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 --> 00:00:32.320 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 --> 00:01:03.280 and let's head off into the woods if you dare. Hey, Brian, 13 00:01:03.759 --> 00:01:05.599 I don't know how you sort through what lands in 14 00:01:05.640 --> 00:01:08.879 your inbox, and I won't pretend my stories the strangest 15 00:01:08.879 --> 00:01:11.920 one you've ever been sent. I've listened to enough of 16 00:01:11.959 --> 00:01:14.640 your shows to know you handle people's stories with care, 17 00:01:15.079 --> 00:01:17.519 and that's the only reason I'm sitting down to write this. 18 00:01:18.239 --> 00:01:20.959 My daughter played me one of your Encounter episode's last 19 00:01:21.040 --> 00:01:24.200 Christmas in her kitchen. I sat there with her earbud 20 00:01:24.239 --> 00:01:27.000 in my ear for forty straight minutes and didn't say 21 00:01:27.000 --> 00:01:29.959 a word. When it was over. She asked me what 22 00:01:30.040 --> 00:01:31.920 I thought of it, and I told her i'd let 23 00:01:31.920 --> 00:01:35.200 her know that was almost a year ago. Here, I 24 00:01:35.239 --> 00:01:39.200 am two things up front before any of it. Every 25 00:01:39.319 --> 00:01:41.640 name in here is a first name only, and none 26 00:01:41.640 --> 00:01:44.319 of them's real. The man who hired me back then 27 00:01:44.359 --> 00:01:47.040 has been gone for some years now, but his family's 28 00:01:47.040 --> 00:01:49.680 still around and they don't deserve to have his last 29 00:01:49.760 --> 00:01:52.120 name dragged into something he never spoke about while he 30 00:01:52.200 --> 00:01:55.040 was alive. The young man who came with us as 31 00:01:55.040 --> 00:01:57.719 his assistant is doing fine from what I hear, and 32 00:01:57.760 --> 00:02:00.439 I've left him alone for thirty years and intend to 33 00:02:00.519 --> 00:02:04.319 keep doing that. So in this email, i'll call him Conrad. 34 00:02:04.840 --> 00:02:07.280 The kid I'll call Drew, and you can call me 35 00:02:07.359 --> 00:02:09.759 Tim if you read any of this on the air. 36 00:02:10.520 --> 00:02:13.120 That isn't the name on my driver's license, but it's 37 00:02:13.159 --> 00:02:15.240 close enough to what folks used to call me when 38 00:02:15.280 --> 00:02:17.800 I worked. The second thing is that I don't want 39 00:02:17.800 --> 00:02:20.319 a dime for this, and I don't want anybody coming 40 00:02:20.360 --> 00:02:23.000 up here to look for the place. The country where 41 00:02:23.000 --> 00:02:25.479 it happened is still out there, and the line that 42 00:02:25.520 --> 00:02:28.240 got crossed is still a line. So if you decide 43 00:02:28.280 --> 00:02:31.080 to tell this, tell it as a story, don't tell 44 00:02:31.120 --> 00:02:35.000 it as a map. All right, that's the housekeeping here 45 00:02:35.039 --> 00:02:38.800 we go. I started guiding hunters in northern Idaho in 46 00:02:38.840 --> 00:02:41.560 the late eighties. I'd come back from four years in 47 00:02:41.599 --> 00:02:44.039 the Marine Corps with nothing in my pocket and a 48 00:02:44.080 --> 00:02:46.520 back that wasn't going to like office work, and a 49 00:02:46.560 --> 00:02:48.719 man my dad knew offered to teach me what he 50 00:02:48.800 --> 00:02:51.520 knew about elk and mule deer in exchange for help 51 00:02:51.599 --> 00:02:55.000 around his place. By the time I hit my early thirties, 52 00:02:55.199 --> 00:02:57.319 I was running my own outfit out of a single 53 00:02:57.360 --> 00:03:00.439 wide trailer and a battered bronco, and I had a 54 00:03:00.479 --> 00:03:02.719 reputation for being the kind of guide who'd put you 55 00:03:02.759 --> 00:03:06.199 on an animal when nobody else could. That sounds prouder 56 00:03:06.240 --> 00:03:09.680 than it ought to. The truth was I needed the work. 57 00:03:10.479 --> 00:03:12.439 My wife at the time and I had a baby boy, 58 00:03:12.919 --> 00:03:15.199 and the medical bills from his first eight months had 59 00:03:15.280 --> 00:03:17.319 hit us in a way that took years to climb 60 00:03:17.319 --> 00:03:20.400 out from under. By the fall of nineteen ninety five, 61 00:03:20.479 --> 00:03:22.719 I was guiding anything that walked through the door with 62 00:03:22.800 --> 00:03:27.120 cash in its hand. Black Bear Mountain goat elk late 63 00:03:27.159 --> 00:03:30.280 season cow tags. I once took a dentist out for 64 00:03:30.360 --> 00:03:32.960 ruffed grouse because he'd offered me four hundred dollars for 65 00:03:33.000 --> 00:03:36.280 a half day walk and we needed the propane. I 66 00:03:36.319 --> 00:03:38.719 tell you that because I wanted on record. I wasn't 67 00:03:38.759 --> 00:03:41.520 a brave man. I was a tired man with a 68 00:03:41.560 --> 00:03:44.759 young family, and tired men with young families say yes 69 00:03:44.800 --> 00:03:48.719 to things they probably shouldn't. Conrad came to me in 70 00:03:48.759 --> 00:03:51.800 the second week of September, though he didn't drive up himself, 71 00:03:52.599 --> 00:03:55.639 a man i'd guided two years before. A real estate 72 00:03:55.680 --> 00:03:59.199 fellow out of Spokane had given Conrad my number, and 73 00:03:59.280 --> 00:04:02.319 Conrad called me from a hotel in Kurdalen and said 74 00:04:02.360 --> 00:04:04.599 he had a project he wanted to discuss in person. 75 00:04:05.240 --> 00:04:09.840 He used that word project, not a hunt, not a trip, 76 00:04:10.240 --> 00:04:13.560 a project. I should have heard something in that, but 77 00:04:13.639 --> 00:04:16.319 I didn't. He showed up the next morning in a 78 00:04:16.399 --> 00:04:19.240 least suburban with the longest Matt Black case in the 79 00:04:19.279 --> 00:04:22.319 back seat I'd ever seen riding to a hunt. He 80 00:04:22.399 --> 00:04:26.240 was maybe forty five, lean, gray at the temples, with 81 00:04:26.360 --> 00:04:28.560 the kind of soft hands that have never gripped a 82 00:04:28.600 --> 00:04:32.160 wrench but have signed a great mini checks he had 83 00:04:32.199 --> 00:04:34.680 on the brand new version of every piece of gear 84 00:04:34.720 --> 00:04:38.800 the catalogs were pushing that year new boots, new jacket, 85 00:04:39.240 --> 00:04:42.879 a wristwatch that probably cost more than my truck. He 86 00:04:42.920 --> 00:04:45.360 had a young man with him, maybe twenty three or 87 00:04:45.399 --> 00:04:48.519 twenty four, whose job, as far as I could tell, 88 00:04:49.120 --> 00:04:52.639 was to carry whatever Conrad sat down. That was drew. 89 00:04:53.839 --> 00:04:56.240 We sat at my kitchen table and Conrad opened up 90 00:04:56.279 --> 00:05:00.720 a folder. Inside were aerial photographs, top g graphic maps 91 00:05:00.759 --> 00:05:04.120 with grease pencil circles on them, and three printed articles 92 00:05:04.160 --> 00:05:06.160 that looked like they'd come off the early days of 93 00:05:06.199 --> 00:05:09.199 the Internet, which still felt new and shaky back then. 94 00:05:10.000 --> 00:05:12.319 I didn't have a computer myself, so I read the 95 00:05:12.360 --> 00:05:16.759 headlines upside down across the table. The articles were about Sasquatch. 96 00:05:17.240 --> 00:05:19.720 I didn't say anything at first. I just looked up 97 00:05:19.759 --> 00:05:22.879 at him and waited. He smiled, the way a man 98 00:05:22.959 --> 00:05:25.079 smiles when he thinks he has the upper hand of 99 00:05:25.160 --> 00:05:28.079 every room he walks into. He said he wanted to 100 00:05:28.120 --> 00:05:32.199 take a Sasquatch. I'll be honest about my reaction. I 101 00:05:32.240 --> 00:05:34.920 didn't laugh or tell him to leave. I sat at 102 00:05:34.959 --> 00:05:37.160 the table with my coffee in my hand, and I 103 00:05:37.160 --> 00:05:39.759 thought about the truck payment, and the propane bill, and 104 00:05:39.759 --> 00:05:42.079 the new pair of boots my boy needed for school. 105 00:05:42.480 --> 00:05:45.199 And I asked Conrad what he meant exactly when he 106 00:05:45.199 --> 00:05:48.480 said the word take. He laid it out for me. 107 00:05:49.199 --> 00:05:51.439 He'd heard through a friend of a friend that there 108 00:05:51.480 --> 00:05:53.079 was a part of the country up here where the 109 00:05:53.079 --> 00:05:56.639 locals didn't go after dark. He'd paid somebody to dig 110 00:05:56.720 --> 00:05:59.680 up old newspaper articles and a few hunter reports from 111 00:05:59.720 --> 00:06:03.160 the setes. He'd spoken to a fish and game biologist 112 00:06:03.160 --> 00:06:06.439 who'd asked not to be quoted. He decided this was 113 00:06:06.480 --> 00:06:08.920 the place he didn't expect to walk out of the 114 00:06:08.959 --> 00:06:11.399 woods with a body. And he told me that plainly 115 00:06:12.160 --> 00:06:16.639 what he wanted was footage, thermal footage, audio, something he 116 00:06:16.680 --> 00:06:18.879 could take to a private buyer he'd already been in 117 00:06:18.920 --> 00:06:23.040 touch with. Failing that, he'd settle for a clean trophy shot. 118 00:06:23.680 --> 00:06:25.920 He said the word trophy the way other people say 119 00:06:25.920 --> 00:06:29.639 the word groceries. I asked him about Drew. He waved 120 00:06:29.639 --> 00:06:31.639 his hand and said Drew would handle the cameras and 121 00:06:31.680 --> 00:06:35.319 carry batteries and wouldn't be in his way. Drew, sitting 122 00:06:35.360 --> 00:06:37.480 in the corner with a notebook, looked at me like 123 00:06:37.519 --> 00:06:40.199 he was hoping I'd say something his boss couldn't argue with. 124 00:06:41.040 --> 00:06:43.560 Then Conrad slid a piece of paper across the table. 125 00:06:44.199 --> 00:06:47.360 On it, he'd written a number. The number was twelve 126 00:06:47.439 --> 00:06:50.759 thousand dollars. He told me, in the same voice he 127 00:06:50.839 --> 00:06:53.399 might have used to order a sandwich, that I'd receive 128 00:06:53.480 --> 00:06:56.319 half upfront in cash and the other half in cash 129 00:06:56.360 --> 00:06:59.079 on our return. I told him I needed to think 130 00:06:59.120 --> 00:07:01.800 about it overnight, and he nodded as though he'd never 131 00:07:01.839 --> 00:07:04.240 heard a no in his life and probably never would, 132 00:07:04.759 --> 00:07:06.720 and he said he'd be at the hotel until ten 133 00:07:06.800 --> 00:07:10.040 the next morning. After he left, I drove out to 134 00:07:10.079 --> 00:07:12.319 a ridge above my place and sat in the bed 135 00:07:12.360 --> 00:07:14.800 of my pickup and watched the dark come in over 136 00:07:14.839 --> 00:07:18.720 the cell Kirks. Twelve thousand dollars in nineteen ninety five 137 00:07:18.839 --> 00:07:21.680 was almost half a year's income for me. It was 138 00:07:21.720 --> 00:07:24.800 my boy's medical, the rest of the truck, and breathing 139 00:07:24.839 --> 00:07:28.079 room I hadn't had since the previous winter. I called 140 00:07:28.120 --> 00:07:30.759 him at nine the next morning and said, yes, I 141 00:07:30.800 --> 00:07:33.480 want that on record. I made the choice with my 142 00:07:33.560 --> 00:07:37.680 eyes open. Whatever happened later wasn't something Conrad did to me. 143 00:07:38.319 --> 00:07:41.759 It was something I walked into knowing better. I'd grown 144 00:07:41.839 --> 00:07:44.639 up listening to old men in this country. The old 145 00:07:44.680 --> 00:07:47.240 men I came up around were a mix of timber families, 146 00:07:47.720 --> 00:07:49.839 a couple of Salish elders who came down to a 147 00:07:49.879 --> 00:07:52.920 diner on the highway every Wednesday, and a handful of 148 00:07:52.920 --> 00:07:56.519 trappers who'd been working those drainages since before I was born. 149 00:07:56.839 --> 00:07:59.319 They didn't all agree on much, and they didn't even 150 00:07:59.360 --> 00:08:01.160 all agree on what to call the thing we were 151 00:08:01.160 --> 00:08:04.199 going up there to find. But they agreed on one 152 00:08:04.240 --> 00:08:07.120 piece of country, and they agreed on one piece of advice, 153 00:08:07.560 --> 00:08:09.519 And the advice had been the same for as long 154 00:08:09.560 --> 00:08:12.519 as anybody had been giving it. There was a creek 155 00:08:12.600 --> 00:08:14.680 up in the high country that the old maps didn't 156 00:08:14.680 --> 00:08:17.879 bother to name. The white loggers and the trappers had 157 00:08:17.920 --> 00:08:21.199 a few names for it, none of them official. The 158 00:08:21.240 --> 00:08:24.040 Salish men I knew called it something I won't right here, 159 00:08:24.399 --> 00:08:27.680 because it isn't mine to write. The simplest thing the 160 00:08:27.720 --> 00:08:29.639 old men used to tell me when I was a 161 00:08:29.639 --> 00:08:32.559 boy and asking too many questions, was that you didn't 162 00:08:32.600 --> 00:08:35.840 cross that creek to hunt. You could cross it for water. 163 00:08:36.440 --> 00:08:38.320 You could cross it for a lost dog. If you 164 00:08:38.399 --> 00:08:42.039 had to, you didn't cross it to take. I asked 165 00:08:42.039 --> 00:08:45.440 an old trapper once when I was maybe fifteen, what 166 00:08:45.440 --> 00:08:48.159 would happen if you did. He had a face like 167 00:08:48.200 --> 00:08:51.000 a piece of driftwood, and he didn't answer me right away. 168 00:08:51.919 --> 00:08:53.960 He chewed on his lip for a minute, and then 169 00:08:54.000 --> 00:08:57.120 he said, you'd find out who lives there. I thought 170 00:08:57.159 --> 00:08:59.480 about that conversation more than once on the drive in. 171 00:09:00.360 --> 00:09:03.639 I didn't share any of it with Conrad, not at first. 172 00:09:04.320 --> 00:09:06.240 We met up at a turn off above a forest 173 00:09:06.240 --> 00:09:09.000 service road on the second of October, and I drove 174 00:09:09.039 --> 00:09:12.200 the lead truck while Conrad and Drew followed in the suburban. 175 00:09:13.000 --> 00:09:15.000 We had close to four hours of road to cover. 176 00:09:15.720 --> 00:09:18.080 The first three were on county and forest roads that 177 00:09:18.120 --> 00:09:20.879 any pickup could handle, but the last hour was on 178 00:09:20.919 --> 00:09:22.960 a track that I had to get out twice to clear. 179 00:09:23.759 --> 00:09:25.840 I'd put a chainsaw in the bed for that purpose. 180 00:09:26.600 --> 00:09:29.679 Conrad watched me work without offering to help, and Drew 181 00:09:29.759 --> 00:09:32.440 tried twice to pitch in and was waved off by 182 00:09:32.440 --> 00:09:35.440 his boss. Let me give you a sense of Conrad 183 00:09:35.480 --> 00:09:39.600 before I go any further, because he matters. He wasn't stupid, 184 00:09:39.919 --> 00:09:42.279 and he wasn't cruel in the regular sense of the word. 185 00:09:43.080 --> 00:09:45.559 He was something I think people from his world become 186 00:09:45.679 --> 00:09:49.039 without meaning to. He'd spent thirty years being the most 187 00:09:49.080 --> 00:09:52.279 important person in any room he walked into, and he'd 188 00:09:52.279 --> 00:09:55.639 stop noticing there were rooms. He thought of the woods 189 00:09:55.639 --> 00:09:58.720 the way he thought of his own driveway. He believed 190 00:09:59.039 --> 00:10:01.120 on a level he didn't, even though he believed it, 191 00:10:01.480 --> 00:10:04.480 that the country we were driving into belonged to whoever 192 00:10:04.519 --> 00:10:07.519 could afford to be in it. He told me, while 193 00:10:07.559 --> 00:10:10.200 I was sawing through a windfall pine that he'd taken 194 00:10:10.200 --> 00:10:13.639 a leopard in Zambia in nineteen ninety one. I don't 195 00:10:13.639 --> 00:10:16.200 doubt he had. He told me he'd taken a brown 196 00:10:16.240 --> 00:10:19.960 bear in Kumchotka, and he said the word Kamchatka the 197 00:10:20.000 --> 00:10:21.919 way some men say the name of a woman they 198 00:10:22.039 --> 00:10:24.679 used to know. He said he'd had his eye on 199 00:10:24.720 --> 00:10:28.639 this for a long time. This he didn't say what 200 00:10:28.679 --> 00:10:32.440 this was. The Sasquatch wasn't a creature to him. It 201 00:10:32.519 --> 00:10:35.960 was an entry on a list. Drew was a different animal. 202 00:10:36.360 --> 00:10:38.519 He was a film school kid who'd taken this gig 203 00:10:38.559 --> 00:10:40.399 because it paid him in a month what he made 204 00:10:40.440 --> 00:10:43.440 in a year of waiting tables in Seattle. He had 205 00:10:43.519 --> 00:10:46.399 every piece of camera equipment Conrad had bought him laid 206 00:10:46.399 --> 00:10:49.559 out in foam in three pelican cases, and he treated 207 00:10:49.559 --> 00:10:52.879 those cases like they were full of glass eggs. He 208 00:10:52.919 --> 00:10:55.600 apologized to me twice for things that weren't his fault, 209 00:10:55.960 --> 00:10:58.960 and he offered me half his sandwich at lunch. He 210 00:10:59.039 --> 00:11:00.720 was scared of his boss in a way that made 211 00:11:00.759 --> 00:11:04.120 me feel sorry for him, and a little protective in 212 00:11:04.200 --> 00:11:07.360 a way I tried not to let show. We made 213 00:11:07.399 --> 00:11:10.519 the trailhead in the late afternoon. By trailhead, I mean 214 00:11:10.559 --> 00:11:12.720 a wide spot in the road where the track ran 215 00:11:12.759 --> 00:11:16.559 out and a faint footpath continued up through Alder. There 216 00:11:16.639 --> 00:11:20.200 was no sign, no register box, nothing on any map 217 00:11:20.240 --> 00:11:24.120 I owned that said this place existed by name. I parked, 218 00:11:24.399 --> 00:11:26.679 stepped out, and stood at the edge of the road, 219 00:11:27.000 --> 00:11:30.080 watching the country for a long time. You should know 220 00:11:30.120 --> 00:11:33.159 that I'd been into this drainage before. I'd hunted it 221 00:11:33.200 --> 00:11:35.000 as a young man with a friend of mine whose 222 00:11:35.080 --> 00:11:37.360 dad had brought him up there, and we'd stayed on 223 00:11:37.399 --> 00:11:40.720 the lower side. We'd taken a five y five bull 224 00:11:40.799 --> 00:11:44.320 in a meadow about three miles up. The country was steep, 225 00:11:44.559 --> 00:11:48.120 mostly old growth cedar. At the bottom then mixed conifer, 226 00:11:48.480 --> 00:11:51.159 then high country with little hidden parks and rock out 227 00:11:51.200 --> 00:11:55.039 crops up around six and seven thousand feet. There was 228 00:11:55.120 --> 00:11:58.759 elkin there, and bear and the usual ruffed grouse and 229 00:11:58.799 --> 00:12:02.919 the occasional moose moved through. There was also, depending on 230 00:12:02.960 --> 00:12:06.919 who you asked, something else. I'd never seen it. I'd 231 00:12:06.960 --> 00:12:09.519 heard things the way you hear things in the woods, 232 00:12:09.879 --> 00:12:11.960 and I'd come across a couple of pieces of sign 233 00:12:12.080 --> 00:12:15.519 in my career that I couldn't account for. I hadn't 234 00:12:15.600 --> 00:12:18.279 in my own mind made a decision about whether the 235 00:12:18.360 --> 00:12:21.720 something else was real. What I decided was that the 236 00:12:21.759 --> 00:12:24.919 old men I trusted believed it was, and that the 237 00:12:24.960 --> 00:12:28.759 old men were rarely wrong about country. The creek I'd 238 00:12:28.759 --> 00:12:31.279 been told never to cross was about four miles in 239 00:12:31.320 --> 00:12:34.200 from where we parked. I planned to camp short of 240 00:12:34.240 --> 00:12:37.799 it that first night. That was the plan. We hiked 241 00:12:37.799 --> 00:12:40.440 in for the rest of the daylight. Conrad set a 242 00:12:40.480 --> 00:12:42.200 fast pace for a man who'd been sitting in a 243 00:12:42.279 --> 00:12:44.960 leather seat for four hours, and his gear was light 244 00:12:45.039 --> 00:12:47.840 because Drew was carrying half of it. I had my 245 00:12:47.879 --> 00:12:50.799 own pack and the chainsaw. We made it about two 246 00:12:50.799 --> 00:12:53.159 and a half miles before the light went and I 247 00:12:53.200 --> 00:12:55.559 called a halt at a flat spot beside a smaller 248 00:12:55.600 --> 00:12:58.080 feed or creek that I'd used as a camp before. 249 00:12:59.000 --> 00:13:02.559 The first night was eventful, and that matters. It was 250 00:13:02.600 --> 00:13:07.679 completely ordinary. We had a small fire. Conrad drank two 251 00:13:07.720 --> 00:13:09.879 fingers of bourbon out of a steel cup and told 252 00:13:09.879 --> 00:13:12.720 a story about a koodoo in Namibia that I didn't 253 00:13:12.879 --> 00:13:17.080 entirely follow. Drew worked on his cameras by headlamp. We 254 00:13:17.120 --> 00:13:19.559 could hear an owl somewhere up the slope, and a 255 00:13:19.600 --> 00:13:22.879 bull elk bugled twice over toward the north ridge, and 256 00:13:22.960 --> 00:13:25.440 Conrad got quiet and listened to it like he was 257 00:13:25.480 --> 00:13:28.840 hearing music in a language he understood. I lay in 258 00:13:28.840 --> 00:13:31.399 my tent that night and listened to the country, and 259 00:13:31.480 --> 00:13:34.320 the country sounded the way the country was supposed to sound, 260 00:13:35.039 --> 00:13:38.480 wind in the cedars, the creek down below us, the 261 00:13:38.480 --> 00:13:41.360 small noise of mice in the duff. I went to 262 00:13:41.399 --> 00:13:44.480 sleep and slept hard. I'm telling you about that ordinary 263 00:13:44.559 --> 00:13:47.360 night because of what happened on the second day. We 264 00:13:47.440 --> 00:13:50.679 broke camp at first light. Conrad wanted to push hard. 265 00:13:51.320 --> 00:13:53.159 I told him we had a long climb to where 266 00:13:53.200 --> 00:13:55.559 I'd planned to set up base camp, and we'd want 267 00:13:55.559 --> 00:13:57.519 to be on the ground there with light to spare 268 00:13:57.559 --> 00:14:00.120 so we could glass the basin in the evening. He 269 00:14:00.159 --> 00:14:04.000 said fine. We moved around mid morning. We came on 270 00:14:04.039 --> 00:14:07.279 the first thing. It was a young pine, maybe four 271 00:14:07.320 --> 00:14:09.879 inches at the base, that had been twisted and laid 272 00:14:09.879 --> 00:14:13.440 across the trail at about chest height. I've seen damage 273 00:14:13.440 --> 00:14:16.519 from the wind snow load, and bear damage, and I've 274 00:14:16.519 --> 00:14:20.000 seen what porcupines and moose can do to a young tree. 275 00:14:20.000 --> 00:14:22.759 This wasn't any of those. The pine was rooted on 276 00:14:22.799 --> 00:14:25.399 the uphill side of the trail, it had been bent 277 00:14:25.440 --> 00:14:28.000 across the path, and the top had been driven into 278 00:14:28.039 --> 00:14:30.679 the ground on the downhill side, and it was holding. 279 00:14:31.399 --> 00:14:35.000 The trunk was twisted, not snapped. The bark had pulled 280 00:14:35.039 --> 00:14:38.120 and split along a spiral. I stopped and looked at 281 00:14:38.120 --> 00:14:41.159 it for a long minute. Conrad came up behind me 282 00:14:41.200 --> 00:14:43.720 and asked what the hold up was. I told him 283 00:14:43.759 --> 00:14:47.200 I wasn't sure. He pushed past me, ducked under the trunk, 284 00:14:47.440 --> 00:14:50.240 and kept going up the trail. Drew looked at me, 285 00:14:50.600 --> 00:14:53.039 and I looked at Drew. I gave the trunk a 286 00:14:53.080 --> 00:14:55.639 tap with my hand, and the whole thing held like 287 00:14:55.679 --> 00:14:58.759 it had been planted. We went on. Stay tuned for 288 00:14:58.840 --> 00:15:02.720 more backwoods big stories. We'll be back after these messages. 289 00:15:04.919 --> 00:15:07.279 About forty minutes later we came on the second thing. 290 00:15:08.000 --> 00:15:11.000 There was an old cedar stump beside the trail, the 291 00:15:11.080 --> 00:15:13.120 kind of stump that had probably been cut by a 292 00:15:13.200 --> 00:15:17.039 hand crew sometime around World War One. It was mossed 293 00:15:17.080 --> 00:15:19.960 over and weathered down, and on top of it sat 294 00:15:20.000 --> 00:15:23.759 a stone. The stone was the size of a small watermelon. 295 00:15:24.399 --> 00:15:27.639 It was wet, the way riverstones are wet, with that 296 00:15:27.720 --> 00:15:30.919 dark sheen on it. The nearest running water was the 297 00:15:30.919 --> 00:15:34.200 feeder creek we'd left more than a mile below. The 298 00:15:34.240 --> 00:15:36.279 stone had been balanced on the stump in a way 299 00:15:36.320 --> 00:15:38.919 I couldn't have replicated if you'd given me an hour 300 00:15:38.960 --> 00:15:42.759 and a level. Conrad stopped this time. He looked at 301 00:15:42.759 --> 00:15:44.679 the stone for a long moment, and I could see 302 00:15:44.759 --> 00:15:47.519 him working out what it was. Then he reached out 303 00:15:47.559 --> 00:15:51.879 and pushed it. It rocked but didn't fall. He pushed harder, 304 00:15:52.200 --> 00:15:54.559 and it tipped off the stump and thudded into the dove. 305 00:15:55.440 --> 00:15:57.919 He looked at me and smiled, and his smile was 306 00:15:57.960 --> 00:15:59.960 the smile of a man who has just decided that 307 00:16:00.159 --> 00:16:03.559 something as a prank. He said, somebody's been up here 308 00:16:03.600 --> 00:16:07.000 messing around, probably the same locals you said were spooked. 309 00:16:07.720 --> 00:16:10.240 I told him I didn't think so. He told me 310 00:16:10.519 --> 00:16:13.200 very pleasantly that what I thought wasn't what he was 311 00:16:13.240 --> 00:16:17.080 paying me for. That was the moment, if I'm being 312 00:16:17.120 --> 00:16:20.120 absolutely truthful with you, that was the first moment I 313 00:16:20.120 --> 00:16:24.279 should have turned us around. We hadn't yet crossed any line. 314 00:16:24.360 --> 00:16:26.039 We were still on the right side of where I 315 00:16:26.120 --> 00:16:28.159 knew we ought to be, and I had a way 316 00:16:28.200 --> 00:16:30.279 to get him back to his vehicle by nightfall if 317 00:16:30.320 --> 00:16:32.720 I leaned on it, and I sat there in the 318 00:16:32.759 --> 00:16:35.480 trail and heard my own voice in my own head 319 00:16:36.000 --> 00:16:39.200 saying the truck payment and the boots and the propane, 320 00:16:39.720 --> 00:16:43.080 and I let him win. We went on. We came 321 00:16:43.159 --> 00:16:45.440 up on the creek a little after one in the afternoon. 322 00:16:46.240 --> 00:16:50.360 It was, I have to tell you, a perfectly ordinary creek, 323 00:16:51.200 --> 00:16:54.360 maybe twelve feet across at that crossing, knee deep in 324 00:16:54.399 --> 00:16:57.399 the deepest channel, running clean over a bed of dark 325 00:16:57.440 --> 00:17:00.320 stones with a little white foam where it broke around 326 00:17:00.360 --> 00:17:03.759 two larger rocks in the middle. There were old logs 327 00:17:03.840 --> 00:17:06.759 lying along the banks, and the woods came down close 328 00:17:06.799 --> 00:17:09.640 on both sides. If I'd been showing it to a 329 00:17:09.680 --> 00:17:12.000 fly fisherman, I'd have told him it looked like a 330 00:17:12.000 --> 00:17:15.640 good cutthroat stretch. The trail dropped down to a flat 331 00:17:15.680 --> 00:17:18.160 where you could pick your way across on stones, and 332 00:17:18.240 --> 00:17:21.079 a faint track continued up the bank on the far side. 333 00:17:21.839 --> 00:17:25.079 I stopped on our side and dropped my pack. Conrad 334 00:17:25.079 --> 00:17:27.200 asked me what I was doing. I told him we 335 00:17:27.240 --> 00:17:29.720 needed to talk. I sat him down on a piece 336 00:17:29.720 --> 00:17:32.799 of log. Drew sat down beside him, with his camera 337 00:17:32.799 --> 00:17:36.200 bag on his lap. I squatted on my heels, the 338 00:17:36.200 --> 00:17:38.440 way old men in this country squat when they want 339 00:17:38.440 --> 00:17:41.680 to say something serious without standing over you. I told 340 00:17:41.720 --> 00:17:44.359 him about the line, not every word of it, and 341 00:17:44.400 --> 00:17:47.160 I didn't quote any of the old men. I told 342 00:17:47.240 --> 00:17:50.039 him that locally this creek was treated as a boundary, 343 00:17:50.279 --> 00:17:52.039 and that I'd been into the country on the far 344 00:17:52.160 --> 00:17:55.079 side a few times in my life, but only for water, 345 00:17:55.519 --> 00:17:58.200 and never to take I told him that what we 346 00:17:58.200 --> 00:18:01.319 were here for, regardless of what either of us believed in, 347 00:18:01.359 --> 00:18:03.480 it was the kind of thing the people who lived 348 00:18:03.519 --> 00:18:06.680 in this country didn't do across this creek. I asked 349 00:18:06.759 --> 00:18:09.519 him to consider hunting from this side. I told him 350 00:18:09.519 --> 00:18:11.960 I'd extend the trip by two days at no charge, 351 00:18:12.359 --> 00:18:14.440 and that if we glassed the basin from the ridges 352 00:18:14.480 --> 00:18:17.000 on this side, we'd have the same shot at seeing 353 00:18:17.039 --> 00:18:20.440 whatever there was to see. He listened to me. I'll 354 00:18:20.480 --> 00:18:24.359 give him that. He didn't interrupt when I was finished. 355 00:18:24.359 --> 00:18:26.559 He was quiet for a moment, and then he asked 356 00:18:26.599 --> 00:18:29.759 me a question. He asked me, do you believe what 357 00:18:29.799 --> 00:18:33.039 you're telling me? I told him the truth. I told 358 00:18:33.119 --> 00:18:35.279 him I didn't know what I believed, but that I 359 00:18:35.359 --> 00:18:37.640 knew what I'd been told, and I knew the men 360 00:18:37.680 --> 00:18:40.279 who told me, and I trusted them more than I 361 00:18:40.319 --> 00:18:43.400 trusted my own opinions about country I didn't live in 362 00:18:43.480 --> 00:18:46.960 full time. He nodded, He took a sip of water 363 00:18:47.000 --> 00:18:49.039 from a stainless bottle and looked at the creek for 364 00:18:49.079 --> 00:18:52.400 a long minute. Then he stood up, picked up his pack, 365 00:18:52.440 --> 00:18:55.960 and said, all right, I respect that, but I didn't 366 00:18:56.000 --> 00:18:59.240 come fifteen hundred miles to glass from a ridge. He 367 00:18:59.279 --> 00:19:01.920 stepped down to the and he walked across the creek 368 00:19:01.960 --> 00:19:05.319 without taking his boots off. Drew stood there beside me, 369 00:19:05.920 --> 00:19:08.799 and I could see he was scared. He was a kid. 370 00:19:09.559 --> 00:19:11.480 He looked at me with his mouth a little open, 371 00:19:11.880 --> 00:19:16.160 and he said, very quietly, what do we do? I'll 372 00:19:16.200 --> 00:19:18.480 tell you what I was thinking at that moment, because 373 00:19:18.480 --> 00:19:21.599 I've thought about it almost every week since. I was 374 00:19:21.640 --> 00:19:24.680 thinking that I could let Conrad go on alone. He 375 00:19:24.799 --> 00:19:27.759 was on his own now, by his own decision. I 376 00:19:27.759 --> 00:19:29.920 could sit on this side with Drew and we could wait, 377 00:19:30.519 --> 00:19:32.720 or we could walk back out and I could mail 378 00:19:32.799 --> 00:19:35.920 him his half of the deposit. That was a real option, 379 00:19:36.359 --> 00:19:39.119 and I had it in my hand. I didn't take it. 380 00:19:39.799 --> 00:19:42.279 I told Drew to follow me across, and I picked 381 00:19:42.319 --> 00:19:45.680 up my pack and I went. The water was cold 382 00:19:45.680 --> 00:19:48.640 in a way I remember specifically, not the cold of 383 00:19:48.640 --> 00:19:51.480 a normal creek in October, but the cold that comes 384 00:19:51.480 --> 00:19:55.440 off glacial melt, A hurting cold. I was through it 385 00:19:55.480 --> 00:19:58.160 in maybe ten seconds, and my feet ached for an 386 00:19:58.200 --> 00:20:02.039 hour after up the far bank. That was when the 387 00:20:02.039 --> 00:20:05.559 country went quiet. Let me try to describe this, and 388 00:20:05.599 --> 00:20:08.200 I'm not sure i'll do it justice. The sound of 389 00:20:08.200 --> 00:20:11.279 the woods doesn't stop all at once. It steps down 390 00:20:11.319 --> 00:20:13.400 the way a stage light steps down at the end 391 00:20:13.400 --> 00:20:16.279 of a play. There's a moment when you realize you 392 00:20:16.319 --> 00:20:18.680 haven't heard a chickadee in a while, and then you 393 00:20:18.759 --> 00:20:20.960 realize you haven't heard a creek bird in a while. 394 00:20:21.440 --> 00:20:24.119 And then a wind comes through the cedars overhead, and 395 00:20:24.200 --> 00:20:27.079 it sounds, for the first time in your life, like 396 00:20:27.119 --> 00:20:30.240 it's the only thing making any noise on the entire mountain. 397 00:20:31.039 --> 00:20:32.799 By the time I got to the top of the bank, 398 00:20:33.000 --> 00:20:35.039 I could hear my own heart beat in my ears. 399 00:20:35.720 --> 00:20:38.160 I wasn't afraid yet, I could hear it because there 400 00:20:38.240 --> 00:20:41.759 was nothing else to listen to. The squirrels had stopped chittering, 401 00:20:41.759 --> 00:20:44.240