OntarioSasquatch

Our Field Notes ...

Field site visit to Halton County, 5 miles SE of Acton, by Pat Barker
(Lat: 43 degrees, 35', 42"N, Long: 80 degrees, 1.16', 43"W)

BFRO report #13627 Submitted by witness on Sunday, January 22, 2006
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On December 16, 2004, Mark, a heavy equipment operator from Kitchener, was driving his truck eastbound on Side Road 20. At the "T" intersection, he made a left turn onto Nassagaweya Esquesing Townline, and proceeded northbound. It was approximately 5:33 am and still dark. Just after he made the turn, he was fumbling with his coffee cup when his headlights lit up a large figure walking toward him on the right (east) side of the road. He described the creature as about 7 feet tall, "covered in brown fur with brindle colour in it". It was within 50 ft. of him. As he drove closer it moved off into the ditch and disappeared into the bush. I'm assuming from the description that it moved into the bush on the east side of the road.

He reported the incident to BFRO in late January, 2006. They published the report shortly afterward with full location details.

In Spring of 2006, I decided to check out this sighting location for myself. I had some doubts about the validity of a sighting in this area, simply because it's located not very far to the north of the GTA (Greater Toronto Area), in a rural area full of farmland and small towns.

In fact it's:5 km (3.1 mi) SE of the small town of Acton9 km (5.5 mi) N of the larger town of Milton16 km (9.9 mi) NW of the City of Mississauga18 km (11.1 mi) NW of the City of Brampton25 km (15.5 mi) N of the larger town of Oakville... and 13 km (8 mi) NE of the City of Guelph

Spring 2006 ...

Fig. 1

Fig. 2

After arriving at the site, I explored both the immediate and surrounding areas. As I educated myself about the local terrain, I discovered some interesting things.

There's plenty of forest in all directions. I'd had a picture in my mind of open farm fields, and that's just not the case. Yes there are a number of farms nearby. But there are as many large tracts of forest and bush as there are farms. This is Niagara Escarpment country. Just 2.5 km (1.5 mi.) south of the sighting location is the Vanderleck Side Trail. Fig. 1 & 2. This is an untended, 5.7 km hiking trial that winds through forest and joins up to the Bruce Trail which is about 3.5 km to the E. The Bruce Trail is an 800 km (500 mi) trail that goes from Niagara Falls in the south, all the way north to Tobermory on the Bruce Peninsula in Lake Huron. For a considerable length, the Bruce Trail follows the Niagara Escarpment, a natural moraine left by the last ice age. The Niagara Escarpment is chock full of rivercourses and waterfalls, varieties of plant and wildlife, and old-growth trees that grow on the edges of limestone cliffs. The Credit River, and it's tributaries, winds through the area as well, within a few kilometers. And just 15 km (9 mi) north is the Terra Cotta Conservation Area, 250 hectares of rugged terrain on the Niagara Escarpment. Adjoining this is the 124 hectare Terra Cotta Forest.

I'm a naturally skeptical person. But after looking around, I had to concede that there are enough food resources and there's plenty of natural cover to hide a mostly nocturnal biped, and allow it to navigate and forage in the area without being noticed.

The Specific Sighting Location:

I explored the immediate area of the sighting. Since it was early spring when I was there, the ground was saturated with snow melt. Some areas were still flooded. Photos of the location show how wet it was.

There is a ditch on the east side of the road. Then a tree covered berm, or raised area of earth that's too high to see over, so about 8 to 10 feet higher in elevation. This berm is thick with trees as shown in Fig. 3 and 4. You can see my Honda CRV parked up the road a good distance. My husband is standing in the ditch beside the telephone pole. For height comparison, he's 5' 10 1/2" tall.

As you can see from the photos, forest runs right up to the east side of the road and for perhaps a good mile to the north. We drove further north along the road, and I will get to that part later.

Fig. 3

Fig. 4

Looking north ... on Nassagaweya Esquesing Townline, showing the dense woods, ditch and 8 to 10 foot high berm on east side of road.

Fig. 7

Fig. 8

At the point where I believe the sighting occured, I climbed the berm and walked east a good couple hundred yards through the forest, picking my way around the swampy areas to get a good look at the terrain. Photos of this area are Fig. 5, 6, 7 & 8. The south edge of the bush stopped at a farmer's field. To the north and east, it was just undisturbed woods.

During our inspection of the area, we saw no hint of footprints ... any kind of footprints .. human or otherwise, in all the mud.

Fig. 5 Fig. 6

East of the berm ... the woods were thick with bramble and early Spring snowmelt flooded the low lying areas.

Examining a tree break ... in the woods east of the berm and road.

Fig. 9 Fig. 10

Fig. 11 Fig. 12

Tree Break:

We did see something interesting. Some might call it a tree break, or a knock down. I'm not sure what it was or how it was made. Trees that have fallen for no apparent reason are quite common in every forest. Lots of things can knock a seemingly perfectly healthy tree over. To automatically assume it was a sasquatch that pushed it down is just simplistic, and romantic. If there is no other physical evidence of sasquatch presence in the vicinity, as in a large footprint or a trackway of large footprints that have common markers for this creature, then the treefall was likely an act of nature caused by either wind damage, another tree toppling near it, or wet conditions. Or the cause might also be human in origin.

I examined the tree, Fig. 9, 10, 11 & 12. As you can see in the last photo, I grasped it with my hand. It was 3 1/2 inches in diameter, and had dropped where it stood. It was a fresh break, and it lay right beside its base. Now someone wishing or hoping for a sasquatchian experience might let their imagination run wild and decide that this is absolute evidence of the creature being in the neighbourhood. I wouldn't say that at all. Without corroborating evidence nearby, like a footprint track, or hair samples, or a sighting at that moment, it's just a tree break of unknown origin. And even though we found it in the exact location of a sighting, I would still have to say it was a natural occurance, based on the fact that there was no evidence to the contrary. Remember the sighting happened 2 years earlier.

Fig. 13

Fig. 14

Further Up the Road:

After we'd explored the forest to our satisfaction, I wanted to drive north and see how far the forest continued. About 500 yards north of the sighting location is a small dirt access road, nothing more than a small earthen parking spot and turn around really. This is the rather nondescript entrance to the Acton Tract of the Halton Forest, which is managed (or unmanaged in this case as you can see from the disarray of the signage) by the Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR). Fig. 13 and 14 are photos of the signs that were present at the entrance to this access parking spot.

From this point on, you had to walk. The road ended. It was a natural hiking trail, yes another, that led back many kilometers into the forest. We later drove the whole country block, or square mile, over to the next north/south sideroad and found that the forest extended all the way over to it.

Disarray of signage ... at entrance to Acton Tract of Halton Forest. - 2006
* These signs have since been removed - 2010

Conclusions?

While I make no conclusions as to why someone would see one of these creatures in this particular location, so close to human development (GTA) and surrounding towns, if it did indeed happen at all, and IF the witness is telling the truth, I can only make some questioning hypotheses.

One possibility: There is a small, very quiet and stealthy local population of sasquatch in this area, that uses the natural wild areas nearby for daytime shelter.

Or another: This area of waterways, forest covered bottomland, and escarpment cliffs affords these creatures with a travel corridor northward to less populated areas where they may live more permanently.

Sightings have occured in Grey County to the northwest, very close to the Bruce Trail and just south of Beaver Valley. As I said, I draw no conclusions, but will keep this one open as a "maybe" and watch for future reports in the Niagara Escarpment and Bruce Trail areas.