WEBVTT

1
00:00:11.199 --> 00:01:30.719
At at Hey, everyone, thanks
so much for listening to tonight's live stream

2
00:01:30.760 --> 00:01:36.599
episode of dog Men Encounters Radio.
Tonight's guest, unfortunately, had a very

3
00:01:36.640 --> 00:01:42.760
traumatic encounter just two days ago in
an interesting place. I really feel for

4
00:01:42.799 --> 00:01:47.439
the guy. I spoke with him
yesterday for the first time about what happened

5
00:01:47.480 --> 00:01:53.480
to him, and he was all
torn up, understandably so. But yeah,

6
00:01:53.560 --> 00:01:56.120
you're going to get the rest of
the story here in just a bit,

7
00:01:56.239 --> 00:01:59.439
in about ten minutes, and when
you listen to what this poor man

8
00:01:59.519 --> 00:02:02.280
went through, you're really gonna feel
for him. But before we get to

9
00:02:02.319 --> 00:02:07.159
that point, let's bring him on
here now. Tonight's guest is Mike.

10
00:02:07.719 --> 00:02:12.840
Mike, Welcome to the show.
Thank you, Vic. I really do

11
00:02:12.960 --> 00:02:23.319
appreciate you giving me the opportunity to
explain this however I can. Oh,

12
00:02:23.360 --> 00:02:25.280
you're welcome. That's what I'm here
for, and yeah, that's what I

13
00:02:25.400 --> 00:02:29.759
love to do. I'm just so
glad that you found out about me and

14
00:02:29.840 --> 00:02:34.919
what I do. And speaking of
that, you found out about me in

15
00:02:34.960 --> 00:02:39.719
a very interesting way. How did
you find out about me? Yes,

16
00:02:40.360 --> 00:02:47.800
I did, sir, well,
when I had the encounter. When I

17
00:02:47.840 --> 00:03:00.759
finally got back down to Kent,
Connecticut from the area surrounding Salisbury, Connecticut.

18
00:03:00.159 --> 00:03:08.000
I told my old mom and my
old dad and my older sister,

19
00:03:08.960 --> 00:03:15.159
and you know, no one really, no one really believed me at first.

20
00:03:15.439 --> 00:03:23.840
But when they saw that my jeans
were soaked in my own urine,

21
00:03:24.199 --> 00:03:34.360
they realized something really bad happened.
And my mom was really as most mothers

22
00:03:34.360 --> 00:03:39.319
are, she was the one that
really was the most responsive and the most

23
00:03:39.360 --> 00:03:45.280
concerned and the more I just,
I mean, at this point, you

24
00:03:45.319 --> 00:03:50.840
got to understand, vict At this
point, I am almost ranting and raving

25
00:03:51.039 --> 00:03:57.360
like a like a lunatic. I
just I'm just talking and talking and talking,

26
00:03:57.800 --> 00:04:00.560
and you can't shut me up,
and no one can get a word

27
00:04:00.599 --> 00:04:09.520
in. And I mean I'm literally
just repeating myself over and over and over

28
00:04:09.560 --> 00:04:13.960
again, is basically the way I
would say it. And so finally when

29
00:04:14.400 --> 00:04:25.360
I was calmed down a bit and
they convinced me to change out of my

30
00:04:25.519 --> 00:04:32.920
wet pants, not calm at all
yet, but a little bit more comfortable

31
00:04:33.439 --> 00:04:44.560
in some clean clothes, and basically
they they my dad said it first.

32
00:04:44.639 --> 00:04:47.439
My dad said, well, you
know, you should call the rangers and

33
00:04:47.519 --> 00:04:55.480
let them know that you know,
you had a large predator encounter, and

34
00:04:55.639 --> 00:04:59.959
I'm like, okay, I think
you're you know that that is sound advice.

35
00:05:00.759 --> 00:05:05.240
Let me go and do that.
And so I go online and I'm

36
00:05:05.279 --> 00:05:13.480
looking up park rangers for Bear Mountain, Connecticut. Nothing pops up. I

37
00:05:14.360 --> 00:05:19.920
look in you know, park rangers
near Salisbury, Connecticut. Nothing pops up.

38
00:05:20.759 --> 00:05:26.040
So my Dad's like, okay,
fine, you know, just call

39
00:05:26.160 --> 00:05:30.240
Parks and Wreck. You know,
that's just how my dad's like, just

40
00:05:30.279 --> 00:05:32.480
call Parks and Rec and be done
with it. So I did. I

41
00:05:32.519 --> 00:05:36.000
called Parks and Rec and I asked
them. I got somebody on the phone,

42
00:05:36.759 --> 00:05:44.399
and I asked them, you know
what ranger do I talk to for

43
00:05:44.480 --> 00:05:51.360
the Bear Mountain area of northwestern Connecticut
up in the mountains, and they directed

44
00:05:51.399 --> 00:06:03.399
me to the rangers station's phone number. And apparently it's not just a ranger

45
00:06:03.439 --> 00:06:12.120
station, it's also like they have
biologists there and wildlife experts. So I

46
00:06:12.240 --> 00:06:18.560
called this number and initially I got
voicemail. I did not want to leave

47
00:06:18.560 --> 00:06:23.759
a voicemail because I just I knew
they would think it was a prank.

48
00:06:24.800 --> 00:06:29.639
So I tried back. About ten
minutes later, I actually got somebody on

49
00:06:29.720 --> 00:06:34.759
the phone, a live human being, and it was a female park ranger,

50
00:06:35.639 --> 00:06:42.240
and I told her that I would
like to explain a large predator encounter,

51
00:06:43.160 --> 00:06:49.079
and so she asked me to go
ahead, and I basically, now,

52
00:06:49.399 --> 00:06:54.480
yesterday I was on the phone with
you for two and a half hours,

53
00:06:54.879 --> 00:06:59.240
and I think maybe about an hour
to an hour and a half of

54
00:06:59.279 --> 00:07:04.560
it was my story and the rest
of it was you explaining to me all

55
00:07:04.600 --> 00:07:11.519
the great, wonderful, beautiful things
that you had to say to calm me

56
00:07:11.600 --> 00:07:15.879
down. But I gave her an
abridged version because I didn't want to sound

57
00:07:15.920 --> 00:07:26.279
crazy, right, I did not
want to sound crazy. Towards the end

58
00:07:26.439 --> 00:07:30.920
of the conversation, she says,
well, what do you think you saw?

59
00:07:32.199 --> 00:07:39.519
And this is where I got nervous. I almost hung up the phone.

60
00:07:39.959 --> 00:07:43.920
Really, I almost hung up the
phone because how am I going to

61
00:07:43.959 --> 00:07:49.720
describe this thing? So you know, I'm nervous and I'm jittery, and

62
00:07:50.000 --> 00:07:55.040
I'm like, well, if I
tell you what I think I saw,

63
00:07:55.600 --> 00:07:58.720
you're going to think this is a
prank and then you're going to hang up

64
00:07:58.759 --> 00:08:01.839
on me. And she's like,
no, sir, I'm not going to

65
00:08:01.920 --> 00:08:05.839
hang up on you. I'm not
going to think it's a prank. Just

66
00:08:05.040 --> 00:08:13.759
tell me what you think you saw? And so very hesitantly, I said,

67
00:08:16.199 --> 00:08:22.720
I think I saw werewolf. She
didn't laugh, she didn't hang up.

68
00:08:24.759 --> 00:08:30.759
It was kind of radio silence for
a hot second, and then she

69
00:08:30.879 --> 00:08:37.039
said okay. And I'm like,
okay. I'm like, so you've heard

70
00:08:37.039 --> 00:08:41.759
about this before, You've seen this
before. And she's like, I've personally

71
00:08:41.799 --> 00:08:48.559
never seen this before. But I
have ranger friends all across the country that

72
00:08:48.679 --> 00:08:54.320
I talked to on a weekly to
monthly basis, and I've heard many stories

73
00:08:54.559 --> 00:08:58.679
about things like this. And I
was like, are you kidding me.

74
00:09:00.080 --> 00:09:05.000
I'm like, so this is not
just Connecticut, It's you have, you

75
00:09:05.200 --> 00:09:11.000
know, people that have heard of
these things. And she was like,

76
00:09:11.080 --> 00:09:15.600
yes, sir, I have.
And then to make a long story short

77
00:09:15.720 --> 00:09:18.919
short because I was on the phone
with her for about forty five minutes.

78
00:09:20.639 --> 00:09:24.360
To make a long story short,
she said, well, the only thing

79
00:09:24.399 --> 00:09:28.000
I tell you, and she's documenting
this. I can hear her clacking the

80
00:09:28.080 --> 00:09:35.519
keyboard writing this stuff down via keyboard, you know, I can literally hear

81
00:09:35.559 --> 00:09:39.320
her clacking her fingers documenting. And
she even told me, she's like,

82
00:09:39.360 --> 00:09:46.720
sir, I'm documenting everything you're describing. I'm going to forward this to dispatch,

83
00:09:46.240 --> 00:09:52.799
and Dispatch will then find the proper
authorities to go out and take a

84
00:09:52.840 --> 00:09:58.720
look at the area you were.
She knew exactly where I was, so

85
00:10:00.360 --> 00:10:03.120
I was like, wow, okay, like you know, she's not just

86
00:10:03.159 --> 00:10:09.559
listening to me, she's literally taking
notes. And that's when she told me.

87
00:10:11.440 --> 00:10:15.600
What I would suggest for you to
do is to go online and look

88
00:10:15.679 --> 00:10:20.159
up dogman encounters dot com. She
didn't give me your name, she didn't

89
00:10:20.159 --> 00:10:22.519
give me any information other than that
that was it. That was the only

90
00:10:22.559 --> 00:10:28.879
information she said. Just go online, look up dogmen encounters dot com and

91
00:10:31.200 --> 00:10:39.679
once you get there, you can
submit a form where someone someone will eventually

92
00:10:41.320 --> 00:10:46.080
get in contact with you and uh
and and ask you more questions. Now,

93
00:10:46.399 --> 00:10:50.679
dog man, what the what?
What's a dog man? I've not

94
00:10:50.879 --> 00:10:56.159
I've never even heard of this term, you know, like I know sasquatch.

95
00:10:56.799 --> 00:11:01.799
I watched these TV shows on History
Channel on Travel Channel, and they're

96
00:11:01.840 --> 00:11:07.720
all very exciting. I'm into cryptids
as far as you know. As an

97
00:11:07.759 --> 00:11:13.279
atheist, I'm very science minded.
I believe in facts and proof and truth,

98
00:11:13.799 --> 00:11:20.440
but I also believe in I love
hearing about extinct animals and like I

99
00:11:20.480 --> 00:11:26.919
told you earlier, when I was
in high school, I did an essay.

100
00:11:26.240 --> 00:11:33.080
I did a five thousand word essay
on the Ceila camp, which has

101
00:11:33.159 --> 00:11:37.279
been extinct for millions of years.
But then you know, thirty forty years

102
00:11:37.320 --> 00:11:50.519
ago, a live one is caught. They caught it live. And this

103
00:11:50.639 --> 00:11:54.960
thing, this thing is apparently supposed
to be extinct for millions of years,

104
00:11:56.559 --> 00:12:01.559
but they found a live one.
So you know, watching the shows about

105
00:12:01.919 --> 00:12:11.720
doctor Jeff Meldrum and Sasquatch and how
he thinks it could be Gigantopithecus Blackie and

106
00:12:11.159 --> 00:12:15.639
it's an ancestor of that, and
like so I'm like, okay, So

107
00:12:15.879 --> 00:12:20.080
if there's an extinct creature that does
exist called the Seilal Camp, why couldn't

108
00:12:20.080 --> 00:12:26.000
there be an offshoot of Gigantopithecus.
Why couldn't there be? So I was

109
00:12:26.000 --> 00:12:31.960
in the I was in the cryptids
in that way, but where wolves absolutely

110
00:12:31.000 --> 00:12:35.799
not. You know, like,
if you believe in werewolves, then you

111
00:12:35.840 --> 00:12:39.080
believe in vampires. If you believe
in vampires, then you believe in mummies.

112
00:12:39.399 --> 00:12:41.559
If you believe in mummies, then
you believe in zombies. You know,

113
00:12:41.679 --> 00:12:46.679
so like those like that's kind of
where I wouldn't cross the line.

114
00:12:46.440 --> 00:12:52.240
And it was the ranger that got
me in touch with you, and you

115
00:12:52.279 --> 00:13:03.200
were very quick in your response,
and I was astounded at how professional and

116
00:13:03.279 --> 00:13:09.399
polite you were. And I even
looking back on it on yesterday, it's

117
00:13:09.440 --> 00:13:13.240
almost like it was a dream to
be quite like like like I like,

118
00:13:13.320 --> 00:13:20.159
it didn't happen. Well, there's
a reason behind why I contacted you so

119
00:13:20.320 --> 00:13:24.840
quickly. I saw in the report
that your encounter it only happened two days

120
00:13:24.840 --> 00:13:28.320
prior, and I'm sorry, I
no, it had happened the day prior

121
00:13:28.720 --> 00:13:33.080
to when you contacted me number one, So that means you're really going to

122
00:13:33.159 --> 00:13:35.559
be stressed out about that experience.
I mean, this as fresh in your

123
00:13:35.600 --> 00:13:39.159
mind as can be. And then
also when I read the nature of what

124
00:13:39.279 --> 00:13:43.600
actually happened when you had that encounter
encounter unfortunately, I thought, yeah,

125
00:13:43.600 --> 00:13:48.519
I definitely need to step him up
and priority over some other people. So

126
00:13:48.840 --> 00:13:52.960
yeah, that's why I contacted you
so quickly. But I'm wondering, Mike.

127
00:13:54.120 --> 00:13:58.759
I'm glad, I'm glad you let
me know about your experience. I'm

128
00:13:58.799 --> 00:14:01.360
wondering, though, Mike, what
do you think when you found out that

129
00:14:01.440 --> 00:14:05.919
dogged me and encounters were so common
that there's actually a guy who helps eyewitnesses

130
00:14:05.879 --> 00:14:15.200
to deal with their encounters full time. Well, honestly, I didn't know

131
00:14:15.240 --> 00:14:22.440
what to think, to be quite
honest, victim again my mother. Uh

132
00:14:22.559 --> 00:14:28.600
now, mind you, let me
just briefly say current. I was born

133
00:14:28.639 --> 00:14:33.639
and raised in Danby, Connecticut,
which is southwestern Connecticut, but I currently

134
00:14:33.679 --> 00:14:39.200
reside in the Shenandoah Mountains of Virginia. That's where I live with my wife

135
00:14:39.279 --> 00:14:46.200
and my kids and my grandkids.
Just to give you a really quick geographical

136
00:14:46.559 --> 00:14:52.960
situation of where this happened. So
in Denby, Connecticut, which is southwestern

137
00:14:52.039 --> 00:14:58.480
Connecticut, that is the beginning of
what we call the Berkshire Hills, And

138
00:14:58.879 --> 00:15:03.799
if you go north on a bee
line, the hills get bigger and bigger

139
00:15:03.840 --> 00:15:09.919
and bigger until you hit central western
Connecticut, which would be where my parents

140
00:15:09.919 --> 00:15:15.799
currently reside, which is where I
am currently right now in my car talking

141
00:15:15.840 --> 00:15:22.120
to you. The hills around here
are roughly in the thousands thousand feet above

142
00:15:22.120 --> 00:15:26.639
sea level, which constitutes a hill, not a mountain. But then when

143
00:15:26.679 --> 00:15:33.080
you get a little bit further north
into northwestern Connecticut, that's when the elevation

144
00:15:33.559 --> 00:15:41.360
rises above two thousand feet, which
if I'm not mistaken. Worldwide, topographists

145
00:15:41.399 --> 00:15:46.200
and geologists will tell you anything over
two thousand feet is considered a mountain.

146
00:15:46.960 --> 00:15:52.639
So it's not until you hit northwestern
Connecticut that it's considered the mountains. But

147
00:15:54.240 --> 00:15:58.679
all of this area is considered the
Berkshire Hills. Once you hit Massachusetts again

148
00:16:00.120 --> 00:16:03.759
d line straight north, that's called
the Berkshire Mountains. And then once you

149
00:16:04.159 --> 00:16:11.840
from Massachusetts, once you hit Vermont, that's when the Appalachians turn into the

150
00:16:11.879 --> 00:16:15.879
Green Mountains, and that's when you
start hitting four thousand, five thousand feet

151
00:16:15.960 --> 00:16:22.679
above sea level. So basically it's
a gradual climb from Danbury, Connecticut,

152
00:16:22.679 --> 00:16:26.080
where I was born, all the
way up into Canada, and it's all

153
00:16:26.200 --> 00:16:33.240
just a subdivision of the Appalachian Mountains. Currently, I'm in the Shenandoah Mountains

154
00:16:33.840 --> 00:16:44.120
of Virginia, a little bit outside
of Roanoke. And to me, as

155
00:16:44.159 --> 00:16:49.159
a solo camper my whole life,
I'm not a hunter, but I am

156
00:16:49.200 --> 00:16:56.559
an avid, avid solo camper my
whole entire life. I yes, I've

157
00:16:56.600 --> 00:17:03.480
gone camping with friends and family and
that's I do like the experience of the

158
00:17:03.480 --> 00:17:11.319
camaraderie. But to me, there's
absolutely nothing as beautiful wonderful or peaceful as

159
00:17:11.359 --> 00:17:18.759
just having a solo camp where you
only rely on yourself and you just take

160
00:17:18.799 --> 00:17:22.720
care of yourself. Again, I'm
not a hunter. I don't carry guns.

161
00:17:25.160 --> 00:17:30.720
The only true hunting I've ever done
is bow hunting, and even then,

162
00:17:30.640 --> 00:17:37.960
I'm an amateur. I'm a novice. I'm more of a knife guy.

163
00:17:37.559 --> 00:17:41.799
I could do wonders with a knife
or a set of knives. Right,

164
00:17:41.839 --> 00:17:44.799
I got two hands, two knives. I could do wonders with that.

165
00:17:45.359 --> 00:17:49.759
And I'm a professional chef, so
that's just hand in hand. But

166
00:17:52.519 --> 00:17:59.960
ex hearing about your show and then
after the incident and I talked to you,

167
00:18:00.680 --> 00:18:03.599
my mother truly one hundred percent believed
me at this point. I mean

168
00:18:03.640 --> 00:18:11.759
she she was one hundred percent.
Michael, There's no way I'm fifty years

169
00:18:11.759 --> 00:18:17.079
old. I just turned fifty on
February fourth, so literally like five days

170
00:18:17.079 --> 00:18:19.799
ago, I turned fifty. And
She's like, you're not going to come

171
00:18:19.880 --> 00:18:26.160
to our house and with your pants
soiled if something really bad did not happen.

172
00:18:26.279 --> 00:18:30.960
I know my son, as most
mothers do. They know their they

173
00:18:30.000 --> 00:18:36.920
know their sons probably better than their
siblings or even their fathers. And so

174
00:18:37.000 --> 00:18:42.920
she knew something really horrible happened.
And so after I talk to you,

175
00:18:45.440 --> 00:18:56.480
we we listened to an episode and
my mother was so hooked on how the

176
00:18:56.599 --> 00:19:03.559
stories correlated, my story compared to
the first story we heard that she wanted

177
00:19:03.599 --> 00:19:07.759
to hear another one, and so
we did that, and and then after

178
00:19:07.839 --> 00:19:11.920
that last, that second one,
she begged me. And now at this

179
00:19:11.039 --> 00:19:15.759
point, I'm done, I'm done, I don't want no more. But

180
00:19:17.319 --> 00:19:19.880
it's my mom. She's seventy five
years old, and she was like one

181
00:19:19.960 --> 00:19:26.640
last one and that's that was the
Those were the three that we heard,

182
00:19:26.839 --> 00:19:32.319
and I'm glad she asked me to
do that because those not so much the

183
00:19:32.400 --> 00:19:40.079
first story, but the last two
stories really resonated, especially the story with

184
00:19:40.240 --> 00:19:47.480
Dave, just due to some certain
sounds that I heard, which we'll get

185
00:19:47.480 --> 00:19:52.839
to in a bit. I want
to put something out there in the listener's

186
00:19:52.960 --> 00:20:00.440
ears before I actually ask you to
tell us about your encounter. If you

187
00:20:00.480 --> 00:20:04.079
could have only heard Mike try to
recount that experience that he had to me

188
00:20:04.480 --> 00:20:11.160
yesterday, you want to know why
Mike's here tonight to share this experience with

189
00:20:11.200 --> 00:20:15.599
you. This man is here tonight
to share this experience, basically, to

190
00:20:15.640 --> 00:20:22.599
relive it because he wants to help
that person out there who maybe lives in

191
00:20:22.640 --> 00:20:26.640
this area in Connecticut close to Beer
Mountain, who might have an encounter if

192
00:20:26.839 --> 00:20:32.119
they didn't know that they're there.
And there are other reasons too, but

193
00:20:32.279 --> 00:20:37.480
it's all centered around his desire to
help people. Now, it doesn't get

194
00:20:37.519 --> 00:20:41.000
any more impressive than that. Like
I said, if you could only hear

195
00:20:41.079 --> 00:20:45.480
the trouble he had working his way
through the experience yesterday, and here he

196
00:20:45.599 --> 00:20:52.880
is putting the well being of other
people in front of his and that's why

197
00:20:52.880 --> 00:20:56.359
he's here tonight. I mean,
you just can't say enough good things about

198
00:20:56.400 --> 00:21:03.079
someone like that. I am so
impressed, Mike, I really am.

199
00:21:03.200 --> 00:21:06.960
Damn thank you, Vic, I
appreciate that. That was very sweet.

200
00:21:07.000 --> 00:21:11.160
Oh you're welcome. You are welcome. And please remember, Mike, you

201
00:21:11.200 --> 00:21:18.720
apologize to me yesterday for crying several
times sharing the experience. Don't you dare

202
00:21:18.759 --> 00:21:22.440
apologize tonight if you cry again.
I mean, you're human. If anyone

203
00:21:22.440 --> 00:21:26.759
else went through that experience, they
would be wailing as well. So I

204
00:21:26.799 --> 00:21:30.720
mean, yeah, just do the
best you can to get through it.

205
00:21:30.039 --> 00:21:33.839
If you need more time, we
can talk more before I actually ask you

206
00:21:33.920 --> 00:21:37.640
to share the experience if you'd like, I don't want you to set in

207
00:21:37.839 --> 00:21:41.799
telling us about it until you're getting
ready to do that, or I should

208
00:21:41.880 --> 00:21:48.880
say as ready as possible to do
that. Yeah, No, I mean

209
00:21:48.960 --> 00:21:56.720
I'm I couldn't be anymore ready.
The longer I wait, the more nervous

210
00:21:56.359 --> 00:22:06.200
and scared. I'm actually terrified to
even tell you to this story live.

211
00:22:07.079 --> 00:22:11.839
And I know that at the end
of this I'm going to have people online

212
00:22:12.000 --> 00:22:15.720
asking questions, and I'm cool with
that. I am, and I hope,

213
00:22:17.200 --> 00:22:22.880
I hope I do justice by answering
their questions to the best of my

214
00:22:22.960 --> 00:22:27.680
ability. Truly, I hope I
can do that for them. But I

215
00:22:27.720 --> 00:22:33.720
mean, I'm not afraid to cry. VIC Again, I'm fifty years old,

216
00:22:34.880 --> 00:22:40.720
I'm married, I got three adult
kids and three grandkids, one from

217
00:22:40.759 --> 00:22:45.200
each kid, and I've cried in
front of my family many many times.

218
00:22:45.240 --> 00:22:52.440
I'm not afraid to cry. I
think men who say they won't cry just

219
00:22:53.160 --> 00:22:56.240
you know. I'm not going to
judge. But you know, if you

220
00:22:56.319 --> 00:23:00.880
got to cry, you got to
cry, and I'm okay with it.

221
00:23:00.000 --> 00:23:07.519
Hopefully it doesn't happen, but I
don't I don't know. I don't know

222
00:23:07.559 --> 00:23:14.640
exactly what feelings are going to happen
as I relive this, as I as

223
00:23:14.720 --> 00:23:18.240
I, as I say it,
Well, there's no way to know.

224
00:23:18.039 --> 00:23:21.839
Just please do the best you can
with it. If we need to take

225
00:23:21.880 --> 00:23:25.559
some breaks, we can take breaks. That's not a problem. Just do

226
00:23:25.599 --> 00:23:29.720
the best you can getting through it, and everything's going to fall into place.

227
00:23:29.759 --> 00:23:33.559
And like I've told you several times, please remember you're amongst friends here.

228
00:23:34.000 --> 00:23:37.880
You have no idea how many people
are out there listening right now,

229
00:23:37.920 --> 00:23:41.559
supporting, either behind you. They
want the best for you. So yeah,

230
00:23:41.599 --> 00:23:48.519
please remember the fact that that you
are amongst friends here. So having

231
00:23:48.640 --> 00:23:52.880
said that, Mike, please tell
us about your encounter. Now, give

232
00:23:52.960 --> 00:24:03.279
us every last detail that comes to
mind. All right, Well, it

233
00:24:03.400 --> 00:24:11.599
was my birthday February fourth, And
it's just tradition in my family because I

234
00:24:11.960 --> 00:24:18.519
live so far away that on my
birthday, my birthday, I usually so

235
00:24:18.720 --> 00:24:22.920
as a chef, every year,
I usually get, you know, a

236
00:24:22.960 --> 00:24:30.680
week's vacation. If I'm there for
several years, I get two weeks of

237
00:24:30.720 --> 00:24:36.720
vacation. I usually try to separate
those, but so I usually take my

238
00:24:36.759 --> 00:24:41.720
week vacation. And if my wife
is a travel nurse, she's an RN

239
00:24:41.680 --> 00:24:48.160
and she travels all around the country
doing like three month four month contracts,

240
00:24:49.160 --> 00:24:56.160
and she gets paid a ridiculous amount
of money compared to if she just stayed

241
00:24:56.160 --> 00:25:00.759
home and was an RN at home. So not I mean when I say

242
00:25:02.119 --> 00:25:06.559
a ridiculous amount of money, I
know we're not rich. I'm just saying

243
00:25:07.119 --> 00:25:11.759
compared comparatively to what she would make
if she just stayed at one facility.

244
00:25:14.279 --> 00:25:18.799
The company she works for pays her
better to go out to these other states

245
00:25:18.920 --> 00:25:27.960
and do contracts. So currently she
is in Montana, Glasgow, Glasgow,

246
00:25:29.079 --> 00:25:33.559
Montana right now, which, from
what she's telling me, is inundated with

247
00:25:36.200 --> 00:25:42.039
five feet of snow and very very
very colder than New England could ever be.

248
00:25:42.279 --> 00:25:48.319
And trust me, New England is
very cold. So this is what

249
00:25:48.440 --> 00:25:52.480
my wife is telling me. So
she couldn't make it. She has been

250
00:25:53.039 --> 00:26:00.279
with me many times during my birthday
week. So I come up here from

251
00:26:00.279 --> 00:26:06.079
where I live in Virginia, in
Shenandoah, in the Shenandoah Mountains, and

252
00:26:06.359 --> 00:26:11.079
now I'm actually questioning. Now,
I'm actually questioning living in the Shenandoah Mountains,

253
00:26:11.079 --> 00:26:14.319
to be quite honest. I'll get
to that maybe at the end,

254
00:26:14.960 --> 00:26:19.680
but that's yeah, that I am
a little terrified about going back home as

255
00:26:19.680 --> 00:26:26.839
well. But I'm up here visiting
family. And like I said, we're

256
00:26:27.319 --> 00:26:36.920
we're in northwestern Connecticut, which is
very forested, very hilly, and as

257
00:26:36.920 --> 00:26:42.480
you get further north, very mountainous. And it's the wilderness. I mean,

258
00:26:42.680 --> 00:26:48.079
just miles and miles of wilderness.
It's along the Appalation Trail. So

259
00:26:48.160 --> 00:26:55.559
the Appalition Trail runs. It leaves
New York State eastern New York State,

260
00:26:56.240 --> 00:27:03.599
goes into western Connecticut and then just
bolts straight up north into Vermont, into

261
00:27:03.599 --> 00:27:08.240
Massachusetts, and then from Massachusetts into
Vermont, and then from Vermont it veeers

262
00:27:08.279 --> 00:27:15.960
and goes into New Hampshire. So
quick description on that. So I'm up

263
00:27:15.000 --> 00:27:19.160
here visiting and it's just it's annoying. It's like every other time I've been

264
00:27:19.240 --> 00:27:26.759
up here. And I have a
dog. Her name is Midnight. She's

265
00:27:26.799 --> 00:27:33.799
thirteen years old. She is a
Scottish Mastiff. She's big. She's a

266
00:27:33.799 --> 00:27:40.079
big dog. Even in her old
age. She has not shrunk. She's

267
00:27:40.119 --> 00:27:47.200
a big dog. If anybody out
there listening knows what a Scottish mastiff looks

268
00:27:47.279 --> 00:27:53.359
like, that's her. And she
has dark coloring to her which is why

269
00:27:53.359 --> 00:27:56.240
I called her Midnight. And I've
had her since she was a puppy.

270
00:27:57.079 --> 00:28:04.160
Literally as soon as she was weaned, I had her and she's been with

271
00:28:04.200 --> 00:28:14.440
me for thirteen years. And great
dog, very calm, very social dog,

272
00:28:15.720 --> 00:28:21.240
doesn't bark much, doesn't you know, Like you'll you'll go out to

273
00:28:21.319 --> 00:28:26.039
a park and some dogs are just
baying. They're just literally like they'll see

274
00:28:26.039 --> 00:28:30.680
another dog and just like start baying, going crazy because they see another dog.

275
00:28:30.920 --> 00:28:37.440
Midnight is like, yeah, yeah, I know you're bang because because

276
00:28:37.440 --> 00:28:41.720
I'm midnight. That's why. That's
why you're doing it. But she's calm,

277
00:28:42.200 --> 00:28:48.200
she doesn't pay back. She literally
just minds her business. Very very

278
00:28:48.240 --> 00:28:53.039
sweet, very sweet dog. And
so I brought her up with me like

279
00:28:53.079 --> 00:28:57.079
I usually always do. I take
her with me everywhere unless I'm at work

280
00:28:57.359 --> 00:29:02.200
obviously as a chef. Samebringer in
the kitchen, although that would be super

281
00:29:02.200 --> 00:29:08.319
cool if I could, but uh
so it's just it's it's me and Midnight.

282
00:29:08.720 --> 00:29:15.039
And my birthday was on Sunday the
fourth, and now it's Wednesday,

283
00:29:15.519 --> 00:29:21.240
and uh, you know, we
had plans to uh you know, when

284
00:29:21.240 --> 00:29:27.319
the sun goes down, we had
plans to have dinner, have some drinks,

285
00:29:27.599 --> 00:29:30.680
you know, get a little loose, you know, have the family

286
00:29:32.519 --> 00:29:36.279
get a little crazy kind of thing. You know. My mom's seventy five,

287
00:29:36.440 --> 00:29:38.839
my dad's eighty, but they're they're
still spry. You know, there's

288
00:29:38.839 --> 00:29:44.319
still there's still spry. And I
had my uh, several several aunts.

289
00:29:44.440 --> 00:29:51.000
I had two aunts and two uncles
in their their kids which are my cousins,

290
00:29:52.200 --> 00:29:55.920
all roughly about the same age as
I am. So you know,

291
00:29:56.119 --> 00:30:00.640
there is a group of us and
this is what we do. I wanted

292
00:30:00.640 --> 00:30:03.640
to be alone, you know.
Again, I'm a solo camper, and

293
00:30:03.720 --> 00:30:07.359
I had no intentions of camping because
I wanted to get back and celebrate my

294
00:30:07.599 --> 00:30:11.000
you know, my birthday week.
But I did want to get out.

295
00:30:11.279 --> 00:30:15.960
I wanted to get alone, you
know. And so I took midnight in

296
00:30:15.000 --> 00:30:22.359
my car. And there's this place
called Bear Mountain, Connecticut, and it's

297
00:30:22.400 --> 00:30:30.799
in northwestern Connecticut, right before the
Massachusetts border, about maybe a mile and

298
00:30:30.839 --> 00:30:37.319
a half to two miles right before
you hit the Massachusetts border. And it's

299
00:30:37.359 --> 00:30:42.160
the tallest peak in all of Connecticut. It is a two thousand, three

300
00:30:42.279 --> 00:30:51.039
hundred and eighty feet above sea level, so technically it's considered a Mountain by

301
00:30:51.079 --> 00:30:55.400
three hundred and eighty feet because topographist, like I said earlier, and geologist,

302
00:30:55.720 --> 00:31:00.680
anything over two thousand is considered a
mount So it just made it by

303
00:31:00.680 --> 00:31:03.960
three hundred and eighty feet. So
it's not you know, it's not the

304
00:31:04.039 --> 00:31:10.160
Rockies, it's not the Andes.
It's just it's the highest mountain in Connecticut.

305
00:31:10.559 --> 00:31:15.839
And I've been there many times before. As a teenager. I've been

306
00:31:15.880 --> 00:31:19.400
there many times. I've partied literally, like no joke. I've partied on

307
00:31:19.519 --> 00:31:25.880
top of the summit with friends.
I've been there in my twenties. I've

308
00:31:25.920 --> 00:31:30.240
brought ex girlfriends up there just to
see the view because it's a panoramic view

309
00:31:30.799 --> 00:31:37.599
literally like no trees at all.
There was a major fire on the top

310
00:31:37.640 --> 00:31:48.160
of Bear Mountain I think back in
the sixties and ever since then. I

311
00:31:48.200 --> 00:31:52.359
don't know if it's because birds aren't
pooping enough with their seeds, but there

312
00:31:52.400 --> 00:32:00.160
hasn't been a lot of tree growth
since this major fire thirty forty years go.

313
00:32:00.240 --> 00:32:05.079
And there are trees, but they're
very stunted. I mean, I'm

314
00:32:05.240 --> 00:32:08.559
taller than any tree on top of
this. And what I would like to

315
00:32:08.599 --> 00:32:15.440
say is at the very summit there's
this cairn, right, see a irn.

316
00:32:15.640 --> 00:32:20.759
There's a carn, and there's a
plaque at the bottom of the carn,

317
00:32:21.119 --> 00:32:24.839
and you know, it says you've
reached bare Mountain two three hundred and

318
00:32:24.839 --> 00:32:30.200
eight feet blah blah blah blah.
It just gives a little description of the

319
00:32:30.240 --> 00:32:36.119
forest fire. And that's pretty much
it. But the carn itself is about

320
00:32:36.400 --> 00:32:43.319
fifteen twenty feet tall, and it's
massive. It's huge. It's not just

321
00:32:43.359 --> 00:32:46.200
like, you know, fifteen twenty
feet tall of this small, little tiny

322
00:32:46.240 --> 00:32:50.400
thing, like you can climb it. You can actually climb it and get

323
00:32:50.440 --> 00:32:52.799
on to the top of it.
And when you do that, and you're

324
00:32:52.839 --> 00:33:00.599
above everything else. If you look
north, you can see about ninety miles

325
00:33:00.720 --> 00:33:08.920
to the north into mass You can
see the shadow of the tallest mountain in

326
00:33:08.960 --> 00:33:15.720
Massachusetts on that same range, which
is called Mount Greylock. You can see

327
00:33:15.720 --> 00:33:20.400
the shadow of it. If you
look to the east, you can see

328
00:33:20.480 --> 00:33:25.559
all the farmlands, all the forest, and all the wilderness for roughly about

329
00:33:25.640 --> 00:33:31.880
ninety miles. Almost you could almost
think you can't, but you could almost

330
00:33:31.880 --> 00:33:36.200
think you see the ocean, but
you can't. But you're damn close.

331
00:33:37.200 --> 00:33:40.680
Now. If you look to the
south towards my hometown of Danbury. It's

332
00:33:40.680 --> 00:33:44.680
nothing but rolling hills and rolling hills, and you can just see them getting

333
00:33:44.720 --> 00:33:49.119
smaller and smaller and smaller and smaller. And if you look to the west,

334
00:33:49.480 --> 00:33:53.839
which is New York State Way off
in the distance, you can see

335
00:33:53.880 --> 00:34:00.200
the Catskill Mountains and it's gorgeous.
It's beautiful. You just see if you

336
00:34:00.200 --> 00:34:06.400
were to hold a ruler, like
a twelve inch ruler up to your eyes

337
00:34:06.759 --> 00:34:12.280
looking west, that's about how long
the mountain range looks from this distance.

338
00:34:12.760 --> 00:34:17.360
But obviously if you're in the Catskills, it's hundreds of miles of mountain ranges.

339
00:34:19.480 --> 00:34:22.920
But it's beautiful. You can see
that the jagged edges. It's really

340
00:34:23.159 --> 00:34:29.480
on a clear day, you could
see ninety miles in any direction. So

341
00:34:29.639 --> 00:34:32.760
it's a panoramic view and it's gorgeous, and I mean, it's just to

342
00:34:32.840 --> 00:34:37.039
me, it's a safe zone.
I've always loved it up there. I've

343
00:34:37.079 --> 00:34:42.679
always thought, like, you know, that's my comfortable place. And so

344
00:34:43.159 --> 00:34:46.719
I've never brought in the thirteen years
and I've had midnight. I've never brought

345
00:34:47.519 --> 00:34:52.000
excuse me, I've never brought midnight
up there with me. Ever, as

346
00:34:52.079 --> 00:34:57.280
a matter of fact, I haven't
been up there since the thirteen years i've

347
00:34:57.320 --> 00:35:01.599
had Midnight Now. Mind you again, I was up there a lot dozens

348
00:35:01.599 --> 00:35:07.320
of times as a late teenager in
my early twenties, but ever since I

349
00:35:07.360 --> 00:35:12.920
got married and had kids and grandkids. No, I just you know,

350
00:35:14.960 --> 00:35:19.400
haven't been there in a long time. So it's my very first time being

351
00:35:19.440 --> 00:35:27.400
back up there in over over twenty
two years, and so I wanted to

352
00:35:27.440 --> 00:35:32.039
bring you know, Midnight's thirteen dogs
lived to be roughly fifteen or so years.

353
00:35:32.440 --> 00:35:37.039
I know she don't have long you
know, she's starting to hurt.

354
00:35:37.760 --> 00:35:44.519
I know she's probably having arthritis or
issues. You know, she's not a

355
00:35:44.599 --> 00:35:47.480
spry as she used to be.
And I just wanted her to see this,

356
00:35:47.840 --> 00:35:51.840
and so I brought her up there
and it was a great day.

357
00:35:51.920 --> 00:35:58.440
It really was. Now, from
from the car to the summit of the

358
00:35:58.480 --> 00:36:06.599
mountain, it's about a two hour
hike. From the base of the mountain

359
00:36:07.280 --> 00:36:13.639
to the actual summit of the mountain
is literally about an hour and a half

360
00:36:13.719 --> 00:36:17.679
of that two hour hike. So
from from the car to the base of

361
00:36:17.719 --> 00:36:21.840
the mountain, on the on the
trail, which is the Blue trail,

362
00:36:23.039 --> 00:36:30.320
that's about a half an hour.
And then from from where the Blue Trail

363
00:36:30.400 --> 00:36:35.519
meets the Appalation Trail, because remember
again this is all on the Appalation Trail

364
00:36:35.599 --> 00:36:39.599
this mountain. The Appalation Trail runs
directly over the summit of this mountain and

365
00:36:39.639 --> 00:36:49.519
then goes directly north for the rest
of the Appalation Trail. So from the

366
00:36:49.559 --> 00:36:52.000
base of the mountain to the summit
of the mountain is about an hour and

367
00:36:52.039 --> 00:36:59.760
a half hike. And and that's
the easy path. If if I were

368
00:36:59.800 --> 00:37:04.679
to if you were to go from
the north side heading south, that's going

369
00:37:04.760 --> 00:37:08.880
to be like a three hour trek
because it's way steeper, way way steeper,

370
00:37:08.920 --> 00:37:14.800
and there's no way I could take
midnight on those steep trails. So

371
00:37:14.920 --> 00:37:17.480
I took the easier climb, which
is usually what we did when we were

372
00:37:17.519 --> 00:37:23.119
teenagers and in our early twenties.
And so we get up there and it's

373
00:37:23.159 --> 00:37:30.719
just I mean again, it was
beautiful, and you know she's she's yipping

374
00:37:30.960 --> 00:37:37.280
at like squirrels and groundhogs and woodchucks. I mean like she was just having

375
00:37:37.280 --> 00:37:38.800
a time of her life. I
loved it. But yeah, again,

376
00:37:38.880 --> 00:37:43.039
she's so mellow. I think it's
because of her old age. She's just

377
00:37:43.079 --> 00:37:47.800
so mellow that you know, she's
not going to go chase anything. Though

378
00:37:47.840 --> 00:37:51.039
I did have her in a leash
the whole time. I always have my

379
00:37:51.079 --> 00:37:52.760
dog on a leash. I don't
know why. I think maybe it's a

380
00:37:52.800 --> 00:37:59.679
comfort thing, but I always had
her on my leash. And so we're

381
00:37:59.760 --> 00:38:01.599
up there and we're just enjoying everything, and then you know, I start

382
00:38:01.639 --> 00:38:05.960
realizing, you know, the sun, the sun's heading towards the west,

383
00:38:06.519 --> 00:38:10.440
and you know, there again in
the west, you see the outline of

384
00:38:12.039 --> 00:38:16.719
the Catskill Mountains in New York,
and you know, the sun is literally

385
00:38:16.800 --> 00:38:23.800
starting to touch the top of those
of that range. And I'm like,

386
00:38:24.000 --> 00:38:28.400
okay, we've spent way too long
here. We've got about an hour and

387
00:38:28.400 --> 00:38:32.000
a half to get back down.
At that point, it was about three

388
00:38:32.159 --> 00:38:43.719
thirty three thirty in the would roughly
say it was about three thirty in the

389
00:38:43.760 --> 00:38:46.800
afternoon, So I knew it was
gonna be about an hour, hour and

390
00:38:46.840 --> 00:38:51.800
a half to get back down,
and so we start heading down again.

391
00:38:51.840 --> 00:38:54.039
There was nobody up there because it's
it's winter, man, It's it's winter

392
00:38:54.159 --> 00:38:59.880
in New England. Uh. It
was about two days ago. It was

393
00:39:00.079 --> 00:39:05.159
like forty five degrees, which if
anybody who's listening who lives in Connecticut or

394
00:39:05.199 --> 00:39:10.559
lives in New England, forty five
degrees in February is a nice day.

395
00:39:10.840 --> 00:39:15.679
That's a that's a that's a warm
that's a warm day in New England.

396
00:39:15.960 --> 00:39:22.000
Uh, in Connecticut. So it
really was a nice day. And so

397
00:39:22.039 --> 00:39:31.639
we're heading down and as as anybody
knows who's who's an avid outdoors men or

398
00:39:31.840 --> 00:39:39.119
or an avid hunter or an avid
camper when you're when you're in a wilderness

399
00:39:39.159 --> 00:39:45.400
and setting, uh so there's there
there's the type of wilderness where you know,

400
00:39:45.800 --> 00:39:52.440
you know, there's the planes,
and then there's the forest. And

401
00:39:52.519 --> 00:39:59.880
this is forested, so it gets
darker in the forest way sooner than if

402
00:39:59.880 --> 00:40:01.000
you were to hit a field.
If you were to hit a field,

403
00:40:01.559 --> 00:40:05.960
you'd be like, oh wow,
it's still daylight. It looks, you

404
00:40:06.000 --> 00:40:09.000
know, like okay, awesome.
But when you're in the when you're in

405
00:40:09.039 --> 00:40:15.480
the forest, it gets darker way, way faster, although there's still like

406
00:40:15.639 --> 00:40:21.840
a I guess you would say dusky, dusky light, but not dark,

407
00:40:21.920 --> 00:40:25.079
but dusky light. If you were
in a field, it would still be

408
00:40:25.159 --> 00:40:30.840
daylight. And as we're heading down
that's kind of like what it was turning

409
00:40:30.840 --> 00:40:37.079
into. And as we're heading down
and we're nearing the base of the mountain,

410
00:40:38.840 --> 00:40:43.199
the turn which is the Blue trail. So the Appalation Trail is a

411
00:40:43.199 --> 00:40:46.599
white trail. All the way from
Georgia to Maine, the Appalation Trail is

412
00:40:46.599 --> 00:40:51.239
nothing but a white trail. That's
just that's how you know the Appllation Trail.

413
00:40:51.280 --> 00:40:53.960
It's a white trail. And then
you know you have the Blue Trail,

414
00:40:54.119 --> 00:40:58.480
or the Red Trail, or the
Green trail. Every every state,

415
00:40:58.599 --> 00:41:02.239
every section has its own little colors
for these other side trails. But the

416
00:41:02.239 --> 00:41:07.880
Appalachian Trail is always the white trail. And I knew the Blue trail,

417
00:41:07.400 --> 00:41:13.599
which is facing south, heading back
south, the Blue Trail would be on

418
00:41:13.639 --> 00:41:16.519
my right, and that takes me
directly to where my car is. And

419
00:41:16.559 --> 00:41:20.519
again, my car is not in
a parking lot. It's in this little

420
00:41:21.559 --> 00:41:23.599
side I don't know, I don't
even know what you would call it.

421
00:41:23.599 --> 00:41:29.880
It's like a little it's like a
carve out. It's like an area of

422
00:41:29.960 --> 00:41:37.599
wood was carved out and you can
possibly fit three cars there max. And

423
00:41:37.480 --> 00:41:42.119
so you know, I'm just I'm
going down, getting ready to hit the

424
00:41:42.519 --> 00:41:49.400
blue trail on my right and I
didn't notice it at the time, and

425
00:41:49.480 --> 00:41:52.320
I didn't mention it to you last
night, Vic, because it took me.

426
00:41:52.840 --> 00:41:57.960
It took me a lot of contemplation
and a lot of trying to remember

427
00:41:58.800 --> 00:42:07.280
exactly what happened. But it was
kind of I paid no attention to it.

428
00:42:07.320 --> 00:42:16.360
I paid absolutely zero attention to it. But I didn't hear any wilderness

429
00:42:16.400 --> 00:42:22.880
noises. And what I mean by
that is, you know, chirping birds,

430
00:42:23.880 --> 00:42:32.320
calling crows, the sounds that squirrels
make when they're in their trees and

431
00:42:32.800 --> 00:42:39.559
someone is walking by. They make
these specific chirping noises. Some people might

432
00:42:39.639 --> 00:42:45.000
think they're birds, but no,
that's a squirrel. That's a squirrel alerting

433
00:42:45.079 --> 00:42:52.079
its squirrel family. Hey, there's
a human, right, So, like,

434
00:42:52.480 --> 00:42:55.559
you know, these are just noises
that I'm used to and kind of

435
00:42:55.599 --> 00:43:00.280
take for granted to be a they're
beautiful listen to and I but you hear

436
00:43:00.320 --> 00:43:05.719
them so often when you're in the
woods that eventually it just it's like background

437
00:43:05.760 --> 00:43:08.920
noise and you just eventually, I
guess the best way to say is you

438
00:43:09.000 --> 00:43:14.440
take those noises for granted. If
you spent twenty years in silence, and

439
00:43:14.480 --> 00:43:20.440
then you heard these noises again,
you would be in nirvana, you would

440
00:43:20.480 --> 00:43:25.719
be in ecstasy. But me myself, personally, I think sometimes I take

441
00:43:25.760 --> 00:43:31.599
these natural sounds for granted. I
kind of really didn't pay attention, it

442
00:43:31.639 --> 00:43:37.960
didn't register. But when I look
back on it, I realize the force

443
00:43:37.159 --> 00:43:46.239
was silent, nothing, not a
dang thing. So I'm walking in midnights

444
00:43:46.239 --> 00:43:53.760
with me and she's just keeping the
same pace I am. And somehow,

445
00:43:55.559 --> 00:44:04.679
I really I'll get back to this
at a later point, but somehow I

446
00:44:04.840 --> 00:44:10.639
show up at the green marker which
is on my left, which is where

447
00:44:10.679 --> 00:44:15.159
the lean two is. So there's
a lean to at the base of the

448
00:44:15.199 --> 00:44:22.159
mountain, which is about maybe less
than an eighth of a mile from where

449
00:44:22.239 --> 00:44:25.159
the blue marker is. So the
blue marker is on the right, heading

450
00:44:25.239 --> 00:44:30.360
south towards where my car is parked, and the green trail, the green

451
00:44:30.400 --> 00:44:36.800
marker is on my left, less
than an eighth of a mile from the

452
00:44:36.800 --> 00:44:39.599
blue marker, and that's that's where
the lean two is. That's where you

453
00:44:39.639 --> 00:44:45.519
can camp at the base of the
mountain. And I'm like, what the

454
00:44:45.559 --> 00:44:54.599
heck, how did I miss the
blue marker? And this is where this

455
00:44:54.679 --> 00:45:01.079
is where everything changed. So it
was at this point, you know,

456
00:45:01.159 --> 00:45:05.480
I'm a little bewildered. I'm like, how about I'm like, how did

457
00:45:05.519 --> 00:45:07.360
I miss? You know? How
many times have I been here in my

458
00:45:07.400 --> 00:45:10.559
youth? Am I just getting older
now that I'm fifty? Like? Am

459
00:45:10.599 --> 00:45:14.400
I? You know? Am I
just not as aware as I used to

460
00:45:14.400 --> 00:45:20.079
be as a young man. But
it was at this point where I noticed

461
00:45:20.119 --> 00:45:32.239
that Midnight was acting very strange.
And she's walking in a circle and she's

462
00:45:32.280 --> 00:45:40.079
whining, and this is behavior in
thirteen years of this beautiful big dog.

463
00:45:40.159 --> 00:45:45.880
She's a big she's a big dog. I mean, if anyone's ever if

464
00:45:45.920 --> 00:45:52.920
anyone's ever seen a Scottish mastiff,
she's a big dog. Small small children

465
00:45:52.960 --> 00:45:59.239
could ride her like a pony.
And she's pacing in a circle and she's

466
00:45:59.320 --> 00:46:05.840
whining like a like a soft whine. And you know, I'm looking at

467
00:46:05.840 --> 00:46:07.719
her and I'm like, what's wrong
girl? And you know, I go

468
00:46:07.840 --> 00:46:10.320
down, I'm petting her, and
I'm patterner, I'm patterner on the back

469
00:46:10.360 --> 00:46:14.639
and I'm like, what's wrong,
girl, what's wrong girl? And then

470
00:46:14.639 --> 00:46:21.840
all of a sudden she stops and
she like stiffens her whole body and she

471
00:46:22.719 --> 00:46:30.280
points her head directly on the green
path where the lean to is, and

472
00:46:30.400 --> 00:46:35.440
she's just staring. She's not whining
anymore. She's just staring and I'm still

473
00:46:35.440 --> 00:46:37.880
patting her. And I'm still petting
her. I'm like, okay, that's

474
00:46:37.880 --> 00:46:46.920
odd. As I'm doing this,
she peas, but she doesn't pee the

475
00:46:47.000 --> 00:46:52.079
way she normally does. Normally,
when she has to pee, she lifts

476
00:46:52.119 --> 00:47:00.400
her leg and she'll pee like most
dogs do. Nope, all four of

477
00:47:00.440 --> 00:47:05.360
her legs on the ground. And
she's just standing there peeing, and she's

478
00:47:05.360 --> 00:47:13.000
staring straight ahead. And then she
starts whining, and I'm like, what's

479
00:47:13.000 --> 00:47:19.119
going on, girl, what's going
on? And then she growls. So

480
00:47:19.199 --> 00:47:27.960
I'm looking in the direction that she's
looking and I don't see anything. There's

481
00:47:27.960 --> 00:47:32.000
nothing, there's nothing there. And
she lets out another growl and then she

482
00:47:32.119 --> 00:47:37.559
whinds. So it was it was
a soft growl, and then there was

483
00:47:37.639 --> 00:47:45.519
a little bit more of a confident
like a like a like a defending growl,

484
00:47:47.119 --> 00:47:52.760
and then a whine. And I'm
literally like, I'm like, I've

485
00:47:52.880 --> 00:47:57.519
never seen my dog act like this
in thirteen years, and like so I'm

486
00:47:57.559 --> 00:48:00.280
just paying attention to her, and
I'm like, what is going on on,

487
00:48:00.519 --> 00:48:04.199
girl. So now I get down
on one knee and I'm like right

488
00:48:04.199 --> 00:48:07.320
there beside her, and you know, I'm trying to whisper comforting words like

489
00:48:07.400 --> 00:48:14.159
what is going on? Everything's all
right? But she she's never she didn't

490
00:48:14.159 --> 00:48:16.320
even look at me. Now what
this whole time, she did not even

491
00:48:16.400 --> 00:48:21.599
turn her head and look at me
or lick me or nothing. She just

492
00:48:22.280 --> 00:48:29.440
belining her head straight ahead. So
again I look where she's looking. And

493
00:48:29.519 --> 00:48:46.079
that's when I saw this enormous I
don't even know how to describe the first

494
00:48:46.599 --> 00:48:55.480
thought of this head. I saw
this enormous canine head. That's the word

495
00:48:55.480 --> 00:49:01.079
I'll use. I'll just I'll just
use canine. I saw this massive canine

496
00:49:01.079 --> 00:49:09.559
head poke through the underbrush. And
like I told Vic, it was roughly

497
00:49:10.519 --> 00:49:16.280
about ninety yards away, so anywhere
between two hundred and seventy to at the

498
00:49:16.320 --> 00:49:23.719
max three hundred feet away. It
was just on the other side of where

499
00:49:23.760 --> 00:49:30.039
the lean to ended, right,
because nowhere on the Appalation trail are you

500
00:49:30.079 --> 00:49:34.760
going to see a lean to on
the trail. They always put the lean

501
00:49:34.880 --> 00:49:39.800
to's a good distance off the trail
that way, you know, depending on

502
00:49:39.840 --> 00:49:45.000
who's hiking and who's sleeping at the
lean to, and you know you're not

503
00:49:45.079 --> 00:49:52.760
being disturbed by trail people. So
you know, the lean to itself was

504
00:49:52.800 --> 00:50:01.519
probably about eighty yards off the Appellation
Trail, and this thing was in the

505
00:50:01.639 --> 00:50:08.639
brush about ninety yards off again,
anywhere between two seventy to three hundred feet

506
00:50:08.639 --> 00:50:19.679
away, and it's just this massive
canine head that pokes through the underbrush.

507
00:50:20.079 --> 00:50:29.719
At that moment, Midnight bolts towards
the north. While I'm holding her leash

508
00:50:30.880 --> 00:50:37.760
and she's trying to get away,
she just bolts and literally she's choking herself.

509
00:50:40.119 --> 00:50:46.280
She's such a mellow dog. I
don't give her those chest harness leashes.

510
00:50:46.440 --> 00:50:53.039
I give her your common old school
neck leash because she's not an aggressive

511
00:50:53.039 --> 00:51:00.599
dog. There's no need to give
her a chest harness. And she is

512
00:51:00.760 --> 00:51:08.480
literally so so so. Not only
does she just pee prior to while whining

513
00:51:08.559 --> 00:51:14.760
and then the growl and then the
whine again. Now she's trying to bolt

514
00:51:14.800 --> 00:51:17.840
with all of her massive strength,
and she's a again she's a big dog,

515
00:51:19.360 --> 00:51:22.199
and she is with all of her
strength. She's tugging and tugging.

516
00:51:24.719 --> 00:51:34.599
I literally unto the leash with two
hands at this point and she's choking herself,

517
00:51:35.199 --> 00:51:40.039
and and I'm trying to say all
these calming, soothing words, and

518
00:51:40.960 --> 00:51:47.199
you know, I'm raising my voice
at this point, and but I never

519
00:51:47.280 --> 00:51:54.360
took my eyes off this thing.
So I'm looking at this head as my

520
00:51:54.519 --> 00:52:00.719
dog is furiously trying to get away
while choking herself. Elf. I would

521
00:52:00.760 --> 00:52:07.960
glance over real quick, and she's
just you know, she's basically trying to

522
00:52:08.039 --> 00:52:13.159
leap so her her front, her
front paws are coming up, and she's

523
00:52:13.199 --> 00:52:19.719
trying to get away so hard,
and this thing comes out further. And

524
00:52:20.000 --> 00:52:29.760
at this point it fully emerges from
the brush, and I realize, I

525
00:52:29.760 --> 00:52:32.679
don't I don't know what this thing
is. It looks like a wolf,

526
00:52:34.880 --> 00:52:38.800
it looks like a coyote, it
looks like a dog, it looks like

527
00:52:38.840 --> 00:52:45.960
all three. But it is massive. I mean again, I'll bring it

528
00:52:46.000 --> 00:52:53.480
back to uh, my love for
extinct or what we call extinct animals on

529
00:52:53.559 --> 00:53:00.440
Earth, the Cela camp uh,
you know, Gigantapithecus. The first thing

530
00:53:00.480 --> 00:53:04.280
that came to my head was dire
wolf. Literally, that's the first thing

531
00:53:04.320 --> 00:53:07.440
that came to my head. Dire
wolf. Okay, there's a dire wolf

532
00:53:07.440 --> 00:53:12.159
in front of me. No,
that's not possible. No, that's that's

533
00:53:12.159 --> 00:53:20.159
that's absolutely not possible. And she
like, at this point, she's hurting

534
00:53:20.239 --> 00:53:24.400
herself so much trying to get away
that I'm looking at her way more and

535
00:53:24.559 --> 00:53:28.760
I'm I'm tugging back on her now, so I'm I'm starting to pull the

536
00:53:28.840 --> 00:53:31.880
leash in so and I know it's
hurting her, and I please, guys,

537
00:53:31.920 --> 00:53:36.800
don't don't be mad at me,
but I'm I'm I'm pulling her in

538
00:53:36.920 --> 00:53:40.440
towards me now on the leash so
I can physically put my arms on her

539
00:53:42.039 --> 00:53:45.360
to keep her from from choking herself, to keep her from running away.

540
00:53:45.039 --> 00:53:50.239
And and I get her to me, and my arm is now my left

541
00:53:50.360 --> 00:53:54.639
arm is now securely wrapped around her
ribs. And I got her pressed against

542
00:53:54.719 --> 00:54:00.679
tight against me, and this thing
is still nine yards away, and I

543
00:54:00.679 --> 00:54:15.199
could see the full thing. Vict
It had to have been the length the

544
00:54:15.239 --> 00:54:19.159
only way I could describe it.
It had to have been the length of

545
00:54:20.320 --> 00:54:29.480
a very large pony or a very
large donkey, not quite as long as

546
00:54:29.480 --> 00:54:36.280
a full grown horse. And I'm
not even talking heightwise, I just mean

547
00:54:36.400 --> 00:54:43.559
in length, about the size of
a full grown pony or a full grown

548
00:54:43.639 --> 00:54:49.760
donkey. It was very long,
longer than any wolf or coyote or dog

549
00:54:51.000 --> 00:54:55.280
that I've ever seen. And as
a solo camper, I've been to wildlife

550
00:54:55.920 --> 00:55:01.000
refuges where I've seen timberwolves, gray
wolf, red wolves. I know what

551
00:55:01.039 --> 00:55:09.519
wolves look like up close and personal
due to the magnificence of wildlife sanctuaries.

552
00:55:10.400 --> 00:55:16.760
I've seen coyote in the wilderness on
my own as a solo camper. You

553
00:55:16.800 --> 00:55:22.679
know, this was none of that. This was none of none of these

554
00:55:22.719 --> 00:55:32.559
things. And so I got her
right up against my ribs, so my

555
00:55:32.800 --> 00:55:37.840
arm, my left arm is like
literally like just I got I got her

556
00:55:37.880 --> 00:55:43.320
squeezed. I got her squeezed tight
against me. She's struggling, of course,

557
00:55:43.800 --> 00:55:49.039
she's bucking, is struggling like like
I've never ever seen my dog act

558
00:55:49.159 --> 00:55:52.800
like this, and I can see
why, because I was freaked out too.

559
00:55:52.880 --> 00:55:55.559
I'm like, what is this thing. It's not a wolf, it's

560
00:55:55.559 --> 00:56:00.599
not a coyote, it's not a
dog. But it's the length, it's

561
00:56:00.599 --> 00:56:05.519
the length of a pony. Now, let me just say for measure people,

562
00:56:06.440 --> 00:56:09.719
I'm six foot five, I weigh
two hundred pounds, so I'm tall.

563
00:56:09.760 --> 00:56:15.159
I'm thin, all right, six
five two hundred pounds. This thing,

564
00:56:16.360 --> 00:56:24.079
at the tip of its very long
pointed ears had to have been around

565
00:56:24.159 --> 00:56:31.320
four and a half feet on all
fours, roughly about four and a half

566
00:56:31.320 --> 00:56:37.119
feet, and we're on level ground
here, so the way the Green Trail

567
00:56:37.239 --> 00:56:42.079
ran to the to the to the
lean to from the Appalachian Trail, because

568
00:56:42.119 --> 00:56:45.880
I was right on the cusp of
the White Trail and the Green Trail,

569
00:56:45.679 --> 00:56:49.519
and it's all flat because you're at
the base of the mountain at this point,

570
00:56:49.559 --> 00:56:52.840
so it's all flat ground and everything
is You're on even ground. So

571
00:56:52.960 --> 00:56:58.920
this thing is literally on the same
even ground as I am. It's not

572
00:56:59.199 --> 00:57:02.760
down in a depression, it's not
up on a hill rise. We're on

573
00:57:04.440 --> 00:57:09.119
level ground. And it had to
have been four and a half feet,

574
00:57:09.800 --> 00:57:28.079
maybe even a little over just where
it was on its fours. And this,

575
00:57:28.679 --> 00:57:40.840
uh, this is where everything changed
my entire life. So two things

576
00:57:40.880 --> 00:57:49.960
happened at the same exact time,
simultaneously, at the same exact time,

577
00:57:50.719 --> 00:57:57.960
but I can only describe them individually. So I'm gonna start with the audible

578
00:57:58.000 --> 00:58:08.760
sound as it's standing there like a
dog, like a wolf, like a

579
00:58:08.800 --> 00:58:19.760
coyote, but three times the size
again, maybe even four times the size.

580
00:58:19.880 --> 00:58:23.760
It was like a It was like
a like a pony or or a

581
00:58:23.800 --> 00:58:39.280
donkey in length. I hear these
snapping and popping sounds like The only way

582
00:58:39.320 --> 00:58:50.679
I can describe it is if bones
are being broken or extremely large joints are

583
00:58:50.880 --> 00:58:57.480
being popped out and then popped back
in. And it was loud. I

584
00:58:57.519 --> 00:59:06.480
mean it was. It was so
audible, just snap pop snap crack,

585
00:59:07.119 --> 00:59:14.880
pop snap pop crack, snap pop
crack, like a lot, a lot's

586
00:59:14.920 --> 00:59:23.440
going on like it was a lot
of snapping and popping. And as these

587
00:59:23.519 --> 00:59:35.119
sounds are happening, it stood up
on two legs. As it stood up,

588
00:59:37.519 --> 00:59:47.119
I could see the muscle definition rippling
and its legs and it's torso in

589
00:59:47.119 --> 01:00:07.199
its arms. I could literally see
this massive muscle under its fur. I

590
01:00:07.239 --> 01:00:16.880
could literally see the muscles rippling and
moving as it stood up. Hey,

591
01:00:16.960 --> 01:00:23.199
Mike, do you need to take
a break so this sound? No no,

592
01:00:23.079 --> 01:00:28.079
no, no no no no,
I'm good, VIC, I'm good,

593
01:00:28.199 --> 01:00:38.440
VIC, thank you for asking.
But as these snapping, popping sounds

594
01:00:38.440 --> 01:00:43.719
are going off is when I saw
it. All happened at the same time.

595
01:00:44.280 --> 01:00:50.360
But I can't describe the sound and
the musculature all at the same time.

596
01:00:51.320 --> 01:00:53.400
So I just wanted to just take
a moment to do the one and

597
01:00:53.400 --> 01:01:00.559
then the other right after it.
But this all literally happened simultaneu at the

598
01:01:00.559 --> 01:01:08.679
same time, and it stands up
and that I lost my grip. I

599
01:01:08.719 --> 01:01:19.039
lost my grip on midnight and she
screamed, and I like what. Obviously

600
01:01:19.079 --> 01:01:28.760
it wasn't a scream. It was
the most fearful yep or a yowl I've

601
01:01:28.880 --> 01:01:35.440
ever heard midnight give in thirteen years
of having her by my side on a

602
01:01:35.519 --> 01:01:39.639
daily basis. And she bolted,
She took off north, back towards the

603
01:01:39.639 --> 01:01:50.639
mountain, and I'm just frozen in
fear. I'm literally frozen in fear.

604
01:01:52.599 --> 01:02:07.000
I almost felt as if a wave, a wave of supernatural fear just washed

605
01:02:07.039 --> 01:02:12.199
over me. It wasn't fight or
flight. It was not that. Fight

606
01:02:12.320 --> 01:02:22.039
or flight is when you encounter a
less than intelligent natural animal like a bear

607
01:02:22.639 --> 01:02:30.559
or a cougar, or a bobcat
or a coyote or a wolf that's fight

608
01:02:30.639 --> 01:02:34.840
or flight, or even another human
being. You know, as a matter

609
01:02:34.840 --> 01:02:38.480
of fact, I think most of
our fight or flight instincts are with human

610
01:02:38.519 --> 01:02:45.280
beings. This was not that,
This was not that at all. This

611
01:02:45.440 --> 01:02:57.679
was a wave of sheer terror,
sheer terror like unlike anything I ever experienced

612
01:02:57.719 --> 01:03:06.159
in my life. And in that
moment, I wet myself. I'm man

613
01:03:06.280 --> 01:03:09.199
enough to admit it. Whatever,
I'm fifty years old, Go ahead,

614
01:03:09.280 --> 01:03:16.960
make fun of me. I wet
myself and I could not move. Every

615
01:03:17.079 --> 01:03:23.440
part of me was just run,
run, run, run. But I

616
01:03:23.480 --> 01:03:30.079
couldn't move. It's literally almost as
if this thing had me. And it's

617
01:03:30.159 --> 01:03:35.960
grasped from so far away, and
it hadn't even once it stood up,

618
01:03:35.960 --> 01:03:40.880
but it didn't even move. It's
still there ninety yards away, roughly two

619
01:03:42.000 --> 01:03:45.119
hundred and seventy maybe at the most
three hundred feet away. It did not

620
01:03:45.320 --> 01:03:51.639
move from the point when it finally
cleared the brush. And I'm just sitting

621
01:03:51.679 --> 01:04:01.199
there, frozen, not in fear, in sheer terror, beyond any fight

622
01:04:01.280 --> 01:04:09.800
or flight instinct. And I look
back on it being two days ago,

623
01:04:09.960 --> 01:04:15.199
and after I talked to you yesterday, and I just I kept remembering,

624
01:04:15.199 --> 01:04:20.800
you know, death, You're gonna
die. Death, You're dead, You're

625
01:04:20.840 --> 01:04:30.320
done. That's it. Uh.
Hell, I hope I hope midnight,

626
01:04:30.480 --> 01:04:36.920
you know, runs eight nine miles
to the nearest town and find someone to

627
01:04:36.960 --> 01:04:47.320
take care of her, because this
is it, And I looked back on

628
01:04:47.440 --> 01:04:54.880
it. I heard the story of
that uh yesterday, yesterday. It was

629
01:04:54.880 --> 01:04:59.559
the first time I heard any of
your episodes ever in my life. And

630
01:04:59.639 --> 01:05:04.880
I heard the one about the army
guy with top who was like the meal

631
01:05:05.199 --> 01:05:11.280
He was the meal guy who would
bring meals out to the regiments out in

632
01:05:11.320 --> 01:05:17.119
the field doing practice drills and whatnot. And he mentioned that he ran into

633
01:05:18.159 --> 01:05:30.559
a female thing that was telepathically communicating
to him. And and when I heard

634
01:05:30.599 --> 01:05:39.519
that, the first thing that came
to my head was, this thing is

635
01:05:39.559 --> 01:05:44.239
saying death in my head. It
wasn't saying I'm going to kill you.

636
01:05:44.760 --> 01:05:48.920
It wasn't saying you're gonna die.
But I just I just remember in that

637
01:05:49.079 --> 01:05:56.000
moment death, death, and that
could totally be me. I'm not saying

638
01:05:56.039 --> 01:05:58.639
this thing was telepathically talking to me. That's not what I'm saying at all.

639
01:05:58.719 --> 01:06:01.360
Vic. I'm not I'm not even
going there. I'm just saying.

640
01:06:01.440 --> 01:06:09.719
After hearing that one gentleman's story and
then just remembering what I kept repeating in

641
01:06:09.800 --> 01:06:15.360
my head, I'm like, Okay, that's something I should I should maybe

642
01:06:15.360 --> 01:06:25.679
think about that. So I'm literally
frozen in sheer terror and I could see

643
01:06:25.679 --> 01:06:30.840
this thing as plain as day.
It's literally ninety yards from me on level

644
01:06:30.880 --> 01:06:43.079
ground, so its head was massive, and the only way I could describe

645
01:06:43.679 --> 01:06:53.960
its head is a comp Again,
that's why I just say K nine.

646
01:06:55.480 --> 01:07:02.559
It had a long muzzle like a
wolf or coyote or a German shepherd.

647
01:07:03.920 --> 01:07:15.480
Its ears were more like a German
shepherd comparative comparable to a wolf or a

648
01:07:15.559 --> 01:07:30.000
coyote in the sense that it stood
it's tall sides, whereas a timber wolf

649
01:07:30.079 --> 01:07:36.519
or a gray wolf will have them
a little bit more centered like towards like

650
01:07:36.599 --> 01:07:43.480
the forehead area. These were more
along the lines of on the side.

651
01:07:44.559 --> 01:07:49.320
In what I did notice in the
fading light, because about this time it's

652
01:07:49.360 --> 01:07:57.960
about five maybe even five thirty ish, so it's getting dark, and in

653
01:07:58.039 --> 01:08:02.840
the feeding light, I could see
had tufts at the tips of its ears,

654
01:08:02.599 --> 01:08:09.280
like a lynx. If anybody who's
ever been in New England or in

655
01:08:10.519 --> 01:08:15.920
southeastern Canada, links are prominent,
and if you've ever seen one, which

656
01:08:15.960 --> 01:08:19.279
is very rare, but I'm sure
we've all seen them on TV. We've

657
01:08:19.319 --> 01:08:21.439
all seen him on the Nature Channel
and this, that and the other,

658
01:08:23.239 --> 01:08:29.239
so we know what links look like
and it had that type of tuft at

659
01:08:29.239 --> 01:08:33.880
the tips of its ears, and
its head was massive. I would say

660
01:08:33.880 --> 01:08:50.880
it's shoulders from shoulders shoulder, from
shoulder to shoulder was about three feet three

661
01:08:50.920 --> 01:08:58.880
feet wide. Again, I'm six
five, two hundred pounds, and I'm

662
01:08:58.920 --> 01:09:08.399
half that. I'd say three feet
from shoulder to shoulder. I estimate between

663
01:09:08.520 --> 01:09:14.119
eight and nine feet tall, me
being six' five, and we're on

664
01:09:14.279 --> 01:09:17.319
level ground. Again, it wasn't
higher up on a hillock. It wasn't

665
01:09:17.399 --> 01:09:25.600
lower down in a depression. We're
on level ground. So if I'm six

666
01:09:25.680 --> 01:09:30.680
y five, this thing had to
have been again, estimation between eight and

667
01:09:30.800 --> 01:09:47.079
nine feet tall. And then besides, besides this horrifying visage of its head

668
01:09:48.479 --> 01:10:00.960
and its muzzle, it's arms.
It's arms were disgusting, disgustingly long,

669
01:10:01.199 --> 01:10:12.680
uh, impossibly long. Grotesquely long, that's the word. Grotesquely long.

670
01:10:13.840 --> 01:10:18.800
And it wasn't so much the shoulder
to the elbow part. It was the

671
01:10:18.840 --> 01:10:28.640
elbow to the wrist part. It
was the forearm was grotesquely long. And

672
01:10:30.119 --> 01:10:36.600
these hands, and yes they were
not paused. They were hands. They

673
01:10:36.640 --> 01:10:45.159
look, they look. Let me, let me, let me just finish

674
01:10:45.239 --> 01:10:51.399
with the forearms. Okay, I'm
getting like I'm I'm starting to starting to

675
01:10:51.479 --> 01:10:58.800
have a little bit of a moment
here. But you're doing We're with you.

676
01:10:59.800 --> 01:11:05.279
They thank you, Thank you,
Vic so again. I'm six five,

677
01:11:05.399 --> 01:11:11.359
two hundred pounds tall and ten.
If I were I wear a size

678
01:11:11.439 --> 01:11:15.840
twelve boot. If I were to
put the sole of my boot to my

679
01:11:15.960 --> 01:11:23.479
forearm, it would fit roughly like
a bug in a rug. You know,

680
01:11:24.399 --> 01:11:29.680
it's about that length. And I
think if any of us were to

681
01:11:29.720 --> 01:11:34.079
put the sole of their feet up
to their forearm, their foot would probably

682
01:11:34.159 --> 01:11:43.600
match the length of their forearm.
And this thing's forearms had to have been

683
01:11:44.600 --> 01:11:49.680
twice the length of mind. From
what I would call its elbow, I

684
01:11:49.680 --> 01:11:53.439
don't even know. I don't even
know. I don't even know if that

685
01:11:54.279 --> 01:12:00.840
was an elbow, but from what
I would consider its elbow to it's hand

686
01:12:03.479 --> 01:12:15.159
was grotesquely long, I mean absurdly
grotesquely long. And then that's when I

687
01:12:15.239 --> 01:12:24.560
noticed, I guess what I would
call hands to me. The only way

688
01:12:24.600 --> 01:12:40.000
I could describe this is if you've
ever seen a squirrel eat a nut or

689
01:12:40.039 --> 01:12:54.359
a raccoon eat a nut, the
way their hands are so agile and dexterous

690
01:12:55.359 --> 01:13:01.239
where they can manipulate that nut like
super fast. If you've ever seen a

691
01:13:01.239 --> 01:13:06.159
squirrel, anybody who's been camping or
a hunter who's listening knows what I'm talking

692
01:13:06.199 --> 01:13:12.640
about. If you've ever seen a
squirrel or a raccoon go to town on

693
01:13:12.680 --> 01:13:19.039
a nut and they're just sitting there, shifting this thing, rapidly, chewing

694
01:13:19.119 --> 01:13:25.039
on it, breaking the outer shell
to get to the food on the inside,

695
01:13:25.439 --> 01:13:30.359
and just manipulating their hands. You
know, I hate to say,

696
01:13:30.479 --> 01:13:41.039
but squirrels have hands, and raccoons
have relatively primatus hands in that sense that

697
01:13:40.560 --> 01:13:45.800
they can manipulate things very very well, very well, indeed, And that's

698
01:13:46.640 --> 01:13:54.760
what it looked like. They look
like giant squirrel hands or giant raccoon hands.

699
01:13:55.439 --> 01:14:01.079
But they were the size. They
were the size of like a catcher's

700
01:14:01.119 --> 01:14:08.279
mint in professional baseball. It's not
even bigger like with wise, just just

701
01:14:08.439 --> 01:14:18.239
the width of these hands were roughly
the size of a professional baseball players catchers

702
01:14:18.279 --> 01:14:31.399
mint. Literally grotesque, grotesquely abnormal. But then that would relate back to

703
01:14:31.479 --> 01:14:42.000
its head. Its head was grotesquely
abnormally large. This whole thing was just

704
01:14:43.479 --> 01:14:51.880
abnormally grotesque in every aspect of it. And I remember it's fur coloring or

705
01:14:53.079 --> 01:15:00.560
hair whatever, whatever you call that. It kind of rese the coloring of

706
01:15:00.560 --> 01:15:08.920
a coyote. It was. It
was a dark gray, dark brown,

707
01:15:10.159 --> 01:15:15.560
kind of modeled, kind of modeled
gray brown coloring, but yet in the

708
01:15:15.600 --> 01:15:24.720
fading white, it looked as if
the tips the tips of its short hair.

709
01:15:24.840 --> 01:15:28.880
It was very it was short hair, for sure. The thing was

710
01:15:28.920 --> 01:15:33.119
not like a shaggy dog. It
was not like long hair shaggy dog at

711
01:15:33.159 --> 01:15:40.680
all. It was short hair,
like a well, like a coyote.

712
01:15:41.039 --> 01:15:48.159
It's almost as if the tips of
its fur or hair was tipped in black,

713
01:15:48.640 --> 01:15:59.119
like black highlights. So it was
a like grayish brown colored fur slash

714
01:15:59.159 --> 01:16:08.479
hair, but it had these like
black highlights at the tips. And this

715
01:16:08.520 --> 01:16:14.760
thing had hawks. I don't know
how many people listening know what a hawk

716
01:16:14.920 --> 01:16:20.680
is, but it's a dog leg. It's a backward bending dog leg.

717
01:16:21.079 --> 01:16:30.319
This thing had hawks, I think. To me, to me, that

718
01:16:30.479 --> 01:16:47.000
was the most absurd. That was
the most absurd obscene thing about this whole

719
01:16:50.000 --> 01:16:58.079
encounter. I mean, everything about
it was insane. It was a nightmare,

720
01:17:00.000 --> 01:17:09.880
but noticing these hawks. Man Midnight
had hawks. This thing had the

721
01:17:09.960 --> 01:17:15.439
same legs as my dog. It's
Okay, Mike, take your time.

722
01:17:23.039 --> 01:17:35.199
And uh, that's that was my
full frontal view of this thing. It

723
01:17:35.239 --> 01:17:44.159
didn't snarl, it didn't growl,
it didn't show any teeth, and I'm

724
01:17:44.159 --> 01:17:48.920
glad for that. I mean,
this thing's had so massive if it opened

725
01:17:48.960 --> 01:17:57.079
its mouth, it could literally probably
swallow my head entirely. There's no I

726
01:17:57.119 --> 01:18:03.079
will literally bet my life on that
this thing could swallow my head entirely.

727
01:18:04.079 --> 01:18:14.920
That's how massive this thing's head was. It was at that point that off

728
01:18:14.960 --> 01:18:25.560
in the distance to the north,
I hear midnight yelp in pain or maybe

729
01:18:25.560 --> 01:18:30.039
it was distressed. I don't know
which, but to me, it sounded

730
01:18:30.079 --> 01:18:36.319
like she was in pain. And
that was the only thing that snapped me

731
01:18:36.439 --> 01:18:47.720
out of this weird, weird,
immobilizing moment of sheer terror. I mean,

732
01:18:49.439 --> 01:18:55.239
it's almost like this thing when it's
almost like when it stood up and

733
01:18:55.279 --> 01:19:00.279
I heard those snapping, crackling,
popping sounds and it stood up and I

734
01:19:00.359 --> 01:19:01.880
looked at in its eyes. Oh
and by the way, vic, I

735
01:19:02.000 --> 01:19:08.960
must add that it had yellow eyes, like yellow right out of a cran

736
01:19:09.079 --> 01:19:16.720
box. Yellow, straight yellow,
just plain average normal mustard yellow. I

737
01:19:16.760 --> 01:19:23.359
mean, this thing had straight up, right out of a cran box yellow

738
01:19:23.439 --> 01:19:31.359
eyes. And so when I hear
midnight way off in the distance, heading

739
01:19:32.279 --> 01:19:38.399
towards the north, back towards the
mountain, that kind of broke me.

740
01:19:39.399 --> 01:19:45.359
I don't know what or why,
but that broke me from this weird and

741
01:19:45.399 --> 01:19:53.119
I mean weird, immobilizing trance.
Like you, if you know anything about

742
01:19:53.119 --> 01:19:58.560
Greek mythology, if you look into
the eyes of Medusa, you get turned

743
01:19:58.560 --> 01:20:05.720
to stone. And that's kind of
how I felt at that moment. And

744
01:20:05.800 --> 01:20:14.680
again it was that wave of paralyzing
fear that I felt wash over me when

745
01:20:14.760 --> 01:20:24.640
I made eye contact, and when
I heard my dog in pain, it

746
01:20:24.840 --> 01:20:31.479
snapped me out of it and I
immediately started running the way my dog did,

747
01:20:31.880 --> 01:20:44.720
back north towards the mountain. And
I don't know how I missed the

748
01:20:44.840 --> 01:20:49.680
trail on my way south going back
to my car to begin with no idea.

749
01:20:49.920 --> 01:20:55.279
Again, I used to go there
a lot in my late teens and

750
01:20:55.359 --> 01:20:59.960
early twenties, and it's the blue
trail. Everybody knows it's the blue Trail.

751
01:21:00.920 --> 01:21:04.760
How could I possibly have missed it
my first time coming back going to

752
01:21:04.800 --> 01:21:11.760
the car. I just I don't
get it. And I look back on

753
01:21:11.840 --> 01:21:15.680
it and I'm like, Okay,
the weird like no wilderness noises, you

754
01:21:15.720 --> 01:21:20.520
know, no, no chipmunks are
chirping because they're upset that I'm up.

755
01:21:21.239 --> 01:21:28.880
I'm in the way of their foraging
or something, you know, Like I

756
01:21:28.920 --> 01:21:32.800
didn't think of it then, but
after talking to you yesterday, I have

757
01:21:32.880 --> 01:21:41.159
thought about that all day today,
like why were there no noises? Usually

758
01:21:41.199 --> 01:21:46.199
that's a sign of a large predator. But the only predators we have in

759
01:21:46.279 --> 01:21:56.640
northwestern Connecticut are black bear, coyote, bobcat. And we have moose,

760
01:21:56.720 --> 01:22:01.319
But moose aren't predators, you know. I mean, they're large and they'll

761
01:22:02.359 --> 01:22:08.840
stop you to death, but they're
not predators. So really, the only

762
01:22:08.880 --> 01:22:15.359
predators we have in northwestern Connecticut are
black bear, coyote, bobcat. There's

763
01:22:15.399 --> 01:22:25.239
been an occasional mountain lying siding,
but that's far and few between. Even

764
01:22:28.960 --> 01:22:36.000
did someone really see that? Regardless
I bolt, I start bolting the way

765
01:22:36.079 --> 01:22:41.960
my dog did, towards the north, towards the mountain, which is where

766
01:22:42.479 --> 01:22:48.640
the blue path was. That somehow, unbeknownst to me, I completely walked

767
01:22:48.680 --> 01:22:57.000
past and did not see, which
even as I speak right now, still

768
01:22:57.039 --> 01:23:02.760
blows my mind. How did I
miss the blue path, so heading south

769
01:23:03.600 --> 01:23:08.760
towards my car. Initially, the
Blue Path would have been on my right,

770
01:23:10.079 --> 01:23:16.520
and the right trail is facing west. Now now that I'm running back

771
01:23:16.560 --> 01:23:24.880
the way my dog ran towards the
mountain towards the Blue path, now the

772
01:23:24.920 --> 01:23:30.159
trail is going to be on my
left. And for some reason, even

773
01:23:30.479 --> 01:23:35.680
in the failing light, and I'm
talking, it's about it's about five o'clock,

774
01:23:35.760 --> 01:23:40.279
maybe even five ten, five point
fifteen at this time, I don't

775
01:23:40.319 --> 01:23:44.239
know. All I know is it's
got to be around five o'clock. And

776
01:23:44.520 --> 01:23:48.720
when you're in the wilderness, when
you're in a heavily forested area, it's

777
01:23:48.800 --> 01:23:55.000
getting dark real fast. If you're
in a field, it's still daylight and

778
01:23:55.600 --> 01:24:00.479
everything is wonderful and sunny and beautiful. But here it's getting dark and it's

779
01:24:00.520 --> 01:24:04.560
getting dark fast. And I don't
know how I missed it on my way

780
01:24:04.600 --> 01:24:09.800
down, but I don't know if
it was the fear or the terror,

781
01:24:10.319 --> 01:24:21.039
but I clearly could see the blue
insignias on the trees saying north up blue

782
01:24:21.079 --> 01:24:30.960
path, left parking area, and
I just I'm bolting, and at first

783
01:24:31.239 --> 01:24:34.479
I hear nothing. I'm just I'm
bold. All I can hear is my

784
01:24:34.600 --> 01:24:42.159
own heartbeat in my ears. And
then out of nowhere, I hear what

785
01:24:42.399 --> 01:24:53.239
sounds like a wrecking ball, a
literal wrecking ball, smashing through the dense

786
01:24:53.560 --> 01:25:00.039
forest on my left. So now
I'm facing west towards where my car is,

787
01:25:00.720 --> 01:25:05.640
and on my left, which would
be facing south, I just hear

788
01:25:05.800 --> 01:25:15.840
this smashing and cracking of underbrush and
trees like literal. I'm telling you,

789
01:25:16.239 --> 01:25:23.640
I heard trees going down, and
you could hear the branches of the falling

790
01:25:23.720 --> 01:25:31.000
tree smashing into other branches of standing
trees. And it is just this cacophony,

791
01:25:31.600 --> 01:25:43.079
a literal cacophony of smashing limbs and
branches, literally as if you took

792
01:25:43.199 --> 01:25:53.399
a wrecking ball and just swung that
thing right through the densest, most dense

793
01:25:53.439 --> 01:25:58.600
force you could possibly think of.
This is what I heard. And as

794
01:25:58.640 --> 01:26:05.079
I hear it, I know for
the very first time, these very loud

795
01:26:06.000 --> 01:26:16.560
thumps, like pounding thumps on the
earth. Every time my right foot or

796
01:26:16.640 --> 01:26:23.079
every time my left foot hit the
ground as I'm running faster than I've ever

797
01:26:23.199 --> 01:26:31.640
ran in my damn life, I
could literally feel the ground shake every time

798
01:26:32.520 --> 01:26:40.600
my foot touched the earth. As
I ran, I could feel the ground

799
01:26:41.000 --> 01:26:49.239
shake in cadence to the sound of
this. And let me please make this

800
01:26:49.560 --> 01:26:56.800
very clear. I know the sound
of a beer running then they're done that.

801
01:26:57.319 --> 01:27:00.159
I know the sound of a deer
running. I know the sound of

802
01:27:00.199 --> 01:27:05.159
a coyote running. Again. I've
been a solo camper my whole life.

803
01:27:05.680 --> 01:27:15.359
I know what it sounds with an
animal on four legs is running or trotting

804
01:27:15.119 --> 01:27:19.960
through the forest. I know what
that sounds like. It's very, very

805
01:27:20.000 --> 01:27:31.840
distinctive, you know, one after
the other. This was and unmistakably bipedal

806
01:27:31.920 --> 01:27:38.279
cadence. Stump dump dump dump dump
dump dump, and it was that fast.

807
01:27:38.760 --> 01:27:43.840
As fast as I was running,
this thing was thump, dumb,

808
01:27:43.920 --> 01:27:50.039
dum dum, dumb dumb dump.
And every time either of my boots touched

809
01:27:50.199 --> 01:28:00.560
the earth, I could literally feel
the ground reverberating. The ground was literally

810
01:28:00.680 --> 01:28:13.119
shaking from the impact of whatever it
was running behind me. And from the

811
01:28:13.199 --> 01:28:20.439
lean to to my car is roughly
roughly about a quarter mile. From the

812
01:28:20.520 --> 01:28:25.560
Lean two to my car, it
would have been shorter if I hit the

813
01:28:25.600 --> 01:28:31.279
Blue trail from the beginning, but
I was probably an eighth of a mile

814
01:28:31.399 --> 01:28:36.239
south of that. So in total, from the lean tube to my car

815
01:28:36.439 --> 01:28:44.239
was probably half a mile and I'm
running for dear life, and it's getting

816
01:28:44.399 --> 01:28:49.399
very dark. I don't have a
flashlight. I'm stumbling, I'm tripping.

817
01:28:49.720 --> 01:28:55.720
I fell a few times. I
bashed my knees, I bashed my elbows.

818
01:28:56.000 --> 01:29:00.079
I was scraped up. I actually
ended up with a black eye because

819
01:29:00.079 --> 01:29:03.800
I fell. I tripped over something. I don't know what it was.

820
01:29:03.880 --> 01:29:10.680
I couldn't see. I tripped over
something, and I smacked my face right

821
01:29:10.800 --> 01:29:15.359
on a rock that was right in
the middle of the path. Because these

822
01:29:15.439 --> 01:29:18.520
are not if you've ever been on
the Appalachian Trail, it's not like a

823
01:29:19.039 --> 01:29:23.720
you know, it's not like a
walking path you can skateboard down. These

824
01:29:23.760 --> 01:29:30.560
are very rough, very rugged trails. And I smacked my face right off

825
01:29:30.600 --> 01:29:35.560
of this rock. I ended up
having I still have a black eye right

826
01:29:35.600 --> 01:29:41.600
now, and my eye, my
eye ended up being swollen shut later that

827
01:29:41.760 --> 01:29:46.920
night. But I continued running and
I'm all bashed up and I'm all scraped

828
01:29:47.000 --> 01:29:56.600
up, and I could just the
sound of these thumps in the It almost

829
01:29:56.640 --> 01:30:01.560
sounded like something was ripping trees right
out of the I mean just it was

830
01:30:01.720 --> 01:30:15.279
such a terrifying sound to hear.
And then feeling the ground shake with every

831
01:30:15.399 --> 01:30:25.239
thump. I peed myself again.
Okay, so two times. I wet

832
01:30:25.279 --> 01:30:30.039
myself. A second time after I
smashed my face on that rock and I

833
01:30:30.119 --> 01:30:35.680
continued running, I knew I was
done. That's it. I'm done.

834
01:30:36.159 --> 01:30:45.439
I hope Midnight gets out of this
alive, you know, And uh,

835
01:30:46.800 --> 01:30:51.279
yeah, I'm done. It's like
I go back to when I was standing

836
01:30:51.319 --> 01:30:56.840
in front of it, and I
just kept thinking death, death, death,

837
01:30:57.520 --> 01:31:04.920
death. Why am I not dead
already? I mean, this thing

838
01:31:05.479 --> 01:31:13.720
is so large and so fast.
The way it was crashing through the woods's

839
01:31:15.680 --> 01:31:19.520
I can only imagine like it stopped
to let me run ahead a little bit

840
01:31:19.560 --> 01:31:26.399
further and then took the pursuit again
or something, Because I mean, I'm

841
01:31:26.439 --> 01:31:32.840
six foot five and I've got a
long stride when I'm running. I've got

842
01:31:32.840 --> 01:31:40.039
a long stride as anybody who's ever
known as six foot five person, You've

843
01:31:40.039 --> 01:31:44.199
got a long stride when you're running. And if this thing is eight to

844
01:31:44.279 --> 01:31:48.399
nine feet tall, it's got to
at least double, if not triple,

845
01:31:48.479 --> 01:31:55.840
my stride. And it was only
ninety yards away at the most three hundred

846
01:31:55.880 --> 01:32:02.359
feet away tops from when I first
bolted after I heard midnight yelp and pain.

847
01:32:05.079 --> 01:32:12.119
So I have no idea why I
wasn't ripped the shreds at this point,

848
01:32:13.039 --> 01:32:15.880
because I knew I was gonna be
I just knew it. There's no

849
01:32:16.159 --> 01:32:24.000
getting out of this. So after
I smash my face, I just keep

850
01:32:24.039 --> 01:32:28.920
stumbling and I'm running and now I'm
screaming. I'm not even screaming. I'm

851
01:32:28.920 --> 01:32:35.800
not even screaming anything coherent. I'm
literally just screaming. And finally I get

852
01:32:35.840 --> 01:32:42.079
to a part where I realize the
parking lot is right up the trail,

853
01:32:44.680 --> 01:32:47.399
and I'm I'm I'm like, okay, this is it's gonna get me.

854
01:32:47.840 --> 01:32:56.279
It's just this, this dang thing
is just gonna wait like a horror movie

855
01:32:56.840 --> 01:33:01.159
where you think you're safe and and
that's it. That's when it takes this

856
01:33:02.159 --> 01:33:15.079
enormous, grotesquely large head and just
bite your head off in one swift bite.

857
01:33:15.279 --> 01:33:17.640
I mean, the the size of
this thing's head, I can only

858
01:33:17.680 --> 01:33:27.319
imagine if it opened up its mall. I could only imagine what this thing

859
01:33:28.760 --> 01:33:31.479
could could possibly could possibly do.
As a matter of fact, I kind

860
01:33:31.520 --> 01:33:33.600
of really don't. I wish I
didn't even say that. I wish I

861
01:33:33.640 --> 01:33:41.439
did not even I wish I did
not even say that. So I see

862
01:33:41.680 --> 01:33:45.720
I see my car at the end
of the trail where it opens up into

863
01:33:46.159 --> 01:33:53.840
where it's cleared, and then the
road is behind it. And I was

864
01:33:53.960 --> 01:34:01.640
so happy because I saw Midnight standing
on the hood of my car, on

865
01:34:01.760 --> 01:34:11.600
the foot of my engine, and
she's yipping and yapping. I don't know

866
01:34:11.640 --> 01:34:16.800
if it was in joy or if
it was in fear, because she doesn't

867
01:34:16.840 --> 01:34:25.760
normally do these things. She does
not She's such a mellow dog. Even

868
01:34:25.800 --> 01:34:29.800
when other dogs bark at her,
she doesn't bark back. She just looks

869
01:34:29.800 --> 01:34:33.319
at them like I'm better than you, you know, like I don't like

870
01:34:33.319 --> 01:34:35.960
the way you talk to me.
I'm not gonna grace that with an answer.

871
01:34:36.039 --> 01:34:43.039
I'm not gonna grace that with a
follow up bark. And she's yipping

872
01:34:43.319 --> 01:34:47.920
and yapping, and I'm just running
as fast as I can, which actually,

873
01:34:48.199 --> 01:34:54.119
at this point I think I'm running
much slower than I was initially because

874
01:34:54.159 --> 01:34:58.079
I'm beat up, I'm scraped up, my head hurts, my face hurts,

875
01:34:59.119 --> 01:35:01.119
so I'm shure I wasn't even running
as fast as I could, and

876
01:35:01.159 --> 01:35:14.279
I'm at completely running on adrenaline alone. I'm fifty years old. I don't

877
01:35:14.319 --> 01:35:21.840
have that type of energy anymore.
And so I run to the car,

878
01:35:21.920 --> 01:35:27.760
and when I approach, she hops
off the hood right next to me.

879
01:35:27.840 --> 01:35:31.960
I open up the door. I
unlocked the door. I should say I

880
01:35:32.000 --> 01:35:39.680
had both my driver's side and passenger
side windows down, because again in New

881
01:35:39.760 --> 01:35:43.800
England for winter, it was a
warm day. It was like forty five

882
01:35:43.920 --> 01:35:53.720
maybe forty six degrees out, and
that is considerably warm in February in New

883
01:35:53.720 --> 01:35:58.880
England. And I hop in the
car. She jumps in first, and

884
01:35:58.960 --> 01:36:04.199
she runs over to the passenger seat. I hop in, and as soon

885
01:36:04.239 --> 01:36:09.119
as I take my keys and I'm
about to put them in to the ignition,

886
01:36:10.840 --> 01:36:19.720
three things happened at one time,
again simultaneously, but with like a

887
01:36:20.000 --> 01:36:31.840
second delay on each one. So
the first thing that happened was out of

888
01:36:31.880 --> 01:36:39.479
my driver's side window, which was
down. Now, mind you, my

889
01:36:39.680 --> 01:36:46.319
car is the way my car was
parked. It's facing east, so the

890
01:36:46.479 --> 01:36:57.000
mountain would be on my left facing
north. Out of my driver's side window,

891
01:36:58.079 --> 01:37:17.359
I hear the most disgusting, haunting, low baritone bass how I've ever

892
01:37:17.399 --> 01:37:23.720
heard in my life. I've heard
coyotes, How they don't really howl all

893
01:37:23.800 --> 01:37:27.279
that much. They more yep,
they yip, and they yap and they

894
01:37:27.319 --> 01:37:32.680
bark, and they do it in
like a like a song, a sing

895
01:37:32.800 --> 01:37:39.640
song. That's how coyotes. That's
how coyotes. How is they sing song?

896
01:37:39.760 --> 01:37:45.359
These yips and yaps and barks.
Once in a while you'll hear an

897
01:37:45.439 --> 01:37:50.399
actual howl out of the pack.
This was not anything like that. This

898
01:37:50.800 --> 01:38:06.560
was a grotesque, mournful, haunting, baritone base howl. And about one

899
01:38:06.600 --> 01:38:15.039
second later, out of my passenger
window, the same exact howl, no

900
01:38:15.199 --> 01:38:24.600
pitch different at all, comes from
that direction. Midnight jumps off my passenger

901
01:38:24.680 --> 01:38:30.319
seat and crawls down to the floorboard
as close as she can to the engine,

902
01:38:30.880 --> 01:38:35.479
and she keeys, she's peeing on
my floorboard, and I could hear,

903
01:38:35.640 --> 01:38:44.479
I could hear her urine forcefully exiting
her onto my floorboard as this these

904
01:38:44.560 --> 01:38:51.119
two and one second after the second
one, So this all happens within three

905
01:38:51.199 --> 01:39:00.840
seconds, no joke. Simultaneously,
a third one erupts exactly ahead of me,

906
01:39:00.039 --> 01:39:04.760
to the east, in the direction
I just came from where this damn

907
01:39:04.880 --> 01:39:13.760
thing was chasing me. Came the
third one. And I'm not gonna do

908
01:39:13.800 --> 01:39:18.199
this any justice at all, but
it came like this. It was like

909
01:39:19.920 --> 01:39:30.760
ooh, that fast, like one
after the other a second apart, one

910
01:39:30.800 --> 01:39:33.920
to my left, one to my
right, and then the one ahead of

911
01:39:33.960 --> 01:39:39.359
me. The one ahead of me
was the loudest. And this is as

912
01:39:39.399 --> 01:39:45.840
I'm putting the keys into my ignition. This all happens within three seconds.

913
01:39:45.319 --> 01:39:50.880
So I turned the car on.
I didn't even look behind me for hikers.

914
01:39:50.920 --> 01:39:55.960
I didn't look behind me for cars
or anything. I didn't care.

915
01:39:56.960 --> 01:40:03.039
I put it into reverse, I
small the gas, and I backed up,

916
01:40:04.119 --> 01:40:09.800
facing south. I put it in
the drive and I just floored it.

917
01:40:10.600 --> 01:40:17.079
And if any of you guys listening
know anything about any adjacent roads that

918
01:40:17.279 --> 01:40:25.840
lead to any Appalachian trail, they
are rough. They're single lane, dirt

919
01:40:26.159 --> 01:40:38.680
gravel roads that are literally ridden with
massive potholes. I mean potholes that just

920
01:40:40.880 --> 01:40:45.319
like, how did that happen?
Did someone come out and take a shovel

921
01:40:45.359 --> 01:40:47.560
and dig a hole in the road? Why is the pothole so big?

922
01:40:48.319 --> 01:40:54.800
Like just it's that kind of country
road. And again, I'm out in

923
01:40:54.840 --> 01:41:00.920
the wilderness and I am just flooring
it, and I'm going over all these

924
01:41:00.960 --> 01:41:09.640
things I checked I checked this morning
because I didn't do it when I got

925
01:41:09.680 --> 01:41:13.720
back. And I didn't do it
yesterday before or after I talked to Vic.

926
01:41:14.239 --> 01:41:19.119
But today I finally looked at my
car and I cracked both my struts

927
01:41:20.279 --> 01:41:30.279
and I really messed up the wheel
walls of all four of my tires.

928
01:41:30.720 --> 01:41:39.720
I just I must have been doing
forty down this single car narrow dirt gravel

929
01:41:39.840 --> 01:41:50.199
road with these massive potholes for like
miles, and my car is pretty much

930
01:41:50.239 --> 01:41:56.960
messed up. I actually I have
to take it to a mechanic and spend

931
01:41:57.000 --> 01:41:59.600
quite a bit of money to get
it fixed. But I already set that

932
01:41:59.720 --> 01:42:01.760
up, and I think that's gonna
happen in two days. I think it's

933
01:42:01.800 --> 01:42:09.239
gonna happen on Sunday, Super Bowl
Sunday. Unfortunately for the mechanic, hopefully

934
01:42:09.239 --> 01:42:13.359
he's not a football fan. Or
maybe that's why he's charging me so much

935
01:42:13.399 --> 01:42:19.239
money. I don't know, but
that is how I got out of there.

936
01:42:23.800 --> 01:42:28.600
And it's about an hour south to
get back to Kent, Connecticut,

937
01:42:28.640 --> 01:42:33.039
which is in the central western part
of Connecticut where the hills are only about

938
01:42:33.039 --> 01:42:40.399
a thousand feet tall and not over
two thousand feet tall. And I ran

939
01:42:40.479 --> 01:42:46.279
in hysterical midnight, went running in
before me, and I ran in after

940
01:42:46.319 --> 01:42:54.119
her. And I'm just I'm frantic, I'm hysterical, and my genes are

941
01:42:54.760 --> 01:43:01.520
saturated in my own urine. I
peed myself twice. Luckily I didn't have

942
01:43:01.560 --> 01:43:13.920
a big breakfast or else other things
might have happened. But you know,

943
01:43:14.640 --> 01:43:18.359
my mom and my dad and my
sister. My sister's five years older than

944
01:43:18.439 --> 01:43:23.680
me, so she's fifty five again. My mom's seventy five, my dad's

945
01:43:23.720 --> 01:43:29.479
eighty. I had two aunts and
two uncles and some cousins over, but

946
01:43:29.520 --> 01:43:32.239
they were in the other like they
like to do their own thing over in

947
01:43:32.319 --> 01:43:35.079
that side of the house where like
the pool table is and all that.

948
01:43:39.000 --> 01:43:45.399
And I explained my story to them, and you know, my sister laughed

949
01:43:45.439 --> 01:43:51.760
at me. My dad, they
know me as a person with integrity.

950
01:43:53.880 --> 01:43:58.319
I've been a professional chef for thirty
two years, and I've been a professional

951
01:43:58.399 --> 01:44:02.920
my whole life, and they know
me as someone with integrity. They know

952
01:44:03.039 --> 01:44:09.319
that I'm someone who does not lie. If you ask me a question,

953
01:44:10.199 --> 01:44:13.319
even if it's going to hurt your
feelings, I will tell you the truth,

954
01:44:14.199 --> 01:44:17.920
even though it's gonna hurt your dang
feelings. I just I would rather

955
01:44:18.560 --> 01:44:23.520
I would rather tell you the truth
than hurt your feelings, than lie to

956
01:44:23.600 --> 01:44:28.319
you and have you find a lie
and then lose trust in me. That's

957
01:44:28.399 --> 01:44:31.279
just that's the type of person I
am, and my family knows it.

958
01:44:31.680 --> 01:44:38.279
And I think my sister was just
being well a jerk who she is,

959
01:44:39.159 --> 01:44:43.520
and she was making fun of me. My dad, he did not disbelieve

960
01:44:43.560 --> 01:44:48.359
me, but he was like,
oh, I'm sure you yeah, you

961
01:44:48.479 --> 01:44:58.079
probably saw a disfigured bear. You
saw a disformed bear. That's the way

962
01:44:58.199 --> 01:45:05.520
my dad looked at it. But
my mother, being being the nurturer of

963
01:45:05.560 --> 01:45:12.239
the entire family, she was looking
me right in my eyes. I mean,

964
01:45:12.319 --> 01:45:18.399
she was staring right into my soul
when I was explaining this to her.

965
01:45:19.039 --> 01:45:27.359
And then she's looking at me shaking
visibly, visibly shaking as if I

966
01:45:27.479 --> 01:45:36.239
was like, you know, Parkinson's
disease at times ten. And then she

967
01:45:36.439 --> 01:45:44.760
noticed that how wet my pants were
with urine. It's clear because it all

968
01:45:44.800 --> 01:45:53.439
stemmed from the crotch region and just
flooded both my legs, and it's very

969
01:45:53.479 --> 01:45:59.439
clear to anybody that this man peede
himself. And that's when my mom really

970
01:45:59.760 --> 01:46:09.039
that's when she really took everything I
was saying very serious, and and she

971
01:46:09.159 --> 01:46:14.479
brought After a few minutes, she
brought me off to the side and brought

972
01:46:14.520 --> 01:46:19.359
me a clean pair of clothes,
and uh, I took I took a

973
01:46:19.439 --> 01:46:24.720
quick shower, I mean like quick, like a like a three minute shower,

974
01:46:24.880 --> 01:46:28.359
Like I didn't even use soaper.
I just wanted to wash the urine

975
01:46:28.359 --> 01:46:30.880
off of me because I had to. I had to finish telling my story.

976
01:46:31.800 --> 01:46:38.479
So I just literally took like a
two minute rinse shower, and I

977
01:46:38.600 --> 01:46:46.159
put on some pajama bottoms and I
sat down in the guest bedroom and I

978
01:46:46.279 --> 01:46:54.239
finished telling her my story. And
that's the story that I ended up telling

979
01:46:54.279 --> 01:46:59.039
to the park ranger the very next
day. And then that's when the park

980
01:46:59.159 --> 01:47:06.479
ranger gave me the information to contact
Dogmenencounters dot com. And that's when I

981
01:47:06.520 --> 01:47:16.560
met Vic, And that that is
the brunt of my story. Wow,

982
01:47:16.680 --> 01:47:20.520
Mike, I've told you this several
times and I'll tell you again. I'm

983
01:47:20.600 --> 01:47:25.760
so sorry to hear that you had
to go through that experience. How horrific.

984
01:47:26.560 --> 01:47:30.680
But there's good news in that.
I mean, at least you're okay.

985
01:47:30.840 --> 01:47:34.159
Like I explained last night to you, if that dogman wanted to get

986
01:47:34.239 --> 01:47:40.279
you. He had so many opportunities
to do that, and he wasn't alone

987
01:47:40.319 --> 01:47:44.520
as he found out as well.
But yeah, it's all in how you

988
01:47:44.600 --> 01:47:47.079
look at it. I know it's
not easy to deal with even after a

989
01:47:47.199 --> 01:47:54.199
conversation. It's going to take time
just processing it and remembering the things that

990
01:47:54.239 --> 01:47:58.960
I shared with you yesterday in our
conversation. But you are going to be

991
01:47:59.159 --> 01:48:01.239
just fine as it's just going to
take time to come to terms with this.

992
01:48:01.399 --> 01:48:04.720
And I also want to make sure
you don't lose sight of the fact

993
01:48:04.760 --> 01:48:10.119
that, like I told yesterday and
I told you today earlier on, you're

994
01:48:10.159 --> 01:48:13.520
never going to be alone in this. You're always going to have help.

995
01:48:13.920 --> 01:48:16.319
If you ever need to talk with
me about this again, you know how

996
01:48:16.319 --> 01:48:19.159
to reach out to me and let
me know. And by all means,

997
01:48:19.199 --> 01:48:24.760
we'll schedule other phone conversations so I
can find out what's ailing you. But

998
01:48:25.680 --> 01:48:29.600
you've got help, you really do. You've got more support than you're ever

999
01:48:29.680 --> 01:48:36.279
gonna know. But after going through
reliving this experience, it's been so hard

1000
01:48:36.319 --> 01:48:41.479
on you, it just would be
horrible to do a Q and A now.

1001
01:48:41.520 --> 01:48:45.279
So I'll tell you what I'm gonna
bring tonight show to an end,

1002
01:48:45.359 --> 01:48:49.840
But would you feel up to coming
back next week? And understand there's no

1003
01:48:49.920 --> 01:48:55.520
pressure to do this, but would
you feel up to coming back next Friday

1004
01:48:55.600 --> 01:49:00.000
night on a live stream and answering
questions that the listeners have for you?

1005
01:49:00.079 --> 01:49:08.520
Yeah? Yeah, I could do
that tonight. I could do it whenever

1006
01:49:08.560 --> 01:49:14.159
you need me. Tom, I'm
not opposed to even doing it right now

1007
01:49:14.319 --> 01:49:18.640
if you want to, but if
you think it would be best to do

1008
01:49:18.760 --> 01:49:24.720
it next week, that's fine with
me as well. I just I want

1009
01:49:24.760 --> 01:49:30.520
you to know that I kind of
feel like it's therapeutic at this moment,

1010
01:49:31.239 --> 01:49:35.880
being that I'm in the moment that
if you want to do it now,

1011
01:49:36.079 --> 01:49:42.520
I'm okay with that. Well,
if you feel it's better to do it

1012
01:49:44.000 --> 01:49:45.840
on a later date, I could
do that as well, and I won't

1013
01:49:45.880 --> 01:49:51.319
shy away from it. Well,
you're probably looking at over an hour worth

1014
01:49:51.319 --> 01:49:57.359
of questions and looking at the fact
that it's already so late. As long

1015
01:49:57.399 --> 01:50:00.760
as you're for coming back next Friday
night at nine pm to do a live

1016
01:50:00.760 --> 01:50:03.960
stream, so we could have the
listeners ask questions and whatnot, and let's

1017
01:50:04.000 --> 01:50:09.439
do that. Let's let's close out
tonight and then just come back next Friday

1018
01:50:09.479 --> 01:50:14.479
and do it. Then sure if
you think, if you think that the

1019
01:50:14.560 --> 01:50:20.600
listeners will give us an hour or
more of questions and me answering, Yeah,

1020
01:50:20.720 --> 01:50:25.840
I am. I am absolutely okay
with that, Vic, as long

1021
01:50:25.960 --> 01:50:30.239
as as long as you're okay with
that, I'm absolutely fine with that.

1022
01:50:30.279 --> 01:50:33.119
As a matter of fact, I
will even make sure I talk to my

1023
01:50:33.239 --> 01:50:38.159
boss because by then I'll be back
in Virginia. I leave, I leave

1024
01:50:38.239 --> 01:50:44.279
Saturday night to go back to Virginia
to the Shenandoah Mountains, and I will

1025
01:50:44.279 --> 01:50:49.640
make sure that I contact my boss
and let them know that I need I

1026
01:50:49.720 --> 01:50:55.239
need Friday night off. So maybe
maybe he can schedule me for, you

1027
01:50:55.239 --> 01:50:58.760
know, a morning shift as a
chef. You know I could. I

1028
01:50:58.760 --> 01:51:02.479
could, I could do the morning
and have the night free. But I

1029
01:51:02.520 --> 01:51:10.439
can guarantee you I'm there's no way, after after everything I've experienced and then

1030
01:51:11.000 --> 01:51:15.039
relaying it to you, and then
also relaying it to the audience live,

1031
01:51:16.479 --> 01:51:24.079
that I cannot. I cannot end
it there. I have to. I

1032
01:51:24.199 --> 01:51:30.039
have to be able to finish any
questions that you might have yourself. I'm

1033
01:51:30.079 --> 01:51:35.760
sure I'm sure you yourself have questions, let alone anybody listening. So absolutely

1034
01:51:36.079 --> 01:51:43.279
I will make sure that I am
free next Friday night. I'm glad that'll

1035
01:51:43.279 --> 01:51:45.119
work for you, and you're right, Yeah, of course I'm gonna have

1036
01:51:45.199 --> 01:51:48.920
questions for you as well. More
than likely we're looking at probably a ninety

1037
01:51:49.039 --> 01:51:54.239
minute show because of all the questions. But yeah, I'm just glad,

1038
01:51:54.319 --> 01:51:57.640
like I said here, that you
can come back next Friday and do that.

1039
01:51:57.800 --> 01:52:00.880
So yeah, let's just do it. Then you say about too much

1040
01:52:00.880 --> 01:52:02.960
weight on a young back. You're
not a young guy, but you had

1041
01:52:03.039 --> 01:52:06.560
that encounter two days ago, so
yeah, I mean, this is so

1042
01:52:06.800 --> 01:52:12.000
fresh. That is the definition of
a young back when it comes to coming

1043
01:52:12.039 --> 01:52:15.039
to terms with this. But having
said that, Mike, again, like

1044
01:52:15.119 --> 01:52:19.239
I said, I am so sorry
you had to experience that. But if

1045
01:52:19.279 --> 01:52:24.560
you could have only seen all the
support coming your way from the live chat,

1046
01:52:25.000 --> 01:52:30.680
and please keep an eye on the
comments to the video to the video

1047
01:52:30.760 --> 01:52:33.800
that posts as well, I don't
think you're gonna believe all the supports you're

1048
01:52:33.840 --> 01:52:39.720
gonna get there. Also, but
having said that, I'm not even familiar.

1049
01:52:40.039 --> 01:52:45.159
I'm not even familiar with dog Man
Encounter's radio. Like if I were

1050
01:52:45.159 --> 01:52:51.000
to look at any of the do
I go on YouTube? Well, we're

1051
01:52:51.000 --> 01:52:56.319
going to talk after we close the
show out here, We're going to talk

1052
01:52:56.359 --> 01:52:59.760
and I'll put you on the target
so that you know how to check out

1053
01:52:59.760 --> 01:53:03.880
the and everything. Then okay,
yeah, but like I told you,

1054
01:53:04.560 --> 01:53:10.439
thanks for coming on and sharing this
experience. I'm so sorry to hear what

1055
01:53:10.520 --> 01:53:14.640
that dog man did to you.
But yeah, everything is gonna be just

1056
01:53:14.840 --> 01:53:19.000
fine. It's gonna be okay.
But having said that, try to go,

1057
01:53:20.199 --> 01:53:25.239
Oh, you're welcome, You're welcome, glad to help. Try to

1058
01:53:25.279 --> 01:53:30.439
go someplace and unwind as much as
possible. I know, easier said than

1059
01:53:30.520 --> 01:53:35.000
done, but try to relax as
much as possible. Try to unwind because

1060
01:53:35.039 --> 01:53:43.640
you definitely deserve it. I appreciate
that you're welcome. You are welcome.

1061
01:53:44.680 --> 01:53:46.279
If you've had a dog mean encounter, I would like to speak with me

1062
01:53:46.319 --> 01:53:50.560
about it, whether I'm private or
on the show. Please go to Dogmanencounters

1063
01:53:50.600 --> 01:53:55.600
dot com and submit a report.
If you've had a big foot sighting and

1064
01:53:55.600 --> 01:53:58.159
we'd like to be a guest on
one of my two big foot shows,

1065
01:53:58.560 --> 01:54:02.960
please go to my Bigfoots. Like
I said, Mike, please stay with

1066
01:54:03.079 --> 01:54:06.960
me. Please don't go anywhere,
because you know we're going to talk after

1067
01:54:08.000 --> 01:54:14.159
I close out the show, all
right, okay, okay, great?

1068
01:54:15.640 --> 01:54:18.800
Well everyone. Like I told you
before, thank you so much for all

1069
01:54:18.840 --> 01:54:24.159
the support you show the eyewitnesses.
I can't tell you how much I appreciate

1070
01:54:24.199 --> 01:54:28.319
it. I really do. And
of course, please keep Mike in your

1071
01:54:28.399 --> 01:54:31.479
minds, and like I said,
we'll be back next Friday night and nine

1072
01:54:31.560 --> 01:54:36.159
pm Eastern time to do another live
stream where Mike's going to be ready to

1073
01:54:36.199 --> 01:54:42.119
answer your questions that you have for
him. So thanks again for listening and

1074
01:54:42.680 --> 01:55:15.600
have a great night. MS year
as the English