A view from the Florida Trail

I was backpacking on the Florida Trail headed for the backcountry campsite. It was a beautiful day as you can see. The terrain would begin to change when I encountered elevation. That is not common in Florida and I found it at the hottest part of the day. No problem. I was looking forward to getting to camp, finding firewood, and setting up camp. It would take longer as I had to wait on my team who got a late start.


The signpost for the Florida trail.

posted from Bloggeroid

What the trail cam last spring yielded

This was six months ago before this area became a lake. The pig would have been under water. The last deployment taught us that wildlife loves the swamp area when its dry and that pigs don't swim. Without critters, the big guy stays out as well. :
We went back to trail cam "C" after three weeks in field. We loaded new batteries and switched out the media card. This game cam will sit out until November. That will the only time it will be possible to get back in there. The storm season is upon us in Florida and the water in the bugs will prevent any real access to this area. That is exactly what we want.

If this animal is a swamp beast, this will be the perfect environment for him. You can see by these pictures that the area is teaming with wildlife and other predatory animals. Food sources abound. Combine water, cover, vegetation and meat and you got a skunk ape paradise.

A Wiley Coyote

He sees the camera..damn that Wiley boy

A mother in her child on a misty morning

A black hog

A wild turkey (bottom left)

Kevin and I exchanged the old batteries for the new Copper Tops that should provide enough life until November. The purpose of this trial cam project is long term and months left in field is the ultimate goal. Short outings, even up to a month, is not reccomended by people with lots of experience doing this. The criptid can smell man like deer can. Your scent is left behind up to five days after you have left the area. You really want the area to be clear of your presence and let the trail cam "settle in" and become part of the environment.
For example, Derick Randles of the Olympic Project says they leave their cams in field for six months in very remote locations. It often takes overnight backpacking trips to reach them. They have to be marked with GPS coordinates so they don't lose any units.
That would be our ultimate goal with this project. Areas north of the Green Swamp such as Ocala National Forest would afford overnight backpacking to reach areas in the wilderness areas, far away from any campers with RV's.

David Shealy and the Florida Skunkape

This is a post I left on Abovetopsecret.com

David Shealy has either taken the most important video since the Patterson film, or he is a complete hoaxer. I live in Florida and search for the skunk ape myself. I have never had a direct encounter, but I have had auditory and video analysis that has shown something other than a "Blobsquatch" There is simply no way to tell if his videos are real or not. The rez is very poor. In such case, you have to say negative.


I really hope one day we have a body to autopsy. Unfortunately, that is going to be the only proof science will accept. Photoshop and video editing software preclude just a good image. We need a body..alive or dead...sorry..

This is the BFRO.com report on David Sheely..read it.

Strange night at a trail cam

 
In the above image you see its clear in front of the camera. Suddenly, something moves in front of the camera mounted 5 feet off the ground (look below).

Something now blocks the screen. It was gone in the next frame.

This is trail cam number one and it has been up for one month.  I visited the site Sunday and I am glad I did because some strange things have been going on, as you can see above.

First, the cheap batteries are down to 61%. There is no way that will keep the camera charge through storm season.  Second, there were 301 images on the Reconyx conferming my belief that this was a nature rich area.

After downloading the media card, there were images of hogs, deer, turkeys, racoons and something Kevin and I cannot explain.

In a one second interval, something moved in front of the viewfinder completely obstructing the lense on a dark, cold night (the same night we were camping in another area).

These images above are from a two interval set when the camera fired for 24 seconds.

The image does appear white, but keep in mind that animals close to the Reconyx RC60 will cause the camera to flare giving it a bleached out look. I don't know what kind of animal could obscure the lense at over five feet. Kevin does not know either.

We do not represent this as anything Skunkape related. It is what it is.

Check out my new blog at http://www.timfasano.net/

Hair sample found six feet high in tree

Maybe we should submit this to the Ketchum DNA Bigfoot study. Kevin is six foot three and found hair on a tree at his eye level. This was found a few weeks ago in the Green Swamp. He does not know what it is and everyone he shows it to says it is hair. These are the things we look for when deciding to deploy a game cam.
We are keeping evidence and perhaps one day we will release our findings.

Bigfoot along the river rapids

River rapids are rare in Florida. This rapid at Hillsborough River State Park is a grade 2 rapid, on a 1-5 scale. They are beautiful and can only be seen if you get out of your car.
The water is coming out of a watershed area that provides drinking water to a third of Florida's population. That area is loaded with wildlife, vegetation, cover and water. Gee, I wonder were kevin and Tim have placed the trail cams? Just wondering.
It takes a lot of work to get back into these areas, as well as, a major time commitment. It is worth it because I am certain that the Reconyx RC60 game cameras will capture an image of the southern Bigfoot commonly called the Skunkape. I am a believer in technology.
Technology is objective. Human observation is subjective. Together, they can provide perspective on a mystery. It is up to the human to interpret the data. He may get it wrong but he did not make it up.
Technology gives the Bigfoot researchers something tangible to make assumptions from. By doing this, you will not be chasing blobsquatches and asking "did you see that?"
I like the current form of our research. More devices will be introduced to permanent locations, and then, its just a matter of time.

Results of first trail cam deployment

We are starting to put out the results of the Bigfoot trail cameras. This is all part of a long term project called the Seminole Project. The purpose of this is to deploy Reconyx RC60 trial cams in deep locations so they will remain stealth and take photos for months at a time. The cameras are capable of taking 14,000 images of a 4 gig card. They also use thermal imaging technology to shoot great night images of anything that walks in front of them. I really believe this the key to this work.
People can go out of day trips for a few hours at a time or a weekend camping trip looking for Bigfoot. This stealth technology allows extended work time that a human could not possible do. I know there are some downsides to the cameras. Some animals can hear the high frequency sound the cameras put out. But that is only when they are in front of it saying cheese. I passionately believe this trade off is worth it for it may be the best shot we get to see what the illusive Skunkape really looks like.

Kevin is the production

Kevin Kehl is the production head of the Florida Bigfoot Seminole project. He already works in that capacity for a major cable channel. Kevin is also an experienced outdoors explorer. All of this makes him a natural for this important task. Equipment malfunctions can happen but we want to minimize that in the field. We had a great exploit Saturday in a Seminole area were legend says the Skunkape roams. We did find a series of prints and positioned trail cam #1 in that spot. I hope for many more successful outings with Kevin and the gang in the future. There is much work to be done.