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Speaker 1: Three years ago, my son, my brother, and I hunted

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a parcel of private land opening weekend of deer rifle season.

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We were in the woods before daylight. My brother didn't

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fill up to the physical stress of the hills we

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were about to assault, so he stayed close to the

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truck on flat ground. My son and I were going

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to walk the area to drive deer to each other.

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We called it deer kicking. Three hours later, and not

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seeing a deer, my son suggested that we get to

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a higher elevation. His idea was that the deer were

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up there and we just needed to get to him.

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We started to track up the hill and fought briars

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and brambles the whole way. We were exhausted when we

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got to the top. When we reached the top, we

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walked around the ridge trying to get a better look

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at the terrain below. When we walked up on a

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large structure, tree lambs were formed into an almost perfect shelter.

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I assumed someone had built this, but looking closer, it

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became clear this was not built by human hands. It

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was well built too, because my son crawled on top

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of it and walked around it never gave an inch

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built on the edge of a steep drop off. Made

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me a bit nervous, so I got him to jump

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down and we backed away. We sat down and we

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had a smoke. Then he asked if I could detect

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a strong odor. I couldn't smell anything due to an

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accident years ago that took away my sense of smell,

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but he said it was strong. The first guess was

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that Bigfoot had built this thing. We both laughed that

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off and decided to move on back down the hill.

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Taking a different route, we exited the thick brush and

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we stood on a ledge. It gave us a great

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view of the valley below. In the distance, on the

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opposite hillside, I saw a dark figure scaling the mountain.

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I thought it was a bear, but I've never heard

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of bear in this area. I just watched for a

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minute to see better. I raised my rifle scope to

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my eye and I could clearly see this thing was

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on two legs and it was covered in dark hair.

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I asked my son to keep it in his scope

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while I dug for a camera that I carried on

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all my hunts. It took me forever to dig this

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camera out, and while I was doing that, my son

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lowered his rifle to look at me and ask what

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was taking so long, And when he got the object

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back in his scope, it was just going over the

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top of the hill. Neither of us could believe that

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that thing made it up that hill so fast, but

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it was gone. In my mind it was a bear.

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It had to be. The day was shot, so we

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headed back to the true up. We were about halfway

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back to the truck and a rock whizzed by our

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heads and tumbled off into the brush. We stopped and

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looked around for the person who had thrown it, but

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we never saw anyone. Then I realized it had to

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be my brother messing with us, so I called him

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on the two way radio. He was close to the

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truck and emphatically insisted that he had not walked up

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that mountain. It was getting close to dark by now.

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We had not seen or heard an animal all day,

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no insects, birds, nothing. As we walked onto the truck,

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something was tracking us in the brush. While we walked.

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Whatever was in the woods walked. If we stopped, it stopped.

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Limbs and twigs broke in the distance. We stopped and

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called out, hoping to get an answer from someone, maybe

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we were on someone else's land. We got no answer,

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and then I recall our joking that Bigfoot had built

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that structure that we had found, and now I wasn't

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laughing at that idea. The whole thing gave me an

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uneasy feeling. So we wasted no more time and we

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made it to the truck and out of the area

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in a hurry. Finally back at the truck, and a

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bit unnerved, we started unloading our rifles and throwing our

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gear in the bed. We sat on the tailgate waiting

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for my brother to show up. I heard something in

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the brush off to my right. It was rustling in

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the brush, and then, like a bat out of hell,

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it took off running. And whatever it was it was big.

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It was crashing and tearing through the tangled mess like

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a bulldozer. It's hard to explain how this experience affected me.

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It really shook me up. If I heard an elephant

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crashing through the brush, I think it would sound the same.

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In the distance, I heard a sound that I will

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never be able to replicate. It was a sort of

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a howl or scream, and it was terrifying to my ears.

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The radio cracked and it was my brother asking us

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if we had kicked up a deer, to which we

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both immediately responded no, and to get back to the

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truck we needed to go. He finally walked up and

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I hurriedly pushed him in the truck. I started the

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engine and I threw gravel behind me as I sped away.

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And on the drive home, we recounted the story to

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him and he was sure that we had encountered a bear.

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My son and I we knew it wasn't a bear.

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We knew exactly what this thing was. The next year,

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we were told that this piece of land was posted

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and we no longer had permission to hunt it. That

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was fine with me. I wasn't going back to that

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place anyway. We got permission to hunt land not far

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from this location the next year. There are signs of

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bigfoot on this property too, but they never messed with us,

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so we continued to hunt it. This year, I'm staying

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out of the woods. I have concluded that we are

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invading their territory and it must cause them stress. I

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don't want to do that to these creatures. I've studied

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the phenomenon lately and learned quite a bit and I

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think they are closer to humans than we think. This

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is not an average animal, so from now on I'm

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going to be staying out of their habitat. I have

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a few stories to tell. The first one is my

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father in law's and it was told to me by

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my wife. This occurred in Salibas, Indonesia. I think I

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pronounced the town right around nineteen seventy give or take.

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Salivas is a horseshoe shaped island near Borneo. My wife's

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father recounted this story to her, and it happened on

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a cross country motorcycle trip when he was around fifty five.

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My wife's English is not very good, so I'm translating

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this from Indonesian. Getting all the details as a bit

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of a chore. Also, her father passed away five years ago,

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so some of the story may have been lost to memory.

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He was trying to save time on this trip, so

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instead of following the highway, he cut across the wilderness.

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It really was cross country, and as he was traveling,

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the bike suddenly felt like a big weight had been

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added to it and it wouldn't move forward anymore. He

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got off the bike to see what was the matter,

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and behind him stood a huge person. In fear, he

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dropped to his knees to pray, thinking he was about

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to die. The last thing he saw before he closed

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his eyes was its feet. After a while, he opened

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his eyes and it was gone. My impression is that

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my father in law referred to this thing as a

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person because he had no other term to describe it.

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He never saw the face, nor did he describe in

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detail what the legs and feet look like, other than

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that they were huge. The fact that he was so

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close to it but didn't see the head should provide

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some idea of how big this thing was. He would

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have to look up to see the face, but he

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was too terrified to do that. I would guess it

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must have been a minimum of seven and a half

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feet tall, maybe even taller. Apparently, this thing came up

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behind his motorcycle and held on to the back to

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stop it. My father in law never saw it until

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he got off the bike, by which point it had

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to be only a few feet away. He never mentioned

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that it had an odor or made any sound. I

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believe the incident took place at dusk, so he wouldn't

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have been able to see much since there are no

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lights in the jungle. My wife said her father told

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her this story only once. I think as a cautionary tale.

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He wanted his family to know it was dangerous out there.

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He told her that the story scared him as much

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now as it had years later. It was like it

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only happened yesterday. My next story comes from my wife's grandfather,

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and it happened on the same island, but a different

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part of it. I'm not sure on the time, maybe

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the early nineteen hundreds, and it may have happened as

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recently as nineteen twenty. My wife's grandfather and some friends

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of his were going hunting. It was a large hunting

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party of about ten people, and they decided to explore

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a cave they'd found at the bottom of a ravine.

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They were looking for bird droppings or guano. They heard

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something from inside and it startled them enough to make

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them start running. Most of them scrambled up and out

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of the ravine, but one person fell back down. They

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threw a rope down to him to help him, but

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he told them he couldn't climb out. Something was holding

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his foot. They heard more noises, like people scurrying around.

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They were loud, marching noises. It wasn't just one or

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two people or whatever they were, It sounded like a

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whole group of them. The others fled in fear, leaving

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the man to fend for himself, and he was never

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seen again. This story, like my father in laws, was

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told to warn the children of the dangers of the jungle.

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These men apparently stumbled on a bunch of or a

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society of some kind of creature. They never actually had

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visual contact, but what they heard terrified them so much

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that ten well armed men ran like helpless children and

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abandoned one of their own to die. Getting these stories

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and getting accurate details was difficult. I would think I

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had it and then ask another question, and her answer

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to it would shed a whole new light on what

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she was trying to describe. I think I finally got

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all the pertinent information. Though these last encounters are my own,

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and at the time I was in the wilderness working

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as a paramilitary contractor, it was over a decade ago,

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so some of the minor details may be hard to recall,

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but I will do my best. I was part of

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a four man teams sent to prep camp for training

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exercises that were being held near the California Oregon border.

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The first night, it was just the members of the

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advanced team. Our intel told us that bears were unheard

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of here. Mountain lions were becoming common, but not to

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the point that we expected to see any I don't

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recall any information on non predators, but I'm sure there

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were deer and probably wild boar in the area as well.

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I was sleeping in a small one man dome tent,

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barely big enough to hold me. Head and feet were

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lightly touching the walls. I had covered the tent with

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camo panels and placed a sheet of clear plastic underneath

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that extended eight inches beyond the tent walls. The weather

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was damp and drizzly, and this kept the muddy, wet

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ground from soaking into the tent floor. In the field,

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I would normally not even use a tent, much less

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a sheet of plastic. It didn't take long for the

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falling pine needles to cover the plastic, making it invisible.

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It was a rocky, forested terrain with lots of trees

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and pine needle covering the ground. Large mossy boulders stuck

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out here and there between the trees. Once I was

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finished camouflaging my tent. It looked like one of those boulders.

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A few of us who were there did not make

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our camps together. We were maybe two hundred feet apart.

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Due to the heavily wooded terrain, we were completely out

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of sight of each other. We were running twenty four

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hour watch, so in the middle of the night, when

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I was done with my turn, I headed back to

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my tent. I found it with difficulty. It was camoed

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up really good, and I fell asleep. Some time later,

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I was awakened by the sound of something stepping on

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the plastic sheeting right by my head. This thing's foot

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and my head couldn't have been more than twelve inches apart.

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There was nothing between us except a wall of fabric.

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Maybe two seconds later I heard two very strong sniffs.

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Something with huge nostrils was sniffing me. Its nose was

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just a few inches from my ear. These nostrils were

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definitely larger than man's sized. At that time, I didn't

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believe in bigfoot, and I never heard of dog Man. Also,

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I slept with a loaded forty five pistol on my

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right hip and a marine k bar knife on my left.

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Plus I was well trained in how to use both

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of them, and I wasn't scared. I was, however, very tired,

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so I just closed my eyes and I went back

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to sleep. Looking back, I realized that it should have

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made the same noise when it removed its foot as

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it did when it stepped on the plastic. I never

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heard it make that noise, so it must have still

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been standing there when I fell back to sleep. The

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next day, I looked around for a bit of tracks,

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but there were none. Now I ask around the morning

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fire who was snooping around my tent, but everyone denied it.

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I knew it couldn't be any of them because I

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wasn't in the type of group to joke around. Everyone

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was armed and very serious about their job. We don't

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play silly pranks like that. People could get killed. Whatever

246
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it was that sniffed at me that night didn't fit

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anything in my reality, so I just pushed it out

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of my mind. It wasn't until years later, when a

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friend started sending me tons of stories on bigfoot encounters,

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that I started noticing similarities between many of them and

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some of the aspects of my own strange encounter. Meanwhile,

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I couldn't attribute it to being a bear because there

253
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were none in that area and it seemed way too

254
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big to be a mountain line. The next day the

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trainees arrived and I was part of the opt for opfoor.

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I'm not sure what that means. My job was overwatched,

257
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so I set up my sign grid and picked out

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a spot with a good view of the area. I

259
00:15:32,279 --> 00:15:35,600
only had to watch in one direction. If they were coming,

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I knew from which direction it would be. I was

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00:15:39,080 --> 00:15:42,360
well camouflaged, and plus I found a small depression in

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a few inches deep, big enough for me to lay in,

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and I dragged a dead branch over the top of me.

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And as long as I didn't move, I wasn't going

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to be seen. We used throat mics and earpieces for communication,

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so radio noise was never an issue. I was lying

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on my belly on the ground. I could feel someone

268
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walking up behind me. I thought maybe it was someone

269
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from the training exercise and had gotten around me and

270
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was coming up on my position. I kept still so

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as not to give myself away. I knew from experience

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that people can almost be standing on top of me

273
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and not see me. As long as I didn't move,

274
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I waited for what felt like an eternity, nothing moved.

275
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I didn't feel the movement anymore, so I finally looked

276
00:16:31,000 --> 00:16:35,039
back and there was nothing there. Looking back on that event,

277
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I don't think I could have felt a man walking

278
00:16:37,600 --> 00:16:40,639
up behind me. I later found out that there was

279
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never anyone from our group in that area beside me.

280
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The whole thing was just very odd. I definitely felt someone,

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00:16:49,039 --> 00:16:53,159
that is, something by petal coming up on me. I'm

282
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not sure what to make of all that. That general

283
00:16:55,720 --> 00:16:59,360
area is, as everyone knows, a place where cryptid sightings

284
00:16:59,360 --> 00:17:04,319
are comparedatively more common than most. One strange take from

285
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this is how I was willing to ignore my instincts

286
00:17:07,000 --> 00:17:11,960
in these situations that defied rational explanation, and according to

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my worldview at the time, as I've been a hunter

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all my life, of both man, not only in times

289
00:17:21,599 --> 00:17:26,119
of war and beasts, though the lines between both seemed

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to get blurred. I was a middle aged man once

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in the prime of my life. I was always outdoors,

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00:17:33,039 --> 00:17:37,440
enjoying the seasons. I find the woodlands, even with what

293
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I know to be a peaceful place, do I fear

294
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the woods well? A man can be peaceful when he

295
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is scared of something. You learn this on the battlefield

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00:17:47,799 --> 00:17:52,640
given time. I know courage is facing one's fear head on.

297
00:17:52,839 --> 00:17:56,359
But still I say, I'm not courageous. I'm just ignorant

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of the times. My stories start. As I said, in

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the prime of my life was in the nineteen seventies,

300
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A hundred for money, good money, and when not doing

301
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something for Uncle Sam, I was a guide and a tracker.

302
00:18:13,559 --> 00:18:16,839
I never had one place to call home. It's easier

303
00:18:16,880 --> 00:18:19,759
when you're not attached to leave things behind, knowing you

304
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may not see it again. I was working in the

305
00:18:23,160 --> 00:18:27,799
area of northeastern Alaska. I was deep in the woodlands

306
00:18:27,799 --> 00:18:31,680
along the river. Huh Okay. This story has a couple

307
00:18:31,680 --> 00:18:33,799
of words in it that I'm going to have trouble with.

308
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But he says he was deep in the woodlands along

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a river near Vinettai ven Tie. You guys look it up.

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I had been here for months, enjoying the weather. At

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this time it was summer, but at night you would

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still freeze if you didn't know better. I was out

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for my cabin, checking my traps and jigging for fish,

314
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and enjoying the day. I kept an eye out for

315
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grizzlies and wolves. And polar bears or any predators. Man

316
00:19:06,759 --> 00:19:08,839
is not at the top of the food chain there,

317
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and I didn't know of Bigfoot or believe any of

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the local legends of such creatures or others. For that manner,

319
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I thought it was all malarkey, bullshit, At least I

320
00:19:20,160 --> 00:19:25,079
did at one time until that day. I was hooking

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fish out of the river with a gaff hook. This

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is a large piece of steel shaped like a hook,

323
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as thick as your pinky finger, and attached to a

324
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six foot pole. I did this so I didn't have

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to go into the water as much. I had been

326
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catching fish most of the day. I had a good

327
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catch held up off the ground between two trees. They

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were twenty feet off the ground and held by a rope.

329
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The rope was made of thick hemp. I just caught

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a good forty pound fish and was coming back to

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00:19:56,920 --> 00:19:59,759
my cash of fish when I noticed the line was

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no no longer where I placed it. I remember looking

333
00:20:03,559 --> 00:20:07,880
between the trees, dumbfounded they were not there, nor was

334
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my rope. As I came closer to the trees, a

335
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smell like rotten wet dirt mixed with urine and blood

336
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hit my nose and made me stop in my tracks.

337
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That copper tone of blood is what made me stop.

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It had to be wolves. Wolves are known to roll

339
00:20:28,680 --> 00:20:31,359
in the mud and blood after fighting for a place

340
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at a kill. My head was on a swivel as

341
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I looked around, and I pulled my thirty six to ready,

342
00:20:38,759 --> 00:20:41,920
but paused as I noticed the tracks around the trees

343
00:20:42,240 --> 00:20:46,319
were those of a person. Though they were bigger. They

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appeared to be barefoot, but maybe I was reading them wrong.

345
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It wasn't uncommon for tribal members to take fish and

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take them back to town if they found them in the

347
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woods unattended. Knowing that, I followed the trail to catch

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up with them and get my fish back, or at

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least be compensated well. After a few steps, I had

350
00:21:08,119 --> 00:21:12,119
to stop because none of this made any sense. The

351
00:21:12,160 --> 00:21:16,400
stride for this person was too long. I was walking

352
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in damp earth and the tracks were clear, but every

353
00:21:19,359 --> 00:21:23,119
three steps I took was one stride for this being.

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Given the size of these tracks. I assessed my losses

355
00:21:28,400 --> 00:21:30,960
and I went back in and decided to head close

356
00:21:31,000 --> 00:21:34,119
to my cabin and fish there. I didn't want to

357
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meet this person or thing on the trail whatever it was.

358
00:21:38,119 --> 00:21:40,039
When I was close to my camp, I went to

359
00:21:40,079 --> 00:21:43,920
retrieve my three point fifty seven. The one thing that

360
00:21:44,039 --> 00:21:47,279
kept hitting me was the feeling of being watched. I

361
00:21:47,400 --> 00:21:50,160
learned long ago not to ignore my gut, so I

362
00:21:50,240 --> 00:21:54,079
kept looking around from time to time. The scent of

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00:21:54,119 --> 00:21:56,680
blood and dirt kept hitting me as I went about

364
00:21:56,720 --> 00:22:00,079
my business, and I decided to smoke as many fish

365
00:22:00,160 --> 00:22:02,799
as I could. The smoke would keep the bears and

366
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wolves at bay for enough time. I then went into

367
00:22:07,599 --> 00:22:10,599
town in case someone was messing with me, and I

368
00:22:10,599 --> 00:22:13,039
wanted to talk to the tribal chief at the time

369
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and see if anyone knew what was going on. When

370
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I spoke to the man, he actually looked at me

371
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in the eyes without a blink. He said, you're lucky,

372
00:22:23,519 --> 00:22:29,440
you're alive. Okay, here's another one of those words. You're

373
00:22:29,480 --> 00:22:33,559
a yearly. You're a yearly, you are a y u

374
00:22:34,039 --> 00:22:38,000
l I will kill you, he said. I think that

375
00:22:38,119 --> 00:22:41,200
stands for Bigfoot. So he said, you're lucky, you're alive.

376
00:22:41,279 --> 00:22:45,480
Bigfoot will kill you. I asked him what do I do,

377
00:22:46,079 --> 00:22:49,599
and I will never forget his words. He said, go home,

378
00:22:49,799 --> 00:22:53,559
fish and hunt, but leave some for him. Then he

379
00:22:53,599 --> 00:22:57,319
will leave you alone. Well, I retorted, you know, I

380
00:22:57,319 --> 00:23:00,960
don't believe all this bullshit, and he said you will,

381
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and then he asked me to leave. After two days

382
00:23:05,319 --> 00:23:09,279
of fishing and hunting, nothing happened. I would fish and

383
00:23:09,359 --> 00:23:12,480
leave one for every two I caught, for every animal

384
00:23:12,599 --> 00:23:15,319
I hunted or trapped, and I would leave a portion

385
00:23:15,480 --> 00:23:19,319
hanging in a tree. To be honest, I didn't take

386
00:23:19,359 --> 00:23:23,079
it very seriously. But on the third day, I decided

387
00:23:23,119 --> 00:23:25,680
to start early, so I got up and had some

388
00:23:25,759 --> 00:23:29,519
pickled eggs and meat. I came out the door and

389
00:23:29,559 --> 00:23:32,359
I could smell it. It was hot copper and the

390
00:23:32,400 --> 00:23:36,519
smell of fresh blood. I looked around and thirty feet

391
00:23:36,559 --> 00:23:39,039
from my cabin, there it was as plain as day,

392
00:23:39,079 --> 00:23:42,920
looking right at me. And I'll never forget that look

393
00:23:43,119 --> 00:23:47,119
on this creature's face. I don't know why, but I

394
00:23:47,200 --> 00:23:52,039
spoke to him. For some reason. I wasn't scared, hello,

395
00:23:52,160 --> 00:23:55,920
I said, He just stared at me with a stone face.

396
00:23:56,839 --> 00:24:00,200
He was big, at least nine feet tall, if not tall.

397
00:24:01,319 --> 00:24:04,319
He was covered in shaggy hair, was white to gray

398
00:24:04,400 --> 00:24:07,640
with some black mixed in here and there. He had

399
00:24:07,640 --> 00:24:11,720
the look of a bodybuilder through all that hair. I

400
00:24:11,759 --> 00:24:14,079
know it was just a few moments, but I swear

401
00:24:14,200 --> 00:24:17,359
he nodded at me, and I'm not sure, but I

402
00:24:17,440 --> 00:24:21,039
know one thing. He did smile and showed his teeth,

403
00:24:21,319 --> 00:24:24,559
and they looked like ours, but they had pronounced canines.

404
00:24:25,680 --> 00:24:27,839
I was shocked when he spoke something to me, and

405
00:24:27,880 --> 00:24:32,240
what I found out was Inuit. He moved his arm

406
00:24:32,359 --> 00:24:35,160
out to its sides and then turned and walked away.

407
00:24:36,240 --> 00:24:39,680
It moved gracefully, without a sound, and this chillney to

408
00:24:39,759 --> 00:24:44,680
the bone. The tribal group here called them the silent Death,

409
00:24:45,359 --> 00:24:49,839
and now I knew why. I waited a bit and

410
00:24:49,880 --> 00:24:53,359
gathered some things. Looking around as I did, I found

411
00:24:53,359 --> 00:24:56,400
a grizzly bear at the foot of my cash and

412
00:24:56,440 --> 00:25:00,319
it was dead. Its blood was the smell that I

413
00:25:00,400 --> 00:25:04,160
was tasting in the air. It was a fresh kill,

414
00:25:04,319 --> 00:25:08,000
and the jaws were pulled apart from the head. And

415
00:25:08,039 --> 00:25:10,480
when I tried to tell the chief about it, he

416
00:25:10,640 --> 00:25:13,880
was as dismayed as I was. But he told me

417
00:25:14,279 --> 00:25:19,200
that it called me brother and said the land will provide.

418
00:25:19,279 --> 00:25:22,319
But he said this as a warning too, and I

419
00:25:22,440 --> 00:25:26,599
was just meet to this being. When I returned to

420
00:25:26,640 --> 00:25:29,839
my cabin, the bear was gone, but in its place

421
00:25:30,039 --> 00:25:34,759
was a caribou with its neck broken. Until I was married,

422
00:25:35,079 --> 00:25:37,720
I left half of my kill for these beings out

423
00:25:37,720 --> 00:25:41,720
of respect as well as fear. I believe that there

424
00:25:41,720 --> 00:25:45,920
are tribes of these things, each different just as we are,

425
00:25:45,960 --> 00:25:50,160
but in their own unique way. Lucky I never had

426
00:25:50,160 --> 00:25:52,720
to hunt them, but I have heard rumors that our

427
00:25:52,759 --> 00:25:54,359
government does regularly,