WEBVTT 1 00:00:02.480 --> 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 --> 00:00:32.280 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 00:01:02.920 --> 00:01:06.560 Last time I told you about Herschel, a retired mill 14 00:01:06.599 --> 00:01:09.319 worker from Dalton, Georgia, who wrote me a six page 15 00:01:09.400 --> 00:01:11.959 letter on yellow legal paper about something that happened to 16 00:01:12.040 --> 00:01:15.359 him In the fall of nineteen seventy eight. He and 17 00:01:15.400 --> 00:01:17.760 three of his hunting buddies had leased a parcel deep 18 00:01:17.799 --> 00:01:21.280 in the Khuda Wilderness. Third night in they woke up 19 00:01:21.319 --> 00:01:25.959 to find their entire camp rearranged, coolers, moved tent stakes, 20 00:01:26.040 --> 00:01:29.359 pulled a field dressed dough taken down from the hanging 21 00:01:29.400 --> 00:01:33.000 pole and placed untouched in the center of their fire ring, 22 00:01:33.680 --> 00:01:38.879 not torn up, not fed on, placed like a message. 23 00:01:38.920 --> 00:01:43.920 Over the next four nights, things escalated, slow, deliberate knocking 24 00:01:43.920 --> 00:01:47.040 from the valley below, answered by knocking from the ridge above. 25 00:01:47.920 --> 00:01:51.519 Bipedal footsteps passing through camp in the dark, close enough 26 00:01:51.519 --> 00:01:55.200 that Pete, a Vietnam Vet who didn't rattle, easily felt 27 00:01:55.200 --> 00:01:57.359 the weight of each step come up through the ground 28 00:01:57.359 --> 00:02:00.760 and into his boots. And on the last night, Herschel 29 00:02:00.799 --> 00:02:03.120 aimed his flashlight into the hemlocks at the edge of 30 00:02:03.120 --> 00:02:06.000 the bench and saw two reddish points of eyeshine staring 31 00:02:06.040 --> 00:02:08.280 back at him from over seven feet off the ground. 32 00:02:09.120 --> 00:02:13.240 Something was there, something big, something that had been watching 33 00:02:13.280 --> 00:02:17.719 them for days, testing them, learning what they'd tolerate before 34 00:02:17.719 --> 00:02:21.599 it showed itself. They broke camp at first light. On 35 00:02:21.639 --> 00:02:24.479 the way out, Herschel found a line of creekstones arranged 36 00:02:24.520 --> 00:02:29.080 at the edge of camp, evenly spaced, pointing north up 37 00:02:29.159 --> 00:02:32.840 the ridge into the corridor that was forty. 38 00:02:32.599 --> 00:02:33.599 Eight years ago. 39 00:02:34.000 --> 00:02:35.639 And I told you at the end of that episode 40 00:02:35.680 --> 00:02:37.680 that Herschel wasn't the only one who'd written to me 41 00:02:37.719 --> 00:02:40.680 about that stretch of mountain. That there were four other 42 00:02:40.759 --> 00:02:45.719 stories from four other people, spanning four other decades, all 43 00:02:45.719 --> 00:02:49.919 describing encounters along the same ridge line, the same narrow valley, 44 00:02:50.400 --> 00:02:55.240 the same corridor. Tonight's story comes from sixteen years after Herschel's. 45 00:02:55.719 --> 00:02:58.919 It's nineteen ninety four, and a woman named Karen is 46 00:02:58.960 --> 00:03:01.000 about to spend three weeks weeks on a road she'll 47 00:03:01.039 --> 00:03:04.319 never be able to forget. Karen didn't send me a letter. 48 00:03:04.719 --> 00:03:08.840 She sent an email, four paragraphs long, clean and straightforward, 49 00:03:09.080 --> 00:03:12.240 with a subject line that read something on the fire Road, 50 00:03:12.520 --> 00:03:17.680 Polk County, Tennessee, nineteen ninety four. No preamble, no build up, 51 00:03:18.000 --> 00:03:22.120 no apology for reaching out. She just started talking. First 52 00:03:22.199 --> 00:03:24.879 sentence was I worked for the Forest Service for three 53 00:03:24.919 --> 00:03:27.840 seasons in the early nineties, and something happened on one 54 00:03:27.840 --> 00:03:30.280 of my assignments that I've never been able to explain. 55 00:03:31.120 --> 00:03:33.680 That's a good first sentence. It tells you a lot 56 00:03:33.719 --> 00:03:36.680 about who you're dealing with, a person who knows what 57 00:03:36.719 --> 00:03:39.520 she wants to say and doesn't waste your time getting there. 58 00:03:40.479 --> 00:03:42.840 I called her about a week later. She picked up 59 00:03:42.879 --> 00:03:45.479 on the second ring and said I was wondering when 60 00:03:45.520 --> 00:03:50.479 you'd call. She has a warm voice, strong Southern Appalachian cadence, 61 00:03:50.800 --> 00:03:53.520 but not heavy, more like the way people talk when 62 00:03:53.520 --> 00:03:56.080 they've spent their whole life in the mountains, but also 63 00:03:56.199 --> 00:03:59.800 read a lot and pay attention to words. She's precise. 64 00:04:00.479 --> 00:04:03.039 She'll correct herself mid sentence if she uses the wrong 65 00:04:03.159 --> 00:04:07.120 term for something. She'll say, no, wait, that's not right. 66 00:04:07.639 --> 00:04:10.560 It wasn't a culvert, it was a water bar. Let 67 00:04:10.560 --> 00:04:14.120 me say that again. I liked her immediately, and I 68 00:04:14.199 --> 00:04:16.959 trusted her, which is something I don't say lightly. 69 00:04:17.639 --> 00:04:19.279 Some people you talk to you. 70 00:04:19.199 --> 00:04:23.240 Can hear them working the story, shaping it, adjusting. 71 00:04:22.720 --> 00:04:25.279 It for the audience. Karen doesn't do that. 72 00:04:25.839 --> 00:04:29.000 She tells it the same way every time, flat delivery 73 00:04:29.000 --> 00:04:31.839 on the parts that were mundane, a little more weight 74 00:04:31.920 --> 00:04:34.439 on the parts that scared her. And when she gets 75 00:04:34.480 --> 00:04:37.160 to the part about the tire, her voice drops about 76 00:04:37.199 --> 00:04:39.839 half a register and slows down, and you can tell 77 00:04:39.920 --> 00:04:42.839 she's right back on that road in the dark. She's 78 00:04:42.879 --> 00:04:47.399 not performing it, she's remembering it. Karen is fifty three now. 79 00:04:47.600 --> 00:04:50.519 She lives in Cleveland, Tennessee, about twenty minutes from the 80 00:04:50.600 --> 00:04:54.600 Cherokee National Forest. Born and raised in the area. Her 81 00:04:54.639 --> 00:04:57.519 father worked for the Tennessee Valley Authority, and her mother 82 00:04:57.560 --> 00:05:00.600 taught fourth grade at a school in Benton. She grew 83 00:05:00.639 --> 00:05:02.279 up in the mountains the way a lot of people 84 00:05:02.319 --> 00:05:06.160 in that part of the state do, fishing, hiking, camping, 85 00:05:06.519 --> 00:05:09.360 learning the names of trees and birds, the way kids 86 00:05:09.360 --> 00:05:12.800 in cities learned street names and bus routes. She knows 87 00:05:12.839 --> 00:05:16.959 the woods. She's comfortable in them, or she was until 88 00:05:16.959 --> 00:05:20.480 that summer. After high school, she went to ut Knoxville 89 00:05:20.519 --> 00:05:23.759 for two years, didn't finish, came home and kicked around 90 00:05:23.800 --> 00:05:27.560 for a while doing different things. Waitressed, worked at a 91 00:05:27.560 --> 00:05:31.959 hardware store, did some seasonal farm work. In the spring 92 00:05:32.000 --> 00:05:34.600 of ninety three, she applied for a seasonal position with 93 00:05:34.639 --> 00:05:39.800 the Forest Service GS three temporary, no benefits, which is 94 00:05:39.839 --> 00:05:43.519 about as entry level as federal employment gets. She got 95 00:05:43.560 --> 00:05:46.040 on and spent that first summer doing trail maintenance in 96 00:05:46.079 --> 00:05:51.720 the Okoe District, clearing blowdowns, repairing tread cleaning, drainage structures. 97 00:05:52.199 --> 00:05:55.920 Hard work, low pay, long days. She loved it. 98 00:05:56.560 --> 00:06:00.879 They brought her back in ninety four, same district, but 99 00:06:00.959 --> 00:06:04.800 this time they assigned her to road maintenance. Specifically, they 100 00:06:04.839 --> 00:06:07.360 sent her to work a section of decommissioned fire road 101 00:06:07.639 --> 00:06:10.279 along a ridge line in the eastern part of Polk County. 102 00:06:11.040 --> 00:06:13.279 The road had been built in the sixties or seventies 103 00:06:13.279 --> 00:06:17.560 for timber access and fire suppression. By the nineties it 104 00:06:17.600 --> 00:06:21.319 wasn't being used for anything. The Forest Service hadn't officially 105 00:06:21.319 --> 00:06:23.959 closed it, but they'd stopped grading it and let it 106 00:06:24.000 --> 00:06:27.040 go to seed. Karen's job was to keep it from 107 00:06:27.079 --> 00:06:31.319 disappearing entirely clear the drain so the road didn't wash out, 108 00:06:31.800 --> 00:06:34.439 cut back the brush that was encroaching from both sides, 109 00:06:34.959 --> 00:06:39.360 fix whatever needed fixing, basic upkeep on a road nobody drove. 110 00:06:40.240 --> 00:06:42.800 She told me she didn't mind the assignment. She liked 111 00:06:42.800 --> 00:06:45.759 working alone, she liked having a section of ground that 112 00:06:45.839 --> 00:06:48.720 was hers to take care of, and she liked the location. 113 00:06:49.680 --> 00:06:51.600 The road ran along the top of a ridge at 114 00:06:51.600 --> 00:06:55.399 about three thousand feet north south, with views down into 115 00:06:55.439 --> 00:06:57.800 the valley on the east side and steep timber on 116 00:06:57.879 --> 00:07:03.319 the west. It was beautiful of there, quiet, remote. The 117 00:07:03.360 --> 00:07:06.360 nearest paved road was about seven miles by dirt track, 118 00:07:06.720 --> 00:07:09.839 and the nearest house was farther than that. She'd drive 119 00:07:09.920 --> 00:07:11.279 the Forest Service truck up. 120 00:07:11.160 --> 00:07:11.720 In the morning. 121 00:07:12.240 --> 00:07:15.759 An old Chevy pickup white with the Forest Service shield 122 00:07:15.800 --> 00:07:18.800 on the door. Park wherever she was working that day 123 00:07:19.160 --> 00:07:22.839 and spend six or eight hours clearing drains, cutting saplings, 124 00:07:23.079 --> 00:07:26.639 filling ruts. She brought her lunch in a cooler, kept 125 00:07:26.680 --> 00:07:29.720 a thermos of coffee in the cab, had a handheld 126 00:07:29.759 --> 00:07:33.360 Motorola radio for emergencies, though the reception up on the 127 00:07:33.439 --> 00:07:37.879 ridge was spotty at best, most days she was completely alone. 128 00:07:38.000 --> 00:07:41.399 She'd see a deer now and then a turkey. Once 129 00:07:41.439 --> 00:07:44.120 in a while, another Forest Service vehicle would come through, 130 00:07:44.759 --> 00:07:48.439 usually a timber cruiser or a wildlife biologist checking on something, 131 00:07:49.160 --> 00:07:51.759 but most days it was just her. She started the 132 00:07:51.800 --> 00:07:55.120 assignment in mid June, and for the first week everything 133 00:07:55.199 --> 00:07:58.959 was normal. The road was in rough shape, Karen told 134 00:07:58.959 --> 00:08:01.959 me that was the first thing she noticed. She'd expected 135 00:08:01.959 --> 00:08:05.600 some deterioration, it had been a few years since anyone 136 00:08:05.600 --> 00:08:08.319 had done real work on it, but what she found 137 00:08:08.399 --> 00:08:11.759 was more than just neglect. The drainage structures were almost 138 00:08:11.839 --> 00:08:15.319 all plugged. Water was running down the road surface instead 139 00:08:15.319 --> 00:08:18.240 of off it, cutting ruts of foot deep in places. 140 00:08:18.920 --> 00:08:22.279 Brush was pushing in from both sides, narrowing the road 141 00:08:22.319 --> 00:08:25.360 to a single lane in some spots and completely closing 142 00:08:25.360 --> 00:08:28.480 it off in others. There were blowdowns across the road 143 00:08:28.600 --> 00:08:31.560 every few hundred yards. A couple of them were big, 144 00:08:32.039 --> 00:08:34.600 mature hardwoods that had come down in storms and just 145 00:08:34.639 --> 00:08:35.679 stayed where they fell. 146 00:08:36.279 --> 00:08:36.879 She spent the. 147 00:08:36.799 --> 00:08:40.039 First three days doing nothing but clearing blowdowns and unplugging 148 00:08:40.120 --> 00:08:42.080 drains chainsaw work. 149 00:08:42.159 --> 00:08:42.559 Mostly. 150 00:08:43.279 --> 00:08:45.759 She'd bucked up trees in her first season, so the 151 00:08:45.799 --> 00:08:48.919 saw didn't bother her, but it was slow going. She 152 00:08:49.039 --> 00:08:50.960 told me she could clear maybe a half mile of 153 00:08:51.039 --> 00:08:53.600 road in a full day's work, and the section she'd 154 00:08:53.600 --> 00:08:57.159 been assigned was just over four miles. On the fourth day, 155 00:08:57.200 --> 00:09:00.279 she was working her way north along the ridge. She'd 156 00:09:00.279 --> 00:09:02.679 cleared a good stretch the day before and was pushing 157 00:09:02.679 --> 00:09:04.960 into a section she hadn't walked yet. 158 00:09:05.399 --> 00:09:06.600 The road curved. 159 00:09:06.240 --> 00:09:08.440 Around the east side of a knob, and as she 160 00:09:08.480 --> 00:09:11.399 came around the bend, she found something that made her stop. 161 00:09:12.080 --> 00:09:16.480 A tree had been broken, not fallen broken, a sour 162 00:09:16.559 --> 00:09:19.840 wood maybe five inches through, snapped off about eight feet 163 00:09:19.840 --> 00:09:23.279 above the ground. The brake was old at least a 164 00:09:23.279 --> 00:09:26.360 few months, based on the color of the exposed wood 165 00:09:26.440 --> 00:09:28.440 and the way the bark had started to curl back 166 00:09:28.440 --> 00:09:31.320 from the fracture, but the top of the tree hadn't 167 00:09:31.360 --> 00:09:34.279 fallen to the ground. It was leaning against a larger 168 00:09:34.320 --> 00:09:37.279 tree about six feet away, propped up at an angle. 169 00:09:38.080 --> 00:09:40.879 She didn't think much of it at first, wind damage. 170 00:09:40.879 --> 00:09:45.080 Maybe ice trees breke for all kinds of reasons, and 171 00:09:45.159 --> 00:09:48.200 she'd seen plenty of storm damage in her time. But 172 00:09:48.279 --> 00:09:51.000 about two hundred yards farther up the road she found 173 00:09:51.039 --> 00:09:55.320 another one, same deal, sour wood snapped at roughly the 174 00:09:55.320 --> 00:09:59.480 same height, top section propped against an adjacent tree, and 175 00:09:59.519 --> 00:10:03.399 then another about one hundred yards past that. Three broken 176 00:10:03.440 --> 00:10:06.799 trees and a half mile stretch, all the same species, 177 00:10:07.360 --> 00:10:10.600 all broken at roughly the same height, all arranged the 178 00:10:10.639 --> 00:10:13.919 same way. She mentioned it to her supervisor when she 179 00:10:13.960 --> 00:10:17.840 called in her daily report that afternoon. She said, I've 180 00:10:17.840 --> 00:10:20.200 got some tree damage up here that looks a little odd. 181 00:10:21.080 --> 00:10:24.480 Her supervisor, a guy named Dennis, asked her what kind 182 00:10:24.519 --> 00:10:27.720 of odd she described the brakes. He said it was 183 00:10:27.799 --> 00:10:31.320 probably bear damage. Black bears will bend saplings to get 184 00:10:31.320 --> 00:10:34.320 at berries, and they'll snap smaller trees if they're climbing 185 00:10:34.399 --> 00:10:37.080 and they're too heavy for the trunk. He told her 186 00:10:37.080 --> 00:10:39.639 not to worry about it. She logged the locations in 187 00:10:39.679 --> 00:10:42.519 her field notebook and moved on. The rest of that 188 00:10:42.600 --> 00:10:47.320 first week was work, hard, steady, physical work. She cleared 189 00:10:47.360 --> 00:10:51.279 almost two miles of road. She unplugged fourteen drains. She 190 00:10:51.360 --> 00:10:54.000 cut back brush until her arms were scratched raw from 191 00:10:54.039 --> 00:10:56.960 the briers and her gloves were shredded. At the end 192 00:10:56.960 --> 00:10:59.679 of each day, she'd drive back down the mountain seven 193 00:10:59.720 --> 00:11:02.600 mile of dirt road, winding down to the paved highway, 194 00:11:03.240 --> 00:11:06.600 go home, eat whatever was easy, and fall asleep on 195 00:11:06.639 --> 00:11:09.679 the couch before the evening news was over. Then she'd 196 00:11:09.679 --> 00:11:12.200 get up and do it again. She told me those 197 00:11:12.240 --> 00:11:14.399 first five days were some of the best of her 198 00:11:14.399 --> 00:11:17.879 time with the Forest Service. The weather was good, the 199 00:11:17.919 --> 00:11:21.080 work was satisfying. You could see the road opening up 200 00:11:21.120 --> 00:11:23.679 behind you, getting better, coming. 201 00:11:23.399 --> 00:11:24.840 Back to life. 202 00:11:24.919 --> 00:11:28.360 She liked being up there alone, like the quiet, like 203 00:11:28.440 --> 00:11:30.320 the feeling of having a piece of ground that was 204 00:11:30.360 --> 00:11:33.519 hers to take care of. She'd eat lunch sitting on 205 00:11:33.519 --> 00:11:36.399 the tailgate with her feet dangling, looking out over the 206 00:11:36.480 --> 00:11:39.120 valley to the east, and think about how lucky she 207 00:11:39.240 --> 00:11:41.039 was to get paid to be in a place like this. 208 00:11:41.879 --> 00:11:44.799 She slept fine that first week, no trouble at all. 209 00:11:45.519 --> 00:11:47.639 The work was tiring enough that she was out within 210 00:11:47.720 --> 00:11:51.679 minutes of sitting down. That changed in week two. On 211 00:11:51.799 --> 00:11:54.000 Monday of the second week, Karen drove up to where 212 00:11:54.000 --> 00:11:56.960 she'd left off on Friday and started working north again. 213 00:11:57.759 --> 00:11:59.360 She was in a section of the road. 214 00:11:59.159 --> 00:12:01.879 That ran along a narrow shelf cut into the east 215 00:12:01.919 --> 00:12:04.039 side of the ridge below her. 216 00:12:04.200 --> 00:12:05.879 To the left, the slope. 217 00:12:05.639 --> 00:12:09.720 Dropped away into the valley, steep, heavily timbered, thick with 218 00:12:09.799 --> 00:12:13.360 rhododendron above her. To the right, the ridge climbed another 219 00:12:13.360 --> 00:12:16.440 few hundred feet to the crest. The road was barely 220 00:12:16.480 --> 00:12:19.960 wide enough for the truck in this stretch. About mid morning, 221 00:12:20.279 --> 00:12:23.919 she smelled something. She described it to me carefully, the 222 00:12:23.919 --> 00:12:27.639 way she describes everything, looking for the right words, not 223 00:12:27.720 --> 00:12:32.080 the dramatic ones. She said it was organic, like something decaying, 224 00:12:32.120 --> 00:12:35.360 but not exactly, not the sharp, sweet rot of a 225 00:12:35.399 --> 00:12:40.519 dead animal, which she'd smelled plenty of times. This was muskier, heavier. 226 00:12:41.200 --> 00:12:43.679 It had a body odor quality to it, she said, 227 00:12:44.080 --> 00:12:47.240 but thicker and more pungent, like if you put a 228 00:12:47.279 --> 00:12:49.600 wet dog and a dead deer in a closet together 229 00:12:49.679 --> 00:12:52.720 for a week. But worse than that, because there was 230 00:12:52.759 --> 00:12:56.480 something underneath it. I couldn't identify something that didn't belong 231 00:12:56.600 --> 00:13:00.200 to any animal I know. The smell was strong enough 232 00:13:00.200 --> 00:13:03.279 that she stopped working and looked around. She figured something 233 00:13:03.320 --> 00:13:07.039 had died in the brush nearby, a deer maybe, or 234 00:13:07.080 --> 00:13:08.639 a coyote. 235 00:13:08.679 --> 00:13:09.240 She walked the. 236 00:13:09.320 --> 00:13:12.200 Edges of the road for about fifty yards in both directions, 237 00:13:12.399 --> 00:13:16.919 looking for a carcass, didn't find one. After about ten minutes, 238 00:13:17.080 --> 00:13:20.960 the smell faded, just drifted off, like whatever was producing 239 00:13:21.000 --> 00:13:24.960 it had moved. She went back to work that afternoon. 240 00:13:24.960 --> 00:13:29.120 Around four o'clock, she smelled it again, same spot. She'd 241 00:13:29.159 --> 00:13:31.399 been working, about a quarter mile north of where she'd 242 00:13:31.440 --> 00:13:33.840 been that morning, and she'd walked back to the truck 243 00:13:33.879 --> 00:13:36.720 to get her water jug. As she passed through the 244 00:13:36.759 --> 00:13:39.720 area where she'd smelled it earlier. There it was again, 245 00:13:40.519 --> 00:13:46.039 same smell, same intensity, same location. She stopped and stood 246 00:13:46.039 --> 00:13:50.360 there for a minute. Looked uphill, looked downhill, looked into 247 00:13:50.399 --> 00:13:54.600 the timber on both sides. She didn't see anything, no movement, 248 00:13:55.039 --> 00:14:00.480 no animal, nothing. The woods were quiet, not unusually quiet, 249 00:14:00.759 --> 00:14:03.639 just afternoon quiet when the birds slow down and the 250 00:14:03.639 --> 00:14:07.399 bugs take over. But the smell was right there, thick 251 00:14:07.480 --> 00:14:11.080 and unmistakable and then it was gone again, like a 252 00:14:11.080 --> 00:14:14.240 switch flipping. One second the air was heavy with it, 253 00:14:14.600 --> 00:14:17.399 and the next second it was clean mountain air, pine 254 00:14:17.440 --> 00:14:20.759 and damp earth and nothing else. Karen wrote down the 255 00:14:20.799 --> 00:14:23.759 time and the location in her field notebook. She told 256 00:14:23.840 --> 00:14:26.159 me she didn't know why she did that. She said 257 00:14:26.159 --> 00:14:29.559 it was instinct. When something doesn't make sense, you write 258 00:14:29.600 --> 00:14:32.679 it down. The next day, Tuesday, she was working in 259 00:14:32.720 --> 00:14:36.240 a different section, about a half mile farther north. She 260 00:14:36.279 --> 00:14:39.679 didn't smell anything unusual all morning, but at four fifteen 261 00:14:39.720 --> 00:14:42.399 in the afternoon, she drove back through the same stretch 262 00:14:42.399 --> 00:14:45.480 of road where she'd smelled it Monday, and there it was, 263 00:14:46.120 --> 00:14:51.440 same spot, same smell, same intensity. Four o'clock again, give 264 00:14:51.519 --> 00:14:56.080 or take fifteen minutes. She wrote it down Wednesday, different 265 00:14:56.120 --> 00:15:00.200 work area, different section of road. Stay tuned for more backwoods. 266 00:15:00.000 --> 00:15:03.080 It's big foot stories. We'll be back after these messages. 267 00:15:05.200 --> 00:15:07.320 She made a point of driving through the smell location 268 00:15:07.399 --> 00:15:11.399 at three forty five before the window nothing clean air. 269 00:15:12.200 --> 00:15:14.919 She parked the truck and waited. At four h five, 270 00:15:15.000 --> 00:15:19.879 the smell hit, same place, same everything. She was standing 271 00:15:19.960 --> 00:15:23.360 outside the truck, this time, leaning against the hood, waiting 272 00:15:23.399 --> 00:15:26.159 for it, and when it came. She turned in a 273 00:15:26.200 --> 00:15:28.840 slow circle, trying to figure out where it was coming 274 00:15:28.879 --> 00:15:33.440 from uphill She thought from the ridge side, but she 275 00:15:33.559 --> 00:15:37.039 wasn't sure. The air was still no wind at all, 276 00:15:37.720 --> 00:15:40.000 and the smell seemed to come from everywhere at once. 277 00:15:40.960 --> 00:15:43.960 She stood in it for about five minutes, then it faded, 278 00:15:44.639 --> 00:15:47.399 same as before. She got in the truck and drove 279 00:15:47.440 --> 00:15:50.159 to a spot where she could get radio reception. She 280 00:15:50.240 --> 00:15:54.080 called Dennis. Dennis, she said, I've got a smell up here, 281 00:15:54.080 --> 00:15:56.519 and I don't know what's making it. She told him 282 00:15:56.559 --> 00:16:00.559 the details, the times, the locations, the consistent and see. 283 00:16:01.080 --> 00:16:03.159 She told him it had happened three days running in 284 00:16:03.240 --> 00:16:06.639 the exact same spot at approximately the same time of day. 285 00:16:07.600 --> 00:16:09.919 Dennis asked her if she thought something had died up there. 286 00:16:10.480 --> 00:16:13.799 She said, Dennis, dead things don't show up at four 287 00:16:13.799 --> 00:16:16.759 o'clock and leave at four fifteen. He told her to 288 00:16:16.840 --> 00:16:21.360 keep an eye on it. Thursday, same thing, four ten pm, 289 00:16:21.519 --> 00:16:24.759 same location. This time, she'd brought a compass and a 290 00:16:24.799 --> 00:16:27.799 topo map, and she took a bearing on the uphill side, 291 00:16:27.840 --> 00:16:31.399 trying to narrow down the origin. She marked the GPS 292 00:16:31.399 --> 00:16:34.679 coordinates in her notebook. She told me the coordinates. Later, 293 00:16:35.399 --> 00:16:37.320 when I plotted them on a map, they fell on 294 00:16:37.360 --> 00:16:40.320 the eastern slope of the same ridgeline. Herschel's camp had 295 00:16:40.320 --> 00:16:44.320 been on twelve miles farther north, but the same ridge, 296 00:16:44.840 --> 00:16:48.279 the same corridor. I didn't tell Karen that at first. 297 00:16:48.679 --> 00:16:50.519 I wanted to hear the rest of her story before 298 00:16:50.559 --> 00:16:53.320 I told her anything about the others. I didn't want 299 00:16:53.360 --> 00:16:56.000 to influence what she remembered, but I made a note 300 00:16:56.039 --> 00:17:00.360 of it. Friday, the smell was there again, time time, 301 00:17:00.840 --> 00:17:04.960 same place, five days in a row. Karen had stopped 302 00:17:04.960 --> 00:17:08.319 trying to explain it. She just documented it. She told 303 00:17:08.359 --> 00:17:11.039 me that's how she handled things that confused her. She 304 00:17:11.079 --> 00:17:13.599 didn't try to solve them. She just wrote down what 305 00:17:13.680 --> 00:17:15.920 was happening and figured she'd make sense of it later. 306 00:17:16.559 --> 00:17:18.839 But the smell wasn't the only thing she was tracking 307 00:17:18.880 --> 00:17:22.759 by then. On Wednesday of that second week, the same 308 00:17:22.839 --> 00:17:25.559 day she'd waited by the truck for the smell, Karen 309 00:17:25.599 --> 00:17:27.839 had taken her lunch break at a creek crossing about 310 00:17:27.839 --> 00:17:31.279 a quarter mile south of the smell location. The road 311 00:17:31.279 --> 00:17:34.599 crossed a small drainage there. During wet weather, the water 312 00:17:34.680 --> 00:17:37.240 ran across the road surface, and there was a patch 313 00:17:37.240 --> 00:17:40.400 of soft clay and silt on the downstream side where 314 00:17:40.440 --> 00:17:42.640 the water pooled before dropping off the edge of the 315 00:17:42.720 --> 00:17:46.599 road and continuing downhill. She was sitting on the tailgate 316 00:17:46.640 --> 00:17:49.359 eating a sandwich when she noticed impressions in the mud. 317 00:17:50.039 --> 00:17:52.799 She got down and walked over to look. The mud 318 00:17:52.839 --> 00:17:57.000 was soft, tacky, not soupy, the kind that holds a 319 00:17:57.000 --> 00:17:59.680 good print. There were deer tracks everywhere. 320 00:18:00.160 --> 00:18:00.880 That was normal. 321 00:18:01.559 --> 00:18:04.319 She could see where a raccoon had walked through, a 322 00:18:04.319 --> 00:18:07.119 couple of turkey prints near the edge, and then there 323 00:18:07.119 --> 00:18:09.960 were these other ones. They were shaped roughly like a 324 00:18:10.039 --> 00:18:15.559 human foot heel ball toes, but they were much larger 325 00:18:15.559 --> 00:18:18.759 than any human foot she'd ever seen. She didn't have 326 00:18:18.799 --> 00:18:21.160 a tape measure on her that day, so she used 327 00:18:21.200 --> 00:18:24.880 her boot for reference. Her boot was a women's size nine, 328 00:18:25.400 --> 00:18:28.240 about ten and a half inches long. She put her 329 00:18:28.240 --> 00:18:30.279 boot heeled to toe with one of the prints and 330 00:18:30.400 --> 00:18:34.000 estimated the print was almost twice as long. She told 331 00:18:34.000 --> 00:18:36.319 me she thought about that for a long time afterward, 332 00:18:36.359 --> 00:18:40.039 and settled on eighteen or nineteen inches. The prints were deep, 333 00:18:40.640 --> 00:18:43.200 deeper than her boot prints in the same mud, and 334 00:18:43.240 --> 00:18:45.319 she weighed about one hundred and forty pounds in her 335 00:18:45.319 --> 00:18:49.440 work gear. Whatever made these prints was heavy. She counted 336 00:18:49.440 --> 00:18:52.759 four of them, two on each side, in a walking pattern. 337 00:18:53.480 --> 00:18:56.000 The stride was long. She paced it off and estimated 338 00:18:56.039 --> 00:18:58.519 about four and a half feet between steps. 339 00:18:58.880 --> 00:18:59.599 They came down. 340 00:18:59.480 --> 00:19:01.759 From the up hill side of the road, crossed the 341 00:19:01.839 --> 00:19:04.880 mud at the creek, and continued downhill into the timber. 342 00:19:05.759 --> 00:19:07.880 Karen squatted next to one of them for a while. 343 00:19:08.440 --> 00:19:10.240 She told me she put her hand down next to 344 00:19:10.279 --> 00:19:13.440 it and just stared at it. The toes were visible 345 00:19:13.880 --> 00:19:17.319 round blunt impressions across the front of the print. No 346 00:19:17.440 --> 00:19:21.720 claw marks. A bear print would show claws, these didn't. 347 00:19:22.359 --> 00:19:25.000 She didn't have a camera with her. She kicked herself 348 00:19:25.039 --> 00:19:27.240 for that later, but she drew the prints in her 349 00:19:27.279 --> 00:19:31.680 notebook with dimensions, and she marked the location. That night, 350 00:19:31.720 --> 00:19:34.359 she went home and looked through her field guides. She 351 00:19:34.440 --> 00:19:37.119 told me she already knew what she wasn't looking at. 352 00:19:37.319 --> 00:19:41.079 She wasn't looking at bear prints, wrong shape, no claws, 353 00:19:41.519 --> 00:19:43.359 and bears don't walk with a four and a half 354 00:19:43.359 --> 00:19:46.720 foot stride on two legs for any distance. She wasn't 355 00:19:46.759 --> 00:19:50.880 looking at human prints. Too big, too deep, and nobody 356 00:19:50.920 --> 00:19:54.400 was walking that road barefoot. She looked through everything she 357 00:19:54.480 --> 00:19:57.400 had on her shelf and couldn't find a match. She 358 00:19:57.440 --> 00:20:00.440 went back to the creek crossing on Thursday. The prints 359 00:20:00.440 --> 00:20:03.119 were still there, but they dried and cracked a little 360 00:20:03.119 --> 00:20:06.640 in the sun. She measured them this time. She'd brought 361 00:20:06.640 --> 00:20:10.440 a folding ruler from the toolbox. The clearest print measured 362 00:20:10.519 --> 00:20:13.279 nineteen inches from heel to toe and about seven inches 363 00:20:13.319 --> 00:20:16.000 across the ball. She told me she sat by that 364 00:20:16.079 --> 00:20:18.440 print for a long time and tried to think of 365 00:20:18.440 --> 00:20:21.799 what could make it. She went through every animal she knew. 366 00:20:22.400 --> 00:20:26.680 She went through every explanation she could think of, overlapping prints, 367 00:20:26.960 --> 00:20:31.440 mud spread, distortion from waterflow. None of it worked. The 368 00:20:31.480 --> 00:20:35.119 prints were clean, distinct, four of them in a clear 369 00:20:35.200 --> 00:20:40.200 bipedal walking pattern with consistent depth and consistent spacing. She 370 00:20:40.200 --> 00:20:42.920 didn't tell Dennis about the prince. She told me she 371 00:20:43.000 --> 00:20:46.599 wasn't sure why exactly. Part of it was that she 372 00:20:46.640 --> 00:20:49.680 didn't want to deal with his reaction. Part of it 373 00:20:49.759 --> 00:20:51.920 was that she wasn't ready to hear someone tell her 374 00:20:52.000 --> 00:20:54.960 it was nothing. She wanted to keep looking before she 375 00:20:55.079 --> 00:20:58.880 let someone else's opinion change what she was seeing. By 376 00:20:58.880 --> 00:21:01.400 the end of week two, Karen had covered almost the 377 00:21:01.559 --> 00:21:04.599 entire four mile section of road, and she'd been paying 378 00:21:04.640 --> 00:21:07.640 attention to the tree breaks the whole time. There were 379 00:21:07.640 --> 00:21:10.680 a lot more of them than she'd initially thought. That 380 00:21:10.759 --> 00:21:13.880 first day, she'd found three. By the end of the 381 00:21:13.920 --> 00:21:18.519 second week, she'd logged over twenty, all hard woods, mostly 382 00:21:18.559 --> 00:21:21.960 sour wood and dogwood, a few young hickory and maple. 383 00:21:22.720 --> 00:21:25.559 All snapped between six and nine feet above the ground. 384 00:21:26.200 --> 00:21:28.720 Some had tops that had fallen normally and were lying 385 00:21:28.759 --> 00:21:32.160 on the ground below the break, but others. At least 386 00:21:32.240 --> 00:21:35.440 eight of them had tops that were propped, wedged, or 387 00:21:35.519 --> 00:21:38.880 leaning against adjacent trees in ways that didn't look natural. 388 00:21:39.640 --> 00:21:43.559 She started photographing them. She'd brought a disposable camera from home, 389 00:21:44.000 --> 00:21:46.920 one of those yellow Kodak ones, and she burned through 390 00:21:46.960 --> 00:21:50.200 a whole roll in two days just shooting tree breaks. 391 00:21:50.599 --> 00:21:52.640 She told me she didn't know what she was documenting 392 00:21:52.720 --> 00:21:55.400 or why, she just had a feeling that it mattered. 393 00:21:56.240 --> 00:22:00.079 The brakes followed the road, not exactly on the road. 394 00:22:00.200 --> 00:22:02.839 In the timber on the uphill side between the road 395 00:22:02.920 --> 00:22:06.319 surface and the ridge crest, within fifty or sixty feet 396 00:22:06.359 --> 00:22:09.559 of the road running parallel to it, A line of 397 00:22:09.559 --> 00:22:13.160 broken trees. Tracking the road north along the ridge line, 398 00:22:13.200 --> 00:22:15.319 on Friday of the second week, she found one that 399 00:22:15.400 --> 00:22:18.880 was different from the others, a young maple about four 400 00:22:18.880 --> 00:22:22.720 inches in diameter. The trunk hadn't been snapped, it had 401 00:22:22.759 --> 00:22:26.359