WEBVTT 1 00:00:02.520 --> 00:00:05.759 For decades, people have disappeared in the woods without a trace. 2 00:00:06.519 --> 00:00:10.279 Some blame wild animals, others whisper of creatures the world 3 00:00:10.359 --> 00:00:14.160 refuses to believe in. But those who have survived they 4 00:00:14.199 --> 00:00:18.679 know the truth. Welcome to Backwoods Bigfoot Stories, where we 5 00:00:18.719 --> 00:00:22.879 share real encounters with the things lurking in the darkness bigfoot, 6 00:00:23.199 --> 00:00:28.239 dog man UFOs, and creatures that defy explanation. Some make 7 00:00:28.280 --> 00:00:32.320 it out, others aren't so lucky. Are you ready, because 8 00:00:32.320 --> 00:00:34.640 once you hear these stories, you'll never walk in the 9 00:00:34.640 --> 00:00:38.920 woods alone again. So grab your flashlight, stay close, and 10 00:00:39.039 --> 00:00:41.840 remember some things in the woods don't want to be found. 11 00:00:42.520 --> 00:00:46.240 Hit that follow or subscribe button, turn on auto downloads, 12 00:00:46.439 --> 00:00:48.399 and let's head off into the woods if you dare. 13 00:01:02.600 --> 00:01:04.959 I want to tell you something before we get started tonight, 14 00:01:05.400 --> 00:01:07.079 and I want you to really hear me on this 15 00:01:07.640 --> 00:01:09.439 because what I'm about to share with you over the 16 00:01:09.439 --> 00:01:12.879 next five episodes is unlike anything we've done on this show. 17 00:01:13.760 --> 00:01:17.400 About eight months ago, I started getting submissions. Now that's 18 00:01:17.439 --> 00:01:21.040 nothing new. We get stories all the time, good ones, 19 00:01:21.200 --> 00:01:24.439 strange ones, some that keep me up at night. But 20 00:01:24.480 --> 00:01:27.480 these were different, not because any single one of them 21 00:01:27.560 --> 00:01:30.879 was the most dramatic encounter I'd ever heard, that, wasn't it. 22 00:01:31.680 --> 00:01:34.200 What made them different was something I didn't even notice 23 00:01:34.239 --> 00:01:37.519 at first, something I didn't catch until the third story 24 00:01:37.599 --> 00:01:40.159 landed in my inbox and I happened to pull up 25 00:01:40.200 --> 00:01:45.799 a map. Five people, five completely separate submissions, different names, 26 00:01:46.000 --> 00:01:50.599 different states, different decades, one from the late seventies, one 27 00:01:50.640 --> 00:01:54.719 from ninety four, two thousand and three, twenty eleven, and 28 00:01:54.760 --> 00:01:57.799 one from just last year. None of these people know 29 00:01:57.920 --> 00:02:01.840 each other. No connection between them, no shared hunting clubs, 30 00:02:02.200 --> 00:02:05.959 no overlapping social circles, no online groups where they might 31 00:02:06.000 --> 00:02:10.400 have compared notes. Nothing. But here's the thing. Every single 32 00:02:10.439 --> 00:02:13.360 one of their stories takes place along the same ridge line, 33 00:02:13.840 --> 00:02:16.439 a north south ridge line that runs from the upper 34 00:02:16.520 --> 00:02:19.680 edge of the Kohoudah Wilderness in northern Georgia up through 35 00:02:19.719 --> 00:02:24.159 the mountains of eastern Tennessee, roughly forty miles of unbroken, 36 00:02:24.280 --> 00:02:27.919 heavily forested high ground, and cutting through the middle of it, 37 00:02:28.240 --> 00:02:33.479 running between two parallel ridges, is a valley, narrow, deep, 38 00:02:34.240 --> 00:02:35.919 the kind of place that doesn't get a lot of 39 00:02:35.919 --> 00:02:38.719 sunlight even in the middle of summer, the kind of 40 00:02:38.719 --> 00:02:41.120 place that goes quiet in a way that feels wrong, 41 00:02:41.759 --> 00:02:46.240 not peaceful, not calm, but absent, like the sound has 42 00:02:46.280 --> 00:02:48.800 been pulled out of the air. Every one of these 43 00:02:48.840 --> 00:02:52.400 five people described that valley, not in the same words, 44 00:02:52.759 --> 00:02:55.919 not using the same landmarks. But when you line up 45 00:02:55.919 --> 00:02:59.680 what they're saying, the terrain, the elevation, the way the 46 00:02:59.680 --> 00:03:03.039 forest changes as you move into it, They're all talking 47 00:03:03.080 --> 00:03:06.639 about the same corridor, the same passage through the mountains, 48 00:03:07.199 --> 00:03:10.360 and every one of them encountered something in it. Now, 49 00:03:10.360 --> 00:03:12.759 I've been doing this a long time. I've been in 50 00:03:12.800 --> 00:03:16.080 the field myself for close to four decades. I know 51 00:03:16.159 --> 00:03:19.280 what confirmation bias looks like, and I know how easy 52 00:03:19.280 --> 00:03:22.800 it is to draw lines between dots that don't actually connect. 53 00:03:23.319 --> 00:03:25.560 I'm not here to sell you on a theory. That's 54 00:03:25.599 --> 00:03:28.199 not what this is. What I am going to do 55 00:03:28.400 --> 00:03:31.800 is lay out these five stories in order exactly the 56 00:03:31.840 --> 00:03:34.000 way they were told to me, and I'm going to 57 00:03:34.039 --> 00:03:39.000 let you hear the details, the specific, concrete, verifiable details, 58 00:03:39.400 --> 00:03:41.879 because once you hear all five of them, once you 59 00:03:41.919 --> 00:03:44.680 see where they happened and when and what was described, 60 00:03:45.199 --> 00:03:47.680 You're going to start asking the same question I did, 61 00:03:48.560 --> 00:03:51.439 What is it about this place? What's been moving through 62 00:03:51.479 --> 00:03:55.360 that corridor and for how long. I don't have an answer, 63 00:03:55.840 --> 00:03:58.240 not a clean one, but I think by the end 64 00:03:58.240 --> 00:04:01.800 of this series you'll understand why I believe the question matters. 65 00:04:02.439 --> 00:04:05.639 So let's start at the beginning, or at least the 66 00:04:05.680 --> 00:04:09.919 earliest story I have. It's nineteen seventy eight. A man 67 00:04:10.000 --> 00:04:12.759 named Herschel and three of his buddies Lisa hunting parcel 68 00:04:12.840 --> 00:04:16.079 deep in the Khuda, and on their third night out there, 69 00:04:16.319 --> 00:04:18.399 they wake up to find that something has come into 70 00:04:18.399 --> 00:04:22.480 their camp and rearranged it. Not destroyed it, not rated it, 71 00:04:23.079 --> 00:04:27.360 rearranged it. I got Herschel's story by mail, actual mail, 72 00:04:27.959 --> 00:04:31.399 A handwritten letter, six pages front and back on yellow 73 00:04:31.439 --> 00:04:35.040 legal pad paper. Neat handwriting, the kind you don't see 74 00:04:35.120 --> 00:04:39.480 much anymore, deliberate, slightly slanted to the right. Every letter 75 00:04:39.519 --> 00:04:41.480 formed like he was taught in a school room where 76 00:04:41.480 --> 00:04:45.439 that sort of thing mattered. He included a stamped return envelope, 77 00:04:45.639 --> 00:04:49.439 which I thought was a nice touch old school. There 78 00:04:49.519 --> 00:04:52.439 was a notepaper clip to the first page. It said, 79 00:04:52.959 --> 00:04:55.560 I heard your show from my grandson. He plays it 80 00:04:55.600 --> 00:04:57.800 on his phone when he comes to visit. I don't 81 00:04:57.800 --> 00:05:00.439 have a computer. If you want to call me here's 82 00:05:00.439 --> 00:05:03.040 my number, but please call before eight because I go 83 00:05:03.079 --> 00:05:07.600 to bed early. Herschel's eighty eight now. He retired from 84 00:05:07.639 --> 00:05:10.560 the carpet mill in Dalton, Georgia in two thousand and four, 85 00:05:10.680 --> 00:05:11.519 after thirty. 86 00:05:11.240 --> 00:05:13.000 One years on the line. 87 00:05:13.079 --> 00:05:15.120 He told me in his letter that he'd never submitted 88 00:05:15.120 --> 00:05:19.360 his story to anyone before, not a podcast, not a website, 89 00:05:19.639 --> 00:05:23.000 not a newspaper. He said he'd told it exactly four 90 00:05:23.040 --> 00:05:26.639 times in his life. Once to his wife Martha, about 91 00:05:26.639 --> 00:05:29.680 a year after it happened, Once to his pastor at 92 00:05:29.680 --> 00:05:33.839 Tunnel Hill Baptist, who listened politely and then changed the subject. 93 00:05:34.560 --> 00:05:36.759 Once to a man at a gas station in elj 94 00:05:36.920 --> 00:05:39.680 who'd brought it up first. Herschel didn't tell me how 95 00:05:39.680 --> 00:05:43.399 that conversation started, only that the man had seen something too, 96 00:05:44.000 --> 00:05:46.480 and they'd stood by the pump for twenty minutes talking 97 00:05:46.519 --> 00:05:49.360 about it, like two strangers sharing a secret neither one 98 00:05:49.360 --> 00:05:52.040 of them had asked to carry. And once to his 99 00:05:52.120 --> 00:05:55.720 oldest grandson, Tyler, who he said was the only person 100 00:05:55.720 --> 00:05:57.560 in his family who didn't look at him like he'd 101 00:05:57.600 --> 00:06:00.720 lost his mind. When I called him to follow up, 102 00:06:01.000 --> 00:06:04.839 his voice was steady, measured. He speaks the way a 103 00:06:04.879 --> 00:06:08.519 lot of men from that part of North Georgia speak unhurried, 104 00:06:08.839 --> 00:06:13.160 but not slow. There's a difference. He doesn't waste words, 105 00:06:13.519 --> 00:06:16.800 but he doesn't clip them either. He lets his sentences finish, 106 00:06:17.600 --> 00:06:19.720 and there's a gravity to the way he talks about 107 00:06:19.720 --> 00:06:23.000 this that I recognized right away because I've heard it before, 108 00:06:23.639 --> 00:06:26.600 not often, but enough to know what it sounds like. 109 00:06:27.079 --> 00:06:29.279 It's the sound of someone who's been carrying a story 110 00:06:29.319 --> 00:06:32.199 for a very long time and still isn't sure anyone's 111 00:06:32.240 --> 00:06:35.279 going to believe it. We talked for about two hours 112 00:06:35.279 --> 00:06:37.920 that first call. He had to stop a couple times 113 00:06:37.959 --> 00:06:40.560 to get water. He told me his voice wasn't what 114 00:06:40.639 --> 00:06:44.040 it used to be, and he appreciated my patience. I 115 00:06:44.079 --> 00:06:46.680 told him to take all the time he needed. I 116 00:06:46.720 --> 00:06:48.839 asked him why he decided to write it down now, 117 00:06:49.240 --> 00:06:52.360 after all these years. He was quiet for a moment. 118 00:06:52.839 --> 00:06:55.199 Then he said, because I'm not going to be around 119 00:06:55.279 --> 00:06:57.399 much longer, and I don't want it to die with me. 120 00:06:58.439 --> 00:07:00.920 He let that sit for a beat, then he added, 121 00:07:01.439 --> 00:07:03.439 and because I want somebody to go back out there 122 00:07:03.480 --> 00:07:06.680 and see if it's still happening. That line struck me 123 00:07:06.720 --> 00:07:09.759 a bit funny. Not see if it's still out there. 124 00:07:10.240 --> 00:07:13.319 Not see if anyone else has seen it, He said, 125 00:07:13.680 --> 00:07:17.079 see if it's still happening. Like what he experienced wasn't 126 00:07:17.079 --> 00:07:21.480 an encounter. It was a process, something ongoing, something with 127 00:07:21.519 --> 00:07:25.800 a pattern to it. That distinction matters. You'll understand why 128 00:07:26.040 --> 00:07:28.959 as we go. Before I get into what happened at 129 00:07:28.959 --> 00:07:31.120 that camp, I want you to know who was there, 130 00:07:31.720 --> 00:07:36.399 because context matters. The kind of men they were matters. 131 00:07:36.759 --> 00:07:39.079 When I tell you what they experienced, I want you 132 00:07:39.120 --> 00:07:40.879 to have a picture in your mind of the people 133 00:07:40.920 --> 00:07:44.879 doing the experiencing. These weren't thrill seekers. They weren't out 134 00:07:44.920 --> 00:07:48.720 there looking for anything other than deer. Herschel was forty 135 00:07:48.800 --> 00:07:51.680 years old in the fall of nineteen seventy eight. He'd 136 00:07:51.720 --> 00:07:54.120 been at the mill since he was twenty two. He 137 00:07:54.240 --> 00:07:56.639 ran a tufting machine, which, if you don't know the 138 00:07:56.680 --> 00:07:59.680 carpet industry, is one of the louder and more physically 139 00:07:59.680 --> 00:08:03.439 demanded positions on the floor. He had thick hands, the 140 00:08:03.519 --> 00:08:07.079 kind that don't fully close anymore after decades of repetitive work. 141 00:08:07.920 --> 00:08:10.319 He grew up on a small farm outside of Varnell, 142 00:08:10.680 --> 00:08:13.600 about fifteen minutes north of Dalton, and he'd been hunting 143 00:08:13.639 --> 00:08:16.279 since he was old enough to carry a gun. His 144 00:08:16.319 --> 00:08:19.720 father hunted, his uncle's hunted. It was part of how 145 00:08:19.720 --> 00:08:23.920 they ate, not a hobby. He took it seriously. Dale 146 00:08:24.040 --> 00:08:26.519 was a year older. He ran the parts counter at 147 00:08:26.519 --> 00:08:31.040 a tractor dealership in Chatsworth. Big Man wide across the shoulders. 148 00:08:31.040 --> 00:08:33.480 Wore the same style of red wing boots every day 149 00:08:33.480 --> 00:08:37.759 of his life. Herschel described him as dependable. If Dale 150 00:08:37.799 --> 00:08:40.159 told you he'd be somewhere at six, he was there 151 00:08:40.159 --> 00:08:44.080 at five point forty five. Every time. Dale was the 152 00:08:44.120 --> 00:08:47.080 practical one in the group. He didn't have much patience 153 00:08:47.080 --> 00:08:50.679 for anything. He couldn't see, touch, or measure. If you 154 00:08:50.759 --> 00:08:53.120 told Dale a ghost story, he'd ask you what kind 155 00:08:53.159 --> 00:08:57.000 of insulation your house had. Pete was the quiet one. 156 00:08:57.200 --> 00:09:00.559 He'd serve two tours in Vietnam, came home in seventy 157 00:09:00.600 --> 00:09:06.879 one and went to work operating heavy equipment for Murray County. Graters, dozers, excavators, 158 00:09:07.399 --> 00:09:10.879 anything with tracks or hydraulics. He was the most physically 159 00:09:10.879 --> 00:09:13.279 capable of the four of them, but you'd never know 160 00:09:13.360 --> 00:09:16.200 it from how he carried himself. He moved through the 161 00:09:16.200 --> 00:09:18.120 world like he was trying not to take up too 162 00:09:18.200 --> 00:09:22.000 much space. Herschel told me, Pete rarely talked about the war. 163 00:09:22.679 --> 00:09:24.480 The only time he'd ever brought it up was to 164 00:09:24.480 --> 00:09:26.919 say that the jungle taught him how to listen, and 165 00:09:26.960 --> 00:09:30.399 he never forgot how Pete could hear a squirrel crack 166 00:09:30.440 --> 00:09:33.240 a nut from two hundred yards, Herschel said, and he 167 00:09:33.279 --> 00:09:36.159 could tell you which tree it was sitting in. And 168 00:09:36.200 --> 00:09:39.720 then there was Jimbo. Herschel never told me Jimbo's real name, 169 00:09:40.039 --> 00:09:43.120 and I didn't press him on it. Jimbo was a plumber, 170 00:09:43.440 --> 00:09:46.879 self employed, ran his own truck, worked all over the county. 171 00:09:47.399 --> 00:09:50.799 He was the talker of the group, the storyteller, the 172 00:09:50.799 --> 00:09:53.399 one who kept the fire going and the conversation moving. 173 00:09:54.120 --> 00:09:56.639 Herschel said, Jimbo could talk to a fence post and 174 00:09:56.679 --> 00:10:00.000 the fence post would talk back. He was the social glue, 175 00:10:00.559 --> 00:10:02.519 the one who made the camp feel like a camp, 176 00:10:02.559 --> 00:10:05.639 and not just four men sitting in the woods. These 177 00:10:05.679 --> 00:10:08.840 four had been hunting together since the early seventies. They 178 00:10:08.919 --> 00:10:12.919 knew each other's habits, each other's tales, each other's tolerance 179 00:10:12.919 --> 00:10:17.320 for discomfort. They'd sat through rain, sat through freezing mornings, 180 00:10:17.720 --> 00:10:21.320 sat through busted trucks, empty tags, and long drives home 181 00:10:21.399 --> 00:10:24.279 with nothing in the cooler. They trusted each other the 182 00:10:24.279 --> 00:10:26.840 way men do when they've shared enough cold mornings and 183 00:10:26.879 --> 00:10:30.320 bad coffee and honest silence. None of them had any 184 00:10:30.360 --> 00:10:33.360 interest in the paranormal. None of them had read anything 185 00:10:33.360 --> 00:10:37.159 about Bigfoot or had any opinion on it whatsoever. They 186 00:10:37.159 --> 00:10:39.879 were deer hunters. That's what they went out there to do. 187 00:10:40.639 --> 00:10:45.240 Keep that in mind. The year was nineteen seventy eight October. 188 00:10:45.919 --> 00:10:48.679 The parcel they least sat at about twenty eight hundred 189 00:10:48.679 --> 00:10:51.279 feet on the eastern slope of a ridge that ran 190 00:10:51.399 --> 00:10:55.000 roughly north south in the southern Khudah. This was before 191 00:10:55.039 --> 00:10:58.720 the Kohudah got its formal wilderness designation. That didn't happen 192 00:10:58.799 --> 00:11:01.559 until eighty six, so at that point there was still 193 00:11:01.559 --> 00:11:03.600 some limited vehicle access. 194 00:11:03.159 --> 00:11:04.759 On old logging roads. 195 00:11:05.240 --> 00:11:06.919 You could get a truck in part way if you 196 00:11:06.960 --> 00:11:09.240 knew the roads and didn't mind losing a mirror to 197 00:11:09.279 --> 00:11:12.480 a laurel thicket. The timber company that held the cutting 198 00:11:12.600 --> 00:11:15.399 rights least hunting parcels to groups like Herschel's for a 199 00:11:15.399 --> 00:11:19.639 seasonal fee. It was common practice back then. The hunting 200 00:11:19.639 --> 00:11:23.799 groups kept an eye on the property, reported trespassers watched 201 00:11:23.799 --> 00:11:27.519 for fires. In exchange, they got access to land that 202 00:11:27.600 --> 00:11:30.639 nobody else could reach. Their camp was set up on 203 00:11:30.679 --> 00:11:33.919 a small bench, a natural flat spot on the slope, 204 00:11:34.320 --> 00:11:37.960 maybe a quarter acre of relatively level ground, about two 205 00:11:38.039 --> 00:11:41.240 hundred yards above the valley floor. They'd been using this 206 00:11:41.320 --> 00:11:44.960 spot for three seasons already. They'd carried in creekstones one 207 00:11:45.000 --> 00:11:48.320 trip and built a proper fire ring. They'd strung a 208 00:11:48.360 --> 00:11:51.919 hanging pole between two white oaks for dressing game, heavy 209 00:11:52.000 --> 00:11:54.799 rope over a crossbar strong enough to hold a buck. 210 00:11:55.720 --> 00:11:59.120 They had two canvas wall tents, the old style kind 211 00:11:59.159 --> 00:12:02.279 with the center pole and the canvas flap door, a 212 00:12:02.320 --> 00:12:06.279 folding table for the cook area. Two coalman coolers, the 213 00:12:06.279 --> 00:12:09.679 big steel belted ones, the kind that weighed thirty pounds, 214 00:12:09.720 --> 00:12:14.840 empty camp chairs, a lantern, a deck of cards. It 215 00:12:14.879 --> 00:12:17.039 was a hunting camp the way hunting camps are supposed 216 00:12:17.039 --> 00:12:22.279 to be. Functional, comfortable enough, nothing fancy, the kind of 217 00:12:22.279 --> 00:12:25.480 place where you wake up cold, drink bad coffee, and 218 00:12:25.519 --> 00:12:26.960 feel grateful for every. 219 00:12:26.720 --> 00:12:27.279 Minute of it. 220 00:12:28.039 --> 00:12:30.759 Below the bench, to the east, the slope dropped off 221 00:12:30.759 --> 00:12:34.159 steeply toward the valley floor. The drainage down there was 222 00:12:34.200 --> 00:12:38.559 heavy with hemlock, and white pine, big trees, old growth 223 00:12:38.679 --> 00:12:42.000 that the timber company hadn't gotten to yet. A creek 224 00:12:42.080 --> 00:12:45.080 ran the length of the valley north to south, fed 225 00:12:45.080 --> 00:12:48.919 by seeps and springs along both ridges. The valley itself 226 00:12:48.960 --> 00:12:52.639 was narrow, maybe three hundred yards across at the widest point, 227 00:12:53.360 --> 00:12:56.720 steep walls on both sides rising up to the ridge lines. 228 00:12:57.360 --> 00:12:59.440 Herschel told me the first time he walked down into 229 00:12:59.440 --> 00:13:02.159 that valley to look for deer sign, he stopped and 230 00:13:02.200 --> 00:13:05.840 took his hat off, not because he saw anything, because 231 00:13:05.840 --> 00:13:06.559 of the quiet. 232 00:13:07.320 --> 00:13:07.639 He said. 233 00:13:07.679 --> 00:13:10.799 It was the stillest place he'd ever stood in his life. 234 00:13:10.919 --> 00:13:13.720 Not just the absence of noise. He was used to 235 00:13:13.799 --> 00:13:14.679 quiet woods. 236 00:13:15.200 --> 00:13:15.960 This was different. 237 00:13:16.559 --> 00:13:19.399 This was a density to the silence, like the air 238 00:13:19.440 --> 00:13:22.840 itself was thicker down there, like sound couldn't carry the 239 00:13:22.840 --> 00:13:25.799 way it was supposed to. It felt like being inside 240 00:13:25.840 --> 00:13:28.679 a church, he said, a church with nobody in it. 241 00:13:29.240 --> 00:13:32.440 You could feel the size of the quiet. He found 242 00:13:32.440 --> 00:13:35.720 good deer sign in the valley, rubs, scrapes and trails 243 00:13:35.799 --> 00:13:40.200 worn into the hillside. Acorn masted everywhere. The deer were 244 00:13:40.279 --> 00:13:42.879 using it heavily. So they set up the camp on 245 00:13:42.919 --> 00:13:46.039 the bench above and settled in the first two nights 246 00:13:46.080 --> 00:13:50.960 were normal, good hunting weather, clear skies, temperatures dropping into 247 00:13:51.000 --> 00:13:54.399 the low forties at night. Herschel sat a stand on 248 00:13:54.440 --> 00:13:57.159 the south end of the bench. In the mornings, Dale 249 00:13:57.240 --> 00:14:00.559 hunted a ground blind about a quarter mile north. Pete 250 00:14:00.559 --> 00:14:03.080 and Jimbo worked the ridge to the west, where they'd 251 00:14:03.080 --> 00:14:06.879 found a well used trail crossing between two saddles. In 252 00:14:06.919 --> 00:14:10.480 the evenings, they'd come back to camp, compare notes, eat 253 00:14:10.519 --> 00:14:14.039 whatever Jimbo had cooked. He was the designated camp cook 254 00:14:14.080 --> 00:14:17.440 and took the job seriously. Always brought fresh onions and 255 00:14:17.480 --> 00:14:21.159 peppers and good sausage from Chatsworth and sit around the fire. 256 00:14:21.879 --> 00:14:25.799 Pete would smoke his pipe, Jimbo would tell stories. Dale 257 00:14:25.840 --> 00:14:28.720 would play solitaire on the folding table by lantern light. 258 00:14:29.519 --> 00:14:31.639 Herschel would sit with his coffee and listen to the 259 00:14:31.639 --> 00:14:35.240 woods go dark around them. He said, those first two nights, 260 00:14:35.440 --> 00:14:40.440 the valley sounded normal owls, the creek a coyote way 261 00:14:40.480 --> 00:14:44.759 off to the south, ordinary mountain sounds. Nothing that raised 262 00:14:44.759 --> 00:14:47.559 a hair on the back of his neck. He slept well, 263 00:14:48.279 --> 00:14:51.000 and then the third night happened. Herschel woke up at 264 00:14:51.000 --> 00:14:53.679 about five point fifteen in the morning. He was always 265 00:14:53.720 --> 00:14:56.200 the first one up. He liked to get the fire 266 00:14:56.240 --> 00:14:59.480 going before anyone else rolled out, get the coffee started, 267 00:14:59.759 --> 00:15:02.000 and Joly a few minutes of quiet before the camp 268 00:15:02.039 --> 00:15:06.120 came alive. Stay tuned for more Backwoods Bigfoot stories. We'll 269 00:15:06.120 --> 00:15:11.639 be back after these messages. That was his routine. He'd 270 00:15:11.639 --> 00:15:14.279 been doing it for years. He kept a tin of 271 00:15:14.320 --> 00:15:16.840 folgers and an old percolator next to his cot so 272 00:15:16.879 --> 00:15:20.360 he could start moving without thinking about it. He unzipped 273 00:15:20.360 --> 00:15:24.360 his tent, stepped out into the dark and stopped. Something 274 00:15:24.480 --> 00:15:26.519 was wrong, he said, he felt it. 275 00:15:26.480 --> 00:15:29.000 Before he saw it. That's the word he used. 276 00:15:29.759 --> 00:15:33.480 Felt like walking into a room where someone's been arguing, 277 00:15:33.519 --> 00:15:37.240 even though nobody's talking anymore. The air was different, the 278 00:15:37.279 --> 00:15:39.840 camp was different. He stood in front of his tent 279 00:15:39.879 --> 00:15:43.960 for maybe ten seconds, not moving, just letting his eyes adjust. 280 00:15:44.799 --> 00:15:47.679 That thin gray light you get forty minutes before sunrise 281 00:15:48.080 --> 00:15:50.200 was just starting to bleed into the sky above the 282 00:15:50.240 --> 00:15:54.399 Eastern Ridge. Not enough to see details, just enough to 283 00:15:54.399 --> 00:15:58.519 see shapes, and the shapes were wrong. He walked to 284 00:15:58.559 --> 00:16:02.000 the fire ring and stopped again. The Coleman coolers, both 285 00:16:02.080 --> 00:16:04.120 of them had been picked up and set down about 286 00:16:04.159 --> 00:16:07.759 fifteen feet from where they'd been the night before, not dragged, 287 00:16:08.120 --> 00:16:13.159 not knocked over, moved, set upright, lids still latched in 288 00:16:13.200 --> 00:16:16.000 a spot where no one had put them. The big one, 289 00:16:16.159 --> 00:16:21.200 the food cooler, weighed close to eighty pounds full ice, meat, eggs, bread, 290 00:16:21.279 --> 00:16:22.120 cans of beans. 291 00:16:22.759 --> 00:16:23.879 It was heavy. 292 00:16:24.000 --> 00:16:26.039 You'd need two hands and a good grip to move it, 293 00:16:26.440 --> 00:16:29.840 and you'd make noise doing it. The second cooler was lighter, 294 00:16:30.279 --> 00:16:34.039 drinks and bait, maybe forty pounds. Both of them were 295 00:16:34.080 --> 00:16:37.480 sitting neatly upright, side by side, near the base of 296 00:16:37.519 --> 00:16:39.559 an oak on the far side of the fire ring. 297 00:16:40.320 --> 00:16:43.440 He looked at the hanging pole next. The night before 298 00:16:43.519 --> 00:16:45.960 they'd hung a dough that Dale had taken that afternoon, 299 00:16:46.639 --> 00:16:50.600 a nice one, field dressed maybe one hundred and ten pounds. 300 00:16:51.159 --> 00:16:53.799 Dale had done a clean job on her. They'd run 301 00:16:53.799 --> 00:16:56.679 the gambrels through the hind legs, hoisted her up with 302 00:16:56.720 --> 00:17:00.799 the rope and tied it off standard procedure. She was 303 00:17:00.799 --> 00:17:03.159 hanging five feet off the ground when they went to bed, 304 00:17:03.639 --> 00:17:06.519 high enough that nothing would bother her. The deer was 305 00:17:06.559 --> 00:17:09.759 gone from the pole, the rope was still there, still 306 00:17:09.759 --> 00:17:12.200 looped over the crossbar, and tied off to the trunk, 307 00:17:12.960 --> 00:17:15.119 but the gambrels had been pulled free and the carcass 308 00:17:15.160 --> 00:17:17.759 had been taken down. He found the deer in the 309 00:17:17.759 --> 00:17:22.640 fire ring, not torn apart, not fed on, not even disturbed, 310 00:17:23.400 --> 00:17:25.319 laid on its side in the center of the ring, 311 00:17:25.720 --> 00:17:28.000 on top of the cold ash, like someone had carried 312 00:17:28.039 --> 00:17:29.960 it over from the pole and set it down with 313 00:17:30.039 --> 00:17:35.400 both hands, gently deliberately. The gambrels were still attached to 314 00:17:35.440 --> 00:17:38.799 the hind legs, no claw marks on the hide, no 315 00:17:38.920 --> 00:17:42.519 teeth marks, no blood beyond what had already drained during 316 00:17:42.519 --> 00:17:45.359 the field dressing. The deer had been placed there the 317 00:17:45.359 --> 00:17:48.680 way you'd lay something down on a table. Herschel stood 318 00:17:48.680 --> 00:17:51.519 there looking at it for a long time. He told 319 00:17:51.519 --> 00:17:55.240 me he wasn't scared yet. He was confused. The scene 320 00:17:55.279 --> 00:17:58.039 didn't compute. His first thought was that one of the 321 00:17:58.039 --> 00:18:01.480 other guys was pulling something, that Dale or Jimbo had 322 00:18:01.480 --> 00:18:03.400 gotten up in the night and done all of this 323 00:18:03.440 --> 00:18:06.599 as some kind of elaborate joke. But even as the 324 00:18:06.640 --> 00:18:10.599 thought formed, he was already rejecting it. Moving those coolers 325 00:18:10.599 --> 00:18:13.599 would have made noise. Taking a deer down from a 326 00:18:13.640 --> 00:18:16.960 hanging pole in the dark untying the rope, lowering one 327 00:18:17.039 --> 00:18:20.279 hundred and ten pounds of dead weight carrying it across camp. 328 00:18:20.799 --> 00:18:24.039 That's not a quiet operation, and it's not something one 329 00:18:24.079 --> 00:18:27.960 person does casually. Beyond that, it just wasn't their kind 330 00:18:28.000 --> 00:18:31.720 of humor. These weren't frat boys. They were grown men 331 00:18:31.759 --> 00:18:33.920 in their forties who got up before dawn and sat 332 00:18:33.920 --> 00:18:37.319 in the cold for hours at a stretch. Practical jokes 333 00:18:37.319 --> 00:18:40.400 weren't part of the vocabulary. He went to Dale's tent 334 00:18:40.480 --> 00:18:43.680 and woke them up. Dale came out, pulling on his coat, 335 00:18:44.000 --> 00:18:46.920 walked to the fire ring, squatted down next to the deer, 336 00:18:47.200 --> 00:18:51.720 and examined it the way Dale examined everything carefully, methodically, 337 00:18:52.119 --> 00:18:55.160 like he was reading a part's diagram. He checked the 338 00:18:55.200 --> 00:18:58.559 hide from Marx, he checked the ground around it. He 339 00:18:58.599 --> 00:19:01.440 walked to the coolers and inspected of the latches. Then 340 00:19:01.480 --> 00:19:05.480 he stood up and said one word bear. Herschel said, 341 00:19:05.960 --> 00:19:10.400 a bear didn't do this, Dale, well, something did. They 342 00:19:10.440 --> 00:19:13.599 woke Pete and Jimbo. All four of them walked the camp. 343 00:19:14.200 --> 00:19:16.680 They checked the ground for tracks, but the bench was 344 00:19:16.720 --> 00:19:20.279 mostly hard packed red clay covered in leaf litter, not 345 00:19:20.359 --> 00:19:23.640 great tracking surface. You could see scuff marks near the 346 00:19:23.680 --> 00:19:27.319 coolers that could have been anything. Bootprints from the day before, 347 00:19:27.880 --> 00:19:32.359 drag marks from gear, nothing definitive, No clear animal tracks, 348 00:19:32.880 --> 00:19:36.519 no claw marks on the coolers, no scat, no fur 349 00:19:37.559 --> 00:19:40.359 Dale held firm on the bear theory. He dealt with 350 00:19:40.400 --> 00:19:44.559 bears at camps before. They're curious, he said, they'll pick 351 00:19:44.640 --> 00:19:47.200 things up. I've seen a bear open a truck door. 352 00:19:48.079 --> 00:19:51.079 Herschel didn't argue out loud, but he didn't agree either. 353 00:19:51.720 --> 00:19:55.480 He dealt with bears too. Bears get into food, Bears 354 00:19:55.559 --> 00:19:58.359 rip things open, Bears leave a mess. 355 00:19:58.720 --> 00:20:01.000 This wasn't a mess. This was tidy. 356 00:20:01.839 --> 00:20:04.319 Whatever had done this moved through the camp with intention, 357 00:20:04.920 --> 00:20:08.240 handled objects without damaging them, and carried one hundred and 358 00:20:08.279 --> 00:20:10.720 ten pound deer carcass from the hanging pole to the 359 00:20:10.720 --> 00:20:13.440 fire ring without so much as a blood smear on 360 00:20:13.480 --> 00:20:16.960 the ground. Between the two points, Pete walked the perimeter 361 00:20:17.039 --> 00:20:20.519 with his flashlight, studying the ground in the trees, not 362 00:20:20.640 --> 00:20:25.759 weighing in. Jimbo made breakfast, scrambled eggs, sausage biscuits from 363 00:20:25.759 --> 00:20:28.640 a can, and kept up a running commentary about the 364 00:20:28.680 --> 00:20:31.440 weather and the rut and anything at all that wasn't 365 00:20:31.440 --> 00:20:33.160 the deer lying in the fire ring. 366 00:20:33.880 --> 00:20:34.680 He was rattled. 367 00:20:35.359 --> 00:20:37.160 You could hear it in the way he talked faster 368 00:20:37.240 --> 00:20:41.759 than usual, filling every silence. Before it could settle, They rehung, 369 00:20:41.799 --> 00:20:45.960 the deer moved, the cooler's back went honey. But Herschel 370 00:20:46.000 --> 00:20:48.599 told me something that stayed with me. He said that 371 00:20:48.640 --> 00:20:51.000 for the rest of that day, sitting in his stand, 372 00:20:51.319 --> 00:20:54.119 he couldn't stop turning it over. He sat in that 373 00:20:54.160 --> 00:20:56.599 tree for six hours and thought about it the whole time. 374 00:20:57.240 --> 00:21:02.000 The coolers set upright and latched, the deer unharmed, placed, 375 00:21:02.559 --> 00:21:06.079 not dropped, not dragged, in the center of the fire ring. 376 00:21:06.799 --> 00:21:11.000 The absence of damage, the absence of tracks, the precision. 377 00:21:11.960 --> 00:21:15.000 A bear comes into camp. It tears stuff up, he said. 378 00:21:15.599 --> 00:21:19.160 It gets into your food, It knocks things over. You 379 00:21:19.200 --> 00:21:20.720 come out in the morning and it looks like a 380 00:21:20.720 --> 00:21:21.519 tornado hit. 381 00:21:22.319 --> 00:21:22.920 This wasn't that. 382 00:21:23.640 --> 00:21:27.839 This was organized. Whatever did this pick things up, carried 383 00:21:27.839 --> 00:21:30.640 them and set them down. It moved through our camp 384 00:21:30.720 --> 00:21:33.599 like it was taking inventory, and it put that deer 385 00:21:33.640 --> 00:21:36.119 in the fire ring, like it was making a point. 386 00:21:37.039 --> 00:21:39.440 I asked him what kind of point. He was quiet 387 00:21:39.480 --> 00:21:42.359 for a few seconds, then he said, like it was 388 00:21:42.400 --> 00:21:45.839 saying I was here. I could reach anything I wanted 389 00:21:46.200 --> 00:21:49.200 and you didn't even know it. They decided to keep 390 00:21:49.200 --> 00:21:52.720 a watch that night. Took it in shifts, two hours each, 391 00:21:53.079 --> 00:21:55.480 sitting by the fire with a flashlight and a rifle. 392 00:21:56.279 --> 00:22:01.000 Dale set the rotation, Herschel first, then Dale, then Pete, 393 00:22:01.559 --> 00:22:05.599 then Jimbo sun down to sun up. Herschel pulled his 394 00:22:05.640 --> 00:22:08.319 shift from ten to midnight. He sat in a camp 395 00:22:08.400 --> 00:22:11.799 chair by the fire, kept the flames low, just coals 396 00:22:11.799 --> 00:22:14.680 and a small yellow tongue of flame, enough to see 397 00:22:14.680 --> 00:22:17.920 by without killing his night vision. He laid his thirty 398 00:22:17.920 --> 00:22:21.480 out six across his knees and rested the foresail maglite 399 00:22:21.559 --> 00:22:25.279 on the arm rest. The air was cold, mid forties, 400 00:22:25.720 --> 00:22:28.640 maybe lower. He could see his breath hanging in front 401 00:22:28.640 --> 00:22:31.759