This is my very first posting on my very first blog and I have to say I am excited and a little nervous! If you are interested at all in the idea of bigfoot, then I hope you will find my blog informational and inspirational. For those who don't know me, I am a 12 year old boy who lives in New York. I have had a growing interest in bigfoot for about 5 years. My interest really started to grow when I did a science fair project in 4th grade on bigfoot sightings in New York state, since then, things have really taken off for me!
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| 4th Grade Science Fair! |
In 2014 I was diagnosed with Lyme disease that included a bout with Bell's palsy (I had to sleep with a patch over my eye to hold it down so I could sleep for weeks - I no longer thought pirates were cool after this). I was pretty sick for a few months. In March of 2015, about the time that I was finally feeling better I broke my arm (this was the second time I had broken the same arm because of a unicameral bone cyst in that arm - no baseball season for me that year). On my 11th birthday my parents surprised me with a trip to the Ohio Bigfoot Conference at Salt Fork State Park in Ohio - they said after the year I had that they wanted to do something extra special - little did I know that it would be a life changing event!
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| My 11th Birthday Present! |
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Ohio Bigfoot Conference
May 2015 |
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What can I say about the Ohio Bigfoot Conference - I am not sure I can put into words what an amazing event this is! Salt Fork is an awesome park - beautiful scenery and incredible wildlife. The vendors at the conference are so talented and the movies that have been shown there are extremely entertaining and enlightening. The lectures that are given at this conference are phenomenal, given by world class researchers - I have learned so much from them (shhh! don't tell them but I have taped every single one and have listened to them over and over again). While all of these parts of the conference are incredible they are not what makes this event. What makes this event are the people. They are friendly, caring and kind. My first year at the conference the organizers went above and beyond to welcome me, they may not realize it but they all have had a positive impact on my life! I have just returned from my second year at the conference (which I will be sharing in my next post) and it was just as incredible as last year!
I have attended a couple of other events and conferences - the Chautauqua Lake Bigfoot Expo in Chautauqua, NY and the Beast of Whitehall premier in Whitehall, NY and have continued to make new friends and learn more and more. I have heard people make jokes about "bigfooters" but I have never known a more genuine group of people.
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| Chautauqua Lake Bigfoot Expo - October 2015 |
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Beast of Whitehall Premier
Whitehall, NY
April 2016 |
So that is my journey so far! I have been learning as much as I can from books, lectures, podcasts and documentaries. I also have been completing more research projects. I will be sharing these resources and my thoughts on them along with my research in this blog. I also have made some great friendships over the past few years and there are some that I would certainly consider mentors. I will be sharing their advice and some of the experiences I have shared with them throughout this blog as well!
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| Mr. Bob Gimlin and myself at the Ohio Bigfoot Conference |
So this is my first post - if you have any advice on this blog stuff I could use all the help I can get and if you were wondering about my blog's name it comes from this: I am a 12 year old kid with a passion for possibilities so "Squatch and See" what is to come!
The next day we arrived at the lodge at 10AM sharp so that I could see the best the vendors had to offer! There are so many talented people at the conference! I couldn't wait to see Maz Adams - he created my favorite hat - it has a bigfoot face on it - I actually have it on in some of these pictures (I had bough it in Whitehall for the Beast of Whitehall showing). He was kind enough to draw me a picture and I bought a cool picture frame from him! I then visited the Creatureplica booth and got my 2016 Ohio Bigfoot Conference limited edition "Silverback" action figure. I got to see the guys from Squatchachusetts and bought a cool hat! These guys are great - I met them in Whitehall as well and they remembered me and stopped to talk to me all weekend! I also bought a wallet - not that I had much to put in it by the end of the day! I then entered another room and got a great surprise! Sitting at one of the tables was Lyle Blackburn! So I got in line and bought "The Beast of Boggy Creek" and Mr. Blackburn signed it for me! I got to talk to Thomas Finley again and sign his suitcase. I hit the gift shop next and bought a pair of socks, a sign for my office, and a t-shirt. The morning was great, but the best part of the conference was to come! In part two of this blog I will talk about the lectures and what I learned from them! 
