Bone,
It is all about investigation. As I share some of my experiences, you will notice none of them happened to me while I was sitting in front of my computer.They all happened while I was in the woods. A friend of mine from Arizona has seen 9 or more by now bigfoot in his life. I believe all of them have been from the road. At one time in Idaho, he quit working on his doctorate so he could drive lumber trucks and that would get him out in the woods and mountains and he would be able to increase his chances of seeing a bigfoot. By the way, it worked. I think I will post an interview of him by a magazine. His name is Jon Larson and he is originally from Ludington, MI, but became so intrigued after his first sighting, he pretty much dedicated his life to searching for bigfoot. Most of his experiences were in Montana and Idaho, but he has also seen them in Arizona.
That was an aside, but always the key is to get into the woods. If you can spend a day in the woods and not wonder about something, then you are simply not observing. I am using "you" in the metaphorical sense and not pointing at "bone" particularly. I spent a winter in the Fort Lauderdale area as an airboat captain and Everglades guide in the winter of 2001/2002. I took tours of 20 to 25 people out into the everglades and tried to give them an experience they hadn't had before. Of course, they all wanted to see an alligator, but I also did a plant and bird show as well and that is the part that usually got me the tips. I couldn't have told you the number of times that I was told that it was like watching a program on the Discovery Channel. The point I am making is, I didn't know squat about the Everglades before I bought a couple of books and actually went out in them, but I obviously knew much more than they did. I also had honed my skill at observation and was able to share this with my tourists. It was really a hoot.
Mick