How are those three things related?

Well, yet again, one of our columnists, Roy “Mountain Man” Kain, figures in.

Roy stopped by the office with news that Bigfoot had been spotted in eastern Pennsylvania, and the renowned woodsman wanted to give his take on it.

The Associated Press reported that: “It’s furry and walks on all fours. Beyond that, about the only thing certain about the critter photographed by a hunter’s camera is that some people have gotten the notion it could be a Sasquatch, or bigfoot. Others say it’s just a bear with a bad skin infection.

Rick Jacobs says he got the pictures from a camera with an automatic trigger that he fastened to a tree in the Allegheny National Forest, about 115 miles northeast of Pittsburgh, hoping to photograph deer.

‘We couldn’t figure out what they were,’ Jacobs said of the images captured on Sept. 16. ‘I’ve been hunting for years and I’ve never seen anything like this.’

He contacted the Bigfoot Research Organization, which pursues reports of a legendary two-legged creature that some people believe lives in parts of the U.S. and Canada.
“It appears to be a primate-like animal. In my opinion, it appears to be a juvenile Sasquatch,” said Paul Majeta of the bigfoot group.

However, the Pennsylvania Game Commission has a more conventional opinion. Agency spokesman Jerry Feaser said conservation officers routinely trap bears to be tagged and often see animals that look like the photos.

“There is no question it is a bear with a severe case of mange,” Feaser told The Bradford Era.

Well, Roy essentially said the jury was still out on Sasquatch but then mentioned that he’d read the cougar story in last month’s Mountain Home, which led, in a discursive manner, to a story about Roy being “tracked” by a bobcat during one of his forays in the forest. Roy was certain it was a female bobcat, because, as he said, and we’re paraphrasing here, he has that kind of effect on women.

Finally,  Terry Miller, our bachelor cook, wrote about Sasquatch in his column. Coincidence? Absolutely. Or perhaps even mystical. We lack the organizational skills to plan that kind of thing.