Speaker 1: I've spent most of my life in the western North
Carolina Mountains. My encounter happened in the early nineteen nineties.
My kids and I would spend our weekends and evenings
hunting the North Carolina Mountains for Gensen. It's a beautiful
plant that grows in the hollers in our local area.
The children enjoyed this activity, searching the forest floor for
the distinct five leaf plant that gave proof the gen
seen route would be found in the rich, dark soil below.
We did this every September in October. Digging and searching,
we could earn several thousand dollars once the roots were
dried and sold. A lot of mountain folks would make
extra money this way, the children would get to keep
any money they made for their efforts. That was a
huge motivation. Particular year, we found a real honey hole
in a place called Greenville Watershed. It is a restricted
nineteen thousand acre reserve. A highway passes through the area
with signs visible all along that warned you not to trespass.
Looking back, I have to ask myself why on earth
we went in there, because we could have gotten in
a lot of trouble. If we had been caught. This
forest was completely untouched by humans and it was isolated.
Needless to say, there was an abundant plant life. One evening,
after my husband got off work, we went to our
honey hole to dig. The fall evening was perfect, The
air was crisp, and the sky was blue, and we
had been blessed with our diggings. In fact, we were
so successful that we went further into the forest than usual.
The day had gotten away from us and darkness was
setting in Under the tree canopy, we made our way
back toward our which was parked in a discreete area
along a narrow road. We were still in the darkness
of the woods, but we could see the last of
the day's light where the trees were cleared along the road.
My husband was in front and our kids were in
the middle, and I was bringing up the rear. We
approached the light, we heard a huge noise. At first,
I thought it was rocks falling from the high peak
of the adjacent mountain, and I looked up in that direction,
thinking I would see a commotion. When we all stopped
and listened, I realized it wasn't rocks crashing. It was
a huge, growling breath way too close to us. We froze.
No one spoke for several seconds. The children started to
whimper as the reality of what we heard set in.
When we took a step forward, the creature released another long,
rolling growl. It was so loud and long that it
shook my insides, and I knew then that it was
watching us. We had no choice but to walk forward
toward the car and out of the dark woods. I
did not want the children to start running, so I
held my youngest hand and instructed the other two not
to run, but to walk slowly and steadily to the car.
We took several more steps forward, and the creature once
again released that warning breath, sending tremors of fear through
my body, but we didn't stop. We all held steady
and made it to our vehicle, and as soon as
we were in the car, we took off, the children
crying and all of us questioning what on earth was
in the woods with us. We never went back to
that area again. We still retell that event, and we
all agreed that the creature that warned us away that
day was a big one. I now live in a
small town in the area known as Forest City. We
bought a sixty eight acre piece of property that is
partially pasture and part forest. I have seen evidence that
Bigfoot passes through occasionally. I see twisted off trees and
it leaves a horrible odor. It calls and makes tree
knocks too. Now I haven't seen it, and I'm not
looking for it. I'm satisfied to know that they are
living peacefully nearby, and that's enough for me. Okay, here's
a fun little piece of Steve Lily fan fiction. I
told people that you're feel free to write Steve Lily's
stories and I would put them on the podcast. I
don't know the name of this writer. I think it's
a woman from Charleston, South Carolina. This is really good.
I live at the trailer park. It ain't a bad
place if you learn who to avoid and who to ignore,
and mind your business. One of my favorite things to
do is people watch from my little deck just to
the right of the front door, and it gets the
best son. Our trailer backs up to the woods and
all the trails and forts that the park kids built.
I know all the kids here and I try to
watch out for them. There's a lot of them that
are latch key kids with working parents. Well there I
was one afternoon on my porch, laying low in minding
my business, when I heard the kids coming up from
the woods at the back of the trailer park talking excitedly. Hey,
it's not my fault. One of them said, it's not
my fault either, said another one. Well, she's your sister.
Which one of you was playing with her? Was it? Me? On?
These kids went bickering at each other, and I tune
most of it out until I heard something that piqued
my interest. I'm hiding out over at your house. One
of the kids said, my mom is gonna whoop my
butt good if she don't show up. I told her
not to go running after the baby monkey. Another said,
there's no monkeys Mississippi, dummy. It wasn't that, And you
know it what I thought to myself, realizing they left
someone's little sister out in the woods chasing monkeys. I
took off to the back of the trailer and set
off in the woods. It wouldn't be long before dark,
and luckily I knew those woods better than anyone, having
lived there most of my life. The kid's trail was
easy to follow on the sandy path. There were lots
of footprints and broken sticks and leaves. So far, so good,
I thought, though I had to go deeper into the
woods than usual. I finally veered off the path and
I saw two sets of small, barefoot tracks. Those idiot
kids let the little sister out here with no shoes on,
I thought. I shook my head. Then I saw another
small set of tracks, which was a bit suspicious. Was
I looking for one lost kid or two? Well? On
I went for over an hour, knowing that this little
girl was certainly lost by now, and then I smelled something.
Oh oh, I thought, it's a pole cat. It's gone.
What on earth was making that god awful smell. I
got closer and it got stronger and stronger. There was
something familiar about it. I had smelled it before, and
then it hit me, sisquatch. It had to be. Is
that what that little girl was chasing? A baby? Sisquatch?
This wasn't looking good. I knew I had to hurry
up and find her before mama squatched it. Well. Not
long after that, I heard pitiful crying sounds. Thank goodness,
I thought, I found the girl and I spread it
in the direction of the sound, I stopped to look around,
and in an instant I got the scare of my lifetime.
Something fell on top of me and wrapped its hairy
little arms around my neck. Oh dear, I thought, realizing
a baby sasque watch had wrapped her body around me
like a monkey on a tree. I knew Mama would
be looking for her, and she would be mad. What
was I going to do? Now? I needed to return
this thing and find the little girl. With the baby
wrapped around my neck, I started going back the way
I came. I followed my steps to the main trail
and looked right and left, knowing Mama was gonna come
any second and find me. And then I heard a
growl from somewhere in the bushes. I backed up, knowing
that running would have been a bad idea. I heard
another growl behind me, and another one off to the side.
The baby clumbed to my neck even tighter, afraid of
whatever was in the bushes watching us. One of them
darted between the trees and I got a glimpse of it.
It was a pack of coyotes. To hell with this,
I thought, feet don't fail me now with the pursuit
on the coyotes yodled and yep. I ran as fast
as I could, and the pack ran with me, more
of them seeming to join in the faster I went.
I had made a big mistake, and now I had
no idea where I was. The woods had become so
thick to see through, and I had become winded. I
backed up against the large pine tree and coaxed the
baby onto the nearest branch, knowing at least she would
be safe. Climb on up, Baby, climb, I whispered. I
watched her climb the tree, and I heard the dogs
come to a sliding halt behind me. I knew then
that I would not be going home tonight. When the
first coyote lunged at me, I raised my arms over
my head in a pitiful attempt to shield myself. Then
a miracle happened. I heard it being launched into the
side of the tree. When I heard a second one jump,
I heard a smash into the tree too, and I
heard them yipping and lunging, but none of them touched me.
I got brave enough to take a look, and that's
when I saw Mama Squatch. To say she was mad
would have been an understatement. She was eight feet tall,
no doubt. As she made her way to me, she
snatched codies up by the tail and swung them headfirst
into the nearest tree. Her eyes never lost my face.
Her teeth were grimacing, and out came her tongue, and
she inhaled deeply and screamed, bloody murder. The sound hit
me like a bag of rocks and rang through me
like a jackhammer. My chest hurt from the vibration. She
inhaled again and screamed louder, probably having smelled her baby
on me and letting me know that she was furious
about it. The surviving codies ran in every direction, and
as she approached me, she raised her large ham sized
fist in the air. I closed my eyes. This wasn't
the death I had figured earlier. Thump. The baby squatch
landed on me again and wrapped her arms around my neck.
She put her face next to mine and looked at
her mama, who stopped in her tracks. I saw her
face soften as she reached her long arms out to
take her baby. After their touching reunion, the mama reached
out and stroked my hair. It was a strange sort
of thing. But knowing she wasn't going to kill me,
I could at least breathe again. If only she had
the neighbor's girl and we could swap, I thought, as
if she had read my mind. She looked deep into
my eyes and she softly whooped. Somehow I understood her.
She wanted me to follow. As in all unbelievable happy endings,
Mama Squatch led me to a makeshift nest, and when
I looked over the edge of the sticks and the twigs,
I saw the little girl I had been looking for.
She was sound asleep. Mama Squatch had probably looked out
for her so the coo wouldn't get her. Mama looked
behind her nervously, like there was something out there that
still worried her. I had heard about sasquatch hunters and worse,
and knowing this Mama had enough on her plate, I
woke up the little girl and we got out of there.
We ran a few paces, and then I stopped, wanting
to thank the Mama Squatch, but when I turned around,
her and the baby were gone. I let the little
girl down the path through the woods, and when we
came out from behind my trailer, she ran straight for home.
Ahead of me, I saw my man home from work
getting out of his car, and when he saw me,
he waved his hand in front of his face, laughing. Phew,
what you been doing girl, chasing skunks? He asked me.
Lewis hurriedly walked over. Steve, don't you fuss at her.
The neighbor's girl just told me that Lily found her
in the woods and brought her home. She deserves a steak.
Steve Lily nodded and shrugged. Now this was Steve Lily
quote fan fiction, and it wasn't. It wasn't the normal
circumstance that Steve Lily would be in. But he's in
the story. So I want to tell this writer how
much I appreciate them thinking enough of my Steve Lily
stories that you would take the time to write a
great story like this. This was really good. It was
written almost in you know, the mint Southern vernaculars. Easy
for me to read because I kind of got it.
The woman who wrote it is from Charleston, South Carolina, Carolina.
Apparently we talked pretty close. Charleston, South Carolina is one
of my favorite places. It's one of the nicest, nicest
people in the world on the east coast of South
Carolina and North Carolina. Wilmington's that way, Outer Banks is
that way. I love the East Coast. I'd love to
live out there someday. Anyway, all that said, thank you
for writing this, and that'll wind up this podcast. I've
got quite a bit of work going on. It's hopefully
it's my last job I'm gonna do for the year.
When i'm done, i'll finish up Steve Lilly Number nineteen
and it'll be published. And just be patient. Everybody's asking
for Steve Lily. I'm not done writing Steve Lily. I've
just hitting a I've just hit a phase where I
don't know, I can't do two things at one time.
I've been working so hard on this podcast for you know,
about six or seven years, and I'm just backing away
and I'm not working twelve fourteen hours a day. I'm
just working maybe ten hours a day, and I'm skipping
the podcast part. I come out about every third day
early in the morning, and I record a couple of
stories and I'm gonna be putting those out. But just
hang on, I'm not done with this. I'm having so
much fun with it. This next Steve Lily should be
a ringer. It's pretty good. I think it's a good
idea for a story. Hang on, thanks for listening to
this podcast and I certainly do appreciate you, and we'll
see you on the next week.