I honestly don’t know if Bigfoot exist.
But after spending an extremely cold evening in the New Jersey woods, I think they must hate the cold as much as I do.
The coldest night of the winter (so far) just happened to coincide with my outdoor excursion at High Point State Park, in Sussex, NJ, with Ranae Holland and Matt Moneymaker — the stars of Animal Planet’s “Finding Bigfoot.”
And the weather wasn’t a coincidence; Ranae attributes the sudden temperature drop to something she calls the “Curse of the Sasquatch.”
“For the last two years, as we are out filming, we could head to Florida and our advance production crew will be there and say it’s the mid-80s and [then] we show up and it drops down to the 50s,” she says. “And as the polar vortex moved across the Midwest, that’s where we were filming — and then it went up to the Northeast right when we got there.
“I think Bigfoot has a very close connection with Mother Nature,” she says, laughing, “picks up the phone and is like, ‘They’re coming.’ ”
I met up with Ranae and Matt at the park office to find out why they chose this location and what our plan was for the day.
After driving to a remote section of the park we hiked to a supposedly sasquatch-friendly area.
Before heading back to the park office to warm up before nightfall, I asked the question that had to be asked:
Why is there no good, clear photographic evidence of Bigfoot?
Having watched “Finding Bigfoot” from the comfort of my warm, cozy house there were two things I couldn’t possibly have known once I was out in the field: How cold — and dark — it would be.
When we reached our destination, Ranae and Matt got out of the car and I hung back to don a scarf and gloves to help with the frigid 7-degree temperature.
Even though there was a waning crescent moon, and a sky full of stars, it took a little while for my eyes to focus on Ranae and Matt, who were only a few feet away. It was then that I understood a conversation I’d had earlier with Ranae.
She said that people often ask her what scares and concerns her the most [out in the dark], and she always tells them it’s getting something in her eye.
“One of our fabulous cameramen, Adam, came incredibly close to losing his eye,” she said.
My main goal in the dark was not to trip over anything and fall — but now I was also determined to not let a tree get me.
As they do on “Finding Bigfoot,” Ranae and Matt did a couple of wood knocks, but got no response. Then it was time to howl.
Matt howled a couple of times with no response, and then it was my turn.
We capped the night off with Ranae’s scream.
We didn’t see or hear Bigfoot, but I’m not discouraged. We have a plan to try again when it’s warmer, and this time I think we’ll see something (hopefully not a snake or a bear).
The new season of “Finding Bigfoot” continues through February on Animal Planet on Sundays at 10 p.m.