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Speaker 1: In nineteen ninety four, my husband was employed by a

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drilling company based in Kalmauth Falls, Oregon. He traveled quite

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a bit around the country, taking natural gas and water

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samples from various wells. He worked with a crew of

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three other men, and their schedule consisted of twenty three

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days on the job followed by ten days off. The

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four would pocket their per diems money that the company

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offered as an allowance for expenses, and sneak aboard the

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freight trains to and from drilling sites. Their favorite spot

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was near a California town called Portola. As the train

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would begin to slow crawl up the mountain, they would

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jump off by a ranger station. The crew would unpack

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their camping gear and proceed to enjoy the next ten

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days of freedom, fishing and hunting and enjoying the isolated

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beauty of the forest in its nearby waterfall. It was

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a great place to be at one with nature before

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heading back to the rough and tumbled reality of their

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drilling jobs. My husband and his crew were tough men,

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seizing veterans of the outdoors. They didn't fear anything because

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they all shared a mutual respect and understanding of their surroundings.

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But on this particular day, however, something would happen that

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would shake them into their core. My husband was the

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first one up at the campsite that morning, while the

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others barely stirred in their sleeping bags. He grabbed some

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clean clothes and shampoo, and then made his way the

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three hundred yards to the waterfall. It was perfect for bathing.

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The basin at the foot of the falling water measured

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thirty square feet and was enclosed by twenty five feet

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of rock, like four sides of a wall. One of

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the crew members, a mountainous man who dwarfed the rest

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of them at six foot four inches. He measured the

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depth of the pool by walking out to the middle

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of it until he was totally submerged, his bare feet

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sunk into the black sediment while his outstretched arms and

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fingertips extended just above the water's surface, So the pool

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had to be at least nine feet deep. My husband

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slipped into the basin and had just lathered his hair

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with shampoo when he heard an enormous splash and he

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felt the water ripple around him. His eyes blinded by

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the soap, he assumed one of the crew had just

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joined him, and when suddenly he heard someone screaming his

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name in utter terror, he rinsed the soap from his

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eyes quickly, and he spotted his mountainous crew, remember yelling

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from the bank and pointing while my husband spun around

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and came face to face with something grotesque and horrific.

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It wasn't a human. The water came up to its

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hairy chest and its head resembled a cross between a

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gorilla and a cave man let out a roar, and

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my husband saw the beast's enormous incisors. Before he could react,

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it raised its brawny arms over its head and brought

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them down into the water, and the resulting wave, knocking

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my husband backward. Were disoriented. My husband had swallowed a

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mouthful of water and fought to gain his breath. By now,

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his crew had joined their mountainous coal worker on the bank,

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throwing rocks at this enormous man thing as it crawled

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from the pool. They watched it walk through a sixteen

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foot steel cable clothesline they had erected outside the camp.

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The thing pulled at it in anger, snapping it like

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sewing thread and dragging the remains into the woods. The

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panic crew made their way to the ranger station to

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report the incident. They estimated the creature had to be

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at least ten feet tall with four foot arms. Its

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teeth were as long as kitchen knives. The range took

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statements from the four men. He questioned their lack of transportation,

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and my husband had to confess that they were illegal

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stowaways who had snuck aboard of the train. Well. The

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ranger considered their story and explained to them that the

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government was well aware of a manlike species existing in

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the area. He further warned the men that these beings

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were under government protection and should they dare return or

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share their experience with the public, the full weight of

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the government would be brought to bear against the men

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and their families. My husband and the others looked at

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each other. What they had just witnessed was scary, but

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taking on the American government was something else. Entirely, they

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took the highway back. This took place just outside the

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small town of Catawa, North Carolina, in September of nineteen ninety,

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where I lived with my three sibl wings and my

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sixty eight year old foster mother, Doris. I was the

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oldest child being nine, with my sisters being eight and five,

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and my brother was only six months old. We lived

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in a single wide trailer that was almost completely surrounded

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by woods and were connected to civilization by a rarely

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used dirt road. When I say completely surrounded, behind us

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was woods, to our right was woods with a gully

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that ran thirty to forty feet deep, and across the

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dirt road was more woods. The only non wooded area

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was to our left, where there was a strip of

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trees with two fields just past them, which ironically enough,

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were surrounded by woods. Seeing as how Doris only allowed

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us to watch Nature, Nova and the smothers brothers, we

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spent almost all of our free time playing and exploring outside.

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I was used to most of the sights, sounds, and

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smells that surrounded us outside, but a few did throw

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me off. Almost daily, I heard whoops and hollers that

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sounded just like howler monkeys or siamings. I had recently

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watched a Nature or Nova episode devoted to these monkeys,

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which I didn't think was right because none of those

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lived in the United States. Those calls always came from

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either behind our trailer or to the right of it

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usually from a pretty decent distance. The woods behind the

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house was one of the few areas I never extensively explored.

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Every time I stepped into the tree line, I got

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this overwhelming feeling that something didn't want me there. I

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didn't feel scared so much as sternly warned. However, on

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one occasion, I made it about twenty feet into the

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trees before getting that feeling that before I turned around,

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I noticed three or four decent sized saplings about ten

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or twelve feet tall, bent over and worked into one another,

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as if someone had tried to make a crude shelter.

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I finally got the hint and left those woods and

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never went back in. And on maybe three or four

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more occasions, I remember waking up in the middle of

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the night to the overwhelming odor of what smelled like

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a wet dog wafting through my partially open window. It

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was summer and Doris was trying to save money by

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opening windows versus using the air conditioner. It would only

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last a few moments before the smell seemed to dissipate.

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Whenever I would experience any of this, I just kind

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of brushed it off. I was going through a lot

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at the time in foster care and trying my best

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to make sure my siblings were taken care of. My

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mother made me a promise to look after them, so

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I didn't think too much about anything else. I had

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never heard of anything in my young wife about bigfoot,

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so I just assumed that the noises were from birds

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that I had never learned, the names of the smells

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were from animals pooping close to the house or my

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brother's diaper, and that the whole woods behind the trailer

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ordeal was me being a scaredy cat. All of that

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changed in late September of nineteen ninety. We were all

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from school for a teacher work day and we had

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decided that we were going to go about a quarter

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of a mile down the road and try our hand

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at climbing this clay embankment that was especially challenging. Doris

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wasn't fond of the mess we would make of ourselves,

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but since we were wearing our well worn play clothes,

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she let us go. So I went with my two

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sisters down to the clay embankment, and when I got there,

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I stopped. When my oldest sister asked me what was wrong,

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I pointed to the two bare footprints that led us

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up the embankment. They were about thirteen inches long and

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about five inches wide. The only reason I remember this

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is because we had just finished working on this art

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project in school, and I had made it a point

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to measure my hand. Thumb tip to the tip of

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my middle finger was five inches. I was confused, first

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of all by the fact that someone had seemed to

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climb this really steep embankment barefoot, and secondly by the

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fact that they had apparently had done it in two steps.

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I looked up the embankment and tried to figure out

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which way it had gone. I looked left and saw

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nothing unusual. But when I looked right, I saw something

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that boggled my mind. About seventy five yards away, I

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saw what looked like a weird, oversized gorilla walking on

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two legs across the road. It had taken one step

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into the middle of the road, and as it went

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to take the second step, it turned at the hips

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and looked at us. It didn't slow down or make

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a sound. The second step put it on the other

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side of the road, and then it descended down into

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the gully. The entire encounter from my discovery of the

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footprints to the creature disappearing from view lasted maybe fifteen seconds.

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After that, I made my sister's run back to the

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trailer and I was right behind them. I told Doris

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about it, but she laughed at me and said I

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had a really great imagination. I didn't learn anything about

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what Bigfoot was, not even the name, until we went

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to our local library a few weeks later and I

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saw a book with a Bigfoot face on the cover.

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I knew instantly that that was what I had seen,

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and since then I have spent the next twenty nine

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years researching and listening to other people's encounters. I've traveled

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around the entire lower forty eight states and through five

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time zones of Canada from the Atlantic to the Pacific coast,

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offer hiking and photography. I have visited all the big cities,

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but most of the time I'm in one of the

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national parks or state parks or national monuments. Recently, during

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the winter, my daughter and I headed to Florida for

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a week or two. The highlight for us was Key West.

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We spent a couple of days in the Keys, and

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after getting our fill of beautiful sunsets, we headed back

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to the mainland. We reached US forty one through the

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Everglades around midnight, and we found a water pump station

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and we parked under the light pole to kill some

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time and rest up. After a while, a police car

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pulled into the station. I assumed it wanted us and

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everyone else out, so I started the car again and

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I pulled onto the road heading west. We wanted to

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be at Sharp Valley entrance to the Everglades National Park

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by sunrise so we could spend the day hiking, and

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our plan was to pass the entrance and find a

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safe place to park for a few hours. We drove

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past Monroe Station and found a picnic area and we parked.

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The moon was an upside down crescent sitting far in

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the east of a black sky full of stars, and

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after just a few minutes I saw a shooting star.

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And my daughter had fallen asleep by then, and as

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I scanned the sky looking for more action in the distance,

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I saw a light coming our way. I thought it

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may have been a lightning bug, since in Florida insects

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seem a lot bigger than back home in New Jersey.

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But as I watched it get closer, I realized it

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wasn't a lightning bug at all. It was the eye

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of a ten foot tall monster. It was blazing evil

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a giant lemon, and sticking out from the head of

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a beast. I fumbled to reach for the headlights, but

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my better senses told me not to let this thing

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know I was there. It moved like it was on

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roller skates, without the slightest bounce in its step, and

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it was so big that it would have had to

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have stooped down to look an elephant in the eye,

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and it could have ripped the roof off my car

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and plucked us like eggs from a basket. But instead

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it disappeared into the darkness to the east, and I

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could tell it was on a mission, and I was

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relieved it didn't involve me and my daughter. At that point,

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I didn't care about getting any sleep, so I started

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the car and drove it to the exit and got

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straight out of there. When morning came, we headed back

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to the Everglades National Park, and when we passed through

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Monroe Station again, we saw signs that said don't feed

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the Bigfoot. I have repeatedly heard that Bigfoot has red eyes,

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but the eyes of the creature I saw were blazing

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fluorescat yellow without any pupils. I'm sure it could see

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in the dark and must have known my daughter and

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I were there. I believe it was a dog man,

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and I told my daughter about it the next morning,

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and to this day, I'm ridden with guilt that I

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endangered her life by not getting out of there sooner.

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It had the chance to confront us, but for some

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reason it chose not to. We were lucky it didn't

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come back with a friend and to pick up the

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car and carry us away to never be seen again. Wow,

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that's another Florida, Florida's story, I said. When I first

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started it, it was labeled a dog Man's story and

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the sign said don't fit feed Bigfoot. This is in

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Florida Monroe Station Everglades National Park. I guess this guy

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saw a dog man. I wonder if he saw any

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more detail other than the shape, because it was dark

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and there was a crescent man, there wasn't a full moon,

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and it had big glowing eyes. Man man, That is cool,

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cool story. Thank you to the writer. I hope you

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guys have gotten over that episode and they're continuing to

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hike and did you say you do Yeah, hiking in photography.

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He's a photographer, so I hope you're still into that.

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I really do, and again I appreciate the story, sir.

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I'm an ex park ranger, an avid outdoor enthusiast, and

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an experienced camper, hiker, and kayaker. I've spent countless days

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and nights working in and exploring state national parks all

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over the country, and particularly in my home state of Florida,

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where we have a variety of wildlife. I also have

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several years of experience with wildlife rehabilitation and an understanding

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of wildlife behaviors. I'm no stranger to a variety of

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noises in the outdoors at all times of day and night.

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I enjoy camping with others, and I often pursue solo

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camping adventures so I can hone my photography skills and

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HI can explore where and when I want and travel

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as faster as far as I like, without being slowed

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by someone else or expecting them to adhere to my schedule.

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A lone time on an outdoor adventure also helps me

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tune in to nature and get closer to wildlife without

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disturbing them, and enable them to get closer to me,

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and it allows me to get better photography opportunities. As

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a middle aged woman, I'm well aware of safety concerns

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while on my adventures, and I have a good sixth

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sense or radar as my dad used to call it,

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an invaluable skill, especially as a solo adventurist. I've had

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a few alarming close calls out there over the years,

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and I can say with certainty that I am much

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more wary of humans than wildlife. I know what wild

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animals are up to and why, but humans not so much.

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I have a concealed weapons license, and I bring a

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handgun on camping trips, as well as pepper spray, bear spray,

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a whistle, several knives, and even an air horn. Having

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said that, I don't get spooked easily. I'm simply a practical,

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realistic person in a sometimes dangerous world. The experience I'm

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about to share with you, I don't think I'll ever

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be able to forget, let alone fully comprehend. It's not

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the scariest or strangest thing ever, but unforgettable. Nonetheless, everyone

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I recount this story to says the same thing. They

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agree it's bizarre and can offer no reasonable explanation. In

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the spring of twenty seventeen, I arrived at Manatee Spring

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State Park, located west of Gainesville near the Gulf Coast

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of Florida, around noon and felt fortunate to book the

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last remaining of a site for the night. I set

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up my tent and placed a tablecloth over the picnic table,

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as well as several items such as a water jug, lantern,

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park information and other items. My site was adjacent to

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a trail that leads to the spring head, where the

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concessions stand and picnic pavilions and entry to the spring

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run are located. The springhead and day use area are

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popular for swimmers and divers and paddlers and picnicers, and

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they are opened during daylight hours only. I was eager

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to explore all this gorgeous park has to offer, and

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as I was standing next to my picnic table studying

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the trail map, I had an intense sensation that I

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was being watched. I looked up to see a tall, thin,

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pale young man he was maybe twenty years old, walking

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past my site on the trail from the spring into

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the campground. He was looking over directly at me with

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a wide, knowing grin, as if he was far too

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interested in me, and he was continually nodding his head

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at me as he walked past. He never stopped that

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smirk and head nodding even after he saw that I

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saw him looking at me, and his eyes never left

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mine as he walked past. Neither of us said a

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word to the other. Puzzled and kind of weired it out,

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I watched him continue on further into the campground, where

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I could only assume that he was also camping. It

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kind of gave me the creeps, because nothing about my clothes, demeanor,

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or actions would have elicited interest or attention from anyone

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in any way, especially a young man less than half

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my age while minding my own business in my own campsite.

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I wrote him off as a weirdo, and I pushed

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it to the back of my mind while I continued

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planning my adventures for the rest of the day. I

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gathered my cameras and hiking gear, and I headed down

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the trail to the spring head. When I was taking

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photos and enjoying the wildlife and the crystalline blue waters

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and majestic old oaks and cypress trees. After exploring some

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hiking trails for a few hours. I headed back up

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the spring trail to my campsite and I ate a

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quick dinner, and I looked through the photos and videos

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and began planning the next day's adventure. To my relief,

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I did not see the strange acting young man again.

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Everything seemed peaceful and normal in the campground, or so

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I thought. At sunset, I noticed the thick fog settling in.

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During normal daytime visibility, I could easily see the bath

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house and many other nearby campers even way across the loop.

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But I soon realized how dramatically that was changing. Darkness

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descended quickly in an every quiet envelope the campground, along

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with a dense fog, and suddenly I remembered the young

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man from earlier, and I got a creepy sensation. So

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I decided I'd feel safer if I slept in my

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lock truck cab instead of my tent. I certainly did

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not want any unexpected surprises at my tent during this

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dark and foggy night, And after a while I got

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comfortable leaning back in the driver's seat and I hoped

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for a peaceful night sleep. Although I was admittedly concerned

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with the lack of visibility in those conditions, I cracked

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the side windows a little for ventilation so that I

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could at least hear outside, because I truly could not

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see anything. It was so black outside and the fog

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was the thickest I had ever encountered in my life.

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I strained to see something, anything out my windshield or

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back or side windows, but it was impossible. I could

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not even see the huge light over the bathhouse. I've

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never experienced such a sense of nowareness. It was like

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I was all alone in the dark arc was a

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silent cloud of nothingness, completely helpless and alone. It's possible

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that I would have been able to fall asleep soon,

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but the silence was permeated by the sound of distant

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drums beating, reminiscent of some sort of native ritual. I

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got a distinct feeling of being acutely aware of the

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life giving spring and lands that were sacred to the

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natives for thousands of years in this area. The sounds

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never got very loud or close, but it sure seemed

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like the drumming was coming from the Springhead area, which

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I thought was really odd because the entire area of

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the park is closed after dark, and it would be

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impossible for anyone to even see to get down there anyway.

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Lights are useless in this thick fog, And why would

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anyone want to form a drumming circle or anything on

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such a night like this? Were they the sounds of

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native spirits from another realm? Things were getting really strange,

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and I struggled to make a logical sense of any

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of it. An hour passed when suddenly, as if things

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weren't eerie enough, bam, my truck bed bounced so hard

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that it shook my whole truck. Something fell in the

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bed of my truck, but I couldn't see anything. All

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I could see was thick, black, foggy nothingness, and my

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brain raced for an explanation. Maybe it was a raccoon

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or some other critter that had fallen out of a

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tree in this thick darkness, But that was crazy. And besides,

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I would have heard an animal scramble up and out

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of my truck bed, right, but I heard nothing other

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than the drumming. Besides, what animal would be that heavy

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to bounce my truck so hard? Maybe a dead tree

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branch fell. Does that mean there could be more, or

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maybe that guy sneaked over here in the dark to

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mess with me. Well, there's no way he could even

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see to get over here in this thick, black fog.

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I thought, maybe this, Maybe that nothing made any reasonable sense.

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When logic doesn't suffice, what's a brain to do? And

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I tried to comfort myself in all the confusion, and

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I told myself I would probably find a decayed old

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tree branch in the back of my truck in the morning, right,

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it was a little consolation. Meanwhile, the drum beats continued

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for a couple more hours in the eerie, foggy darkness,

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and then they suddenly stopped, and there was nothing but

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silence and fog and darkness for hours. I hoped I

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would be safe inside here, and I never felt so

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helpless and vulnerable in my life. I felt like bait.

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I had no choice but to stay wide awake all

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night with my senses on high alert. The thick fog

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remained and I could not see anything outside of my

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truck at all all night long, and the night seemed

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very long. Indeed, the minutes and the hours dragged on. Finally,

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after what seemed like an eternity, I noticed a slight

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sign of daylight, but did not feel comfortable yet or

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safe enough to open my door or dare to step

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outside lest I inadvertently make myself vulnerable to whatever or

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whoever might be out there. After several more minutes, I

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began to notice the vague outline of nearby trees in

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the bath house light. Finally, daylight was coming soon enough.

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My curiosity got the best of me, and I slowly

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and quietly opened my truck door, and I stepped outside,

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and I scanned the area, and then I eagerly turned

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to see what had fallen into the bed of my truck.

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I had to know, well, there was nothing nothing, no branches,

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no tree bark, no animal. There was nothing there. Everything

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was exactly as I had left it. How could this be? Now?

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Everything seemed even more bizarre, since there was no reasonable

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explanation for the huge thud that made my truck bounce.

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The fog soon lifted completely, and like magic, the daylight

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and sunshine erased all mysterious and eerie sensations as if

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they had never happened. Still totally perplexed and not knowing

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what to make of anything, I packed my gear and

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headed for my next destination. I guess I'll never get

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any explanations, the creepy young guy, the ridiculously thick fog.

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Unlike any I had ever seen the drums beating from

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the springhead on such a dark, foggy night, or the

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huge thud that shook my truck, but it sure felt

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like I had suddenly been an unwitting guest in a

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Hitchcock film for several hours. I continue to enjoy camping

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adventures all over the country, but when I left that morning,

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I swore that I would never return to that park alone.

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Thanks for reading, and keep up the great work. My

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friends call me Hook