Review: Finding Bigfoot 1-29-12

The team heads to Ohio, Salt Fork State Park, to check into a piece of footage from an individual known as The Squatchmaster, real name Jeff Patterson. It is kind of a homecoming for Matt, who lived there for four years in Akron. The team members discuss the video footage on the way to meet the individual who took the footage. The team meets with Patterson and his son in the area the footage was taken. Analysis of the footage on the Internet showed it was an individual in a jacket and blue jeans, ruling out a Sasquatch, but the team decides to recreate the footage with Bobo acting as the 'Squatch. It turns out Bobo is actually bigger than the figure in the original footage. Bobo leans towards it being a person, but the rest of the team is a bit more unsure. With night operations commencing, the team splits, with Matt and Ranae on one team, Cliff and Bobo on the other with a parabolic dish. Bobo decides to do a call, with Matt deciding to do one as well. There is a return howl, but obviously it could just mean someone else is out there doing howls. (Speaking from personal experience, there are Bigfooters out in Salt Fork quite a bit, especially after dark, and they do tend to let off howls and call-blasting and things like that.) Ranae believes it was a barred owl, but they also hear a scream, which they say was either a person or a 'Squatch. Matt does not think it was people, but Ranae very rightly says that she cannot rule it out being a human. Bobo is left in the area alone, while the rest of the team go to organize a Bigfoot town hall meeting. A lady named Lorena says she had a sighting (I have met this lady). Tim Stover recounts his sighting as well, as does Scott Albaugh, who recounts a sound encounter at Salt Fork. He plays an audio of something which sounds almost like a T-Rex (I have heard some of his recordings from close to his home, and they are fascinating and unusual). The team then goes on a grid search for evidence with several volunteers, and they find some kind of a structure (again, I have seen at least two of these structures at Salt Fork, and they were both man-made). Bobo has been cooking bacon to see about attracting something to him, possibly a 'Squatch. Bobo walks the roads and does calls to see what he can attract. Cliff heads out to an Indian reservation nearby, where a Native American named Chief Little Soldier recounts his sighting. Cliff theorizes that the possible reason the Sasquatch came close to the witness is because the witness was pounding a post into the ground and thought it was knocking. Matt and Ranae go to meet with Lorena in Sharon, Ohio to interview her about her encounter. Lorena recounts her sighting to Matt and Ranae. Ranae stands in for the 'Squatch, and Lorena described it as about 3 times larger than Ranae. Bobo, on his night operations has a thermal and parabolic mic operating as he does calls. The team goes to meet with Tim and have him recount his sighting from 20 years ago. Tim was in a tree stand when he saw this silvery-colored 'Squatch. He says he saw the muscles flexing underneath the hair. Matt and Ranae have a bit of tense standoff over an interpretation of an admittedly ambiguous dent in the ground which Matt insists is a 'Squatch half-track where Matt says that Ranae does not seem to see what is clearly in front of him. The team undertakes more investigating, and finds-well, no spoilers here. All in all, I think, the best episode of the season, a solid 4 1/2 out of 5 stars. In two weeks (no show next week due to the Super Bowl), on February 12th, they head to Virginia, 10:00 EST/9:00 Central, on Animal Planet. Check local listings for time and channel.