Minnesota Bigfoot Carlton County Expedition 2

Carlton County, MN Expedition 2

Carlton County, MN Expedition Report: October 10-13 2008

On Friday Oct. 10^th we arrived at the landowner’s residence at approximately 1pm. At this time we unloaded all of our gear and proceeded to reload the equipment onto our atv’s and into our sleds. The area we would be searching for the next few days was accessed by using the landowner’s pastures and fields in order to get closer to the target area. When we came to the end of the property line we then headed into state owned property which was hardwoods forest littered with many downed trees and dead fall. This situation proved to be particularly hard on the equipment and more than a couple pins were snapped and hitches bent on our sleds.

We arrived at our base camp which was an old deer camp that hadn’t been used in quite some time. Laying around the camp was an old refrigerator and several pieces of cookware that had to be 2 generations old.. This was the same site that Tim and Brian had camped in about 5 weeks earlier and recorded onto audio what may have been a sasquatch or bi-pedal type creature. We unloaded our gear and then headed back to retrieve the rest of the equipment. Tim stayed behind to start setting up camp and get a fire going. Weather conditions were cold and wet. Round trip from base camp to the vehicles and back was 2 hours due to the nasty and sloppy conditions. When we arrived back with the rest of the gear Tim had a nice fire going. This was approximately 4:30 pm and we didn’t have much daylight left due to the overcast conditions so we setup the tent and then moved onto the cam-trap.

The cam-trap consisted of one 84LED 850IR Surveillance camera and one 940IR Flood Light. Brian brought with a very nice collapsible latter and that allowed us to mount the cam and flood light fairly high up. The 850 cam was placed 90feet from the target area. The target area was the area in front of the tent and around the campfire because this is where the intruder snuck through camp on Tim and Brian’s scouting mission. The 850 cam LED’s were not quite strong enough to clearly light up the area past 75 feet so we placed a 940IR flood between the target area and the 850 cam. Both units were placed 15 feet off the ground mounted in trees.

With the cam and flood light in place we then moved onto the setting up the laptop and all the deep-cycle batteries that were needed to power all the equipment. This equipment was placed in the tent. One battery ran the laptop while one battery ran the cam and flood light. Our strategy was to monitor the camp site during the night from inside the tent with highly sensitive microphones to listen for anything that might enter camp. Well why didn’t you just watch the camp with the surveillance camera? This was not done until the last night of our trip. Due to the fact the 850 IR cam’s 84 LEDs give off a red glow at night that can be seen by the naked eye. Depending on which direction any visitor came from the red glow would probably spook any potential animals from entering the camp site. What we did to avoid this problem was to set the laptop into recording mode but have the cams off. A power strip running off of a 400 power inverter was used to plug in the cam and flood light. While monitoring the campsite with the mics, if any footfalls or strange noises were heard a simple flick of a switch on the power strip would bring the cam and 940 flood light to life in about 1 ½ seconds.

Tim, “Wildman” continued to and finished setting up his microphones and digital mixer with his H2 Zoom recorder. We got everything set up with barely a minute of daylight to spare. We then performed our nighttime routine which we practiced every night of the expedition. This consisted of cooking food on the campfire and then taking a night time trek over to the power line cutaways for some knocking and vocalization calls. Then back to camp to partake in campfire stories and just overall good times. We wanted to portray ourselves as normal campers as much as possible on this trip. We feel that if you come off of as a non-threatening entity to a Bigfoot chances are they will feel much more secure about taking a closer look at you. Between the laughter and conversation, which we intentionally exaggerated at times, an occasional wood-knock was done at approximately half hour intervals.

Saturday started off with some of Brian’s pancakes and some instant coffee. This day we planned to explore some of the surrounding area. We took off on foot at around 1pm and headed in the direction of an area which had reports of Bigfoot as late as July 2008. We also had “robo-monkey” in tow. Robo-monkey is a stuffed animal monkey that stands roughly 2 ½ feet tall. He’s black and shaggy and he’s got a trail-cam stuffed in his belly. During the days hike we planned to hang him in a tree in an area where his profile may entice a Bigfoot to come in for a closer look. Robo-monkey is still in the R&D stages but this was a great opportunity to get him out in the field and get a feel for it’s capabilities. We hiked through the area and encountered many different types of terrain. Beautiful autumn colors drenched the hardwoods and highlands. Much of the area is bog and the area received much rain in the weeks prior to our arrival. The swamp areas were very wet however we were able to traverse them with wet feet being the only direct result. Thick scrub brush acted as a barrier between bog and highland and was very difficult to navigate.

While hiking a game trail that led into the swamp we found an area that opened up some and we thought this would be an ideal location for one of our game cameras. I set up the cam while Tim hung a liver from a tree branch directly in view of the trail-cam.

During the hike we encountered Moose beds and scat. These were very fresh. Tim and Brian also found a moose track on the previous scouting mission. A majority of the day Saturday was spent hiking the surrounding area and working our way closer to the exact location of the recent sightings. We found a great spot to hang Robo-monkey approximately one mile away from our campsite during this trek. Before placing RM in the tree we ran a quick test on the trail-cam, batteries were dead. For whatever reason the trail-cam had drained the batteries down to zero. We packed up RM and continued to head back to camp where we had fresh batteries. On the way back we encountered a beautiful tamarack swamp with a lush mossy floor. We found more moose droppings and searched the area for large foot tracks. Nothing was found. While exiting the swamp Brian had noticed an animal moving through the scrub brush bordering the swamp but no ID could be made.

We made it back into camp and devised a new plan for Robo-monkey. We installed fresh batteries into the cam and Tim sliced up a variety of vegetables and along with the liver soaked in liquid smoke and then we took the atv’s out to the power-lines and placed RM in a small tree that could easily be seen for thousands of yards in 3 directions. Tim also wired up some small blinking LED’s that we hoped would spike curiosity. With a slight rain falling and the bait and Robo-monkey positioned in the tree we again headed back to camp and stoked up our wet fire once again. We cooked up some brats and kraut over an open fire and waited for nightfall to set in.

Every night of the expedition we practiced the same procedure. We would sit around the fire for a while, take a walk out to the power-lines, do some knocks and yells and travel back to the campsite. At the campsite we would talk loudly while conversing and bang some pots and pans every now and then, all in attempts to draw attention to ourselves. Between 10 and 11 pm it was back in the tent to give the surveillance equipment a quick test before we went lights out. We would lay motionless in the tent wearing headphones wired into Tim’s microphones hoping to hear something enter the camp. Rain and wind hampered this technique but nevertheless we did not veer from the game plan as we all agreed this was still our best chance of catching something on the IR cam.

Friday and Saturday night went by without any clear intrusions into the camp. Although at around 3am Sunday morning Tim relayed to me inside the tent that he thought he was hearing something outside, at that point I switched the cam on. At this time we are still going over the video and have not analyzed that particular clip.

Sunday morning we climbed out of the tent slightly before noon and I got the fire going and cooked up some spam and Tim made some eggs. We geared up and hiked back to the area where we left trail-cam 1. We decided to retrieve the cam from this area due to the fact that we wanted to get an early start on leaving Monday morning and the hike to the cam was a couple hour endeavor. We grabbed the cam it showed no new images. We returned to camp and hopped on the atv’s and went to explore some of the snowmobile trails in the area paying close attention to the muddy areas along the trail for tracks. Since we had one more night to stay we hung the trail-cam at a location on the trail for the last night since we could recover it rather quickly the next morning.

We headed back to camp and with about an hour of light left we went to check on Robo-monkey over at the power-lines. He was doing good for being completely soaked, but still in the tree as we had left him. We re-baited the tree with fresh goodies and made our way to the campfire for the night. At the fire we experimented with some of Tim and Brian’s IR 940 flashlights and their sony nightshot cameras. Tim also recounted a very scary childhood experience to the video camera that he had while in northern Wisconsin.

We made the decision on this final night of the expedition to leave the surveillance camera and the 940 flood light on for the duration of the night. We had to get up early and we had long drives back home so we needed to get some rest. Monday morning welcomed us with a nice steady rain. Not the kind of conditions one would prefer when tearing down camp. First we took the atv’s out and retrieved Robo-monkey and trail-cam1. Then back at camp we took down the rest of the surveillance equipment and packed up the gear and departed on our very long and wet trip back to the vehicles. After loading up our trucks and trailers the very kind landowner’s who allowed us to use their property as an access to our expedition, invited us in their beautiful (and warm) house for some cookies and coffee. We gave our thanks, chatted for awhile and hit the road to head back home.

Although we didn’t have any direct encounters or incidents with the creature we were searching for we are still going over the 40 hours of audio and 13 plus hours of video that ran at our campsite. If anything significant is found there we will post those findings here. The trail-cams did take some pictures but those pictures showed no objects of interest. This was our first trip utilizing the surveillance cam trap and much was learned on that front as well as educating ourselves a great deal with the territory in this particular location as we plan to return in the future.

Toby "TC"