At at Hey, everyone, thanks so much for listening to tonight's live stream
episode of dog Men Encounters Radio. Tonight's guest, unfortunately, had a very
traumatic encounter just two days ago in an interesting place. I really feel for
the guy. I spoke with him yesterday for the first time about what happened
to him, and he was all torn up, understandably so. But yeah,
you're going to get the rest of the story here in just a bit,
in about ten minutes, and when you listen to what this poor man
went through, you're really gonna feel for him. But before we get to
that point, let's bring him on here now. Tonight's guest is Mike.
Mike, Welcome to the show. Thank you, Vic. I really do
appreciate you giving me the opportunity to explain this however I can. Oh,
you're welcome. That's what I'm here for, and yeah, that's what I
love to do. I'm just so glad that you found out about me and
what I do. And speaking of that, you found out about me in
a very interesting way. How did you find out about me? Yes,
I did, sir, well, when I had the encounter. When I
finally got back down to Kent, Connecticut from the area surrounding Salisbury, Connecticut.
I told my old mom and my old dad and my older sister,
and you know, no one really, no one really believed me at first.
But when they saw that my jeans were soaked in my own urine,
they realized something really bad happened. And my mom was really as most mothers
are, she was the one that really was the most responsive and the most
concerned and the more I just, I mean, at this point, you
got to understand, vict At this point, I am almost ranting and raving
like a like a lunatic. I just I'm just talking and talking and talking,
and you can't shut me up, and no one can get a word
in. And I mean I'm literally just repeating myself over and over and over
again, is basically the way I would say it. And so finally when
I was calmed down a bit and they convinced me to change out of my
wet pants, not calm at all yet, but a little bit more comfortable
in some clean clothes, and basically they they my dad said it first.
My dad said, well, you know, you should call the rangers and
let them know that you know, you had a large predator encounter, and
I'm like, okay, I think you're you know that that is sound advice.
Let me go and do that. And so I go online and I'm
looking up park rangers for Bear Mountain, Connecticut. Nothing pops up. I
look in you know, park rangers near Salisbury, Connecticut. Nothing pops up.
So my Dad's like, okay, fine, you know, just call
Parks and Wreck. You know, that's just how my dad's like, just
call Parks and Rec and be done with it. So I did. I
called Parks and Rec and I asked them. I got somebody on the phone,
and I asked them, you know what ranger do I talk to for
the Bear Mountain area of northwestern Connecticut up in the mountains, and they directed
me to the rangers station's phone number. And apparently it's not just a ranger
station, it's also like they have biologists there and wildlife experts. So I
called this number and initially I got voicemail. I did not want to leave
a voicemail because I just I knew they would think it was a prank.
So I tried back. About ten minutes later, I actually got somebody on
the phone, a live human being, and it was a female park ranger,
and I told her that I would like to explain a large predator encounter,
and so she asked me to go ahead, and I basically, now,
yesterday I was on the phone with you for two and a half hours,
and I think maybe about an hour to an hour and a half of
it was my story and the rest of it was you explaining to me all
the great, wonderful, beautiful things that you had to say to calm me
down. But I gave her an abridged version because I didn't want to sound
crazy, right, I did not want to sound crazy. Towards the end
of the conversation, she says, well, what do you think you saw?
And this is where I got nervous. I almost hung up the phone.
Really, I almost hung up the phone because how am I going to
describe this thing? So you know, I'm nervous and I'm jittery, and
I'm like, well, if I tell you what I think I saw,
you're going to think this is a prank and then you're going to hang up
on me. And she's like, no, sir, I'm not going to
hang up on you. I'm not going to think it's a prank. Just
tell me what you think you saw? And so very hesitantly, I said,
I think I saw werewolf. She didn't laugh, she didn't hang up.
It was kind of radio silence for a hot second, and then she
said okay. And I'm like, okay. I'm like, so you've heard
about this before, You've seen this before. And she's like, I've personally
never seen this before. But I have ranger friends all across the country that
I talked to on a weekly to monthly basis, and I've heard many stories
about things like this. And I was like, are you kidding me.
I'm like, so this is not just Connecticut, It's you have, you
know, people that have heard of these things. And she was like,
yes, sir, I have. And then to make a long story short
short because I was on the phone with her for about forty five minutes.
To make a long story short, she said, well, the only thing
I tell you, and she's documenting this. I can hear her clacking the
keyboard writing this stuff down via keyboard, you know, I can literally hear
her clacking her fingers documenting. And she even told me, she's like,
sir, I'm documenting everything you're describing. I'm going to forward this to dispatch,
and Dispatch will then find the proper authorities to go out and take a
look at the area you were. She knew exactly where I was, so
I was like, wow, okay, like you know, she's not just
listening to me, she's literally taking notes. And that's when she told me.
What I would suggest for you to do is to go online and look
up dogman encounters dot com. She didn't give me your name, she didn't
give me any information other than that that was it. That was the only
information she said. Just go online, look up dogmen encounters dot com and
once you get there, you can submit a form where someone someone will eventually
get in contact with you and uh and and ask you more questions. Now,
dog man, what the what? What's a dog man? I've not
I've never even heard of this term, you know, like I know sasquatch.
I watched these TV shows on History Channel on Travel Channel, and they're
all very exciting. I'm into cryptids as far as you know. As an
atheist, I'm very science minded. I believe in facts and proof and truth,
but I also believe in I love hearing about extinct animals and like I
told you earlier, when I was in high school, I did an essay.
I did a five thousand word essay on the Ceila camp, which has
been extinct for millions of years. But then you know, thirty forty years
ago, a live one is caught. They caught it live. And this
thing, this thing is apparently supposed to be extinct for millions of years,
but they found a live one. So you know, watching the shows about
doctor Jeff Meldrum and Sasquatch and how he thinks it could be Gigantopithecus Blackie and
it's an ancestor of that, and like so I'm like, okay, So
if there's an extinct creature that does exist called the Seilal Camp, why couldn't
there be an offshoot of Gigantopithecus. Why couldn't there be? So I was
in the I was in the cryptids in that way, but where wolves absolutely
not. You know, like, if you believe in werewolves, then you
believe in vampires. If you believe in vampires, then you believe in mummies.
If you believe in mummies, then you believe in zombies. You know,
so like those like that's kind of where I wouldn't cross the line.
And it was the ranger that got me in touch with you, and you
were very quick in your response, and I was astounded at how professional and
polite you were. And I even looking back on it on yesterday, it's
almost like it was a dream to be quite like like like I like,
it didn't happen. Well, there's a reason behind why I contacted you so
quickly. I saw in the report that your encounter it only happened two days
prior, and I'm sorry, I no, it had happened the day prior
to when you contacted me number one, So that means you're really going to
be stressed out about that experience. I mean, this as fresh in your
mind as can be. And then also when I read the nature of what
actually happened when you had that encounter encounter unfortunately, I thought, yeah,
I definitely need to step him up and priority over some other people. So
yeah, that's why I contacted you so quickly. But I'm wondering, Mike.
I'm glad, I'm glad you let me know about your experience. I'm
wondering, though, Mike, what do you think when you found out that
dogged me and encounters were so common that there's actually a guy who helps eyewitnesses
to deal with their encounters full time. Well, honestly, I didn't know
what to think, to be quite honest, victim again my mother. Uh
now, mind you, let me just briefly say current. I was born
and raised in Danby, Connecticut, which is southwestern Connecticut, but I currently
reside in the Shenandoah Mountains of Virginia. That's where I live with my wife
and my kids and my grandkids. Just to give you a really quick geographical
situation of where this happened. So in Denby, Connecticut, which is southwestern
Connecticut, that is the beginning of what we call the Berkshire Hills, And
if you go north on a bee line, the hills get bigger and bigger
and bigger until you hit central western Connecticut, which would be where my parents
currently reside, which is where I am currently right now in my car talking
to you. The hills around here are roughly in the thousands thousand feet above
sea level, which constitutes a hill, not a mountain. But then when
you get a little bit further north into northwestern Connecticut, that's when the elevation
rises above two thousand feet, which if I'm not mistaken. Worldwide, topographists
and geologists will tell you anything over two thousand feet is considered a mountain.
So it's not until you hit northwestern Connecticut that it's considered the mountains. But
all of this area is considered the Berkshire Hills. Once you hit Massachusetts again
d line straight north, that's called the Berkshire Mountains. And then once you
from Massachusetts, once you hit Vermont, that's when the Appalachians turn into the
Green Mountains, and that's when you start hitting four thousand, five thousand feet
above sea level. So basically it's a gradual climb from Danbury, Connecticut,
where I was born, all the way up into Canada, and it's all
just a subdivision of the Appalachian Mountains. Currently, I'm in the Shenandoah Mountains
of Virginia, a little bit outside of Roanoke. And to me, as
a solo camper my whole life, I'm not a hunter, but I am
an avid, avid solo camper my whole entire life. I yes, I've
gone camping with friends and family and that's I do like the experience of the
camaraderie. But to me, there's absolutely nothing as beautiful wonderful or peaceful as
just having a solo camp where you only rely on yourself and you just take
care of yourself. Again, I'm not a hunter. I don't carry guns.
The only true hunting I've ever done is bow hunting, and even then,
I'm an amateur. I'm a novice. I'm more of a knife guy.
I could do wonders with a knife or a set of knives. Right,
I got two hands, two knives. I could do wonders with that.
And I'm a professional chef, so that's just hand in hand. But
ex hearing about your show and then after the incident and I talked to you,
my mother truly one hundred percent believed me at this point. I mean
she she was one hundred percent. Michael, There's no way I'm fifty years
old. I just turned fifty on February fourth, so literally like five days
ago, I turned fifty. And She's like, you're not going to come
to our house and with your pants soiled if something really bad did not happen.
I know my son, as most mothers do. They know their they
know their sons probably better than their siblings or even their fathers. And so
she knew something really horrible happened. And so after I talk to you,
we we listened to an episode and my mother was so hooked on how the
stories correlated, my story compared to the first story we heard that she wanted
to hear another one, and so we did that, and and then after
that last, that second one, she begged me. And now at this
point, I'm done, I'm done, I don't want no more. But
it's my mom. She's seventy five years old, and she was like one
last one and that's that was the Those were the three that we heard,
and I'm glad she asked me to do that because those not so much the
first story, but the last two stories really resonated, especially the story with
Dave, just due to some certain sounds that I heard, which we'll get
to in a bit. I want to put something out there in the listener's
ears before I actually ask you to tell us about your encounter. If you
could have only heard Mike try to recount that experience that he had to me
yesterday, you want to know why Mike's here tonight to share this experience with
you. This man is here tonight to share this experience, basically, to
relive it because he wants to help that person out there who maybe lives in
this area in Connecticut close to Beer Mountain, who might have an encounter if
they didn't know that they're there. And there are other reasons too, but
it's all centered around his desire to help people. Now, it doesn't get
any more impressive than that. Like I said, if you could only hear
the trouble he had working his way through the experience yesterday, and here he
is putting the well being of other people in front of his and that's why
he's here tonight. I mean, you just can't say enough good things about
someone like that. I am so impressed, Mike, I really am.
Damn thank you, Vic, I appreciate that. That was very sweet.
Oh you're welcome. You are welcome. And please remember, Mike, you
apologize to me yesterday for crying several times sharing the experience. Don't you dare
apologize tonight if you cry again. I mean, you're human. If anyone
else went through that experience, they would be wailing as well. So I
mean, yeah, just do the best you can to get through it.
If you need more time, we can talk more before I actually ask you
to share the experience if you'd like, I don't want you to set in
telling us about it until you're getting ready to do that, or I should
say as ready as possible to do that. Yeah, No, I mean
I'm I couldn't be anymore ready. The longer I wait, the more nervous
and scared. I'm actually terrified to even tell you to this story live.
And I know that at the end of this I'm going to have people online
asking questions, and I'm cool with that. I am, and I hope,
I hope I do justice by answering their questions to the best of my
ability. Truly, I hope I can do that for them. But I
mean, I'm not afraid to cry. VIC Again, I'm fifty years old,
I'm married, I got three adult kids and three grandkids, one from
each kid, and I've cried in front of my family many many times.
I'm not afraid to cry. I think men who say they won't cry just
you know. I'm not going to judge. But you know, if you
got to cry, you got to cry, and I'm okay with it.
Hopefully it doesn't happen, but I don't I don't know. I don't know
exactly what feelings are going to happen as I relive this, as I as
I, as I say it, Well, there's no way to know.
Just please do the best you can with it. If we need to take
some breaks, we can take breaks. That's not a problem. Just do
the best you can getting through it, and everything's going to fall into place.
And like I've told you several times, please remember you're amongst friends here.
You have no idea how many people are out there listening right now,
supporting, either behind you. They want the best for you. So yeah,
please remember the fact that that you are amongst friends here. So having
said that, Mike, please tell us about your encounter. Now, give
us every last detail that comes to mind. All right, Well, it
was my birthday February fourth, And it's just tradition in my family because I
live so far away that on my birthday, my birthday, I usually so
as a chef, every year, I usually get, you know, a
week's vacation. If I'm there for several years, I get two weeks of
vacation. I usually try to separate those, but so I usually take my
week vacation. And if my wife is a travel nurse, she's an RN
and she travels all around the country doing like three month four month contracts,
and she gets paid a ridiculous amount of money compared to if she just stayed
home and was an RN at home. So not I mean when I say
a ridiculous amount of money, I know we're not rich. I'm just saying
compared comparatively to what she would make if she just stayed at one facility.
The company she works for pays her better to go out to these other states
and do contracts. So currently she is in Montana, Glasgow, Glasgow,
Montana right now, which, from what she's telling me, is inundated with
five feet of snow and very very very colder than New England could ever be.
And trust me, New England is very cold. So this is what
my wife is telling me. So she couldn't make it. She has been
with me many times during my birthday week. So I come up here from
where I live in Virginia, in Shenandoah, in the Shenandoah Mountains, and
now I'm actually questioning. Now, I'm actually questioning living in the Shenandoah Mountains,
to be quite honest. I'll get to that maybe at the end,
but that's yeah, that I am a little terrified about going back home as
well. But I'm up here visiting family. And like I said, we're
we're in northwestern Connecticut, which is very forested, very hilly, and as
you get further north, very mountainous. And it's the wilderness. I mean,
just miles and miles of wilderness. It's along the Appalation Trail. So
the Appalition Trail runs. It leaves New York State eastern New York State,
goes into western Connecticut and then just bolts straight up north into Vermont, into
Massachusetts, and then from Massachusetts into Vermont, and then from Vermont it veeers
and goes into New Hampshire. So quick description on that. So I'm up
here visiting and it's just it's annoying. It's like every other time I've been
up here. And I have a dog. Her name is Midnight. She's
thirteen years old. She is a Scottish Mastiff. She's big. She's a
big dog. Even in her old age. She has not shrunk. She's
a big dog. If anybody out there listening knows what a Scottish mastiff looks
like, that's her. And she has dark coloring to her which is why
I called her Midnight. And I've had her since she was a puppy.
Literally as soon as she was weaned, I had her and she's been with
me for thirteen years. And great dog, very calm, very social dog,
doesn't bark much, doesn't you know, Like you'll you'll go out to
a park and some dogs are just baying. They're just literally like they'll see
another dog and just like start baying, going crazy because they see another dog.
Midnight is like, yeah, yeah, I know you're bang because because
I'm midnight. That's why. That's why you're doing it. But she's calm,
she doesn't pay back. She literally just minds her business. Very very
sweet, very sweet dog. And so I brought her up with me like
I usually always do. I take her with me everywhere unless I'm at work
obviously as a chef. Samebringer in the kitchen, although that would be super
cool if I could, but uh so it's just it's it's me and Midnight.
And my birthday was on Sunday the fourth, and now it's Wednesday,
and uh, you know, we had plans to uh you know, when
the sun goes down, we had plans to have dinner, have some drinks,
you know, get a little loose, you know, have the family
get a little crazy kind of thing. You know. My mom's seventy five,
my dad's eighty, but they're they're still spry. You know, there's
still there's still spry. And I had my uh, several several aunts.
I had two aunts and two uncles in their their kids which are my cousins,
all roughly about the same age as I am. So you know,
there is a group of us and this is what we do. I wanted
to be alone, you know. Again, I'm a solo camper, and
I had no intentions of camping because I wanted to get back and celebrate my
you know, my birthday week. But I did want to get out.
I wanted to get alone, you know. And so I took midnight in
my car. And there's this place called Bear Mountain, Connecticut, and it's
in northwestern Connecticut, right before the Massachusetts border, about maybe a mile and
a half to two miles right before you hit the Massachusetts border. And it's
the tallest peak in all of Connecticut. It is a two thousand, three
hundred and eighty feet above sea level, so technically it's considered a Mountain by
three hundred and eighty feet because topographist, like I said earlier, and geologist,
anything over two thousand is considered a mount So it just made it by
three hundred and eighty feet. So it's not you know, it's not the
Rockies, it's not the Andes. It's just it's the highest mountain in Connecticut.
And I've been there many times before. As a teenager. I've been
there many times. I've partied literally, like no joke. I've partied on
top of the summit with friends. I've been there in my twenties. I've
brought ex girlfriends up there just to see the view because it's a panoramic view
literally like no trees at all. There was a major fire on the top
of Bear Mountain I think back in the sixties and ever since then. I
don't know if it's because birds aren't pooping enough with their seeds, but there
hasn't been a lot of tree growth since this major fire thirty forty years go.
And there are trees, but they're very stunted. I mean, I'm
taller than any tree on top of this. And what I would like to
say is at the very summit there's this cairn, right, see a irn.
There's a carn, and there's a plaque at the bottom of the carn,
and you know, it says you've reached bare Mountain two three hundred and
eight feet blah blah blah blah. It just gives a little description of the
forest fire. And that's pretty much it. But the carn itself is about
fifteen twenty feet tall, and it's massive. It's huge. It's not just
like, you know, fifteen twenty feet tall of this small, little tiny
thing, like you can climb it. You can actually climb it and get
on to the top of it. And when you do that, and you're
above everything else. If you look north, you can see about ninety miles
to the north into mass You can see the shadow of the tallest mountain in
Massachusetts on that same range, which is called Mount Greylock. You can see
the shadow of it. If you look to the east, you can see
all the farmlands, all the forest, and all the wilderness for roughly about
ninety miles. Almost you could almost think you can't, but you could almost
think you see the ocean, but you can't. But you're damn close.
Now. If you look to the south towards my hometown of Danbury. It's
nothing but rolling hills and rolling hills, and you can just see them getting
smaller and smaller and smaller and smaller. And if you look to the west,
which is New York State Way off in the distance, you can see
the Catskill Mountains and it's gorgeous. It's beautiful. You just see if you
were to hold a ruler, like a twelve inch ruler up to your eyes
looking west, that's about how long the mountain range looks from this distance.
But obviously if you're in the Catskills, it's hundreds of miles of mountain ranges.
But it's beautiful. You can see that the jagged edges. It's really
on a clear day, you could see ninety miles in any direction. So
it's a panoramic view and it's gorgeous, and I mean, it's just to
me, it's a safe zone. I've always loved it up there. I've
always thought, like, you know, that's my comfortable place. And so
I've never brought in the thirteen years and I've had midnight. I've never brought
excuse me, I've never brought midnight up there with me. Ever, as
a matter of fact, I haven't been up there since the thirteen years i've
had Midnight Now. Mind you again, I was up there a lot dozens
of times as a late teenager in my early twenties, but ever since I
got married and had kids and grandkids. No, I just you know,
haven't been there in a long time. So it's my very first time being
back up there in over over twenty two years, and so I wanted to
bring you know, Midnight's thirteen dogs lived to be roughly fifteen or so years.
I know she don't have long you know, she's starting to hurt.
I know she's probably having arthritis or issues. You know, she's not a
spry as she used to be. And I just wanted her to see this,
and so I brought her up there and it was a great day.
It really was. Now, from from the car to the summit of the
mountain, it's about a two hour hike. From the base of the mountain
to the actual summit of the mountain is literally about an hour and a half
of that two hour hike. So from from the car to the base of
the mountain, on the on the trail, which is the Blue trail,
that's about a half an hour. And then from from where the Blue Trail
meets the Appalation Trail, because remember again this is all on the Appalation Trail
this mountain. The Appalation Trail runs directly over the summit of this mountain and
then goes directly north for the rest of the Appalation Trail. So from the
base of the mountain to the summit of the mountain is about an hour and
a half hike. And and that's the easy path. If if I were
to if you were to go from the north side heading south, that's going
to be like a three hour trek because it's way steeper, way way steeper,
and there's no way I could take midnight on those steep trails. So
I took the easier climb, which is usually what we did when we were
teenagers and in our early twenties. And so we get up there and it's
just I mean again, it was beautiful, and you know she's she's yipping
at like squirrels and groundhogs and woodchucks. I mean like she was just having
a time of her life. I loved it. But yeah, again,
she's so mellow. I think it's because of her old age. She's just
so mellow that you know, she's not going to go chase anything. Though
I did have her in a leash the whole time. I always have my
dog on a leash. I don't know why. I think maybe it's a
comfort thing, but I always had her on my leash. And so we're
up there and we're just enjoying everything, and then you know, I start
realizing, you know, the sun, the sun's heading towards the west,
and you know, there again in the west, you see the outline of
the Catskill Mountains in New York, and you know, the sun is literally
starting to touch the top of those of that range. And I'm like,
okay, we've spent way too long here. We've got about an hour and
a half to get back down. At that point, it was about three
thirty three thirty in the would roughly say it was about three thirty in the
afternoon, So I knew it was gonna be about an hour, hour and
a half to get back down, and so we start heading down again.
There was nobody up there because it's it's winter, man, It's it's winter
in New England. Uh. It was about two days ago. It was
like forty five degrees, which if anybody who's listening who lives in Connecticut or
lives in New England, forty five degrees in February is a nice day.
That's a that's a that's a warm that's a warm day in New England.
Uh, in Connecticut. So it really was a nice day. And so
we're heading down and as as anybody knows who's who's an avid outdoors men or
or an avid hunter or an avid camper when you're when you're in a wilderness
and setting, uh so there's there there's the type of wilderness where you know,
you know, there's the planes, and then there's the forest. And
this is forested, so it gets darker in the forest way sooner than if
you were to hit a field. If you were to hit a field,
you'd be like, oh wow, it's still daylight. It looks, you
know, like okay, awesome. But when you're in the when you're in
the forest, it gets darker way, way faster, although there's still like
a I guess you would say dusky, dusky light, but not dark,
but dusky light. If you were in a field, it would still be
daylight. And as we're heading down that's kind of like what it was turning
into. And as we're heading down and we're nearing the base of the mountain,
the turn which is the Blue trail. So the Appalation Trail is a
white trail. All the way from Georgia to Maine, the Appalation Trail is
nothing but a white trail. That's just that's how you know the Appllation Trail.
It's a white trail. And then you know you have the Blue Trail,
or the Red Trail, or the Green trail. Every every state,
every section has its own little colors for these other side trails. But the
Appalachian Trail is always the white trail. And I knew the Blue trail,
which is facing south, heading back south, the Blue Trail would be on
my right, and that takes me directly to where my car is. And
again, my car is not in a parking lot. It's in this little
side I don't know, I don't even know what you would call it.
It's like a little it's like a carve out. It's like an area of
wood was carved out and you can possibly fit three cars there max. And
so you know, I'm just I'm going down, getting ready to hit the
blue trail on my right and I didn't notice it at the time, and
I didn't mention it to you last night, Vic, because it took me.
It took me a lot of contemplation and a lot of trying to remember
exactly what happened. But it was kind of I paid no attention to it.
I paid absolutely zero attention to it. But I didn't hear any wilderness
noises. And what I mean by that is, you know, chirping birds,
calling crows, the sounds that squirrels make when they're in their trees and
someone is walking by. They make these specific chirping noises. Some people might
think they're birds, but no, that's a squirrel. That's a squirrel alerting
its squirrel family. Hey, there's a human, right, So, like,
you know, these are just noises that I'm used to and kind of
take for granted to be a they're beautiful listen to and I but you hear
them so often when you're in the woods that eventually it just it's like background
noise and you just eventually, I guess the best way to say is you
take those noises for granted. If you spent twenty years in silence, and
then you heard these noises again, you would be in nirvana, you would
be in ecstasy. But me myself, personally, I think sometimes I take
these natural sounds for granted. I kind of really didn't pay attention, it
didn't register. But when I look back on it, I realize the force
was silent, nothing, not a dang thing. So I'm walking in midnights
with me and she's just keeping the same pace I am. And somehow,
I really I'll get back to this at a later point, but somehow I
show up at the green marker which is on my left, which is where
the lean two is. So there's a lean to at the base of the
mountain, which is about maybe less than an eighth of a mile from where
the blue marker is. So the blue marker is on the right, heading
south towards where my car is parked, and the green trail, the green
marker is on my left, less than an eighth of a mile from the
blue marker, and that's that's where the lean two is. That's where you
can camp at the base of the mountain. And I'm like, what the
heck, how did I miss the blue marker? And this is where this
is where everything changed. So it was at this point, you know,
I'm a little bewildered. I'm like, how about I'm like, how did
I miss? You know? How many times have I been here in my
youth? Am I just getting older now that I'm fifty? Like? Am
I? You know? Am I just not as aware as I used to
be as a young man. But it was at this point where I noticed
that Midnight was acting very strange. And she's walking in a circle and she's
whining, and this is behavior in thirteen years of this beautiful big dog.
She's a big she's a big dog. I mean, if anyone's ever if
anyone's ever seen a Scottish mastiff, she's a big dog. Small small children
could ride her like a pony. And she's pacing in a circle and she's
whining like a like a soft whine. And you know, I'm looking at
her and I'm like, what's wrong girl? And you know, I go
down, I'm petting her, and I'm patterner, I'm patterner on the back
and I'm like, what's wrong, girl, what's wrong girl? And then
all of a sudden she stops and she like stiffens her whole body and she
points her head directly on the green path where the lean to is, and
she's just staring. She's not whining anymore. She's just staring and I'm still
patting her. And I'm still petting her. I'm like, okay, that's
odd. As I'm doing this, she peas, but she doesn't pee the
way she normally does. Normally, when she has to pee, she lifts
her leg and she'll pee like most dogs do. Nope, all four of
her legs on the ground. And she's just standing there peeing, and she's
staring straight ahead. And then she starts whining, and I'm like, what's
going on, girl, what's going on? And then she growls. So
I'm looking in the direction that she's looking and I don't see anything. There's
nothing, there's nothing there. And she lets out another growl and then she
whinds. So it was it was a soft growl, and then there was
a little bit more of a confident like a like a like a defending growl,
and then a whine. And I'm literally like, I'm like, I've
never seen my dog act like this in thirteen years, and like so I'm
just paying attention to her, and I'm like, what is going on on,
girl. So now I get down on one knee and I'm like right
there beside her, and you know, I'm trying to whisper comforting words like
what is going on? Everything's all right? But she she's never she didn't
even look at me. Now what this whole time, she did not even
turn her head and look at me or lick me or nothing. She just
belining her head straight ahead. So again I look where she's looking. And
that's when I saw this enormous I don't even know how to describe the first
thought of this head. I saw this enormous canine head. That's the word
I'll use. I'll just I'll just use canine. I saw this massive canine
head poke through the underbrush. And like I told Vic, it was roughly
about ninety yards away, so anywhere between two hundred and seventy to at the
max three hundred feet away. It was just on the other side of where
the lean to ended, right, because nowhere on the Appalation trail are you
going to see a lean to on the trail. They always put the lean
to's a good distance off the trail that way, you know, depending on
who's hiking and who's sleeping at the lean to, and you know you're not
being disturbed by trail people. So you know, the lean to itself was
probably about eighty yards off the Appellation Trail, and this thing was in the
brush about ninety yards off again, anywhere between two seventy to three hundred feet
away, and it's just this massive canine head that pokes through the underbrush.
At that moment, Midnight bolts towards the north. While I'm holding her leash
and she's trying to get away, she just bolts and literally she's choking herself.
She's such a mellow dog. I don't give her those chest harness leashes.
I give her your common old school neck leash because she's not an aggressive
dog. There's no need to give her a chest harness. And she is
literally so so so. Not only does she just pee prior to while whining
and then the growl and then the whine again. Now she's trying to bolt
with all of her massive strength, and she's a again she's a big dog,
and she is with all of her strength. She's tugging and tugging.
I literally unto the leash with two hands at this point and she's choking herself,
and and I'm trying to say all these calming, soothing words, and
you know, I'm raising my voice at this point, and but I never
took my eyes off this thing. So I'm looking at this head as my
dog is furiously trying to get away while choking herself. Elf. I would
glance over real quick, and she's just you know, she's basically trying to
leap so her her front, her front paws are coming up, and she's
trying to get away so hard, and this thing comes out further. And
at this point it fully emerges from the brush, and I realize, I
don't I don't know what this thing is. It looks like a wolf,
it looks like a coyote, it looks like a dog, it looks like
all three. But it is massive. I mean again, I'll bring it
back to uh, my love for extinct or what we call extinct animals on
Earth, the Cela camp uh, you know, Gigantapithecus. The first thing
that came to my head was dire wolf. Literally, that's the first thing
that came to my head. Dire wolf. Okay, there's a dire wolf
in front of me. No, that's not possible. No, that's that's
that's absolutely not possible. And she like, at this point, she's hurting
herself so much trying to get away that I'm looking at her way more and
I'm I'm tugging back on her now, so I'm I'm starting to pull the
leash in so and I know it's hurting her, and I please, guys,
don't don't be mad at me, but I'm I'm I'm pulling her in
towards me now on the leash so I can physically put my arms on her
to keep her from from choking herself, to keep her from running away.
And and I get her to me, and my arm is now my left
arm is now securely wrapped around her ribs. And I got her pressed against
tight against me, and this thing is still nine yards away, and I
could see the full thing. Vict It had to have been the length the
only way I could describe it. It had to have been the length of
a very large pony or a very large donkey, not quite as long as
a full grown horse. And I'm not even talking heightwise, I just mean
in length, about the size of a full grown pony or a full grown
donkey. It was very long, longer than any wolf or coyote or dog
that I've ever seen. And as a solo camper, I've been to wildlife
refuges where I've seen timberwolves, gray wolf, red wolves. I know what
wolves look like up close and personal due to the magnificence of wildlife sanctuaries.
I've seen coyote in the wilderness on my own as a solo camper. You
know, this was none of that. This was none of none of these
things. And so I got her right up against my ribs, so my
arm, my left arm is like literally like just I got I got her
squeezed. I got her squeezed tight against me. She's struggling, of course,
she's bucking, is struggling like like I've never ever seen my dog act
like this, and I can see why, because I was freaked out too.
I'm like, what is this thing. It's not a wolf, it's
not a coyote, it's not a dog. But it's the length, it's
the length of a pony. Now, let me just say for measure people,
I'm six foot five, I weigh two hundred pounds, so I'm tall.
I'm thin, all right, six five two hundred pounds. This thing,
at the tip of its very long pointed ears had to have been around
four and a half feet on all fours, roughly about four and a half
feet, and we're on level ground here, so the way the Green Trail
ran to the to the to the lean to from the Appalachian Trail, because
I was right on the cusp of the White Trail and the Green Trail,
and it's all flat because you're at the base of the mountain at this point,
so it's all flat ground and everything is You're on even ground. So
this thing is literally on the same even ground as I am. It's not
down in a depression, it's not up on a hill rise. We're on
level ground. And it had to have been four and a half feet,
maybe even a little over just where it was on its fours. And this,
uh, this is where everything changed my entire life. So two things
happened at the same exact time, simultaneously, at the same exact time,
but I can only describe them individually. So I'm gonna start with the audible
sound as it's standing there like a dog, like a wolf, like a
coyote, but three times the size again, maybe even four times the size.
It was like a It was like a like a pony or or a
donkey in length. I hear these snapping and popping sounds like The only way
I can describe it is if bones are being broken or extremely large joints are
being popped out and then popped back in. And it was loud. I
mean it was. It was so audible, just snap pop snap crack,
pop snap pop crack, snap pop crack, like a lot, a lot's
going on like it was a lot of snapping and popping. And as these
sounds are happening, it stood up on two legs. As it stood up,
I could see the muscle definition rippling and its legs and it's torso in
its arms. I could literally see this massive muscle under its fur. I
could literally see the muscles rippling and moving as it stood up. Hey,
Mike, do you need to take a break so this sound? No no,
no, no no no no, I'm good, VIC, I'm good,
VIC, thank you for asking. But as these snapping, popping sounds
are going off is when I saw it. All happened at the same time.
But I can't describe the sound and the musculature all at the same time.
So I just wanted to just take a moment to do the one and
then the other right after it. But this all literally happened simultaneu at the
same time, and it stands up and that I lost my grip. I
lost my grip on midnight and she screamed, and I like what. Obviously
it wasn't a scream. It was the most fearful yep or a yowl I've
ever heard midnight give in thirteen years of having her by my side on a
daily basis. And she bolted, She took off north, back towards the
mountain, and I'm just frozen in fear. I'm literally frozen in fear.
I almost felt as if a wave, a wave of supernatural fear just washed
over me. It wasn't fight or flight. It was not that. Fight
or flight is when you encounter a less than intelligent natural animal like a bear
or a cougar, or a bobcat or a coyote or a wolf that's fight
or flight, or even another human being. You know, as a matter
of fact, I think most of our fight or flight instincts are with human
beings. This was not that, This was not that at all. This
was a wave of sheer terror, sheer terror like unlike anything I ever experienced
in my life. And in that moment, I wet myself. I'm man
enough to admit it. Whatever, I'm fifty years old, Go ahead,
make fun of me. I wet myself and I could not move. Every
part of me was just run, run, run, run. But I
couldn't move. It's literally almost as if this thing had me. And it's
grasped from so far away, and it hadn't even once it stood up,
but it didn't even move. It's still there ninety yards away, roughly two
hundred and seventy maybe at the most three hundred feet away. It did not
move from the point when it finally cleared the brush. And I'm just sitting
there, frozen, not in fear, in sheer terror, beyond any fight
or flight instinct. And I look back on it being two days ago,
and after I talked to you yesterday, and I just I kept remembering,
you know, death, You're gonna die. Death, You're dead, You're
done. That's it. Uh. Hell, I hope I hope midnight,
you know, runs eight nine miles to the nearest town and find someone to
take care of her, because this is it, And I looked back on
it. I heard the story of that uh yesterday, yesterday. It was
the first time I heard any of your episodes ever in my life. And
I heard the one about the army guy with top who was like the meal
He was the meal guy who would bring meals out to the regiments out in
the field doing practice drills and whatnot. And he mentioned that he ran into
a female thing that was telepathically communicating to him. And and when I heard
that, the first thing that came to my head was, this thing is
saying death in my head. It wasn't saying I'm going to kill you.
It wasn't saying you're gonna die. But I just I just remember in that
moment death, death, and that could totally be me. I'm not saying
this thing was telepathically talking to me. That's not what I'm saying at all.
Vic. I'm not I'm not even going there. I'm just saying.
After hearing that one gentleman's story and then just remembering what I kept repeating in
my head, I'm like, Okay, that's something I should I should maybe
think about that. So I'm literally frozen in sheer terror and I could see
this thing as plain as day. It's literally ninety yards from me on level
ground, so its head was massive, and the only way I could describe
its head is a comp Again, that's why I just say K nine.
It had a long muzzle like a wolf or coyote or a German shepherd.
Its ears were more like a German shepherd comparative comparable to a wolf or a
coyote in the sense that it stood it's tall sides, whereas a timber wolf
or a gray wolf will have them a little bit more centered like towards like
the forehead area. These were more along the lines of on the side.
In what I did notice in the fading light, because about this time it's
about five maybe even five thirty ish, so it's getting dark, and in
the feeding light, I could see had tufts at the tips of its ears,
like a lynx. If anybody who's ever been in New England or in
southeastern Canada, links are prominent, and if you've ever seen one, which
is very rare, but I'm sure we've all seen them on TV. We've
all seen him on the Nature Channel and this, that and the other,
so we know what links look like and it had that type of tuft at
the tips of its ears, and its head was massive. I would say
it's shoulders from shoulders shoulder, from shoulder to shoulder was about three feet three
feet wide. Again, I'm six five, two hundred pounds, and I'm
half that. I'd say three feet from shoulder to shoulder. I estimate between
eight and nine feet tall, me being six' five, and we're on
level ground. Again, it wasn't higher up on a hillock. It wasn't
lower down in a depression. We're on level ground. So if I'm six
y five, this thing had to have been again, estimation between eight and
nine feet tall. And then besides, besides this horrifying visage of its head
and its muzzle, it's arms. It's arms were disgusting, disgustingly long,
uh, impossibly long. Grotesquely long, that's the word. Grotesquely long.
And it wasn't so much the shoulder to the elbow part. It was the
elbow to the wrist part. It was the forearm was grotesquely long. And
these hands, and yes they were not paused. They were hands. They
look, they look. Let me, let me, let me just finish
with the forearms. Okay, I'm getting like I'm I'm starting to starting to
have a little bit of a moment here. But you're doing We're with you.
They thank you, Thank you, Vic so again. I'm six five,
two hundred pounds tall and ten. If I were I wear a size
twelve boot. If I were to put the sole of my boot to my
forearm, it would fit roughly like a bug in a rug. You know,
it's about that length. And I think if any of us were to
put the sole of their feet up to their forearm, their foot would probably
match the length of their forearm. And this thing's forearms had to have been
twice the length of mind. From what I would call its elbow, I
don't even know. I don't even know. I don't even know if that
was an elbow, but from what I would consider its elbow to it's hand
was grotesquely long, I mean absurdly grotesquely long. And then that's when I
noticed, I guess what I would call hands to me. The only way
I could describe this is if you've ever seen a squirrel eat a nut or
a raccoon eat a nut, the way their hands are so agile and dexterous
where they can manipulate that nut like super fast. If you've ever seen a
squirrel, anybody who's been camping or a hunter who's listening knows what I'm talking
about. If you've ever seen a squirrel or a raccoon go to town on
a nut and they're just sitting there, shifting this thing, rapidly, chewing
on it, breaking the outer shell to get to the food on the inside,
and just manipulating their hands. You know, I hate to say,
but squirrels have hands, and raccoons have relatively primatus hands in that sense that
they can manipulate things very very well, very well, indeed, And that's
what it looked like. They look like giant squirrel hands or giant raccoon hands.
But they were the size. They were the size of like a catcher's
mint in professional baseball. It's not even bigger like with wise, just just
the width of these hands were roughly the size of a professional baseball players catchers
mint. Literally grotesque, grotesquely abnormal. But then that would relate back to
its head. Its head was grotesquely abnormally large. This whole thing was just
abnormally grotesque in every aspect of it. And I remember it's fur coloring or
hair whatever, whatever you call that. It kind of rese the coloring of
a coyote. It was. It was a dark gray, dark brown,
kind of modeled, kind of modeled gray brown coloring, but yet in the
fading white, it looked as if the tips the tips of its short hair.
It was very it was short hair, for sure. The thing was
not like a shaggy dog. It was not like long hair shaggy dog at
all. It was short hair, like a well, like a coyote.
It's almost as if the tips of its fur or hair was tipped in black,
like black highlights. So it was a like grayish brown colored fur slash
hair, but it had these like black highlights at the tips. And this
thing had hawks. I don't know how many people listening know what a hawk
is, but it's a dog leg. It's a backward bending dog leg.
This thing had hawks, I think. To me, to me, that
was the most absurd. That was the most absurd obscene thing about this whole
encounter. I mean, everything about it was insane. It was a nightmare,
but noticing these hawks. Man Midnight had hawks. This thing had the
same legs as my dog. It's Okay, Mike, take your time.
And uh, that's that was my full frontal view of this thing. It
didn't snarl, it didn't growl, it didn't show any teeth, and I'm
glad for that. I mean, this thing's had so massive if it opened
its mouth, it could literally probably swallow my head entirely. There's no I
will literally bet my life on that this thing could swallow my head entirely.
That's how massive this thing's head was. It was at that point that off
in the distance to the north, I hear midnight yelp in pain or maybe
it was distressed. I don't know which, but to me, it sounded
like she was in pain. And that was the only thing that snapped me
out of this weird, weird, immobilizing moment of sheer terror. I mean,
it's almost like this thing when it's almost like when it stood up and
I heard those snapping, crackling, popping sounds and it stood up and I
looked at in its eyes. Oh and by the way, vic, I
must add that it had yellow eyes, like yellow right out of a cran
box. Yellow, straight yellow, just plain average normal mustard yellow. I
mean, this thing had straight up, right out of a cran box yellow
eyes. And so when I hear midnight way off in the distance, heading
towards the north, back towards the mountain, that kind of broke me.
I don't know what or why, but that broke me from this weird and
I mean weird, immobilizing trance. Like you, if you know anything about
Greek mythology, if you look into the eyes of Medusa, you get turned
to stone. And that's kind of how I felt at that moment. And
again it was that wave of paralyzing fear that I felt wash over me when
I made eye contact, and when I heard my dog in pain, it
snapped me out of it and I immediately started running the way my dog did,
back north towards the mountain. And I don't know how I missed the
trail on my way south going back to my car to begin with no idea.
Again, I used to go there a lot in my late teens and
early twenties, and it's the blue trail. Everybody knows it's the blue Trail.
How could I possibly have missed it my first time coming back going to
the car. I just I don't get it. And I look back on
it and I'm like, Okay, the weird like no wilderness noises, you
know, no, no chipmunks are chirping because they're upset that I'm up.
I'm in the way of their foraging or something, you know, Like I
didn't think of it then, but after talking to you yesterday, I have
thought about that all day today, like why were there no noises? Usually
that's a sign of a large predator. But the only predators we have in
northwestern Connecticut are black bear, coyote, bobcat. And we have moose,
But moose aren't predators, you know. I mean, they're large and they'll
stop you to death, but they're not predators. So really, the only
predators we have in northwestern Connecticut are black bear, coyote, bobcat. There's
been an occasional mountain lying siding, but that's far and few between. Even
did someone really see that? Regardless I bolt, I start bolting the way
my dog did, towards the north, towards the mountain, which is where
the blue path was. That somehow, unbeknownst to me, I completely walked
past and did not see, which even as I speak right now, still
blows my mind. How did I miss the blue path, so heading south
towards my car. Initially, the Blue Path would have been on my right,
and the right trail is facing west. Now now that I'm running back
the way my dog ran towards the mountain towards the Blue path, now the
trail is going to be on my left. And for some reason, even
in the failing light, and I'm talking, it's about it's about five o'clock,
maybe even five ten, five point fifteen at this time, I don't
know. All I know is it's got to be around five o'clock. And
when you're in the wilderness, when you're in a heavily forested area, it's
getting dark real fast. If you're in a field, it's still daylight and
everything is wonderful and sunny and beautiful. But here it's getting dark and it's
getting dark fast. And I don't know how I missed it on my way
down, but I don't know if it was the fear or the terror,
but I clearly could see the blue insignias on the trees saying north up blue
path, left parking area, and I just I'm bolting, and at first
I hear nothing. I'm just I'm bold. All I can hear is my
own heartbeat in my ears. And then out of nowhere, I hear what
sounds like a wrecking ball, a literal wrecking ball, smashing through the dense
forest on my left. So now I'm facing west towards where my car is,
and on my left, which would be facing south, I just hear
this smashing and cracking of underbrush and trees like literal. I'm telling you,
I heard trees going down, and you could hear the branches of the falling
tree smashing into other branches of standing trees. And it is just this cacophony,
a literal cacophony of smashing limbs and branches, literally as if you took
a wrecking ball and just swung that thing right through the densest, most dense
force you could possibly think of. This is what I heard. And as
I hear it, I know for the very first time, these very loud
thumps, like pounding thumps on the earth. Every time my right foot or
every time my left foot hit the ground as I'm running faster than I've ever
ran in my damn life, I could literally feel the ground shake every time
my foot touched the earth. As I ran, I could feel the ground
shake in cadence to the sound of this. And let me please make this
very clear. I know the sound of a beer running then they're done that.
I know the sound of a deer running. I know the sound of
a coyote running. Again. I've been a solo camper my whole life.
I know what it sounds with an animal on four legs is running or trotting
through the forest. I know what that sounds like. It's very, very
distinctive, you know, one after the other. This was and unmistakably bipedal
cadence. Stump dump dump dump dump dump dump, and it was that fast.
As fast as I was running, this thing was thump, dumb,
dum dum, dumb dumb dump. And every time either of my boots touched
the earth, I could literally feel the ground reverberating. The ground was literally
shaking from the impact of whatever it was running behind me. And from the
lean to to my car is roughly roughly about a quarter mile. From the
Lean two to my car, it would have been shorter if I hit the
Blue trail from the beginning, but I was probably an eighth of a mile
south of that. So in total, from the lean tube to my car
was probably half a mile and I'm running for dear life, and it's getting
very dark. I don't have a flashlight. I'm stumbling, I'm tripping.
I fell a few times. I bashed my knees, I bashed my elbows.
I was scraped up. I actually ended up with a black eye because
I fell. I tripped over something. I don't know what it was.
I couldn't see. I tripped over something, and I smacked my face right
on a rock that was right in the middle of the path. Because these
are not if you've ever been on the Appalachian Trail, it's not like a
you know, it's not like a walking path you can skateboard down. These
are very rough, very rugged trails. And I smacked my face right off
of this rock. I ended up having I still have a black eye right
now, and my eye, my eye ended up being swollen shut later that
night. But I continued running and I'm all bashed up and I'm all scraped
up, and I could just the sound of these thumps in the It almost
sounded like something was ripping trees right out of the I mean just it was
such a terrifying sound to hear. And then feeling the ground shake with every
thump. I peed myself again. Okay, so two times. I wet
myself. A second time after I smashed my face on that rock and I
continued running, I knew I was done. That's it. I'm done.
I hope Midnight gets out of this alive, you know, And uh,
yeah, I'm done. It's like I go back to when I was standing
in front of it, and I just kept thinking death, death, death,
death. Why am I not dead already? I mean, this thing
is so large and so fast. The way it was crashing through the woods's
I can only imagine like it stopped to let me run ahead a little bit
further and then took the pursuit again or something, Because I mean, I'm
six foot five and I've got a long stride when I'm running. I've got
a long stride as anybody who's ever known as six foot five person, You've
got a long stride when you're running. And if this thing is eight to
nine feet tall, it's got to at least double, if not triple,
my stride. And it was only ninety yards away at the most three hundred
feet away tops from when I first bolted after I heard midnight yelp and pain.
So I have no idea why I wasn't ripped the shreds at this point,
because I knew I was gonna be I just knew it. There's no
getting out of this. So after I smash my face, I just keep
stumbling and I'm running and now I'm screaming. I'm not even screaming. I'm
not even screaming anything coherent. I'm literally just screaming. And finally I get
to a part where I realize the parking lot is right up the trail,
and I'm I'm I'm like, okay, this is it's gonna get me.
It's just this, this dang thing is just gonna wait like a horror movie
where you think you're safe and and that's it. That's when it takes this
enormous, grotesquely large head and just bite your head off in one swift bite.
I mean, the the size of this thing's head, I can only
imagine if it opened up its mall. I could only imagine what this thing
could could possibly could possibly do. As a matter of fact, I kind
of really don't. I wish I didn't even say that. I wish I
did not even I wish I did not even say that. So I see
I see my car at the end of the trail where it opens up into
where it's cleared, and then the road is behind it. And I was
so happy because I saw Midnight standing on the hood of my car, on
the foot of my engine, and she's yipping and yapping. I don't know
if it was in joy or if it was in fear, because she doesn't
normally do these things. She does not She's such a mellow dog. Even
when other dogs bark at her, she doesn't bark back. She just looks
at them like I'm better than you, you know, like I don't like
the way you talk to me. I'm not gonna grace that with an answer.
I'm not gonna grace that with a follow up bark. And she's yipping
and yapping, and I'm just running as fast as I can, which actually,
at this point I think I'm running much slower than I was initially because
I'm beat up, I'm scraped up, my head hurts, my face hurts,
so I'm shure I wasn't even running as fast as I could, and
I'm at completely running on adrenaline alone. I'm fifty years old. I don't
have that type of energy anymore. And so I run to the car,
and when I approach, she hops off the hood right next to me.
I open up the door. I unlocked the door. I should say I
had both my driver's side and passenger side windows down, because again in New
England for winter, it was a warm day. It was like forty five
maybe forty six degrees out, and that is considerably warm in February in New
England. And I hop in the car. She jumps in first, and
she runs over to the passenger seat. I hop in, and as soon
as I take my keys and I'm about to put them in to the ignition,
three things happened at one time, again simultaneously, but with like a
second delay on each one. So the first thing that happened was out of
my driver's side window, which was down. Now, mind you, my
car is the way my car was parked. It's facing east, so the
mountain would be on my left facing north. Out of my driver's side window,
I hear the most disgusting, haunting, low baritone bass how I've ever
heard in my life. I've heard coyotes, How they don't really howl all
that much. They more yep, they yip, and they yap and they
bark, and they do it in like a like a song, a sing
song. That's how coyotes. That's how coyotes. How is they sing song?
These yips and yaps and barks. Once in a while you'll hear an
actual howl out of the pack. This was not anything like that. This
was a grotesque, mournful, haunting, baritone base howl. And about one
second later, out of my passenger window, the same exact howl, no
pitch different at all, comes from that direction. Midnight jumps off my passenger
seat and crawls down to the floorboard as close as she can to the engine,
and she keeys, she's peeing on my floorboard, and I could hear,
I could hear her urine forcefully exiting her onto my floorboard as this these
two and one second after the second one, So this all happens within three
seconds, no joke. Simultaneously, a third one erupts exactly ahead of me,
to the east, in the direction I just came from where this damn
thing was chasing me. Came the third one. And I'm not gonna do
this any justice at all, but it came like this. It was like
ooh, that fast, like one after the other a second apart, one
to my left, one to my right, and then the one ahead of
me. The one ahead of me was the loudest. And this is as
I'm putting the keys into my ignition. This all happens within three seconds.
So I turned the car on. I didn't even look behind me for hikers.
I didn't look behind me for cars or anything. I didn't care.
I put it into reverse, I small the gas, and I backed up,
facing south. I put it in the drive and I just floored it.
And if any of you guys listening know anything about any adjacent roads that
lead to any Appalachian trail, they are rough. They're single lane, dirt
gravel roads that are literally ridden with massive potholes. I mean potholes that just
like, how did that happen? Did someone come out and take a shovel
and dig a hole in the road? Why is the pothole so big?
Like just it's that kind of country road. And again, I'm out in
the wilderness and I am just flooring it, and I'm going over all these
things I checked I checked this morning because I didn't do it when I got
back. And I didn't do it yesterday before or after I talked to Vic.
But today I finally looked at my car and I cracked both my struts
and I really messed up the wheel walls of all four of my tires.
I just I must have been doing forty down this single car narrow dirt gravel
road with these massive potholes for like miles, and my car is pretty much
messed up. I actually I have to take it to a mechanic and spend
quite a bit of money to get it fixed. But I already set that
up, and I think that's gonna happen in two days. I think it's
gonna happen on Sunday, Super Bowl Sunday. Unfortunately for the mechanic, hopefully
he's not a football fan. Or maybe that's why he's charging me so much
money. I don't know, but that is how I got out of there.
And it's about an hour south to get back to Kent, Connecticut,
which is in the central western part of Connecticut where the hills are only about
a thousand feet tall and not over two thousand feet tall. And I ran
in hysterical midnight, went running in before me, and I ran in after
her. And I'm just I'm frantic, I'm hysterical, and my genes are
saturated in my own urine. I peed myself twice. Luckily I didn't have
a big breakfast or else other things might have happened. But you know,
my mom and my dad and my sister. My sister's five years older than
me, so she's fifty five again. My mom's seventy five, my dad's
eighty. I had two aunts and two uncles and some cousins over, but
they were in the other like they like to do their own thing over in
that side of the house where like the pool table is and all that.
And I explained my story to them, and you know, my sister laughed
at me. My dad, they know me as a person with integrity.
I've been a professional chef for thirty two years, and I've been a professional
my whole life, and they know me as someone with integrity. They know
that I'm someone who does not lie. If you ask me a question,
even if it's going to hurt your feelings, I will tell you the truth,
even though it's gonna hurt your dang feelings. I just I would rather
I would rather tell you the truth than hurt your feelings, than lie to
you and have you find a lie and then lose trust in me. That's
just that's the type of person I am, and my family knows it.
And I think my sister was just being well a jerk who she is,
and she was making fun of me. My dad, he did not disbelieve
me, but he was like, oh, I'm sure you yeah, you
probably saw a disfigured bear. You saw a disformed bear. That's the way
my dad looked at it. But my mother, being being the nurturer of
the entire family, she was looking me right in my eyes. I mean,
she was staring right into my soul when I was explaining this to her.
And then she's looking at me shaking visibly, visibly shaking as if I
was like, you know, Parkinson's disease at times ten. And then she
noticed that how wet my pants were with urine. It's clear because it all
stemmed from the crotch region and just flooded both my legs, and it's very
clear to anybody that this man peede himself. And that's when my mom really
that's when she really took everything I was saying very serious, and and she
brought After a few minutes, she brought me off to the side and brought
me a clean pair of clothes, and uh, I took I took a
quick shower, I mean like quick, like a like a three minute shower,
Like I didn't even use soaper. I just wanted to wash the urine
off of me because I had to. I had to finish telling my story.
So I just literally took like a two minute rinse shower, and I
put on some pajama bottoms and I sat down in the guest bedroom and I
finished telling her my story. And that's the story that I ended up telling
to the park ranger the very next day. And then that's when the park
ranger gave me the information to contact Dogmenencounters dot com. And that's when I
met Vic, And that that is the brunt of my story. Wow,
Mike, I've told you this several times and I'll tell you again. I'm
so sorry to hear that you had to go through that experience. How horrific.
But there's good news in that. I mean, at least you're okay.
Like I explained last night to you, if that dogman wanted to get
you. He had so many opportunities to do that, and he wasn't alone
as he found out as well. But yeah, it's all in how you
look at it. I know it's not easy to deal with even after a
conversation. It's going to take time just processing it and remembering the things that
I shared with you yesterday in our conversation. But you are going to be
just fine as it's just going to take time to come to terms with this.
And I also want to make sure you don't lose sight of the fact
that, like I told yesterday and I told you today earlier on, you're
never going to be alone in this. You're always going to have help.
If you ever need to talk with me about this again, you know how
to reach out to me and let me know. And by all means,
we'll schedule other phone conversations so I can find out what's ailing you. But
you've got help, you really do. You've got more support than you're ever
gonna know. But after going through reliving this experience, it's been so hard
on you, it just would be horrible to do a Q and A now.
So I'll tell you what I'm gonna bring tonight show to an end,
But would you feel up to coming back next week? And understand there's no
pressure to do this, but would you feel up to coming back next Friday
night on a live stream and answering questions that the listeners have for you?
Yeah? Yeah, I could do that tonight. I could do it whenever
you need me. Tom, I'm not opposed to even doing it right now
if you want to, but if you think it would be best to do
it next week, that's fine with me as well. I just I want
you to know that I kind of feel like it's therapeutic at this moment,
being that I'm in the moment that if you want to do it now,
I'm okay with that. Well, if you feel it's better to do it
on a later date, I could do that as well, and I won't
shy away from it. Well, you're probably looking at over an hour worth
of questions and looking at the fact that it's already so late. As long
as you're for coming back next Friday night at nine pm to do a live
stream, so we could have the listeners ask questions and whatnot, and let's
do that. Let's let's close out tonight and then just come back next Friday
and do it. Then sure if you think, if you think that the
listeners will give us an hour or more of questions and me answering, Yeah,
I am. I am absolutely okay with that, Vic, as long
as as long as you're okay with that, I'm absolutely fine with that.
As a matter of fact, I will even make sure I talk to my
boss because by then I'll be back in Virginia. I leave, I leave
Saturday night to go back to Virginia to the Shenandoah Mountains, and I will
make sure that I contact my boss and let them know that I need I
need Friday night off. So maybe maybe he can schedule me for, you
know, a morning shift as a chef. You know I could. I
could, I could do the morning and have the night free. But I
can guarantee you I'm there's no way, after after everything I've experienced and then
relaying it to you, and then also relaying it to the audience live,
that I cannot. I cannot end it there. I have to. I
have to be able to finish any questions that you might have yourself. I'm
sure I'm sure you yourself have questions, let alone anybody listening. So absolutely
I will make sure that I am free next Friday night. I'm glad that'll
work for you, and you're right, Yeah, of course I'm gonna have
questions for you as well. More than likely we're looking at probably a ninety
minute show because of all the questions. But yeah, I'm just glad,
like I said here, that you can come back next Friday and do that.
So yeah, let's just do it. Then you say about too much
weight on a young back. You're not a young guy, but you had
that encounter two days ago, so yeah, I mean, this is so
fresh. That is the definition of a young back when it comes to coming
to terms with this. But having said that, Mike, again, like
I said, I am so sorry you had to experience that. But if
you could have only seen all the support coming your way from the live chat,
and please keep an eye on the comments to the video to the video
that posts as well, I don't think you're gonna believe all the supports you're
gonna get there. Also, but having said that, I'm not even familiar.
I'm not even familiar with dog Man Encounter's radio. Like if I were
to look at any of the do I go on YouTube? Well, we're
going to talk after we close the show out here, We're going to talk
and I'll put you on the target so that you know how to check out
the and everything. Then okay, yeah, but like I told you,
thanks for coming on and sharing this experience. I'm so sorry to hear what
that dog man did to you. But yeah, everything is gonna be just
fine. It's gonna be okay. But having said that, try to go,
Oh, you're welcome, You're welcome, glad to help. Try to
go someplace and unwind as much as possible. I know, easier said than
done, but try to relax as much as possible. Try to unwind because
you definitely deserve it. I appreciate that you're welcome. You are welcome.
If you've had a dog mean encounter, I would like to speak with me
about it, whether I'm private or on the show. Please go to Dogmanencounters
dot com and submit a report. If you've had a big foot sighting and
we'd like to be a guest on one of my two big foot shows,
please go to my Bigfoots. Like I said, Mike, please stay with
me. Please don't go anywhere, because you know we're going to talk after
I close out the show, all right, okay, okay, great?
Well everyone. Like I told you before, thank you so much for all
the support you show the eyewitnesses. I can't tell you how much I appreciate
it. I really do. And of course, please keep Mike in your
minds, and like I said, we'll be back next Friday night and nine
pm Eastern time to do another live stream where Mike's going to be ready to
answer your questions that you have for him. So thanks again for listening and
have a great night. MS year as the English