Saturday, October 8, 2009

Photo of Bigfoot Foot Print Under Water

Dating back to 1962 up to the present day, the Hillsdale, Michigan Bigfoot has made his presence known. He has often been described as being eight foot tall, and from some accounts, this Bigfoot appears very aggressive. However, there appears to be a larger Bigfoot located there as well. The footprint measured 23 inches long and over 10 inches at the widest point of the foot. The stride is well over 6 feet in length.

Dr. Napier's formula when applied to the foot length puts that Bigfoot around 12 feet tall. I might also mention this is the area where some of the famous Dexter/Hillsdale, Michigan UFO sightings were starting in March of 1966. This is where Dr. J. Allen Hynek declared the UFO sightings were most likely due to swamp gas.

I met Dr. Hynek in 1982 for a special meeting at the Jackson Space Center late one night. During dinner I asked Dr. Hynek about the swamp gas explanation. He said he was listing some phenomena to the Air Force and they wanted to adopt that explanation. Dr. Hynek with a smile on his face told me that when he came through Michigan on his way to his cabin in Canada, he had to lay low to avoid a lynching. I agree, I was in APRO at the time and a few of us would have supplied the rope. We all had a good laugh.

Photo of Bigfoot Heel and Toe Prints

I got my chance to hunt the Hillsdale Bigfoot in September of 2009. I had a few clues on where to look and the rest I owed to experience. I spent four days in the wilderness looking for signs of the big guy going off trails into secluded spots most likely to appeal to a Bigfoot.

The second day yielded some pretty interesting sounds of tree knocking and unintelligible talking deep in the woods. However, no physical evidence was found. On the fourth day I figured my best bet was in the far north by the river. There are some hiking trails in there but they only intrude on about 1/8 of the wilderness leaving plenty of places for Bigfoot to reside.

I wasn't able to get back again to the Hillsdale area until October. I find that in and around hunting season, Bigfoot is very active, sometimes snagging the kill of a surprised hunter. This would be the first time I explored the river area off the hiking trail to the east.

Closeup Photo of Bigfoot Heel and Toe Prints

When I arrived, it had been raining all morning and there was no sign of letting up. I put on my rain gear and took extra care in protecting my cameras. The trail in was wet and muddy. I had to navigate a lake that was encroaching on the land almost to the trail.

At the far eastern section of the lake there is a small natural levee with piles of broken branches have collected. I walked along the levee ridge watching the trail below me somewhat under water until I reached the older woods.

The rain continued nonstop making it difficult to document anything with a camera. After two hours of trekking through the older part of the woods I came upon the river. The river access was a slippery 15 foot cliff covered with exposed wet clay. It was there I found suspicious tracks on a small sandbar next to the cliff. There were some large footprints (approximately 19 inches) there in the mud.

Photo of Bigfoot Tracks

From the positioning of the footprints it was easy to see they originated from the river itself not the land. It was as if something stepped out of the river onto the sandbar for a brief minute and then continued to head east to the hidden pond. To get photos of the small sandbar I had to hang onto a tree risking a fall into the river.

I next proceeded down river to see how far I could get by land. This advance came to a halt when I stepped into a muck field. I quickly sunk up to my thighs. I managed to throw my camera equipment out of harms way as I worked my way out of the muck field to terra firma.

It was only about 40 degrees that day and the rain made it all the colder. I had to wash my boots in the freezing river before I could move on because they were filled with muck. It wasn't looking good, I was cold now and my feet were wet with a two hour trek back to my car.

On the return trip, I followed the eastside of a lake I had passed earlier in the day. To my amazement there appeared to be footprints in the mud that weren't there hours before when I first passed through that area. I had been tracking at that time when I first went in and was watching for signs. I couldn't have missed these footprints that were so plainly on a narrow 2 foot path. The footprints were of bare feet. I stopped and documented them as the rain continued to pour.

The appearance of the footprints had all the characteristics of a young Bigfoot. Unfortunately the prints were full of water distorting a lot of the detail. Yet, one could see that the prints had the large extended rounded heel and lacked the human longitudinal arch that is characteristic of Bigfoot. I placed my hand in the print puddle and was able to detect the impressions of toes. The direction of the prints where following my earlier path.

After this discovery I had to ask, "Who's hunting whom?"

Joe Stewart, The Paranormal Nomad.