Kevin and I recently had a chance to do an overnight Southern Bigfoot search in the Hillsborough River flood plane zone. Even though we are in a drought, we needed to go in now to avoid the heat and rain that just a month away. If this animal is a swamp ape, he will come into this swamp during hurricane season.
It happened to be the coldest night of the year and after sunset, you could see your breath. That is not common in Florida.
We set up camp and found out we were the only one out there this night (just the way we like it). I got my tent set up and unloaded all of our gear. Keven even had a GoPro helmet cam that he experimented with on his mountain bike. He did not find anything, but I still think its a good idea.
After sunset, we headed out to do a night operation. There is belief that Bigfoot is nocturnal. I am not sold on that because of the many daytime sightings, including the Patterson film. Nobody can really prove any of this - it is all theory. Anyway, part of our objective was to do a night search along the river and where we found the dead pig last month, that looked like it had been torn up by a larger animal. I did hear Matt Moneymaker say something about that on the North Carolina episode of
Finding Bigfoot.
We wanted to deploy a Reconyx RC60 trail cam, and leave it up for six months, but got sidetracked by other stuff. We have another cam on permanent deployment in the Green Swamp of Florida, and are getting some good results. At least we can track animal movements from day and night. When deer go nocturnal, that means they are being hunted hard. That may have something to do with Skunkape behaviour.
I was bundled up good and knew it was going to be very cold. With all the walking, I stayed warm and we soon were in the pig area. Kevin circled around and I checked it out. The pig carcass was gone and not even a trace. The first time we were there, no blood or anything else put just the rear section of the pig. We did not stay long here because we wanted to find the river before dark.
Kevin at the overlook around dusk. We could hear something hit the water like a rock being thrown.
Our timing was good because we got to the river just as it got dark. Then, we made an enigmatic discovery of a grave marker. My first thought was that it may have been from homesteader days. That would made the grave close to a century old, if not longer. The etching on it looked good, as if it was made with special tools.
The name was Henry Bear. I have contacts that have done research on that name and cannot find a death notice for that name in recent years anywhere in the state of Florida. There is no way to tell how old it is. It us up an incline and not exactly on the trail. The only reason we found it was becasue we were looking for an open area to secure the trail cam. However, it was just to thick in there.
Kevin tried calling out to Henry Bear while he was recording it on his video. I'm afraid I was filming also and just kept running my mouth. I really need shut up when someone is doing that. I am new to a new venture in the realm of the enigmatic. I guess that's how you learn.
We got some good video and I have been listening for what are called EVP's.
Electric Voice Phenomena have been recorded by paranormal researchers and they are possible communication from the departed. I see this show on cable where they seem to find them all the time. I did not have such luck. I can't really tell if anything is heard in the background other then an owl.
On the way back to camp, we did hear something large moving off to our right. I put a search light on it and Kevin went in. By the time I got my video camera out of my backpack, it was gone. That how it goes in the business.
It was very cold after midnight and we slept in our cars. Without a tent heater, forget about sleeping on the ground. Next time, I will be more prepared. This is the first of many such adventures, I hope. Anyway, the burgers, chicken and potato salad were great.
.JPG)
.JPG)
