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Speaker 1: Wow, I have one for you that happened to me

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in the backwoods of Arkansas back in the early nineties.

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I don't mind if you use my first name, but

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let's keep my last name between you and I. My

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name is Eli, and this is my story. In nineteen

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ninety four, I was thirteen years old. I used to

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stay at my grandparents' house, a lot out in the

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very rural area in southeastern Arkansas. It was a series

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of networked dirt roads to get to their house. The

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closest neighbor lived a mile and a half away, and

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the closest town was ten miles down the road. It's

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in the middle of farmland and it's mostly woods. They

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had lived in this house since my mother was a child.

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A general store served the people in the area. It

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was a two mile walk from my grandmother's place. An

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old lady ran the store. Her and her husband had

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the store on the front of their house. They lived

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in the back. My grandmother asked me if I wanted

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to walk to the general store and get her a

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few things. She gave me some money and I headed

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that way. It was early in the day and I

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had plenty of time to get back before dark, which

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I always made sure to do when I was out

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roaming about. Things can get creepy out in the backwoods

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of Arkansas after nightfall. It's a darkness unlike most people

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who have lived primarily in the cities or towns have

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ever experienced. I was easily distracted at that age, and

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I stopped at a creek on the way, and I

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stayed too long, catching crawdads and throwing rocks in the water,

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and then I piddled all the way to the store.

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It was getting late and I picked up my pace.

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By the time I left the store, it was getting dark.

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I didn't want to be walking those lonely secluded roads

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through the woods alone in the dark, so I heard

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as fast as I could. I would jog a while,

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and then I would sprint. I was doing anything in

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my power to get back as quickly as possible, but

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it wasn't enough. By the time I made it back

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to the bottom of the hill near the bridge where

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I had wasted all that time earlier, it was dark.

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I could see the road in the woods all around

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me because of a glowing moon that was coming over

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the horizon. It shined an eerie glow across the land

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and one way, I was glad that I could see,

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but in another the moonlight made it all very creepy.

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At the top of the hill, the road was perfectly

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straight and flat, with woods on the left side and

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a large field on the right. Another half mile and

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I would be home. I could see the porch lights

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way off in the distance, and I felt relieved. My

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eyes were fully adjusted to the dark at this point,

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and the light from the moon allowed me to see

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all the way across the field on my right. I

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was getting closer and had actually slowed down a bit.

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I was tired from the run. I heard something in

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the woods on my left. Leaves were crunching. Something was

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walking in there. Keeping my eyes on the woods, I

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kept moving. There was no way for me to see

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anything clearly inside the woods, even though the moonlight was shining.

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But in the ditch closest to the trees, I could

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make out a dark figure. I stopped and focused on

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that spot for a few seconds, and it was something,

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and now it was moving towards me. I thought it

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was a dog, but then I realized it was much

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too large to be a dog, and then I realized

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it wasn't really actually walking on four legs. It was

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crawling or creeping like a person wood. I couldn't take

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my eyes off this thing. A jolt of fear shot

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through me when I realized this thing was trying to

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sneak up on me. It was stalking me. I started

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walking again and I kept my eyes on it only

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a few yards behind me. Now. A few steps into

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my walk, the thing stood upright. It was big. I'm

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guessing it was seven feet tall, and it looked like

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it was covered in dark hair. But it wasn't a bear.

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Bears aren't that tall. I had never seen anything like this.

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I dropped the bag of stuff that I had been carrying,

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and I ran as fast as my legs could take

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me towards my grandparents' house. I heard a heavy breathing

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and a growling sound behind me. It was up on

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the road with me now, and I could hear its

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feet crunching the gravel. I never turned around. It was

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going to catch me at any second. I couldn't make

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my legs go fast enough. It was so close to

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me that I closed my eyes in anticipation of it

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grabbing me. But at that moment I heard it crash

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off into the woods to my left. For whatever reason,

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it had let me go. It was right on me,

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and it could have taken me down if it wanted to,

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but it let me go. It was a short distance

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away into the woods. I heard a scream. I don't

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think I could replicate that scream now, but I'm telling you,

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I'm never going to forget that scream. By the time

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I reached the house, my heart felt like it would

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explode from the run and the adrenaline pumping through my body.

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I flew into the house and in an incoherent mess

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of hyperactive gibberish, trying to explain to my grandparents what

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had just happened. My grandmother didn't really seem to believe me,

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but she knew something had scared me. She acted weird

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about the whole thing the rest of that night. She

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said it must have been a dog, but that wasn't

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a dog I saw on the road. The next morning,

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I woke up and I found my grandpa sitting outside

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whittling wood underneath the shade tree in the front yard,

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as he often liked to do. I went and sat

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down beside him in one of the old metal lawn chairs.

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He was a rational man down to earth and had

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grown up and hunted that area his entire life. He

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knew every square inch of that place. It was mapped

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into his mind. He knew every type of critterian creature

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that lived in those woods, what noises they made, where

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to find them, and how to catch them, etc. I

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had only been hunting with him for a couple of years,

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but I'd been going out into those woods with him

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since pretty young age on walks. He had passed a

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lot of his knowledge down to me during those adventures.

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I spoke to him about what had happened to me

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the night before, and I told him that I knew

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what I saw. It wasn't my overactive imagination. I wasn't

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making it up, and it definitely was not a dog.

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He knew that I wasn't just some dumb thirteen year

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old kid, and he knew that I knew the things

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he'd taught me. He stopped whittling, looked at me right

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in the eye, and he said, I know what you saw.

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I've seen it before too. There's things in the woods

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that people don't understand stand, and they ought not be

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fooled with. Ever. I'll remember those words clearly to this

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day because it gave me affirmation, but at the time

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it made me realize that whatever I had seen was

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real and it was beyond my understanding. My grandpa then

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went on to tell me that far back in the

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woods there are some cliffs, and at the bottom of

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those cliffs is a cave. He told me that the

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cave is where the creature lived. He had once stumbled

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upon it a long time ago when he was hunting.

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He was standing on the top of the cliff looking

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at it when the creature fitting the same description emerged

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and began screaming wildly at him and throwing rocks. He

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took a shot at it, he missed, and then this

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thing gave chase. But my grandpa was on the top,

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so in order to get to him, this thing had

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to go a long distance and then climb up, which

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he said it quickly began to do, so he high

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tailed it out of there in a hurry. The whole

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way back home, he felt as if he were being watched,

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and he kept hearing twigs snap behind him, and he

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was certain that it was following him, stalking him. He

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made it home, and as he reached his front porch,

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he turned and looked back at the woods from where

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he'd come from, and he saw it peeking out at

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him from behind a tree. Later that night, he said

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that he and my grandmother awoke in the early morning

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hours to large rocks being thrown at the house and

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howling noises from outside. It walked around on the front porch,

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rattling the doorknobs, banging on windows, and it sounded like

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it was muttering to itself in a low, garbled voice,

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but it didn't sound like a language, just a bunch

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of gibberish. After a while, the thing went back to

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throwing some more rocks and howling, So my grandpa grabbed

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a shotgun and fired it out the front door a

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few times into the darkness. He heard it run back

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into the woods. That was the last he'd see or

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heard of it, but over the years he heard of

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other farmers cows being mutilated, or someone's haunting dog going missing,

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or someone would have a story about some strange creature

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they had seen in the woods. He also said it

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scared my grandmother beyond words, and she absolutely has refused

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to ever talk about it or even acknowledged that it happened,

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which explains her acting weird about it when I told

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her about what happened to me. I know the story

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is pretty far fetched, and you can believe it or not.

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It makes no difference to me. I know what I saw,

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and my grandpa knew what he saw, and neither of

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us had ever felt the need to convince anyone else.

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I've never spoken of it to anyone other than a

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few close to me and my grandfather, and he passed

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away over ten years ago, and now I'm sharing it

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with you. These things are just as real as you

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and I, and just like people, they come in all

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manner of personality and temperament. These aren't just stories. These

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are people's memories of a creature that lives in our woods.

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I'm an oil truck driver in the state of Connecticut.

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It's not a popular state for bigfoot sightings, at least

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that's what I thought. This experience took place at a

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campground along Route eighty, but I prefer not to say

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the exact location. I drive a Trixole oil truck, which

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is quite large, but it's not a tractor trailer. In

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the fall, our workload increases, and on this day I

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had twelve tickets for delivery at the same location. It

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was a summer camp that was having a Halloween weekend

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event for kids. I had to fuel the outside above

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ground oil tanks that heated the cabins and the water heaters.

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I arrived at six am on Thursday, before the weekend celebrations,

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and I began fueling my first cabin. Without moving the truck,

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I could drag the hose to three other cabins within reach.

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In case you aren't familiar with old delivery, the oil

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goes in and a vent alarm allows the pushed air

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out with a whistling sound. Some of these vent alarms

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were making piercing sounds, and some were clogged with the

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bugs or other matter. The driver before me may have

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overloaded the tanks and there's oil on top of the

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vent alarm, and sometimes it makes it gurgle. It's hard

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to explain, but sometimes it makes the whistle sound sick.

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I parked the truck and dragged the hose to fuel

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the farthest of the three cabins first. I always dragged

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to the farthest first to make the next ones easier.

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I feel the first tank and there was nothing unusual.

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And then as I began feeling the next cabin's tank.

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I noticed movement in the distance. There wasn't anything in

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the background except woods in a lake, and after the

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lake there was nothing but more woods. It was two

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days before the weekend, and I thought it odd that

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someone would be there so early. The second Kevin I

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delivered the oil too, made a funny whistling sound. While

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venting that gurgling sound again, I saw the movement of

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these three people. I'm alone in the middle of nowhere

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this early, and I'm thinking, who in the world is

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fishing well? I finished, and I moved to the third

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oil tank within reach before I went on to fill

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the next nine tanks on the property. And then I

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hooked the hose up and started my job again. But

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I'm still looking toward the lake. The whistle on this

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one was blaring, and as I was waiting for the

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tank to fill, a figure moved. It was massive. It

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was not a person. Holy cow, I thought now. I

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stopped the delivery to quiet the vent alarm whistle. I

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didn't move as I watched, and this thing was still

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walking toward me. I'm telling you, it was enormous and

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I was still and I was panicking. My old truck

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is nine feet ten inches tall, and this thing was

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just as tall. It was about forty yards from me

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in the truck, but it was close enough for me.

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And then the two others that were smaller moved, and

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they were to the right of me. Their movement was slow,

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and I think they were curious, but I wasn't curious.

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I was terrified. The good part of this is they

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were not aggressive. The vent alarms must have intrigued them.

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But I moved slowly and then I reeled up the

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hose and I got the heck out of there. At noon,

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I went back with a helper to fuel the rest

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of the cabins. I'm not a shame to admit that

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I was scared. I have never seen anything on two

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feet that huge. I can't describe their faces, but I

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know three creatures on two legs. Isn't a coincidence. They

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weren't bears, because bears are not that agile or that large.

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Fuel the campground since then, but I don't go at

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six am. I let others open the campground before I

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get there. You would be interested in what happened to

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me a year ago and twice more recently near the

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Humboldt Mendocino County headwaters of the Matole River. After the

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encounter with the inexplicable, I have become absolutely convinced that

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some unknown animal exists here, and I began on the

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Internet a search of similar accounts. While immersed, suddenly in

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this mystery, it became clear to me that these experience

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must be documented and conveyed to others. Last July in

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twenty eighteen, I was staying in an isolated region which

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had limited access behind three locked gates, and it was

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twenty miles north of Whitethorne, California, on a primitive four

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by four road. This place is at the end of

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the road a lost world of primeval forest on the

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northern border of a vast green belt spreading from Shelter

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Cove on the Lost Coast east to Highway one oh

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one and south to Fort Bragg, as can be seen

264
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on Google Earth. At three am, I was awake and

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there was a hot, dark, and completely silent July night.

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Something above my tent location began knocking on wood. It

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would be best described as loud wax on a tree

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trunk by a big club or branch. It started with

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one knock which got my attention with a brief hesitation,

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and then several more knocks, but randomly timed, some in

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succession and others after hesitation. The knocking was so loud

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that it echoed down the canyon, and the event only

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lasted a minute. My first thoughts were that there was

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no one on the mountain in who could be out

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here in the middle of a primitive and protected area.

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The knocks were from something large, and no North American

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animal could have made them. Listening, while my mind tried

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to wrap around how the noise was made, I began

279
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to wonder about bigfoot legends. The night fell silent again,

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and afterward I told a few locals, and I learned

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that there had been many bigfoot sightings near Piercy and

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north to Willow Creek. And then two weeks ago, when

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00:16:31,759 --> 00:16:35,360
waiting at the first lock gate to the same conservation area,

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I heard two distinct vocalizations which cannot be explained. As

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I waited in the dusk for forty five minutes waiting

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to meet a party at the gate who were running late,

287
00:16:48,080 --> 00:16:50,919
I heard a loud wail that I've never heard before

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00:16:50,960 --> 00:16:54,799
in nature, the call of this thing I located at

289
00:16:54,840 --> 00:16:58,279
my two o'clock facing east and up the heavily wooded

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00:16:58,320 --> 00:17:03,159
area above me two three three hundred meters. I instantly

291
00:17:03,240 --> 00:17:07,039
knew where I had heard such an unfamiliar call. It

292
00:17:07,160 --> 00:17:10,279
was three years ago when watching a Bigfoot reality show

293
00:17:10,720 --> 00:17:14,480
where these Sasquatch hunters were making the strange and unique call.

294
00:17:16,039 --> 00:17:19,480
At that time, I remember thinking how ridiculous it seemed

295
00:17:19,480 --> 00:17:22,279
for people to be on television trekking at night and

296
00:17:22,319 --> 00:17:26,079
making strange calls in the woods. There was a delay

297
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from the first call, and then a few more, and

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then silence for a minute, leaving me to wonder if

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00:17:31,920 --> 00:17:37,519
this whole experience was surreal, pondering what I know about

300
00:17:37,559 --> 00:17:41,039
the wilderness, either that was an unknown animal or some

301
00:17:41,119 --> 00:17:45,400
kind of implausible prank. It was loud and echoing down

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00:17:45,480 --> 00:17:48,519
the mountain, as though some huge creature could belt with

303
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its lungs like pavariety, only much louder. The chance of

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00:17:53,920 --> 00:17:57,039
it being a prankster waiting in silence with me for

305
00:17:57,039 --> 00:18:00,599
forty five minutes in that remote location just to hang

306
00:18:00,640 --> 00:18:05,039
out in these impenetral woods to prank me was highly unlikely.

307
00:18:06,440 --> 00:18:09,640
Having only a moment to ponder this oddity, there began

308
00:18:09,720 --> 00:18:12,559
another call, out at three to four hundred meters to

309
00:18:12,640 --> 00:18:15,119
the north of the first and at my eight o'clock

310
00:18:16,480 --> 00:18:19,359
it was also just as loud, but it came only

311
00:18:19,400 --> 00:18:23,480
three calls in succession. Well. This blew my mind because

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00:18:23,519 --> 00:18:27,039
the first call might be attributed to an elk on steroids,

313
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but the response from what was clearly not an owl

314
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brought chills down my spine. I moved closer to my

315
00:18:36,440 --> 00:18:40,000
vehicle and I listened for another thirty minutes in the darkness.

316
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I will never forget the second vocalization. It was so unique,

317
00:18:46,079 --> 00:18:50,559
and this was obvious communication between two individuals, as well

318
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as possibly a rudimentary language. I had a fourth experience,

319
00:18:56,440 --> 00:18:59,599
which I must mention here in context, but it happened

320
00:18:59,640 --> 00:19:04,480
the night before the duel of vocalizations. On Friday evening,

321
00:19:04,519 --> 00:19:09,000
November one, twenty nineteen. I had moved into a cabin

322
00:19:09,079 --> 00:19:12,839
that my brother and I rented, located along an extremely

323
00:19:13,039 --> 00:19:17,640
rugged canyon area of the Macholi River. It was dusk

324
00:19:17,720 --> 00:19:20,759
and it was dark already in the forest, and I

325
00:19:20,839 --> 00:19:24,000
was outside looking at the stars, taking in the newness

326
00:19:24,200 --> 00:19:29,680
of the rugged surroundings above. Again, three hundred meters up

327
00:19:29,720 --> 00:19:32,319
into the east of the river, there was a scream

328
00:19:32,480 --> 00:19:36,079
so loud and so foreboding that I could only listen

329
00:19:36,240 --> 00:19:40,920
in amazement. It was the loudest scream I've ever heard,

330
00:19:41,799 --> 00:19:44,799
So loud I thought it was produced by some kind

331
00:19:44,839 --> 00:19:50,279
of banshee from a horror film. The screaming continued full

332
00:19:50,359 --> 00:19:55,000
throttle for five minutes. I know mountain lions can scream,

333
00:19:55,000 --> 00:19:59,599
but nothing like this. It sounded much louder, more guttural,

334
00:19:59,680 --> 00:20:02,359
as if if someone had set up loud speakers and

335
00:20:02,400 --> 00:20:07,839
played the bloodiest screen that Hollywood could produce at the time.

336
00:20:08,119 --> 00:20:10,920
The night after Halloween, I wondered if someone was up

337
00:20:10,960 --> 00:20:14,119
on the mountain pranking me as a newcomer to the neighborhood.

338
00:20:15,119 --> 00:20:17,160
Now I listened for a bit, and then I went

339
00:20:17,200 --> 00:20:19,960
inside and told my brother about it because it was

340
00:20:20,000 --> 00:20:25,440
so unnerving. Bigfoot never entered my mind. But then at

341
00:20:25,519 --> 00:20:29,359
dusk the very next evening, I witnessed these two calls

342
00:20:29,400 --> 00:20:33,799
waiting at the gate. I've since been over and over

343
00:20:33,880 --> 00:20:36,799
in my mind. Why have I been so lucky as

344
00:20:36,839 --> 00:20:40,759
to hear or experience such a mystery, much less three

345
00:20:40,799 --> 00:20:44,720
distinct vocalizations which cannot be explained in a twenty four

346
00:20:44,759 --> 00:20:49,400
hour period. I began pouring over the USGS maps in

347
00:20:49,519 --> 00:20:53,480
satellite imagery to ascertain what the link might be at

348
00:20:53,519 --> 00:20:58,640
fifteen miles distance. Were there people or neighbors or access

349
00:20:58,720 --> 00:21:02,480
for individuals in the ear areas I experience? Could this

350
00:21:02,640 --> 00:21:06,759
explain this? I have since hiked all over these areas

351
00:21:06,839 --> 00:21:12,279
searching for activity, but found only empty dense woods. Could

352
00:21:12,319 --> 00:21:15,920
one creature in such obvious stress on one night have

353
00:21:16,039 --> 00:21:19,920
triggered the coincidental travel of at least two more unknown

354
00:21:20,000 --> 00:21:23,960
creatures the very next night. I've talked to the locals

355
00:21:23,960 --> 00:21:28,000
about hearing strange noises, but no one claims anything or

356
00:21:28,039 --> 00:21:31,559
they don't want to be ridiculed. I would like to

357
00:21:31,599 --> 00:21:34,680
know if there have been recent experiences by others in

358
00:21:34,680 --> 00:21:37,920
my area. I'm a sixty year old man with a

359
00:21:38,000 --> 00:21:43,799
high degree of credibility, extensive wilderness experience in forests and jungles.

360
00:21:44,440 --> 00:21:48,200
I have trecked and lived in remote areas of Africa, Australia,

361
00:21:48,480 --> 00:21:53,079
Central and South America, many places of potential danger, and

362
00:21:53,160 --> 00:21:57,200
never had an inkling of fear. I was born and

363
00:21:57,279 --> 00:22:00,319
raised near Yellowstone Park, and I never had a bad

364
00:22:00,359 --> 00:22:05,400
experience with a grizzly, a mountain lion, or wolves traveling

365
00:22:05,440 --> 00:22:09,599
all these years with a firm understanding of ecosystems, I

366
00:22:09,680 --> 00:22:13,640
never could have believed in such mysteries that anything new

367
00:22:13,680 --> 00:22:18,039
would ever be discovered. What happened to me has completely

368
00:22:18,200 --> 00:22:22,079
changed me on many levels. There is a mystery in

369
00:22:22,119 --> 00:22:24,599
these woods, and I have a few ideas on how

370
00:22:24,599 --> 00:22:27,960
to find answers to it. If anyone else has had

371
00:22:28,000 --> 00:22:31,759
similar experiences who live near me, I'm eager to share

372
00:22:31,920 --> 00:22:40,400
and explore this phenomenon further. The Bigfoot that wasn't. As

373
00:22:40,440 --> 00:22:43,519
long as I can remember, I've been a hunting fanatic.

374
00:22:44,160 --> 00:22:46,799
I've spent many days in the field with my buddies

375
00:22:46,839 --> 00:22:51,279
in pursuit of the wild and wooly beasts, mostly deer

376
00:22:51,319 --> 00:22:56,359
and elk, can occasionally bear. In the rocky mountains of Utah, Wyoming, Idaho,

377
00:22:56,519 --> 00:23:00,960
and Montana, my friends and I would spend many fall

378
00:23:01,119 --> 00:23:03,920
nights and we would sit around a crackling fire in

379
00:23:03,960 --> 00:23:07,519
the high valleys of the mountains, weaving tales of hunts

380
00:23:07,559 --> 00:23:12,039
gone by. Each story told would seem to top the

381
00:23:12,039 --> 00:23:16,559
one previously recited. Some were new adventures, while others were

382
00:23:16,640 --> 00:23:21,559
old ones revisited every year, but with new, slightly enhanced details.

383
00:23:22,880 --> 00:23:26,440
As the night passed, and the stories progressed, they inevitably

384
00:23:26,559 --> 00:23:31,640
morphed into tales of mysterious and unknown, like ghosts, goblins,

385
00:23:31,680 --> 00:23:35,359
and bigfoot. None of us had actually seen a ghost,

386
00:23:35,400 --> 00:23:37,960
a goblin, or a bigfoot. In fact, none of us

387
00:23:38,000 --> 00:23:41,799
had ever even heard of anyone encountering any of them,

388
00:23:41,920 --> 00:23:45,720
especially a bigfoot, anywhere near the areas where we hunted.

389
00:23:46,519 --> 00:23:49,400
But for some unknown reason, each of us had experienced

390
00:23:49,440 --> 00:23:53,200
strange happenings that we were sure could be directly attributed

391
00:23:53,240 --> 00:23:56,559
to Bigfoot. I don't know how we knew they were

392
00:23:56,599 --> 00:24:01,519
connected to Bigfoot. Nevertheless, we were darned sure, convincingly so

393
00:24:01,880 --> 00:24:05,640
when telling our tales of intrigue that Bigfoot was the culprit.

394
00:24:06,640 --> 00:24:09,119
I guess one could say that we were embellishing the

395
00:24:09,240 --> 00:24:13,559
truth slightly, maybe even a little more than slightly. But

396
00:24:13,640 --> 00:24:16,039
it was all in fun, and everyone had a great

397
00:24:16,119 --> 00:24:21,480
time trying to outdo everyone else. Due to the convincing

398
00:24:21,640 --> 00:24:25,759
manner by which some could relate their stories, the lines

399
00:24:25,839 --> 00:24:29,160
between truth and fiction often blurred in the minds of

400
00:24:29,200 --> 00:24:34,039
the recipients, making it difficult to decipher between the two.

401
00:24:34,279 --> 00:24:38,440
This resulted in doubt and sometimes confusion in each of

402
00:24:38,480 --> 00:24:41,839
our minds about what really lurked in the shadows of

403
00:24:41,920 --> 00:24:46,680
the forests. We hunted one particular warm autumn day, when

404
00:24:46,680 --> 00:24:49,680
the air was clean, fresh and filled with the fragrance

405
00:24:49,720 --> 00:24:53,200
of sage, and the sky was clear blue, and the

406
00:24:53,200 --> 00:24:57,000
golden aspen leaves shimmered as a slight breeze blue and

407
00:24:57,119 --> 00:25:01,400
rattled them around. I leaned against the but thin, chalky

408
00:25:01,440 --> 00:25:05,799
white aspen tree trunk, intently scanning the grove for movement,

409
00:25:06,359 --> 00:25:10,000
hoping to spot a sly old moss back buck. As

410
00:25:10,039 --> 00:25:14,960
my hunting buddies pushed from the opposite direction. Just when

411
00:25:15,039 --> 00:25:19,160
boredom and daydreams started to creep into my mind, Larry,

412
00:25:19,319 --> 00:25:22,480
my hunting buddy, came thundering down the hill from right

413
00:25:22,559 --> 00:25:26,720
to left. His pants were partially down, one hand holding

414
00:25:26,759 --> 00:25:29,079
them up and the other hanging onto a roll of

415
00:25:29,160 --> 00:25:33,039
toilet paper that unraveled as he passed, trailing behind an

416
00:25:33,079 --> 00:25:39,799
apparent white flag of surrender. Si squatch, He screamed. Larry

417
00:25:39,880 --> 00:25:42,880
was the kind of young buck that fancied himself a tall,

418
00:25:42,960 --> 00:25:47,440
tough cigar smoking beer, drinking four by four driving lumberjack

419
00:25:47,480 --> 00:25:49,680
of a man that could fell a tree with one

420
00:25:49,759 --> 00:25:52,880
swing of his axe. I started to laugh at the

421
00:25:52,920 --> 00:25:56,039
sight of such a man, nearly streaking past as he

422
00:25:56,119 --> 00:25:59,319
half mooned a mother nature, while I wondered what had

423
00:25:59,440 --> 00:26:04,359
rattled him. At that exact moment, however, a heart stopping

424
00:26:04,519 --> 00:26:08,119
roar erupted from just over the ridge top twenty yards

425
00:26:08,160 --> 00:26:12,759
to my right and slightly behind me. I jolted to attention,

426
00:26:13,319 --> 00:26:16,640
darn near snapping my neck while trying to orient my

427
00:26:16,759 --> 00:26:19,480
head to see what could have made the startling noise,

428
00:26:20,200 --> 00:26:22,720
all the while trying not to move my body and

429
00:26:22,759 --> 00:26:28,480
reveal my stealthy position. In hindsight, I suppose Larry, having

430
00:26:28,640 --> 00:26:31,440
just blown by me with all the stealth of a

431
00:26:31,480 --> 00:26:34,039
fire truck on its way to a fore alarm fire,

432
00:26:34,480 --> 00:26:38,960
probably negated that need. That roar was nothing like anything

433
00:26:38,960 --> 00:26:41,480
I'd heard in the forest before, and it scared the

434
00:26:41,559 --> 00:26:45,240
crap out of me. The top of a young aspen

435
00:26:45,319 --> 00:26:48,400
tree about seven feet tall, rooted just on the other

436
00:26:48,480 --> 00:26:51,319
side of the ridge top, shook like it had been

437
00:26:51,400 --> 00:26:55,079
hit by a truck. A deep moan followed in a

438
00:26:55,160 --> 00:27:01,440
second roar or agonizing growl erupted. Smokes. What the heck

439
00:27:01,559 --> 00:27:03,799
is that? I thought, as I turned to face the

440
00:27:03,920 --> 00:27:08,839
unidentified creature. Another sapling a six or seven foot or

441
00:27:09,039 --> 00:27:11,680
just over the ridge for me, rocked and fell like

442
00:27:11,720 --> 00:27:15,160
it had been run over by a bulldozer. Whatever the

443
00:27:15,160 --> 00:27:18,559
heck this thing was, it was big and powerful, and

444
00:27:18,599 --> 00:27:23,200
from the sound of it, it was upset. My mind raced,

445
00:27:23,279 --> 00:27:27,680
trying to categorize the sound into something familiar, but nothing fit.

446
00:27:28,920 --> 00:27:31,640
Needless to say, by this time, I was more than

447
00:27:31,680 --> 00:27:35,720
a little concerned for my safety, as my only defense

448
00:27:35,880 --> 00:27:40,200
was a fifty pound recurved bow, not ideal for toe

449
00:27:40,240 --> 00:27:43,599
to toe in your face confrontation with what was Larry

450
00:27:43,640 --> 00:27:48,279
screaming a sisquatch? But there weren't any sasquatch in this

451
00:27:48,400 --> 00:27:51,920
area of the country, I reasoned, was sasquatch even real?

452
00:27:52,960 --> 00:27:56,359
By this time, the unidentified creature had just crested the

453
00:27:56,400 --> 00:27:59,400
top of the ridge twenty yards from me, but I

454
00:27:59,440 --> 00:28:02,200
still couldn't I see it through the younger tree growth.

455
00:28:02,920 --> 00:28:06,759
Do I run or stand my ground? I asked myself.

456
00:28:06,759 --> 00:28:10,240
My curiosity wrestled with my common sense, and I couldn't

457
00:28:10,319 --> 00:28:13,799
quite decide until I knew what was confronting me. I

458
00:28:13,880 --> 00:28:17,559
crouched and stretched, peering and peeking through the trees, just

459
00:28:17,640 --> 00:28:20,519
catching glimpses, trying to get a better look at what

460
00:28:20,680 --> 00:28:24,640
was coming at me A moan and a growl and

461
00:28:24,680 --> 00:28:29,119
a roar in sequence. One part of me screamed run,

462
00:28:29,599 --> 00:28:31,960
The other part said, find out what this is and

463
00:28:32,000 --> 00:28:36,799
then run. Another tree bent over and then snapped back

464
00:28:36,839 --> 00:28:39,880
into place. It was like in all the stories you

465
00:28:39,920 --> 00:28:43,759
hear around the campfire at night. It looked huge. It

466
00:28:43,799 --> 00:28:47,119
was black, It was covered in fur, and on all fours.

467
00:28:47,759 --> 00:28:50,319
There was still not enough visible yet to make any

468
00:28:50,400 --> 00:28:55,000
kind of identification. By this time, I had no time

469
00:28:55,039 --> 00:28:59,240
to run this thing, this big, black, hairy thing was

470
00:28:59,359 --> 00:29:03,480
almost on top of me. I had daley dollied too long,

471
00:29:03,559 --> 00:29:05,880
and all I could do was thump it with an arrow.

472
00:29:05,960 --> 00:29:09,880
As soon as I could get confirmation of identification and

473
00:29:09,960 --> 00:29:14,359
a clear shot corridor, I drew my bow and I

474
00:29:14,359 --> 00:29:17,119
took a deep breath, and I let it out halfway.

475
00:29:18,000 --> 00:29:21,359
Tunnel vision was in full effect, and I could only

476
00:29:21,400 --> 00:29:24,079
see what I was looking directly at in front of me.

477
00:29:25,000 --> 00:29:27,880
A circus elephant could have walked right up beside me

478
00:29:27,960 --> 00:29:30,960
and even sat on me. I wouldn't have noticed it

479
00:29:31,160 --> 00:29:34,839
until I was as flat as a pancake. Sweat was

480
00:29:34,960 --> 00:29:38,319
rolling down my brow and stinging my eyes. My arms

481
00:29:38,359 --> 00:29:41,279
were shaking with fatigue. With my bow at full draw,

482
00:29:42,119 --> 00:29:46,559
the seconds turned into hours. I needed to release my draw,

483
00:29:46,920 --> 00:29:49,440
rest my arm for a moment and wipe the sweat

484
00:29:49,440 --> 00:29:53,920
from my eyes, and quickly I did so, and just

485
00:29:54,119 --> 00:29:56,960
as I again drew my bow, the creature emerged through

486
00:29:56,960 --> 00:30:01,480
the thick underbrush into full view. I expected to see

487
00:30:01,480 --> 00:30:06,400
a siequatch, and for just a second, I did, but

488
00:30:06,480 --> 00:30:09,200
my mind was playing tricks on me. It was not

489
00:30:09,400 --> 00:30:13,279
a sasquatch or a bear. It was a huge, one

490
00:30:13,440 --> 00:30:18,440
thousand pound bull, as in bovine bull. I released the

491
00:30:18,559 --> 00:30:21,599
tension on my bow slowly, and I took a deep breath.

492
00:30:23,599 --> 00:30:27,920
The bull walked painfully past me, moaning and groaning and

493
00:30:28,039 --> 00:30:32,279
growling as he took each step. His wide horns would

494
00:30:32,279 --> 00:30:35,000
push saplings down as he passed by, and they would

495
00:30:35,039 --> 00:30:38,640
either break off or snap back into place. I looked

496
00:30:38,640 --> 00:30:41,440
for the source of his pain, and I quickly discovered

497
00:30:41,480 --> 00:30:46,279
its calls. The bull's testicles were inflamed and swollen to

498
00:30:46,400 --> 00:30:50,200
the size of a small watermelon. Every time he took

499
00:30:50,240 --> 00:30:53,920
a step forward, his rear leg would contact the inflamed

500
00:30:53,920 --> 00:30:57,519
portion of his mail anatomy and may hime grown and

501
00:30:57,720 --> 00:31:01,319
roar with pain. The roar he made did not in

502
00:31:01,359 --> 00:31:04,079
any way sound like a bovine, at least none that

503
00:31:04,119 --> 00:31:07,440
I had ever heard. Of course, I was no expert

504
00:31:07,519 --> 00:31:11,839
on the sounds such an animal made when in extreme pain.

505
00:31:12,920 --> 00:31:15,039
He was such a massive bull that he had a

506
00:31:15,160 --> 00:31:18,559
very deep, raspy, grown and roar that sounded like nothing

507
00:31:18,599 --> 00:31:22,359
else I had ever heard. His hair was long, shaggy,

508
00:31:22,440 --> 00:31:25,960
and tangled with sticks and tree leaves and mud. He

509
00:31:26,000 --> 00:31:30,400
looked old and fatigued and almost lost. He could have

510
00:31:30,480 --> 00:31:34,720
been blind. I was relieved it wasn't a sasquatch and

511
00:31:34,759 --> 00:31:37,519
that I wasn't going to be torn limb from limb.

512
00:31:38,279 --> 00:31:41,319
I began to laugh and almost cry at the same time.

513
00:31:43,119 --> 00:31:45,200
When I emerged from the tree line, I met a

514
00:31:45,279 --> 00:31:48,839
rancher in an old, run down GMC pickup truck making

515
00:31:48,880 --> 00:31:51,839
his way up the dusty dirt road. He was looking

516
00:31:51,880 --> 00:31:54,279
for his bull. He had not seen it for a

517
00:31:54,319 --> 00:31:56,839
while and was concerned that it had been taken by

518
00:31:56,920 --> 00:32:01,039
predators or had died of old age. I told him

519
00:32:01,079 --> 00:32:04,039
if he just waited a few minutes right where we were,

520
00:32:04,279 --> 00:32:08,160
and if it didn't deviate from its downhill course, they

521
00:32:08,319 --> 00:32:12,880
would be reunited. Shortly. The rancher was relieved to hear

522
00:32:13,000 --> 00:32:17,519
his bull was still alive and close. He used the

523
00:32:17,559 --> 00:32:20,440
CBE radio to call his sons in another truck to

524
00:32:20,480 --> 00:32:24,599
come and get the distressed animal. That night, back at camp,

525
00:32:24,720 --> 00:32:28,400
Larry took a brutal onslaught of jeers and laughters. As

526
00:32:28,400 --> 00:32:32,200
I recited the encounter, This ended up being one of

527
00:32:32,200 --> 00:32:36,240
those stories told around the campfire every year. Larry didn't

528
00:32:36,279 --> 00:32:39,039
laugh about it the first few years, but eventually he

529
00:32:39,119 --> 00:32:42,039
found the humor in it and laughed right along with

530
00:32:42,119 --> 00:32:49,680
the rest of us about the sasquatch that wasn't