#bfro

The Shoshone tell of a Jarbidge, or hairy devil; a large hairy, man-eating beast that was thought to prey on those who wandered away from the tribe. Large foot prints have shown up in Shoshone petroglyphs along side deer and other wildlife tracks on rocks along the Sierra Nevada range.

October 1985 in the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range, 19 year old marine, Butch Young was training at the Marine Mountain Warfare Training Center near Mono Lake, California. His squad was sent into the mountains one night for a training exercise. Butch remarks that that night was cold, there was snow on the ground, and they were patrolling at an elevation around 7,000 to 8,000 ft. The full moon illuminated 2 figures in the trees that, at first, was assumed to be the enemy squad. Upon further observation, Young noted that the figures were acting contrary to how a trained marine would act, giving no effort to conceal themselves, nor could he see evidence of a weapon or uniform. Young’s squad continued to watch the figures from a distance of 25-35 yards. Young states that from that distance he could clearly make out individual fingers of the hand of one of the figures in the moonlight. After a quiet stand off, the figures disappeared into the woods. The next morning, the squad reported to the center, only to find out that the aggressor squad was no where in the vicinity of Young’s squad. They were in fact 2 clicks away. Young said in an interview with the Ohio Bigfoot Hunters: “I saw something that haunted me for over 20 years. After doing some research and after talking to Bigfoot Researchers and some soul searching, I could only deduce and come to the conclusion that what I saw were 2 Sasquatches during a Mountain Warfare Training Operation with the USMC.”

Jaime Avalos is a man who has claimed to have tracked a family unit of the same 3 Sasquatch for over 2 years and across 400 miles. His story began in June of 2006 while driving about 30 miles southwest of Mono Lake in California. He claims that a creature that stood about 7 foot tall crossed the road in front of him. Avalos stated that his first thought was “What the heck is a guy in a gorilla suit doing up at this elevation?” The creature continued into the brush line out of sight and Avalos began to pull forward again when the creature doubled back across the road blocking his path once again. Avalos said then that he could see the details of muscle moving underneath the creature’s dark fur. Avalos felt that had the creature wanted to, it could have easily ripped him from his vehicle and Jaime would be helpless to do anything to prevent it from doing so. Since then, Avalos has found tracks consistently measuring 11, 10, and 8 inches on both the east and west side of the Sierras. In an episode of History Channel’s Monster Quest, Dr. Jeff Meldrum, Professor of Anatomy and Anthropology at Idaho State University and Bigfoot Authority, compared his own extensive collection of supposed Sasquatch track castings to those that Avalos had collected over the 2 1/2 years he had been tracking the group. Meldrum noted the much smaller size of Avalos’ prints, as the average Bigfoot track measures around 16 inches and is relatively flat, unlike Avalos’ prints that have a pronounced arch, similar to human foot prints. Despite the arch and smaller proportions, Avalos maintained that these could not be the prints of a human based on the terrain and circumstances they were found. Dr. Meldrum suggested that since there are almost no records of juvenile Sasquatch tracks, that it is very possible that when young, Sasquatch exhibit more human foot features that flatten and broaden as they mature.

October 2005 in Brown Cone, Sierra National Forest, Joe Walls was deer hunting around 8:30am. After hiking for a few hours he stopped to rest before heading back to his camp. At approximately 11:15, he stood up from his resting spot and picked up his rifle. At that time, a large fur-covered creature with red eyes walked out from behind a tree, they had a moment of prolonged eye contact before the creature swiftly disappeared further into the forest. As he watched the creature run off, he caught sight of movement to his left, he turned to see another two creatures, one large and one small, possibly an adult and a juvenile, quickly follow the first creature into the woods. Walls defends the claim that they were not humans dressed in costumes stating that it was hunting season and would be far too dangerous to be dressed like that in the woods at that time.

Mono Lake 1991, a man records his wife and children playing on the lakeside, as he pans across the horizon, something can be seen walking between rock formations on the beach. The figure wasn’t noticed until 17 years later when another family member watched the film. Stutchman Forensics Lab in Napa Valley, California took the film back to Mono Lake, and despite the shoreline rising 7 feet since 1991, managed to match the site of the film to the current horizon. After taking measurements and further analysis of the film, Video Forensics Analysts Steve Buller and Gregg Stutchmen determined the figure to be under the current waterline and measuring at a height of 6-8 feet.

Despite evidence inconsistent with other Bigfoot research across the country, Biologist John Mionczynski, although a skeptic, does state that the environment of the Sierra Nevadas would be able to sustain a large primate due to sufficient sources of protein with lake trout, deer, and pine nuts as well as proper cover and foliage. The smaller size could be explained as a regional difference and the corridors of movement discovered by Jaime Avalos could be evidence of a omnivorous primate following the ripening of pine cones.

The BFRO

Silver Star Mountain Bigfoot