WEBVTT 1 00:00:02.520 --> 00:00:05.759 For decades, people have disappeared in the woods without a trace. 2 00:00:06.519 --> 00:00:10.279 Some blame wild animals, others whisper of creatures the world 3 00:00:10.359 --> 00:00:14.160 refuses to believe in. But those who have survived they 4 00:00:14.199 --> 00:00:18.679 know the truth. Welcome to Backwoods Bigfoot Stories, where we 5 00:00:18.719 --> 00:00:22.879 share real encounters with the things lurking in the darkness bigfoot, 6 00:00:23.199 --> 00:00:28.239 dog man, UFOs, and creatures that defy explanation. Some make 7 00:00:28.280 --> 00:00:32.320 it out, others aren't so lucky. Are you ready, because 8 00:00:32.320 --> 00:00:34.640 once you hear these stories, you'll never walk in the 9 00:00:34.640 --> 00:00:38.920 woods alone again. So grab your flashlight, stay close, and 10 00:00:39.039 --> 00:00:41.840 remember some things in the woods don't want to be found. 11 00:00:42.520 --> 00:00:46.240 Hit that follow or subscribe button, turn on auto downloads, 12 00:00:46.439 --> 00:00:48.399 and let's head off into the woods if you dare. 13 00:01:02.759 --> 00:01:04.879 If you've been with me for the first two parts 14 00:01:04.920 --> 00:01:07.719 of this series, you know what we're doing here. And 15 00:01:07.760 --> 00:01:10.200 if you haven't, go back and listen to those first, 16 00:01:10.719 --> 00:01:12.920 because this one's going to land different. If you've heard 17 00:01:12.920 --> 00:01:16.519 what came before it, here's the quick version for context. 18 00:01:17.319 --> 00:01:21.200 Part one was Herschel, retired mill worker from Dalton, Georgia, 19 00:01:22.200 --> 00:01:25.319 nineteen seventy eight. He and three buddies leased a hunting 20 00:01:25.359 --> 00:01:28.200 parcel in the Kahudah Wilderness, and over the course of 21 00:01:28.239 --> 00:01:31.719 five nights, something came into their camp and messed with them, 22 00:01:32.079 --> 00:01:36.560 not attacked, messed with, moved their coolers without damaging them, 23 00:01:37.159 --> 00:01:39.680 took a dressed dough off the hanging pole and laid 24 00:01:39.719 --> 00:01:42.680 it in the fire ring like a centerpiece. There was 25 00:01:42.760 --> 00:01:46.560 knocking from two directions the valley, answering the ridge back 26 00:01:46.599 --> 00:01:51.760 and forth, coordinated like something talking to something else. Bipedal 27 00:01:51.760 --> 00:01:54.079 footsteps heavy enough that one of the guys felt the 28 00:01:54.079 --> 00:01:57.519 impact through the ground. And on the last night herschel 29 00:01:57.560 --> 00:02:00.000 put his flashlight into the hemlocks and got reddish eyes 30 00:02:00.120 --> 00:02:03.599 shine back at about eight feet something just standing there 31 00:02:04.079 --> 00:02:08.319 looking at him. Part two was Karen sixteen years later, 32 00:02:08.560 --> 00:02:12.319 twelve miles north same ridge line. She was a seasonal 33 00:02:12.360 --> 00:02:15.199 worker for the Forest Service doing road maintenance on a 34 00:02:15.240 --> 00:02:19.400 decommissioned fire road. Over three weeks, she documented tree breaks 35 00:02:19.439 --> 00:02:22.120 at six to nine feet, a smell that showed up 36 00:02:22.159 --> 00:02:25.400 at the same GPS coordinates every afternoon on a schedule, 37 00:02:25.960 --> 00:02:28.879 nineteen inch tracks and creaked mud with no claw marks, 38 00:02:29.240 --> 00:02:33.199 and handprints on a clay bank with fingers longer than hers. Then, 39 00:02:33.599 --> 00:02:36.000 on her last week, she got a flat tire on 40 00:02:36.039 --> 00:02:39.639 the road. After dark, something walked toward her on the gravel, 41 00:02:39.919 --> 00:02:43.199 stopped about forty feet away, paced back and forth across 42 00:02:43.199 --> 00:02:45.840 the road for ten minutes, and then stepped off into 43 00:02:45.879 --> 00:02:49.280 the timber and exhaled one long breath from above her 44 00:02:49.360 --> 00:02:52.159 head height, close enough to hear the rasp of it. 45 00:02:52.840 --> 00:02:57.199 Two people who've never met, same ridge, same behavioral patterns, 46 00:02:57.719 --> 00:03:01.960 the slow escalation, the deliberate review, the silence that drops 47 00:03:01.960 --> 00:03:05.080 over the woods when the thing gets close. Tonight, we 48 00:03:05.159 --> 00:03:07.719 jump nine years past Karen and a few more miles 49 00:03:07.800 --> 00:03:11.639 up the corridor. It's two thousand and three, late September, 50 00:03:12.199 --> 00:03:14.520 and a man named Marcus is sitting alone on a 51 00:03:14.599 --> 00:03:17.639 ridge saddle in the Cherokee National Forest with a spotting 52 00:03:17.680 --> 00:03:20.800 scope and a notebook, doing what he does every fall, 53 00:03:21.240 --> 00:03:25.840 scouting terrain, reading sign getting ready for bo season. He's 54 00:03:25.840 --> 00:03:29.360 not looking for anything weird. He's looking for deer, and 55 00:03:29.400 --> 00:03:31.680 his optics are about to show him something that'll take 56 00:03:31.759 --> 00:03:35.400 up space in his head for the next twenty years. Now, 57 00:03:35.439 --> 00:03:38.199 what makes this story different from the first two, and 58 00:03:38.280 --> 00:03:41.439 I realized this pretty early in my conversations with Marcus, 59 00:03:42.120 --> 00:03:46.240 is the nature of the evidence. Herschel's story was experiential. 60 00:03:46.800 --> 00:03:50.680 He felt things, heard things, saw eyeshine in the dark. 61 00:03:51.520 --> 00:03:57.520 Karen's was more methodical. She documented physical evidence over weeks, prints, smell, 62 00:03:57.960 --> 00:04:02.039 tree breaks. But both of their stories depend ultimately on 63 00:04:02.159 --> 00:04:06.080 their testimony. You believe them or you don't. There's nothing 64 00:04:06.080 --> 00:04:09.159 they can hand you. Marcus has something he can hand you. 65 00:04:09.680 --> 00:04:12.919 He has trail camera images. He has field notes taken 66 00:04:13.000 --> 00:04:17.079 during the observation with time stamps. He has data. And 67 00:04:17.120 --> 00:04:21.000 for a story like this, data changes the conversation. It 68 00:04:21.040 --> 00:04:23.879 doesn't prove anything. I want to be careful about that. 69 00:04:24.759 --> 00:04:28.959 Trail camera images from three aren't exactly forensic quality, but 70 00:04:29.040 --> 00:04:32.879 they exist. They're on an SD card in a fireproof safe, 71 00:04:33.240 --> 00:04:36.519 and they show something that a wildlife biologist couldn't identify. 72 00:04:37.120 --> 00:04:40.160 That matters in a field where most of the evidence 73 00:04:40.199 --> 00:04:44.519 is anecdotal, Any physical record matters. Marcus sent me an 74 00:04:44.519 --> 00:04:49.959 email about two thousand words, single spaced, no preamble. No, 75 00:04:50.439 --> 00:04:53.759 you're probably not going to believe this. He just opened 76 00:04:53.759 --> 00:04:57.199 with the date, the location, the weather conditions, and what 77 00:04:57.279 --> 00:05:00.920 he observed. He used the word observe four times on 78 00:05:00.959 --> 00:05:06.519 the first page, not saw, not spotted, observed, like he 79 00:05:06.600 --> 00:05:08.639 was writing up a field report for someone who was 80 00:05:08.720 --> 00:05:11.199 going to grade it. That told me a lot about 81 00:05:11.199 --> 00:05:14.240 who I was dealing with before I ever heard his voice. 82 00:05:14.360 --> 00:05:17.800 When I called, he answered with his full name, first 83 00:05:18.160 --> 00:05:22.279 and last, like a business line. His voice is steady, 84 00:05:22.839 --> 00:05:25.959 a little clipped. He talks the way people talk when 85 00:05:25.959 --> 00:05:29.079 they've spent years in professional settings. We're saying the wrong 86 00:05:29.120 --> 00:05:33.480 word costs you something. He doesn't ramble, he doesn't backtrack. 87 00:05:34.160 --> 00:05:36.879 If he starts a sentence, he finishes it, and when 88 00:05:36.879 --> 00:05:40.480 he's done with the thought, he stops. No trailing off, 89 00:05:40.839 --> 00:05:44.879 no filler, no you know what I mean, just clean delivery. 90 00:05:45.360 --> 00:05:49.360 It's almost unsettling how precise he is. Marcus is fifty one, 91 00:05:49.839 --> 00:05:52.639 lives outside Knoxville with his wife and their teenage son. 92 00:05:53.399 --> 00:05:58.160 He sells industrial equipment, compressors, generators, that kind of thing, 93 00:05:58.959 --> 00:06:00.800 the kind of sales were you've got to know your 94 00:06:00.839 --> 00:06:05.000 product cold and answer technical questions on the fly. He's 95 00:06:05.040 --> 00:06:08.120 been doing it for over fifteen years. Before that, he 96 00:06:08.160 --> 00:06:11.000 was in the Army for six years, including a deployment 97 00:06:11.040 --> 00:06:14.279 to Kosovo in ninety nine. He doesn't talk about the 98 00:06:14.279 --> 00:06:19.439 military much, mentioned it once briefly and moved on. He's 99 00:06:19.439 --> 00:06:22.040 been bow hunting since he was fourteen when his dad 100 00:06:22.079 --> 00:06:24.839 set him up with a recurve in the backyard, shooting 101 00:06:24.879 --> 00:06:28.160 at a bag target propped against the fence. And here's 102 00:06:28.160 --> 00:06:30.600 where I need you to pay attention, because the bow 103 00:06:30.680 --> 00:06:34.399 hunting thing isn't a side detail. It's the lens. Everything 104 00:06:34.399 --> 00:06:38.319 else gets filtered through. Marcus competes in three D archery. 105 00:06:38.879 --> 00:06:40.759 That's where you walk a course through the woods and 106 00:06:40.759 --> 00:06:44.879 shoot at foam animal targets set at distances. Nobody tells you. 107 00:06:44.879 --> 00:06:48.040 You have to estimate the range yourself from the terrain, 108 00:06:48.439 --> 00:06:51.959 from the size of the target, from experience. Then you 109 00:06:52.000 --> 00:06:54.439 adjust for angle and wind and put the arrow in 110 00:06:54.480 --> 00:06:56.680 a kill zone about the size of a paper plate. 111 00:06:57.480 --> 00:07:00.519 He's been doing this for over twenty years. He's placed 112 00:07:00.519 --> 00:07:04.800 at state level competitions. He practices almost every day, even 113 00:07:04.839 --> 00:07:08.240 in the off season, and he keeps a log draw weight, 114 00:07:08.680 --> 00:07:12.240 arrow speed, group size at different distances. He tracks it 115 00:07:12.279 --> 00:07:15.480 the way some people track their mile times. He brings 116 00:07:15.519 --> 00:07:19.000 that same discipline to his hunting. When Marcus scouts a 117 00:07:19.040 --> 00:07:21.800 new area, he doesn't just walk through and look around. 118 00:07:22.240 --> 00:07:25.800 He sits, He watches. He writes things down in a 119 00:07:25.800 --> 00:07:32.160 field journal, date time, temperature, wind, speed, and direction, barometric pressure, 120 00:07:32.480 --> 00:07:35.639 cloud cover, what he sees and where he sees it. 121 00:07:36.240 --> 00:07:40.240 He photographs terrain features. He treats scouting like data collection, 122 00:07:40.800 --> 00:07:45.319 because to him, that's what it is. More data, better decisions, 123 00:07:45.920 --> 00:07:50.319 better decisions, more filled tags. That's how his mind works. 124 00:07:51.000 --> 00:07:53.600 Everything is a system. I'm telling you all of this 125 00:07:53.680 --> 00:07:56.439 because what happens next only means what it means if 126 00:07:56.519 --> 00:07:59.800 you understand who it's happening to. This isn't somebody who 127 00:07:59.800 --> 00:08:02.279 gets startled by a shadow and calls it a monster. 128 00:08:02.959 --> 00:08:05.839 This is a man who measures things, who trusts what 129 00:08:05.920 --> 00:08:08.079 he can see through good glass and what he can 130 00:08:08.079 --> 00:08:10.920 write down in a notebook. And what he saw that 131 00:08:11.000 --> 00:08:14.160 morning in the Cherokee broke his system. He'd been looking 132 00:08:14.199 --> 00:08:16.680 at this particular area on a topo map for a 133 00:08:16.720 --> 00:08:20.639 couple of seasons. A series of ridge saddles connecting higher 134 00:08:20.680 --> 00:08:23.399 ground to a creek bottom with a clear cut on 135 00:08:23.439 --> 00:08:26.519 the east side that was about five years old. Young 136 00:08:26.560 --> 00:08:32.960 clearcuts grow back thick BlackBerry, sumac, young tulip, poplar, deer food, 137 00:08:33.720 --> 00:08:36.559 and the edge where the clearcut meets standing timber is 138 00:08:36.600 --> 00:08:40.559 where deer move between feeding and bedding. On paper, it 139 00:08:40.639 --> 00:08:43.200 looked like exactly the kind of spot a mature buck 140 00:08:43.240 --> 00:08:47.840 would set up in the fall. Late September three, he 141 00:08:47.960 --> 00:08:50.840 drove out before dawn, parked at a trailhead about two 142 00:08:50.919 --> 00:08:53.320 miles from the area he wanted to look at, and 143 00:08:53.399 --> 00:08:58.600 hiked in on an old logging road scope, tripod, journal, water, 144 00:08:58.960 --> 00:09:02.919 a couple energy bar, just a scouting trip. The walk 145 00:09:02.960 --> 00:09:06.440 took about forty five minutes. He was moving quiet, the 146 00:09:06.480 --> 00:09:08.720 way he always does when he's approaching an area he 147 00:09:08.759 --> 00:09:11.919 wants to glass. You don't go crashing through the woods 148 00:09:11.960 --> 00:09:14.159 when you're trying to see what's there before it sees you. 149 00:09:15.120 --> 00:09:17.039 He got to a saddle on the ridge at about 150 00:09:17.039 --> 00:09:21.200 seven point fifteen good vantage point. The clear cut spread 151 00:09:21.240 --> 00:09:24.720 out below him to the east, maybe three hundred yards across, 152 00:09:24.960 --> 00:09:28.080 five or six hundred yards long, sloping gently down to 153 00:09:28.120 --> 00:09:31.360 a creek standing timber on the far side. Climbing the 154 00:09:31.399 --> 00:09:34.759 opposite ridge, he could see the whole thing from up there. 155 00:09:35.519 --> 00:09:38.879 He set up his scope behind a downed log. Swarovsky 156 00:09:38.960 --> 00:09:42.519 ats eighty and if you're not into optics, all you 157 00:09:42.600 --> 00:09:45.600 need to know is that it's serious glass twenty to 158 00:09:45.639 --> 00:09:49.840 sixty power magnification. At four hundred yards you can count 159 00:09:49.919 --> 00:09:52.879 the times on a rack. The image is sharp enough 160 00:09:52.879 --> 00:09:55.960 that you trust what you're seeing. Marcus has been looking 161 00:09:55.960 --> 00:09:59.159 through scopes like this for over twenty years. He knows 162 00:09:59.159 --> 00:10:03.919 how to read an image distance. Clear morning, low fifties, light, 163 00:10:03.960 --> 00:10:06.879 wind from the northwest. He wrote all of it down 164 00:10:06.960 --> 00:10:10.559 before he started looking. That's just what he does. For 165 00:10:10.639 --> 00:10:12.879 the first hour and a half, he watched deer feeding 166 00:10:12.919 --> 00:10:15.840 at the south end, a young six pointer along the 167 00:10:15.879 --> 00:10:19.360 timber edge, couple of turkeys scratching around in the open. 168 00:10:19.919 --> 00:10:23.840 Good activity. He was feeling positive about the area, and 169 00:10:23.919 --> 00:10:26.559 then around eight forty five, every dough in the clear 170 00:10:26.639 --> 00:10:29.879 cut stopped feeding at the same time. Deer don't do 171 00:10:29.960 --> 00:10:32.840 that for no reason. When a group of dos all 172 00:10:32.879 --> 00:10:37.000 stop eating simultaneously and point the same direction, something is there. 173 00:10:37.759 --> 00:10:41.120 Marcus has seen it a thousand times. A coyote moving 174 00:10:41.159 --> 00:10:44.840 through brush, another deer approaching a person on a trail. 175 00:10:45.639 --> 00:10:48.759 The dos are the early warning system. They see it first. 176 00:10:49.240 --> 00:10:52.879 But what he was seeing wasn't casual alertness. These deer 177 00:10:52.919 --> 00:10:57.559 were frozen, ears locked forward, bodies stiff, every one of 178 00:10:57.600 --> 00:11:01.279 them staring north. He watched them for about fifteen seconds. 179 00:11:01.960 --> 00:11:05.279 The little buck did the same thing. Turkeys went heads up. 180 00:11:05.919 --> 00:11:08.360 Every animal in that clearing was looking at the same 181 00:11:08.399 --> 00:11:11.519 spot at the north end of the clear cut. Every 182 00:11:11.559 --> 00:11:14.519 prey animal in a three hundred yard field just stopped 183 00:11:14.519 --> 00:11:17.919 what it was doing and locked onto one point. Whatever 184 00:11:17.960 --> 00:11:21.679 they were looking at. It wasn't a squirrel. Marcus swung 185 00:11:21.720 --> 00:11:25.279 the scope north. There was a stump up there, big one, 186 00:11:25.440 --> 00:11:29.320 about four feet tall three feet across, left over from 187 00:11:29.320 --> 00:11:32.600 the timber harvest. He'd noticed it earlier when he scanned 188 00:11:32.600 --> 00:11:36.840 the clearing. Unremarkable. Now there was something standing on it, 189 00:11:37.399 --> 00:11:40.759 something that hadn't been there an hour ago. First thought 190 00:11:40.879 --> 00:11:44.039 was bear. Black bear standing on the stump to get 191 00:11:44.080 --> 00:11:47.519 a look around. They do that sometimes, get up on 192 00:11:47.559 --> 00:11:50.759 an elevated surface to see over the brush. He's seen 193 00:11:50.799 --> 00:11:55.559 it before. Not common, but not weird. He centered the scope, 194 00:11:55.759 --> 00:11:59.120 brought the magnification up to about forty power and looked 195 00:11:59.720 --> 00:12:04.559 dark black or very dark brown, wide across the shoulders 196 00:12:04.559 --> 00:12:08.960 and chest, standing upright on the stump, facing south, roughly 197 00:12:09.000 --> 00:12:12.440 toward the doze. The head was turned slightly away from him, 198 00:12:12.440 --> 00:12:15.480 so he couldn't make out the face. No obvious neck. 199 00:12:15.919 --> 00:12:18.000 The head looked like it sat right on the shoulders, 200 00:12:18.519 --> 00:12:22.279 thick torso all around. He wrote bear on stump north 201 00:12:22.399 --> 00:12:25.399 end in his journal and kept watching. Figured it would 202 00:12:25.440 --> 00:12:28.159 drop to all fours in a few seconds, confirmed the 203 00:12:28.200 --> 00:12:32.480 id and he'd move on. It didn't drop. It stepped 204 00:12:32.480 --> 00:12:37.960 off the stump, not jumped, not slid, stepped one leg forward, 205 00:12:38.279 --> 00:12:43.679 extended to the ground, weight transferred, smooth, controlled the way 206 00:12:43.720 --> 00:12:46.120 you or I would step off a curb. And it 207 00:12:46.200 --> 00:12:49.960 kept going on two legs. Marcus told me his brain 208 00:12:50.039 --> 00:12:52.279 needed a few seconds to process what his eyes were 209 00:12:52.320 --> 00:12:55.679 showing him. He was waiting for the drop. That's the 210 00:12:55.720 --> 00:13:00.120 thing with bears. When they stand up, it's temporary. A 211 00:13:00.159 --> 00:13:03.480 few seconds, a couple of wobbly steps, and back down 212 00:13:03.519 --> 00:13:07.039 to four legs. That's how they're built. He had his 213 00:13:07.080 --> 00:13:12.360 mental model loaded and ready, stump stand step, drop, walk 214 00:13:12.399 --> 00:13:16.840 away on all fours, but the drop didn't come. Five seconds, 215 00:13:17.320 --> 00:13:23.080 ten fifteen. It was still upright, still walking, still moving 216 00:13:23.120 --> 00:13:26.080 south through the brush on two legs. He told me 217 00:13:26.120 --> 00:13:29.320 there was a specific moment, he remembers it clearly, when 218 00:13:29.360 --> 00:13:33.039 his brain switched categories, when it stopped being bear doing 219 00:13:33.080 --> 00:13:36.720 something unusual and became I don't know what I'm looking at. 220 00:13:36.960 --> 00:13:39.639 He said. It was like a gear slipping one second 221 00:13:39.639 --> 00:13:41.799 he had a name for this thing, and the next 222 00:13:41.840 --> 00:13:44.159 second the name fell off, and there was just this 223 00:13:44.279 --> 00:13:47.639 shape in his scope that didn't match anything. And here's 224 00:13:47.679 --> 00:13:51.399 what's interesting about Marcus. He didn't panic, he didn't pull 225 00:13:51.440 --> 00:13:54.759 away from the scope. He did what Marcus does. He 226 00:13:54.840 --> 00:13:58.679 kept watching and he started recording details. His training kicked 227 00:13:58.720 --> 00:14:01.159 in the same way it kicks in when he's ranging 228 00:14:01.159 --> 00:14:07.159 a target at a tournament. Assess, measure record, whatever this was, 229 00:14:07.399 --> 00:14:10.879 he was going to observe it properly. It walked upright 230 00:14:10.879 --> 00:14:15.559 into the clear cut south through waist high brush, steady, 231 00:14:15.840 --> 00:14:19.879 even strides its arms and he used the word arms, 232 00:14:20.159 --> 00:14:23.279 not legs, not four legs, hung at its sides and 233 00:14:23.320 --> 00:14:26.519 swung with each step, left arm forward when the right 234 00:14:26.600 --> 00:14:30.960 leg stepped, right arm forward when the left natural bipedal 235 00:14:31.039 --> 00:14:34.720 arm swing. Except the arms were too long. They hung 236 00:14:34.759 --> 00:14:37.720 down past the waist, past where your hands would fall 237 00:14:37.759 --> 00:14:41.159 if you were walking. They ended somewhere around mid thigh. 238 00:14:41.480 --> 00:14:43.399 I asked him to go through it piece by piece. 239 00:14:44.039 --> 00:14:46.840 What else could he see at forty power? He got 240 00:14:46.919 --> 00:14:50.320 quiet for a second. That's his tail when he's making 241 00:14:50.360 --> 00:14:52.919 sure he's going to say exactly what he means and 242 00:14:53.000 --> 00:14:56.919 nothing more. Stay tuned for more Backwoods bigfoot stories. We'll 243 00:14:56.919 --> 00:15:02.279 be back after these messages. The color was consistent all over, 244 00:15:02.759 --> 00:15:06.799 dark brown, not black. He was firm about that, like 245 00:15:06.919 --> 00:15:11.000 wet bark, he said, or dark chocolate. Same tone head 246 00:15:11.000 --> 00:15:13.960 to toe, no lighter patches on the chest or face. 247 00:15:14.720 --> 00:15:18.360 The surface had texture, not smooth, more like a rough 248 00:15:18.399 --> 00:15:21.679 coat of some kind, and it absorbed light instead of 249 00:15:21.679 --> 00:15:24.720 reflecting it, which made it hard to pick out anatomical 250 00:15:24.759 --> 00:15:28.840 detail even through the scope. The head was wide, whiter 251 00:15:28.879 --> 00:15:31.840 than a person's. He thought he saw a slight crest 252 00:15:31.919 --> 00:15:34.519 or peak at the top, but he was careful about it. 253 00:15:35.360 --> 00:15:37.159 I don't want to add something I'm not sure of, 254 00:15:37.279 --> 00:15:42.120 he said, might have been the angle. The shoulders were big, wide, 255 00:15:42.159 --> 00:15:44.759 and sloped, with a thickness to the upper body that 256 00:15:44.840 --> 00:15:48.399 made a human build look narrow by comparison. Chest was 257 00:15:48.480 --> 00:15:52.000 deep front to back, much thicker than anything human shape 258 00:15:52.000 --> 00:15:55.080 should be. He said. It looked like a barrel. No 259 00:15:55.200 --> 00:15:58.840 taper at the waist, more like a cylinder. He couldn't see. 260 00:15:58.840 --> 00:16:02.080 The face angle was wrong for most of the observation. 261 00:16:02.799 --> 00:16:05.120 He thought he caught a partial profile at one point, 262 00:16:05.600 --> 00:16:08.960 flat face, heavy brow, but he wouldn't commit to it. 263 00:16:09.840 --> 00:16:12.240 I'm not going to describe something I didn't clearly see. 264 00:16:12.320 --> 00:16:15.799 He said, that's Marcus. He'd rather leave a gap in 265 00:16:15.840 --> 00:16:18.519 the account than fill it with a guess, and that, 266 00:16:18.879 --> 00:16:22.200 to me is what makes him credible. People who are 267 00:16:22.240 --> 00:16:25.720 making things up fill in every gap. People who are 268 00:16:25.720 --> 00:16:29.000 telling the truth leave the parts they're not sure about empty. 269 00:16:29.120 --> 00:16:32.080 He estimated height by the brush. He knew what was 270 00:16:32.120 --> 00:16:36.360 growing in that clear cut BlackBerry Siu mac young poplar 271 00:16:37.000 --> 00:16:39.639 three to three and a half feet in the open areas. 272 00:16:40.000 --> 00:16:42.519 The brush hit this thing at about the waist. That 273 00:16:42.559 --> 00:16:44.840 puts it somewhere around seven to seven and a half 274 00:16:44.840 --> 00:16:50.919 feet tall. He estimated stride by watching it pass fixed points, stumps, rocks, 275 00:16:51.240 --> 00:16:54.519 individual bushes. He could identify four and a half to 276 00:16:54.559 --> 00:16:59.440 five feet between steps, consistent same pace the whole way across. 277 00:17:00.159 --> 00:17:03.840 That's a long stride, longer than a tall person's, and 278 00:17:03.919 --> 00:17:07.839 it covered ground about two hundred yards of open clearcut 279 00:17:08.400 --> 00:17:13.279 walking upright the entire time, no stumbling, no wobbling, no 280 00:17:13.400 --> 00:17:16.599 dropping to all fours. It moved through that brush the 281 00:17:16.640 --> 00:17:19.799 way you'd walk down your driveway, like it wasn't thinking 282 00:17:19.839 --> 00:17:22.200 about the act of walking because it didn't need to 283 00:17:22.920 --> 00:17:26.160 like That was just the way it got around. After 284 00:17:26.200 --> 00:17:29.079 about a minute, he started his watch time or function 285 00:17:29.200 --> 00:17:33.200 on his Casio. Three minutes and forty seven seconds that's 286 00:17:33.240 --> 00:17:34.960 how long he watched it after he thought to hit 287 00:17:35.000 --> 00:17:38.240 the button. Total observation was closer to four and a 288 00:17:38.319 --> 00:17:40.799 half minutes. I want you to sit with that number. 289 00:17:41.279 --> 00:17:44.559 Four and a half minutes through a Swarovsky's spoting scope 290 00:17:45.000 --> 00:17:48.359 in clear morning light. That's not a glimpse. That's not 291 00:17:48.440 --> 00:17:51.559 a flash in the headlights. That's sitting there, eyed a 292 00:17:51.599 --> 00:17:54.680 glass watching something walk across a field for longer than 293 00:17:54.680 --> 00:17:57.720 it takes to boil an egg. At the south end, 294 00:17:57.960 --> 00:18:01.440 it reached the timber and walked straight in. Didn't pause, 295 00:18:01.920 --> 00:18:06.200 didn't slow down, didn't look back one second. It was there, 296 00:18:06.680 --> 00:18:09.559 and then it was gone. The doughs were gone too, 297 00:18:10.359 --> 00:18:13.079 He hadn't noticed them leave. He'd been locked on the 298 00:18:13.119 --> 00:18:16.200 scope the whole time. He sat behind that log for 299 00:18:16.240 --> 00:18:20.200 at least ten minutes afterward, didn't move, kept the scope 300 00:18:20.200 --> 00:18:22.319 pointed at the spot where it went into the trees, 301 00:18:22.839 --> 00:18:25.759 hoping it would come back, hoping he'd get another look 302 00:18:25.799 --> 00:18:29.519 that might make the whole thing make sense. Nothing the 303 00:18:29.559 --> 00:18:33.119 clear cut was empty. The turkeys were gone, the doughs 304 00:18:33.200 --> 00:18:36.599 were gone. Everything that had been out there fifteen minutes 305 00:18:36.599 --> 00:18:39.440 ago had cleared out, and the field just sat there, 306 00:18:39.839 --> 00:18:43.079 still and vacant. He pulled his eye off the scope 307 00:18:43.119 --> 00:18:45.799 and looked down at his hands on the tripod. They 308 00:18:45.839 --> 00:18:50.000 were shaking, not a lot, but enough to notice. He 309 00:18:50.039 --> 00:18:52.640 sat there and watched his own hands tremble and had 310 00:18:52.680 --> 00:18:54.880 a thought that came through as clearly as if someone 311 00:18:54.880 --> 00:18:58.039 had spoken it out loud. Either something is wrong with 312 00:18:58.119 --> 00:19:01.039 the world or something is wrong with me, and I 313 00:19:01.079 --> 00:19:04.039 need to figure out which one it is. I want 314 00:19:04.039 --> 00:19:06.359 to stop here for a second, because I think that 315 00:19:06.480 --> 00:19:10.160 line tells you everything about Marcus. He didn't think what 316 00:19:10.240 --> 00:19:13.200 the hell was that. He didn't think I need to 317 00:19:13.200 --> 00:19:16.359 get out of here. He thought, I need to figure 318 00:19:16.359 --> 00:19:20.039 this out. That's who he is. Even in the middle 319 00:19:20.039 --> 00:19:22.839 of something that shook him to his core, his instinct 320 00:19:22.880 --> 00:19:25.200 was to frame it as a problem that needed solving, 321 00:19:25.839 --> 00:19:29.240 not to run from it. To understand it. Most people 322 00:19:29.279 --> 00:19:32.079 aren't like that. Most people, when they see something they 323 00:19:32.079 --> 00:19:35.319 can't explain, they either panic or they start talking themselves 324 00:19:35.359 --> 00:19:38.920 out of it before they've even finished processing it. Marcus 325 00:19:38.960 --> 00:19:41.480 did neither. He just sat there with the question and 326 00:19:41.519 --> 00:19:45.759 started working on it. Here's where the story shifts, and honestly, 327 00:19:46.279 --> 00:19:49.000 this is the part I find most compelling about Marcus's 328 00:19:49.000 --> 00:19:53.480 whole account, because the sighting itself is remarkable. Four and 329 00:19:53.519 --> 00:19:56.880 a half minutes through a Swarowski in clear light at 330 00:19:56.880 --> 00:20:00.200 a distance where the optics give you real detail. That's 331 00:20:00.240 --> 00:20:04.559 an extraordinary observation. But what makes Marcus' story different from 332 00:20:04.599 --> 00:20:08.240 most encounters I hear about isn't the sighting. It's what 333 00:20:08.319 --> 00:20:11.920 happened in his head afterward. It's the twenty year aftermath 334 00:20:11.960 --> 00:20:15.319 of a man whose entire worldview is built on evidence 335 00:20:15.319 --> 00:20:18.680 and logic, trying to reconcile what his evidence is telling 336 00:20:18.759 --> 00:20:22.680 him with what his logic says shouldn't be possible. With 337 00:20:22.799 --> 00:20:26.599 most encounter stories, the sighting is the whole thing. Somebody 338 00:20:26.640 --> 00:20:30.960 sees something, they describe it, end of story. With Marcus, 339 00:20:30.960 --> 00:20:33.559 the sighting is the first act. The second act is 340 00:20:33.599 --> 00:20:36.480 a man slowly coming apart at the seams because the 341 00:20:36.519 --> 00:20:39.720 world stopped making sense and he can't force it back together. 342 00:20:40.599 --> 00:20:42.920 He sat on that saddle for two more hours after 343 00:20:42.960 --> 00:20:47.680 the thing disappeared. Didn't Scout, didn't Glass for deer. He 344 00:20:47.720 --> 00:20:49.759 sat there with his journal open on his knee and 345 00:20:49.799 --> 00:20:55.759 wrote time of initial observation. Estimated distance four hundred yards 346 00:20:55.960 --> 00:20:59.039 based on the known dimensions of the clear cut. Height 347 00:20:59.160 --> 00:21:02.319 estimate one to seven and a half feet derived from 348 00:21:02.319 --> 00:21:06.240 brush height comparison, Stride estimate four and a half to 349 00:21:06.319 --> 00:21:12.160 five feet measured against fixed reference points, color proportions. He 350 00:21:12.240 --> 00:21:15.359 went through these methodically, the way you describe something in 351 00:21:15.400 --> 00:21:20.160 a biology lab. Head to shoulder ratio, arm length relative 352 00:21:20.160 --> 00:21:23.440 to torso length, depth of the chest front to back. 353 00:21:24.279 --> 00:21:28.480 He described the gait in specific terms, sustained bipedal locomotion, 354 00:21:29.039 --> 00:21:34.160 consistent stride length and cadence, coordinated armswing, no evidence of 355 00:21:34.240 --> 00:21:39.880 instability or compensatory movement. Duration three minutes forty seven seconds 356 00:21:39.880 --> 00:21:43.480 on the timer. Estimated total observation four to four and 357 00:21:43.480 --> 00:21:46.839 a half minutes. He sketched the clear cut from memory 358 00:21:46.839 --> 00:21:49.799 and drew the thing's path with the dotted line. He 359 00:21:49.880 --> 00:21:54.119 noted wind direction, temperature, cloud cover. He noted that the 360 00:21:54.160 --> 00:21:56.720 deer had reacted to the thing before he ever saw it, 361 00:21:57.119 --> 00:21:59.839 and that every animal in the clearing had vacated during 362 00:22:00.119 --> 00:22:03.400 or shortly after the observation. And then he sat there 363 00:22:03.440 --> 00:22:06.680 and read what he'd written, read it back to himself twice, 364 00:22:07.279 --> 00:22:11.359 and each time the same question. What was it? So 365 00:22:11.400 --> 00:22:15.039 he started running through the options one by one, the 366 00:22:15.039 --> 00:22:18.240 way an engineer works through a troubleshooting list. You don't 367 00:22:18.240 --> 00:22:20.880 skip ahead to the weird answer. You start with the 368 00:22:20.920 --> 00:22:24.960 obvious ones and eliminate them. Bear was first. That's the 369 00:22:24.960 --> 00:22:27.880 one he was pulling for a black bear walking on 370 00:22:27.920 --> 00:22:31.839 its hind legs. He knows bears, He's watched dozens of 371 00:22:31.839 --> 00:22:34.519 them in these mountains. And here's what he knows about 372 00:22:34.519 --> 00:22:38.319 bears on two legs. It looks wrong. The hips aren't 373 00:22:38.359 --> 00:22:42.640 designed for it. The center of gravity tips forward, they shuffle, 374 00:22:42.960 --> 00:22:45.960 they wobble, and they drop back to all fours within 375 00:22:46.000 --> 00:22:49.599 a few steps, because sustained upright walking isn't what their 376 00:22:49.640 --> 00:22:53.359 skeleton is built to do. He's watched videos, he's read 377 00:22:53.400 --> 00:22:57.000 about the biomechanics. He's seen it in person. He knows 378 00:22:57.039 --> 00:22:59.799 what it looks like. What he watched through that scope. 379 00:23:00.160 --> 00:23:03.559 Nothing like that. The thing moved like being upright was 380 00:23:03.599 --> 00:23:08.039 its factory setting. No forward lean, no shuffle, no effort. 381 00:23:08.920 --> 00:23:11.640 It walked the way you and I walk, except it 382 00:23:11.680 --> 00:23:13.720 was seven and a half feet tall with arms that 383 00:23:13.799 --> 00:23:16.359 hung to its thighs and a torso built like a 384 00:23:16.359 --> 00:23:19.960 fifty five gallon drum. He spent about an hour trying 385 00:23:19.960 --> 00:23:24.440 to make bear work. Couldn't person was next, big person 386 00:23:24.480 --> 00:23:28.440 in dark clothing, maybe a gilly suit, maybe heavy coveralls 387 00:23:28.440 --> 00:23:32.000 that hid the clothing lines he worked through it. Could 388 00:23:32.000 --> 00:23:35.720 a person be seven and a half feet tall? Technically possible, 389 00:23:36.240 --> 00:23:39.599 though you're talking about one in several million. Could a 390 00:23:39.599 --> 00:23:42.960 person walk through waist high brush at that speed without stumbling, 391 00:23:43.759 --> 00:23:47.039 maybe if they knew the ground. Could a person have 392 00:23:47.279 --> 00:23:50.960 arms that hang down to mid thigh. No, that's the 393 00:23:50.960 --> 00:23:53.960 one that killed it for him. That's not a clothing issue. 394 00:23:54.279 --> 00:23:58.480 That skeletal proportion. Human arms end at about fingertip to 395 00:23:58.519 --> 00:24:01.000 mid thigh at the very longest, and that's on a 396 00:24:01.039 --> 00:24:04.599 person with unusually long arms. What he saw through the 397 00:24:04.640 --> 00:24:07.799 scope had arms that were proportionally longer than any human 398 00:24:07.880 --> 00:24:11.519 variation he'd ever seen or read about. He couldn't make 399 00:24:11.559 --> 00:24:14.319 person work either, and that left him on a ridge 400 00:24:14.319 --> 00:24:17.279 in the Cherokee with a journal full of careful observations 401 00:24:17.480 --> 00:24:21.960