“Have you ever run across any sign of Bigfoot?”

I get calls like this occasionally. The man on the phone had first asked if I was indeed the guidebook author who explores remote corners of Oregon. He hadn’t given his own name.

“Actually, I never have met Sasquatch,” I admitted. “Why do you ask?”

“Well,” he said, “I have this theory. I’ve been looking at maps and think he might be hiding out in the Gold Lake bog.”

I had to admit I’d never looked there. The bog is a square mile of floating sphagnum behind Gold Lake, in undesignated wilderness land south of Waldo Lake. Unless the mythic ape man is amphibious, it would be a hard place to hang out.

But the conversation stuck in my mind, perhaps because I really didn’t know what was in the bog. Eventually I decided it might be interesting, and relatively easy, to check it out in winter, when the swamp is frozen solid.

I’d been to Gold Lake countless times on skis and snowshoes. It’s a classic first trip of the winter season. Nearly level and only 1.8 miles long, the Nordic ski trail leads to a rustic shelter by the lake. From there, the bog is just a mile across the lake.

Starting point for this adventure is the Gold Lake Sno-park, half a mile west of Willamette Pass on Highway 58. From there you cross the highway and then ski the snowed-under Road 500 to Gold Lake.

Check carefully before venturing out onto the frozen lake. Snow can insulate the surface, leaving slush instead of ice underneath. On the far shore of the lake, the bog is great ski terrain, with little hummocks and a view south to Diamond Peak.

I didn’t see any sign of Bigfoot. Still, I wondered, is a lack of giant footprints conclusive evidence?

Once a woman who writes very nice poetry asked me the question I’d heard from the man on the telephone, “Have you ever seen any sign of Bigfoot?”

I told her no.

“That figures,” she said, nodding. “Sasquatch doesn’t reveal herself to just anyone.“

So who knows? Maybe he -- she? -- really is hiding in Gold Lake’s bog.

William L. Sullivan (www.oregonhiking.com) is the author of "Oregon Favorites", available in all bookstores. Six of Bill's sixteen books are now available in electronic format at http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/38219.