12 OCTOBER 26-NOVEMBER 1, 2023 westword.com WESTWORD | MUSIC | CAFE | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | NEWS | LETTERS | CONTENTS | more than one bigfoot,” he adds, rolling his eyes. People have asked him that question “ad nauseam,” he says. But what, exactly, is a bigfoot? Accord- ing to Megargle, there are two schools of thought. “There’s some who think it’s an un- discovered great ape or primate. That group also thinks of it more as a monster and maybe something to fear,” he explains. “Another group believes it’s something more intel- ligent, maybe inter-dimensional. Because when some of these experiences happen, you feel like you’re in the presence of an animal, but there’s something else happening, like a white orb, a strange fl ash of light in the sky — other weird things seem to happen. “And when you do this for a while, you can either embrace those weird things, like I’ve done, or you can just dismiss those weird things that happen when you’re in the woods,” he adds. Myers fully embraces the weird; like Megargle, he leans more toward the inter- dimensional cryptid perspective. He’s seen single bigfoot tracks in the snow that begin at one random point and end at another, with no nearby trees to climb or jump from. He’s also seen glowing eyes at night, photos of which are in the museum. With years of research under their belts, Myers and Megargle say bigfoot experts have discovered commonalities among sightings that prove there are clear identifi ers when a sasquatch is nearby. That includes hearing heavy paces aligning with your own; sudden, complete silence coupled with the instinc- tual feeling that something is watching you; trees bent in arches or snapped in half; rocks being thrown at you, or hearing large rocks or branches clacking together. That can be used as a way to possibly communicate with a bigfoot, Myers says: “If I knock, it’s with a genuine interest to see if a sasquatch is gonna reply. ... It’s totally whatever happens hap- pens. But it happens more often than people would ever believe. “If you do get a reply, you can never be sure that it’s not another human who heard my knock thinking it was a bigfoot, and then they’re knocking back at my knock. That can always be the case,” he admits. “But whenever we go out, I’m always trying to go places where I don’t think there’s any people and there’s no cars, and we go as far as we can to determine there’s nobody out there.” On the Bigfoot Adventure Weekends and Sasquatch Outpost excursions, people may have a sighting, but the majority of the time, Myers says, he and his groups fi nd the more circumstantial evidence. The Adventure Weekends offer a three-day, two-night ex- cursion, as well as an intriguing “Advanced Night Ops” mission that involves primitive camping and nighttime exploration. Nighttime is when Myers fi nds the most “evidence,” which includes seeing glow- ing eyes and hearing howls that he knows aren’t emitted by bears, coyotes, wolves or big birds. “If I’m out there at midnight with some people, or even after midnight, and I hear something, then to me it’s pretty clear that one is gonna have a pretty high chance of being real, because nobody hangs out in the woods till one in the morning,” Myers says confi dently. “The later I stay out, the more validity I give anything that I see or hear. Because people, we are creatures of comfort. It’s cold. It’s scary. Just to fool somebody, it’s not worth it. ... No one’s going to hit on your tent at 2 a.m. [like a bigfoot] — they could get shot.” The Bigfoot Adventure Weekends sell out quickly, which is no surprise: The bigfoot community is enormous. Megargle says it’s held together by the internet and such or- ganizations as the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization, which was founded in the ’90s and involved the creators of Finding Bigfoot. Megargle even met his wife through the bigfoot community, via his fi lm collaborator and now father-in-law, Ron Meyer. “The network is huge,” he says, adding that he meets fellow believers at his fi lm pre- mieres, bigfoot and paranormal conferences and other gatherings. “There are people in every state in the country and in Canada, so online is probably the biggest thing. The community’s really ingrained in Facebook and things like that. There’s lots of groups, and we all kind of friend each other and keep in touch that way.” Because they proliferate on the internet, stories — as well as videos like the current train clip — can be tough to validate. But there are clues. “I can usually tell within the fi rst minute or two of someone talking to me where this is going to go,” Megargle says. “There’s just something about the sto- rytelling that’s very different from someone who’s been traumatized by something versus someone who’s trying to convince me they saw something that they themselves really aren’t really convinced of.” Still, the experts are willing to listen. So if you spot a bigfoot in Colorado, don’t hesitate to head to the Outpost and put a pin on the map, Myers advises. “If you see one, don’t just run — and don’t take your eyes off of it, because you’re never gonna get that again the rest of your life,” he says. “If you’re lucky enough to have that — that’s a once-in-a-lifetime encounter — just look at the sasquatch. It will be the fi rst one to break off, because that’s just the way it happens.” Email the author at [email protected]. News continued from page 10
