Are Bigfooters A Danger to Salt Fork State Park?

This post is the first of a few focusing upon Salt Fork State Park.  It is our Yang and Yang Series of Salt Fork, signifying that it is a dark place that is out of balance in bigfootery.  We are going to start with a tip that we received via our comments section.  That tip provided some information that needed some fleshing out and verification before publication.  That work is now complete and we start with a rather disconcerting answer to the above question; Are Bigfooters A Danger to Salt Fork State Park?  The answer is that some are a real and present danger to the park and may have potentially transported a pest that would decimate the forest there.

Let’s start with a video introduction:

In that video you can gather three important things:

1. The Bully is in the park and gathering some media exposure, imagine that.
2. At least two other persons, the Jahn’s, are present.
3. There is a campfire burning.

Our contact mentioned the Jahn’s and that they lived in Ohio in a County named Delaware.  We were able to verify that fact, it is important.  Our tipster also mentioned another individual that lived in Portage County, Ohio.  The important threads with these three people and two Ohio counties is that they supplied firewood for these little “research” outings possibly breaking the EAB firewood quarantine in Ohio.  Checking this fact was tough, we have the video and then developed some confirmation from our amazing midwest stringer, we are pretty confident of that fact and that Keating was not providing the firewood.  What is an EAB quarantine?  When we received the comment that was one of our first questions, along with so what?

EAB is the Emerald Ash Borer, a non-native pest to Ohio.  As the name implies, it attacks ash trees and can kill them in a matter of a few years.  Ohio speculates that the borer arrived in Toledo and has alarmingly worked its way further into Ohio and surrounding states.  It spreads mainly through the moving of firewood.

Here’s a link to learn more from the official Ohio EAB website.

Are bigfooters a danger to Salt Fork State Park?  Yes.  Bigfooters are dragging firewood into Salt Fork from counties that are infested by the EAB.  When, and it is a matter of when, the borer is officially detected there the park will have a choice, they can log the ash trees or wait for them to die.  This will certainly be a disaster for the park.  Sadly, our lead provided us with at least four names of bigfooters that brought  or encouraged bringing firewood into the park violating the quarantine.  We see this bigfootery as some of the Yang in Salt Fork.

Stay tuned for more Yang about Salt Fork.  Some of the things going on are problematic, but not the disaster that the EAB quarantine violation represents.

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The BFE Claims Its’ First Award

The press release speaks for itself.

For Immediate Release

April 10, 2010

Dateline: Lawton, OK.

The Bigfooters Against Lying, Deception, Hoaxing, Intimidation, Cults and Klans has issued the Second Annual Clean-Up Bigfooting Awards.   This year’s recipient of the Debunking – Notable Bigfoot Personality Award goes to The Bigfootery Enquirer for their expose of Don Keating’s claimed sighting.  The very skilful use of Keating’s own words as he described his claimed encounter, combined with using scientific, provable meteorological facts to show that he had lied not once, but twice,  earned this distinction.  To have Keating on the record claiming both a timeframe and the moon was full when they proved that it was a new moon that had already set was the best debunking published in the last year.  Capturing Keating’s words and the data for posterity via MS Moviemaker was also innovative in our eyes.

Other contenders for the award were Melissa Hovey and her work on the Michigan Recording Project and Steve Kulls for his Biscardi and the frozen bigfoot costume series.  In both cases these presentation were lessened by a coloring of vendetta, and in one case culpability was an issue.  They do, however, earn a honorable mention.

Award winning video follows:

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Tracking Tips For “Bigfoot Researchers” aka “Bigfoot Investigators”

1. If it is a single track forget about it.  The exception to this rule is the fourth level carnival barkers who are always looking for something to hype.
2. Do not believe those same carnival barkers who proclaim they can tell the difference between a real and a hoaxed track, most are just BS’ing.  Any self-respecting hoaxer knows about the midtarsel break as it has been widely publicized.  Any other professed deep knowledge by the carnival barker, which they always keep to themselves with the excuse that they are thwarting  hoaxing, does not exist.  Just more BS.
3. Most “Bigfoot Researchers” who claim to be trackers are not.  They may know what some animal tracks look like, as do most cub scouts, but they do not know how to cut sign, read kick, set up the correct light angle and other skills real trackers know.
4. Want to have the correct light angle to really see and read a track?  Carry a mirror and position it low to the ground.  Shade the area of the track but not the mirror and throw the sunlight back into the track.  You’ll be amazed at the improvement in the details you can see.  And with that “tip” the professed “Bigfoot Researcher” becomes a better tracker.
5. Want to learn about ageing?  Find a representative area for where you usually track.  Lay a set of tracks, observe the weather, the time and the bruising, shine and healing of the vegetation.  Try it with different weather conditions, especially moisture, wind and temps.
6. RW Morgan offers some good advice to the aspiring tracker.  Create your own sand trap and make some tracks.  Practice getting the correct light angle and study toe digs, step offs and such.
7. Know how to make, mark and use a tracking stick.  An easy tracking stick is a straight branch.  You use it by finding two tracks – see tip #1 – index one end of the stick with the heel and overlay the stick and mark the point where the next heal strike occurs.  Use your knife or multi-tool to mark that point.  Don’t carry a knife or multi-tool?  All self-respecting “Bigfoot Researchers” should carry one.  The way you use the stick is that once you lose the sign you place the stick on the last heel strike and then slowly use the marked stick in an arc to hopefully rediscover sign.

We are glad to offer these tips and improve the knowledge level of “Bigfoot Researchers”.  Even our negative posts are efforts to improve bigfootery by exposing hoaxers, charlatans, hypocrites and the generally misbehaving.

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