Episodios

  • Garrett writes "So Iā€™ll just start from the beginning, I moved to Tennessee with my mom around the age of 8-9 weā€™ve lived here ever since. I began a fascination with Bigfoot, or Sasquatch, a few years later after me and my Mamaw would watch finding Bigfoot on Tv almost every night.

    Being a kid and growing up watching the show, of course my first instinct was to go and try the things they did and of course that didnā€™t really get much of anything. A few years later me and my buddy got back into the show and we decided to give it a try again. We went to the woods and did the wood knocks and the howls and eventually we got something that sounded like a knock. That was it for that day so we really couldnā€™t say what it really was, but we continued this for weeks and everyday weā€™d get a knock. Now keep in mind, this area is now huge and while there are big patches of woods a lot of them are getting torn down and developed into schools/houses/neighborhoods. But at the time of this first incident it was still fairly new development with plenty of deep woods.

    The knocks eventually escalated into whoops and howls as responses and we thought it was the coolest thing ever when we got that first whoop that kinda confirmed to us that we had a Bigfoot in the area. This again continued for weeks until one night we were out there doing the whoops and the knocks and we got this one loud knock that sounded closer than usual, we took a second and did a whoop of our own before we heard thundering footsteps and branches crashing down toward us, we booked it out of the wood line and back to the cul-de-sac that the wood line connected to and made it about 20 yards from the wood line before turning back around to face it. There is a house in that sits directly next to the woods and it had to be around 9-10pm so they had their outdoor flood lights on, we continued to stare until we saw a hand reach around one side of a tree and it stepped out into the flood light revealing itself kinda leaning out from behind the tree.

    I would estimate it would have to be around 7-9 feet tall but it had a very strong facial resemblance to Patty, I believe it was female I couldnā€™t tell exact hair color as it was dark and I wouldnā€™t have been able to see it at all if not for that flood light, the thing that sticks with me most was I could feel the eyes even though I couldnā€™t see them because they were sunken in its brow. It felt as if they almost burnt a hole in me and thatā€™s the one thing I can always remember from that.

    Fast forward a few years and me and my dad are fishing a spill way in Taylorsville Kentucky, itā€™s a pretty remote spillway that comes directly from a large dam so it maybe had 2-3 other people there that day. It was probably around 5-6pm when we started hearing knocks up in the woods and my dad was never a bigfoot believer but I pointed them out to him and we listened as it continued to this, we then could hear it walking around just out of eye sight in the wood line very large heavy methodical footsteps but you could tell it was on 2 legs, it was pacing for maybe 5-10 minutes before a Red Bull can came flying out of the woods and landed behind another fisherman that was fishing directly in front of the woodline; but after it did that, thatā€™s was all for that day.

    Cut to next day and we went back to the spillway but this time we hiked down stream up in the woods to a launch ramp where we found a crappie hole. We had been catching them cast after cast for maybe half a hour when around the bend of the creek where we couldnā€™t see, we heard what sounded like something jump in the water and cross the creek. We didnā€™t think much of it as there are deer and other animals out there since it is very far out in the middle of no where. After that, a very large oak tree up the hill of the other bank that I would say was probably 6-10 feet around starts shaking and not just like the wind because no other trees are moving, this thing is just rocking back and forth violently and I told my dad ā€œthatā€™s the Sasquatch they do that as an intimidation displayā€.

    It did it for a few minutes before it stopped and then we could hear it pacing back and forth inside the woodline on the other bank, it then started growling/grunting and threw a few rocks before my dad decided we needed to get out of there. We both came to the conclusion that it wanted our fish we were catching as that place is full of invasive Asian carp and you arenā€™t allowed to put them back after catch so most people leave them on the bank to die. Fast forward to about a month ago, Iā€™m 21 and just had my first baby and me and fiancĆ©e had just moved into our house in March of this year. The house we live in now is about 10 driving minutes away from where I came face to face with the first Sasquatch for context. We have a 1 year old German Shepherd and as you know they are highly alert and protective dogs.

    Our property backs up to one other house and a farm followed by woods and the farmer has birds of all kinds- turkeys, chickens, ducks, etc. Well about a month ago my fiancĆ©e took the dog out while I was at the gym and she said she got this really uneasy feeling like she was being watched and that our German Shepherd (Bear) wouldnā€™t stop staring at the woodline. After I came home from the gym it was probably 1:30am, not my usual time as I was off schedule and running behind. Most of the time the latest the dog would go out was around 10-11pm. After I got home and got settled I took the dog out, he was in the yard when he froze and normally with him being a German Shepard heā€™d bark first and think later, but this time he froze and all of his hair slowly stood up before he went into this crazed angry barking toward the woods where I had to pull him back inside, stuff like this continued for about a week until I went to gym and got home late again. This time it was around 2am and I took him out again and to paint the picture for you a little better thereā€™s a barbed wire fence separating our property and the farmers property, but as we got outside I heard those same crashing footsteps as I had heard years earlier this one was much bigger probably 8-10 feet tall but so much wider I couldnā€™t get any details other than that and the long hair hanging off the arms because of the light in the yard from the house behind us.

    But anyway this thing ran up to the fence line and slammed its fist into a tree and let out this deep grunt/growl. I was petrified and I didnā€™t know what to do in the moment and my ā€œguard dogā€ was frozen in place not barking or making a single sound my first thought was it was going to kill us. My dog wouldnā€™t come to me after I got to the point of maybe I should go inside so I had to go out in the yard with this thing still standing there staring at us and grab my dog and drag him inside. I have more details about that exact encounter and some other stuff that happened leading up to and after that.

    Last thing I will share is I believe I have a video of the Sasquatch banging on the side of the farmers barn trying to get to where he stores the birds Iā€™ll attach it below but you can hear deep thuds followed by the birds freaking out and that video was taken around 1am also so I can confidently say it wasnā€™t someone using heavy machinery or anything like that. Anyway thank you for listening and if your interested Iā€™d love to share more."

  • Hayden writes "Hey there Wes. Hope you're doing well. I have been listening since the start and I love your show so much. I have been very reluctant to share this with you, but in hopes of sharing these stories with your audience I'll find some other locals that have experienced the same thing as I did, so we can connect and I don't feel so "alone" anymore haha.

    Location: Tallowa Dam, South of Moss Vale NSW (my encounter), 3 months ago

    So it all started when I had left on a Friday afternoon to go on a camping trip down the coast and come back on the Sunday. The drive was about 2ish hrs to the location that I was going to which is called Tallowa Dam, I had planned to canoe up the dam and camp in a valley and do some fishing and hiking/sightseeing. I arrived at the car park at around 4pm and immediately packed the canoe with my camping gear and started the 3km row upstream, I was losing sunlight fast because of the mountains casting their shadow into the dam. about 2kms in I heard this hellish scream/roar, kinda reminded me of someone bleeding out with blood pooling in the throat as gory as that sounds. I had never heard this before so I shrugged it off as a lyrebird making their strange noises, but it certainly caught me off guard. I finally arrived at the campsite and started on making a fire immediately before setting up my swag etc, fire was my priority as it was the middle of august in the winter, and the sun had basically set. I got the fire going and set up my swag and decided to go for a night fish, as Australian bass which was my target species are more active at night. I hiked probably 500metres upstream and saw a stick structure. It was 3 logs that had been placed kinda like a Tepie or pyramid shape, I didn't really think much of it until 5 seconds later I heard that same hellish scream/roar.

    Which then got me thinking about my mates story for some reason and I freaked the f---- out. I quickly walked back to my camp and jumped in my swag holding my knife towards the roof. About 20mins go by with not a single sound after getting in the swag when all of a sudden I can faintly hear bipedal footsteps getting louder as it gets closer to me. Keep in mind I haven't seen anything besides the stick structure, I also remember there only being 1 other car in the carpark and it was the park rangers car. So hoping it was the park ranger walking towards my swag I yelled "hey who's there" and the walking stopped. 5 seconds go by and the best way I can describe what happened next is it sounded like a 2 ton elephant ran straight towards me. I'm not a religious man but when I tell you I prayed to god please don't kill me like this, I mean it. As soon as the running reached me it sounded like it took 1 big huff and then jumped over me, cause the running sound stopped for like 5 seconds then a big landing sound happened on the other side of my swag. Then I heard it just take off running. Now I stayed in my tent the entire night (this happened around 7pm) I didn't eat dinner, get out to pee, nothing. I eventually fell asleep somehow, probably because the 3km row took all my energy, and I woke up around 7am on the Saturday.

    My main objective now was just getting back to my car. So I packed up camp and started the 3km row back to the carpark, it was around 10:30am by the time I got back to my car and when I went to open it I realized I lost my keys. I looked everywhere for them in the canoe and camping gear but couldn't find them, I thought I put them in my pocket so I thought that must have fallen out when I was packing up camp. So as much as I didn't want to go back to the camp spot I did the 3km row back again, once I got there it was about 12pm I would say, so I quickly looked around the camp and they were nowhere to be seen. So I then backtracked that 500meatre hike I did the night before in hopes of finding them and low and behold they were hung up on little stick coming out of a tree on the trail which was super weird, so I think what happened is when I was running back to the campsite after the scream they fell out my back pocket and whatever this creature was that I now know what it was, had picked them up off the trail and placed them on that tree knowing I would have to come back and look for them, and as soon as i picked them up it started running at me again, I honestly think it was just toying with me and using me as entertainment because it didn't actually get me and it definitely could have if it wanted to. So by the time I got back to the canoe and rowed out to open water it had stopped chasing me, and I did the 3km row back to the carpark with my keys.

    By the time I got back it was 6pm which was suppppperrrr strange because I thought it was a quick 3hr row there and back but anyways it felt like time had warped or fastened idk how to explain it. Because this dam was property of government land they closed the access gates at 5:30pm. So I had to camp another night, at least this time it was in front of my car and not in the bush, the only car that was there besides mine was that same park ranger's car. There was actually a no camp sign in the car park but my car wasn't big enough to sleep in with all my camp gear so I just set up my swag. It was about 8PM and I was just going through all of what happened and I said out loud and idk why I did maybe because it was a rhetorical question "did i even check if my car doors were unlocked before i left to go get the keys". And as soon as I did that I heard my car door open and I thought it was getting broken into by someone stalking my swag so I quickly got up with my knife out of my swag turned and look at the car and saw harry and the hendersons looking right at me, that's the first thing that popped into my head when we made eye contact was the actor in the suit is standing right infront of me. Then both of our eyes widened kinda like an oh shit moment and he ran off into the woods and I quickly layed back down in my swag. I didn't sleep that night at all so when morning came around I was up and out by 7am because they open the gate at 6am. I also forgot to mention I found a footprint coming out of the water and onto the land.

    I have probably missed a lot of details but my fingers and brain are hurting writing all this. I'm hoping we can call but I'm not too sure because you're in the states and I'm in Australia but Wes I haven't told anyone else my encounter/sighting besides you I haven't even told my mate yet, please get back to me if you have any questions but I'd really like if we could chat on the phone somehow and we talk about this because I need to talk about it with someone. I have also included diagrams of where these encounters took place. I will also include photos I took at the dam while sightseeing. And a photo of the footprint I found on the edge of the dam."

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  • Tonight I will be speaking to Dori who had a sighting in Washington State. The event happened in October of this year while driving with her sister. We will also be chatting with Rene. Rene wrote a book called: Skating with Bigfoot: True Newspaper Accounts in the West Over 150 Years.

    A Bigfoot showed up at an outdoor skating party in Idaho in 1902, forcing skaters to flee by wagon. A Sasquatch shook a cabin belonging to a group of Oregon miners in 1904; yet another crushed the skull of a dog belonging to a group of California grizzly bear hunters in 1880 in Oregon coastal forests.

    This book tells the little-known, remarkable tales of Bigfoot sightings from a time when the word 'Bigfoot' had not been invented. Witnesses step from the pages of history as far back as the time of President Lincoln to share their encounters from southwest Canada, Idaho, Oregon, California and Washington state.

    Reports date back 150 years and include a hidden gem about Bigfoot from iconic American author Mark Twain. The reports, published in newspapers across the West, describe large, upright, hairy, bipedal creatures that seem to be half man, half ape. The details match what witnesses today say they see when they stumble across these creatures in the forest.

  • Wildman of the Woods, explore the bigfoot legend through documentary films with interviews, exploration and storytelling around everyone's hairy bipedal woodsman. Tonight I will be talking with Paul who is the creator of the channel. He interviews eyewitnesses in his documentary and takes the viewer back to when and where the eyewitness saw the creature.

    Here is a link to his channel

  • Ken writes ā€œI listen to your podcast and finally have the courage to talk about this. Iā€™m not an outspoken person about this incident due to people thinking Iā€™m crazy but I figure now is the time to come out about it. My Three other friends who this happened to are still scarred until this day and refuse to speak on it.

    So hereā€™s what happened at Cuyahoga Valley national park. I was camping with some friends. There was 4 of us going up there to camp / hike and enjoy the outdoors. This happened sometime in July or August of 2019 but I canā€™t remember exactly what day it happened. Just as we set up camp we had the bright idea to go hiking. This was right about 7-8 pm at night when the park was closed but there was still daylight out.

    We started hiking near the Cuyahoga river on the towpath trail. We were hiking for a good half or so down this path and all of a sudden we had something throwing sticks that slowly progressed to rocks at us. At first we thought it was teens playing tricks on us but the longer it progressed we started to smell something pungent and our hair stood straight up.

    By this time the sun had gone completely dark and all we had was our phone lights to guide us. We all started running back to camp as quick as we could but whatever was tracking us was faster bigger and stronger. We eventually got winded then it all stopped. Dead silent the woods were extremely quiet and still and very eerie. Suddenly we heard the loudest growl we ever heard sort of like an angry wolf / bear.

    A friend of mine who had a firearm on him shined the weapon mounted light into the tree line where we were and we all caught a glimpse of what appeared to be a giant man / humanoid around 7.5 feet tall and as shown as the light shined on it it retreated backwards and never to be seen again. We then gathered our breathe and ran back to the camp as quick as we could and got into our tents.

    As we slept we heard multiple loud sounds outside our tent and sticks breaking. In the morning when we woke up our camp was destroyed and a pile of rocks was stacked up by the fire pit. We all agreed to never camp there again.ā€

  • John writes "My wife and I went for a trail run in Scottsburg, IN in the summer of 2005 and came upon a clearing where we saw a large creature that stopped us in our tracks. It was approximately 50 yards away when we came upon it but we immediately felt unsafe and froze in our tracks as we stared at it. We left the area pretty quickly.

    Matt writes "Hello, I caught your podcast the other day and at the end you advised that people who have experienced encounters could contact you. I have spoke to very few people about what I experienced but would like to get the stories out there.

    A little background about me. I am a Systems Analyst. I am from southern California both my experiences happened at a remote lake in the San Rafael Wilderness about an hour North of Santa Barbara.

    The first encounter involves what I believe to be a bipedal Bigfoot type animal and the second encounter has to do with something very large in the small but deep lake I lived and worked at."

  • A listener writes "Hey was long time fan, I went from not believing in sasquatch to investigating sasquatch and taking reports to meeting a man who taught me how to call them and feed them on a regular basis because of your show. I would tell my story here but it is far to long and complicated for one email. Spoke to the witness who had a couple of strange things happen to him in Ohio and he has agreed to come on the show. He said he was beyond skeptical about Bigfoot until he had a couple of strange encounters and one incident that still bothers him."

  • Sid writes "I've been wanting to tell you about an encounter I had when I was in 5th grade (1977). I grew up on Hood canal and one night while walking home from my friend's house, I noticed what I thought was a bush on the side of the road in front of a vacant lot that was filled with small alder trees. I stopped and thought to myself there was never a huck bush there before why is there one there now. I had stopped in the middle of road about 30 to 40 feet away from the "bush".

    I was about to take a step towards the "bush" when it stood up and turned and just blasted through the alders on the vacant lot. I instantly started running as fast as my 5th grade legs could carry me toward my house. As I was running away, I could hear this thing crashing through the huck brush etc. going over the hill.

    The next day I got up and went back up the road to the vacant lot and there was a path through the alders some were bent over and some were broke off. I looked around on the ground and there were some deep impression in the ground but no discernable foot prints. I impressions were about 6 to 7 feet apart. the path of bend and broken trees went from the vacant lot and down over the hill into the heavy huck brush which was all bent over and some was broken off too.

    My friend's dad who was a Captain in the Navy told me about 25 years later that he had seen a Bigfoot twice once he saw it standing behind his boat at the back of his garage one morning and the second time he said he was driving to go down the hill and saw one by the logging road that went back into the Simpson property where I use to go pick berries with my grandma and play. His encounters were in the early 2000's.

    I remember when I was really young my grandparents lived at the other end of the road from and my grandma(She was from the Ozarks) would take me out huckleberry and blackberry picking which was just outside of our subdivision on Simpson Lumber land. My grandma would tell me to stick close because she didn't want a booger to get me. She would always have her head on a swivel while we were picking berries, at one point one day she grabbed my hand and we just hustled out of the woods. She never told me why we left so quick especially after we had just started picking berries.

    When I was older I would go out into the woods and play. I would take my BB gun or my recurve bow and just shoot a random stuff you know stumps fir cones etc. One time I felt like someone was watching me so I stopped and looked around, as you know the huck brush can get really tall. I'm not sure but I swear I saw a head above the huck brush. It didn't register with me until I swept my view back and the head looking silhouette was gone.

    I live in Kentucky now and two of my neighbors have seen Bigfoot tracks and had rocks thrown at their barn when they would be in the barn working on farm equipment. He actually had a picture of the Bigfoot looking at him from the tree line above the barn.

    Since I have lived here I have had acorns thrown at me while hunting and the closest oak tree is at least 100 to 150 yds away."

    https://sasquatchchronicles.com/

  • Ty writes "Hey Wes I wanted to update you on somethingā€¦ so the first encounter was at my parents house now Iā€™m older and moved out living about 30ish minutes west of themā€¦ anyways when we had the first encounter the DNR as I stated weā€™re searching for a cougarā€¦never found anything.

    The problem kind of faded and would come back every so oftenā€¦ now that Iā€™m living where Iā€™m at yesterday this would be September 30th DNR is around looking for in their words a ā€œdominant predatorā€ and my mother called me this morning and said that the DNR said the same thing to herā€¦ police are patrolling down her roadā€¦ and she also told me there arenā€™t any deer or turkeys on her property (they are surrounded by about 6-7 acres of woods 25acers of field and then across that field about 30 acres of woods)ā€¦ as Iā€™ve stated my dogs are going insane lately and I think itā€™s around where I live currently our neighbors cat is missing trash in the parking lot is being torn out and itā€™s not raccoons itā€™s like bigger pieces of trashā€¦ I also live in the woods that surround us for about a mile not sure how many acres that is but itā€™s pretty thickā€¦ and we also havenā€™t had any deer around the last month or so which is when the DNR would come around but it stopped for about 2 weeksā€¦ now they are back with dogs and police and the whole bundleā€¦ its just strange."

    I will also be speaking to Barbie, Barbie writes " I am slowly starting to open up about my experiences with the paranormal (and Sasquatch). The story below takes place in Baskett, KY, which is beside Spottsville, KY in the County of Henderson. The story about The Spottsville Monster that was on your podcast episodes 51 & 56 took place a few miles down the road from my grandparents property. I have been debating for a month now on whether or not to share my story with you and I have decided that it's time for it to be documented or recorded somewhere. I just started listening to your podcast from the beginning."

  • Karl writes "Wes. I listened to the show #847. The subject was Matt in CT. I am from Sandy Hook CT. Part of Newtown. From Mattā€™s description of the area he and his father saw the Bigfoot, Iā€™m guessing itā€™s Bridgewater, in Litchfield County along the Housatonic River . I live about 20 minutes from there and back in 1976 when I was 14.

    Iā€™m 62 now and a former Newtown Police Officer and Retired State of CT Corrections Officer, I had an encounter with a Bigfoot on the RR tracks on the Monroe - Newtown Town line. I reported this sighting to the BFRO website Report #77112. I also have had a few interesting vocal. And footprints sightings and 2x my middle daughter said she saw a Hairy Man on the side of the yard staring at her at my in-laws house 2 miles away from my sighting."

  • Kevin writes "Lets jump to my first possible encounter. Age 16 roughly 1999, my buddy gets his first vehicle ( a Chevy S10 ). That summer we decided we're going to take our first trip to the boundary waters. Another buddy decided he was going to join us as well. Here we are three 16yr old boys, our gear, and a canoe packed into this tiny truck.

    We entered the BWCA through the Larch Creek access point on the Gunflint Trail. We spent the next couple days portaging deeper into the wilderness. I don't remember exactly which night of the trip this happened, but it was towards the middle. It was late or early how've good like to think of it and I had to pee. There was a bright moon out, bright enough that I didn't need to bring a flashlight. I didn't stray far from the tent. I found a random rock to pee on and let it fly. This is when I found out my target rock was not a rock at all. It let out a disgusted grunt or breath in not sure which. It went from what I can only imagine was a belly crawl to upright in a blink of and eye and took off running. In the moment I thought I had just peed on a bear cub and that momma was going to be really pissed off. I ran for the tent and got back in. Originally I was closest to the opening of the tent. I got in my sleeping bag and bounced into the middle of my two buddies. Not my proudest moment I'll admit. Well this of course woke them up and after some heated words and a plee on my end, they realized I must have seen something as I was visibly shaken and my eyes were watering from the adrenaline dumping into me and an irrational fear. That night something did come into our camp but without further known incident and nothing further to report.

    Thinking back on this experience with a clear head, a few things stand out to me. Why did the bear cub come up off the ground and run off like a human or was it the moon light playing tricks? Why the disgust in its tone of exhale an animal wouldn't have that emotion? And why did I panic like I did? I've seen full grown black bear in the wild up close and personal while hunting both in the dark and in the light. I've seen a sow and her cubs and had to talk her down at close range from making a decision that was either going to harm her or myself. There was a irrational fear that came over me.

    Encounter #2 ( made into a knower not just a believer )

    Roughly the summer of 2004 maybe 2005. Like I started in the beginning of my email, I'm an avid outdoorsman. During the summers I live to spend my nights in my boat on the river. Whether alone or with a buddy. This particular night my buddy and I were fishing this barge bay. We run the river full speed at night so I have large HID lights mounted on the front of my boat light truck headlights. We were anchored maybe 15'-20' off shore. One side of the bay was barging equipment, the other old growth Cottonwoods to which the bow of my boat was facing. These old growth trees are huge!

    So here we are, middle of the night, sitting in my boat in the pitch black. We start hearing movement coming from in the Cottonwoods. I should mention the river banks mainly consist of river silt which dampens sound. The sounds of bipedal walking are getting closer and louder. Again, panic is starting to set in. And again, I do not panic, I'm very calm under pressure. But here I am panicking. Again, it's that irrational fear, eyes watering, chest feels like it's slow motion beating out of my chest. Everything seems to slow down yet speed up at the same time. My buddy is clearly experiencing the same emotions. I flip my headlights on and standing directly in front of us is this gigantic man. You could see the shock in his eyes and on his face when the lights suddenly are turned on and he's caught directly in the beam. He did his best to hide behind a Cottonwood, but he was too large to truly hide behind it. Again, these trees are anywhere between 4'-6' around at the base. Even with having my sidearm on me it never entered my mind that I had it. All I could do was push my buddy out of the way and pull up the anchor and get the hell out of there.

    We did return a week later. I'm 6'3 220lbs, I'm not small. I stood in the exact spot we saw it and this thing had to be at least a foot maybe foot and a half taller then I and hundreds of pounds heavier. I remember it was dark on color and very hairy. It face was ape like but at the same time humanoid. There was no doubt it was experiencing the same shock, terror, and confusion as we were. And no I'm not projecting human traits into this thing. It was clearly intelligent enough to have those emotions while at the same time knowing to hide and curious enough to pop his head around the tree to watch what we were doing. I do not remember finding any other evidence at that time.

    Findings May 4th 2015

    I decided to go out for a morning hike. The location is very strange for such evidence ( see attached photos ) but again within a few miles of my 2004 or 2005 sighting. I can share actual locations if you'd like to discuss further.

    While on my hike I was hiking a ridge line away from the paved trail. This is when I came across a tree that was snapped and twisted close to the ground. I'm the photo you can see they are not tiny trees. The amount of force needed to do that damage to a live green tree would be more than any man could ever summon. After finding these trees I was instantly in Investigator mode. This is when I found the print, like I was saying I'm 6'3 220lbs and wear a size 13.5 boot. I oddly enough only found one track but it was roughly 3-4" longer than my boot. I tried to make an impression in the ground but the ground was far too hard as it's still pretty chilly at this time of year in Minnesota.

    Encounter #3 ( things get strange )

    It's 2018, rifle deer opener. We hunt a very remote area at the end of an old logging road surrounded by Peet bog. One way in one way out. It's not possible to make it through the bogs alive. It's truly one way in or out.
    We always get up there a couple days prior to opening day. Allows us time to fully set up camp, stands, and do some grouse hunting. It's Thursday night, earlier in the day we had shot a bunch of grouse and cleaned the and through the remains at the end of the woods line in front of our camp.

    So here we are three of us experienced hunters and skilled outdoorsman sitting around the campfire. It's not super late maybe 2230-2300hrs, but it's plenty dark out. Sun is long gone and there's no light other than the fire glow. I don't remember which of us noticed the lights first, but I'm the protector and was instantly up or off my chair and sidearm was drawn. What we saw was two balls of light far off into the woods. The light color was that of an old lantern. We thought folks were walking towards us with only a lantern. Again, no one should've been able to make it to their location without us noticing. That's when they went out and everything went dead silent. No bugs, owls, birds, coyotes, or wolves. All which we hear on a nightly basis on a normal night. If a gnat would have dated I would've blamed it on one of my buddies it was that quiet. That's when we start hearing walking in front of us in the woods. Same direction as the lights and dead grouse carcasses were discarded.

    At this point one of my two buddies is out of his chair and moving to my location weapon drawn. So here we stand weapons drawn flashlights pointing in the sound direction. We can still hear the walking but cannot see anything. At the same time the walking stops we hear a voice come from directly behind camp. Very similar to what people describe as the samurai speech. It sounds like someone's trying to speak gibberish but only speaking from the back of their throats. Like a Mongolian throat singer. At this point my other buddy out now or of his chair and weapon drawn setting as the sound seemed to come from only 20' behind him. At the same time myself and my buddy standing next to me spun around to not knowing we were surrounded. This is when the walking that was in front of us took off running, the gibberish continues and then from our now left side a tree cracks and falls. The gibberish stops. And everything seems to grow still again. Needless to say if was a sleepless night.

    Interesting side note, that impending doom feels did not happen on this experience. In the morning we did find the fallen tree, it was dead but it was the tree we use to site our rifles in on.

    I should also make mention this year 2024 will mark year 27 that one of the buddies in the story and I have hunted this area. We've been hunting this area with his dad since we were kids. My wife and daughter do not like it up there and get very freaked out. My boys and I have had another incident that I could tell but I'll leave that for another time if you want. I've also had two other experiences with another buddy.

    Sorry for rambling, it's hard to get a lifetime in 1 email. I recently shifted work gears and I started driving dump truck. I needed a break from leading and directing employees and having the sole responsibilities of a 1.2 million sq ft building on 46 acres for the last 20 years. Driving has allowed a lot of pressure to be lifted off my shoulders, but also has allowed me to listen to your podcast and give me the encouragement to finally tell my experiences. Until now I have never formally told anyone. Yes, my buddies, family have heard most of them but never publicly. Again, sorry for the novel, hopefully I didn't waste too much of your time."

  • Axton writes "Hey Wes, Iā€™m writing you because years back when my brother and I were in our teens hunting rabbits in the desert in Utah. We had a wild encounter with a creature that definitely wasnā€™t a Sasquatch or any known wolf.

    I remember him and I walking a line and I was over a slight hill to where I couldnā€™t see him, he started calling my name frantically and I ran up the hill to see what was going on, I honestly thought he came across a big snake or something judging by his voice. When I came up over the hill I asked him what the hell was going on and he pointed in the direction east of us and there was a giant jet black long haired wolf like created hauling ass across the field all I could tell is that it went passed him and startled him quite a bit. My brother is quite the tough guy and it freaked me out because of its size.

    I would give or take the creature was about 10-12 feet from nose to tail if not longer, the most jet black coloration Iā€™ve ever seen in my life and moving at a speed that was not imaginable. We started shooting at it and I know for a fact we hit it at least a few times and the damn thing never flinched. It was absolutely wild, it got through the field and into a ravine and never seen again. To this day me and my brother contemplate what the hell we saw experienced. Wes in the desert we were in there is no wolves, only coyotes, and it wasnā€™t a coyote. We thought it couldā€™ve been someoneā€™s dog that got away but there was no people around only usā€¦ I have no explanation whatsoever but I can tell you what we saw wasnā€™t a normal creature whatsoever."

    I will also be welcoming John to the show. John and his family had a strange encounter with something. I will let John go into it. John writes "Iā€™ve been listening to, and enjoying your show for a couple of years. I recently listened to an episode where a gentleman spoke about hearing a strange noise, seeing a black figure and not quite knowing what it was, and you mentioned to him that in your experience, some listeners may hear his story and respond with a similar experience. Iā€™m that listener! Me , my daughter, my son and their friend had a similar experience. If you like I can write a synopsis of what happened to us and send it to you."

  • Lacey writes "Hey Wes! I started listening to your show after my encounter that happened in the fall of 2020 in Willow Creek, CA. Since then I have tried to make sense of what happened and your show has given me insight and validation, but has also left me with more questions than answers.

    Takes a lot for me to do this but here it goes..
    During the fall of 2020 I was trimming for a medical marijuana farm and staying with friends in willow creek, ca. I currently live in my home state in the Midwest but lived in Humboldt County for 7 years during my twenties. So when the pandemic started, I lost my job as a massage therapist. Being that is was an awkward time to do my job anyway, I figured why not see my friends and make some money while in waiting to see what would become of my career.

    By the time my encounter happened it was October and I had been working out west since July. Autumn in that area is typically busy with travelers, so I thought it would be cool to meet a guy on a dating site while visiting to help pass the time. Right away I hit it off with a fellow farm worker who happened to be right down the road. We went out for dinner and decided to continue the night by laying under the stars at a local campground called camp Kimtu right outside of Willow Creek on the trinity river. The campsites were further down the road but we decided to pull of on the beach by the water. Since I had been living do on the road, my car was full of camping gear. We took my sleeping bag with blankets down a path to the water not far from my vehicle. For the record we did have a 12 pack of steelhead ale(my fav local beer) but each of us had only had two beers. One at the restaurant and one on the river bank. It wasnā€™t long after laying there that it started to rain so we ended up getting into my car to wait out the rain. The rain lasted about an hour(which to my knowledge it was the first rain of the season) and during that time we stayed inside until it stopped. Eventually we made it back out but decided to just sleep there and continue hanging out. I have a rav4 so we put the back seats down and made a bed. While doing so I took out my camping tote which had some really valuable gear inside as well as his backpack and guitar (This is a key part of the story bc it just doesnā€™t make sense that if it was a hoax then why didnā€™t ā€œtheyā€ steal our stuff?).

    At this point it around 11:45. The bed was made so we sat in the back of the car with the hatch door open(which was facing the river) to smoke a joint. I was wrapped in a blanket and he in his boxers snuggled up to me. A few mins into conversation we started hearing a low guttural growl coming from the rocky beach down towards the water. Take in mind it was super foggy out and there was no street lights around. So we never actually saw what was making the sound but oh did we hear them.

    The sound went on for about 30 secs or so. It almost sounded like a didgeridoo at first but you could tell it was a voice. Kind of like a growl/gargling sound. It radiated around us in a way I have never heard before. What was also really weird, we both immediately became emotional and struck with fear. It was like my body became immediately paralyzed. Tears started streaming down my cheeks as we grabbed each other and I said ā€œthatā€™s not humanā€ it was like my nervous system instantly knew something was off. He then yelled really loud ā€œHey, what are you doing down there!?ā€ (This is when it gets absolutely terrifying and I mean seriously the most afraid I have ever been in my life. I still to this day have ptsd from this experience. Itā€™s gotten easier to tell this story but it continues to haunt me. I dream about it and think about it constantly.) The sound abruptly stopped when he did that but only for a second and then proceeded to SCREAM the most ungodly, otherworldly sound I never in a million years would imagine to hear. We instinctively shut the back door and laid down shaking. At this point it was pure terror and somewhat surreal. Almost as if time stood still but it all happened pretty fast. As we lay there trembling and not knowing what to do next, the sounds began to get louder and more intense. It started to sound like multiple high and low pitched voices that were howling, yelling and at some points it sounded like they were laughing. Almost like a gorilla/hyena hybrid. That sound will forever be burned into my mind. We both became hysterical. He also started to cry and kept asking me what do we do?? I told him to lay still and be quiet. I couldnā€™t believe this was happening. Then, they surrounded my car. It literally sounded like they were all around us. It truly felt like they were taunting us but in the most horrible way and trust me it worked. The cackling and howling with talking btw, they seriously have a language. We could hear them bantering back and forth. It was like nothing Iā€™ve ever heard, until someone played for me the Sierra sounds. Itā€™s absolutely unnerving how similar that recording is to what we experienced. Also at some point during this they began making really loud thud noises but not sure how. This went on for what seemed like forever but in reality it was only 15 mins or so until one of them was so close to my back passenger window that we both screamed uncontrollably and the guy told me to drive! I frantically found my keys in the mess of blankets and jumped in the driver seat. I just remember shaking so bad I could barely push my foot on the peddle. The lights turned on but we never saw a thing. All I could do was put my car in drive and get tf out of there. Looking back on it I really wish one of us wouldā€™ve had our phones out to record but it all happened so fast, that honestly was the last thing on mind.

    We ended up parked outside of my friends house and laid there in shock until the sun came up. We went over the whole thing numerous times. Did they want to hurt us? If so, why didnā€™t they? Was it a prank? At times it felt like trickery but the sound was so out of this world that if it was they mustā€™ve had some kind of equipment. Plus these beings had a presence, a very strong one at that. He even thought we should call the police and report it, we were that scared.

    Once morning with no sleep and completely hung over from the adrenaline we drove back to get our things. Truly thinking everything would be gone, to our surprise nothing had been touched. Not the beer, nor the cooler with some food, or our valuables. We walked around and looked for tracks but didnā€™t see a thing. I still donā€™t know what to think of it and didnā€™t begin the Bigfoot rabbit hole until after that night. As cliche as it is, that area is highly known for encounters so we just assumed if it wasnā€™t people or an animal then it must be real after all. Him and I donā€™t really talk but the occasional text to remind each other that we survived some truly crazy stuff together. Maybe someday Iā€™ll get him to go on a podcast with me or something. Iā€™m just glad to have had a witness bc it truly is unbelievable until it happens to you. And Iā€™m grateful for my vehicle bc Iā€™m not sure if Iā€™d be here to tell the tale if we wouldā€™ve been in my tent. I donā€™t really know if they would have hurt us, nor do I ever want to chance that again. Letā€™s just say the woods will never be the same."

  • Sean writes "Originally I wrote this a few years back when I first started listening to your show after my brother introduced it to me. Though I decided what I encountered at the time wasnā€™t big foot cause it didnā€™t really match my understanding of Bigfoot was, so I chalked it up to a weird encounter.

    More recently Iā€™ve come across episodes talking about Sasquatch throwing rocks and mimicking people speaking that made me reconsider. My strange encounter was brief but memorable, I was working on a campsite in a valley back behind my moms house, this is a suburb next to a protected forest but like the very tip of it.

    I spent a week down there building a proper fire pit, occasionally Iā€™d see the odd hiker come by and Iā€™d wave hello or they would be on there way. Well this time I saw someone walk out the path Iā€™d usually see the hikers come out and I noticed they were fairly tall, and wearing a fur coat and then a puff jacket around their waist. My first thought was ā€œwell someone doesnā€™t get out to the woods muchā€ since they were wearing a black fur dress coat.

    They stopped in the middle of the path waved at me and said ā€œhelloā€ Expect they sounded tone def when they said ā€œhelloā€.

    I stood up and waved and said hello, when I first stood up they slightly ducked as if I startled them which I thought was strange. They said hello again and continued to wave which at this point I was thinking they werenā€™t all there. They smiled and it honestly creeped me out. They had an extremely wide smile.

    I watched them curiously as I kneeled back down to make it looked like I was working and grabbed my hammer. They then ducked behind a tree and kept popping there head out as if they were playing peakaboo with me. At this point I thought they were a druggy because of the behaviour. They walked behind some fallen trees and brush and it looked like they climbed up into a tree and continued this peekaboo game. I no longer saw them then later a rock hit the other side of the valley, my first thought was some kids threw it down from above I looked and saw nothing.

    Then I saw another one and saw where it came from it was from this brush about 70-80 yards away. Where I saw the person walk off.

    This second rock was about 10 feet short of me which freaked me out then I saw this person those the rock and this time it landed right next to me. I bolted and run up the valley through someoneā€™s backyard straight home.

    When I went back a week later with my partner at the time we checked out that area I saw the person and there was nothing to stand on I pointed out where there head would have been and it had be close to 8-9ft.

    Using me as a reference Iā€™m 6ft flat and I put my arms up and it still didnā€™t reach where I saw their head. Iā€™m thinking maybe I did see a teenager Sasquatch and it was screwing with me. Iā€™m not really looking to be on an episode Iā€™ll leave that up to you but Iā€™d like to hear what you think."

    Then we will wrap up with Myles from New Mexico. He had a encounter in New Mexico while camping with friends. A lot of strange things happened during this trip but the following night terrified the group and they left immediately when the sun came up.

  • Tonight we will be speaking to John. Over 41 years ago John had an encounter in Indiana while he was in the Boy Scouts. In 2018 John was driving when he noticed a large Orangutan like creature 40 feet from him. As John and I spoke he had a lot of strange things happen to him and has agreed to discuss events in his life.

  • I will be speaking to David and Scott tonight. Scott writes "I just recently listened to episode 916 ( butter street monster) due to me living down the road from that area since I was 13 years old. Now Iā€™m 36 and I live in Germantown right off butter street, I take that road everyday to and from work.

    I transferred schools to Carlisle Ohio, in the 7th grade and lived off of Martz Paulin at the time of my sighting on morning star road. I bring up my story because butter street and morning star are extremely close together and are surrounded by the same wooded areas and metro parks. Around 2008 I was driving down this road called Morning Star road in the middle of the night and witnessed what I can only imagine is Bigfoot related, or a guy in a very expensive Halloween costume. Background history of Morningstar road. Local town stories of people being killed at a camp site on the road in the 70ā€™s, never really found any evidence about that part but there are some spooky spots on the road and some areas even now I would avoid at dark. Other stories from the road are an old house burnt down in the woods where the wife was running out in the middle of the road and was hit, or fell down the stairs and broke her neck(which ever side of the story is true I have no idea) ,which me and my friends were able to locate and find burnt remains of the forgotten house. Then the notorious Bigfoot sightings through out the years of this entire area. My stepmom was raised her whole life in Carlisle and recalls stories growing up of Bigfoot sightings along Morningstar road and twin creek(which bumps right up along the side of the road).

    I recall my old English teacher who told me a story of her returning home from the store one night and seeming a creature which she claimed was easily 7-8 feet tall walking across the street from one wooded part to the other. Anyways fast forward to my experience. It was dark out and winter time. There was snow on the ground which the moon light up and made it easier to see the wood line on the road. Thereā€™s a few S type turns on Morningstar road that you have to really slow down on to maneuver safely on the road. Trees over lap these areas and make it really dark out at night with only your headlights guiding the way as any back country road is. While slowly going through one of the turns, there it was. Standing in between a tree or trees connected that formed a Y shape. It stood way taller than a normal size person and was covered in brown hair from head to toe from the angle we were seeing this at. At this point we were going less than 5 miles per hour due to the roads being slick and the S turn. So the detail of what I seen was burnt into my memory. What ever it was squirted its eyes and covered its eyes with its hand to prevent from the lights blinding it I assume.

    First thing I noticed right away was when the light shine on its eyes, they were a yellowish color, almost as it had jaundice or something of the sort. The creature flash its teeth a little bit as it raises its freakishly big hand over its eyes blocking the light. The teeth didnā€™t seem to be in the best shape more browning yellow but bigger than normal human teeth. It turn its upper body and you can see the muscle definition in its back, tricep and lats before it turned the rest of its body and began walked down hill away from the vehicle. My friend began to freak out and scream while I began to yell just drive! My friend made it around the S type turn and floored it home. Which is only a min down the road. That image is forever remembered with clear detail.

    I tell this story all the time and everyone of my friends laugh at me lol, but it doesnā€™t bug me. Me being a avid hunter , I think about this thing every time I step in the woods in the morning to hunt deer. It didnā€™t show any signs of aggression but still a sighting that spooked me. I always try to debunk everything that happens out of the ordinary , but this one has stumped me. Like I stated earlier, it could of been some one in a costume, but it would of had of been a very expensive costume which I doubt that had 16 years ago. Would love to be on your podcast to tell my story. Huge fan! Thank you for taking the time to read this email."

    I will also be speaking to David who was driving in the foothills of the Allegheny National Forest and a large creature stepped out in front of him. He describes the creature as massive. He said "I came to a screeching stop as this creature stepped out in front of me.

    He put his hands on my hood and looked at me. I have never been so terrified, our eyes locked. The creature then stood up and looked behind me and that's when something hit the back of the car. I never saw what it was but my airbags went off. The creature then walked off into the forest. Everything happened so fast. Being a formal Marine this felt like ambush."

    After hearing his encounter I don't think it was an ambush. I asked him if it was a rock that hit the back of the car and witness said it was something much bigger then a rock. It bent the frame of the rear of the jeep. Looking at the pictures you can tell the door no longer lines up with the frame.

  • As I mentioned to the members I had dental surgery on Wednesday and I am still recovering. My mouth is swollen and it hurts to speak. I will return next week and shows will return to normal. This weeks show will be hosted by Brent Thomas from the Paranormal Portal.

    Check out the Paranormal Portal Podcast on your podcast player you can also find him on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ParanormalPortal/

  • Dakota grew up on a large property in Georgia. Over the years strange things have happened on this property but it wasn't until Dakota and his friend from college saw one of the creatures that Dakota realized the strange things he experienced growing up on this property might have been these creatures. Ill let Dakota go into it tonight.

    Dakota writes "I grew up on a property in Georgia and Iā€™m convinced a family lives there. Iā€™m not sure if it could be a portal or not Iā€™m still learning about that but I have had all types of encounters with them. I have seen several, multiple different colors and sizes from different distances. To go in chronological order from a young age I would hear rocks knocking together behind my dads shop (25ā€™ wide 75ā€™ long 20ā€™ high)and my parents couldnā€™t explain it they said it was my imagination. I used to ride atvā€™s and dirt bikes all over this property and in the area they live in I would always find trees down across the road, sometimes in an X sometimes just going one direction being young id cut the trees down and keep going. I always felt watched outside no matter when it was and as I got older and would hunt alone I had my first for sure Sasquatch encounter. My dad dropped me off at my stand (Iā€™m 10-12 at the time) and he went back home.

    After he left about dusk I hear what I think I someone trespassing behind me, 50 feet maybe. Id like to add that about 300 yard behind me is where they live now that I know that. I texted my dad asking if it was him saying he was to close I could hear him and who was he talking to. He said itā€™s not him and said I was hearing the wind, at this point something is walking around me in a circle until dark when my dad came to get me and when I saw his flashlight coming through the woods it was over. That day I never saw a squirrel or heard anything near me. A few years later my dad and I built a deer stand in a tree that was split into 3 so we built it into the actual tree because my dad thought it was a promising spot. Well he only hunted back there a few more times and when he stopped he told me never to go back there again and wouldnā€™t tell me why. This stand was at the end of the road with the X trees on it. Then I went to high school and didnā€™t get in the woods much because I was a 3 sport athlete. Then college. I brought a buddy home in fall of ā€˜17 to hunt during fall break and we are on opposite sides of the property he on one side of a valley and me and my now wife on the other, we hear this roar that he said shook his chest( he was in a blind about 50 yards from that tree stand my dad and I built)Then summer ā€˜21 I came home for summer and my best friend came with me to work construction with me.

    He believed in something being out there just not Bigfoot he wouldnā€™t name what it was. I told him I knew they roamed a valley on the property so we set out mid afternoon just kind of showing him the property kind of looking for signs of Bigfoot. Iā€™m showing him my stands, my dads, we start walking this valley and cut up the property line fire break and as a joke my buddy wanted to ā€˜whoopā€™ and I knew it was a bad idea. He did it anyways and in front of us about 75 feet we hear two whoops back to us. He thought I was pranking him and I was in pure disbelief. We are standing there looking at each other shocked and over his shoulder up the hill 100 feet maybe I see a 5ā€™ jet black upright thing step out from behind a tree and at that point I was scared because the whoops came from the opposite direction. I show him what I saw and we are at this point having to calm ourselves down because we are between what we think is momma and juvenile. We walk forward towards the whoops about 25ā€™ and all the sudden we hear what we both described as ā€œa silverback gorilla beating on a piece of sheet metalā€ from down in the valley on the other persons property and we are gun freaks so we get back to back and draw our weapons because we are threatened and scared truthfully. Then we hear laughing but I now know as the chatter but it was at super speed and the same chatter I heard as a kid hunting and Iā€™ve heard connected to so many Bigfoot sightings. We were surrounded by at least 5 of them so we haul tail up that hill back to the house and as soon as we look up to go up the hill there was that deer stand my dad built, I knew why I couldnā€™t be back there. We were followed out back to the house by at least 3 we never saw them but for sure could hear grunting, huffing, growling, etc. that was our huge encounter. The rest of the summer we would have encounters of them in the woods watching us at least 10 times some standing out more than other, once we heard a loud knock from the valley and then saw an arm swing and one walk away from a think area and about 15 minutes later we saw one back in that spot.

    quI shined a flashlight in there a we could see itā€™s leg we think thigh and it was absolutely massive this was a big male, the leg made Patty look small. This was a man. Another time, we were redoing a camper I had to live in when we went back to college and we would spend all night out there working on it inside and out at my grandparents house which is on the same property but the opposite side of the valley. We had rocks thrown at the camper we heard bi-pedal walking several times and I even saw a few more watching us. Nothing scary but these ones were brown or red. Thatā€™s mostly all of them. Iā€™d just like to talk to someone about this Tony, Wes, anyone really who can help me out because Iā€™m scared to go back to my parents house. Iā€™ve since got married and moved to town and I have seen one cloaked outside my house. Iā€™ve had a few more weird unexplained encounters at my new house. Thank you all for what you do and I look forward to hearing from you!"

  • Tonight I will be speaking with Jeremy. Jeremy and his children were on a hike when a large creature charged them. Jeremy said ā€œWe tried to leave without being seen because there was more then one of them. As we tried to leave thatā€™s when they saw us. I have never been so terrified in my life.ā€

    Jeremy writes ā€œHi wes, Iā€™ll keep this as short as possible. Me and my two kids last year around July 4th went on vacation to Northern Wisconsin. We usually stay in a cabin on a lake for a week.

    We like to go to lake Superior in Michigan.. and we travel around the area looking at waterfalls.. we heard about this place called lake in the clouds I believe itā€™s one of the highest elevated lakes in the United States.. after we stayed and looked at the scenery at the top of this mountain we left and about a mile down the road thereā€™s a river and this waterfall I believe it goes into lake in the clouds.. Iā€™m not exactly sure but I believe it does or it might even go into lake Superior lake In The clouds is extremely close to lake Superior.. from the parking lot to the waterfall was about a 2 mile hike.. we decided to walk upstream and just do some hiking after about 1 hour of relaxing at the site with I guess you call them big boulders not just rocks.

    We had a very terrifying encounter with what you call a Sasquatch I guess I believe it was a family of Sasquatch.. it killed a deer it looked like it prayed over the deer after killing it noticed us and the leader or the dad/father / husband Sasquatch came charging at us.. it was horrifying after this encounter me and my kids were really never the same since that happened.. we have talked to a counselor/therapist which actually helped a lot talking about it and my daughter still goes to this day.. my friend told me about your channel I donā€™t know 6 months ago maybe longer.. and after a hearing some of other peopleā€™s encounters I talk to my kids about contacting youā€¦ Kids told me I should not give real names.. so I would like our names kept out of the storyā€¦ I think it will help me talking to you.. I truly believe the therapist / counselor believes our storyā€¦ I could care less if she did or notā€¦ Iā€™m just rambling on so I apologize thereā€™s only a couple people we told about this.. but if you would be so kind to get back to me I would appreciate it thank you and thank you for helping many other people.

  • Billy writes "I had an incident happen to me two years ago, in August 2022. This incident has affected my life in a serious way. I have stopped almost all of my outdoor activities, hunting, fishing, and hiking, which have been a big part of my life. Since the incident, I have been off and on in a state of depression, and I have gained about 35 pounds. I really need to talk to someone who has experience with these types of events and will take it seriously, and maybe help me move on from it.

    In summary, the incident involved being stalked on a daylight hike in the Ozark Mountains by something I could not see initially, which caused the entire forest to go silent and the air to seem to stop moving. The woods became so silent that I could hear myself breathing. I was videoing myself during this time and commenting about the lack of noise and that I could occasionally hear something off to my right following me, always just beyond my sight in the woods, maybe 30 meters. The woods are very thick in this area. At one point, I was taking a break and getting a drink when, looking back up the trail I came from, I saw a large black object on the side of the trail. My first thought was that it was a black bear. As I watched this thing about 300ā€“400 meters away, it did not move. I ruled out the bear because it did not move and would have to have been sitting like a dog if it were a bear.

    I took out my iPhone 13 Pro and started to film. I zoomed into the thing, and it was black to a degree that could only be from something burnt. It had a sort of rectangle body, the head and neck was like a deer, with horns similar to those of a cow. The whole object was as black as anything I have ever seen, with no details. This sounds strange, but it is on film. I assumed it was a burned stump but wondered how I could walk past such a strange object and not notice it.

    On my return trip, I walked past where the object was but found nothing that even remotely looked like the object I filmed. However, the area just behind where the object was had been smashed flat, as if something large had walked or sat there recently; I filmed this as well. Near the end of the hike, I noticed a pile of animal scats in the middle of the trail. This was deer scat, but it was large for deer. I bent over to film it. I intended to show this to my brother, who has hunted this area a lot. While doing this, I heard a very large twig snap directly in front of me. I jerked my head up, still filming, looking into the woods. The woods were thinner here than on the rest of the trail. The twig snap was from a large twig; in order to break something that size it would take something large as well. I could see nothing in the direction of the twig snap.

    I felt a huge urge to run at this moment; it took everything I could muster to not to. I told myself it was daylight; I couldn't see anything, and if it were a mountain lion or something running, running could trigger an attack.

    I walked to my truck and was very nervous that it would not start or something and I would be stuck out there. My truck never had any problems, so that wasn't a normal feeling. I drove away and stopped for a few minutes down the road to think about what happened. I was pretty shook up.

    I stopped going into the woods after this incident. I would usually be fishing on a river near by, not near any roads and trails several times a week. Sometimes coming out after dark alone. I stopped scouting for turkey and deer seasons because I did this alone. I did not do any hunting the following year, even with others. About a year after the incident, I started to think about why I was so bothered by this incident.

    1. Whatever was following me could have been a predator of some type, I suppose. However, bears are not that stealthy, I have seen a few of them in the wild. There are no mountain lions in the area. Whatever it was, it made the forest go absolutely silent. I stopped walking when I noticed this, it was so silent that I snapped my fingers a couple of times to make sure I had not lost my hearing. The air stopped moving, like I was in a vacuum. I don't know any animal that causes that.
    2. The object I filmed. What was it, and why was it not there when I first walked by or on the return? I have zoomed and slowed the video I took of it, and it seems to have turned its head slightly at one point. I have not heard of anyone having an experience like that.
    3. The twig snaps at the end of the hike. Why could I not see what caused it? Something large enough to break a large twig by stepping on it should have been easily visible, but I saw nothing.

    I focused on the twig snap and my lack of seeing anything. I thought about how quiet it was previously following me along the trail, but it was so loud at that point. I realized it made a mistake at that point right then by stepping on the twig. Why would it do that right then? I then realized that at that moment I was bent over, head down. filming scat. I was completely vulnerable and unaware of my surroundings then. I concluded that whatever it was, it probably saw its opportunity and charged me. Like you see in videos from Africa when a gazelle bends down to drink the cheetah springs on them. This thought really bothered me.

    What would have happened if the twig had not snapped? Would it have gotten to me? Why did it stop when I lifted my head up? I could not see anything, it could have continued for me. I was unarmed."