Does the Patterson-Gimlin Film Subject Exhibit an "Inhuman" Gait?
One of the longstanding claims by advocates of the reality of the Sasquatch is that the subject of the 1967 Patterson-Gimlin film exhibits an “inhuman” gait. If this is true, it would surely weaken or outright falsify the skeptic's suggestion that the film subject could be a man in a suit. One of the difficulties of examining this claim is that “gait” is a rather complex affair. One way to make the examination of this claim easier is to break down the gait into specific features.
It had been noted many years ago that the film subject exhibits an unusually high lift of the lower leg, particularly in early frames of the film. Author Barbara Wasson went so far at to suggest that such a feature was beyond what a human being could reproduce:
"Obviously
the creature is different. If you examine the walk, the following leg rises off
the ground far in excess of what a human leg rises. It almost parallels the
ground. A human being cannot walk in this fashion. When attempted it produces an
extremely awkward movement and cannot be reproduced."
Barbara Wasson Sasquatch Apparitions page 73
A good example of what Wasson is talking about is seen in this early frame:
Note how the film subject's head is pitched forward, the right arm is straight by the side, and the sole of the left foot is more or less vertical.
Surprisingly Wasson's strong claim went untested for many years. Advocates on various Internet forums as late as 2005 suggested that even if a human could reproduce this feature the individual would be “one in a million”.
Noted Sasquatch skeptic David Daegling went to some lengths in his book Bigfoot Exposed to demonstrate that the film subject exhibits a compliant gait, which is similar to the way Groucho Marx used to walk in his movies. A further, more technical explanation of the film subject's gait is found here.
Indeed, walking with a compliant gait is quite easy for any reasonably healthy individual to do, though it does become fatiguing after extended periods. One of the interesting features of a compliant gait is that the lower leg tends to rise up, and thus, as Wasson says, “almost parallels the ground”.
This is a photograph of me walking with a compliant gait on a sandy beach:
Note how my head is pitched forward, my right arm is straight at the side, and the sole of my left foot is basically vertical, very much like that seen in the early frame of the Patterson film. Clearly the calf "almost parallels the ground" as Wasson says, and thus refutes Wasson's strong claim that "it cannot be reproduced".
It seems to me a rather damning indictment of the Bigfoot subculture that such an easily tested claim as Wasson’s would be uncritically accepted for so long, and yet prove so easy to debunk.