Bigfoot Lives in my Backyard

I'm kind of growing fond of the Scifi Channel, I must admit. I think my alltime favorite show is Ghost Hunters, about a group of paranormal investigators who try to capture scientific evidence of hauntings. The thing that I like best about the show is that they set out with the agenda of disproving most reported paranormal phenomena, searching for normal explanations to what people believe to be paranormal experiences. For instance, people who hear noises in their basement and claim it's evidence that their house is haunted oftentimes have pipes that knock against their wall or vents that expand and bang when the heat kicks on. Another example is that poor electrical wiring in a house can cause creepy feelings, nausea, headaches, and even hallucinations (if it's bad enough).

In their investigations, though, they've found some stuff that they can't explain. For instance, the investigators shot a video in a light house that shows a shadow runnining up the steps to the top. When the investigators followed they found no one, and when they reached the spot where they last saw the shadow, a motion sensor activated a flood light that would have turned on if anyone else had passed by. They also have a video of a chair in an empty room that moves across the floor, seemingly by itself. In another episode, they investigate the place that was the inspiration for Stephen King's The Shining. In that episode, a closet door opens, closes, and latches all by itself.

And now there's a new show on the Scifi Channel called Sci Fi Investigates, where they investigate things for which little or no scientific evidence exists. Last night's episode featured the hunt for Bigfoot, though I didn't get to watch much of it because it was up against the season finale of Project Runway. In the little bit I watched, though, I heard them talking about where evidence of Bigfoot has been found. One of the places they mentioned was around Mount Ranier. The group also did some investigating in Oregon.

The thing that's sort of creepy about all this is that in one way or another, the national park system around Ranier connects to Wenatchee National Forest, creating this huge stretch of land that makes up the backbone of the state of Washington. Wenatchee National forest is less than 30 miles away from where I live.

This part of Washington is mostly wilderness and mountains. It's easy to see how something like Bigfoot could live there and go relatively unnoticed. So I guess that's one more reason, along with the bears, not to go camping in central Washington. : )

I actually had a really interesting paper by a student of mine, who wanted to research and investigate the validity of the evidence about Bigfoot. He told me that the most famous shot of a Bigfoot, came from a film created by Roger Patterson and Robert Gimlin, two people from Yakima, Wa, which is two hours south of Wenatchee. The movie, though, was actually shot in Northern California.

Here are some videos gathered by other Bigfoot investigators. From looking at the places where these images were shot you can see that there is evidence of Bigfoot all along the area that stretches from Northern California up into Canada in the mountains just to the west of me.

If I ever see Bigfoot, you all will be the first to know, I promise. : )

Brad