The season of late fall into winter has so far been quiet. I’ve been concentrating on local areas for the last few weeks, and all is quiet for the moment. This is one of the times of year in the past when things start to point to potential activity, depending on a couple of needed coniditions, but so far this year. So in the weeks that have gone by with no new action occuring I’ve taken some time to consider how the Investigative Network should evolve. So far It’s started with the website for the report database, and that is an ongoing effort. Access will be split between witnesses reporting their experiences as well as Investigators who are part of the Network. Also in the works is what I am calling “Project Listening Post” a coordinated effot on the part of regional Investigators to establish an infrastructure of locales for long term research efforts, as well as picking out areas for upcoming investigations. Slow winters make for good time to make plans for the coming year.

Early November: Two weeks after the first trip to the Bennington triangle saw my return, to again hopefully get some activity, and if not, to explore another side trail that I didn’t have time for the last trip. It’s always a good thing to have a plan B, should our elusive quarry see fit to not be around, which is annoyingly often. One interesting observation is how much difference two weeks can make in the autumn. The weather was 20 degrees colder and there had been the first covering of snow which yielded the chance to do some potential tracking as well. Some don’t like doing field work in the winter, but snow levels the playing field, revealing tracks that might otherwise go unnoticed. On this outing, I did see a combination of rabbit, deer and other tracks you would expect to normally see in this area, but again, the monkey man wasn’t around so this was another chance to explore.

The trail I had in mind like the one from the last trip ended up going for quite a ways and along the ways revealed a few good potential bush camping spots, if you don’t mind hiking in a few miles. I suspect I found the spot where the trail from the last trip and this one intersect, and allows access to the backside of a large beaver pond which could easily provide cover in the form of thick pine growth. The other goal that I take away from this trip in addition to the intention to do an overnight trip minimally, is to find a second point of entry to facilitate even deeper entry into the National forest but having access from the far side of it as well. It’s always a good thing to set a goal for the next trip.

October: The first of two trips to this area of historic activity and weirdness was in late October. This was a solo trip to assess any potentiality of recent activity in the area. This was also the site of a hampered expedition with the research group that I belong to for the moment back in April, it was hampered by rain, which impedes recording as well as morale. The conditions were at least a bit more favorable this time around, as compared to what we had in April a mix of ice and swampy mud. At least in the autumn conditions were drier. I explored some of the same area that the previous expedition had covered and did manage to surprise a pair of white tail deer while out there. Conditions for the day were cool, and cloudy with a spritz of rain, but nothing heavy. While there, I wasn’t able to get any responses to the usual queues of vocals or knocks, so I took the opportunity to explore the larger area that is the Bennington triangle.

The hike itself covered 5 miles one way, and was on and off trail, starting out on a logging road which had been the main way in while there in April, but also delved into a less obvious trail, which while marked was much more over grown, and went for a few miles as well with some good possibilities for bush camping well off the beaten path. The point of doing this kind of camping given the right camping is to get far enough off the beaten to get away from human traffic and listen in on what’s actually occurring in the deeper forests, both during the day and when more nocturnal neighbors may be about. The trip lasted most of the day and while there were no obvious signs of activity it did provide an opportunity for some solo exploration that was unhindered by a more cumbersome group dynamic.

So a buddy and I took a second scouting run at an area in Northern Vermont, the first time, I had gone solo. The purpose for the trip was to prescout for the upcoming fall expedition for our research group. The weather conditions were warm but a little cooler than you would expect. Spent an overnight there and experienced a small flow of backpacker traffic during the day which died off quickly once the sun went down. We ended up getting a decent lay of the land and seeing some wildlife, an owl here, a fox or fisher cat paying a visit at night. It was quiet as far as signs of activity go, which was disappointing since this is an area with two recent reports that came out of it. We ended up just essentially camping out for the night but the trip did serve it’s purpose.

We discussed the merits of bush camping over “camping camping”, the gyst being that bush camping has the capcity for getting you into more versatile places and for me anyway, having a more removed from civilization type experience. It by this time of the year had gotten a little old with some being a bit whiney over the fact they couldnt drive in or bring a full grill. Noone’s arguing it’s okay to do that now and then, but not every trip out need be a tailgate party.

Met up with some guys from the group I research with in the Adirondacks, it’s a spot we’ve been to before, not my favorite either. It’s basically situated on a bug infested, stagnant pond, infested with everything that flies and bites, and with us going in August, the humidty level was through the roof. Weather wise the heat made things pretty gross. This was one of the first times that I treated clothes with bug repellant specifically for that prupose and for the most part it worked pretty well. The hammock was the only option for camping out due to the heat. The road in kept me from being able to drive in, so it was a half mile hike to the camp, and the road in was frankly rougher than I had remembered.

The first night was quiet as far as activity, but we did attempt to scout with a road patrol equipped with both night vision and FLIR, but you still need the creature toshow up, and that night, no dice. We scouted rodents like a champ, but that was about it. The major thing really memorable was a feeding frenzy of dragon flies, numbering almost 80, in the space over our fire pit, which eliminated any real mosquito presence. The next night after I had left to follow up on a witness report further south, there was supposedly a few wood knocks and a tree fall, but this is open to interpretation. Hot overnight, some maybe activity, another one for the inconclusive file.

The counterweight of having no activity is the enjoyment of backpacking though, which is to say this is one of the busier seasons I’ve had in a while so thats a good thing.

This was the fall expedition of the research group that I belong to, and I had higher hopes for the trip than it turned out to be. First the background, there had been two sightings from this location within a stone’s throw and a year apart; one was a road crossing and the other a pattern of ongoing activity. If you read between the lines the forest we were working this expedition was where the creature had made its way for the road crossing. Normally the research group votes on a location as well as the date, and this location won out by a single vote over another, and I suspect there was some resentment from others in the group, but the location in Vermont won, and the other had its day as a the Adirondack trip in my last post. I had some frustration because I had wanted this trip to be a bit more of a backpacking trip where some in the group are more car camping, the end result ended up being somewhere in the middle.

I arrived a day early for this one as did a few others. They did so to account for travel distance, I did more so to get in some recon before meeting up with everyone else. I was able to scout the full length of the road running through and finding some interesting points that led off trail, and made note of the fact that terrain on one end of the road was a bit more rugged than the main way in, at least for a non 4×4 vehicle. The next morning we met up with the others and got to the forest and set to setting up camp, and trying to find an area out of the way. One pair chose a spot off a logging trail, another car camped and I hammocked nearby a short distance into the forest. We did some day scouting of potentially good night operation locations and we decided after scouting a few side trails to split into two teams and two areas.

For the night operation itself, we had good moonlight conditions to maximize night vision effectiveness, but despite good conditions, the odd thing this trip verses the other two before, was how quiet it was. There was little to any sign of animal activity once it got dark. In previous trips there had been signs of owls, small animals such as fox, porcupine and the like, this time it was dead quiet. The reason I suspect was the weather the next day. We were due to have a nor’easter and with that would come 45 mph winds which made staying another night foolhardy. After a quiet night operation, with sadly no luck, we decided to wake the next day and make a call based on the NOAA repor.t. Unfortunately the report didn’t change that much, nor’easter, lot of rain and hazardous levels of wind, so the trip was called short on a count of the weather turning nasty. This is one of the frustrating that can happen in this pursuit; great location, best laid plans of mice and men, and the weather denies. Given the history of this location and the surrounding area I am due to return at least once more this year or early next year.

As others posts have indicated I’ve gotten a fair amount of field work in since mid-summer, getting out to Vermont, Massachusetts and New York, and have done a decent amount of field work in my local area as well. I try to get out a weekly basis to this area and have a look around, and it has been quiet so far, with the except of a brief run in with a female moose. The deer keds are out as well, which for all intent and purpose, flying ticks, but insects, not arachnids. The moose encounter should serve as a reminder that you can run into something right around the corner and should be prepared for it, in terms of safety as well as not panicking. Males this time of year are in the rut and as a result are dangerous, this female on the other hand, was just blind as a bat. She didn’t see me or notice me until I called out, which was at about thirty feet. Since I’ve run into bears in the same area it’s just wise to be aware of your surroundings and even though you’re looking for the squatch, there’s other things out there to, be careful out there.

About halfway through September, we had a trip out to a new area with an Investigator I have met once before, an area where they act as a ranger. This was a first time outing with this group it was more of a meet and greet than an investigation. Some folks I had met previously and some were for the first time. The agenda I had in going if there was one was to see if there was interest in forming the nucleus of a New England centric colligative network of investigators who could work together towards more coordinated research in the region. This is partially out of the realization that the group I currently belong to is only so willing to engage in new England field work, and to move in a different direction as a result. The first night there, our host was quite gracious and we had a lengthy carouse around a camp fire well into the morning as we got to know each better as a group.

Next day, we awoke to the sounds of the various birds that were milling around the nearby pond, a mix of geese, grouse, turkeys and birds less obvious. During the day we took a hike through the nearby forest which is a multimile tract of land and quite dense in places. Then came campfire dinner and some didgeridoo call blasting and wood knocking prior to setting out for a night operation. The denseness of the woods was all the more apparent in the dark, and we looking for any sign of our quarry with a mix of Flir and night vision, only to have to realize that he wasn’t about. What we did find some entertainment in was the presence across the pond of what are called LARPers, Live action role players. We weren’t right on top of these folks but they did in fact provide some entertainment value with some of the sounds carrying across the pond.

The next morning I had a good chat with our host towards forming the network, and it was agreed that slow and steady is the best process, having started as a secret Facebook group to invite some regional right minded researchers and then let the community evolve from there. It was a good starting point and a good outing, and as we speak the nucleus of this network is forming and efforts are being made to provide the right infrastructure for the intended collaboration.