(a glorious scene awaited us in Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park prior to visiting the bigfoot museum in Felton, CA. November 2, 2010 - Chuck Yamarone's birthday!)(REMEMBER: left click on photos to see larger versions.)
(a crisp, cool day spent driving around California's San Joaquin Valley on Charlie Yamarone's birthday - October 30, 2010.)Halloween had a good run up here at bigfootsongs dot com. Despite my lack of blog posts, there has been a lot happening in the last 10 days.
November 5, 1870 was the date of the letter printed in the Antioch Ledger newspaper that detailed a hunter's observation of two sasquatches in the mountains near the Pacheco Pass at the headwaters of Orestimba Creek. This is an account you'll find in John Green's book "Sasqutch - the Apes Among Us" and John Bindernagel's "North America's Great Ape - The Sasquatch."
It's a classic account of this hunter finding his campfire remnants strewn about upon his return from a day of hunting. His provisions and shelter were not disturbed and there were large, bare footprints evident around the camp. His determined, frontier curiosity demands he get to the bottom of this unusual occurrence and he details his surveillance of camp the next day for several hours until the culprit reappears. It's an upright, bipedal, hair-covered hominoid and it procedes to take the smoldering sticks from his fire and wave them about much to its amusement. It also beckons a companion with a whistle and soon an "obvious female" joins the first bigfoot for some campfire fun - sasquatch style! It sounds amusing but it is a detailed observation that reeks of authenticity. I'll try and post my photocopies that were obtained from the microfiche archives of the Contra Costa County (CA) library a couple of years ago.
(a fortunate flyover - the headwaters of Orestimba Creek in the Diablo Range from a commercial airliner. Not open to public access and looks much like it did in 1870. Photo taken in late November 2006. Photo credit: Tom Y.)The area where this sighting took place is 30 miles south of the city of Livermore, California. It remains very much as it was in 1870 although the surrounding enviroments have developed. Who knows if bigfoots still roam the private, extensive ranchlands that encompass the Orestimba Creek drainage. We pass over the lower reaches of the creek as it drains into the San Joaquin River in California's central valley.
(the old cottonwood trees along Orestimba Creek mark its route near Interstate 5 in the San Joaquin Valley.)From the past to the present, let's move 70 miles north to a location east of the city of Lodi, California. Here is the bigfoot sighting report that occurred on Monday, October 25, 2010.
Link to BFRO.net sighting report from Hwy 88 in Amador County
(view of bigfoot sighting location on Highway 88 northbound on Saturday, October 30th.)I've taken on 3 bigfoot sighting reports as a volunteer investigator with the BFRO. That typically involves a few hours of correspondence with the witness and more hours of administrative work readying the report for publication. I took a drive out to the sighting location on Saturday, October 30th. I was unable to meet the witness that day but was directed to the spot by him. Other possible activity is taking place along the Cosumnes River east of Elk Grove, California and I visited with a family reporting strange sounds and activity around their rural home. We'll see if any recordings or other evidence will come from that. It's unclear at this point if any will. But that's the nature of "bigfoot research" - pursue any leads and attempt to document what you can.
(New Zealand bigfoot enthusiast Daniel Falconer - aka Reverend Strone in blog talk land - visits the Bigfoot Discovery Museum.)There was also a couple of social events in the last 2 weeks. A fellow sasquatch enthusiast from New Zealand was passing through the Bay Area and we met up for a trip to the Bigfoot Discovery Museum in Felton, California. Daniel Falconer is an acquaintance I met in the chat rooms of a few bigfoot blog talk radio shows. It turns out he's quite the accomplished digital artist and works for a company that has been involved with some major motion pictures. He was in the states attending two bigfoot conferences in Oklahoma and Texas. He gave a presentation at the Texas Bigfoot Conference on the sasquatch art and some of the special effects work his company has done. He also has an active interest in pursuing recent sightings of animals believed to be extinct in New Zealand. We met up with Jerry Hein and Mike Rugg at the museum and Daniel shared the presentation with us on his computer.
(Mike Rugg, Daniel Falconer and Tom Yamarone - that's me - at the front counter of the awesome bigfoot museum and library.)
(Daniel shares his presentation with Mike, Jerry Hein and myself - a fascinating hour of sasquatch art, New Zealand natural history and recent bigfoot conferences.)Last Monday I was a guest of the band SexRat as they opened for Sublime with Rome in Santa Cruz, California. This was a great night out at the historic Catalyst club and it's always a blast to be at those shows with a guest sticker on your shirt... nothing like rolling as a VIP at a rock n' roll concert!
(SexRat at the Catalyst with Bud Gaugh of Sublime with Rome sitting in on drums for their new song "Made in China.")
(Rome and Bud on stage at the Catalyst in Santa Cruz - Monday, November 8, 2010.)Fall has come to California and the colder temperatures are evident. A few recent storms have brought snow to the higher elevations of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. I'm not sure if we'll get out in the next few weeks as the holidays approach. I'll keep you posted as to what we're doing here in California and what's new in the bigfoot songs world. Take care, friends!
