In the Shadows – Casting Tracks - Article 39
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- Published: Wednesday, 30 March 2022 19:02
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As we approach the big number 40 on articles for the In the Shadows series, I would like to extend my heart-felt appreciation to all the folks who stop me about town and tell me they love reading these articles, I hope that I can continue making them interesting for everyone.
Today I would like to talk about casting tracks, as everyone always asks, do you have track castings. Yes, I do, I have about 5 tubs of them in storage, and about a half dozen sitting in my office on a shelf.
Here in Adair County though, it’s hard to really find good tracks to cast, this is due to the rocky soil that is hard to leave tracks in. When we do, it’s usually in sandy areas near water.
How do we know it’s a possible track? A lot of folks online post pictures of dead grassy areas that are in the shape of a foot, and proclaim it to be a Bigfoot track, or where a rock had been turned over and left an impression in the dirt. For the most part, I don’t cast a track unless it definitely has toe structure and if the debris in the track has been smashed into the earth. If there is grass and leaves in the track but not smashed down, it’s likely just a depression in the ground caused by running rain water, a rock being moved or just quite simply a hole in the dirt.
One incident that my group encountered was clearly the result of something walking through the area as it had stepped on a large limb laying on the ground and had smashed it, with the track visible on both sides of the break. Something large had walked through and stepped on that limb, so it was a good find.
Another incident was where something large had been peering over an embankment at a listening post team, and left a huge hand print on the wall of the embankment and three large knuckle prints as it moved around to get a better view of the team.
When folks usually find possible tracks, they already are in the mindset that they are looking for Bigfoot tracks, and this makes them biased towards everything they see and come across. This leads to confirmation bias towards any possible evidence they bring in.
So ladies and gentlemen, when out in the woods and you come across what you think might be a Bigfoot track, use some skepticism about how it was made, it could even be a bear overstep, where the bear’s rear paw overlaps the front paw track and makes it appear to be a Bigfoot track.