You Don't Have to Believe in Bigfoot to Believe in Something
Spend enough weekends at Bigfoot festivals and eventually somebody will ask you the question:
“So...do you actually believe in Bigfoot?”
It's a fair question.
We spend a lot of weekends surrounded by Bigfoot shirts, Bigfoot researchers, Bigfoot witnesses, Bigfoot statues, Bigfoot cookies and occasionally a seven-foot-tall hairy guy walking around posing for pictures.
But after doing these events for several years, I've realized something.
Believing in Bigfoot might be the least interesting thing about a Bigfoot festival.
Believers, Skeptics and Everyone in Between
Walk through a Bigfoot festival and you'll meet people who are absolutely convinced something is wandering through the forests.
You'll meet researchers who have spent years collecting stories and looking for evidence.
You'll meet skeptics who don't believe a word of it.
And you'll meet plenty of people who simply say:
“I don't know.”
Those might be my favorite three words.
There's something refreshing about being willing to admit that you don't have all the answers.
Maybe every footprint has an explanation. Maybe every howl in the woods belongs to an animal we already know. Maybe every shadow between the trees was just a shadow.
Or maybe somebody really did see something they couldn't explain.
You don't have to decide before you walk through the gate.
The Stories Are the Best Part
One of the advantages of standing behind a vendor table all day is that people talk to you.
And at Bigfoot festivals, they really talk.
Someone will quietly tell you about something they saw while hunting twenty years ago. Another person remembers a strange sound outside their house when they were a kid. Somebody else has a photograph on their phone they've probably shown a hundred people.
Sometimes the person telling the story believes they saw Bigfoot.
Sometimes they aren't sure what they saw.
And sometimes the friend standing beside them is rolling their eyes through the entire story.
Then everybody laughs.
That's the part I love.
For a weekend, people with completely different ideas about what's possible can stand together and talk about something mysterious without needing to win an argument.
Maybe It's About Being Open to Wonder
We live in a time when an answer to almost any question is sitting in our pocket.
Want to know the population of a town you've never visited? Ask your phone.
Hear a bird you don't recognize? There's an app for that.
Wonder what's on the other side of a mountain? Pull up a satellite image.
That's incredibly useful.
But I think we've lost a little something along the way.
Mystery is fun.
There's something wonderful about standing beside a campfire, hearing something move beyond the light and not immediately knowing what made the sound.
There's something wonderful about an old story that has been told in the same mountains for generations.
And there's something wonderful about occasionally allowing yourself to wonder:
“What if?”
You Don't Have to Believe
Maybe Bigfoot exists.
Maybe he doesn't.
I've met wonderful people who are absolutely certain of both answers.
But after all the Bigfoot festivals, stories and conversations we've experienced with The Thrifty Mountaineer, I think I've figured out what keeps people coming back.
It isn't necessarily belief in a giant hairy creature hiding in the woods.
It's the willingness to remain curious.
To listen to somebody else's story.
To laugh.
To wonder.
To accept that maybe there are still a few things in this world we haven't figured out yet.
So if you ever find yourself at a Bigfoot festival, don't worry about whether you belong there.
Believers are welcome.
Non-believers are welcome.
And if your answer is simply, “I don't know, but it's fun to think about...”
You'll fit right in.
After all, you don't have to believe in Bigfoot.
Sometimes it's enough just to believe there's still a little mystery left in the world.
Come wander with us.
The Thrifty Mountaineer
Your Appalachian Emporium