Tracking Bigfoot: Mike Dupler's Sasquatch Investigation Journey

So I was scrolling through YouTube the other night, looking for something new to dig into, and I stumbled across this audiobook that immediately grabbed my attention. It's called "On the Trail of Bigfoot: Tracking the Enigmatic Giants of the Forest," written by Mike Dupler and narrated by Eric Michael Summerer, published through Tantor Audio. If you haven't checked it out yet, you're missing out on a really fascinating listen. What makes this one stand out is that Dupler isn't some armchair researcher who just read a few books and decided to write one of his own. He's a genuine field investigator who came to the Sasquatch mystery through an interesting path. He started out as a ghost hunter, inspired by shows like Ghost Hunters, and actually worked alongside some well-known paranormal investigators. He's investigated places like the Morrison Lodge in Elizabethtown, Kentucky, a former Confederate field hospital from the Civil War. The guy has serious credentials in the paranormal world. But here's where it gets really good. Dupler describes a moment that changed everything for him, a personal awakening that pulled him into the Bigfoot mystery. While visiting his daughter in Washington State back in June 2011, they rented a cabin near Portland, Oregon, and took a drive out toward the Pacific Ocean on Highway 26. As they were cruising through the coastal range, he spotted something across a field next to the highway that he recognized immediately from years of consuming paranormal media. Several trees had been pulled out of the ground and thrust back in upside down. You know exactly what that means if you've spent any time in this community. That's classic Sasquatch sign. He had his daughter pull over so he could photograph it, and even though she was skeptical, Dupler knew what he was looking at. That moment flipped a switch for him. When he got back home to Ohio, he started digging into the Bigfoot phenomenon and discovered something that surprised him. Ohio is actually a hotbed of Sasquatch activity, with plenty of sightings and evidence reported throughout the state. Thanks to his skills as a hunter and woodsman, he's been able to find tracks and collect other evidence, including photographs. The book itself takes a really thoughtful approach to the whole mystery. Dupler talks about how thousands of people across North America and around the world have reported encounters with these tall, hair-covered creatures that seem to exist somewhere between man and ape. He goes through all the names we've given them over the years, Bigfoot, Sasquatch, Skookum, Skunk Ape, Grass Man, Wild Man, and explains how despite all the blurry photos, footprint casts, hair samples, and recordings of those distinctive whooping cries, we still don't have the hard empirical evidence that mainstream science demands. One thing I really appreciated is how he handles the tension between the scientific community and researchers like himself. He points out that without a living or dead specimen, professional scientists tend to dismiss everything as misidentification or outright hoax. But there are a handful of university scientists willing to entertain the possibility, though they often face scorn from their peers for doing so. Dupler also digs into the Native American accounts that go back hundreds of years, the pictographs and petroglyphs showing these large hairy figures alongside deer and fish in naturalistic scenes, which suggests these creatures had a real place in the artists' world, not just mythology. He also touches on something that I find really compelling, the stick structures that appear in the landscape that remind him of the obelisks from 2001: A Space Odyssey. Those wooden constructions are one of the most intriguing pieces of evidence out there, in my opinion. Whatever intelligence is making them, it's clearly trying to communicate or mark territory in ways we don't fully understand. Dupler doesn't shy away from broader paranormal topics either. He talks about ancient astronauts and how cultures around the world have stories about deities coming from the sky to create humanity. He makes an interesting point that maybe these stories developed as a way to explain our origins, and that our ancestors were just as capable of imagination and innovation as we are today. He believes humans built the ancient monuments like the Egyptian and Mayan pyramids, but he respects the mystery of how they did it. The whole book has this detective vibe to it, like trying to solve the perfect locked door crime. Every piece of evidence is a clue, but the one that ties everything together keeps slipping away. Dupler argues that until professional scientists take this seriously, it's up to the weekend warriors and field investigators to keep gathering evidence and building the case. His approach is ethical and cautious, focused on protecting these creatures and preserving the integrity of the natural world while searching for them. If you're looking for something substantial to listen to, this audiobook is definitely worth your time. Dupler brings a unique perspective from his ghost hunting background, and his personal journey from skeptic-adjacent paranormal enthusiast to dedicated Sasquatch researcher is honestly pretty inspiring. The way he describes that moment in Oregon when he saw those trees, you can feel the shift in his entire worldview. That's the kind of moment that turns curiosity into conviction. Give it a listen when you get the chance. It's the kind of resource that reminds you why so many of us keep heading back into the woods, camera in hand, looking for answers that have eluded us for generations.