Book Review: Where Bigfoot Walks: Crossing the Dark Divide by Robert Michael Pyle

This wonderfully-written travelogue of the area in Washington State known as the Dark Divide was released in 1995, and I received a copy of it in about '95 or '96, a signed copy no less. I read through it back then, and just recently read through it again, and it is still as terrific today as it was nearly 15 years ago. Pyle takes the reader on his journey through this rugged wilderness (though in some spots not so rugged due to motorcyclists who put ruts in different trails as well as hikers and campers all over the place) and gives us a great narrative of his journey, which is not so much to find Bigfoot as to just walk the difficult trails and byways in the region he has chosen. He does meet several people who are open-minded to the possibility of the Sasquatch existing, but does not meet any direct witnesses except the late Datus Perry in Carson, Washington. He also meets with and talks to such Bigfoot luminaries as Peter Byrne (with whom he has a close friendship today), John Green, the late Grover Krantz and the late Rene Dahinden, as well as meeting Ray Crowe and the then-Western Bigfoot Society, as well as meeting some other Bigfooters along the way. He also delves into the headaches that would come as the result of discovery (which seems to be about to occur here in August 2008) as well as the implications of what the finding of a Sasquatch could do to imdustries of all shapes and sizes. This is a terrific read, whether for Summer or just for curling up by a fire on a cold Fall or Winter's Night. Highly-recommended.