New Hampshire’s abundant deep forests and rumpled terrain is apparently the perfect ecosystem for a certain non-human, hairy biped, affectionately known as Bigfoot. Tom Baker is a New Hampshire bigfoot researcher of note who was recently featured on the front page of the Conway Daily Sun. We reached out to ask him for some hot spots and tips for any cryptozoologists (or intrepid bigfoot fans) who might want to know before setting out in search of tracks and scat. Here are a few hot spots he says readers might find helpful. (By the way, Baker notes that “bigfoot” should commonly be written with a lowercase “b” since it’s just another animal name, like “cow.”)

Hemenway State Forest in Tamworth: There have been multiple Class A and Class B sightings in this area, and it’s very near the Ossipee Mountain range which appears to be heating up in terms of encounters.

Nash Stream Forest Area in Coös County: Coös County has, by far, the lowest human population, is largest in size and forested acres, but has the most bigfoot encounters in the state. This is significant because there is an inverse correlation between population and encounters; something not normally seen.

The triangle made between Greenville, Temple and Sharon: Hillsborough County has a higher-than-average sighting count, and the area northwest of Greenville has seen what could be considered relatively increased activity since 2016.

Tom Baker offers the following tips for explorers:

• Do your research before launching an expedition. Know the area and the ways to get in, but most importantly, the ways to get out.
• Tell someone reliable where you’re going and when you’re expected to return.
• Bring more water than you expect to use. Better too much than too little water. Water filtering systems are a great way to get water out of reliably running streams.
• Leave no trace when hiking and/or camping. Pack out whatever you pack in (including your garbage).
• Be tick aware. Wear long pants pre-coated with Permethrin, and if not allergic, use bug repellants with DEET (yes — I know — awful stuff, but so is Lyme disease).
• Dress for the weather (there is no such thing as bad weather, just unprepared bigfoot researchers). Bring extra batteries for any equipment you may want to bring with you (SLR, FLIR and NVD cameras, parabolic microphones and recorders, etc.).
• Tom Baker says a great website for bigfoot researchers, both aspiring and accomplished, is olympicproject.com.