What does a night of Bigfoot hunting sound like? Jason Nark takes you along for the ride

Bigfoot is big in PA: According to the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization, Pennsylvania is the third best state to have a Sasquatch sighting (behind the traditional stomping grounds of Washington and California).

Michele Talmadge and her husband, Jason, look for signs of Bigfoot in a clearing for power lines on Bald Mountain in Bear Creek Township on April 6.Read moreFRED ADAMS / The Philadelphia Inquirer

by Jason Nark

Published June 9, 2019, 5:00 a.m. ET

On a cool, muddy night in April, I joined Bigfoot enthusiasts Jason and Michele Talmadge for a tracking night in Luzerne County. Bigfoot is big in PA: According to the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization, Pennsylvania is the third best state to have a Sasquatch sighting (behind the traditional stomping grounds of Washington and California).

So I followed the Talmadges into the woods and inside the phenomenon. Listen to my audio diary to hear what we found:

The day began at a Sheetz, where I met up with the Bigfoot hunters. We traveled together in the Talmadges’ Nissan truck to a mountaintop road.

For the uninitiated, it’s important to know the difference between a “sighting” and an “interaction.” Michele Talmadge recalls one particularly smelly interaction. It happened in the same woods we’re about to enter.

Up on Bald Mountain in Luzerne County, Jason Talmadge banged rocks together near a wind farm, hoping a Bigfoot would bang rocks back. He peered into muddy tracks along an ATV trail, glanced at downed branches, then decided they were nothing. Frogs, gunshots, and ATVs can be heard in the distance.

After about 90 minutes, the sun set, and he and Michele hurried out as the sky went from deep blue to black.

“It was a typical Bigfoot investigation,” he said afterward. “We found no evidence, had a nice walk in the woods, and had nice conversation.”