A few days ago I saw something I’ve never seen before in the outdoors. It was just before sunrise. That special time of the early morning when darkness has begun to fade, but just a hint of light begins to illuminate the sky in a soft, cobalt color. The pre-dawn hour is also when our eyes begin to distinguish the surrounding landscape, including trees, hills and sometimes living creatures! It was at this precise time of the morning when I had my encounter.

I was driving north along a rural section of road in Schuylkill County a few days ago when suddenly a dark, furry critter loped across the four-lane highway about 50 yards in front of me. It was just beyond the beam of my headlights, but I could definitely make out a 3’-4’ long animal with a long fluffy tail. “What the heck was that?” I said to myself. I quickly slowed the truck down to warp speed, and like The Dukes of Hazard driving General Lee, I checked for traffic (none) and guided Big Blue into a swift U-turn, hopping a low concrete median that I never noticed. My coffee mug went flying, and I still haven’t found the lemon pie I had bought 30 minutes earlier. As I whipped the vehicle around to the shoulder of the road, grabbing my camera at the same time, there was the beast. It had ran down the embankment and was poking through the woods, heading away from me. I began snapping photos, but forgot to adjust for the low light, until the last picture was taken. As quickly as I observed the mysterious animal, it was gone. “An Otter, I thought to myself, but there was no water anywhere that I could see. Then it came to me-a Fisher. But, Fishers don’t occur down here in Schuylkill County, do they? I knew of the PA Game Commission’s re-introduction of these furbearers in the mid to late 1990s, but that was way up in the northern tier counties. Could they have expanded down here in the past 15 years? Maybe, there was certainly enough habitat for them to live in Schuylkill County. As I sat there having some sort of scientific debate with myself (and still looking for the missing lemon pie), I was convinced that it was a Fisher, the second largest member of the weasel family. It was a very cool sighting! However, before I decided on my final identification, there was another passing thought that entered my mind-the legendary Chupacabra!

OK, so maybe I’ve watched far too many of the “monster” shows on the Animal Planet or Discovery channels, but you never know! The Chupacabra is an alleged creature of the south, with sightings in Texas, Mexico and even Puerto Rico. Chupacabra is Spanish for “goat sucker”. The creature’s name derives from stories in Latin America of people finding dead goats with puncture wounds in their necks and all the blood drained from their bodies. One of the facts going against my mythical sighting is that there are no records of Chupacabras in Schuylkill County, PA. Especially one running across snow, ice and RT 309……and I saw no evidence of any goats grazing in the vicinity!

Anyone who knows me, knows that Chupacabras aren’t the only “mythical” creatures I believe exist on our planet. I would like to believe that we simply haven’t discovered every living thing out there. On the top of my bucket list is the most famous, fabled beast of them all-Bigfoot. There have been sightings in almost every state in the U.S. Also known as Sasquatch, or local varieties called the Skunk Ape (FL), Rugaru (LA), Fouke Monster (AR-where I visited in February!), Yowie (Australia) and the Yeti (Himalayan Mountains). Yes, I believe they all exist, all different types of Bigfoot-not sure what more than one Bigfoot are called, Bigfoots? Bigfeet? Unfortunately, I can honestly say I’ve never had the privilege of seeing a Bigfoot, yet, but I’m still searching. I did hear tree knocks one night when I was living in the mountains of western North Carolina, but it may have been one of the kids from the camp I was working at, or a very large woodpecker. Unconfirmed.

I’m still trying to convince my wife, daughter and sister to take an extended vacation with me, traveling throughout America, in search of Bigfoots. Of course we would do some birding and do a little sightseeing, but the main quest would be to collect video/photographic evidence to scientifically confirm the existence of these cool monsters. If we could financially benefit from our evidence in the form of photos, a book deal, TV appearances and maybe even a Disney movie, that might be nice, too! Our method, simple, we buy hundreds of packs of Jack Links Beef Jerky to use as bait, then just start Messin With Sasquatch! I think the ultimate would be to get a few selfies with the main beast! I betcha we would get lots of “Likes” on Facebook! By the way, don’t get me started with the Loch Ness Monster, which would be the perfect fishing trip! DO YOU BELIEVE?