Bigfoot Society - Searching the Gifford Pinchot for Sasquatch | Washington

Episode Date: January 29, 2025

Join us as we talk with Steve, a Bigfoot researcher from Vancouver, Washington, who shares his intriguing experiences in the Gifford Pinchot and Mount St. Helens areas. Steve recounts eerie encounters, including rock clacking, rancid smells, and strange sounds that hint at the presence of Sasquatch. He discusses his efforts in gifting to establish a non-threatening presence and his collaboration with the Sweet Home Sasquatch Research Group. From setting up trail cams to having limbs thrown near his camp, Steve’s stories offer a breathtaking glimpse into the mysterious world of Bigfoot research.Resources:The Steve Searches Youtube channel -https://www.youtube.com/@SteveSearchesSweet Home, Oregon FB group - https://www.facebook.com/groups/1769549100224800If you've had similar encounters or experiences, please reach out to [e-mail]. Your story could be the next one we feature!🔴 Subscribe to our Youtube channel and leave a comment here: https://www.youtube.com/@BigfootSociety?sub_confirmation=1Want to call in and leave a voicemail of your encounters for the podcast - Check this out here - https://www.speakpipe.com/bigfootsociety(Use multiple voice mails if needed!)Share this video with a friend: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5v75Od-X38Watch more episodes of the Bigfoot Society podcast here – https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3t1vwtsKh-MGeHs0XglFJE5LwUHpmJm_&feature=sharedRecommended Playlist – New Jersey Bigfoot Encounters - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3t1vwtsKh-Mk4032IyZtWgP6LVPU8uat✅ Help me help others share their Bigfoot Encounter by joining the community on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/thebigfootsociety✅ Hear ad-free episodes early by joining the community on Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8Qq45W6iaTU8FE9kelxT7Q/joinLet’s connect:Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/bigfootsociety/Twitter – https://twitter.com/bigfoot_societyTiktok - https://www.tiktok.com/@bigfoot.societyAffiliate links mean I earn a commission from qualifying purchases. This helps support my channel at no additional cost to you.My Audio Interface: https://amzn.to/3L1q8XYPut some pep in my step by buying me a coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/bigfootsocietyPick up some merch here: https://www.etsy.com/shop/bigfootsociety/?etsrc=sdtSend mail here:Bigfoot Society125 E 1st St. #233Earlham, IA 50072Send business inquiries to: [e-mail]

Welcome to Bigfoot Society. If you have Bigfoot activity to report from the same areas discussed in this episode, please reach out to me directly after this episode. And if you'd like to be on the podcast to discuss a personal Bigfoot encounter, please reach out to me directly at Bigfoot Society at gmail.com. Do you wish there was more Bigfoot Society to listen to every week? Well, there is now. If you become a supporting member over at Patreon, you get a special members-only episode every single week on Wednesdays. sometimes even more episodes head on over to patreon.com forward slash the bigfoot society and now let's get on with the show three to one all right big foot society you've got the privilege of talking to steve today steve's an individual from vancouver washington he's a bigfoot researcher out there and i'm a big fan of steve's youtube channel steve's searches i kind of ran into it i believe in

in one of the big foot, many bigfoot Facebook groups I'm in, sweet home one. But Steve, it's a privilege to have you on the show today. How's it going, man? Good. Thank you. Thank you for having me on. You know, your channel is so awesome because you can go into that Gifford-Pinchot,

Mount St. Helens area, correct? Yes. Yeah, it's, I mean, I've, I've, I go to a few places, other places here and there, but that's as a general role, that's pretty much where I operate is on the south side of Mount St. Helens in the Gifford Bencho. That's awesome. You know, Steve, before we get headed too far, do you mind sharing with the listeners what it was that first got you into the Bigfoot subject and research to begin with? Oh, yeah, sure. Well, I think probably like a lot of researchers, it was probably something that started when I was a kid.

There was a movie that had come out when I was in grade school. It was called The Legend of Boggy Creek. And I think that kind of got a lot of people started. But then, of course, over the years, it was really just sort of like, it was just really, I guess, more of an interest. And it really became a serious subject to me just maybe in this last few years. involved in missing persons, helping with missing persons cases back in about 2010. And I also, I'm also a drafter by trade in my first few years.

As a young drafter, I was a mapmaker. And that was sort of a skill that I had that later on led me into helping out with missing persons. Well, then I guess it was, it must have been. about 2012 or so I was with a group and somebody had said oh we should we should get a we should get one of those drones and I kind of thought about that for a while and a few years ago I had I had started purchasing drones because I started using those in in map making well anyhow anyhow going back to about it must have been about 2008

2009, I had an experience up, well, up in Mount St. Allen's up by 8 Cave, where I was hiking on the trail. And there's a trail that goes from the main entrance to, to what there's, there's a smaller entrance, which is actually at the very end of the cave, which course is not actually a cave, it's a lava tube. And I was on that trail, I must have been, I think it must have been about April, about March or April. The snow was just clearing out up there.

And, you know, I found this, it wasn't a clear cut. It was just sort of like this big open area where there was some much of lava rock and stuff. It's people that have been on that trail know where it's at. And I was standing out there one time and it must have been about. maybe seven, eight in the morning. And I had been up there a lot of times and it was, there was something really different about it. And it was that there was no sound up there.

I was just standing there and all of the forest creatures just went quiet. So I'm standing there and I was by myself and I thought, wow, you know, this is pretty weird. And I smelt something really kind of rancid. And, you know, sometimes, you know, people talk about how they get that feeling that they're being watched. And this was really that time. And I just kept thinking there's something behind that tree line.

And I never really took the Sasquatch stuff that seriously before, up until that moment. So that kind of stuck with me for a few years and I started going back up there to see if I could figure out what that, what that was. And then, yeah, then it must have been about maybe four years ago, three or four years ago. Somebody had, I had been contacted by some local researchers and they had, they had seen some of my maps. and they had asked if I would go in drone some areas to help them look for Bigfoot. It was a small Bigfoot group that was out of woodland. And so I said, yeah, sure.

And so I kind of, when I started getting involved with that, then I just started going out then on my own. So I started, I started Steve searches about a year ago. and that was that was something that I wanted to originally I put it together for to to kind of keep track and in showcase some of the work that I was doing with with missing persons cases in fact there was a case that I was working in Boise a couple of years ago and I had put this blog together to kind of to to to keep track of all of the the mapping and stuff. that we were doing on that. And it just, it sort of, Steve Searches sort of sort of just became more of a Bigfoot research project. And it's just kind of gone from there.

You know, it was about, I think it was last spring and last year, then I had gotten in contact with Michelle, with the Sweet Home, the Sweet Home Sasquatch Research Group. And her group and I started, we began collaborating last spring. So we've had quite a few outings, not only down in their area, but up in Mount St. Helens. Listeners are where Sweet Home is going to be down to Willamette National Forest down in Oregon. So you guys were going back and forth between the two areas, it sounds like. Yeah, well, I went down there, I went down there for a few of the four. functions that they had for the group.

In fact, we had, I think the first function that we had was a camp out with a bunch of us down there. That was like back in April. But then, since then, they've had members that have come up here and we've gone out. We've gone on outings in the area that I work. It's sort of a collaboration that we started. But yeah, we've had a couple of experiences. up there through must have been in about June, June and July. We've heard things like clacking, rocks clacking early in the mornings. And I at one time had a creature that came

into my camp and hung around my camp probably for beginning, it must have been about early evening on into well into the morning and the next day. And that ended up with, with it throwing limbs and stuff across the road right down from my camp. That was one experience that we had up there. But yeah, that's pretty much the gist of it. Oh, wow. So that, that encounter happened in Gifford Pinchot then? Yes.

Yeah. In fact, it was, I have a main camp that that's that I've, frequent. I call it the main camp because it's when they go to the most. It's up in sort of an area just above eight cave. It's right about between that area between ape cave and ape valley is a lot of I spent a lot of time up there last year. I probably will again this next year, especially because of that encounter. So the time that you had something walking around your campsite, how, how close do you think they were getting to your tent at that time? Oh, it came right up to the tent.

Really? Yeah, yeah, it was pretty weird. It must have been on a Friday. I had gone up there, and I had spent the afternoon setting up, I had set some trail cans up. And then I think I must have knocked off at about. Must have been 6.37 that night, and I went, I set camp up. And after I'd set the camp up, I was sitting and working on some videos and stuff. And I heard what sounded like a tree fall.

And I thought, oh, that's kind of weird. And, you know, how often are you out in the woods and just all of a sudden at tree falls? And I didn't really think too much of it. In fact, I had been texting Michelle with the sweet home group. I'd been texting her some photos of the camp. and stuff and I had text or and I told her, yeah, that's kind of some kind of weird, that a tree fell, or at least that's what it sounded like. It sounded like it came. See, that camp has sort of like a little road that goes into it. It's not on the road, but you can see down the road probably

100 yards, and that's where it sounded like it came from. Somehow, fast-forward the clock. I woke up about, I think it must have been about one thing, in the morning, which is pretty common for me. And I don't know what woke me up, but I thought, well, I'm not going to work on some video. I would take the laptop and working videos and stuff. And so it must have been about an hour later. It was about 2.30.

I heard something walking around in my camp, and it was kind of peculiar because the ground in this camp, it's sort of, it's kind of flat and it's packed and it always has. It's always covered with needles and leaves and stuff from the fallout. But it didn't sound like, you know, when you spend enough time on the woods and you hear things walking around, it sounds like something that had, this is what caught me weird about it was, was it didn't sound like something that had hooves. It just sounded like somebody barefoot walking around, because you could just barely hear, you know, like a footpad coming onto the ground. And I thought, well, that's okay. So then I just kind of sat there and I thought, well, I'll listen to it for a little bit

and see what it does. And it would take a few steps and it would stop and it would take a few steps and stop. And then I had to thinking, you know, I didn't think really at first about it being a Sasquatch. I was thinking more on the lines of because I usually back my truck up to the camp and I put my tailgate down. I use that for a camp table and I have these plastic tubs that I usually

keep all my food in and I remember I left the tailgate down and I thought well maybe might be a deer out there or a porcupine or something getting into my... Then I thought, well, I probably should run it off. So I'm thinking about running it off.

And then I hear this kind of crackling noise. And it dawned on me that the crackling noise that I was hearing was the cheap tarp that I always put my tent on to protect the bottom of it. So whatever it was was stepping right on that few inches of tarp that was sticking out. And I thought, oh, wow, it's right up to the tent. So I just sat there and listened to it. for maybe 15, 20 seconds. And so then I made that, and I thought, at that time, I was still thinking maybe it might have been a raccoon or something,

but whatever it was, had to been pretty happy to be stepping and making that crackling noise. So I made a hissing sound like, you know, like when you shoe off a cat, and then it was quiet. And then I yelled at it, I yelled at it. I yelled like, it and then it just stayed quiet. So I sat there for a little while, and then I just looked out there, and there was nothing out there. So whatever was left. So that was about, by that time it was probably about 3 o'clock anyhow.

So fast forward the clock again to about, it must have been about maybe 630, 645, and I had woke up and I thought I decided that I was just going to go ahead and pack up camp. Bigfoot Society will be right back after these messages. Anyhow I was pulling out anyhow that day. But I wanted to check those trail cams, those trail cams really quick on my way out. So I was here, I was, I was packing my camp, and I kept hearing what sounded like, like limbs snapping, like something breaking limbs. And I kept looking down the road because it was coming from that same spot that,

it was coming from the same spot where I, where I thought I heard the, the tree fall. Right this time, it was starting to get kind of weird. And so I just kept packing up the camp. Then I heard it again. And then right about the time I had everything in the back, I heard it a third time. This time, I had walked around the truck,

and I was standing in and I was looking down the road where that sound was coming from. And there was a big limb went flying across the road down there. And it was probably, yeah, it was probably maybe 100 yards down. I went back there, actually. I went back there. It must have been that next weekend. I went back there with the video camera, and I did sort of a step-by-step.

But I haven't finished to put that video out yet, but I probably will do that here in this next week or two. So I see this limgo flying across the road. and of course obviously I mean what kind of an animal breaks limbs and throws them across the road so I decided well maybe that was a good time to get out of there because I was packed up anyhow so I got my truck and then I just kind of creeped down the road and I was actually kind of I was kind of

I was kind of nervous about it because as I was going down the road I mean this this little road there's only one way in one way out and that's the road. So I was half expecting to get, you know, like a long log or a limb or something like that on the truck. I had my GoPro going at the same time. But then nothing happened. So I just, I got out, got to the end of the road. I went up the road to this place where this clear cut was where I had set these game cams up.

And I got out and I thought, well, I'll check these game cams quick. And I was all the time I was still looking. and sort of like over my shoulder back to where I'd just come from. And as I was walking out to check those game cams, I could still hear it breaking limbs, but it was staying right inside of the tree line, but it was following where I was going. So I just decided that I'm going to wrap this one out.

So that was, yeah, that was in, it must have been about mid-July. Oh, wow. So just this summer, just a few months ago. Oh, man. Yeah. Yeah. Did you have any time to, it sounded like you started to pack up camp pretty quick. Did you have any time to look around and see if there were any tracks or anything weird like that inside camp? Well, I went up there. Of course, I went up there. It must have been about five days later. But I go up there all the time, especially in the summer. I'm up there probably twice a week, at least every weekend. And I had gone up there, but see, it's kind of the way, I need to put that video out because it explains a little bit better.

But when you, you know, a lot of these places in the Gifford Pinchot, when you go out and you're walking around in the woods in there, you know, you're walking on layers and layers of needles and such. So you don't really get much for prints in most of these places there. I mean, things can be walking around. I mean, unless it's, you know, you can find prints a lot more, a lot easier of things like Daring out. You know, of course, obviously because they have hubs, but, you know, something with flat feet won't make much for prints up there. But so I went back and I have come through that area where the limbs were being thrown around. And of course, up there, you can't. There's so many limbs laying around back there.

You couldn't tell one from another, but there were definitely freshly snapped limbs there in that area. But that was the same area. In fact, that was the same campsite that only a few weeks earlier, Michelle from the, and a couple of the other members from the Sweet Home Group, that's that was that same camp spot where we heard the rocks clacking that was pretty weird too it was it was michelle and sarah and derrick from from the sweet home group we they had gone up there and it was it was the morning after the or the first night up there that see that that camp is only a couple hundred

yards from there's a creek down there it's kind of down a hill from where the camp is Michelle and I had must have been about six in the morning. We were up and we were just sitting there BS and I was making coffee. We kept hearing these rocks clacking. And she was telling me this funny story. I don't remember what it was about, but it, this went on for probably 10 minutes. And then I asked her, you know, do you hear the rocks clacking together? And she was like, yeah, yeah.

So we got up and so we sat there and we listened to it for a minute or two And then we kept hearing it kept hearing it and this was Coming from the creek area and this cricket course is like I said it's downhill So it's it's not within line of sight And plus you know you got noise from the water moving so these rocks clacking together would have had to been some pretty big rocks for us to hear it like that So we got up when we walked over And right about the time we got to the top of the hill to where you could kind of start to look down

and see the crick, it stopped. And we hung around there for probably 20 minutes, walked up and down the trail there, but it never stood up again. So, yeah, as I understand it, the only animal that really clacks rocks together like that are, I think they're orangutan, at least according to what I find online.

But yeah, and that was the same, that was the same camp site. That's so extremely interesting that you would say that about orangutans. Because more than a few of the accounts that I take, it's usually described with some features like an orangutan. Have you ever heard anything like that? where you're at in the Pacific Northwest, where what people are seeing is kind of

has features like an orangutan or is it something else completely different? Well, I have heard, I have heard a lot of, there's, I've heard a lot of people that have been up around here that have said the same thing. They heard rocks clacking.

So that, that seems to be pretty common for this, for this area. It seems to be pretty common for the Giver-Pinchot. is rocks clacking. Other areas, I'm not really sure. But the kind of the gist that I get is I think that, and I'm just kind of going out on a limb because I don't really know.

But it seems to me that different areas, the populations in different areas almost have maybe their own culture or they have kind of similar habits. because I've known, you know, when you see these other groups that are, you know, like on the East Coast and the Midwest, and they do a lot of things like gifting stations and stuff, and people are saying that they, like, live with them and make friends with them stuff. And then, but the Mont Helens brand of Sasquatch, they seem to be kind of violent. I mean, there's these, you know, there's like, there's, you know, there's like. like the stories of those gold miners that were up there in Ape Valley that got ran out of the cabin. I think it was back in the 30s.

And it seems like a lot of the interactions in around the Gifford Pinchot, they seem like the squad ship there. They don't really seem to be big fans of humans. So that's interesting. You're referring to the ape canyon attack of 1924. right? Yeah, right. Perfect. Yeah, about, I mean, 100 years, well, no, we're past 100 years now because it's generally, 101 years.

It's 20. 101 years, yeah, yeah. Yeah, and of course, as the crow flies, where I operate with this, where my main camp is, as the crow flies, it's like maybe four miles, five miles from there. Oh, that's interesting. Okay. Wow. So, yeah, I mean, it's all in. that it's all in that that area now are there any other things that you've heard about gifford

pincho that would make you think that potentially the saskatch that are in this area are violent besides the ape canyon account well you know i i don't i don't i don't i think for the most part what i'm what i what comes to mind is is really it's just a lot of the scuttle but the see on social media. When I share these accounts on, say like when I share on Facebook or the comments, sometimes that I get on, like on YouTube, I get, I seem to get a lot of people that say, yeah, you know, yeah, we had, we were camped in such and such in 85 or 91 or whenever. And they had something similar happened with, you know, limbs breaking and stuff like that.

So that's just really kind of the gist that I get of it. It's interesting. Is there an area within the national forest, like an area known within Bigfoot research that you just won't really go to because of the history that's associated with it? Well, some of it, I don't know if, I don't know if there's really any place that I wouldn't go, but some of it is less accessible. Of course. I mean, there are some places that I really don't go, but it's not necessarily because of the Sasquatch in there. It would be because of the terrain or the weather, things of that nature.

But, yeah, I mean, there are, I have encountered a few people that have said that they used to hunt up there, but that they won't go up there now. In fact, somebody was just commenting on a video I put out a couple of days ago about the area that I was up and give up in and give give him pinch a last weekend and there this one guy was saying that he hunted up in there for 40 years and he had some and he did he just called it an interaction but he said after the interaction said he won't go back there so so yeah Yeah, I don't know. I mean, you know, when I had that, when I had that experience back in July with the branches or the limbs being thrown, I didn't, I went back there, but I didn't camp again back there. I didn't camp again. And then, of course, pretty soon, of course, it was, part of that was because then hunting season came around the corner and the hunting. are to take up the camping spots up there. But yeah.

So there's, I've encountered a few people that would say that, that they wouldn't go back there. Absolutely. I mean, it's such an interesting area because you have, you know, the area where you're focused on, but then you can go even further north. You can go to, you know, I believe you'd consider Packwood as a part of that, potentially maybe South of Randall,

that whole area. seems to be pretty wild too, but I think that's a little bit out of your research area, right? Yeah, well, I go up there, I go up there maybe a few times through the summer, but I haven't really researched too much up there because the whole idea behind where I was researching one area was it was the project that I started last year is what what I was doing was as I was setting up gifting stations back in there, I was setting up just food stations with the game cams. And what I was trying to do really is,

is I was trying to get them used to me being up there. I would put a peanut butter on. I put apples on. And I wanted them to get, sort of get used to my scent up there. And then, and so they would just get, I was trying to get sort of condition them to to correlate me with food or you know just so they

correlate me with being a friendly I guess and so that was why I decided to stay with that same area and that was really that was really the project that I was involved with last year doing that. But yeah those other those other areas where you go up over Windy Ridge and places like out there's a lot of squatching to do up there. I mean, I might venture up there, maybe a little bit more this year, a little higher out. Bigfoot Society will be right back after these messages. So you were, so you're saying the gifting area, that area where you had something walk around your tent, you were also doing a gifting area at that campsite too?

Yeah, there was, well, I didn't, I wasn't really doing it at the site because I didn't, I didn't want to camp where I was gifting. I wanted to kind of keep the two separate because I was afraid if I was camp there, they might not want to come around. So what I was, I had a couple of different places down the road from there. There's a, there's a big clear cut that's nearby, and I was gifting in there, and then there's another spot down the road where it's heavily wooded, and I was gifting in there as well. Yeah, it was kind of weird, too, because when I first started it, when I first started the gifting, it was also when I first started using game cams. And I have a video that I just put out a couple of days ago.

And I kind of told the story really quick, but there was an area that it was nice and open. So I could set the game cams. Because the game cams I use are pretty sensitive. So if there's grass or there's limbs moving, things like that, it will just keep setting them off. So, you know, sometimes I'll go in a pull a card and there'd be 400 frames in there and there's nothing in there. It's because of the, because things moving. Well, anyhow, I found a really nice spot. It was nice and open and it was probably 50, 60 feet.

And I set, I took a bag of one of the WinCo bags of Gala apples, the three-pound bag, and a jar of peanut butter. And I set them all up in this area and I went back about four or five days later. And of course, the food was gone, but I never got a single hit on that camera. I mean, there was no apples left. There's no peanut butter left. And they were well. I mean, everything was a well within range of that camera.

And it was just like something came in and got the food, and the camera had, the camera didn't even see them. In fact, there were five frames on that card. Two of them were my backside me walking away. I set the camera up and then three of them were also of me when I was walking in to pull the card. But other than that, I never got one head on the camera. That's like maybe a mile down the road, I guess, from where the main side is. Was the bag there at all? No.

No, well, I didn't leave the bag. I didn't leave the bag there. Okay, okay. But I left up it. I mean, you know, in those three pound bags of apples you get from WinCo, you get, I mean, there's probably a dozen apples in there. I put them all in different spots. Same thing with the peanut butter.

I took a big jar of peanut butter down there. And I put like little piles here and there, probably five or six piles, you know, with the whole jar. In this whole area, you know, it was just like a big buffet. Well, I went back. It was all gone. No hits on the camera. That's really interesting. Do you ever go out and set up an area like that without game cams?

Oh, yeah. Yeah, there has been. When I first started doing it, I would set these gifting stations up like that. It's just that you'd go out there and the food would be gone, but there was no way of telling what was taking the food. So that was why I started using the game cams. I wanted to see what was taking the food. And then, of course, it was kind of, and it was kind of, and it's not that the cameras don't catch them because I have literally, I have hundreds and hundreds of photos on these cans of things like coyotes, taking the coyotes.

Couts do you tend to like apples for some reason? And, yeah, I mean, I'll get other animals taking the food, but every once in a while I'll get, you know, food that was just bear just, but this one was weird. was really weird because of all of the food out there. I mean, there was not a single frame. I mean, if I was doing that kind of thing, I think that would drive me nuts. It would be like, okay, give me a track or something, guys. You know, like, that's wild.

Yeah, yeah, right, right. But it's, yeah, well, it's kind of something that, I think when you get a little bit of practice, maybe you get a little bit better at it. I'm hoping that. I'm hoping I have a lot. I have higher hopes for this year getting things in game cams. But I don't know.

I mean, when food like that disappears and there's no hits on the cam, but it must be something is finding a way around the camp, or at least that's what it seemed. But, yeah, we'll see. Absolutely. You put out a few videos around, actually just after the unfortunate situation with the two researchers that went out Christmas Eve, which I thought it was fascinating to see, because you drove up into, well, I guess it was, it was the general area, correct? Yeah, it was there where they were at. I mean, It was very, they were at. I was actually up there that same day that they were up there.

That was Christmas Eve. I would have been, I would have been just a few miles west of where they were. But I did that. I put that video together, but mainly, mainly the reason I put that video together was because there were a lot of people that, there are a lot of people, of course, on social media, there's always a lot of fluff, but there was a lot of people that didn't seem to understand how that could happen in that area. And to me, it's pretty easy to understand because I work up there and know how, I know how easy it is to get turned around, and I know that.

Once you get turned around up there, in this time of year, I mean, it's the party's over. I was thinking about that too today because I was up there, traips and around. I was up today up above Merrill Lake, and I had gone off. And I was on a trail, and I was maybe five minutes away from my truck. And I stopped for a second. I thought, gee, it was a good thing I was still on the trail, because you can tell where you were.

And that's really all it takes up there. I mean, it's, plus it starts, you know, It gets dark at 435 o'clock right now. And yeah, so the reason that I, mostly the reason that video is sort of to kind of show people what the terrain is like up there. Because there were people that were kind of scratching their heads and saying things like, well, why didn't they just spell a fire and this and that? Yeah, I just, I wanted to dispel a lot of those, a lot of things like that kind of show how easy it is. to get messed up up there.

But yeah, so yeah, I was right up there in that area where they were. I think it's fascinating how you showed that when you're down the valley out there, the weather is completely different. You drive up there, it changes in just seconds. I even thought there were people that lived right there in Kansas in Washogul that were saying, well, gee, they were saying, well, the weather was really mild. They could figure out how that could happen.

Well, the weather, yeah, sure, the weather was mild if you're in Camus or in Waschugal or if you're in Vancouver, you're in the cities down in the valley. But the minute you go up, you go up in the mountains, it's totally different. It's another world up there. And then, you know, around here, you know, that happens in a mile. Plus, right? Plus that area they were in, there is a small river that ran through there. So they would have had at least, they would have had at least one water crossing.

And they, I'm figuring that they may have gotten wet on the water crossing. And once that happens, I mean, even if, even if a person could build a fire, which is, I mean, I can't really say it's impossible to build a fire. in those areas, but it's pretty difficult because, you know, it snows and it rains and it snows and it rains up there and everything's wet. There's not really things up there, especially right in that area. There's not really things up there to make fires wet. And, of course, you know, most people, you know, when they're out and about and they're out hiking trails and stuff by the time, but the time it dawns on them that they're in trouble, well, they're by that by that, by that, that time, they're already, hypothermia is already setting in. You know what I mean? They're already,

their hands are numb. And I don't know, I suppose maybe a person, like a person could just drive up there and maybe build a fire in three, four hours or something like whatever it would take to do, which seems pretty difficult. I don't think that somebody that by that time, by the time they were already suffering and figured out that they were in trouble, I don't think they would be able to do think something like that. And of course, you know, once it gets dark, it's, it's over then. So I'm sure that's what, I'm sure that's what happened. And it's more than plausible. It's for me, it's more than plausible. Are there things that you, you make sure are on your person or in your bag when you go out to places like that in that type of, weather situation?

Yeah, well, one thing that I do is I tend to operate with a pretty wide margin of safety. And what I mean by that is, is say, if I'm out hiking, you know, once things, you know, it's a little bit different animal from when it's in the city, if it's July or August or something like that. If you get turned around, you know, you can usually stand, stay in the night up there or something, but that's, that's, that's really, that's totally different in the wintertime. So in the wintertime, generally, I try to stay within line aside of where my vehicle is. But another thing is that since I'm, since I make maps, I am fairly decent in navigating. And so I usually will have, I always will have my army issue compass with me.

But I have, I usually use a, I have a little Garmin E tracks that I normally will, will take with me. And that's a pretty good tool, but yeah, generally, I just make sure that if there's a trail or something up there, I'll stick with the trail because if you, you know, once you step off of the trail, you don't have a trail anymore. It's so easy to get turned around up there because, you know, when you go up in there, there's like this constant fog that sets in, and it's, it's there all winter. It almost never left.

And so when you're up there, you can't see the sun. There's no way for you to get a bearing up there. So the very minute you get turned around up there, it's pretty much over. You're pretty much screwed. But I usually take, I usually at least have a small pack that I'll put some water in there. I keep my compass in. And of course, I do that because I keep things like the GoPro and extra batteries in it and stuff like that. But also one good thing to take is I still have my old Army issue rain poncho.

And those are pretty good because they're big and they have grommets. and you can make a little tent out of it, stuff like that if need be. Yeah, I think it's probably the most important or probably the most used tool that I use when I go up there is a rain jacket. I think that's great stuff to have in your bag for sure. The Garvin thing you called out,

is that like a personal locator beacon type thing? Well, those are actually what you're talking about. I've never had one of those. But I would definitely recommend one of those. In fact, I'm going to get one myself. I should have gotten one before. But the garment that I'm talking about is Garmin E-Tex. It's sort of like, it's like a GPS for backpackers.

Got it. And they're small. They'll fit right in the palm of your hand. You can get clips for them. You can clip them like on your shirt. I always keep my clipped on just on the shoulder strap on my pack or my day pack. But see, the thing is, is a lot of those places up there in Gifford Pinchot, there's no self-service up there.

So if you get in trouble, you can't call anybody. And that's another problem that those two hikers had up there. The two guys up there on Christmas Eve was there's no self-service up there. So they can call anybody when they got turned around and got into trouble. But those beacons that what you're talking about, I'm not even sure what they're called offhand, but I've had several people tell me, yeah, you should get one of those. And I think that would be a good idea to get because those those go through the satellites. Bigfoot Society will be right back after these messages. So those in contact satellite.

Sure. I've heard a lot of, a lot of other researchers recommend people check them out. So I would say, yeah. I mean, if I was out there, I definitely would be all about that. I do want to say our thoughts are with the families of the two researchers that did pass away. It's a very, very tough situation. Even though we don't know who they are, it still remains that two people did pass away, and our thoughts are with those families.

You talked about an army-issued compass. Has there ever been any places that you're out in the forest, and you've been looking at your compass and you've noticed that. Maybe it starts acting weird or it starts just spinning around in circles. Not really anywhere's around here. I've had that happen. I've had it happen in Iraq. I've had it happen in the desert in places like Saudi Arabia.

Oh, wow. I have had some areas aware of that. you'd be going one way you'd be going one way and then it would change it would switch yeah but I haven't I haven't really had that here too much but at that same time I don't really use it

much around up here so I just keep it with me in case the the garment craps out which pretty much never happens because I always keep spare batteries and things like that sure but I would expect for something though I mean if it happened especially about St. Helens or in the Gifford Pinchel for that matter I would I would not be surprised if that were to happen because I swear every time I go up there something weird happens

oh yeah I mean the stories you hear come out of that place and also out of further south and to the east the Columbia River Gorge the whole area there is weird I mean the Willamette National Forest by itself is weird I haven't even gotten to north where you guys are yet. But it's just some wild stuff. Talking about, you know, down there, when you've gone down there with the individuals down that group, have you had anything weird happen down around the Sweet Home area? Well, the only time that I spent down, we camped down there when I first met them.

And we had a, we camped down there for the weekend. But there wasn't really anything that really happened when we were camping down there. But they have kind of a lot of their own stories themselves. There seems to be a lot of activity down there. And of course, Michelle could probably, from the Sweetcomb group, could probably elaborate more on it. But I haven't really researched much other than just camping down there that one time. And, of course, we had a few, like, picnics down there. events where we all got together and stuff, but it wasn't, we didn't go squatching down there.

But there are several members in that group that have come, that have come up with some pretty interesting stuff. Absolutely. But yeah, yeah, but yeah, the different, this area that I work, it's one of the reasons that I, that I tend to stick to this area is just because of all the weird stuff. In fact, just last weekend. I was up there on a trail and my GoPro kept dying. And I thought, what the heck?

And I was looking at it and the battery wasn't, well, I still had probably 60%. And it died about three times. So I stopped and I thought, well, maybe I'll just change batteries anyhow because I can't figure out why it was dying. So as I'm looking at this, I saw what looked like another there was another hiker coming up that trail and they're probably maybe 50 60 yards down the trail and i didn't think too much of it at the time so i stopped and i was just kind of thinking

back my mind you know by the time i get this battery switch this hike will be up there and i'll ask them to see if i was going to ask me if they saw any of the gifting stations so i changed my battery out in my gop pro quick which takes what 10 seconds and the hiker was going to on. Oh. And so I thought, well, that was kind of weird. I would swear that I saw a hiker there. And so I walked down the trail, and there was mud. It was plenty of mud on the trail. There was no tracks. So I hiked back up the trail. And I never found a hiker. So when I got back to the truck, I thought, well, what I'll do is I'll go out to the road. You know, go up and down the road a little bit and see where they parked.

Because, I mean, it was cold and raining and there were still some snow flying. And, I mean, obviously, they would have parked somewhere nearby. But they never found a vehicle. Never found a hiker. Never found a vehicle. That was just last weekend. That's weird. Every time I go up there, there's always something weird.

And there's always something weird going out of there, man. It's a little weirdest place I've ever been. Yeah. So, and it sounds like you haven't had a visual yet, like myself. I haven't had one either. But from what you know so far, what is your viewpoint of what Sasquatch is, if you have one, I guess. Well, yeah, just, well, it's just like, like you just said, I've never actually had a visual. I mean, everything that I've encountered just seems to be circumstantial.

It's like, you know, it's just like the stuff with the sticks flowing. I mean, you know, you look at all the creatures that live in the Gifford Pinchot, none of them throw, break limbs and throw them around. I mean, you know what I mean? I mean, so my outlook is that it's kind of funny because, when when somebody says, oh, you believe in, you believe in Bigfoot. And what I always say is really is that for me, it's not really a matter of belief because it's like, you know, you believe it or if you don't.

You believe in lepracrons or sannie or you don't. It's not a matter of belief for me. I had a chemistry teacher one time that put it eloquently. And he said that you can't prove stuff. You said everything that, all the knowledge that we have is really a matter of probability. It's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's going to happen, or if something is or something isn't. And for me, it's, it's kind of like, I think it's kind of that, it's on, it's about on that same lines. I mean, to me, it's, it's more of probability does

do things like, do cryptids like Sasquatch exist? And even, it's, it's on, it's about, it's a, it's same lines. And even if I were, even if I believed that the probability was low, it's still enough for me to justify spending the time and the money on it that I do. I mean, really, if you think about all those thousands and thousands of sightings and stories that have come, have come to light over what centuries. It really only takes one of those to be true. And it's true. So that's pretty much,

that's, that's pretty much my outlook on it. Yeah, I mean, I agree with you on that because, I mean, for me, every day,

it's another five to ten emails of people that just had a siting that day or they're 70 years old and they're like, hey, I don't care anymore. here's what happened. And it's all over the country.

It's like, man, we're just going to keep rolling the dice. And somewhere, someday someone is going to get like the next Patterson Gimlin film. Although with AI, I don't think that would do it anymore, unfortunately. I mean, AI is just getting too crazy. Especially with the video side of things. I would hope that, you know, we'd still would get an amazing real video someday. But yeah, I mean, doing this podcast for a few years and realizing slowly how big places like Gifford Pinchot National Forest are. I mean, it's massive.

It's like St. Helens to Adams. And then like, I mean, even up to up near Reneer, right, kind of to the east of Reneer or south of that a little bit. Mm-hmm. And you realize just how big this is. you don't have thousands of Bigfoot researchers going out there, but you still have enough things happening so that if a few Bigfoot researchers go out there, they're still having interactions, which to me is just incredible and tells me, hey, there's stuff going on in this area and in many other areas out there too. But Steve, it has been just a

privilege to have you on the show in the chat about what you're doing out there in the southern part of Gifford Pinchot, definitely keep us in the loop. If you have anything else to share besides your YouTube channel or if there's a way for people to reach out to you, feel free to share that at this time. Okay, well, I do have an Instagram, Steve searches. I don't really use it very much.

I use, for the most part, I have a Facebook page, Steve searches. and YouTube channel Steve searches, and those are really the tools that I use the most. So that would be the best way to be the best way to see what I'm up to and we're kind of trouble I'm getting into and this way to get a hold of me. Fantastic. And I'll have your YouTube channel linked in the show notes.

People can go check that out, subscribe, and he puts out some good stuff over there. But thanks again for coming on the show, Steve. Oh, yeah, perfect. Hey, thanks a lot. Thank you for having me on. Just want to take a few minutes to say thank you to you, all my listeners, for listening to the podcast. Please take a minute to help out the show by subscribing on YouTube,

making sure you hit the bell so you don't miss any notifications, and share the episode on YouTube with a friend. Also, if you're listening to us on a podcast, thank you so much. Make sure that you're subscribed, share the show with a friend, really it's all about sharing the show wherever you can if you've had a bigfoot encounter related to the following or know someone who has please reach out to me at bigfoot society at gmail.com

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