Off the Beaten Path: My Search for Sasquatch and Self

By Curt Bradford

Join Curt Bradford on his personal quest for the unknown. Captivated by the mystery of sasquatches as a child and frightened by the possible existence of such creatures, he decides at age twenty-seven to leave Virginia and travel three thousand miles away to the great Pacific Northwest in search of the truth. Before he can get off the beaten path to look for evidence of sasquatches in the forests of Oregon, he must first gain a foothold in Portland, the state's most populous city, and begin a new position in the insurance world. The legend of the sasquatch was not his only interest. The reader is treated to stories of a friend's beautiful wedding in Napa Valley, newfound friendships with Peruvians, and visits to some of the most awe-inspiring natural areas in America. Get a behind-the-scenes look into the adventures of a bigfoot seeker who must find within himself the courage to face down alone one of his greatest fears–the sasquatch.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Page Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Jul 29, 2020
• ISBN: 9781645441014

Book preview

Chapter 1

Kentucky Warblers

As a kid, I would play in the woods near my home in Stafford County, Virginia. One day, my brother and I were walking up a dirt road. I was about twelve years old at the time. It was an overcast day. To my right was a slope with a lot of bright-green low-lying plants. Visibility that day was very good. I noticed some movements in the vegetation, and, when I looked down, what I saw changed my life.

Two birds were flitting from one plant to another, close to the ground. I had never noticed any birds before at this site. They seemed to dance with one another, but what really caught my attention were the incredible yellow-gold and black feathers and the beautiful markings on their heads. I could not believe what I was seeing. I thought I knew the animals in the forest, so this really caught me off guard.

What really surprised me that day was that no one ever told me that these little birds existed. They looked like they belonged in a tropical rain forest instead of Virginia! And I later found out that they winter in the tropics of Central and South America before coming to the U.S. during our spring and summer months.

Both birds had dark feathers forming what looked like black tears streaming down their small golden faces. And the more I looked into the natural world, the more I realized that the only things we know to exist are those that are described to us or that we go out and find ourselves. The birds soon flew away, but not before altering the way I would see the world.

I knew I needed to find out what type of bird I had seen. I remember looking in a bird field guide and scanning the pages. There was a category of birds called warblers. Many of the warblers in the guide were painted with yellow-gold feathers, but the unique facial pattern on these two birds made them stand out. I found them, and I learned that they were called Kentucky warblers. How many other gems were out there that I had never seen?

I really enjoyed plants and animals, and warblers were my favorites. I began to birdwatch in earnest, birding along the east coast of the U.S. and anywhere else I might go. My bird guide was a Bible of sorts. It told me where to go and what I would see. If you could see some of the beautiful birds I saw during my birding trips, I am sure you would appreciate the diminutive warblers I chased around the country.

As my love for and curiosity toward birds grew, I began to appreciate them more and more. Each new bird species I saw in the field was a mini-discovery. I used the Peterson Field Guide: Eastern Birds and the Peterson Field Guide: Western Birds, which had all the information I needed. All I had to do was find the birds. I became an expert at seeing birds that no one else saw. I homed in to any movement or birdcall, and my eyes zoomed in that direction followed by bringing my binoculars up to my eyes. It took some practice at first, but I soon mastered the use of binoculars. It really was a lot of fun to find birds.

The bird that started it all—Geothlypis formosa—photo by Agami Photo Agency / Shutterstock

At about that same time in my life, I remember going to the Central Rappahannock Regional Library in Fredericksburg, walking through the aisles, looking for anything of interest. Most of the books simply did not interest me; however, I did find a shelf of books that did capture my eyes. The shelf had books about ghosts, UFOs, and monsters. One of these monsters was bigfoot. I pulled down one of the books by John Green called Sasquatch: The Apes Among Us.

I began to look over the book and jump to the pictures, but I also decided to check this book out of the library and take it home and read it cover to cover. What I found was a fountain of knowledge of another creature that no one had told me about, except this animal was eight feet tall and weighed several hundred pounds, and not a few ounces like a Kentucky warbler.

I remember distinctly John’s descriptions of people’s eyewitness accounts. Some of these folks were horrifically shocked when they saw a sasquatch for the first time. These experiences were often a lot less pleasant than discovering a bird for the first time!

John Green accumulated approximately three thousand documented accounts of people’s encounters with bigfoots, and he created a database which is available to anyone who wishes to peruse it. People in the bigfoot arena called him Mr. Sasquatch. What really struck me when I read his books was the emotional component of bigfoot sightings. One meeting between a motorist and a sasquatch happened at night while she was driving, alone, in the mountains of the Pacific Northwest. Suddenly a huge hair-covered beast running on two legs darted across the highway in front of her and scrampered up the mountain, disappearing into the night.

The woman who saw this would never be the same. She had just had a Kentucky warbler encounter of monstrous proportions! John Green described her shock and fear when she saw this monster. Her emotions rang true, and when he interviewed her, she could not tell her story without the fear that went through someone all alone in the mountains at night seeing a sasquatch. She had never even heard of bigfoots before, so she wasn’t even sure what she had seen. Can you imagine if you had never heard of this animal, and then you had a meeting in which you were all alone with this hair-covered thing which walked upright but was no man?

I also voraciously read On the Track of the Sasquatch and Year of the Sasquatch, both written by John Green as well. Green’s books were like my Peterson Field Guide for birdwatching—they were the reference materials I needed to familiarize myself with these creatures.

The eyewitness reports which John Green recorded were predominantly located in northern California, Oregon, Washington State, and British Columbia in Canada where there are vast expanses of wilderness to sustain and hide bigfoots.

John Green was there on the ground floor when significant sightings of sasquatches started to occur in northern California back in the 1950s. Loggers were finding large footprint impressions in the dirt of their logging roads. I cannot tell you how much I would have loved to have gone with him to experience that. John was bitten by the sasquatch bug, and his understanding of the natural world would never be the same. He had to find out what beings were creating these tremendous tracks.

As Kentucky warblers challenged me to learn more and find books detailing these amazing jewels, so too did John Green’s books propel me to the Pacific Northwest to dedicate part of my life to this quest. I knew as a child that one day I had to go to this part of the world to explore this mystery myself.

A confounding undercurrent is that many people have seen these things and they never share their experiences with others, or only share them with very few others. Thankfully, people don’t accuse me of being insane when I share my warbler sightings with you because one can find such organisms in the field oneself, or one can find a preserved specimen in the Smithsonian Institute or other depository. If the Smithsonian does have a bigfoot body, people working there are not telling