Bigfoot Researcher Deploys DIY Thermal Camera at Remote Lake

If you've ever wondered how researchers capture thermal footage of Sasquatch in the wild without breaking the bank on expensive equipment, there's a really clever DIY approach worth checking out. A researcher out in the Pacific Northwest has been documenting his field methods, and one particular setup is getting attention from folks in the community for being both practical and effective. The Toutle River Valley has long been considered prime territory for Sasquatch activity. Anyone familiar with the Mt. St. Helens blast zone knows that the regrowth in that area created a dense, remote wilderness that seems to attract consistent reports. Researchers like Chris Spencer have spent years working that ground, and he's been sharing some of his techniques for documenting what he encounters. In the video, he walks through a homemade "thermal in a can" setup that is honestly pretty ingenious. He took a standard 9mm ammo can, camo'd it out, cut a viewing window covered with thin black plastic (which thermals can see right through), and mounted a Pulsar Axion Pro inside. The whole thing runs off a 50,000 milliamp hour charging brick, giving him roughly four days of continuous recording. That's three nights of coverage in areas of interest, which is no small thing when you're trying to catch a subject that knows it's being watched. The reason for the ammo can isn't just tactical cool factor either. He mentions a bear actually grabbed one of these units last year and pulled it out of a stump. The thermal survived because it was bolted securely to the bottom of the can. Smart thinking. But the real meat of the video comes when he recounts an incident from about two years ago that originally inspired this whole approach. He and fellow researcher Shane Corson were doing a dark camp in what's referred to as "the nest area" — no fires, no headlamps, nothing. Shane had stepped out to stake out a spot with his thermal when he noticed something moving in the huckleberry below him. He could never get eyes on it, but whatever it was held its position for around ten minutes. Shane got the distinct feeling it knew he was there. After he returned to camp, the two were talking when something came up the dead-end skitter road and screamed at them. That audio was captured. Then, around 3:00 a.m., Chris's AGM Taipan thermal caught a hot object arcing through the air and landing right between their tents. He believes it was a rock, but the fact that it registered as a hot object means something had been holding onto it. That moment is what pushed him toward leaving thermals running all night rather than just spot-checking. He also plays an audio clip in the video that's worth listening to. About half an hour before the recording, he had yelled out a casual "Hey" into the woods. The response that came back sounds eerily like something attempting to mimic that same word. He doesn't think that's a coincidence, and honestly, vocal mimicry reports have been a consistent thread in Sasquatch encounters for decades. What I appreciate about this kind of content is the honesty. He's not out claiming to have definitive proof. He says straight up that he's not trying to prove Sasquatch exists — he's just trying to get visual confirmation of what his audio recorders are picking up. That kind of grounded approach is what builds credibility in this field. If you're into fieldcraft, thermal setups, or just want to hear that audio clip for yourself, the video is definitely worth the watch. He gets into the specifics of the Pulsar app, the Wi-Fi streaming function, and how he positions these units around camp to cover likely approach routes. There's a lot of practical takeaway for anyone running their own long-term recording stations. Check it out when you get a chance — and pay close attention to that audio.