The Free Radical

And then, a little less than a year into the project, the Daily Forest Report takes a sudden left turn! Yes, my thoughts are well plickened! Let’s start off with this new image for you to ponder. In some ways it’s self-explanatory, and in other ways it’s totally baffling. See what I mean?

In terms of scale, you can clearly see my own footprint up and to the right. There’s a bit of tread on my toe-shoes and what’s clearly depicted is my heel and the outside of my foot. Additionally, there’s another of my prints directly facing the “animal” print toe-to-toe. From this, you can see that the footprint is really rather large… and is again lacking any clear claw marks which would be present with a bear. I’ll let that image sit with you for a moment as I back up and provide additional context.

Throughout the daily adventure of these Forest Reports, there has been one who was always watching, discussing and visiting at the periphery of these excursions. I’m talking about Raven… just as surely as Raven has been talking about me!

Raven knows– better than anyone, I believe– exactly what’s going on in the Forest. I honestly don’t think that a single day has gone by when Raven wasn’t encountered… at least cawing or croaking in nearby treetops unseen, or doing brief recognizance flyovers too quick for my camera. Despite Raven ALWAYS being there, I have written very little in that regard because it was always so subtle… and, well, unremarkable. But I fully believe that Raven is so intelligent and well-informed that if he had his own blog you would all abandon these Forest Reports in favour of Raven’s insightful musings!

In the past few days, I’ve been reporting a great deal of animal activity in the area. Between various eagle sightings, obvious bear signs, and even Ground Squirrel feeling the need to yell at me like never before, I forgot to mention that there was also an incident of several Ravens having a very loud discussion just out of my sight near the Mesa which lasted at least 10 minutes. I thought maybe they were fighting over food, but that would’ve seen the appearance of Turkey Vulture who never misses such an opportunity. I can only imagine what they might’ve been discussing!

Yesterday, before we got to the site of the anomalous print in the mud, Raven decided to interact very deliberately for the first time in nearly a year. First he flew directly over me and the three dogs at a very low altitude and then landed directly on the road behind us… for no apparent reason.

Here you can see him in the middle of the road… giving me ample opportunity to dig my camera out.

Lhasa and Sitka are determined to go out to greet him… and cawing loudly, he is forced to fly away… temporarily.

Now we fast-forward to the discovery of the new print in the mud. I’m looking closely, utterly baffled… and totally excited, when suddenly there’s Raven again flying very low right overtop of me cawing loudly… as if to say “Pay attention! Something startling is being revealed!”

Yes, I was sort of joking about the whole Bigsquatch thing. It’s a tough thing to take seriously. And now I don’t know what to think at all!

If you do a Google search of “Columbia Valley Bigfoot sightings” you will find that very near to our area there has been considerable recent interest and credible evidence surfacing. Now, what’s really odd in this case is that my walking area is not really that far into the backcountry. Some would even argue that it’s not backcountry at all. Admittedly, it’s not particularly remote… so that certainly doesn’t fit with Bigsquatch’s typical M.O.

At this point, I’m going to refrain from speculating any further. It could very well be that I’m being hoaxed. If I am, the hoaxers are doing an extremely good job! Kudos.

And before I submit my findings to our local newspapers, I will spend the next few days thoroughly searching the swamp and surrounding area for further evidence. Yes, I’ll actually leave my regular path and do a little bush-whacking. Of course, I will report any further findings here.

And here’s that picture again with the left side revealed. It’s only a single print in the mud, but you can see that being the print of an apparent right foot, the left foot would’ve stepped directly in the puddle. The surrounding ground was too hard to yield any more definite prints.

Wish me luck!