The Honobia Bigfoot Conference and Festival has been in operation since 2005. Since then it has grown immensely. The newest attraction that is connected to the conference portion is the field expeditions that are held throughout the year. The field expeditions are organized and led by one of the conference staff members and has been organizing field expeditions within the SE area of Oklahoma since 2006. Since 2006 there have been 30 public field expeditions on record and just over 20 private field expeditions.Why is that important? Well for one, the expedition staff have conducted enough of them to understand what works and doesn't work in the field. Sasquatch expeditions are not easy, you have to research/investigate enough areas to provide the attendees the "more than 50%" chance they may get to hear something, wish and pray that there is a better than 10% chance of someone getting to see something on the expedition.
There are a number of organizations and private individuals that provide field expeditions as well as "guided tours" into the wilderness for the purpose of educational and exposure to the world of "Bigfoot Research" some offer these excursions at a hefty price. Some will argue about the whole concept of charging for Bigfoot expeditions. In the case of the Kiamichi Mountains Adventures (which is the name of the Honobia expeditions) the decision to charge for these expeditions was examined, researched and questions for several years. The organizer and other staff members considered many options, having the attendees just pay for their own stay at cabins in the area, not everyone wanted to camp out under the stars, some attendees were not physically able to sleep on the ground, some wanted a more vacation style arraignment, the logistical matter of housing everyone, travel to and from the research site and accountability of all attendees during the expedition. After long and in depth discussions over the years the decision to charge was obvious. The amount was the most difficult one to make, the decision to charge different rates for different expectations is what is being suggested by all that attend the expeditions. Why is that so? Some people want different things when they attend any type of function or activity, in this case some want running water, showers, warm bed, and some want to sleep out and get the full experience of having something walk around your tent in the middle of the night. Do you charge for each member of the family? Do you give group rates? Do you pack them in to make the most of the money? or do you fill the expedition with people that have the right mindset? Do you take only the serious people? Do you fill only the number of people you feel safe in the field with? All questions plus more have come up over the years, So, we have settled with a suitable and affordable price for each packaged trip. (Contact honobiaoklachito@gmail.com for further details)
The expectation of what you will see and hear on a expedition is also a hard answer to give potential attendees. Each expedition is always different than the one before, never the same, just as anything in life. However you can ask any of the past attendees and they will tell you it is not what they expected. Like the organizer says's "I can't promise you a sighting or you will ever hear anything, but ask the previous attendees what they saw and heard" and it's true you can never predict the future, anyone that has ever gone on their own or a organized Bigfoot excursion that it's like fishing, sometimes you catch something and sometimes you don't. One thing that can be said about the Kiamichi Mountains Adventures, it's never boring and you learn more than just stuff about Bigfoot. You build friendships with people you never met, you learn more about the little part of Oklahoma few ever get to see or know about, you get to know little about the history of the state of Oklahoma you never heard about, and you get to use all of your senses at one time that most people hardly ever get the chance to do. The relaxation of being in the Kiamichi Mountains, where very little cell service, hardly no internet, and no TV allows you to concentrate of the quietness and the beauty of the mountains. In some cases possible Bigfoot prints (tracks) are discovered for the rare chance to attempt to track their travel paths. Just know that as long as any of the organizers have ever discovered a possible Bigfoot track they normally go for a few yards and then loose their track way, so no Bigfoot has ever been track down before. The organizers do a great job of directing the attendees on what to look for and how to look for clues, as well as what to look for in getting a sighting, YES, some people have seen a Bigfoot on one or more of the expeditions to these mountains. In all just a rough guess, that maybe out of all the public and private expeditions throughout the years, it can be proven that half the attendees have seen a Bigfoot, just about all can say they have heard things they can't explain and all can give witness to saying they got more out of the expedition than they ever thought.
The early spring (March, April, and May) Part of early summer (June) and through the fall to early winter (October, November, and December) are the open season for expeditions, the extreme heat and freezing cold has proven to be "no-go" for the Bigfoot as we like to call it. I would be safe to assume that the Bigfoot stay somewhere else, so we stay some where else as well. Just about all the trips are really a time of learning to observe or learn to use more of your observations skills than anything. Some trips there are times where collecting research data and possible evidence, depending on what happens on each trip usually will dictate what happens. Only thing that has a schedule for the expeditions are the meals, we 'go with the flow", you can't set your watch to Bigfoot time, and they are highly unpredictable so we learned along time ago whey try and go out at a certain time to do a certain activity, when the Bigfoot make it up as they go, so we like to call it "activity driven" schedule. The organizers have been in the field for more than 80 years (combined experience) so they know usually when the Bigfoot activity is and when it's isn't.
So the final question, is it worth the money? Depends on what you were expecting, as we said earlier that most get out of it more than they were expecting. You can read about Bigfoot on the computer, watch a TV show or a movie, read a book, but you can not replace any of that except for "real world experience". You can't make anyone a believer in Bigfoot, but what you can do, is show them the world of Bigfoot research and let them make up their own mind.
Insert: Tim (One of the organizers-standing to the right) is working with the two attendees from Canada on what to look for as far as evidence.
