Book: Where the Footprints End

My copy of Where the Footprints End; High Strangeness and the Bigfoot Phenomenon Volume 1 (Joshua Cutchin, Timothy Renner) arrived yesterday.

As you can see, I already very into it!

I am loving this book and am excited for Volume 2.

Among other things, the book is very well written, which I appreciate.

A bit of synchronicity: the introduction contains a report from 1973 about an orange orb and Bigfoot type encounter.  Interesting for many reasons one being, the orange orb is described as being very large and close to the witnesses, and, it occurred in 1973! It's unusual to find reports of large sized orange orbs from that time. My sighting in Oregon of a large orange orb was in the early 1980s.

Haven't finished the book yet but just had to give this book a plug. I really think that anyone serious about Bigfoot research -- honest research -- should read this book, as well as others, like Them Powell's books.

A collection of local animal news

I had saved the following news items from October, not knowing quite what to do with them. I only had the feeling they were important, and, was struck by the juxtaposition of these items; all appeared in the local paper on the same day. October 27, 2017.

Nothing of a supernatural cryptid nature, but still interesting for the number of animal related items on the same day, as well as the content itself.

All are from the Eugene-Springfield, Oregon, Register Guard newspaper.

First item: Cougar Sightings on the rise near Oregon Coast. 

An updated cougar management plan, approved by the Fish and Wildlife Commission in mid-October, found that the coast management zone has reported a rise in cougar sightings, as well as an increase in conflicts with the big cats. 

Now, state biologists based in Newport are beginning the first-ever coastal effort to attach GPS collars to adult cougars and track their movements to see just how far these predators wander, what they eat and where they might be going next. 

The coast management zone is a large area that includes the northern section of the Cascade Mountain Range, the Portland, Salem and Eugene metroplexes and the rural North Coast. For years these areas were written off, not considered good cougar habitat, said Derek Broman, carnivore-furbearer coordinator for the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Department.

Next: Clusters of butterflies stuck up North (could not find a link for this item)
An AP news item about Monarch butterflies still in the PNW and Canada, when they should be on their way to Mexico. Overall, Monarch butterflies have been staying in the northern part of the U.S., as well as Canada, long past when they should be staying. The reason: "…unusually warm weather and strong winds" according to biologist Elizabeth Howard. (Register Guard, October 27, 2017.)

Then an item about wolves in Oregon: Reward offered in killing of protected gray wolf.

Ending with Sea Lion Alert: The outbreak killing the marine mammal also is a danger to pets:

A bacteria outbreak is making sea lions sick along the Oregon Coast, so state officials are warning people and their dogs to stay away from the animals.

The outbreak began in September and likely will last into December, said Jim Rice, a researcher at Oregon State University. He studies and helps sick or stuck animals along the entire Oregon Coast as stranding coordinator with the Oregon Marine Mammal Stranding Network. Calls about distressed or dead sea lions have been coming in regularly.

“I’m getting at least one a day,” he said Thursday. “It’s sometimes four, maybe five.”OSU’s Oregon Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory has confirmed at least eight cases of leptospirosis in dead sea lions since the outbreak began, Rice said. The most recent such outbreak in Oregon was in 2010

Twenty something years ago, in grad school, I told my mentor/professor that I was collecting news items about animals, and specifically, any strange animal behavior items. (my area was supernatural folklore.) He told me that my project sounded promising, but, he asked, what was the "why?" Why was I doing this? What was I wanting to show, to learn?

I didn't know. I still don't. The above items are not supernatural in any way, but , aside from any unexplained mystery aspect, any news about animals is interesting. We can learn from the signals. The relationships, predictive programing, seeming prophetic signs. Clues to not just the mundane -- which is proving to be anything but, given our global envirnomental context -- but the things that go bump in the night.

Didn't See Sasquatch, Yet . . .

Updated: I tried, in this little sketch I did today, to capture the looming and overwhelming terror of this experience. The darkness and dark blue coming over the hill is heavy with this … dark energy that was simply huge.  Still working on it.

Overwhelming Hill Energy, colored pencil, Regan Lee

A few years ago I was driving in a rural area not too far from home. (Oregon.) Just out for a drive, nice day. Going further out, up a hill. I pulled over at the top of the hill to enjoy the view. Uphill side, valley below, delightful. Behind me, hills looming, and trees. No homes, no buildings, just out there. And yet, as it is in this area, only about twenty minutes from "civilization." Anyway, standing there for not more than five minutes, when suddenly, I had the most disturbing and, all right, frightening, experience.

One minute I'm happy, enjoying the view, next moment, I'm terrified. I mean, literally, frightened out of my mind. Overwhelming sense of fear, terror, danger. This feeling was mine, yes, being afraid of something, but that "something" was coming at me! It was huge, roiling down the hills behind me.

This was no panic attack. I've had true panic attacks, and this was nothing at all like those. This was something I've never experienced before or since. (Although, quite similar to an experience I had at night in a graveyard.)

I could almost hear a voice within this huge energy wave -- and that's what it was, an unseen but most definitely present wave -- that in very clear terms did not want me there. I had the crystal clear thought put into my head: GET OUT!

So I did.

For some reason, and to my surprise, there's a nagging Bigfoot connection in my mind to this experience. I personally don't immediately associate negative or threatening experiences with Sasquatch, though I'm aware of those stories of course. Why I have this association I don't know. Aside from my personal opinions on negative Sasquatch encounters, this experience had nothing to do with any kind of sighting of a Bigfoot. Or anything else. I didn't see anything, in the physical. No UFOs, no ghosts, no apparitions, and no Bigfoot.

I think this energy was some sort of nature-spirit energy, or force. Maybe something having to do with some of the forces responsible for the disappearances David Paulides researches. (See the "Missing 411" books.) (And I want to make it clear this is my speculation on my personal experience, and nothing Paulides himself has said.)