Gadgetry in the field.

Location: Mount Saint Helens, Washington.

Date: 1-27-2024

Time: 11:06am

Current Conditions: Miserable.

Greetings fellow enthusiasts!  You may have noticed that my current location has been redacted at the publishing of this update, a contingency necessitated by my current research site’s pristine nature and high levels of activity of the subject species G. Blacki. A new year has dawned and yet the decades-long search continues and while the rest of humanity indulges in notions of unrealistic life-changing resolutions this titan of academia chooses only to further cement his iron resolve to pursue his life’s work albeit with a stint of alcoholic frivolity upon the eve of the sun’s revolution around this rock that serves as the home for all primates including, we Homo sapiens. The reader should forgive this lapse in discipline, but the rigor of Sasquatch investigation calls for the occasional Vodka gimlet or three to alleviate the immense pressure that I gladly place upon my own person in the furtherance of Knowledge.

Today I would like to expound on a peeve of mine which of course most will find strange given that it is the year 2024 and technological development in all sectors of civilization continues to advance at an ever more rapid pace. In this particular case, I feel I must address the application of modern technology in the pursuit of our hominid quarry. I appreciate the temptation to employ such things as thermal imaging, drones and night vision. I have myself resorted to fielding digital game cameras and audial recording equipment, so I admit that I am not immune to the lure of the “Gadget”. My concern lies in the substitution of technology for one’s own intelligence and native senses which when combined with a paper notepad should be sufficient for any real scientific inquiry.

        The lazy minded will find such devices to be of value.

 Also, these technological marvels can serve to further divorce the researcher from his subject and the subject’s very environment. I argue caution when adopting any of these gimmicks without first employing the tools that nature has provided Man, those senses that have enabled our species to survive for thousands of years. I say, “Let not the machine become a crutch that weakens the intellect.

        My trusty notebook is pictured above.

Sincerely,

Milo Meeker, PHD.