Wandering through Time and Place

Exploring the world with Curtis and Peggy Mekemson
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    • Azalea Lake and Bigfoot’s Big Foot…

      Posted at 11:10 am by Curt Mekemson
      Jul 24th

      We found this carving of Bigfoot (Sasquatch) on a stump at our campsite on Azalea Lake in the Red Butte Wilderness.

      The Red Butte Wilderness: Part II

      In my last post, Peggy and I backpacked into the Red Buttes Wilderness, which is located about 10 miles from us at the crow flies. Our objective was to reach Azalea Lake but about half way there, our bodies had another idea. Camp. Today’s post starts off  the next morning. 

      Our bodies grumped as we made them get out of bed to finish the hike. Loudly.

      Not far from our camp, we passed the lonely grave of Sylvan Gosliner, Ruby Gosliner and Alma Pratt. Their airplane had crashed in the canyon in 1945 on a return trip to Portland from San Francisco. Why, has never been determined. The forest service had retrieved the body of the pilot while relatives of the Gosliners and Pratt had chosen to bury their family members beside the trail. It’s a beautiful location. Wreckage of the plane can still be found in the canyon below.

      The rock covered grave of Sylvan and Ruby Gosliner and Alma Pratt along Butte Fork Creek with its simple bronze marker.

      Red cedars replaced the pines as we continued our climb through the dry forest, while cheerful tiger lilies and other flowers brightened our way whenever we crossed a stream. Eventually we arrived at Red Cedar Basin. Peggy zonked out on a flat rock while I wandered around the meadow, which was filled with corn lilies. Had there been water, it would have become camp. But Azalea Lake beckoned. We dutifully shouldered our packs and completed the trip. We found an attractive campsite and settled in for the afternoon and next day. Numerous insects greeted our arrival and some came by to take blood donations. By seven PM, Peggy had disappeared into the tent. She’s been known to disappear inside at the buzz of the first mosquito— leaving me outside to entertain our flying and crawling visitors.

      Red cedars replaced Douglas fir and sugar pine trees as we climbed in elevation.

      While the forest was dry with limited vegetation most of the way, it changed whenever we came to streams, turning into a vibrant flower garden with flowers such as this tiger lily…

      Wild iris…

      And Indian paintbrush.

      I caught Peggy napping at Cedar Basin…

      And she caught me in our camp at Azalea Lake.

      Azalea Lake is a jewel located in a basin surrounded by peaks and ringed by azaleas. Tall, incredibly straight lodgepole pines provided us with shade on our layover day as we hung out, snacked, read, and went for a hike around the lake, where we found a couple backpacking and carrying a tent, literally. Noisy chickarees (small tree squirrels) scolded us for our intrusion. As did the always vociferous Stellar jays. Quieter birds such as robins, Juncos, and fly catchers merely went about their business of scrounging for food as the sun made its way across the sky. A Pileated Woodpecker caught our attention with a more stentorian call.

      Azalea Lake nestles between peaks in the Red Butte Wilderness. I took this photo on our first trip into the area. The peak on the left and the draw is featured below in the setting sun photos.

      An early morning shot on this trip…

      And an evening shot.

      Azaleas surround the lake but we arrived when most of the blooms were gone. We did manage to find these however.

      And some interesting bear grass.

      A close up.

      We also found these two backpackers carrying a tent. “You have to let me take your photo,” I insisted. “We are only moving a couple of hundred yards to find a better campsite,” they explained, a bit sheepishly.

      Incredibly straight lodgepole pines provided shade for our camp. The dead tree provides a good example of just how straight these trees grow and why they served as center ‘lodge poles’ for roofs on early pioneer cabins.

      As the sun prepared to say goodnight, it bathed the surrounding peaks in soft light, an event that always sends me scurrying with my camera. Peggy and I hiked down the trail but couldn’t catch any clear shots through the trees. A surprise was waiting for us back at camp, however: an ingenious carving of Bigfoot. I don’t know how we had missed it; we had walked by it several times. I considered the discovery a sign that I needed to go out again to capture a photo of the alpenglow— and just possibly the illusive giant.

      Trees blocked our view of the peaks above Azalea Lake as the sun began to set.

      The Bigfoot carving in our camp at Azalea Lake.

      While Peggy stayed in camp, I made my way through the trees to a meadow at the base of the peaks. A half dry, meandering stream had created a small marsh. Looking up, I had an unobstructed view of the rocks above. I worked my way around the meadow for different perspectives. A draw made its way up the mountain, providing access for animals crossing over the peaks. Apparently, it was well used. The meadow was full of deer sign; there were tracks galore.

      A meadow with a small marsh sat at the base of the peak.

      The small meadow gave me a clear view of the sun setting on the peak.

      A draw made its way up the side of the mountain and provided access for wildlife to the lake.

      Numerous deer tracks suggested that the draw was well used.

      A large track caught my attention and I stopped to check it out. Something heavy had landed and launched on the spot, apparently in a hurry. A huge bear was my first thought since the depression was a good two inches deep. The deer tracks were closer to a half-inch and bent grass was all I was leaving. I looked around nervously. But something wasn’t right.

      • A bear would have left another track beside it. There was nothing.
      • The print was oblong, very long. Bear prints tend to be more rounded.
      • The paw prints weren’t showing any claw marks, which you normally see on bears. In fact, they looked more like toes!

      I found myself getting excited. Had I discovered a track of Bigfoot’s big foot?! I rested my boot alongside the track. I have big feet myself, size 14 American (49 European). The track was seven inches longer, over 20 inches long (50.8 centimeters)! I did a more thorough search for other tracks. A more expert tracker may have found something, but I didn’t. My thought was the creature who made the track was bipedal and running. It had traveled from the dry ground to the marshy area and back to the dry ground.

      Was my imagination working overtime? Was I creating a Big Foot where none existed? Maybe. I took photos using my boot and 5×3 inch camera case for comparison and returned to camp to share my treasure with Peggy.

      The depression stretched from the front of the foot on the left to the heel mark on the upper right. My 3×5 inch camera case is for comparison.

      The impression on the left looked like a toe print to me.

      My own size 14 shoe was dwarfed by the print.

      The next morning, we were awakened at five AM by a loud thump outside our tent. It sounded a lot like a deer. The deer that live in our neighborhood are forever thumping across the wooden deck next to our bedroom. We sat up with a start and stared through the mosquito screen of our tent.

      “There’s something huge and brown beside our packs!” Peggy declared. They were located maybe 15-feet away.

      We scrambled for our glasses. We’re both blind as bats without them. Yes, there was something big and brown. A big brown doe. We laughed. For some reason, the doe kept circling our camp for the next hour. Sleep was not an option. We were up early and had our breakfast of oatmeal, coffee and dried apricots. By 8:30 we were packed and ready to go. The trip back to the truck took us half the time of the hike in. And yes, our bodies continued to whine, but only half as much.

      NEXT BLOG: Peggy and I head out on another backpacking adventure near our home in Southern Oregon. There’s no Bigfoot, but we discover some really weird natural wood sculptures, and we camp in a beautiful grove of trees where there were more varieties than I have ever seen in one location. Many of them were giants.  I thought of it as a sacred grove.

      Posted in At Home in Oregon, On the Road US, Outdoor Adventures | Tagged adventure travel, Azalea Lake in Red Buttes Wilderness, Bigfoot, Bigfoot in Red Buttes Wilderness, Bigfoot track impression, photography, Red Buttes Wilderness, travel blog, writing
    • There’s This Bigfoot Trap Near Our House…

      Posted at 4:34 pm by Curt Mekemson
      May 11th

       

      Bigfoot trap found above Applegate Lake in Southern Oregon.

      The world’s only known Bigfoot trap. (Photo by Peggy Mekemson.)

      I’ve blogged about Bigfoot before. How could I not when the world’s only known Bigfoot trap is four miles from our home on the Applegate River in Southern Oregon?

      My wife Peggy and I went out and revisited the trap just before we took off for Nevada three weeks ago. Since we were heading out to explore ghost towns, the Extraterrestrial Highway, Area 51, Death Valley and Las Vegas, I figured that searching for Bigfoot would put us in the right frame of mind.

      We added looking for morel mushrooms as part of our Big Foot hike. They reputedly grow in the area. From my experience so far, however, I am beginning to believe they are even more difficult to find than the Big Hairy Guy and UFOs combined. Our carpenter, who was building us a pole barn while we were in Nevada, assured me of the morel’s existence. He had found one so big it was featured in the local newspaper and on Paul Harvey. “Morels yes, Bigfoot no,” he told us.

      Our carpenter, Larry Baleau, shows off the huge morel mushroom he found while out identifying wildflowers.  (Photo by Bob Pennell of the Medford Tribune.)

      Our carpenter, Larry Belau, shows off the huge morel mushroom he found while out identifying wildflowers. (Photo by Bob Pennell of the Medford Tribune.)

      I am not quite so emphatic about Bigfoot’s existence. Our front window looks out on Bigfoot Country. There have been a number of reported “sightings” over the years. One led to the building of the Bigfoot trap.

      It isn't hard to imagine Bigfoot prowling around in the forest when you look out our front window on a misty morning.

      It isn’t hard to imagine Bigfoot prowling around in the forest when you look out our front window on a misty morning.

      It all started when Perry Lovel, a miner living on the Applegate River, discovered 18-inch long human-like tracks in his garden that were six feet apart. His tale captured the imagination of Ron Olsen, a filmmaker from Eugene who headed up an organization known as the North American Wildlife Research Team. Ron decided to catch Bigfoot– allegedly for scientific purposes. I suspect he had other motivation as well. Imagine owning the rights to the movie?

      This image of a big foot appropriately marks the beginning of the Bigfoot trail.

      This image of a big foot appropriately marks the beginning of the Bigfoot trail. It is proof that the US Forest Service has a sense of humor.

      Anyway, Ron and his group built a sturdy 10 by 10 foot box trap located a mile or so above Perry’s garden. A raised, heavy steel gate was added to provide Bigfoot with access to the trap. Meat was then placed inside and connected to a lever that released the gate, which came crashing down with all the subtlety of a guillotine.

      Bigfoot trap door.

      Looking up at the heavy trapdoor that was supposed to capture Bigfoot.

      Ron then built a ramshackle cabin a couple of hundred yards down the hill and hired a miner to hang out and monitor the trap. He was given a tranquilizer gun and a very large pair of handcuffs. You get the picture. I assume the miner also stocked in a year’s supply of booze. Make that a six-year supply, since that is how long the trap was maintained.

      Remains of cabin where miner lived who was supposed to tranquilize Bigfoot if he was caught in the Bigfoot trap in southern Oregon.

      All that remains of the miner’s cabin is a pile of old boards, limbs and tar paper.

      But was the effort successful? In a way, yes. The miner actually captured two grumpy bears who were under the mistaken impression they were getting a free lunch, not realizing there is no such thing. But Bigfoot didn’t take the bait. Here are my thoughts on why.

      The only way they might have captured Bigfoot was if he were rolling around on the ground laughing so hard he couldn’t escape. If he exists, this larger than life character is far too intelligent to get caught in anything as obvious as the trap that Ron built. Otherwise there would be much more definitive proof of his existence beyond a few photos of dark blurs disappearing into the woods.

      Since I was about to visit Area 51 in Nevada, I had a final whimsical thought: maybe Bigfoot is an alien. That would explain lots of things. (Grin) We didn’t find Bigfoot, and we didn’t find any morel mushrooms, but there were other strange things along the way…

      Selfie of Curtis Mekemson.

      What’s more strange than me taking a selfie?

      Ferns growing near Applegate River in Southern Oregon.

      And how about these alien looking plants. Actually, they are young ferns. (Photo by Peggy Mekemson.)

      Shelf mushroom found near Applegate Lake in Southern Oregon.

      We didn’t find any morels, but I did find this shelf mushroom growing on a dead tree.

      My greatest find: as Peggy and I were hiking out from the Bigfoot trap, I found this image staring out at me from the bark on a Madrone tree. I'm thinking maybe Bigfoot had his own approach to taking a selfie.

      My greatest find: as Peggy and I were hiking out from the Bigfoot trap, I found this image staring out at me from the bark on a Madrone tree. Maybe Bigfoot has his own approach to taking a selfie.

      NEXT BLOG: The journey to Nevada begins and we admire the mystical and majestic Mt. Shasta and stop off at beautiful Burney Falls.

      Posted in At Home in Oregon | Tagged Applegate River, Bigfoot, Bigfoot trap, Larry Belau, morel mushrooms, Perry Lovel, Ron Olsen, shelf mushrooms, Southern Oregon
    • Bigfoot Prowls Our Neighborhood… At Home in Oregon

      Posted at 9:42 am by Curt Mekemson
      Jul 9th

      The beautiful Applegate River in southwest Oregon is know to be Bigfoot Country. This photo is taken just down from our house at around 2000 feet elevation.

      He’s Big, he’s Hairy, he’s Bad, or at least he smells bad. More importantly, he’s illusive, so illusive that skeptics doubt he exists. But I live in Southern Oregon on the Applegate River; it’s Bigfoot country. He’s been seen around here numerous times, “a growling and prowling and sniffing the air.” (Words from Smokey the Bear who is also big and hairy and wanders around on two feet.)

      Several sightings have been made near the Oregon Caves National Monument, about 15 miles from where we live as the crow flies. The most famous involved Matthew Johnson, a psychologist from Grants Pass Oregon. He heard guttural sounds, smelled something pungent, and then saw Bigfoot hiding in the trees some 60 yards away. He was spying on Michael’s family. They made a quick exit. The story has received widespread media coverage since the July 2000 incident.

      LP, a former army MP and English teacher who is now a policeman, relates seeing Bigfoot even closer to our house. He was staying in a friend’s home on the Redwood Highway just after it crosses the Applegate River. One night, he heard his friend’s dog “go ballistic” and went outside to see why. He saw a large creature crouching in the grass. “What the F ***…” he thought. “I saw the HUGE THING take off in a full BIPEDAL RUN.” LP admits to being more frightened than he had ever been in his life.

      He went inside and got a big gun.

      Given the local interest in Bigfoot, Peggy and I decided to spend July 4th checking out a well-known Bigfoot site… the only trap ever built to catch the large fellow. It is located four miles from where we live on a small, seasonal creek that flows into Applegate Lake. The story starts with Perry Lovell discovering 18-inch human-like tracks with a six-foot stride in his garden near a stretch of Applegate River that became Applegate Lake.

      Ron Olsen, a Eugene based filmmaker who headed up a group called the North American Wildlife Research Team, decided to catch Bigfoot so he could be studied. In 1974 he built a sturdy 10 by 10 foot trap with a metal grate door near where Lovell had lived and baited the trap with fresh meat.

      A local miner was hired to hang out in a cabin near the trap.  He was given a tranquilizer gun and large handcuffs. I would have included a barrel of whiskey.

      The trap worked. They caught a couple of bears… but no Bigfoot. After six years the idea was abandoned. In 2006 a group of volunteers working with the Forest Service restored the trap but sealed the door to protect the public.

      Peggy and I drove the three miles up to the Collings Mountain Trail, which is on Applegate Lake just beyond Hart-tish Park. A big foot painted on the trail sign let us know we had arrived. A short and pleasant three-quarters of a mile walk up the seasonal creek took us to the ruins of the old miner’s cabin and then up the hill to the trap.

      A big foot on the Collings Mountain Trail sign lets you know that you have found the right path to the Bigfoot trap.

      Even if we hadn’t been on a mission to find the Bigfoot trap, the pleasant stroll along the shaded path would have been worth the trip. These are maple leaves backlit by the sun.

      Towering Douglas Fir also decorate the Collings Mountain Trail on the way to the Bigfoot trap. Douglas firs are second only to Redwoods in being the world’s tallest trees.

      If you spend much time wandering through the lower forests of Northern California or Southern Oregon, you need to recognize this plant. It is poison oak.

      Our hike to the Bigfoot trap included enjoying the flowers along the way.

      This was fun. The path to the Bigfoot trap follows a seasonal creek that still contained small water holes. What you are looking at is the shadow of a skipper or strider, a small insect with long legs that strides or skips across the water. They are incredibly fast. I am shooting down into the water. Look carefully and you can see the bug located near the right front foot shadow.

      A miner was hired to monitor the Bigfoot trap. He was given a tranquilizer gun and large handcuffs to subdue the big guy when he got caught. This is all that remains of the miner’s cabin.

      As reported, the Bigfoot trap is large and sturdy. It is also covered with graffiti. Too bad the trap is inoperable. I would have baited it with a spray paint can. It would be much easier to catch a miscreant teenager than Bigfoot.

      The graffiti covered Bigfoot trap located in Southern Oregon near Applegate Lake. It is now permanently sealed open.

      My wife Peggy provides a perspective on the size of the trap and the trap door.

      Looking up at the metal grate door designed to capture Bigfoot.

      Back home I looked up the Bigfoot Field Researcher’s Organization (BFRO) on the Net. It’s worth checking out. The site describes hundreds of North American encounters by region. And it also describes Bigfoot characteristics. They weigh up to a thousand pounds, like to make whoop, whoop sounds, and throw rocks at people.

      What do I believe? Definitive proof would be nice. I’ll remain skeptical until I meet one but I would love to make one’s acquaintance as I wander through the woods of Northern California and Southern Oregon. Here’s one final encounter I discovered in the Rensselaer Republican, a newspaper my great-grandfather George Marshall published out of Rensselaer Indiana on February 7, 1902.

      Human Monster Abroad with a Club… Facts About His Feet

      Residents of the little town of Chesterfield in an isolated part of Bannock County, Idaho are excited over the appearance in that vicinity of an eight-foot, hair covered human monster. He was first seen on January 14 when he appeared among a party of young people who were skating on the river near John Gooch’s ranch. The creature flourished a club and started to attack the skaters but they reached their wagons and got away in safety. Measurement of the tracks showed the creatures feet to be twenty-two inches long and seven inches broad, with the imprint of only four toes. Stockmen report having seen the tracks along the range west of the river. The people of the neighborhood, feeling unsafe while the creature is at large, have sent twenty men on its tracks.

      The other morning Peggy and I awoke to the neighbor’s dogs barking wildly and a strong, not quite skunkish smell. Our property backs up to a million acres of National Forest. Hmmm. To be continued at a future date…

      A final view of the Bigfoot trap. Given how clever Bigfoot has proven to be at avoiding people, I think the only way this trap could have caught him is if he had fallen down laughing so hard at the people thinking he would go in it.

      Posted in At Home in Oregon | Tagged Applegate Lake, Applegate River and Bigfoot, Bigfoot, Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization, Bigfoot trap, Collings Mountain Trail, Matthew Johnson, Oregon Caves National Monunment and Bigfoot, Ron Olsen
    • Bush Devil Ate Sam

      The Bush Devil Ate Sam is an important record and a serious story, yet told easily, and with delightful humor. This is one of the most satisfying books I have ever read, because it entertained me thoroughly AND made me feel better informed. —Hilary Custance Green: British Author... Click on the image to learn more about my book, the Bush Devil Ate Sam, and find out where it can be ordered.

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