WEBVTT 1 00:00:13.199 --> 00:00:17.760 I was reading through the comments the other day and some woman commented that she 2 00:00:17.879 --> 00:00:23.239 didn't like my Oki accent. I wasn't sure what to think about that. 3 00:00:23.239 --> 00:00:28.280 That's a I don't what is an Oakie? Is that someone from Oklahoma? 4 00:00:28.440 --> 00:00:32.840 That's not me? And if you listen to accents, you would know that 5 00:00:32.960 --> 00:00:37.880 I'm not a hillbilly. I'm not an Oakie. I'm a Mississippi Delta River 6 00:00:38.039 --> 00:00:42.119 rat redneck. I'm just a redneck. That's this is the way we talk. 7 00:00:42.759 --> 00:00:45.840 I can't change it this late in my life, and I'm not really 8 00:00:45.880 --> 00:00:49.640 embarrassed of it. But we all sound normal around here when we talk to 9 00:00:49.679 --> 00:00:54.600 each other. So I just thought I would say I'm not an Okie. 10 00:00:54.880 --> 00:00:58.679 Whatever an Okie is. Anyway, I've got a great story. It's a 11 00:00:58.719 --> 00:01:03.840 long story from miss Michigan. The writer calls it a ninety four close up 12 00:01:04.359 --> 00:01:11.000 November thirteen, nineteen ninety three. I'm assuming. I'm not sure what the 13 00:01:11.120 --> 00:01:15.480 ninety four close up means because the date is nineteen ninety three. Anyway, 14 00:01:15.040 --> 00:01:18.719 this is a great story. I think you're going to enjoy it all Right. 15 00:01:18.719 --> 00:01:23.079 Here we go. I was at the deer Hunting and Fishing cabin that 16 00:01:23.200 --> 00:01:27.920 my grandfather and my great uncle Mick built after they came home from World War 17 00:01:29.040 --> 00:01:34.480 Two. The cabin was in Glennie, Michigan, on the Ausable River all 18 00:01:34.599 --> 00:01:38.120 Sable River. I know I pronounced that wrong, but hang with me. 19 00:01:38.120 --> 00:01:42.760 I had gone up to the cabin the week before rifle season started so I 20 00:01:42.760 --> 00:01:46.400 could get in a week of bow hunting and cut some firewood and do some 21 00:01:46.480 --> 00:01:51.879 late season fishing and relaxed before Grandpa and Uncle Mick and Uncle Jim showed up 22 00:01:51.879 --> 00:01:56.680 for opening day of rifle season. I was born and raised in Arizona, 23 00:01:57.040 --> 00:02:00.719 and I had been an officer with one of the city department it's for five 24 00:02:00.799 --> 00:02:04.879 years. At the time of the incident. I took three weeks off every 25 00:02:04.879 --> 00:02:08.360 November to go to Michigan for deer season. I had been going to the 26 00:02:08.360 --> 00:02:13.599 cabin for years when I would visit. When I was a kid, there 27 00:02:13.599 --> 00:02:17.319 were black bears around, but I had only ever actually seen one, but 28 00:02:17.400 --> 00:02:23.000 had seen tracks in scat a handful of times. I believe the most dangerous 29 00:02:23.039 --> 00:02:28.080 critters up there were the mosquitoes. For the most part, there was nothing 30 00:02:28.199 --> 00:02:30.639 up there that would ever give me the heavy gebis, and I'm not prone 31 00:02:30.639 --> 00:02:35.879 to getting the creeps. I worked in a decent sized city, so I 32 00:02:36.000 --> 00:02:39.400 was pretty well honed in on what real danger was, and I was pretty 33 00:02:39.560 --> 00:02:45.719 well stressed and oculated by this time in my life. I was on my 34 00:02:45.840 --> 00:02:50.080 third day by myself. I hadn't been able to get into the woods to 35 00:02:50.240 --> 00:02:53.400 hunt because there was almost no firewood, and I spent the first two days 36 00:02:53.439 --> 00:02:58.960 cutting a dead fall pine and stacking it. I kept getting the feeling that 37 00:02:59.039 --> 00:03:02.960 I was being white while I worked. I couldn't put my finger on it, 38 00:03:04.039 --> 00:03:07.719 but it felt or seemed like every time I turned my back to the 39 00:03:07.840 --> 00:03:12.039 encroaching woods fifty feet from the cabin, the hairs on the back of my 40 00:03:12.120 --> 00:03:16.120 neck would stand up. It wasn't a feeling I was unaccustomed to, but 41 00:03:16.319 --> 00:03:21.639 in the context of being at the cabin, where I was always totally relaxed, 42 00:03:22.080 --> 00:03:25.919 it was out of the norm. But still there was nothing identifiable out 43 00:03:25.960 --> 00:03:30.680 of the ordinary, no strange sounds or smells, nothing that I could put 44 00:03:30.680 --> 00:03:35.560 my finger on. But I made sure I had my pistol on my belt 45 00:03:35.560 --> 00:03:38.280 when I was out and about, and this is something I just never did 46 00:03:38.280 --> 00:03:42.360 at the cabin, even if there was a bear track or a pile of 47 00:03:42.479 --> 00:03:46.039 scat. I never felt the need to be armed. I got the wood 48 00:03:46.080 --> 00:03:50.919 cut and stacked by late morning on the third day, and I went out 49 00:03:50.919 --> 00:03:53.000 to the front of the cabin, which was on the water front, and 50 00:03:53.080 --> 00:03:59.120 I put up a paper target on haybells we used for verifying zero on our 51 00:03:59.199 --> 00:04:03.360 rifles, and bowt o. The bales were to the left or the southeast 52 00:04:03.439 --> 00:04:10.520 and nearly to the woodline. I fired five rounds from my thirty thirty rifle 53 00:04:10.719 --> 00:04:15.599 at fifty yards, which was actually a long shot for this area. The 54 00:04:15.639 --> 00:04:19.000 woods were so thick a twenty five yard shot on a deer was normal and 55 00:04:19.120 --> 00:04:25.600 often less because you flat couldn't see any further than five to ten yards most 56 00:04:25.720 --> 00:04:30.399 places, except along the power lines that serviced the area. After I verified 57 00:04:30.519 --> 00:04:34.920 zero on my rifle, I heard fifteen rounds at the same target with a 58 00:04:35.000 --> 00:04:41.680 ten millimeter block pistol I was actually planning on hunting with that year. My 59 00:04:41.759 --> 00:04:45.879 pistol was good to go too. I reloaded the pistol and the rifle. 60 00:04:46.160 --> 00:04:50.399 When I was cleaning up the brass, I heard a strange guttural umph sound 61 00:04:50.560 --> 00:04:56.319 from inside the tree line behind me. The cabin was closed in by the 62 00:04:56.360 --> 00:04:59.759 woods on three sides, and there was only a half an acre cleared, 63 00:05:00.279 --> 00:05:03.160 so unless something was outside the tree line, you weren't going to see it. 64 00:05:04.319 --> 00:05:08.040 I thought it could have been a bear, and that didn't bother me. 65 00:05:08.560 --> 00:05:12.720 I'd been making plenty of noise so it wouldn't be startled or surprised that 66 00:05:12.800 --> 00:05:15.560 I was there. I finished up and went in to get some food. 67 00:05:16.800 --> 00:05:20.720 Halfway back to the door, I heard the oomph again, only this time 68 00:05:20.759 --> 00:05:25.560 it was louder and it seemed to be closer. Well, now I was 69 00:05:25.600 --> 00:05:29.639 getting a creepy feeling about the whole thing, more than I had over the 70 00:05:29.720 --> 00:05:32.920 last couple of days. This was palpable, and then it hit me. 71 00:05:33.399 --> 00:05:36.439 I never heard a bear, a deer, a beaver, or any other 72 00:05:36.519 --> 00:05:43.040 critter make a sound with a definite f sound at the end. My cop 73 00:05:43.120 --> 00:05:46.959 brain went to someone has to be messing with me, so I yelled out, 74 00:05:47.040 --> 00:05:50.560 okay, I hear you. This isn't a great place to be effing 75 00:05:50.600 --> 00:05:56.759 around. You better show yourself or get well. I heard the oomph again, 76 00:05:57.279 --> 00:06:00.720 and then definite heavy footfalls going away from where I was toward the back 77 00:06:00.720 --> 00:06:05.680 of the property to a swampy area behind the cabin. It wasn't really a 78 00:06:05.759 --> 00:06:10.079 swamp, but it was always wet and muddy, and if you tried to 79 00:06:10.079 --> 00:06:13.160 get in there, you were likely to lose a boot. And the knee 80 00:06:13.160 --> 00:06:17.519 deep mud and that sticky, black, silty soil, the footfalls were definitely 81 00:06:17.600 --> 00:06:25.000 heavy and bipedal. Again, my brain that looks for logical answers thought person 82 00:06:25.079 --> 00:06:30.600 in heavy hunting boots. But I also thought that whoever was messing with me 83 00:06:30.800 --> 00:06:34.360 was in for a nasty surprise if they went into that wet area. I 84 00:06:34.399 --> 00:06:39.040 figured it was a bow hunter or a young airman from the air base, 85 00:06:39.160 --> 00:06:43.959 and a Skota screwing around with me, which wasn't unusual in our area. 86 00:06:44.759 --> 00:06:46.759 I figured it was over, and I finally went inside the cabin through the 87 00:06:46.800 --> 00:06:51.920 screened in porch at the front door, and put my things away. I 88 00:06:51.959 --> 00:06:58.399 fixed lunch and I half dozed in a chair by the big fireplace. I 89 00:06:58.439 --> 00:07:01.399 had not been dozing long when a big boom startled me right out of my 90 00:07:01.560 --> 00:07:05.519 chair. I had no idea what the noise was, but I was on 91 00:07:05.600 --> 00:07:10.279 my feet. I thought it had to be one or two of the little 92 00:07:10.319 --> 00:07:14.319 A seven jets from the air base going low and fast over the river. 93 00:07:15.079 --> 00:07:17.560 They did that once in a while, and it could really shake the windows 94 00:07:17.560 --> 00:07:24.000 in our cabin because we were right on the water. I reoriented myself and 95 00:07:24.079 --> 00:07:28.240 realized I had to use the restroom. There was a bathroom in the cabin, 96 00:07:28.279 --> 00:07:30.759 but it had an old style chemical toilet, and that was mainly for 97 00:07:30.879 --> 00:07:35.399 women when they came up. The men didn't use it because you had to 98 00:07:35.439 --> 00:07:40.759 empty it after every u so we all used the outhouse out back for things 99 00:07:40.759 --> 00:07:44.800 that required a seat, and a handy tree for business that could be done 100 00:07:44.839 --> 00:07:48.319 standing up. The only rule was that you had to step off the back 101 00:07:48.439 --> 00:07:53.560 porch. I decided I needed a seat, and I walked the thirty feet 102 00:07:53.639 --> 00:07:57.560 or so to the big outhouse which faced out into the swamp, and I 103 00:07:57.600 --> 00:08:01.879 sat down to take care of business. And I heard the damn umph again. 104 00:08:03.199 --> 00:08:07.399 Someone was definitely screwing around with me now, and I was getting pissed. 105 00:08:07.240 --> 00:08:11.959 I started back to the back porch, cussing a blue streak. I 106 00:08:11.000 --> 00:08:15.759 went back inside and sat at the kitchen table, and I lit a cigarette 107 00:08:16.160 --> 00:08:20.199 and I started a pot of coffee. I sat at the table drinking my 108 00:08:20.319 --> 00:08:22.959 coffee, and I cleaned my rifle in my pistol. I made a fire 109 00:08:24.000 --> 00:08:26.160 in the fireplace, and I put in a movie, and I had some 110 00:08:26.240 --> 00:08:31.480 dinner, and then I went to bed. The inside of the cabin, 111 00:08:31.600 --> 00:08:35.279 or the main part before the addition, was twenty four feet by twenty four 112 00:08:35.399 --> 00:08:41.080 feet. It was built from ten to twelve foot logs, and the kitchen 113 00:08:41.240 --> 00:08:45.720 bumped out off the back, and there were two bedrooms in the bathroom bumped 114 00:08:45.720 --> 00:08:50.720 out on the sides, and those were two by six framing. Nothing fancy, 115 00:08:50.799 --> 00:08:54.639 but it was comfortable. My bed was in the corner of the big 116 00:08:54.720 --> 00:08:58.440 room, right by one of the windows, and one wall was a big 117 00:08:58.480 --> 00:09:03.039 stone fireplace, and there was several comfortable chairs and four old freeby couches in 118 00:09:03.120 --> 00:09:09.679 different spots. Now I usually sleep like a baby, but I tossed and 119 00:09:09.799 --> 00:09:13.279 turned. I think I was bent out of shape for being messed with, 120 00:09:13.559 --> 00:09:18.480 and just generally irritated. When I finally couldn't sleep, I went back to 121 00:09:18.559 --> 00:09:24.159 the chair and I started another movie. And then came another boom, except 122 00:09:24.200 --> 00:09:26.879 it was more of a huge slap on the side of the cabin than made 123 00:09:26.879 --> 00:09:31.120 the whole wall shape. I grabbed my flashlight, my pistol, andine I 124 00:09:31.200 --> 00:09:35.399 headed out the front door. I heard fast footsteps going away from me, 125 00:09:35.480 --> 00:09:39.559 and I put the beam of light down that side of the cabin, but 126 00:09:39.600 --> 00:09:43.000 I couldn't see anything. I could hear it, but it was full dark, 127 00:09:43.039 --> 00:09:46.200 and unless you have been there at night, you don't know what dark 128 00:09:46.440 --> 00:09:52.519 is. Now. I was seriously pissed. I mean, I was heated. 129 00:09:52.559 --> 00:09:54.799 But there wasn't anything I could do at that point, so I went 130 00:09:54.840 --> 00:09:58.840 back in and put in another movie, and at some point I fell asleep. 131 00:10:01.679 --> 00:10:05.279 The next morning, everything was dead quiet. When I got up and 132 00:10:05.320 --> 00:10:09.600 made coffee. I went outside of your Nate and there were no birds chirping 133 00:10:09.720 --> 00:10:13.200 or chittering. It was so quiet that it was eerie. But I finished 134 00:10:13.240 --> 00:10:18.120 and I went inside to have my coffee and get dressed. It was feeling 135 00:10:18.279 --> 00:10:20.759 like snow in the air, and I wanted to bring in a bunch of 136 00:10:20.799 --> 00:10:26.279 firewood. And I dressed and put my pistol into its holster and went out 137 00:10:26.320 --> 00:10:31.120 back to the woodpile. I had made three or four trips, and when 138 00:10:31.159 --> 00:10:35.240 I came back out the last time and stepped off the porch, I caught 139 00:10:35.279 --> 00:10:39.480 fast movement behind the outhouse. It was fast enough that I thought it had 140 00:10:39.519 --> 00:10:43.960 to be a crow or something. I got a few steps further, and 141 00:10:45.200 --> 00:10:50.159 it stepped out from behind the outhouse, and I stopped dead still looking right 142 00:10:50.399 --> 00:10:56.039 at a big foot. I am six foot four inches tall, and this 143 00:10:56.080 --> 00:11:00.759 big bastard had at least a foot on me. It was so thick and 144 00:11:00.879 --> 00:11:05.360 muscular it looked like a brownish red body builder. It was just so massive. 145 00:11:05.639 --> 00:11:09.759 There was no other way to describe it. If I had to make 146 00:11:09.759 --> 00:11:13.320 a guess, there was no way it could have weighed less than seven hundred 147 00:11:13.320 --> 00:11:18.159 and fifty pounds. Three times would I weighed it too fifty? Hell, 148 00:11:18.200 --> 00:11:22.960 it was probably more because of its sheer massive width. It had no whites 149 00:11:24.039 --> 00:11:28.519 to its eyes, and the nose was really wide and flat. The face 150 00:11:28.639 --> 00:11:31.519 looked like a flatter version of a gorilla, but with a human like nose 151 00:11:31.600 --> 00:11:37.000 and really thick, large cheekbones and a heavy brow above its deep set black 152 00:11:37.039 --> 00:11:43.519 eyes. It didn't have the pronounced muzzle of a gorilla, but rather more 153 00:11:43.600 --> 00:11:46.080 like a human, but with a massive and thick lower jaw. In the 154 00:11:46.159 --> 00:11:52.600 same way, the nose was more human like than gorilla, similar but still 155 00:11:52.679 --> 00:11:56.440 distinct. I can see it just as clearly now as in the moment I 156 00:11:56.519 --> 00:12:01.919 was looking at it. It had a head or at least a big tuft 157 00:12:01.960 --> 00:12:05.799 of hair on top of its head that made it a pear conical, but 158 00:12:05.840 --> 00:12:09.600 there was no length to its neck. The head sat so low it gave 159 00:12:09.679 --> 00:12:16.120 the impression that it sat directly on its shoulders. I think I said, 160 00:12:16.679 --> 00:12:20.159 oh shit, or I dropped the F bomb. Well, then it sniffed 161 00:12:20.200 --> 00:12:24.840 the air and it looked at me and it went mph again, not threatening 162 00:12:24.960 --> 00:12:31.720 per se, just almost like questioning me. I really don't know. The 163 00:12:31.720 --> 00:12:35.080 impression on me was like when a dog wolfs it you. It's not barking, 164 00:12:35.159 --> 00:12:39.399 like it's scared or threatening, but like, I'm here and I'm not 165 00:12:39.480 --> 00:12:45.279 sure how I feel about you. Yet I was only ten yards from it. 166 00:12:45.279 --> 00:12:48.240 It could just reach out and grab me with one step forward from where 167 00:12:48.240 --> 00:12:52.799 it stood rocking on its thick legs. It moved just a little more to 168 00:12:52.879 --> 00:12:58.639 its left side, like it was deciding which way to run. But then 169 00:12:58.679 --> 00:13:03.159 it looked at me again with a change in expression, like it was deciding 170 00:13:03.279 --> 00:13:07.840 what to do to me. Now instead of running, we both stood there 171 00:13:07.840 --> 00:13:13.080 staring at one another. Now I've had subjects look at me that way pursue 172 00:13:13.120 --> 00:13:16.440 it to an arrest. The change in its expression was a pre assault of 173 00:13:16.639 --> 00:13:20.639 queue, and I recognized it for what it was. I put my right 174 00:13:20.679 --> 00:13:24.080 hand under my fleece vest and I grabbed my pistol, thinking that if that 175 00:13:24.120 --> 00:13:28.120 big bastard moved toward be an inch, I was going to put sixteen rounds 176 00:13:28.120 --> 00:13:33.440 into its chest as fast as I could and then reload while I was making 177 00:13:33.480 --> 00:13:37.960 a run for the cabin. When I put my hand on my gun, 178 00:13:37.000 --> 00:13:41.120 it let out a different noise that went through my chest like a loud bass 179 00:13:41.279 --> 00:13:46.799 beat. It was a muh that cracked at the end. It looked like 180 00:13:46.879 --> 00:13:50.879 it grew six inches taller, and we stared at one another for a few 181 00:13:50.960 --> 00:13:54.639 seconds, and then it looked off to its left and it ran into the 182 00:13:54.679 --> 00:14:00.759 woods, crashing through the brush. It moved faster than I thought something that 183 00:14:00.799 --> 00:14:05.799 big could move. I don't know how long I stood there. Seemed like 184 00:14:05.960 --> 00:14:09.440 hours, but it could only have been a few seconds. Now. I 185 00:14:09.559 --> 00:14:13.840 drew my pistol to low ready and backside stepping and scanning around me all the 186 00:14:13.840 --> 00:14:18.600 way to the cabin. My heart was pounding when I got back inside, 187 00:14:18.679 --> 00:14:24.600 and I was adrenaline pumping so bad that I was shaking. I locked the 188 00:14:24.639 --> 00:14:28.679 door, which in retrospect seemed silly because it was just a wooden door with 189 00:14:28.720 --> 00:14:33.000 a large window in it and an old dead bolt that wouldn't stop anyone who 190 00:14:33.039 --> 00:14:37.960 wanted to get in. I had no idea what I should do. I 191 00:14:37.000 --> 00:14:41.399 only knew what I could do. I reverted to my training and made sure 192 00:14:41.440 --> 00:14:46.080 the old Remington pump shotgun we kept in the cabin was loaded with slugs. 193 00:14:46.559 --> 00:14:50.480 I pulled the thirty thirty out of the rack and levered around into the chamber, 194 00:14:50.720 --> 00:14:54.159 and then I loaded another round into the magazine to top it off. 195 00:14:56.120 --> 00:15:00.279 I made sure the shotgun was close at hand wherever I was for the rest 196 00:15:00.320 --> 00:15:03.879 of that day, and made damn sure I was back inside by dark and 197 00:15:03.919 --> 00:15:09.080 had the kitchen light and back porch and front porch lights on. I tried 198 00:15:09.080 --> 00:15:13.440 to sleep, but I only dozed lightly because every sound brought me to full 199 00:15:13.519 --> 00:15:18.679 wakeness. I even traded my bed by the window for one of the couches 200 00:15:18.720 --> 00:15:22.039 that was backed up to the solid log wall, and I even remained dressed 201 00:15:22.159 --> 00:15:26.440 with my boots on. I knew it could get in, but it would 202 00:15:26.519 --> 00:15:30.120 have to make a hell of a lot of noise doing it, and that 203 00:15:30.159 --> 00:15:33.879 would at least give me a reactionary gap to shoot it a bunch of times 204 00:15:33.000 --> 00:15:37.840 before it really got pissed off and ate me or whatever it planned to do. 205 00:15:37.919 --> 00:15:41.519 Either way, if it got me, I would be surrounded by empty 206 00:15:41.519 --> 00:15:46.320 shotgun shells and ten millimeters brass. I know it sounds like I'm making light 207 00:15:46.360 --> 00:15:50.200 of it, but those were the thoughts that went through my head. It 208 00:15:50.360 --> 00:15:56.799 was the Cops Gallows humor at work. Grandpa showed up in the morning before 209 00:15:56.919 --> 00:16:00.080 Uncle Mick and the rest. I helped him unload his blazer and we went 210 00:16:00.120 --> 00:16:04.840 inside for coffee. He asked me why the shotgun was on the kitchen counter, 211 00:16:04.960 --> 00:16:10.320 and the whole incident spilled out of me. He sat there with his 212 00:16:10.480 --> 00:16:12.840 hands around his coffee cup, looking into it, and then looked up into 213 00:16:12.840 --> 00:16:18.200 my eyes and said, I know, Grandpa, and I looked all around 214 00:16:18.200 --> 00:16:22.720 the cabin area for tracks. The leaf and pine needle cover was so thick, 215 00:16:23.320 --> 00:16:27.840 and other than a couple of large, poorly defined impressions where it stood 216 00:16:27.879 --> 00:16:33.000 facing me, there was nothing that had any detail. If I hadn't been 217 00:16:33.039 --> 00:16:37.720 right there to see it, I wouldn't even know what the impressions in the 218 00:16:37.720 --> 00:16:41.639 clutter were, or even pay them any mind at all. I think I 219 00:16:41.759 --> 00:16:47.559 was really looking for any evidence that I hadn't totally lost my mind. I 220 00:16:47.639 --> 00:16:51.759 wasn't prone to unreasonable fear at work, and I was used to dealing with 221 00:16:51.879 --> 00:16:57.559 predatory humans and high stress and high threat situations and gangs and narcotics. I'd 222 00:16:57.600 --> 00:17:03.080 been in critical incidents and I had handled them. I was rattled that I 223 00:17:03.240 --> 00:17:06.720 was so rattled. Yes, it was a bigfoot, but it was also 224 00:17:06.960 --> 00:17:11.200 just a flesh and blood animal. I was raised around animals, and I 225 00:17:11.240 --> 00:17:15.640 worked around predators. It didn't make sense that this would affect me the way 226 00:17:15.759 --> 00:17:19.599 it did. There was a big part of me that wanted to pack it 227 00:17:19.680 --> 00:17:23.440 in and head back down to the Flint area and spend the next two weeks 228 00:17:23.480 --> 00:17:27.880 with my grandma instead of staying at the cabin. It was also the part 229 00:17:27.920 --> 00:17:32.279 of me that wouldn't let a big monkey chase me out of a place where 230 00:17:32.319 --> 00:17:36.640 I had spent so much good time with my grandpa. You can call it 231 00:17:36.720 --> 00:17:40.920 ego or self image. Wanted to be able to look at myself in the 232 00:17:40.920 --> 00:17:45.440 mirror and not see a coward. And all those things made me stay and 233 00:17:45.559 --> 00:17:48.799 made me go out in the woods and hunt like I always had. I 234 00:17:48.880 --> 00:17:53.519 was definitely more alert to anything out of the ordinary, and most especially I 235 00:17:53.559 --> 00:17:59.519 was alert to sudden, deafening silence. But nothing else happened. I even 236 00:17:59.559 --> 00:18:02.880 forced myself to stay out until dust so I would have to make part of 237 00:18:02.920 --> 00:18:07.519 the walk from my blind to the cabin in the dark. Now I am 238 00:18:07.559 --> 00:18:11.799 not so arrogant as to say that I was scary to a bigfoot. But 239 00:18:11.960 --> 00:18:17.920 thirty years of reflecting on the incident and going over it, and reading other 240 00:18:17.960 --> 00:18:22.759 accounts by people whom I consider to be credible, I had become convinced that 241 00:18:22.839 --> 00:18:26.519 it was when it saw me open my vest and put my hand on my 242 00:18:26.680 --> 00:18:32.640 pistol that it decided to run. Yes, it had to have seen and 243 00:18:32.799 --> 00:18:37.359 heard me shoot earlier. It made noise and alerted me to the presence of 244 00:18:37.359 --> 00:18:41.200 what I thought was someone messing with me. But it saw and it heard 245 00:18:41.240 --> 00:18:45.720 the guns. I had my pistol under my vest, so it didn't see 246 00:18:45.720 --> 00:18:48.559 a gun until I put my hand on it. And that's when its demeanor 247 00:18:48.720 --> 00:18:55.920 changed again and it ran. I got a nice six point on the seventeenth. 248 00:18:56.559 --> 00:19:00.000 Grandpa and Uncle Mick and Uncle Jim all got a deer as well. 249 00:19:00.000 --> 00:19:03.240 Oh, nothing else happened, and Grandpa and I didn't talk about it anymore 250 00:19:03.359 --> 00:19:07.680 until a few years later, when he came to visit me in Arizona. 251 00:19:08.039 --> 00:19:11.519 He told me that he had also been alone at the cabin in the mid 252 00:19:11.599 --> 00:19:17.400 seventies when he saw something big and dark brown cross the road as he was 253 00:19:17.480 --> 00:19:22.200 driving out. It turns out that that was our last trip to the cabin. 254 00:19:22.839 --> 00:19:27.279 It nearly burned down in a wildfire the following summer. Grandpa and Okmak 255 00:19:27.359 --> 00:19:32.279 decided to sell the land and hunt with friends in another location after that. 256 00:19:33.039 --> 00:19:36.079 As of June this year, I hadn't been back to the old property for 257 00:19:36.119 --> 00:19:40.759 almost thirty years. I had to go to Michigan for a family reunion and 258 00:19:40.799 --> 00:19:44.319 I drove up with my wife and on a whim, I decided to go 259 00:19:44.400 --> 00:19:49.119 back to the old property. It looked completely different going in. There were 260 00:19:49.119 --> 00:19:53.039 a lot of newer, glamour cabins, and they had high dollar water and 261 00:19:53.119 --> 00:19:59.599 trail toys and luxury SUVs parked around them. There wasn't anything left that I 262 00:19:59.640 --> 00:20:03.680 reco nice on our old property. Everything including how I felt about the place, 263 00:20:03.720 --> 00:20:07.039 had changed, but I was glad I had my forty five on my 264 00:20:07.119 --> 00:20:12.440 belt just the same. And then the writer ads, sorry for the long 265 00:20:12.640 --> 00:20:17.559 post, but there it is. And I thought this story was longer, 266 00:20:17.599 --> 00:20:21.960 but looks like I copied this thing twice and pasted it in my word file. 267 00:20:22.119 --> 00:20:26.000 Anyway, that's the end of it. I got about halfway through the 268 00:20:26.039 --> 00:20:27.039 final I thought, is that the end of it? That is the end 269 00:20:27.079 --> 00:20:30.920 of it? He said, sorry for the long post, but there it 270 00:20:30.079 --> 00:20:36.839 is. First and foremost this man can write, there is I had. 271 00:20:37.559 --> 00:20:41.839 I read the first paragraph when I pulled his email up, and I could 272 00:20:41.839 --> 00:20:45.720 tell right away that he had written this pretty good and I would probably be 273 00:20:45.799 --> 00:20:48.240 able to read it cold. And that's what I did. I had never 274 00:20:48.279 --> 00:20:52.079 read this before. I just read it first time I've ever seen it. 275 00:20:52.119 --> 00:20:56.759 I just read it straight off. But this is a really good, detailed 276 00:20:56.000 --> 00:21:02.759 belief to me, to me a skip dick, this is a rational and 277 00:21:02.839 --> 00:21:08.599 believable story. I mean, he's he's in a really secluded place in Michigan. 278 00:21:08.839 --> 00:21:14.519 I think Michigan has a huge wildernesses and it's a beautiful place, especially 279 00:21:14.519 --> 00:21:15.799 in the summertime. I wouldn't want to be up there in the winter, 280 00:21:17.119 --> 00:21:21.319 but I'm a warm I'm a warm weather person. Anyway, Uh, he's 281 00:21:21.400 --> 00:21:25.720 up there in the wilderness, and he's very secluded and he's hearing this stuff, 282 00:21:26.480 --> 00:21:29.359 and just by chance, he walks out and boom, there's a bigfoot 283 00:21:29.440 --> 00:21:34.319 just standing there. I mean, that's the perfect encounter. Would the bigfoot 284 00:21:34.319 --> 00:21:38.640 have kept going, would it have moved off, had he not reached for 285 00:21:38.720 --> 00:21:42.279 his handgun, or would it have stayed? Would it have just checked him 286 00:21:42.279 --> 00:21:45.799 out? Would it have attacked him? There's no way to know. He 287 00:21:45.920 --> 00:21:49.400 wasn't going to take a chance, and that makes sense to me. This 288 00:21:49.480 --> 00:21:52.880 is one of the better stories that I've read in a long time, and 289 00:21:53.200 --> 00:21:57.559 I really enjoyed reading it. So to the writer, you get an a 290 00:21:57.880 --> 00:22:03.400 for writing a story that I was able to read. I never got hung 291 00:22:03.480 --> 00:22:06.480 up on it at all. Sometimes I get hung up in these paragraphs because 292 00:22:07.359 --> 00:22:11.839 some people they write like they think, and I don't think the same way. 293 00:22:11.920 --> 00:22:14.599 That doesn't mean the way they wrote it is wrong. It's just that 294 00:22:14.880 --> 00:22:18.960 the words that they use don't jive with the way I think, so I 295 00:22:18.000 --> 00:22:21.920 get hung up on it. Not this one, man, I just blew 296 00:22:21.920 --> 00:22:25.680 through this like nothing, So I'm sorry I'm just rambling, but I'm just 297 00:22:25.720 --> 00:22:29.319 so happy to get this story. So thank you to the writer. That's 298 00:22:29.359 --> 00:22:32.480 going to be it for this podcast. I hope you guys enjoyed it, 299 00:22:32.880 --> 00:22:37.640 and we will see you soon on another podcast. We're going to be slowly 300 00:22:37.799 --> 00:22:45.440 increasing the rate of uploads after my work after my work marathon, and I'm 301 00:22:45.480 --> 00:22:48.240 so excited to be doing this, So thank you for listening, and we'll 302 00:22:48.240 --> 00:22:52.680 see you guys on the next one. Thanks.