Georgia Sighting Report-New!

Our friend Jeffery R. Thomas went from researcher to witness at warp speed yesterday.

His cousin was joining him for his very first outing and hit the Patterson/Gimlin lottery! Read the report below:

Sighting Events of February 18, 2012

We were planning on scouting a piece of private property that has had several sighting reports over the years. It just so happened that our newest member to the CSRA CSRA (and my cousin) Jamie Bass was going to be able to go out with us for the first time. During the week Dave and I had heard there were a couple of other people interested in the phenomenon of Bigfoot that worked at University Hospital. A message was sent to one on Facebook (and he has yet to reply) and another was sent person to person to the latter. After watching the weather on Friday to see if we were going to have to cancel due to storms, Dave received a call from Sandy who expressed interest in going with us the very next day if we would allow it. We told him that he would be more than welcome. Dave had also coincidentally received a call from Jack Hovatter (see report) the same Friday evening wherein he expressed interest in going out with us if we were granted access to the certain area. As it turns out the property owner backed out for the 3rd week in a row for reasons that seemed a little fishy yet again. So we had been scanning back up sites and decided that we would revisit a private location we had free range to explore in southeast Georgia (exact location undisclosed). We had done an overnight there before back in June of 2011 on the night of the Super Moon (see exped recap).



Dave and I had done a few day trips there during different times of the year and had found some really great markers, plenty of food supply for the big guy, but unfortunately too much foliage to trek to the tip of the peninsula of the property (apprx 100 acres surrounded on three sides by the Savannah River in an Omega shape). So Dave, Jamie, Sandy, and I (Jack did not make this trip) made it down south before the storms were to set in to hike around, see what we could see, and get to know one another better (and what better way to get to really know someone than to take a good hike). After some initial trouble with the key to the gate closing the property off we made it in. We looked at an old pointing marker we strongly believe was a warning sign of an active deer stand nearby and noticed it had changed slightly due to river flooding and what could have been rebuilding of the marker with a different log. We then went deeper into the peninsula to an open field where oats are planted with a deer stand at the back end of the field. This would be the starting point to hike to the tip of the peninsula as the majority of the property is fairly untouched woods save for an old campsite we found that prospectors had left trash and things (illegal prospecting for Native American artifacts). As we started in we found some old markers that have been in place for some time and we very close to the previously stated camp site (see pic). We trekked farther into the property and found the river where there were some really good hiding places formed by natural dormant kudzu. The bank of the river was sandy and we could see some coyote prints that had been left the night before as they looked very fresh. I should also note that on the way to this river bank we found hundreds of piles of hog scat in the drier/higher areas that rarely see the natural residual flooding of the river. Several areas also had a residual smell of hog that was very dank and barnyard like in it's nature. Dave and I had come across six black hogs in the same spots on a previous daytime exped (all black and very big). Upon looking at our portable Magellan GPS we noted that we had not in fact made it to the tip of the peninsula, but merely to the right side of the Omega shape. So we set a direction to get there and Dave led the way. Dave (in his oh so true fashion) made an exerted effort to lead the way wherein he ultimately (as usually happens every time which is why we carry walkie talkies) left us all behind. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Jamie and Sandy stayed behind me. When Dave finally noticed we were nowhere in site he made a single wood knock with his walking stick (a 3 foot wooden post used for post hole diggers). His knock is light and very distinct and can be easily tracked as far as direction is concerned. I attempted to knock back instead of yelling, but my walking stick is too skinny to be heard from a distance. I gave my other walkie talkie to Jamie this time in case we got separated so Dave did not have a radio at all to be reached. I simply led the way towards his knock and within a few minutes he knocked again to display his location. After some time had passed we finally made it to where we could see we were once again close to the river. The woods had gotten VERY thick by this point and hiking was slow going due to river can bamboo, small trees, dormant kudzu, and vines which supplied adequate places to hide. We got to an area where we found some scat we thought was hog, but it was almost human sized. We had found some other scat earlier we could not identify as well (more on that later). Then I came upon an area where a tree top had fallen that was ladened with some dormant brown vines (lots of these in other areas as well). There was also a natural barrier of thick foliage in a semi circular shape that this tree top brown cover was situated in. The next few moments happened in split seconds. I looked up and thought I saw Dave apprx 60 feet in front of us, but it was weird because he had wood knocked just seconds before and it was from a different location. Dave was wearing a black BFRO shirt and has black hair, so it was a natural assumption for me to think it was him on first glance. I spoke out loud, "Is that Dave?" It was almost immediately after the words had escaped my lips that another wood knock from Dave came from the same location as before that was apprx 300 yards to our left. Thats when I exclaimed, "That's NOT Dave, what the hell is that!?!?" Then immediately tried to double time it towards the black figure which began to 'walk' away from us. Jamie exclaimed directly behind me seeing the same figure, "What the hell IS that?" I continued to hear it walk (and I stress walk) very silently away from us making nowhere near as much noise as we made and quite effortlessly through the thick foliage. Sandy who was last in line of our single file was folded over head down trying to get through the canes that were impeding our progress when Jamie and I saw what we did. So he did not see the figure, but noted that he heard it as we did. Then we noted the smell when we reached the area where it had been. The smell was not like the hog smell we had experienced earlier and had a very ammonia/urine like stench. I turned and asked if the other two smell it and it had already reached Jamie where he shook his head yes. Sandy exclaimed "Whoa!" when the smell finally reached him. The other two agreed that is was very urine-like. I attempted to monkey climb a skinny tree to get a bird's eye view of the woods below thinking I would be able to see it from above better than at ground level. My attempt was unsuccessful as this is not as easy as it seemed in my head. We continued to hear it walking away from us in shorts spurts and not one continuous stroll. The three of us just stood there dumbfounded not knowing how to proceed as it was obvious we were not going to be able to catch up to it. Dave finally found us approaching us from the same direction as the figure had previously walked. We then informed him of what had just happened. He had been heading in a different direction and noted that he heard what he thought was us approaching from behind. He did not turn to look because like us previously thinking what we saw was initially him, he just assumed it was us. We he did finally hear us in the distance he turned and headed for where we were. His separating from us was a blessing in disguise because it turns out we flanked it into a corner it could not escape from. It simply waited to walk away from whomever got to it first, which just so happened to be us. It this walked directly between My group and Dave to find a hiding location to spy on us from. Once together we all noticed how the area was perfect for hiding as it has natural camo all along the front and a steep banked river guarding the rear. We then found a bamboo twist in the immediate area (see pic). It was close to this that we found more of the unusual scat. It was perfectly round and almost golf ball sized and only about 4-5 in quantity. I took my knife and cut one open to find it was somewhat ungulate in nature consisting mostly of what look like undigested grass. Not saying this belonged to the big guy, it was just in that area and we had seen some before. It was completely unlike the hog scat that had found which was dog sized but human shaped (if that makes sense). Dave had taken a few steps forward and stopped to listen while we walked towards him where he noted something was in front of us walking in synch with us (paralleling). I thought I had heard this as well. We went back to the area where we saw the figure initially to try and figure the size. It was then we knew it could not be Dave we saw, because the shape appeared above a branch we measured to be apprx 6 feet in height. It would have made the figure at least 7 feet tall. Jamie and I agreed that the figure was solid black and neither of us saw a face, arms, hands or legs. I suppose we saw it from the back as it was headed away from us immediately after we saw it. I briefly saw it walking away but it was indistinct and extremely quick. Upon going back to the area we also noted that the smell had resided unlike where the hogs had bedded down earlier. There was no lingering residual odor. Jamie and I decided it could not have been a hog because it was too tall off the ground. It could not have been a black bear because not only are they extremely rare in this area, but do not reach those heights even when standing on their hind legs. Southern black bear are large dog sized and not the round behemoths you see in the North Georgia mountains and the Appalachians. Also a hog, bear, deer, or even an armadillo would have made much more noise trying to get away from us and would have RUN (not the casual walk we experienced). Now, naturally our cameras were in our pockets, so none of this made tape. The foliage was so thick we needed the hand not occupying the walking stick to make our way through it. Interestingly enough, we all took pics of the bamboo twist, but Jamie and I noticed that OUR cameras (and only our cameras) had drained batteries just moments later when we all tried to take a pic of a large cypress tree once we made it back to the gate. Jamie had just taken his camera of the charger that morning and mine usually keeps a three our record time with constant use. I had heard of electronics failing on other researchers before and am not trying to tie anything paranormal to this event, but this IS what happened. Our trip out was uneventful and we would have done an overnight, but impending weather chased us away. Because of the dry leaf litter and terrain there were no tracks to be seen, and for some reason which I can't explain now, we all left the area fairly quickly. Looking back we should have combed that area for clues, but we all just left. And I can't explain why. It is my conclusion being a researcher in the phenomenon of Sasquatch/Bigfoot that Jamie and I very briefly saw a black Sasquatch that Dave and I believe exists on the property. My mission in this field has always been to have an experience and sighting for myself wherein I would most likely quit the study/hobby as there could be nothing more to add for myself. However, after sleeping on the occurrences that transpired I feel that the sighting wasn't 'perfect' enough for me to justify quitting.