Soccer Moms on the Byway and Bigfoot at Blume Lake

CNN's Anderson Cooper has a feature in his news hour called "Keepin' 'Em Honest."  Well, I see by this morning's Spokesman-Review that I kept some of my family members honest Friday night.  

My sisters helped.

As mentioned in Saturday's post, some of our family group wanted to TRESPASS on the Byway as we walked back from the historic Amtrak train depot. 

Sure enough, some of our cars would have been closer as they were parked in front of the old post office. 

And, that's the one on North Second near where Safeway used to be.  

Yup, a sprint across that roadway would have gotten us to the Cedar Street Bridge and saved us about half a mile of walking.

Wiser heads prevailed, though,  and nobody went to the Byway.  

The paper suggests this morning that a lot of people are trespassing on the as-yet unopened roadway, still deemed a construction site.

The paper adds, according to the IDT spokeswoman that these trespassers are not thugs or kids; instead, they're soccer moms and adults.  Iz there a difference between the latter?

This story on the front page above the fold may be strategically placed for prominence and timeliness cuz graduation is coming up, and the IDT doesn't want to add graduating seniors to the list of offenders.  

By the way, no pun intended, the paper says the byway will open June 29.  

It's just killing Bill that the powers-that-be haven't made arrangements for a few days where the public can get on the byway---as pedestrians or bikers and get a good look at what it has to offer.

When it opens, the "zip by" aspect of bypassing Sandpoint won't allow for too many Sunday drivers.  Bill is also concerned that the beautiful new sign announcing "Ponderay" on the north part of the byway won't get the attention it deserves either. 

He figures folks will be on their way out of town, focused on shaving off that extra 15-60-minutes,  originally spent driving through Sandpoint, and they just won't take time to "ooh and ahh" about the beautiful sign.

I pretty much figure that we do have a few years for "oohing and ahhing" about Ponderay, the little city with the big future, so I think the sign will live up to its promise. 

After all, if it took more than 50 years to decide to build the bypass and another four to complete it, I'm figuring it's gonna be around for a while, and people will have time to get acquainted with the sign.

It definitely is a beautiful piece of work.

Speaking of my family and their notions of wandering from the expected norm, I must mention that in addition to frustrated trespassers, we've also got a few "squatchers" in the bunch.  

Without mentioning names, I'll just say the squatch watchers are college educated and otherwise fairly stable.   Just so nobody gets any wrong ideas about how I feel about their stability, I must mention that in every squatcher crowd there must be a few skeptics.

I proudly wear that title in my family.  As for my husband, my son and daughter-in-law, one brother and one sister, though, there's a lot of believing going on.

So, I must say they were impressed when I included some Bigfoot information regarding "Blume Lake" the other day.   I also must say that while we were waiting to go to dinner Friday night, one family member received a text from another.

Breaking News, it said.  The story had something to do with a Bigfoot sighting by some high school kids down in Pocatello.   

Well, YouTube has taken on the story, and you can decide for yourself if the story's a spoof or the real thing.

I remain a skeptic, but for the true believers out there, I'll also include a story sent to me by our former neighbor Ken Best.  It tells the story of a sighting near Blume Lake back in the early '90s.

On Halloween, of course. 

Enjoy:  

YEAR: 1993

SEASON: Fall

MONTH: October

STATE: Idaho

COUNTY: Bonner County

LOCATION DETAILS: from sandpoint,north on hwy 95 18 miles, east on elmira rd follow to end, changes into forest service type rd,follow about 2 miles, left at fork, blume lake about 5 miles further.

NEAREST TOWN: Sandpoint, Idaho

NEAREST ROAD: logging road,elmira road, hwy 95

OBSERVED: I imagine one could make up a Bigfoot story if they wanted to, but I doubt one could make up the scenario that led to my encounter. During the early 90’s, I wanted to live like Grizzly Adams, and I moved to a remote wilderness in Northern Idaho. To give an idea of how remote of an area this was, the forest service road just past our place was gated off to protect grizzly bears. Only a handful of people lived in this area, spread out over a dozen twenty-forty acre properties. Everything else was just extreme wilderness.
The night of my encounter, meeting Bigfoot was the last thing on my mind and I must say I was confused by what I saw as well as being left utterly speechless. Although I had grown up in Northern California and was familiar with Bigfoot lore, I had pretty much filed it away as a neat story but not something to believe in.
When you are broke and living on a mountain there is not much to do except get together with neighbors and have a good time, our lot was no different. I must add that during this time of my life drinking was not big on my list, and this evening was no different; however, it was Halloween and I had had some beer earlier in the evening between 5-8p.m. or so. Please remember though, that I was weighing in at 240lbs and the actual sighting was well into the night. Probably around 11:00p.m.—1:00a.m. the following morning.
So anyway, my ex and I were at the Halloween party and had slipped into our normal silent argument routine, so needless to say we were not talking. One of the neighbors had arrived with a tractor pulling a trailer loaded with straw in hopes of taking everyone on a hayride. Eventually we left on the hayride, there were around sixteen of us evenly made up of adults and children of all ages, costumes and all. Upon leaving I don’t think we had a destination in mind, but someone eventually suggested we head to Blume Lake. A small mountain lake with rough access that would require leaving the tractor at the logging road, and walking the remaining ½ mile or so.
As stated earlier my ex and I were giving each other the silent treatment and found ourselves drifting to the back of the two by two line. Eventually, we had allowed enough space to develop between us and the pack to lose sight of them as they went around bends in the trail. As we neared the lake, the trail forked in two directions, both led to the lake.
My ex and I were just close enough to see the backside of the last person headed down the trail to the right. As we came to the fork I was closest to the center/fork while my ex was outside on the far right. Right as we approached the intersection I focused on a being crouched down at the base of a tree where the trails came together. This animal stayed put while I tried to figure out what I was seeing, it felt like total slow motion. I had a visual on the animal; I was staring right at it; however the animal did not seem to be interested eye contact. Just as we passed by and the animal was to my left behind me, I looked over my shoulder to see it rise silently next to the tree it had been crouching next to. Being 6’3” I would guess this being to be about 8 feet tall. Standing now, this animal still did not want eye contact and kept us in its peripheral vision. I looked forward and I could still see the back of the last person ahead of us. I wanted to yell out to everyone but figured it not the best thing to do. I doubt that I was close enough to touch it, but am quite sure he could have reached me without taking a step. I thought that I should say something to the ex, but I was speechless. I looked over my shoulder again to see this animal take a huge silent step out of the brush and then take only two or three more up the trail we had come down, before being out of sight. These steps were large, silent and punctuated with his long arms swinging with his strides.
I spent many years wondering how no one else saw this and never told anyone from that night, except the ex, about it.
I was familiar with forest wildlife and had viewed several species at length before this. I have always consoled myself by saying: I am not sure what I saw, but I do know what I didn’t see, and it wasn’t a bear, elk, mountain lion, moose or anything else I can think of.
Even after this encounter I still thought most of the T.V. shows were jokes, but finding your site helps me realize I did see Bigfoot.
This area of Bonner County, Idaho is very close to the encounter told of in the Pack River area. It is also close to the Clark Fork area encounters. Kind of between the two of them.
I always wondered what Bigfoot thought about sixteen people coming down the trail at this time of night, costumes and all. This area is remote; sixteen people at any time would have been a shock. He must have been surprised!

ALSO NOTICED: do not recall

OTHER WITNESSES: about 16, they missed it, I kept quiet

OTHER STORIES: I lived in this area around 6 yrs, in that time I viewed large foot prints in snow, mud, and soft shoulder soil.
I visited another nearby lake(foot access) one time, and upon reaching the top of the trail found a large scat pile, and could smell the rankest odor. I felt like I was not alone and headed home imediatly.
from time to time would hear shrieks in the forest around my cabin.
I was usually very angry dealing with my ex and these things would just get filed away as something to worry about latter.
I had actually forgotten most of these until reading your site.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: around midnight
full moon, good light
cool temps, maybe a breeze

ENVIRONMENT: Small mountain lake , evergreen forest, minimal hardwood, small primitive camp sites around lake

---

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Charles Lamica:

I interviewed the witness telephonically and found his story to be credible. Some additional information gleaned during the interview is listed below.

- Of the night of his sighting, the witness said, “Bigfoot was the furthest thing from my mind that night.” He had heard of bigfoot before this event but had never given the subject any serious thought.
- There were half a dozen families that lived in the area at that time. They sometimes got together for special occasions. On the night of this sighting they were celebrating Halloween. One neighbor brought a tractor and a large trailer for the purpose of giving everyone a “hay ride.”
- In spite of it being late October, the weather was warm and clear. The moon was full, or almost full, on that night and the visibility was excellent.
- The witness says that upon seeing this figure he immediately knew it wasn’t any kind of animal he’d ever seen before. He said, “I Immediately got confused by what I saw. I was speechless.” He says he was so close to the figure that the creature could have reached out and touched him. He estimated the distance between them was less than six feet. He says he didn’t feel threatened, but the very closeness of the encounter made him feel it would have been unsafe to do anything but keep quiet and keep walking.
- As he walked past the creature he saw it rise up and walk away. The creature made no noise. It took three or four steps before going out of sight amongst the vegetation.
- The witness says the entire encounter lasted about 10 seconds, but the bright moonlight and the close proximity gave him a very good look at the creature.
- In describing the appearance of the creature, the witness said it did not have the same appearance as the sasquatch seen in the Patterson/Gimlin film. He indicated that the figure he saw looked very much like the images of Gigantopithecus shown on the BFRO website.
- He says that in the moonlight the over-all color of the creature was a greyish-silvery color. The hair seemed to be six to eight inches long. It was very sparse on the face and he could see the facial skin was darker than the surrounding hair. It had a flat nose. He couldn’t see any ears due to the hair covering the sides of the head.
- He says he never saw the creature’s feet. The torso was broad. He described the creature as having a lean (but not lanky) yet muscular build.
- The witness brought up two specific points that he found quite interesting. The first is that the creature was totally silent. Even when it stood up and walked away it made no noise. The second point was that the creature never looked directly at him. It seemed to keep its head turned just far enough away that it had to use its peripheral vision to watch the witness.
- The witness is positive the creature he saw was not a human. He said he chose not to discuss the event with anyone until many years later.

I taught a Wilderness Survival class to search and rescue volunteers at Bloom Lake in May 2009. The area certainly has the necessary requirements of food, water and shelter.

About BFRO Investigator Charles Lamica:

Chuck Lamica's interest in sasquatch started at the age of 8, when his family discovered large footprints near their home in rural Oregon. He was an Alaska State Trooper for 22 years. He now lives in northeast Washington state.

Note:  My brother tells me that you can google the BFRO to learn a whole lot more about Bigfoot sightings and Squatching activities.