Bigfoot and ivory billed woodpecker searches captivate adventure travelers

November 7, 1:51 PMChicago Adventure Travel ExaminerTed Nelson

Previous Next

12 comments Print Email RSS Subscribe

Subscribe

Get alerts when there is a new article from the Chicago Adventure Travel Examiner. Read Examiner.com's terms of use.

Email Address   Include other special offers from Examiner.com Terms of Use

Grainy photo of the possible Bigfoot sighting in Kentucky earlier this year.
photo by Kenny Mahoney

Bigfoot and the ivory-billed woodpecker searches captivate adventure travelers. This begs the question why do people adventure travel in the first place? The answer is we are all on a search for something in this life. Some find the answers to that search in shopping in malls, going out to bars with friends, and adventure travelers find the answers in the remote corners of America and the world.

This is why searches for Bigfoot and the once believed extinct ivory-billed woodpecker strike a chord with adventure travelers and everyone. When adventure traveling the search for whatever it is we are searching for is very vague yet we know we are looking for something. Peace, solitude, inner self discovery are all terms that are very nebulous.

The search for Bigfoot and the ivory-billed woodpecker on the other hand are more tangible and exciting and therefore spark the imagination. They bring the child out in everyone because anyone who goes out in the woods has a dream of seeing these possible entities and photographing them and in turn becoming famous. It is hoped that the photo for once can be clear and not grainy.

The ivory-billed woodpecker is a giant woodpecker even bigger than a pileated woodpecker and resembles the famous Woody Woodpecker. The bird has not been seen for decades and has long been thought extinct. In 2004 David Luneau changed all this with an out of focus picture of an apparent ivory billed woodpecker in flight in the Cache River National Wildlife Refuge in Arkansas.

This sighting caused a furor and many adventurers, scientists, researchers, and ornithologists descended on the refuge. The most dedicated of the searchers has been the Cornell Lab of Ornithology whose six team mobile unit has spent a large part of three years scouring the swamps of Arkansas, Louisiana, and Florida unsuccessfully searching for the bird.

An entity that is more familiar with grainy photographs is Bigfoot. The late great comedian Mitch Hedburg once declared that Bigfoot actually is blurry and that is extra scary to him because there is a large out of focus monster out there roaming the countryside.

Members of the Sasquatch Watch of Virginia had hoped to take an in focus picture of the beast in their camping trip in the Alleghany mountains last week with no success so far. The group is going high tech with cameras, GPS navigators, voice recorders, and plaster of Paris in case they encounter huge foot prints.

There is currently a $50,000 reward for compelling evidence of the existence of the ivory-billed woodpecker and instant fame if either this bird or bigfoot is photographed. Next time out in the woods in search of adventure make sure the camera is ready because it is possible to encounter a grainy entity or a once thought extinct bird or maybe perhaps it is not.

Mitch Hedburg jokes about Bigfoot and other things

Ted Nelson was recently named one of the top 101 Adventure Travel twitterers on twitter.  http://abroadening.com/161  Click on the icon below to follow me there.