Editing Patterson–Gimlin film (section)

==Immediate aftermath==
At approximately 6:30{{nbsp}}p.m.,<ref>McLeod, 79, quoting Hodgson in an interview with him</ref> Patterson and Gimlin met up with Al Hodgson at his [[variety store]] in [[Willow Creek, California|Willow Creek]], approximately {{convert|54.3|mi|km}} south by road, about {{convert|28.8|mi|km}} by Bluff Creek Road from their camp to the 1967 roadhead by Bluff Creek, and {{convert|25.5|mi|km|0}} down [[California State Route 96]] to Willow Creek. Patterson intended to drive on to [[Eureka, California|Eureka]] to ship his film. Either at that time, or when he arrived in the Eureka/[[Arcata, California|Arcata]] area, he called Al DeAtley (his brother-in-law in Yakima) and told him to expect the film he was shipping. He requested Hodgson to call Donald Abbott,<ref>Murphy, ''Bigfoot Film Journal'', 34–35</ref> whom [[Grover Krantz]] described as "the only scientist of any stature to have demonstrated any serious interest in the [Bigfoot] subject," hoping he would help them search for the creature by bringing a tracking dog.<ref>Murphy, ''Bigfoot Film Journal'', 34, 39</ref> Hodgson called, but Abbott declined. Krantz argued that this call the same day of the encounter is evidence against a hoax, at least on Patterson's part.<ref>Krantz, 122</ref>

After shipping the film, they headed back toward their camp, where they had left their horses. On their way they "stopped at the Lower Trinity Ranger Station, as planned, arriving about 9:00{{nbsp}}p.m. Here they met with Syl McCoy [another friend] and Al Hodgson."<ref name="Murphy, Bigfoot Film Journal, p 35">Murphy, ''Bigfoot Film Journal'', p 35</ref> At this point Patterson called the daily ''[[Times-Standard]]'' newspaper in Eureka and related his story.<ref>Murphy (2008), 40</ref> They arrived back at their campsite at about midnight. At either 5<ref>Perez, 14</ref> or 5:30<ref>Murphy (2008), 35</ref> the next morning, after it started to rain heavily, Gimlin returned to the filmsite from the camp and covered the other prints with bark to protect them. The cardboard boxes he had been given by Al Hodgson for this purpose and had left outside were so soggy they were useless, so he left them.<ref name="Murphy, Bigfoot Film Journal, p 35"/><ref>Meldrum, 145</ref>

When he returned to the camp he and Patterson aborted their plan to remain looking for more evidence and departed for home, fearing the rain would wash out their exit. After attempting to go out along "the low road"—Bluff Creek Road—and finding it blocked by a mudslide,<ref>Bob Gimlin's talk at the Lake Chautauqua (NY) conference, April 28, 2013; transcribed by Todd Prescott</ref> they went instead up the steep Onion Mountain Road, off whose [[shoulder (road)|shoulder]] their truck slipped; extracting it required the (unauthorized) borrowing of a nearby [[front-end loader]]. The drive home from their campsite covered about {{convert|580|mi|km}}, the initial {{convert|28.8|mi|km}} on a low-speed logging road, and then about {{convert|110|mi|km}} on twisty Route 96. Driving a truck with three horses, and allowing for occasional stops, it would have taken 13 hours to get home Saturday evening, at an average speed of {{convert|45|mph|km/h|abbr=on}}; it would have taken 14.5 hours at a {{convert|40|mph|km/h|abbr=on}} average speed.

US Forest Service timber management assistant<ref name="Perez, 22">Perez, 22</ref> Lyle Laverty said, "I [and his team of three, in a [[Jeep]]] passed the site on either Thursday the 19th or Friday the 20th"<ref>''Bigfoot Times'' newsletter, Sept. 2006, p. 1</ref> and noticed no tracks. After reading the news of Patterson's encounter on their weekend break, Laverty and his team returned to the site on Monday, the 23rd, and made six photos of the tracks. (Laverty later served as an Assistant [[United States Secretary of the Interior|Secretary of the Interior]] under [[George W. Bush]].) [[Taxidermist]] and outdoorsman Robert Titmus went to the site with his sister and brother-in-law nine days later.<ref>Green (1978), 119–23, writes, quoting Titmus: "Aline was a skeptic and Harry a hard-headed non-believer. Both of them left there believing. ... Harry has hunted [[big-game hunting|big game]] all of his life. ... " (p. 123)</ref> Titmus made [[plaster casts]] of 10 successive prints<ref>Murphy (2008), 33</ref> of the creature and plotted Patterson's and the creature's movements on a map as well as he could.<ref>Titmus is profiled in Chris Murphy's ''Know the Sasquatch'', pp. 225–26, and in Coleman and Clark's ''Cryptozoology A to Z'', pp. 239–40.</ref>