Speaker 1: One summer morning a few years back, two friends Dan
Speaker 1: and Josiah went hiking deep into a canyon just outside
Speaker 1: of town. Their plan was to build a large teepee
Speaker 1: like structure using fallen timber. It would be a gift
Speaker 1: to the area's Sasquatch people. They arrived at their destination
Speaker 1: about three miles out of town and pulls to look around.
Speaker 1: By the looks of things, they'd probably need to venture
Speaker 1: a bit farther up the mountain and deeper into the
Speaker 1: woods for enough material for the structure. They blazed a
Speaker 1: trail as they made their way, adding another quarter to
Speaker 1: half a mile to the track before they came upon
Speaker 1: a fairly level clearing with a tree stump near the
Speaker 1: middle of it. It was the perfect location for their gift.
Speaker 1: They split up and started collecting skinny ten to fifteen
Speaker 1: foot tall timber two erect into the structure around the
Speaker 1: tree stump. The stump would act as a table within
Speaker 1: the teepee. The door or the opening was about five
Speaker 1: or six feet tall. Once the structure was in place
Speaker 1: and standing on its own, they filled the gaps with
Speaker 1: smaller sticks and branches and leaves to help keep the
Speaker 1: rain out. When they were done, they left a granola
Speaker 1: bar on the stump and headed back down the mountain.
Speaker 1: After they arrived at their car, they packed up and
Speaker 1: began their slow drive back out of the canyon. Just
Speaker 1: when they were about to make the bend in the road,
Speaker 1: something moving up on the ridge caught their attention, and
Speaker 1: it was the ridge that they were just on. There
Speaker 1: running on the ridge was a reddish, brown haired sisquatch,
Speaker 1: quickly making its way down the mountain towards them. When
Speaker 1: the creature reached the edge of the hill and saw
Speaker 1: the car, it stopped and just looked at them. As
Speaker 1: they looked back at it, and as if it realized
Speaker 1: they'd seen it, it morphed into a tree, blending into
Speaker 1: the rest of the hillside. One second, it was standing there.
Speaker 1: In the next instant, it was a small pine tree.
Speaker 1: Was it a sort of defense mechanism or camouflage technique.
Speaker 1: Was it something they used to remain unseen from prey
Speaker 1: in humans. It really didn't matter at that point, as
Speaker 1: they'd already seen it. It would be a while before
Speaker 1: Dan went camping in that canyon. Everything seemed normal until
Speaker 1: one morning he awoke to find a small blue marble
Speaker 1: lying next to his sleeping bag. The marble had a
Speaker 1: piece of reddish brown hair embedded inside. What did this mean?
Speaker 1: Was it a gift from a sosquatch? Months later, Dan
Speaker 1: decided to venture out alone for an evening hike up
Speaker 1: another forest service road and then head off the trail
Speaker 1: to find a remote camping spot. As the crow flies,
Speaker 1: the location of this trip's camp site would be no
Speaker 1: more than four miles from the clearing him and Josiah
Speaker 1: had built that teepee. He didn't have to venture off
Speaker 1: the trail for too long before coming upon a nice
Speaker 1: level spot perfect for his two person tent. He was
Speaker 1: surrounded by tall trees, which served to block out any
Speaker 1: noise from town, which was less than a mile below.
Speaker 1: It wasn't long before camp was made and his dinner
Speaker 1: was gone. For good measure, he backtracked through the woods
Speaker 1: to find a tree branch to hang a small bag
Speaker 1: of garbage that would hopefully keep any nosy bears distracted
Speaker 1: and away from his tent. As he slept. Before turning
Speaker 1: in for the night, he pulled a canister of bear
Speaker 1: spray out of his pack and grabbed a book for
Speaker 1: some light reading. Nearly an hour later, he rolled over
Speaker 1: and turned out the light and went to bed. Sometime
Speaker 1: during the early morning hours, he was jolted away by
Speaker 1: a deep rumbling feeling coming from the ground and the
Speaker 1: sound of a bulldozer crashing through the trees. It sounded
Speaker 1: like it was about fifty yards away and coming towards
Speaker 1: his campsite. The rumbling wasn't like an earthquake, but more
Speaker 1: like a stampede of horses or cattle running right at him.
Speaker 1: But how could that be? He was nestled deep in
Speaker 1: the woods and far away from the road, and he
Speaker 1: wondered were their free range cattle in the area and
Speaker 1: where they possibly spooked or attacked, causing them to run
Speaker 1: away from a predator and unknowingly towards him. As the
Speaker 1: approaching violence got closer and closer, his sleepy brain was
Speaker 1: simply overcome by the trembling ground and loud crashing sound
Speaker 1: of the large trees right outside his tent. As he
Speaker 1: clenched his bear spray, he closed his eyes and he
Speaker 1: braced for an impact, and then everything stopped. Everything suddenly
Speaker 1: went quiet and peaceful. He opened his eyes and focused
Speaker 1: his hearing as he could sense something at the edge
Speaker 1: of the campsite. To the left of his tent. There
Speaker 1: was no way he was going to look outside, so
Speaker 1: he continued to listen for any clue to what was
Speaker 1: out there. It took less than a minute for whatever
Speaker 1: was outside to turn around and slowly walk away in
Speaker 1: the direction in which it had come. Dan lay in
Speaker 1: his sleeping bag, holding his breath. He could feel the
Speaker 1: heavy thuds from its feet as whatever it was walked
Speaker 1: away on two legs. Needless to stay, Dan didn't go
Speaker 1: back to bed. He couldn't sleep. He laid helpless in
Speaker 1: his mind, replaying every second of the event over and
Speaker 1: over again, trying to make sense of what had just happened.
Speaker 1: Come morning, he cautiously unzipped his tent and slowly and
Speaker 1: quietly climbed out. With every inch, he paused all body
Speaker 1: movement and held his breath to scan the left into
Speaker 1: the right before climbing out. He was pretty shook up up.
Speaker 1: Whatever it was it was gone. There was no visible
Speaker 1: destruction within the campsite, and even more alarming, the trail
Speaker 1: back to the road was clear of any sign of
Speaker 1: violence he'd both heard and felt. Even the garbage bag
Speaker 1: was still tied above from the branch. Dan gave a
Speaker 1: lot of thought to what happened before telling me about
Speaker 1: that wild night. Whatever it was. Once it found me
Speaker 1: asleep with the campfire put out properly, it turned around
Speaker 1: and it let me be. He said, I hadn't been
Speaker 1: making a lot of noise and my fire had been small,
Speaker 1: so I'm not sure how it knew where I was.
Speaker 1: Dan wasn't the only one to have follow up experiences
Speaker 1: During a solo hike. Josiah found himself about a mile
Speaker 1: or more outside of town, on the opposite side of
Speaker 1: town from where him and Dan had built that teepee.
Speaker 1: It was early evening when he set out. As he
Speaker 1: hiked parallel to a river, he eventually came upon a
Speaker 1: batch of similar tpee tree structures. They had been created
Speaker 1: by boy Scouts and varied in sizes and distance from
Speaker 1: the trail. Hikers and campers used them as shelters. After
Speaker 1: he passed the first structure, he suddenly felt like something
Speaker 1: was circling him. It was such a strong feeling it
Speaker 1: made him pause to look around to see if he
Speaker 1: could see anyone or anything nearby. That's when he felt
Speaker 1: the need to look down. There in front of his
Speaker 1: feet was an arrowhead, but it wasn't a normal arrowhead.
Speaker 1: Josiah is part Native American and has seen a lot
Speaker 1: of arrowheads and knows how to make them. This one
Speaker 1: was different. Whereas they're usually created using a chipping or
Speaker 1: flaking method known as flint napping, this one seemed more
Speaker 1: like it was rubbed into shape. By this time, it
Speaker 1: was getting dark, so he hiked up to one of
Speaker 1: the tea and climbed inside to rest and examine the arrowhead.
Speaker 1: While inside, he heard small stones being tossed at the teepee.
Speaker 1: He leaned over and stuck his head outside, but he
Speaker 1: didn't see anyone. The sound of stones hitting the structure continued,
Speaker 1: so he decided to take the hint and move along.
Speaker 1: Obviously someone didn't want him there. That's when things got
Speaker 1: a bit more strange. As he retreated back down the
Speaker 1: slope towards the trail, the stones continued to land all
Speaker 1: around him at the trail, and after stopping to look
Speaker 1: for the culprit once more, a large piece of tree
Speaker 1: bark suddenly manifested from thin air right in front of him.
Speaker 1: He said it wasn't there, and then it was. He
Speaker 1: watched as it hovered in front of his face briefly
Speaker 1: and then fell to the ground. It was as if
Speaker 1: someone dangled it in front of him for a moment
Speaker 1: and then simply let it fall to the ground. This
Speaker 1: freak come out, so rather than continue up the trail,
Speaker 1: he decided to quickly backtrack towards town Aways down the trail,
Speaker 1: he realized he dropped the cap to his camera. Reluctantly,
Speaker 1: he turned back up the trail and used his flashlight
Speaker 1: to scan the ground ahead of him. Just as he
Speaker 1: spotted it and bent over to pick it up, someone
Speaker 1: threw something very large and heavy in his direction. When
Speaker 1: it made an impact with the ground, he literally jumped
Speaker 1: and yelled, I'm just coming back for this. Josiah then
Speaker 1: hastily made his way back into town into his cabin.
Speaker 1: That was the last time he's hiked that area alone.
Speaker 1: I've been mountain biking my entire life. I love the outdoors.
Speaker 1: I had a customed mountain bike made by Seven Cycles
Speaker 1: in Massachusetts. It had a titanium frame, a belt drive,
Speaker 1: and a fourteen speed roll off gearing. It was very
Speaker 1: light and it was incredibly strong. I could ride this
Speaker 1: bike anywhere. I decided to do an overnight hammock camping trip.
Speaker 1: I thought I would use the mountain bike right out
Speaker 1: of my house, and five miles down the road is
Speaker 1: a two hundred acre wildlife refuge laid in the fall.
Speaker 1: The woods in Connecticut are very beautiful, so this would
Speaker 1: be a gorgeous trip. People drive from all over the
Speaker 1: country to see the golden display of the fall leaves.
Speaker 1: I loaded my bike with twenty pounds of gear, food, water,
Speaker 1: and my camera and a carbon tripod. I had thought
Speaker 1: that I would try some low light photography and see
Speaker 1: how it came out. It was getting dark in another
Speaker 1: ninety minutes, so I brought my helmet and handlebar led lights.
Speaker 1: The handlebar light is seventeen hundred lumens, and I can
Speaker 1: ride at night just as fast as I can during
Speaker 1: the day. The helmet is nice because it always points
Speaker 1: where you're looking. I rode into the woods, and I
Speaker 1: took about an hour and fifteen minutes to get far
Speaker 1: enough in so that I wouldn't have to worry about
Speaker 1: anyone seeing me. After, I dragged my bike and my
Speaker 1: gear up a big hill to get more than a
Speaker 1: three hundred feet off the trail to find a good spot.
Speaker 1: By that time it was dark. There were two trees
Speaker 1: twenty feet apart with no widow maker dead limbs on them,
Speaker 1: and I strung my hammock between them. I put a
Speaker 1: tarp above the hammock. It was a nice night, so
Speaker 1: I tied the sides of the tarp up so I
Speaker 1: could see three hundred and sixty degrees. I heeded some
Speaker 1: water to make coffee. After twenty years in the Navy,
Speaker 1: I just can't live without my coffee. And then I
Speaker 1: had a snack and it was pitch dark. There was
Speaker 1: no moon and no stars to be seen that night.
Speaker 1: If I turned off my head lamp, I couldn't see
Speaker 1: my hand in front of my face. It's not a
Speaker 1: good night for photography regardless. I set up the camera
Speaker 1: and took some long exposure shots and got just what
Speaker 1: I expected. A picture of black by camping is zero impact.
Speaker 1: There is no fire, and I leave the site exactly
Speaker 1: as if I had never been there. On past trips,
Speaker 1: I learned that the animals know you were there. It
Speaker 1: seems to disturb them that a human is hanging out
Speaker 1: in their home in the middle of the night, usually
Speaker 1: just after dark. The woods come to life and everything
Speaker 1: is moving. Some animals are curious and will come close
Speaker 1: to see what is hanging between the trees. It tends
Speaker 1: to keep you up, but I found it very interesting
Speaker 1: because it is amazing how well animals communicate with each other.
Speaker 1: The ones that came close would always give out some
Speaker 1: kind of sound that was responded to by more than
Speaker 1: one distant animal. Small rodents would scurry through the leaves
Speaker 1: right underneath you. The dry leaves made it so that
Speaker 1: you could hear anything moving well. I climbed into my
Speaker 1: hammock and I covered up, and I was comfortable and warm.
Speaker 1: My head was on an inflatable pillow so I could
Speaker 1: see out. I hung my seventeen hundred loomin handlebar light
Speaker 1: just above my head on a ridge line in case
Speaker 1: something big came in close. This night was different. There
Speaker 1: wasn't a sound. I was in the middle of a
Speaker 1: wildlife refuge and I couldn't hear a thing. My ears
Speaker 1: are very good. I was a sonar technician and my
Speaker 1: ears were tested quarterly by the Navy. My hearing tests
Speaker 1: indicate that when I retired, my ears were just as
Speaker 1: sensitive as they were when I was seventeen years old.
Speaker 1: The unusual quiet was disturbing. Well, I got bored and
Speaker 1: I closed my eyes and I dozed off. I was
Speaker 1: awakened a few hours later by movement. There was something close,
Speaker 1: rustling in the leaves. I heard a distant chattering to
Speaker 1: the south, which was answered by the same to the north,
Speaker 1: and then the third chatter that was close to the west.
Speaker 1: After many minutes of quiet, a fear suddenly came over me.
Speaker 1: It was a fear that I never in my life
Speaker 1: have experienced. I've served on submarines. I survived an onboard
Speaker 1: fire and a couple of loss of depth controls close
Speaker 1: to test depth, and I can tell you that the
Speaker 1: fear that I felt that night brought back those memories
Speaker 1: because it was so strong. The difference was that this
Speaker 1: time was the fear in my head and it was
Speaker 1: not in my gut. It gave me goose bumps all
Speaker 1: over my body. I retrieved my hanging light from the
Speaker 1: ridge line and made sure my thumb was on the
Speaker 1: switch whatever was out there. If it got too close,
Speaker 1: it was going to get blinded by that light. I
Speaker 1: was unarmed, so the light and my leathermen were all
Speaker 1: I had. The next thing I knew I heard steps approaching.
Speaker 1: There were two steps at a time, approaching from the
Speaker 1: east and then there was a long pause the paws
Speaker 1: between the steps, and adrenaline through my veins. This time
Speaker 1: they were walking right toward me, and I knew it
Speaker 1: was there. This went along for what seemed like forever,
Speaker 1: and then I heard two steps followed by what sounded
Speaker 1: like a massive log hitting the ground hard enough to
Speaker 1: reverberate the earth underneath, making it sound hollow. I managed
Speaker 1: to stay in my hammock after I was startled by
Speaker 1: that thump, and then I was wondering if I had
Speaker 1: the courage to let this thing get any closer. I'm
Speaker 1: guessing the first thump was fifty yards away. Each additional
Speaker 1: step were followed by the same loud thump. This thing
Speaker 1: was trying to get a start out of me. The
Speaker 1: camera was on the bag on my bike, and I
Speaker 1: was too clumsy to use my phone at the same
Speaker 1: time as the light. I would be dropping my light
Speaker 1: and I decided against getting the shot. When I got
Speaker 1: to the point that I felt it was six steps
Speaker 1: from me looking into my hammock, I turned that light on.
Speaker 1: It was so bright that I could see the dust
Speaker 1: floating in the air. I saw two eyes. They were
Speaker 1: red and they were really high off the ground. The
Speaker 1: eyes drop low and then swung back and forth. All
Speaker 1: I could see was the eyes, no antlers, no tann fir,
Speaker 1: just eyes. The eye swung back and forth, seeming to
Speaker 1: try to get out of the intense light. It seemed
Speaker 1: like forever, but after a few seconds, I decided to
Speaker 1: give the animal one out and I shut the light off.
Speaker 1: Whatever this was, it took off like a rocket. I
Speaker 1: could hear every massive, powerful footstep and branches snapping as
Speaker 1: it blindly trudged to the north. In seconds, this thing
Speaker 1: was at least a half a mile away before I
Speaker 1: could no longer hear it. Well, it got quiet and
Speaker 1: I calmed down, and I thought wow, and then I
Speaker 1: dozed back off. I woke up just after sunrise. I
Speaker 1: never sleep long. I was surprised it was being light already.
Speaker 1: I checked the area out where the creature had approached.
Speaker 1: There was a huge bush in that direction with no
Speaker 1: leaves left on it. Whatever this thing was, there was
Speaker 1: no place for it to hide. Therefore, I am perplexed.
Speaker 1: While I only saw the eyes. Looking at my camp
Speaker 1: area for the first time in daylight, I realized that
Speaker 1: I had hung my hammock right in the middle of
Speaker 1: a very heavily traveled animal path. Honestly, I can't say
Speaker 1: what those eyeballs belonged to. I still go hammock camping,
Speaker 1: and I've never had any experience like this again. When
Speaker 1: I was nine, my sister and I, along with two
Speaker 1: of our aunts who were our age, decided to explore
Speaker 1: or a concrete ditch that ran alongside my great grandmother's
Speaker 1: house near Memphis. We used a rope to propel down
Speaker 1: and then walked along until we came to a covert.
Speaker 1: We looked inside, but couldn't see daylight from the other end,
Speaker 1: just a black, empty space. I wanted to explore this
Speaker 1: cave like structure and maybe get a good scare on
Speaker 1: the girls at the same time, as kids will do,
Speaker 1: I dared them to go in to see who would
Speaker 1: go the farthest or stay the longest. They dared me back,
Speaker 1: and with pride on the line and no one wanting
Speaker 1: to be the one who chickened out, we all stepped inside.
Speaker 1: The eerie feeling we all had was overpowering. I was
Speaker 1: certain the girls wouldn't last long in this environment, and
Speaker 1: I would surely win. After fifty yards, one of my
Speaker 1: aunts said Jim, what's that. I looked deeper into the
Speaker 1: darkness and I saw a set of glowing red eyes
Speaker 1: walking in our direction. A reasoned that it must be
Speaker 1: a cat or a dog, and that the eyes were
Speaker 1: catching the light from the opening behind us. But I
Speaker 1: also knew that if I made it out to be
Speaker 1: bigger than it was, the girls would run and i'd win.
Speaker 1: I was done exploring this place anyway. I just needed
Speaker 1: to turn the fear up a little bit and I
Speaker 1: would be the victor. It was working. The closer the
Speaker 1: eyes got, the more frightening they became. And then I
Speaker 1: noticed that whatever was connected to those eyes was getting
Speaker 1: bigger and bigger. I think it was on all fours
Speaker 1: at first, and then it began to stand up. Okay,
Speaker 1: I thought dogs and cats don't walk on two legs.
Speaker 1: That was when my sister and ants gave up the ghost.
Speaker 1: They spun around and they ran screaming from the cave,
Speaker 1: yelling back to me to run. I just stood there.
Speaker 1: I guess I was waiting for them to get further away.
Speaker 1: I knew I could outrun them, and I didn't want
Speaker 1: one of them to get I just kept standing there,
Speaker 1: hoping to stall it. Or something. I waited longer than
Speaker 1: I should have, and it came at me, quickly, overtaking me.
Speaker 1: As I ran backwards towards the entrance, I could hear
Speaker 1: the girl screaming somewhere behind me, and I screamed back
Speaker 1: for them to get help. This thing, so tall it
Speaker 1: had to stand hunched over to keep from hitting its
Speaker 1: head on the ceiling of the colvert, towered over me,
Speaker 1: shrouding me in the heavy mist of its breath and
Speaker 1: stench of its fur, and it glared down at me.
Speaker 1: I'm dead, I thought. I stood still, and my eyes
Speaker 1: were closed, my arms and legs were shaking, and I
Speaker 1: was waiting to become this thing's next meal. And then
Speaker 1: it made a rattling noise, almost like a coup or
Speaker 1: a purr. The fear started to subside. I found it
Speaker 1: in me to start backing away slowly that furs, and
Speaker 1: then a little faster. When I backed far enough, I
Speaker 1: turned and bolted as fast as I could, and I
Speaker 1: hit daylight like a runner breaking through a ribbon. At
Speaker 1: the end of the race, the girls were up ahead,
Speaker 1: scurrying up a rope that we'd use to climb down.
Speaker 1: I grabbed it and pulled myself to safety. I was
Speaker 1: frantic to get away from this thing. I wasn't sure
Speaker 1: if I was going to make it. We ran to
Speaker 1: our parents hysterically telling them about the culvert, the red eyes,
Speaker 1: and the four legged animal that stood up on two feet.
Speaker 1: You stay out of that ditch, was all they said.
Speaker 1: They didn't believe us. Years later, I must have been
Speaker 1: thirteen or fourteen, it was carnival time in Memphis. The
Speaker 1: Mid South Fair was a big deal and I went
Speaker 1: every year. A couple of weeks before it started, I
Speaker 1: checked out a book at the library that was all
Speaker 1: about the lock Ness Monster and other cryptid After my experience,
Speaker 1: I was fascinated with this subject. In the back of
Speaker 1: the book was a story and a picture of the
Speaker 1: Patterson Gimlin Bigfoot. My jaw dropped at the sight, even
Speaker 1: though I'd been too afraid to look up that day
Speaker 1: in the culvert, it seemed like this is what I
Speaker 1: had seen. It made me wonder how many people have
Speaker 1: ever seen these things, and without any form of reference,
Speaker 1: they just never knew what they were looking at. That year,
Speaker 1: at the fair, the freak show was boasting one particular
Speaker 1: exhibit claiming to be a dead Bigfoot on ice. Most
Speaker 1: people don't remember or maybe even know that until recently,
Speaker 1: as the nineteen eighties, freak shows were a common element
Speaker 1: of carnivals, fairs, and circuses around the world. These attractions
Speaker 1: were always fakes, a mix of plaster, makeup, costume, and
Speaker 1: lighting designed to extract money from the fairgoers, post and
Speaker 1: nothing else. I had no doubt that the Bigfoot behind
Speaker 1: this curtain was as fake as the mermaid behind the next.
Speaker 1: Curiosity got the best of me, though, and I paid
Speaker 1: for my ticket and I went in to have a look.
Speaker 1: The first thing I noticed was the smell. It was bad.
Speaker 1: I looked around and I saw others holding their noses.
Speaker 1: I recognized it. Looking at this thing, I began to
Speaker 1: reason with myself. It had to be fake. If a
Speaker 1: man had shot it, he'd be in jail. This thing
Speaker 1: is just a big, hairy humanoid. I focused on the
Speaker 1: bullet wound visible in its chest. It all looked too real. Well,
Speaker 1: my time was up and I had to move on,
Speaker 1: but what I had seen was disturbing. I couldn't forget it.
Speaker 1: The next year, the fair was back, and I was
Speaker 1: still obsessed. This year, I brought a magnifying glass with
Speaker 1: the hope that the Bigfoot exhibit would be there. I
Speaker 1: was not disappointed. First, I examined the bullet wound. I
Speaker 1: could clearly see through the ice and the jagged tear
Speaker 1: where it had entered the creature's chest. It all looked
Speaker 1: very real. Its skin appeared to have poorers, the hair
Speaker 1: seemed to sprout from individual follicles. There was dirt under
Speaker 1: the fingernails and toenails. It was even quite obviously a male.
Speaker 1: I would pay to see this thing three more times
Speaker 1: that year. The next year it was back, and so
Speaker 1: was I. This time, I'd used a set of medical
Speaker 1: encyclopedias to familiarize myself with the effects of gunshot wounds,
Speaker 1: dermal layers, hair growth, and anything else I could learn
Speaker 1: about anatomy that might prove this to be a fake.
Speaker 1: On the other hand, I also studied makeup artistry in prosthetic. Again,
Speaker 1: I paid to see the thing multiple times, and again
Speaker 1: I could not find a flaw. Even the fingernails and
Speaker 1: the toenails had lateral ridges with cuticles. I'm convinced it
Speaker 1: was real.