions, two of them. One I was really quite impressed with just because of the flatness, the fingers, would have been like a left hand. But again, probably the same individual that was traversing that side of the road for whatever reason. That was one of the things we were talking about, you and I, and I was, why would Sasquatch be off the road and not taking the most easiest path, the path of least resistance? Well, who knows? Because they can, for one. And two, you know, maybe just to be a little more concealed. Maybe they're foraging. Who knows? But it was consistently on that side of the road and consistently the same size. So, yeah, that was really neat. That was really neat. Yeah, to kind of set the scene, we're walking up this pretty narrow canyon, but half mile wide or something like that. Creek at the bottom. It's a feeder creek to a larger river down below. And we were, I don't know, 200 feet, 150 feet. It varied, of course, you know, above the creek. And so we're on the side of the hill. The creek was down to our left as we were walking in. And there's on the right hand side of the logging road, which is graveled, was a little gutter as like a drainage ditch, basically about a foot and a half, two feet wide, usually that varied, of course, and then a slope going uphill. and what we found is that the and actually we found two sets of tracks most of them were the 11 inch track but there was also a 17 inch track in one particular area and this is exactly the sort of area that I would kind of hypothesize that a big badass male might be hanging out you know it's just one of these deep dark weird places that very few people go and steep walled canyon that now had everything everything about it just shrieked home base for a big... Was there a lot of elk sign? No, no. Well, I mean, there were tracks, old tracks, but they hadn't been around for a while, no scat or anything like that. Because again, we were kind of up in higher elevation, you know? But still, but still, everything about it just shrieked like, this is like home base. This is a great area, you know? But anyway, yeah, so a couple 17-inch tracks and then a lot of the 11-inch that was going around. And most of these tracks, not all of them, but most of these tracks were found either in the gutter on the right-hand side of the road or on the embankment above. We had a couple on the left-hand side, but not really that many. And I see that same thing in the research areas I have here in Oregon. Yeah, and of course, some of that is probably because they won't leave tracks on a gravel road, really. You know, they might leave marks or something, but they don't really leave tracks on a gravel road. So your best opportunity for finding tracks would be in that soft, wet, you know, gutter, And then the embankments on the side of the road going up because those embankments are key because they are easily damaged by the foot or the hand. That's also where we found the handprints. Easily damaged by the foot or the hand because it's not compacted like a hard gravel road would be. Or even on the left-hand side of the road on the, I guess, the pullout or I don't know, the space between the road and the drop-off down at the creek. even that's more compacted, you know, than a diagonal embankment on the right-hand side of the road. So that's where you're going to find most of the tracks. But also that seems to be where they're walking around. And I think that's really interesting. And it's like a lesson, you know, I've seen it in several different places now, like three or four different places now, that that seems to be the area that they're walking around. So if you're out there looking for tracks in your research area, that's the place you want to focus your attention. Yeah, a hundred percent. And one of the things I think that plays maybe a role in that is, you know, by being on that side and that kind of that gully, that drainage area, I mean, you can quickly conceal yourself or go up the hill, up the mountain rather quickly, rather than being in the middle of the road. I mean, again, we weren't finding animal tracks on the road. Why not? Well, it's heavily compacted, you know, in gravel. So you're not going to find Sasquatch impressions there. The Sasquatch, those tracks there were definitely off to the side. And it could be a lot of reasons. Is it a hunting tactic? Is it a concealment tactic? Is it to feel good on their feet? Because that part of the Olympics is very heavily saturated. There is water everywhere. Which also goes to finding the tracks. You know, if you're going to find the tracks you want, mud, mud tracks are the best. That's what you want. That's what we're looking for. Most of the time they don't step in mud for whatever reason. Maybe they avoid it. Maybe they don't like the way it feels. Maybe just unlucky because Bigfoot's, that's what happens with Sasquatches. Oh, they like the way it feels. You think so? It doesn't like putting their feet in mud. Sochi didn't. That's true. Yeah, Sochi would avoid those areas. And I kind of wonder about that with Sasquatches. But every once in a while, we do find tracks in mud. Just most of the time they're in duff. Real quick, how'd you guys decide on this spur? Were you guys look at the aerial maps like google earth and then you decide like we like this area because it's like how'd you choose that spur road with the i mean i know you guys were there's miles and miles and miles of places to go out there like what made you pick that zone to hike this particular area doesn't have a whole a lot of spur roads but they do have roads that go for quite a distance so there was just there was a few to pick from this one i believe cliff picked out. It was really interesting. We were also looking to maybe move our camp and find a different camp spot somewhere, you know, just change up locations because we did drop down a little bit in elevation from our original camp, camping area. So it was just kind of like, oh, here's, here's a, here's a spur road we haven't been on. Let's, uh, let's go check it out. And it, uh, end up being, you know, kind of, uh, a winter, winter chicken dinner. Yeah. After just a short walk up the, up that particular road, looking ahead, you know how you can see the horizon through the trees, it became very, very clear that we were walking into a narrow valley. Like we couldn't see the horizon on two sides, the left and right. But looking ahead, we can see, oh yeah, we're going into this canyon here. That's cool. That's cool. There's a creek running through there. How far did you guys get in before you started finding tracks? Like were they crossing near the main road? Like or? I don't know. What do you think about a half mile or something like that, Shane? Yeah. Yeah. About a half mile. Yeah. Half mile. And we probably walked a total of maybe two miles. I mean, it took a long time because we're going kind of slow, but I think we maybe walked a total of two miles up in there at the most. And we found tracks here and there from a half mile all the way till where we were turning around. And they were crossing the road or walk like parallel to the road? They're just piddling around on the right-hand side, you know, doing their thing. Yeah. They weren't crossing the road. If they were crossing the road, we didn't catch it. So. Okay. How far off the road did you find the first tracks? Like how far, how far off the road were you guys walking? Were you walking on the road, looking down or were you just paralleling the road? We were walking on the road, looking to the, looking on either side of the road. he was on the left and i was on the right and we started picking up tracks within five ten feet of the road okay they weren't appearing to cross how they were just doing their thing like meandering down there right right next to the road yeah i mean we didn't pick up i mean if they were crossing we couldn't tell if they were crossing it was don't know i just really don't know so like how long like when you started walking up the road you found about a half mile and how far did those tracks go on the right like was it like a quarter mile like 200 yards 100 yards what do you mean the trackway like how long how well i mean like just where were you finding tracks you said they're like milling around dude stuff was it like was there like a creek right there like a meadow like was there something different right there kind of milling around there i don't remember i think if i remember right and shane correct me if i'm wrong i think we got the first tracks in the middle of a big patch of uh salmonberry that was the first set yeah it was just like it was meandering around walking around you know we didn't find like a huge long trackway or anything it was just not conducive for one and two you know there'd be obstacles it could have got up and around or through some of these old like alders and whatnot so it was you know a couple of tracks here walk further down the road walk further down the road and then it'd be another another set further down the road on on the side of the road but it wasn't just one long track way and it was definitely meandering around and these weren't I wouldn't say these were like fresh fresh tracks either just to premise there. No, no, I think probably at least a couple of weeks old. Yeah. And, and, you know, they were vague enough. Yeah. The 11s. Yeah. They were vague enough that when we first started cutting these tracks, like I was saying, what do you think? And I wanted some sort of confirmation or something, you know, like, like this looks like one, but what do you think? You know? And, and he kind of agreed and they said, well, we, maybe their boots, you know, we kind of kept that in mind. We're thinking, are these boots? Because boots are about, you know, 10 to 12 inches long for the most part. But then after a while, seeing what we were interpreting as toes in a fair number of these, not a whole like five toes across the front or something like that, but oh, well, this one looks like it has a, looks like the big toes in that one. We have two or three toes in this one. And then after finding, I don't know, a half dozen, either tracks or short little snippets of trackways of the same size. And many of these showing toes, we said, yeah, I mean, these have to be Sasquatch tracks. And then especially when you consider the terrain they're going through. And again, toes, man, toes. This wasn't a rounded boot. You know, I'm pretty good at the boots, you know, picking those out, even the old ones. These were not that. But it took two or three track finds or more before I really settled into like, yeah, these are Sasquatch tracks. Because you always have to wonder. And I'm sure Shane will remember. And when I was looking at one of the handprints on the side, I was thinking, Shane, am I fooling myself. I mean, this to me looks like a hand. What do you think? And he says, as far as I could tell, yeah. I mean, I was thankful to have Shane there, someone with experience and some knowledge to kind of say, no, I don't think you're fooling yourself. Stay tuned for more Bigfoot and beyond with Cliff and Bobo. We'll be right back after these messages. Thank you. It's time to see what you can accomplish with Shopify by your side. A duurzamere samenleving. ASR doet het. So, we kunnen nu lekker naar je podcast luisteren. It's time to see what you can accomplish with Shopify by your side. But you know, once we found the 17, we said, oh yeah, there you go. Well, these are Sasquatch tracks. Did it appear that they were interacting like the 17 and the 11s? Could you tell or is it just, is it right in amongst them? You couldn't really tell. I couldn't tell if there was any interaction. It just happened to be on the same side of the road. And they weren't as, the 17-inch track wasn't, you know. That was just basically what I think we maybe found one or two, but the 11 inch was way more prevalent. I mean, that individual is walking quite a distance, you know, at least a couple of miles. Okay. How far apart, like what was the closest 11 inch to the 17s? I'm not really sure. What do you say, Cliff? We found, I think, a couple snippets of the 11 inch trackway a bit further ahead. If I remember right, that's where we got the 17. And I think we only got that one once. I mean, it was more than one track. There were, I think, two to five, if I remember right. So three or four tracks probably of that one. And then further ahead, we started running into the 11 again. So I don't know, 100 yards, 200 yards, something like that. Yeah, they weren't next to each other. There was no direct correlation except that they were on the same road in the same general zone. Oh, yeah. Yeah. But, you know, I saw that at the Outer Rim too, one of our other spots over here in the Manhood National Forest. we'd find the 17 inch and then in the vicinity we'd find the 14 and the 8 in this case in the outer rim but we see that a lot actually in one of my other locations where we've been pulling this 12 inch track for a while in nearby in a few hundred yards distance from wherever this 12 inch track is we very often find a 14 so yeah they're not always right they sometimes are right next to each other but not always and in this case it was one of those so and then the handprints the handprints were pretty rad too. And again, one of them I haven't cleaned off yet, so we'll see what we have in that one. But I cleaned one of them off and we have a really nice thumb and little nubbies, so to speak, where the fingers were there, were impressed into the ground. And again, these fingers, it was on a slope about a 45 degree angle above the road. The thumb was underneath. I'll send a picture to Pruitt so you can post it in the members section. One of them was on about a 45 degree slope and the thumb was below the, the, the palm and the four fingers were impressed. And two of them went pretty much almost directly upwards. So there was no chance of getting plaster in those, but you can see the nubbies of where they started, so to speak. And then the second hand print was much further down the road. That was fun too, because we found that one. And, uh, but we also, it was kind of getting dusk and we had a discussion. It's like, okay, well, we need to find a camp spot. Why don't you go down and scout for a campsite and I'll go down with you, but I'll drive my Jeep back up and I'll cast this sprint. So that was a lot of fun sitting in the dark, waiting for that thing to dry. Thinking there's a 17 walking around out there somewhere. Was it stormy when you guys were out there? No, it's beautiful. It rained the last day, but that's about it. Absolutely stunning weather. like the perfect weather for doing what we're doing. I was going to mention, well, you know, one of the things I personally like to do is exactly what we were doing, Cliff. During the daytime, you know, looking for sign, looking for tracks, you know, walk for miles on trail, off trail. And we did that while we were out there. I was thinking, you know, I think we're too high in elevation. We've not heard anything. We've not seen anything. But why not go look for sign? And by doing that, by getting out there in the woods and exploring, you might make something curious. I might want to check you out. Like you know what this hairless ape doing walking around out here you know slowly and looking around methodically I thought we got a good another good campsite Maybe something might come check us out you know slowly and looking around methodically that I thought we got a good another good campsite and maybe maybe something might come check us out you know and you know that just my ammo. And that's kind of what I like to do. I'm not a, I'm not a big night person, you know, like for night walks and all that. I like to be at my camp therming and, you know, use my thermal cameras and placing audio out and just being observant. And so I was excited to get out there with you and just do that. Go look for a sign. And we, we got, we, we found some, you know, tracks and some impressions and got to do what I try to do all the time. It's just explore, you know, kind of, and with a purpose of maybe attracting something to you at that moment or later on near your camp. Although that valley, man, that, that one where we got those handprints and that sure made me want to go for a night walk. Yes. Yeah. And, you know, we'd have to do a lot of walking out there just that road and that valley it was stunning but it was just so vast like we were talking about i mentioned you i said clip i just don't think people realize how big these areas are and you had mentioned you know basically spend the rest of your life just in this one valley yeah and you'd never yeah you'd never cover it all you'd become familiar with it but again when the sasquatches showed up showed up in that valley you would have to go do it again you know the chances of running across one of them in there is next to zero but not zero which is why we do this absolutely yeah that it really put a fire under me to get out there in that particular area again i hadn't been to the olympic peninsula in quite a while and the last couple times i was there i was on the north side of the peninsula so instead of the west side so i don't know i'm looking forward to getting out again man it really it really made me excited what do you What do you hypothesize or speculate that the squash was doing to put its hand down? Was it a real steep area like it was going up? Because I was thinking about that very question just two hours ago. I'll go ahead and start this one. And Shane, if you have any thoughts, I'd love to hear it, of course. Well, you know what I'll do, first of all, is I will send you a picture of the impression. Did I do this, Bobo? Do you have it already or no? Yeah, I saw it. Okay, so what you notice there is that the thumb was underneath the palm. okay underneath not to the side which tells us a little bit about the direction of the of the hand at the time a little bit not much because their hands are so weird compared to ours they don't have human-like hands at all really but because of that i can imagine that is probably a right hand it's probably a right hand because of the position of the thumb well maybe not actually it might be the thumb no i think it is the left hand actually because of the direction of the whole of the thumb But anyway, I think the hand was kind of, you know how like if you bend over, you might put your hand on something to the left or like a rail or like a bed post or something like that if you're bending over. I think it was doing that, which was why the thumb was in the position basically at the six o'clock, despite the other fingers being spread between 11 and three. So I think it might have been bending over for something, which of course didn't occur to me at the time, but we should have looked maybe on the ground for other hand impressions in the area. Although there were footprints, not five feet away, not five feet away or three feet away really from that hand impression. There were footprints in the ground. But yeah, I don't know. And thinking about it, those footprints were going the opposite direction. So I don't know what it was doing. And I guess that always should be my first answer when asked about Bigfoot stuff in general is I don't know. But I think this. Yeah. Yeah. I've been, I've been kind of racking my brain on that very question as well, because I really have no idea what it was doing. You know, I did get the impression since you that maybe it was bending over some, you know, using that hand as a rest, you know, was it crouched over? I don't know, but I got the impression in my mind, just looking and surveying the area that it was bending over. And for what reason? I have no idea. I don't. No idea. And then the other handprint, I'm wondering, I need to take care of that today at some point. But I'm wondering if it's the same animal or not. Because that one seemed bigger to me. You know, it measured bigger. But it's just been the way that the fingers were splayed out too. So I got to fix that cast and see what I can learn from it and clean it off and take a look at it. Yeah, it did. It seemed larger, but it could still be the same individual. I mean, it just could be. But what's interesting, again, just finding those impressions consistently on that side of the road. I mean, Bobo asked earlier, did it cross the road again? Don't know. I didn't see any evidence or sign. And I could have missed it. It could be that simple. But it seemed to be on that side. But that would have been the uphill side of that road, cross the road where I was looking. I'm looking down into the ravine down there towards the creek. It's pretty steep. so it made more sense that well actually where i was looking it was fairly difficult area to track it was a lot harder soil more grass on the side road you were traversing cliff it was a little more moist and wet and a little more conducive to define impressions you know when i look back at and i remember thinking this i remember thinking this but you know what this does to me is that it gives me a heart-wrenching sense of fear of missing out because i wanted to walk the creek i wanted to walk further up in the valley. I want to go back there. FOMO is overwhelming. Stay tuned for more Bigfoot and Beyond with Cliff and Bobo. We'll be right back after these messages. Starting a business can be overwhelming. You're juggling multiple roles, designer, marketer, logistics manager, all while bringing your vision to life. Shopify helps millions of I know you want to listen to your podcast, so I'll keep it short. Because if you think it's important to make a lot of choices, maybe ASR can help. Now I hear you think, how then? For example, when you're selling the expensive things that you love, you're selling. Want to know more about the insurance where expensive expensive expensive is? Go to asr.nl slash duurzamekeuzes. This is for you and a more expensive community. ASR does it. So, now you can listen to your podcast. Shopify helps millions of business sell online. Build fast with templates and AI descriptions and photos, inventory and shipping. Sign up for your one euro per month trial and start selling today at Shopify.nl. That's Shopify.nl. It's time to see what you can accomplish with Shopify by your side. I haven't been to the Nest site in a while. Can you give us an update on what's going on out there? Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. It's funny as we're talking here, when we're done, I am actually heading out there with Chris Spencer. We pulled back out of that area for quite some time. We pulled our long-term audio. So it's just been kind of naked out there as far as our presence and our equipment. But today, here we are in February, and Chris and I are going to head out there and play some long-term audio so that we can start recording that area and doing a little bit of surveillance that way. Come the end of February, here we're like in the middle of February, come the end of February through March, I'm going to be spending a lot of time out there off trail looking for newer nests, sign, any evidence that Sasquatch may be in the area. because honestly right now I have no idea what's going on I can look back at years past of what I think may be going on but it's been it's been kind of a weird time out there last year for example through the audio a lot of the audio work that Chris has done out there and reviewing it it was really quiet which is different you know since you know 2020 on specifically we've been doing a lot of audio work out there and whatnot. And we would pick up stuff periodically. But last year, September was really the only month we recorded anything suspect out there other than the, you know, your known animals and your known sounds. September, we just got a few things, like a howl. So not that Sasquatch isn't in the area, you know, maybe there's not being, you're not being vocal and whatnot. So something's changed. So I'm hoping this year, this may be a more active year in that area. I'm hoping to come across more sign. I'm hoping to come definitely across more nests, whether they're old nests we've missed or new nests. You know, if Sasquatch is indeed making nests, I hope to come across those. You know, I'm pretty confident that they are and it's periodic. And this could be one of those years, if my idea is right, my hypothesis is that they're making nests every, you know, basically four to six years, somewhere in there, this could be that year. And if they're making them in the months of, like I surmise again, the end of February through March, with the weather the way it is, the lack of snow, this could be a prime opportunity to get out there and see what we can obtain and see what we come across. And so, like I said, Chris Spencer and I are going to head out there a little bit later today and hike out, play some audio, do a little exploring. And I'm just, I'm super excited, super excited to get out there because we purposely stayed out of this area for a while. And it's like, I feel like I'm missing out. I get there's something to be found out there and, and could be completely wrong, but I, there's, there's always something to be found somewhere. You just got to be there. So is this, do you periodically leave the area alone? Remove all the contraptions and the long duration recorders and camera? Do you take everything out and let it cool down? So to speak periodically, is that a strategy you've been employing? Recently employing, yeah, I would say the last couple of years we do that. We'll pull out of an area. Though typically speaking, we do leave audio out there year-round. But this year we did. And last year we did pull the audio. We don't have any cameras in this area at the moment. No game cameras, no thermal cameras. that, you know, as we go back into this area, we'll be redeploying that stuff. But typically speaking, we do have a cool off period mainly, and it's mainly for the equipment, you know, just getting it, you know, everything out there gets saturated and really wet. And so we, we pull it out, you know, especially if you're going to get like a, a big snow and this is the really wet, you know, rainy season. So we like to pull everything out sometimes just, just because equipment's expensive and it does need to be handled accordingly and whatnot. But we do like to have a cooling off period in this particular area. There was a good video on State Sasquatch showing all that, like how you guys do all that, like what it all entails and how much effort goes into you guys doing that monitoring project. I know we really should. I mean, just so I just don't think a lot of people understand. I mean, if you watch the study Sasquatch, I think they have a video out of something of that, but you know, like what it, what it's like to, to. It just came out a week or two ago. Yeah. And, and I think they did a great job because they kind of showcase at least on their end, what they, the measures they take and the lengths they go to do what they do, which many of us do, many of us, we, we all kind of, we get it, but I just don't think some individuals understand. They think, oh, you just go drop a recorder out there and walk away and that's it. There is so much that goes into where you're going to place that recorder or that audio unit or that thermal camera. That's a whole conversation by itself, the mind behind where you're placing it and why you're placing it and how long are you going to leave it there, when are you going to pull it, and why. It's interesting questions I ask myself all the time. Why would I put this piece of equipment there? What is the benefit? What are the downsides, the pros, the cons? Is this the best spot it would eclipse say when we were out with less clip said when it came to being in the spot he's like you when you're you know you go find a great a good spot and then you look for the best spot and that's probably where the sasquatch will end up being well yeah with audio in particular you have to really and and camera traps as well you have to think where where could they walk because they could walk anywhere where would they have a higher probability of of walking I guess is a good way to do it. And as far as like audio, where can you hear? You don't want, you want to, you want to put a bottom of a ravine surrounded by trees. That's not going to get you anything. You need a place where it can hear maybe, you know, at least 180 degrees or 360 degrees, preferably. And, uh, you know, get vocalizations from a long distance. And now, which brings up something about the LDRs, the long duration recorders you guys put out there. I have it in my head. I think Chris told me this. I saw Chris like a month ago or something. And we were talking about this. I believe he told me that the Sasquatches are kind of onto the LDRs, not that they understand what they do or anything like that. But he was telling me that there's been some very loud, maybe knocks or something right next to audio recorders. This to me is really fascinating. Again, this is conjecture, but also, you know, through experience, because it does seem that to Sasquatch periodically, and for whatever reason, locate these LDRs. And I remember when I really started thinking about this, this was up in the Olympics, this was 2015, and Dr. Meldrum was out with us. And we did a night walk. We did a night walk and we had something pacing us up on this hill and grunting, making noise. And in fact, some of the individuals with us. I'm not going to mention this individual's name, but it was, it was no pun intended, but it was pretty hairy. It was a scary kind of experience for some. And one individual, this guy, he actually broke down. He was freaked out. And so we had something happen. I'm pretty sure we had a Sasquatch in that area that night. And so I decided to go out to back out to this area the next day during daylight and place the audio in this particular spot. It was buried, this TASCAM DRO-05 I had at the time. Same area we had the experience night before, off this logging road, it was placed under a bunch of debris. With the little red light, I placed it facing down. Well, I got something that around 11-ish at night on the recorder. You could hear it come up, you hear a knock, and you hear it walking around the recorder. And then you hear this thing it puts this muzzle its face right on top of the debris and you hear very very primate very grunt like you know you hear almost very i mean ridiculously primate like but it it located i'm assuming my my recorder and it was under debris you could not see it now this was very dark did it see the low red light from a distance even under the debris Did it smell it? Did it hear it? I don't know. I just know that it found my recorder. And I've seen this now happen periodically over and over again, where the Sasquatch are unabashed and will approach a recorder and check it out. And sometimes, you know, as Chris has probably told you, we have a lot of these recordings, David Ellis as well, of the Olympic Project. And I'm sure others do as well. But something locating it approaching it throwing stuff at it doing a knock or getting really close to a recorder and just grunting We have some really crazy grunts I mean just very primate when you hear these grunts It one of my favorite recordings Some of the ones we have were, you know, the only thing you could argue, at least up in the Olympics in these areas, is a black bear. That's the only thing you could argue that it could be. And I know it's not, but that's the only thing you could argue. You can't say it's an elk or, you know, we don't have any wild pigs or anything like that. This is, and it's very primate. But for whatever reason, is it a smell thing? Is it just a sight thing? Is it a noise thing? It's not like a game camera. For some reason, the audio is either a curiosity. And in some cases, it seems like they get the Sasquatch possibly are aggressive. Like they're really ticked off. Like, what is this thing doing out here? You know, that's the, you know, not, they don't come up and smash it, but they recognize it and acknowledge it. And sometimes it almost, you know, I don't want to read into this too much because I'm not in the head of a Sasquatch, but almost with like this stain, it seems. So yeah, why is it? I don't know, but it is an interesting observation based on years of recording, years of recording and having the same thing happen every so often in different areas, in remote areas. It's just a fascinating thing. And so it excites me because I love placing audio out going, am I going to have something approach this and get a really unique and interesting recording? Chris Spencer, before he got with the Olympic project, he's got an amazing piece of audio I like too, where not sure if the, and it's no doubt Sasquatch, I mean, just no doubt. Remote area that he was working in, he got some recording where you just hear these knocks. I mean, they're just, wow. And then you hear this thing walking around and it's grunting. It's just, it sounds angry. and then you get that baseball bat knocked at the end. It's just cool. It's just cool. I love talking about this subject because I don't know why they seem to approach the recorder, but they do when they locate it or find it or they acknowledge it by throwing something at it or beating a tree. And so it's just different than a game camera. Stay tuned for more Bigfoot and Beyond with Cliff and Bobo. We'll be right back after these messages. Thank you. It's time to see what you can accomplish with Shopify by your side. ASR does it. So, we can now listen to your podcast. what you can accomplish with Shopify by your side. Since you suspect that they're on to the LDRs somehow, do you move them around or do you keep them static? And if you do move them around, how long do you keep them in an area? A little bit of both. We like to experiment, you know. But it does seem that sometimes once they've located that LDR, long duration recorder, they sometimes just move on, don't come back. Like, okay, we were on to your game. And so we've done experiments where we left LDRs in one area and we do repeatedly get sucked, but maybe not as close. It's further out, you know, like a percussive that's further away or a vocal that's further away. They don't seem to make the same mistake or acknowledge it more than once in one area. And so we do move them around now, but we do have our same locations. We'll pull them. And sometimes, you know, again, an experiment, we'll pull the LDR out of an area. for a while and then place it back, you know, and then it does seem like they must meander around these areas because we do get activity or at least recording activity. So they're not like permanently leaving this area. For example, today, Chris and I are going out to an area where he's been putting audio for many years now and we don't have anything there now, but it's going to go back into the same exact spot. And we're going to see this particular ravine that we really monitor because it just seems to be a producer over the years of possible Sasquatch-related stuff. So we're going to go place that audio, the LDR unit, back in the same location. And quite honestly, I expect at this point to get something on there. Could be wrong. Maybe things have changed in this area. Maybe the Sasquatch aren't in the area. Maybe we just won't record them, even though they're in the area. But it's just a great spot that we monitor. and by pulling the unit or units that we place in these areas out for a while, you know, we're hoping that we'll get another good go at it and that the Sasquatch will be like, oh, oh, it's back. Let's go throw something at it. Or they won't, you know, maybe won't remember. Though I tend to believe that they, they, they're very observant and notice when things are missing and when things are back. And so that'll probably happen this time around. We'll see. Do you use game cameras and LDRs together? We have, we really haven't done too much of that. We have a little bit. The problem, again, in this area for game cameras, and this is my problem with game cameras in general, I don't know if Sasquatch avoids them, hears them, smells them. I really don't know. And so where I like to place my game cameras is along rivers and creeks. Because if you look at the Patterson-Gimlin film, where this paddy was out in the open, kind of probably caught by surprise. If you look at a lot of the reports over the years where a Sasquatch is surprised there's a human in that area or vice versa, the human surprise, it's always, not always, but a lot of times it seems to be around bodies of fast moving water, creeks, riverbeds. And I think that's because one, you're visually looking at that moving water. So it's kind of a distraction. Two, you got different smells coming off those creeks and rivers. And three, it's, oh, it's very noisy. So you're not going to hear, you know, somebody walking around. You're going to be distracted. And I think your best chance for a game camera, at least as far as deployment, is going to be near a creek or a river where you might have a better chance. You know, and I don't put my game cameras on trees. I put them in stumps and stuff of that nature. So my point being is in this particular area where we had the LDRs, the Huckleberry is just so dang tall and thick. it'd be very hard to place both together i could put it on the ldr itself we have done that and but not not enough that's something we'll probably do more of is placing different cameras i mean the types of cameras you can get now are the size of you know of your pinky and so that'd be something to do but preferably i'd rather just do thermal you know a thermal camera it's just i think it's just the way to go you know like what um study sasquatch is doing where they're trigger activated based on the heat signature. Game cameras on these things. If I were to place it on any of these long duration recorders, I'm going to get a thousand shots of Huckleberry branches moving or Rhododendron. And so it's difficult. I got lots of ideas and I have experimented. You can put the camera up high and just focus on the unit itself. So it's just not something we do a whole lot of. Probably need to do more of it and probably will. It's just a matter of experimentation. So the Olympic project has one of the main focuses, obviously, and clearly should be the Ness, the Ness sites. Are there any other projects or anything that you'd like anybody to be aware of with the Olympic project for the foreseeable future here? Or is it like all the monies on the Nets project right now because that's the greatest opportunity? Yeah, I mean, that's why I moved to Washington. I moved to Washington, you know, when I was looking to move, but two, these nests just blew my mind. And the fact that we have, you know, Todd Hill, one of our partners, did find a new nest being made in 2020 tells me that, you know, if the original nests were discovered back in 2015, if the nests were made then, and now we found some more in 2020, well, here we're 2026. I have to kind of spend all my time in there because I can't, you know, and the Limber Project as well. We are really gung-ho with documenting and observing and doing as much as we can with these, this nest study area. It's been a producer, whether it's nest or vocalizations or tracks, you know, whether it's a hand impression or there's so much that's come out of this one particular area. it would be it wouldn't behoove me to go and do a whole lot anywhere else now we do limb projects you know it's a fairly large group of individuals and and spread out so there are other projects going on in other areas other audio projects other camera projects other monitoring projects in other areas but the nest area itself is is it's something that until this area is logged until they come in and actually log this area. And that's a whole nother gamut to it. You know, we don't know when they're going to log it. I don't know if they know that the company knows when they're going to log it, but when they do, this area will be changed and changed for the rest of my life. So I'm going to spend as much time in this area as I can before that happens. But what I'm also doing and what the Inland Project is also doing is, you know, I don't think Sasquatch needs to go a whole heck of a long ways away to continue doing what it's doing. So we're also looking at other areas and preemptive strikingly, you know, doing a preemptive strike, already putting audio in these other areas so we could monitor and see if this is maybe an area that once this, the nest area is logged, you know, could they go here? Will they go here? Are they here now? All those questions. So that is our main focus. No doubt about it. But we do have other projects going on and I will probably discuss them. I have an event coming up down in Chehalis, Washington, Pacific North Wilds event, March 7th. Mark Rissell is going to be down there, Tyler Bounds, and a few others. So it should be a fun event. I'll probably discuss some of these things down there. If anybody's interested in hearing about what the oil project's up to and some of our new findings, please come down. It's going to be a great event. It's just a one-day event. And just look up Pacific North Wilds and get a ticket. Yeah, all day long, March 7th in downtown Chehalis, Washington. PNW Wilds, I think our good friend Mitch Moberg has a hand in this somehow. He has a wonderful shop up there called Bigfoot Treasure. So if you're in that area, be sure to drop by there and see our good friend Mitch Moberg as well. So, yeah, I don't blame you a bit for like hanging your hat on the nest site stuff because this is just so extraordinary. So extraordinary. I mean, nests have been found before. I mean, I just sent you a recording, Rene DeHinden, talking about nests that were found in the late 1960s at Bluff Creek by forestry workers, loggers and stuff. And their description of it is spot on to what you guys have found on the Olympic Peninsula. So, yeah. And I know you're interested in other nests as well. So, of course, if anybody does find something that they could interpret as a nest or anything like that, is there a way that people can get in touch with you? What's the easiest way for somebody to email you? Yeah, just my email. It's so simple. That's the easiest way. It's Shane Corson. So S-H-A-N-E-C-O-R-S-O-N at M-S-N dot com. That's the easiest way. I'm on, of course, I'm on social media, Facebook, all that junk. But send me an email. I'm interested in nest finds in the description. In fact, two days ago, I had an individual reach out with a possible nest find. I'm intrigued because I've seen the photos. It's different, but it's a nest of some sort. I'm going to get out there. Of course, it's back up in the Olympics, so I got to get back up there, but I'm going to check that one out. And so historically, there have been nests found. And that link you gave me with Rene DeHinden, it was just another cherry on the top. I was like, wow. So I'm excited. And that's where the, you know, at least on the Illumina Project side and on my side, that's where my focus is going to be because I can't do everything right, but I can do a few things right if I focus. Well, it's more optimistic view than I have of myself, you know. We're going to be popping over to the members section now because what we do for our members is Shane's going to hang on for their hour and our members have submitted questions for Shane. So that's kind of one of the perks. If you want to be a member of Bigfoot and Beyond and join our pigeonry, the pidge, as we call them. Yeah, it's $5 a month. You get every episode completely ad-free. You get an extra hour of content and a whole other episode every single week, as well as other perks. You get to see the pictures of things that we talk about on the main episode as well as the member episode. And today, you know, you get to ask, if you're a member, you could have submitted a question for Shane and maybe have your question answered on air. So if you're interested in that, click that link in the show notes that the lovely and talented Matt Pruitt will put down there. And there you go. Bobes, anything else? No, I just want to say thanks to Shane for coming on. It's always interesting to hear what you guys are doing. I mean, you're basically in the most active spot in the lower 48. So I love hearing what you guys have going on. I look forward to getting out there with you again, Shane, up there this summer sometime. And for everyone out there, thanks for tuning in. We appreciate it. Until next week, keep it squashy. Thanks for listening to this week's episode of Bigfoot and Beyond. If you liked what you heard, please rate and review us on iTunes. Subscribe to Bigfoot and Beyond wherever you get your podcasts. And follow us on Facebook and Instagram at Bigfoot and Beyond Podcast. You can find us on Twitter at Bigfoot and Beyond. That's an N in the middle. and tweet us your thoughts and questions with the hashtag BigfootAndBeyond. Starting a business can be overwhelming. You're juggling multiple roles, designer, marketer, logistics manager, all while bringing your vision to life. Shopify helps millions of business sell online. Build fast with templates and AI descriptions and photos, inventory and shipping. Sign up for your 1 euro per month trial and start selling today at Shopify.nl. That's Shopify.nl. It's time to see what you can accomplish with Shopify by your side. It can be a slow load of 10% to 80% within half an hour. And with 416 liters of space, it's ready for the weekend. Find the new CHR Plus on Toyota.nl.