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Speaker 1: I grew up hunting, fishing, and running triplines, so it

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was only natural that I get a job working for

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the California Fish and Game while I was in college. Later,

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I spent two decades working for the US Forest Service.

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One morning in September nineteen ninety three, while I was

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working for the Forestry Service, I arrived at a small

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clear cut located in the middle fork of Feather River

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at eleven thirty am. It was a wild and scenic

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spot above the town of Oroville, California, and very remote.

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It had taken me two hours to get there. It

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was the last of three small clearcuts done on that

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ridge just before it dropped down to the scenic river.

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We called those cuts Mountain Lion cuts, after a lion

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that had been seen there several times. The last cut

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was nine as that headed east up the slope, and

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at the bottom was a twenty foot circle of brush

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that had no trees worth harvesting, so it had been spared.

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I crawled into the brush with my lunch and decided

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to be quiet and hidden as I ate, so that

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maybe I could see the lion come through. After twenty

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five minutes, nothing had come by, and I was finished

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with lunch. As I was packing up, I heard a

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large limb or a small tree snap a couple hundred

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yards across the clear cut. I thought it must be

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a range cow, so I didn't even bother looking up.

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The clearcut had been replanted in the spring. My job

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that day was to take twenty four foot plots and

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count how many trees survived in every third plot. I

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walked out a few yards into the clearing and poked

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my tape measure into the ground, pulled out twelve feet

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and started making a circle, counting each tree within the

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circumference as I did so. When I was done, I

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walked a hundred and twenty paces maybe one hundred and

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ten yards to the lower section and completed the second plot.

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And then I looked across and decided I could fit

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one more plot along the bottom, so I took off,

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counting one hundred and twenty paces. I was thirty yards

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from the brush on the opposite side when I heard

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another large limb being snapped off a tree. This time

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it was done close enough that it startled me, and

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I snapped my head up and looked through the man's

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anita through a three foot hole in the brush, I

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saw a leg, or a back of a leg anyway

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from the knee down. It was forty yards away and

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the sun was shining on it. The sunlight lit up

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the two inch long red hair that covered the leg.

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It was close to the color of an orangutang's hair.

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The calf muscle was large and lean, and I stared

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at it thought to myself, how well this thing was built.

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It took a couple of steps up the hill and

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I saw the muscle flexing up and down in its leg.

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I stopped. Until that moment, I hadn't thought much about

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whether or not they were real, but just then I

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was thinking they do exist. I started walking up the

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hill in a calm, no rush, manner that gave me

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time to observe it. At eighty yards away, I could

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see all the way up the left leg. I could

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see the butt about halfway down the right leg. The

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hair was all the same light colored red, and its

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butt was pronounced and muscular. Seeing it from the waist down,

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I thought it was built very much like a professional

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football player, larger and taller, but not by much. At

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one hundred yards away, I got my first glimpse of

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the entire backside of the creature, from the neck down,

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from the waist up. It was massive. The shoulders were

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seven feet off the ground and five feet across. It

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was a dense dark patch of tan oaks, and it

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stepped into the trees and it was gone. I stood there,

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fascinated by what had just happened. I did not take

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a step during this entire encounter. I just stood there

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in amazement. Above this dark patch of tan oaks stood

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a single tree that was six inches in circumference. It

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was cut off and bent one hundred and eighty degrees

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at six feet off the ground. The creature stepped out

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of the oak patch and put its left arm on

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that tree, and as it leaned in, the tree dropped

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seven more inches. It turned its head and it looked

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at me. Now I could see the left part of

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the body and a little bit of its head. The

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only feature I could see was that it was not

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covered in long red hair like the rest of the body.

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It was too far away now to make much else out.

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I noticed there was no hair at the elbow of

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the left arm either. It looked as if it had

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been scraped or worn off, and the skin was dark black.

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I don't know how long this lasted. It was long

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enough that I wondered how the creature with such red

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hair could have such dark skin. We stood there staring

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at each other for a bit, and then it straightened

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up and turned and took two steps before it was gone.

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I did not see it or hear it again. In fact,

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I never heard it except for the two times it

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broke large limbs or small trees. I never felt fear

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or anxiety. It was never aggressive toward me, nor seemed

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threatening in any way. I didn't smell any odor, and sadly,

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I never got to see the front of the creature

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or its entire head. I don't know its sex or

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anything about its facial features except for the lack of hair,

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but I do know it was very curious. It wanted

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to observe me as much as I wanted to observe it.

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I no longer work for the Forestry Service, but I

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wish I could have another encounter, and as an employee

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of the US Forestry Service, I did not share this

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story with anyone other than a few family members until

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twenty twelve, when I finally went online to the BFRO

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and submitted my first report. Since then, I've done some

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of my own research and watched what I could. I've

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met a few others willing to speak about their encounters,

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and I'm more than happy to meet and speak with

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anyone who has had an encounter. I believe there was

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more than one. That day. As I sat hidden in

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that brush putting my lunch away, it broke a large

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lamb or tree. I was over two hundred and forty

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yards away. I don't believe it was just telling me

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that it was there. I think it was also telling

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the others that I was there. Fantastic story to the writer. Again,

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I don't know the man's name. I think I know

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because of his email address, but I'm not going to

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share it because he didn't really say anything about it.

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But this is these guys in the forestry service or

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in a position and in locations to see these things,

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not just these things, but all the things that go

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on in the forest, and they're used to it. They

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know it. They're very observant. They know what's out of place,

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they know what's in place, they know what's usual, they

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know what's odd. If you spend any time in the woods,

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even you don't have to be a forestry service employee

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to learn these things, just go in the woods and

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be quiet. Like I know this is probably a little

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too much commentary, but there are a lot of images

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out on social media Facebook and Twitter and Instagram of

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blurry things in the background of a forest. And have

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you ever sat in the woods for Just sit there

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for three hours and don't move, Just sit there, relax

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and kind of focus in on one area of the woods.

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And if you do that, you'll notice that the light

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has a lot to do with what you see, and

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the earth is spinning and the sun is shining light

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at different angles, and every ten or fifteen minutes that

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spot you're looking at will look totally different, and your

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mind can make out shapes and all kinds of things

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in that background as light penetrates through the forest and

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shines on things that are behind what you're looking at.

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And these guys know these things. I mean, I began

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to notice that deer hunting many years ago. I'm not

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a big deer hunter. A matter of fact, I don't

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really even go to kill. I don't really like killing deer.

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I have killed several, but not many, and I've never glad.

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I did kill one buck anyway, it's another big deal.

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I'm just not that interested in killing deer, but I

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love to be in the woods and just watch and

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look at all the wildlife, and the deer is just

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icing on the cake. It's great meat, it's good claes

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nutrition for me and my family and my friends. But

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the big thrill is to sit there and just watch

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what goes on. And you're seeing what happens in the

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woods when you're not there, because if you're quiet, you

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don't make any noise, and you just, you know, just

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minimize your presence in the woods. It goes right back

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to normal within about fifteen or twenty minutes, and you

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get to see what happens when you're not there, and

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it's an amazing thing. Listen and look and smell, and

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you get to see all the things that ninety nine

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percent of the people on this planet do not get

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to see. So I don't know why I got off

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in that, but it kind of I know some of

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these forestry guys and these timber cruisers and people that

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work for timber companies, and they know the woods. They

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know what's natural, they know what's not. They're very observant

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and they can tell you right away. That's kind of

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weird over there, and this is what happened here, and

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this is what happened here. Anyway, it's just an inter

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It's an interesting topic. I've always thought was fascinating. But me,

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I'm a people watcher, and I noticed what people say

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and do and why they say and do what they do,

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and it's always been really interesting to me. Thank you

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to the writer for sending this. I really appreciate it,

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and I believe the story. I one hundred percent believed

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the story. The Warp Forests by Austin Mooney. Colin had

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known Greg long enough to trust the periloused expression of

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gloom on his face when he emerged from the shadowy

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tree line. Greg had left the safe confines of their

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bonfire to relieve himself somewhere away from camp about fifteen

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minutes earlier, and the group was beginning to worry about him.

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They assumed whatever was keeping him must have been his

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own private business. They dreaded the idea of checking in

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on him, only to cause embarrassment for both parties. They

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thought it first that perhaps he was and he would

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inform them that he needed to go home. Instead, he

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instructed them to follow him back to the dark forest.

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There were four of them, Greg, Colin, Macklin, and Dane.

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The men, all now in their middle years, had been

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friends since childhood, and although they had much different lives now,

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they still made time to go on a camping retreat

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together once a year. They tried to pick a new

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place to go each time. Most of the fun of

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the experience was hiking and surveying the new land and

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recapturing the wonder of exploration they felt back in their

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use when such feelings were easier to come by. This year,

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they decided on a spring visit to a small patch

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of woods near Lake Michigan, somewhat close to the US

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and Canadian border. The area existed in a strange in

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between place that felt oddly homeless and independent. It didn't

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feel like it belonged to either country. It was just there.

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They had arrived later in the day than they anticipated

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and were deprived of that first chance to venture into

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the unknown. Before the necessity of shelter and warmth became

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paramount in their minds. They quickly unloaded their equipment and

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followed the short trail to the closest camping area to

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get as much assistance from the dying sun as it

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would allow before twilight turned its cold gaze to laugh

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At their unfinished camp. They were using a single tent

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large enough to comfortably house the four men. The friends

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had learned to live together through the sleepovers of their

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childhood and various roommate living arrangements in their early adulthood.

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One big tent was all they needed, which made the

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construction process much more efficient. As soon as as it

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was built, the fire was lit in the pit of

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the charred remains of previous camping excursions. Greg announced that

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he needed to use the toilet and that he would

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be back soon. If I'm not back in fifteen minutes,

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come looking for me, he said. I don't have to poop,

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so it shouldn't take that long. But if I do

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end up having to poop and then doing it and

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you come looking for me and that's what I'm doing,

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then I'm sorry, but better safe than sorry. Just go,

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said Colin. Yeah, stop talking, Maclan said, I'm not going

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to look for you. Dane laughed as he opened a beer.

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Greg held a playful middle finger to the group and

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disappeared beyond the tree line. Fifteen minutes passed, and the

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men started to wonder was Greg kidding before? Was he

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playing a joke? Now? Did he want them to come

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looking for him? Luckily he showed his face before that.

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Feeling swelled up inside them and reached the point where

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they felt a knee to discuss it. They all knew

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the others were feeling weird? What was Greg doing out there?

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A sigh of relief vented through their noses toward the

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ground and curved up into the sky once he appeared,

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but the tension was reinvigorated and evolved into a new

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collection of despair when they saw the look on his face.

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What's up? Are you okay? Colin asked, we were about

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to come looking for you. Michlan said I wasn't, said dame,

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you guys need to come with me, Greg said, his

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mouth barely moving. His eyes hung sourly in his dull

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face as his eyelids stretched toward the sky in an

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act of bodily surrender and panic. The muscles and his

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clammy visage were communicating emotions that seemed entirely burnt out

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in his mind. He held both of his hands in

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his front pockets as though he was a teacher. About

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to ask a leading question that would carry him into

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a mind altering lecture. The chemicals coursing through him were

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putting on a performance or normalacy that was wholly severed

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from his thoughts. He looked like he could barely feel

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any of it, and his body was taking over. There's

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something I want to show you, he said, No, Dane Wine,

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we just got the fire going and stuff. Let's chill.

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What is it? Colin asked, concerned by the confusing mixture

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of emotions flowing from his friend's body language. I can't

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describe it, he said. Muscles in his arms twitched as

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his hands baled into bulging fists in his pocket. But

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I never seen anything like it before. Is it next

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to where you peede? Maclan asked, because maybe it can wait.

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That's when the fire grew bright enough that Colin and

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Machlan were able to discern that Greg had urinated in

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his pants. A gasp of prize and worries shook through them.

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His black jeens revealed a section of slightly blackered denim

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that soaked a vertical puddle through the material surrounding his groin.

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An energy of silence weighed down on the camp It's

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not very far, Greg said, before turning around and dissolving

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back into the twisting gateway of krepasole wooded kingdom before them.

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Colin walked after him, and Michlan followed. Dane finished his

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beer and opened another beer and grabbed his high powered

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flashlight that he normally loved, having an excuse to use

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and released an annoying sign and ventured into the woods

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to find his friends. Colin and Macklin held their phone

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flashlights up to light the path, but gregg led without one.

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His hands stayed in his pockets. He simply knew where

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to go. He dodged low branches and obstacles with memorized

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condition precision. Everything appeared so calm and easy, despite his

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tainted eyes looking back at his friends every few paces

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and urine soak clothing telling a drastically different story. The

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other two tripped and stumbled along behind him as they

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quietly made their way. Any questions asked to Greg were

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met with a soft were almost there. Then a clearing

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opened itself to them, and the starry night sky waterfall

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down onto their dusty heads. A brilliant rush of energizing

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visible light flooded the area. As if the arena of

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distant worlds around them wished the men to see. What

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was there In the middle of the clearing was a

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small stub or stump, perhaps a collection of mushrooms, sitting

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three feet tall and three feet wide. It was tan pink,

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and the shedding of whatever comprised it littered the grass

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around it. As they approached the specimen, Colin felt a

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hollow ache in his stomach, like life threatening hunger pans,

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the type of empty belly ache that causes one to

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vomit whenever pathetic liquid is still contained in them. In

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a misguided attempt to fix the problem, he worried he

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would be sick, but he couldn't easily find his way

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back to camp if he retreated, his breathing controlled in

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heart rates slowing, Colin continued following his friend's relentless brisk

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pace towards the stump. Once they reached it, they realized

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it wasn't a stump, or at least not won by appearance.

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Perhaps an invasive fungus of some kind had claimed a

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stump and covered it the grave of a tree, suffocated

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beneath its new wormy overcoat. The dome of organic matter

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was rough, callous blob of an unappealing texture, reminiscent of Califlow.

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Every few seconds or so, it would lightly shake, as

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though a bubble had popped below its surface. It was alive,

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whatever it was. Greg walked over to it, looked back

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at the men with a smile, and then kicked it.

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A resounding thud rippled through it like a carnival strong

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man's abdomen. After getting punched in the gut by an

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audience member, a small chunk of fleshy tumor ripped off

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with the tip of Greg's shoe and landed next to them,

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and shortly afterward the spot that had been regenerated. I've

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been picking at this thing since I left camp. That's

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where all these other pieces of it came from, he said,

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gesturing to the mess around his feet. But it just

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keeps regenerating. It's gross and it hurts. I feel like

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it has to be hurting the forest. It hurts when

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I look at it, like its existence hurts. Do you

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feel it? I think we shoul leave it alone. I

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don't know what it is. I mean, it's cool, don't

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get me wrong, and thank you for showing it to us.

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But what if it's poisonous or something, said Macklin, all

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the more reason we need to get rid of it.

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Greg said. It pulsed again and shuddered under the stress

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of the damage that it had withstood. From Greg's hue,

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Colin could feel it. Its presence was made of pain

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and soreness, a future, disgusting, tight, miserable, tenderness that only

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more pain could destroy. He wanted desperately to rip it

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out of the Earth's poor body, and it needed to

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be removed, whatever it was, and some deep instinct within

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him was screaming at him to do so. Isn't it

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just going to keep regenerating, maclan asked. It regenerates faster

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than I can pick at it. But if all of

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us are picking at it, then I think we can

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pick it all the way off before it has time

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to regenerate. That's a good idea, said Macklin, looked at

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Colin in disbelief. I think you should do this in

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the morning, MacLean said, no. Greg said he took his

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hands out of his pockets, and the others saw that

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they were covered in something gloves. Maybe it looked like

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hundreds of smaller versions of the bump in front of them,

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coated the entirety of his hands up to his wrists.

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It was a sea of individual wartz, rubbing through and

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against each other, creating a long, solid skin layer of

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rough growth. Hard wiggling, moaning warts were cracking around his

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palms and fingers and deconstructing his skin. His knuckles split

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open and his hands were falling apart as he reached

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down and grabbed two fistfuls of the excruciating life form.

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Soon Colin found himself digging into the mixture as well.

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The hard shell of it broke open upon impact with

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his determined claws and released a terrible chitney of porous flesh. Underneath.

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It was an enormous wart, threatening the very woods it

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was attempting to call home. A loud flashlight beam crashed

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through the cracks in the trees behind them. As Dane

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emerged from the woods. What the hell is that thing?

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00:22:22,640 --> 00:22:25,480
He said, I don't know, but they want to pick

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it out of the ground, said micheln Oh, my god, Greg,

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your hands are disgusting. What happened? Stop touching that thing?

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Dane hurried over to the two men. The flashlight glared

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an aggressive wake up called a Colin's eyes, and he

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was pulled from his daze. He backed away from the

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lowesome wart and he threw up. He rubbed his arms

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and hands into the dirt to cleanse the disgusting material

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from his skin. Overwhelming fear obscured his consciousness, and he

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scratched his hands along the rocks and dry land until

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they were bloody and any infected layers had been removed.

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We did it, Greg said, as he dropped the last

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handful of work tissue to the ground. A crater sat

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staring up at them, surrounded by the dead remnants of

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its former body. Hard sharp edges struggled to create new warts.

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It rattled and died. Now we have to burn all

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of this. We're not carrying that stuff back to camp,

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Dane said. And we're definitely not starting a fire out

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here without someone from the park Service being present. We

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could burn the whole woods down. We have to, said Greg.

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Your hands are messed up, Greg, and you pissed yourself.

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Look at you, Dane said, I'm taking you back to camp.

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Let's go. Dane grabbed Greg's arm. Macklin blinked, and Dane

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was suddenly on his back, with Greg on top. Of him,

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pinning his shoulders to the forest with his knees, while

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a drop bottle blood of fizzled ale beside them. Greg

385
00:24:04,240 --> 00:24:08,599
grabbed Dane's face with his bumpy, agonizingly warp coated hands.

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The warts on his fingertips found their way into Dane's

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00:24:12,839 --> 00:24:16,559
mouth and scraped against his front teeth. We have to

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00:24:16,640 --> 00:24:21,279
burn it. Greg stood up, and Dane hopped to his feet, spitting,

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I'm getting a park ranger, You're being ridiculous, dude. Dane

390
00:24:27,240 --> 00:24:30,839
and Macklin helped Colin to his feet and they left.

391
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At the lodge, the three men asked the lone ranger

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on duty for the evening if she had ever seen

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00:24:39,000 --> 00:24:43,039
any kind of growth that resembled their friend's obsession. She

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00:24:43,200 --> 00:24:47,000
asked them if they had taken any sort of hallucinogenic drugs,

395
00:24:47,319 --> 00:24:49,480
and then asked if they had taken any drugs of

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00:24:49,519 --> 00:24:52,519
any kind, and then she shook her head and agreed

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to drive them back to camp. When they returned to

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Colin was the first to start crying. In that clearing

399
00:25:01,319 --> 00:25:04,599
where the stars had bestowed the power of their blessing,

400
00:25:04,839 --> 00:25:08,240
lay a shriveled body next to a smoldering pile of ashes.

401
00:25:09,400 --> 00:25:12,920
The stench of burning flesh slowly venting from the area

402
00:25:13,000 --> 00:25:15,559
put the ranger in a fit as she covered her

403
00:25:15,599 --> 00:25:20,000
nose and gagged. She informed them that they weren't supposed

404
00:25:20,000 --> 00:25:23,519
to set fires anywhere except for the designated areas at

405
00:25:23,519 --> 00:25:27,519
camping sites before she called for a medical team. The

406
00:25:27,599 --> 00:25:31,240
men agreed and informed her that Gregg wouldn't listen. He

407
00:25:31,359 --> 00:25:34,799
needed to burn it. She took a bottle of water

408
00:25:34,839 --> 00:25:37,759
from the glove compartment of her truck and doused the

409
00:25:37,839 --> 00:25:42,559
final fading memory of the fire, which released the vociferous

410
00:25:42,720 --> 00:25:46,960
exhale of smoke. A puff of ash choked out of

411
00:25:46,960 --> 00:25:50,559
the hollow wart crater, and she stomped the smoldering out

412
00:25:50,640 --> 00:25:55,960
with her boot and covered it in soil. Doctors later

413
00:25:56,079 --> 00:26:00,000
claimed that Gregg died of smoke inhalation. They wouldn't say

414
00:26:00,240 --> 00:26:03,599
anything more beyond that, although they always looked like they

415
00:26:03,680 --> 00:26:07,799
wanted to. Gregg's parents said they saw the X rays

416
00:26:07,839 --> 00:26:11,559
of his lungs and thought they appeared riddled with tumors, bumps,

417
00:26:11,640 --> 00:26:17,400
or warts. His lungs were saturated in warts. The three

418
00:26:17,440 --> 00:26:20,319
men and the park ranger were given inhalers with a

419
00:26:20,359 --> 00:26:24,440
particular tasting medication. They were told was for smoke inhalation

420
00:26:24,920 --> 00:26:30,720
and kept overnight for observation. They bandaged Colin's hands, intended

421
00:26:30,759 --> 00:26:34,519
to the early signs of newly emerging warts around Dane's mouth.

422
00:26:35,680 --> 00:26:39,279
The night was eerily quiet. The doctors had never seen

423
00:26:39,359 --> 00:26:43,000
warts on lungs before, they didn't know how to tell

424
00:26:43,039 --> 00:26:48,000
them about it. When Macklin returned with a park ranger

425
00:26:48,079 --> 00:26:51,400
to retrieve their camping gear the following day, they found

426
00:26:51,440 --> 00:26:56,359
the forest entrance blocked from public access. They ducked under

427
00:26:56,400 --> 00:27:01,240
the caution tape, walked a few yards and stopped shaking.

428
00:27:01,480 --> 00:27:04,440
He removed his inhaler from his pocket and he ran.

429
00:27:05,799 --> 00:27:10,640
The park rangers soon followed behind them, slowly fading into

430
00:27:10,640 --> 00:27:15,839
the past. All the trees and birds, animals, fish, bushes, flowers,

431
00:27:15,960 --> 00:27:21,559
grass ponds, camp sites, the rangers station, everything, all of it,

432
00:27:22,279 --> 00:27:25,960
all the wonders of that ravishing park, even the air.

433
00:27:26,759 --> 00:27:29,279
It was all covered in wartz.