Editor’s note: The print edition of this article incorrectly reported the Sasquatch Rendezvous is being held April 3 and 4. The correct dates are April 4 and 5. This article has been updated.
A question for the ages: can Sasquatch catch coronavirus?
Maybe yes, maybe no, but the organizers are making sure attendants of the upcoming Sasquatch Rendezvous are making sure they can’t, since they’ve shifted from an in-person convention to a live-stream series of presentations.
The event, which is to be held April 4 and 5, features a number of researchers, authors, and enthusiasts of the famed cryptid, including Thom Cantrall, an Enumclaw local who was the head of last year’s third annual International Conference for Primal People at the Field House.
Taking over for this year’s event is Sandy Nelson, an Ocean Shores resident who was working in health care in Pierce County until recently.
She herself only recently hopped onto the Sasquatch bandwagon, after a guest — a researcher himself — at her beach house told her he had three encounters in her backyard back in 2013.
“I came down on the weekend and met with the BFRO (Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization) investigator, and he introduced me to Sasquatch,” Nelson said. “Since that time, I’ve been very interested in knowing more about them.”
Nelson said she’s had several encounters between then and now. In October 2013, she was told to camp in a certain area of the Cascades when she saw a “massive” 9-foot individual standing alongside a forest service road.
“It changed entire paradigm. It was pretty traumatic for me, because everything I knew was no longer the same,” she recalled. “I had wanted to see one, I believed it could be possible, but [when] you actually see one… everything you were raised with, all those boundaries, go out the window.”
Nelson added that she continues to camp in their habitats — respectfully, of course — and have seen others, both big and small.
“Every experience I have is a gift from them to me, and I appreciate that,” she said.
Nelson hopes Sasquatch Rendezvous will turn into a twice-yearly event, hosted in the spring and fall; the next Rendezvous is being planned for October 2020, hopefully after the COVID-19 outbreak is over.
Cantrall is just one of eight presenters who is coming prepared with their own stories, artifacts, and research for Sasquatch Rendezvous. He’s been called “a mainstay” of the Bigfoot community, having been interested in Sasquatch a decade before the famous 1967 Patterson-Gimlin film upended the cryptid community. He’s the author of several books, including “Ghosts of Ruby Ridge”, and has amassed a collection of several Bigfoot casts and prints, made by him or other researchers.
Ron Morehead is another staple, known around the globe for being one of the researchers who recorded the 1970 “Sierra Sounds,” which many believe are two Sasquatch in Eastern California having a conversation. He’s not only researched the American Bigfoot, but also has traveled to Russia to find evidence of the elusive Yeti. One of his presentation topic for Sasquatch Rendezvous will focus around his book “The Quantum Bigfoot”, which poses the theory that quantum physics could shed some more light on the mystery of Sasquatch.
Professor Mitchel Townsend will also make an appearance; he made his mark in the Sasquatch community when he discovered what he said was the only recovered dental impression of the cryptid, which led to him publishing a book and several research papers, as well as teach what appears to be the country’s only Bigfoot-focused classes at Centralia College and Lower Columbia College.
Other presenters include paranormal podcasters Tobe Johnson of Strange Brau Radio and Timothy Renner of Strange Familiars; encounter investigators and educators Scott Taylor and Robin Roberts, and enthusiast and researcher Kevin Carney.
Each presentation will last around 40 minutes, with another 15 minute Q&A period; a schedule can be found online at www.sasquatchrendezvous.com/sponsors1, which is where you can also buy tickets for $30.