North Bay's Christine Byrnes with Wildlife Biologist and famous Bigfoot Expert John Bindernagel. Byrnes is passionate about trying to find proof the animal exists even very close to North Bay. PHOTO SUBMITTED.
Christine Byrnes believes something big and mysterious lives deep within the woods of Northern Ontario.
The retired nurse is a Ontario Wildlife Field Researcher, who is on the lookout for Big Foot.
As a youngster in South Porcupine, she claims to have had a sighting of her own during a berry picking near her home.
“It was the summer and I had gone up to pick raspberries and came across one face to face,” she said.
“I knew it wasn’t an old prospector or a bear, I didn’t know what to say as I was all on my own. I turned and ran and wasn’t sure about going back in the bush alone after that.”
Byrnes’ hasn’t forgotten about her sighting and since 2012, she has taken part in four Big Foot Research Organization Expedition’s on the West Coast of British Columbia.
Closer to home, Byrnes now is working with enthusiasts from the Sudbury area in hopes of conducting expeditions in Northern Ontario, specifically in the Temagami area where Byrnes says there have been numerous Big Foot Sighting reports going back to the early 1900’s.
Weather hampered Byrnes and her colleagues hopes of coordinating an expedition this past spring.
“We went to a location in the Temagami area and tried to hike in. It was such a wet winter, we ran in to a lot of swampy regions but didn’t get to the location we wanted,” noted Byrnes.
However, to some, the reports of an elusive 8-foot tall creature living in the woods is just too unbelievable. Byrnes believes because of that, many sightings go unreported.
“It’s difficult to say how many sighings there are because most people don’t come forward,” said Byrnes.
“I tell someone what I do and a lot of times they laugh when I tell them that. People don’t come forward because of ridicule. Hunters come across big foot more than they acknowledge here in Ontario. they are serious people. They don’t say anything because of the ridicule.
“When they are reported, there is such a feeling of disbelief, they often don’t record where they were. But I think that mentality is changing.”
Byrnes is hoping to help organize another Northern Ontario Expedition next Spring. She encourages any interested participants to email her at [email protected]
Below is a video from the Ontario Wildlife Field Research Organization about alleged sightings in the Temagami area:
