Monthly Archives: July 2016

(continued from)

click to enlarge

Paths:

There are several paths that lead into and out of Bigfoot. Let’s start with the main path in, which is the one I mostly use in the summer. It’s really cool — you park your car quite legally at a lot just to the west of the Plateau of Raw Art and then walk above and to the south of it on one of those old logging roads that are multitudinous within the area. The path crests about 1/2way between the parking lot and Bigfoot. At that time the walker may be close to 200 feet above the level of the plateau, so quite a bit up from it. Rare is the day when I use this path that skateboarders aren’t present at the old high school tennis courts below, along with their constant slapping and rolling sounds. But it doesn’t bother me that much, despite my condition…

At the upper right of the map you can see where this Main Path intersects Bigfoot at its southwest corner, or at the southern end of 4th Road. Just into the field to the left as you enter, you find this mysterious blue circle adorning a cement slab. LINK

At this point one has a choice to follow either 4th Road or South Path down into the heart of Bigfoot. South Path represents a much steeper descent directly to the Bigfeet Swamp past the southern edges of 4th, 3rd, 2nd, and then 1st Road to end. You can use 1st Road to access Bigfoot Proper now, following either an eastern or western navigation around the swamp. I do not generally go down to Leola Creek from 1st Road through the set of stairs on the southeastern side of Bigfeet Swamp when I first arrive at Bigfoot, but you also have that option here.

If one instead uses 4th Road to access Bigfoot Proper, you head north until close to its end near the old school track and then turn right on what I’m also terming a “Main Path” on the above map. Maybe I should change the first such named path I’ve mentioned to *Crest Path*. Anyway, once again you cross 3rd, 2nd, and 1st roads to reach Bigfoot Proper, except when you reach 1st Road from this direction, you’re already basically on the edge of Bigfoot Proper according to present definitions. Again, BP is the yellow highlighted area in the lower central part of the above map.

And more recently formed and still fainter paths can take you from 4th Road down to Chesterton on Second Road (yellow highlighted square more in the upper central part of the map) and ultimately to Vincente on First Road.

Before the poison ivy comes out in the spring (and after it retreats in the fall), one can also access Bigfoot from the nearest of two old baseball fields, following a path that runs behind the scoreboard and drops into the area north of the swamp. This is the path I’ve marked with “closed for summer” on the right hand side of the map.

From the north and south directions, there are no easy ways into Bigfoot — no paths to mention. This certainly helps protect the area from visitors. Practically speaking, to access Bigfoot you have to use paths coming down from the Plateau of Raw Area to the west or those coming across Leola Creek to the east.

So let’s deal with those eastern accesses. When the water of Leola Creek reaches a certain low level, you can cross the creek into Bigfoot through stepping stones at specific places. Not many, but I at least know one fording place of this nature, which would come in the area I’ve labelled “Safe Zone” in the lower center of the Bigfoot map. I applied this name to a small span of Leola here because it is out of a direct viewing line of house and apt. dwellers to the north and south. I can hop and play on the numerous rocks in this zone knowing that my silliness is probably not going to be observed.

Another, longer way you can access Bigfoot from the east is across a log or fallen tree bridge seen on the extreme lower right of the map. First you have to reach the island we only see the southern tip of at this bridge, an easy hike from apartments on that side. The island doesn’t have a name yet, but it’s the only legitimate geographic feature of its kind within Greater Bigfoot; all other “islands” in the creek are basically just moss and plant bedecked rocks that I’m recalling.

So you carefully walk across the log, hop the stream I’m calling Cheetah 2 times, and then while continuing to head south you have to also leap across Orangie Stream (rename this Tiger Stream?) to reach the swamp, once more. Coming from the direction of Bigfoot, you can also use this bridge to access the whole Blue Mtn. Urban Landscape which lies just to the east. Nifty.

(continued in)

click to enlarge

Classic seeming map of Bigfoot above. Future maps, when they come, will perhaps be of similar proportions in terms of an overall cropping. Both Chesterton and Bigfoot Proper (yellowed on map) will deserve more detailed looks. Interesting tension forming between the two. Reminds me of rivalry between my self created virtual towns of Pietmond and Teepot in 2010-2012. What community gets what object? What toys are more identified with one or the other? How do the marble races — actualized for Bigfoot Proper and hypothesized for Chesterton (more on that very soon) — differ between the two? Although both are on old forest roads, the communities contrast in other ways. It’s good to have this tension through natural rivalry. Helps each grow and define itself better. Bigfoot Proper will never go away as long as Bigfoot is around. Nor will Chesterton. And what of little Vincente between them now? Will a beach form there, accessible to both bergs?

To present details of the map [enlarge]:

Well, let’s start with those communities. You can spot yellow outlined Bigfoot Proper next to Bigfeet Swamp in the lower center of the map. The two shapes within, circle and square, stand for its spool table and metal chair respectively, both heavily featured in the Bigfoot Art Happening last fall. LINK Notice on the map that north is to the right instead of at the top. This means that Bigfoot Proper lies on the north side of the swamp. Again, Bigfeet Swamp got its name through an influential 1998 survey, which determined it is about 100 feet long, which became a “big number of feet” and then just “bigfeet”. The name Bigfoot for the overall area stems from Bigfeet, then. Before this, Bigfoot Proper was called Middle Game (and before that Iron or Irontown or Ironton).

Vincente (on west side of Bigfeet Swamp, or upper side on the above map), lies between Bigfoot Proper and Chesterton, forming almost a right angle with the two. It may be older than Bigfoot Proper. Then again, Chesterton may be older than either Vincente or Bigfoot Proper. But in hypertime, it doesn’t really matter at the bottom. All form “at once”. Vincente remains the smallest of the three by a considerable margin. The name comes from painter Vincent van Gogh in a convoluted way involving a resident of Utah’s Brian Head that I befriended at a temporary job in Middletown about 25 years ago. Unfortunately, we haven’t kept up with each other. Like Ironton Missouri, Brian Head Utah lies within an Iron County, one of four such named counties in the U.S. (Michigan, Missouri, Utah, Wisconsin). Iron is associated with Bigfoot Proper especially because of the presence of a full golfing iron there when I first visited it in September of last year. From this grew the legend that BP was originally known for its iron smelting, hence its original names.

Vincente may have been the site of the Middle Game high school. Did kids from both Bigfoot Proper and Chesterton attend? Or did these larger communities have their own schools? I’m guessing the former, at least for a time. The Middle Game name also refers to the middle position of Vincente between the two, then.

Chesterton is highlighted in yellow above Vincente, in the upper central part of the map. The pressure cooker seeming pot is symbolized as a circle within. The top of the pressure cooker originally appeared in Bigfoot Proper, built when it was known as one of the “Irons”. A second iron, only a head this time, was moved into Bigfoot Proper at one point, procured from the Plateau of Raw Art (far upper part of above map). Only the very lower part of this plateau is shown on the map. It is not part of Bigfoot but remains separate. It is essentially a less visited community park of Blue Mountain now, skateboarders being the most frequent guests. Some people also walk their dogs there, or lob baseballs around in the old fields or run around the track and stadium stairs for replenishing exercise. I’d say 10-15 people visit a day.

The four forest roads of Bigfoot are also marked. First Road comes close to surrounding the swamp, with a gap between Bigfoot Proper and Vincente where the intake stream’s pipe comes down from Plateau of Raw Art. BigFoot Proper lies on First Road, at the northern edge of the swamp as stated. 2nd Road lies above (elevation-wise) and west of First Road. Chesterton is on this road. For this and other reasons Bigfoot Proper is sometimes dubbed First Town and Chesterton Second Town. But this is mainly done by those from Bigfoot Proper, who are biased about the importance of their town relative to a primary rival. Bigfoot Proper as a whole is still seething that Chesterton stole (and enlarged) their smelting plant. “You have the spool table still,” counters Chesterton as a whole, in turn. Bigfoot Proper scowls and starts its usual spiel about its advantages, blah blah blah. Chesterton shoots back that it is more long term and naturally evolving. It also touts itself as more hidden and also more central. Little Vincente tries to speak but cannot be heard above the shouting of its “parents”. “Blah blah blah”. Well, “blah blah blah!”. That’s what it all sounds to Vincente’s peewee ears; makes him want to hack ’em off, or at least the one turned in their direction. The other is listening to reason.

(continued in)

Possible next steps:

Simply to *camp* at Chesterton overnight. I could keep entertained by my phone, and I could take books. I could bring in white noise to drown out any neighborhood commotions. I could go down to the swamp. I could head up to the Plateau of Raw Art to hang out a bit. It might be fun. But I probably won’t do it anytime soon.

In 1983 I camped out for about a month at the Leola Creek watering hole just across the ridge. In the same year I created a makeshift teepee, also near this watering hole (what I’ve called Rediscovery more recently), and at the same place that people are *still* camping at, 25 years later almost. Yes, at some point I will camp out at Bigfoot, if it remains intact and the land isn’t developed. Because the land *will* be developed. Bigfoot is not protected property, like Whitehead Crossing, like Billfork and other places in Frank and Herman Parks. It is not within a park. It is simply land, very near town, that for one reason or another remains a void that progress has skipped over so far.

My theory, and perhaps I should have Carrcassonnee voice this instead of myself, is that Bigfoot is a *gift* to me at this point in my life. “We’ll give him some place that is safe so he won’t get into trouble,” is what the providers are thinking. “Let him stretch his imagination still, but in a protected microcosm.” I haven’t gotten tired of Bigfoot yet, despite many visits. And I dont’ see my interest in it waning much until the leaves go away again, when the rest of the local woods really open up to me once more. How many years will I have Bigfoot? I’m hoping quite a number. But realistically I’m shooting for 5 or 6. And I’m serious about it being created for me. For you, the reader, as well through me, but mainly for me on a physical level. How could this be?

Reverse engineered, Bigfoot doesn’t totally belong in the present. It is seeded in a more recent past. When I camped out at Rediscovery those 20-25 years ago, Bigfoot as I’m presenting it in this blog didn’t really exist. It was born out of an expansion project taking place at what is now the mainly vacant Plateau of Raw Art, namely the creating of a new playing field for the local high school. The Bigfoot forest roads and the swamp were made in the mid-90s sometime. It took them this long to become mature with vegetation. Open at the beginning, Bigfoot protects and nurtures now. The small pine forest hides. The lush swamp has been basically forgotten, although steps on one side indicate a more visited past. But at the bottom of it, I believe Bigfoot exists outside of time — that’s my point, I think. It exists in coordination with all else that surrounds it: the skateboarders up at the Plateau that come daily, the apartment dwellers to the north and east, the beautiful and almost certainly sentient Leola Creek marking a protecting eastern border for it. All these create a coordinated tension that Bigfoot slots into the middle of perfectly. It is a round peg in a round hole. But this perfect balance of tensions is temporary.

It is a nest. I am the egg. What will I become when hatched? The art happenings progress. They could not do so in Frank and Herman Parks. Those spaces belong to others, perhaps other artists, and of a much more advanced nature. True Bigfoot we are possibly talking about here, along with accompanying aliens. My art does not really complement or slot in easily with their art. These other artists might not understand the nature of the marbles and the toy avatars. They may be protective of their junk which is potentially used in a happening. Toy/junk happenings, the way I see them, are a *delicate* matter. I, we, are interacting with nature in a very intimate and creative manner. I am not constructing a building or school. I am not inflicting mass damage on the environment like an expansion project of a high school would do, or creating an apartment complex relatively unsensitive to the plants, the trees, the landscape that has to be sacrificed as a result. I am attempting to *blend* with an already established environment. The happening has many sides and angles. As stated, it coordinates with other art and habitation of a given region. The skateboarders of the Plateau of Raw Art, developing and refining their own work, are *unconsciously* aware of Bigfoot. I now sometimes walk quite close to them when returning to my car. “I am one of you,” I want to communicate. “We are working in a similar direction.”

The apartment dwellers across the creek unconsciously know of me and my Bigfoot involvement. They provide space; this is my space and that is theirs, just like the skateboarders. I do not like to expose myself to their viewings. The skateboarders, as well, must be kept at a certain arm’s length, despite some cool symmetries of artistic endeavors. It is good enough that all of these people create unconscious space for me and my own creative impulses. And the swamp and attached stream are certainly sentient in a way, also. What is it saying? Does it see or remember its beginning, its end? Who am I to it?