For sure I’m not trying to legitimize this video. It’s a dead-end as far as I’m concerned.

Just wanted folks newer to this stuff to know that there are a number of reports of people spooked beyond any concern for their gear that sound legit. Gotta make sure they know….because I kinda figured you did. (And I bet you’re thinking the same way.)

And as for your viral video: as soon as that slow sensuous dance gets interrupted, the sound you won’t hear on the video is my frustrated ranting as I pick up my monitor and throw it. You better get the bigfoot if you are stopping that.

I’ve seen those reports as well. A common thread I noticed among them was that the people were on the receiving end of significant stalking/ aggressive behavior.

Now I’m fairly comfortable in the woods and on occasion walk around at night using only natural light or a small pen light… but if I was ever camped out and something was following me through the bush (I’ve felt this before – but who hasn’t, all alone in the woods?), throwing rocks, breaking branches and screaming at me… I’d be outta there so fast, wouldn’t even stop to crap my pants… just jump in the truck and drive straight home.

The thing is, the figure doesn’t demonstrate any aggressive behavior or posturing (apes have similar body language to ours, we would know it almost instinctively). The video makers also don’t report any of this kind of behavior beforehand. If it had stood up facing them, grabbed the trees and shook them, then I could see the “run for your life” response.

Footage starts with a guy filming his girlfriend with a digital camera. They are out in the woods camping. Fire is lit. We see the silhouette of the girl, her back is to us, she’s dancing in front of the fire… a slow sensuous dance. Guy is digging it, camera centers on her and she just dances for a little while… all we can make out is the outline, but it looks good. A sound is heard off camera (branch cracking?)… woman stops dancing, speaks, “What was that?”… camera pans right and something can be seen at the edge of the firelight… an odd shadow moves… man’s voice, loud, shrill with fear, “S! What the F is that??!!”… the shadow stands up… it’s HUGE… it screams at them… an ear shattering howl from your worst nightmares… the man with the camera is frozen in terror… we get a tantalizing look right as it steps out of the brush and begins to move towards them. This is too much for our cameraman, he unfreezes and immediately drops the camera. All we see now is the ground, but we can still hear… them running screaming for their lives… getting in their vehicle and driving away. Noises can be heard from around the campsite. Something is ransacking the place, tearing it apart… after some time, another howl can be heard… farther off, longer and slightly different than the 1st… the creature in the campsite answers with a howl of its own… heavy footsteps can be heard moving off… camera runs until it is out of memory/ batteries… THE END

Elements

1) “Found” footage would be contained on a low cost digital camera, calculated to limit detail due to its capabilities
2) Mystery… identity of the subjects is unknown/ unknowable
3) Sex
4) Violence
5) Cursing (adds realism, well known used car sales technique to add emphasis and ”truthiness”)
6) Abandoned gear and trashed camp will bolster the footage
7) Patsy (someone not in on it) would be brought in to “discover” abandoned campsite where camera would be found (gear would be bought at various yard sales/ swap meets to foil identification)
8 ) Conspirators would back off and let the patsy be the “finder of record”, do any interviews, polygraphs, etc…
9) Footprint/ partial footprint/ other indentations will be created at the scene
10) Hair will be left at the scene (using long auburn human hair without the root)
11) Trees will be twisted with a monkey wrench at a suitable height
12) Howl will be created using Garage Band/ iPad to combine various animal sounds (elephant, tiger, lion, gorilla) and adjust frequency, pitch, length, etc… to make each vocalization slightly different from the last. Bluetooth speakers will be used to broadcast howls at appropriate times.

There are a number of reports of campers, hunters and fishermen leaving their stuff under, well, compelling circumstances. Even though few of the ones I’ve read come complete with video (and in a number of cases they went back to get it, sometimes finding that it had meantime been monkeyed with, pardon the pun).

Maybe this is now a bigfoot meme; people do read things in reports and naively include them in their THIS IS REAL! rants on YouTube.

What I want to see next: a video of people actually leaving their stuff, and the bigfoot following behind them and monkeying with it (pardon the pun). If you’re going to have fun, let’s have some more fun.

“It’s probably all still up there.”. Why wouldn’t it be, did Sasquatch make off with it? While totally extraneous to a regular narrative, there’s a reason this element is included in just about every “believe it or not” campfire tale since the dawn of time. It engages the listener, challenges them to go up there to see for themselves… any ‘evidence’ found at the scene only bolsters the original story. For example, “To this day you can still go out to Dead Man’s Curve and see the skid marks… and when the wind is just right, you can hear the solo from Stairway to Heaven floating on the breeze.” … or… “I’m telling you, it’s still out there… you can go see for yourself. All that’s left of the witches cottage is the stump of the chimney and the old iron stove she used to cook children.”

I’m America’s most sought-after Bigfoot researcher. Everybody not only wants me there, but will pay my airfare and rental car.

(OK, when I’m really being close to the bone: they want me….but I have to pay.)

And I’m a real person (or at least the one I’d like to be if it would feed the bulldog), so I can’t look at them all. And I really don’t want to waste my time.

Do I go see what followup is possible from this one?

Nope.

Frankly, the northern Quebec “true giant” – with no video – sounds more interesting to me than this one looks. (And with all the places to hide up there, compared to here? Which one would you pick?)

As Alamo says, the attention grab almost screams fake. Then we see one that slipped away after a brief (but sizable) flurry on Cryptomundo, the Peguis, Manitoba video from 2007.

(Note: More than one blog on this one; read ‘em all if the comments interest you.)

The backstory is measured, and checks out with what is clearly visible on the video. Even the camera movement and sudden focus glitch – which a number of people back then said screamed fake – check out.

That’s the only sasquatch video, other than Patty, that I would be on a plane to follow up if it happened today, and if I were that guy I would be if it fed the bulldog.

This one? No matter what it is:

Meh.

Hard to pin down what makes certain videos so popular, if I knew the formula I’d be retired in the lap of luxury and offering my own multi million $ prize for proof of Bigfoot. I will say this, it’s often the “hoaxier” ones that catch more attention… probably because hoaxers often have a flair for the dramatic (… the monster stood up and looked right at us. We ran straight to the car after that, leaving our tent and everything behind. It’s probably all still up there.).

Attention is their primary goal and everything is calculated to achieve that result. There is a vast gap between the straight truth and what sells… just ask MSNBC and Fox News.