Expeditions FAQ

Fees and Conditions


The fee to attend: $300 - $500 depending on the expedition. When you inquire about the expedition you are interested in, you will receive a reply with the fee amount for that specific trip.

If you plan to bring a group of people you will need to let us know the details -- the size of the group, and their ages, and their relationship to the primary attendee, and the number of vehicles involved. The fees will be negotiated based on that information.

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The fee pays for the organizational efforts prior to the trip, and any special-use permits, etc. It takes a lot of time to do this all properly. The fee also helps regulate the demand to attend, while ensuring that only those people with a serious interest in the subject will be the trip.

The BFRO members you will spend a few days with are not guides but rather highly experienced amateur researchers who have volunteered to orient newcomers while exploring the area themselves.

Adult companions of an attendee may receive a fee discount, but the amount of the discount will depend on the particular expedition. You will be able to discuss the discount for your companion(s) when you speak with the BFRO administrator about your registration.


Prerequisites for participating:

1) Prior to the expedition you must be able to:

a) Send and receive email when necessary,

b) Periodically check a private message board on the Web, and

c) Receive voicemail messages.

2) You must have camping gear and clothing for any weather conditions that may arise during the expedition.

3) You must bring your own food, drinks, and water.

4) You must provide your own transportation.

5) For safety reasons you must be able to walk on two legs with no assistance of any kind.
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The fee does not pay for meals. You must bring your own food as if you are camping on your own. We tried catering once and it took way too much of our time and focus. It's much more efficient to let people decide what they want to eat, and when to eat.

Most people bring a cooler from home and pick up additional groceries on the way to the base camp. The easiest way to handle meals is to have a cooler full of things to make sandwiches (or burritos) -- things you can wrap up and take with you in a day-pack, so you'll have food all day long. Eating small amounts throughout the day (rather than two large meals) will make it easier for you to continue moving late at night.


The Motel Option (for some expeditions)

Over the years we have adapted some of the expeditions to make them easier for very busy people who do not have time to round up a bunch of camping gear beforehand. Other people who are flying in don't want to transport a bunch of camping equipment on a plane. People in those situations can keep a room at a rural motel usually within 20 miles or so from the base camp (some are futher), so they won't need any camping gear at all. They will only need warm clothes and a rental car.

A decent size rental SUV (Sport Utility Vehicle) will give you four-wheel-drive mobility, and allow you to sleep in the back of the vehicle, if you choose. You would only need to buy a sleeping bag and a small air mattress at a Walmart on the way to camp from the airport. At the end of the expedition you can unload the sleeping bag and air mattress to someone on the trip and you'll still come out way ahead, compared to a motel. You just won't have the warm shower in the morning. On the plus side, that's the best way to get approached at night -- stay behind alone in your SUV after the group has returned to camp after stirring up some sasquatches. That will make a believer out of you ... but be careful what you wish for ...

For those expeditions with a motel option there is always at least one restaurant in the same area as the motel, so you won't need a cooler with sandwich fixins either. Also, BFRO people tend to be generous with their food at base camp ... especially when you're generous with your small bills.

If you don't bring camping gear and you get a motel room instead, you would show up at base camp around noon. From there, small groups will form to drive out to selected areas. They'll explore those areas first by vehicle, to determine the best spots to return to at night. They will hike around a bit in those spots during the day, and they'll follow creek beds to look for tracks (deer tracks as well as sasquatch tracks). They will also familiarize themselves with the trails among big trees or large obstructions that afford a good view of the road. They might set up trail cameras along those particular trails.

They will return to base camp an hour or two before sundown, then eat and rest a bit, and then return to those chosen spots right after sundown. They'll stay out until midnight or so, changing locations as necessary. They will change locations until they get some responses to their mimicking sounds -- the various sounds that sasquatches respond to. The process is repeated until some sasquatches are located, and hopefully lured to an encounter with the team. It's a process that works ... if you're in the right place at the right time of year.

At some point after midnight the team will pull out and return to base camp. You can remain out there by yourself if you want, but newbies seldom volunteer for that duty ... You will most likely pull out with everyone else and return to base camp, then drive yourself 15-20 minutes back to your motel room to sleep. You can sleep in late the next morning and then return to camp around noon.

You can return to camp later in the day if you have a GPS, which would enable you to hook up with any of the teams that may have already headed out for the day.

It's very flexible once you know where you are going. No one is given any orders or forced assignments. You decide where you want to go or who you want to follow. Everyone understands if you need to break off from the group to find a cell reception spot on a hill somewhere, but if you need to break off from the group then you need to let a few different people know, so we don't go into search-and-rescue mode unnecessarily.

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Restrictions


Age Limits

21 is the general age limit for people attending alone, or without someone 21 or over.

The 21 age limit does not apply to:

• People accompanied by someone over the age of 21.
• Current military personnel.
• Former military personnel (honorably discharged).
• Currently enrolled, full-time college or university students.
• College or university graduates with verifiable degrees.
• Currently employed first-responders (fire, police, EMT, etc.)

Pets

No pets are allowed, especially dogs.

Weapons

You are not allowed to carry a gun in the field unless you head off completely on your own. Around other people you may carry a knife, a machette, a spear, pepper spray, etc. ... but not a gun. There is no need to carry a gun when you are with a group of people.

There are no modern reports of sasquatches attacking humans. They will sometimes approach and intimidate human intruders at night, but not attack them.

Guns in nervous hands put everyone else at risk. If you regularly travel with a gun in your car or camper, that is not a problem, but the gun should remain in your vehicle, unlesss you plan to head off by yourself for a long, long distance.

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Registration Process, Etc.

You must send an email to us at EXPEDITION@BFRO.NET

In the subject line of your email, please write the region of the expediton you would like to attend, such as "Western Washington" or "Oklahoma".

In the body of the message write:

1) Your name and the state you live in.

2) Your phone number (s).

3) The state/region of the expedition(s) you are interested in.

4) Please mention that you have read this whole FAQ page and that you are aware of the fee.



We can accept your payment via credit card over the phone or receive PayPal payments.

Once you have been approved to attend the expedition and your fee payment is received, you will be contacted again and added to a private, password-protected message board wherein important information will be posted. On the message board you will be able to ask questions and get important travel information.

These expeditions do not get cancelled due to weather. We go to hot zones in the winter, and cold zones in the summer, to minimize the interference of weather.

You should reserve a space on an expedition far in advance if you know you want to go. These trips can fill up fast if. Some people wait til the last minute to register but the trip is already full by then. It happens a lot, so sign up early if you're making plans to be there.