First, Mr. Flipper--you write so well. Thanks for the laughs from your post.
Well, that is one area this skeptic chic doesn't have a 'this can't be' attitude about. Though I don't like the term Bigfoot because of all the Hollywood personas associated with it, I do see 'it' as a possible unknown bear-type species. How could research be done on a creature whose whereabouts are not known and is without positive evidence, as mentioned below by Nathan:
Your son needs to get back there and recover that pile of crap - it would be the first concrete physical evidence EVER and would provide DNA samples that could be used to place the critter on the pappropriate evolutionary tree. That crap could be worth it's weight in GOLD.
Exactly. Talk about crucial $hit.