- DUNCAN (BC Newspaper Group)
- Francis Joe kneels beside a trail of huge footprints crossing the strawberry
field beside his home at the end of Boys Road.
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- Joe, 78, was born on the Native reserve south of Duncan
and has never seen tracks like these before. He believes they belong to
a legendary ape-like creature the Cowichan people call Thumquas and others
call a sasquatch or bigfoot.
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- "That's not the tracks of an ordinary human. You
could tell if it had shoes on," he says.
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- Something tramped across Joe's fields sometime Sunday
night, leaving a straight line of 15-inch tracks running north to south,
three feet apart in soft soil.
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- His fields are bounded by bush to the north and the Cowichan
River to the south, likely ruling out a trespasser. Joe paid no mind to
dogs yapping outside Sunday because they often "bark all night."
Local fishermen recently told him they've heard growling noises in the
brush along the river.
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- The tracks also led to memories of when his three daughters
saw what they think was a sasquatch at the end of Wilseem Road about 30
years ago.
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- "It was just getting dark and it was standing by
a ditch just staring at us," remembers daughter Jeanne Bob, who claims
she a saw bigfoot about 40 feet away.
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- "It was really big, black and hairy, and had a very
strong smell. I wasn't kidding then and now I really believe it."
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- John Kirk, president of the B.C. Scientific Cryptozoology
Club, says the footprints in Joe's berry patch are "a hoax or it's
the real thing."
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- The soil was too soft to reveal a double ball on the
foot, an indicator some investigators believe sets real sasquatch tracks
from phonies.
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- The double ball would be needed to carry the weight of
an eight-foot creature, Kirk said.
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- "Each foot print also has to be different because
of walking mechanics. With fakes, every footprint is exactly the same."
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- The three-inch depth of the tracks at Joe's is also significant,
he said.
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- "An imprint deeper than a human's indicates a greater
weight."
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- Tons of sasquatch sightings have been reported between
Tofino, Ucluelet and Sproat Lake since last August, he said. "They're
seen as often as a cougar."
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- Kirk's been chasing the bigfoot phenomena since 1987.
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- He and his group also study the cadborosaurus sea monster
-- like those spotted in Saanich inlet -- and lake creatures.
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- He says sasquatches are "flesh-and-blood biological
creatures but the mystery is how they've avoided human capture for so long."
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- "We've never found their bones either but bones
decompose relatively quickly in the Pacific Northwest."
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- However, sasquatch sightings are worldwide.
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- "Obviously there has to be a viable breeding population;
their range is huge.
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- "No one knows for sure what the sasquatch is,"
he said. "If anything, they're a man-like creature but not necessarily
in the hominid family."
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- Proof positive about the bigfoot will happen if hair
or flesh can be DNA tested, he said.
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- Meanwhile, Kirk advises residents to carry a camera "and
don't shoot it, it's totally harmless."
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- Sightings can be reported by calling 321-0412 or 338-
8482.
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- http://www.mytelus.com/news/article.do?pageID=bc_home&articleID=1344492
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