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It's a big world out there.
Welcome to Bigfoot's Wilderness Podcast. Have you

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ever heard this before? I would
wager you have. Anyway, I can

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promise you, Mike, that I'm
not crazy, but I will admit I

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am a bit eccentric. My name
is Brad and I'm from the state next

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to Vermont. That's all I can
really say. As my family is quite

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prominent and occasionally in the news.
I typically keep my personal and professional life

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separate. But what I'm about to
get into would probably get me exiled from

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the family and I can't afford to
do that. Sorry for being a bit

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mysterious. I want to share,
but also need my anonymity. I enjoy

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your podcast because this experience has now
become a part of my life. So

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here goes. Back in the early
two thousands, a very close friend was

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killed in a hit and run accident
adjacent to a state park as her car

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had stalled and was crushed in an
accident it's been called a t bone,

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a side impact collision in which the
driver hits the side of the body of

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the vehicle, which causes blunt force
trauma. It was my opinion that this

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is the most vulnerable place on practically
any car. My also opinion was validated

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by an expert who had seen similar
accidents. Needless to say, she died.

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I never got a chance to say
good bye. Everything happened so quickly.

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I still miss her. Sara was
the athletic type. She could run

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five miles in the early morning hours
and then hike another four miles in the

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afternoon. Her trails could be anywhere
and whenever she felt the urge to explore.

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But several weeks before her death,
she had told me that she kept

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coming back almost daily to one particular
place. Something about this patch of woods

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intrigued her. What she told me
next may have had most people rolling their

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eyes. But I knew Sarah better
than anyone except her parents. Of Course,

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she was genuine and truthful. There
wasn't any reason to lie about what

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some people would consider outrageous or even
outlandish. I saw something, actually more

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than something many somethings, okay,
she said excitedly. We talked on the

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phone for an hour. She couldn't
quite get it out. She was so

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guarded, even around me. She
just thought that I might judge her and

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would only call them some things.
Well, there were big ones and small

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ones. The somethings roamed this patch
of woods, and Sarah was a frequent

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visitor. I bring them food as
a kind of a peace offering. I

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put a basketful of apples, lettuce
and other fruits and vegetables, and when

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I come back the next day to
retrieve the basket, everything is gone.

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And then the following day I bring
some more. Sarah, what do they

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look like? Are you sure they
aren't just a bunch of homeless people.

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You've got to be extremely careful,
please, I pleaded. I've been traveling

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throughout the country at the time,
so the best I could do was check

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in by phone or text. One
day, I did receive a text that

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simply said they like cantaloupe. I
could only smirk, as no one could

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even guess what was really happening here. The next message said, I know

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what they are, bigfoot, a
family of them. There's even an infant

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that the mother cradles. She let
me see it from about fifty feet away.

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On a given Wednesday, I happen
to be on the West coast and

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three hours behind I've received a phone
call roughly at three thirty in the morning.

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She said she was wanting me to
listen but don't talk, and she

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put me on speaker. I heard
the car door slam, and then I

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heard her moving through brush, followed
by a clacking noise. There were several

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and then she hung up. I
texted her back, were those rocks?

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It sounded like rocks. What's going
on a few hours later she responded with

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a simple yes. I worried for
her. I wanted to go back home

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so I could talk some more with
her about what she was experiencing. I'd

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be crazy if I didn't think that
whatever she was doing could go spinning out

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of control. I guess I'm a
forward thinker, or maybe I'm just a

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little paranoid. But could people see
her interacting? Was she being safe?

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It seemed like she didn't always have
a plan. Exactly where was this happening?

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Which State Park? Two weeks later, and I was now back in

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town, we met for dinner,
and, smiling ear to ear, she

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quietly went through the details of her
habituation with these creatures. It was all

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sounding so serious, so I tried
to lighten the mood a little. Sarah,

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you don't even own a cat,
and you're making friends with Bigfoot.

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Her face turned beat red. I
had overstepped. I'm sorry. It just

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all seems so fantastic, and you
know my sense of humor. After dinner,

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we took a walk and that's when
she said, I want to see

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him. I smiled and nodded,
yeah, I do. The very next

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morning, we drove in towards the
park and pulled off at a very wide

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shoulder. It was almost inviting,
and the woods weren't really that thick.

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I guess I had imagined we'd be
traveling on foot for a while, but

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we only walked maybe a hundred yards
towards a stand of trees. This is

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the odd day, she said,
No treats today, just here to pick

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up the basket. By now,
they usually come welcome me in some way

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with a rock clack. No such
luck, and it was eerily silent.

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Sarah retrieved the basket. Of course, it was empty. She knew right

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away what she'd brought. She briefed
me on inventory of organic fruits and vegetables

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that she'd most recently left. As
much as I wanted to keep an open

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mind, this was the strangest of
strange situations, and yet Sarah was glowing.

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I had never seen her like this, was there really something here,

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Bigfoot? We waited around for over
an hour nothing. I don't understand.

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They're always here. Something's wrong.
And then she stared at me. It's

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you what I said. They won't
come around because of you. They don't

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know you, she said, So
now you're a Jane Goodall, I joked

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once again, her face turned beat
red. I couldn't stop with the wise

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cracks. Sarah was smart, especially
when it came to street smarts, but

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she had barely graduated high school while
I was at the top of my class.

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Even in college. We were an
unlikely pair, but our personalities clicked

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on that first day as freshman,
and I've always been grateful for it.

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Eleven days later, on an early
Saturday morning, departing from yet another trip

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to this hot spot, Sarah's life
was cut short. While her friends and

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family probably wondered why she was so
actively hiking and running, her secret was

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safe with me. I want you
to know, Mike that, since I

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sort of knew her routine coming out
to her favorite place now, I decided

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to make a run out here for
her, almost like a farewell visit.

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I borrowed my dad's truck, bought
the produce the night before and made my

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way out at the crack of dawn. I'd had a few drinks roughly eight

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hours ago and was still feeling the
effect in the form of sleepiness. I

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was grieving. I had drifted off
and parked on that wide and welcoming shoulder.

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The basket of produce was on the
passenger seat, and I slowly awoke

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to the sound of pebbles bouncing off
the truck's window, door and hood.

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It roused me slightly, and as
I drifted off yet again, I awoke

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again, but this time to tapping, as if something was tapping their hand

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on the window like with a ring. You know that tapping noise, tap

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tap tap tap, clunk, clunk. Someone was pulling on the door handle.

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Now my eyes opened and darted to
the passenger side. I caught sight

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of something, the something the big
foot. I saw hair. I saw

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shape, A massive shape disappeared down
the side of my truck, down the

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tailgate from what I saw in the
mirror. Now, I said out loud,

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I needed to do it now.
I wasn't brave like Sarah. She

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never once told me anything hostile about
them, but that thing was gigantic,

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and now it's hiding behind the back
of the truck. I think I have

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to do this for Sarah, I
thought one last time as I rubbed my

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throbbing head. Now I said again, OK, here you go, and

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I rolled down the passenger window and
heaved the basket outside. My head was

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killing me. I'm not brave like
you, Sara. You were always the

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brave one, and I'm scared right
now. So if you can hear me,

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please let me get out of here
in one piece, I said in

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our father, and put it in
drive. I caught sight of the basket

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turned over. Produce had spilled everywhere, but I saw nothing of the something,

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the creature, the bigfoot. As
I pulled ahead, almost to the

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same spot where Sarah had been hit, I felt a wave of relief come

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over me. I whipped a u
turn, heading back to the welcoming wide

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shoulder. The produce, lettuce,
tomatoes, apples, cantaloupe. They were

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all gone, but the basket was
there, sitting upright and empty. Empty.

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Without even thinking, I stepped out
of the truck to retrieve my friend's

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basket. I picked it up,
held it and heard the sound of rocks

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clacking together. Did they know about
Sarah? Did they connect the dots to

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me? I would make the trip
out there every other day for the rest

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of the summer, even days with
a full basket and odd days to retrieve

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it. I never shared this with
any one else. I felt like they

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simply wouldn't understand. This was between
me, Sarah, and the somethings better

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known to all as Bigfoot. Thank
you for letting me share my story.

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Bread mum, m m hm