In the parking area where I am contemplating setting up a research area, I have run into a few deer (bow) hunters. I typically ask them if they see anything unusual, ANYTHING...please give me a call as I am doing some wildlife research. When they ask what type of "unusual" I am talking about, I mention weird animals, large, small, tracks, footprints, stick structures, rock structures, all of which they may feel looks out of the ordinary. And I give them my business card. They see I am carrying a camera and a mono pod, and I tell them I am recording and documenting the area.
A few of the hunters I have come across, in the parking lot, are retired Baltimore City and County police officers and investigators. Oddly enough, they don't look at me funny, and have sent me to check out a few tree bends they thought were weird. I did not mention tree bends to them, specifically, although I later acknowledged that is the type of things I am looking for. I also ask them if they know if hunters may mark trails by bending these trees. None of them have known of anyone to do this, but acknowledged the possibility. I also asked if they run into anyone else like myself who may be documenting the area. They have not seen or come across anyone else other than party people who like to stay on trail down to the water to sit and fish or drink (or both).
I ran across one particular hunter who was a little anti-social and pretty gruff, but questioned me to the hilt on why I was there. Likewise, I was able to question him about his experience. He said he has been hunting these woods for 15 years and has hundreds of hours of trail camera tapes, and hasn't seen anything unusual on these tapes. This guy was good at getting info out of me, and was able to get me to sheepishly admit I was looking for signs of possible Sasquatch sightings. He grinned and chortled and asked me what I have found. I told him that there were some reports of sightings in this area, and I was just looking for possible evidence. But I haven't seen anything fresh. I told him that other than possible old signs, my experience has simply been a nice walk in the woods, complete with pictures and video.
At this point, I had been exploring one side of the trail, on the opposite side of where his trail cams were. The hunter appeared to get agitated and his answers to my questions got shorter and delivered with curtness. His only acknowledgment of the sanity of what I was doing came as a comment that he would have thought he would have seen something on his trail cameras over the years if these things truly existed.
It got me to thinking about how to answer a skeptic with experience with trail cameras. Joe Black/Scott Carpenter (Lord knows why he uses his alias then acknowledges his real name...) posted a video about the possibility of Bigfoot being able to see infrared light, as captured on his night vision camera. He poses an interesting theory, and the video is posted below. Tell me what you think on how to discretely discuss this with a "non-acknowledger" or non-believer.
I understand that a few people will be aghast at my efforts to seek assistance from hunters, fearing a "kill" upon the chance of an encounter by one of them. But I know of no other way to find more sets of eyes in the woods. Hunters are looking for movement in the woods, and usually don't shoot until they are sure of their target. I know that there are hunters who indiscriminately shoot at anything that moves, but I believe they are few and far between. Besides, I am usually engaging in a conversation to find out what these guys do before I solicit their eyes in the woods. Its all part of qualifying them. So far, the police and law enforcement guys seem to be willing to help out. I guess I just have to do a better job at qualifying who I give information to, the extent of that information and who to ask for assistance in keeping an eye out for anything unusual...ANYTHING.
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