Showing posts with label Camping. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Camping. Show all posts

Monday, January 20, 2014

Chasing After #Bigfoot! #Sasquatch #TrueStory #Kindle #Amazon

Boy did I get a cool surprise in my inbox today from one of my favorite writers! Rusty Wilson is a Fly-Fishing Guide. He collects Bigfoot stories. He's heard tons of them from his clients over the years just by sitting around the nightly campfire. I have gobbled all of his entire series of Rusty Wilson's Bigfoot Campfire Stories and devoured his book, The Bigfoot Runes in one night. If you're skeptical of Sasquatch, I highly recommend you check out his books. He's one helluva writer and you'll be in possession of campfire stories that will put ghost stories to shame! If you're hoping to scare the heck out of your family and friends, read them a few stories on your next camping trip. You won't be sorry and then you'll be hooked like me!

I really kinda feel sorry for all the people who don't have an open mind; those who will never read these stories and learn from them. I have no doubt. Make fun of me if you will but I've found something very special in Rusty's books and I'm doing you the favor of telling you about these gems. I'll be crawling in bed early to dive into his latest book tonight! Thanks for the dedication, Rusty! You will always be my favorite Sasquatch historian.

INTRO FROM RUSTY'S BOOK: CHASING AFTER BIGFOOT

Dear Fellow Adventurers,

As you may know, I’m a fly-fishing guide, and I’ve collected many Bigfoot stories around campfires from my clients. (“Rusty Wilson’s Bigfoot Campfire Stories” and others in that series.)

When I’m sitting around the fire listening to these stories, the storyteller will often tell the actual place where their Bigfoot encounter happened. I almost always change these locations in my books. Given what I believe is the declining number of this species, I feel we need to be very careful to not intrude on their habitat any more than we already do.

But I always wondered what it would be like to go searching in those places, places where there have been actual encounters—some of which were real doozies. I call places where there was more than one such encounter “Bigfoot hotspots.”

My wife, Sarah, and I discussed this for some time, and I always felt a bit conflicted about the whole thing—I would hear of others going on organized searches, sometimes in fairly large numbers, and I’d wonder, what does the Big Guy think about all this? I always felt that he or she probably felt hunted. I know I would.

I wanted to see a Bigfoot, but I just couldn’t justify intruding into their terrain. I know I wouldn’t like someone coming into my territory, purposely searching for me and my family.

While thinking about all this (usually while fishing), a thought finally began to take shape: what if I were to go to Bigfoot hotspots and just hang around camp, trying to be as unobtrusive as possible and not tramping into the woods looking for them? Would they maybe come to me from curiosity?

Another thought was in the back of my mind—would I be able to find definitive proof of the existence of Bigfoot, something many scoff at or question? And if I did, what would I do with it?

I tried to be honest with myself. If I did find such proof, I knew I would never sell it, and I wasn’t sure I would even share it with anyone except my wife, who I trust implicitly. I’m not interested in self-aggrandizement, and I feel that most media sensationalize the topic of Bigfoot. I wanted no part of that.

I simply have a life-long curiosity about Bigfoot. I wanted to see one—in a nutshell, meet the elusive creature I’d heard so much about over campfires. I also feel strongly that we must start preserving their habitat, and this won’t happen until we can list them as a real species, and possibly as an endangered one. But what part I wanted to play in that was not clear to me, as I wanted nothing to do with anything that could also possibly make them even more endangered.

So, I decided I would go camping. I would take off for a month and follow my heart, go chasing after the Big Guy—though I can tell you, when I realized my dream could become reality, I was kind of scared.

Did I have what it would take to camp in a tent in these Bigfoot hotspots all alone? I wouldn’t actually be chasing after Bigfoot—if anything, he’d be chasing after me. I hoped I had the fortitude and courage to let him find me, were he so inclined. To be honest, the thought was both intriguing and terrifying.

And so, in late July, off I went, and I can tell you this—it takes a lot more to live through a Bigfoot story than it does to hear someone else’s. There were times when I amazed myself at my courage—but more often, I was shocked at how big of a chicken I could be. Things just didn’t come down like I expected them to—not one bit.

Unlike in my camp fire stories, the locations in this book are exactly where the event happened. I mention this because you might want to stay away from those places—or go there, if you’re ready. My vision of Bigfoot has always been that he’s a benign creature, but there were a few times during my “expedition” that I wasn’t so sure.

So, make yourself a cup of hot chocolate, kick back by the fire, and be prepared for a story that may make your teeth chatter just a bit—and if it does, believe me, it won’t be from the cold.

I hope you enjoy it! —Rusty

AMAZON BUY LINK FOR KINDLE VERSION OF CHASING AFTER BIGFOOT

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Reflections on Another Time!





I just finished writing a young adult novel set during The Ice Age. I had to research the people, the animals, the climate, etc. I started thinking about how much unnecessary crap we live with every single day. People can exist and thrive on very little. Hey, I should know. I'm a writer...ba boom teesh! But seriously, we can. If you think about it, it's rather sickening how much crap we have today. What do we really need? Well, let's go back in time to ponder this thought. We need a roof over our heads...sometimes...in the ice age...for sure. We need food. We need love. We don't NEED clothes, well, if it's cold we do but we won't die without them. Back in time, people used the entire animal. They even used the bones to make spears to kill more animals. They used the furs for warmth, the meat for food, the teeth and claws to decorate their bodies. They used long hairs to paint on their cave walls.

I know...I sound a little nutty today but I just returned from a camping trip and we camped primitive. And I do mean...PRIMITIVE. Tent camping, no electricity, a hike to the bathroom and we did it with our children. We had to build a fire to cook. We fished. We slept under the stars and listened to the lake waters lap on the shore. I realized how out of touch all of us are with our cell phones, laptops, ipods, television, radios, cars. Going back to nature sometimes can really open your eyes.

Ancient people died earlier too....sometimes. They were more vulnerable...sometimes. In some ways, they were stronger. To think they were born, lived, loved, made love and died all out in the open, all under the stars, under the blazing sun, near oceans and rivers and creeks and in caves....it's so simple and so real. For me, it puts everything into focus.

Now, I don't want to hang out with woolley mammoths or saber tooth tigers or anything but maybe a short trip out into the wild blue yonder will do us all some good and force us to see. I mean really see. Maybe for the first time, we can see a glimpse of what our ancestors saw. True beauty in life, in breath, in waking for the sunrise, in living for the day and loving for the moment.

~Enjoy Life!
Alisha