Jaime Avalos RNFA/CNOR
In June of 2006 I would see something that has forced me to question who we are and where we fit in the web of life. If you told me prior to this event that I would be scanning the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range in search of something that science says does not exist, I would of just laughed at you. Now I spend many hours in the wilderness alone, without a gun, food, use of lights or many other creature comforts. Through the years I have thought about the best way to be able to have sustained contact with these indigenous people as well as creating a formula that would help me locate them throughout the seasons. A measureable, repeatable, predictable formula that would work anywhere. A scientific approach. The resulting data has been promising.
I call them indigenous people for the very same reason why the natives of this country have viewed them as such. Like the natives, I carry very little in creature comforts and rely on my environment to sustain my activities. By doing so it has given me knowledge of survival, stealth and most importantly awareness amongst other skills. It puzzles me why science would question a culture who have survived here for thousands of years with an initmate understanding of their environment could mistake or fabricate/fantasize these beings. It just does not make any sense at all.
I remember when the Patterson film came out and was received as less then credible. At that point in my life, I never thought much about it. Society at that time viewed it more like, "The Boogie Man has been filmed". It then faded into the pages of history. It never resufaced in my mind until that fateful day in June 2006 as well as all of the other events that happened in my life as a child along the banks of a river in Ohio. It all started to come together.
Throughout the years I have never felt threatened by them only curious. I really want to make a point of this since there is so much hype of them being horrific monsters. I have met many horrific monsters in my lifetime but never from those who reside in the wild.
I remember a time when my brother gave me his bike. I used to love riding it all around. We lived in a Victorian style house with the tall narrow windows. I was watching TV one night by myself and saw something passing by the window. Its shadow was so tall that I could only see from the shoulders down through that tall narrow window, it was also very muscular. The following day I could not find my bike. I went along the road next to the river and came to a muddy spot along the road. In that mud was a barefoot print that was quite large. It just looked like a very large barefoot print. Below along the bank of the river was my bike. I remember questioning my brothers about it decades later with them always denying any involvement.
I was talking to my father a few years back and he told me one night that he saw one along a bush at dusk. He thought it was one of us and called to it to come into the house. He stated that when he turned to see us coming in the other direction he could see whatever it was out of the corner of his eye running into the forest. He described it as a small monkey like child. He had kept that secret to himself for decades until our recent conversation.
As a child I was very attune with the wild and went out by myself exploring, behind our house was a wall with the river on the other side. One night I heard this mournful howl echoing off of the river as the sun set. I remember thinking to myself how sad it sounded rather than thinking of what it was making that noise. I later heard the same mournful howl in the 1994 Ohio howl. I would like to thank Mr. Moneymaker for sharing this clip.
Today I still go out by myself and today I am also encountering something in the wild. I have been able to gather much evidence to include 150 plus castings which appear to be from repeat individuals even though I am throughout the 400 mile Sierra Nevada Mountain Range at all times of the year. I have been in many environments around the world and have been around primates and many other residents of the wild. What I am encountering is something that science does not understand or recognize. This is where I come in.