1
00:00:06,120 --> 00:00:10,240
Speaker 1: This took place in late twenty and eighteen. It started

2
00:00:10,480 --> 00:00:15,080
in deep fall and continued into late December. I live

3
00:00:15,160 --> 00:00:18,800
in northeastern Ohio and my dogs were going ballistic every

4
00:00:18,879 --> 00:00:22,120
night for over two months in late twenty and eighteen.

5
00:00:22,879 --> 00:00:25,480
I had seen signs of the presence of something, but

6
00:00:25,679 --> 00:00:28,320
was unsure of what it was, and to be honest,

7
00:00:28,359 --> 00:00:31,280
I really wasn't paying attention and it didn't occur to

8
00:00:31,320 --> 00:00:34,799
me at the time what I was seeing. I was

9
00:00:34,880 --> 00:00:37,479
mowing the grass in the very late fall of twenty

10
00:00:37,600 --> 00:00:41,039
eighteen when I passed a large, matted down spot in

11
00:00:41,119 --> 00:00:45,520
the tall grass. It was probably about fifteen feet in diameter.

12
00:00:46,439 --> 00:00:49,520
I didn't see any tracks or trails leading into or

13
00:00:49,600 --> 00:00:52,240
out of it, so I brushed it off as deer habitat.

14
00:00:53,119 --> 00:00:56,560
Every single night, within five minutes of the lights getting

15
00:00:56,600 --> 00:00:59,359
turned off, my German shepherds would go to the door

16
00:00:59,520 --> 00:01:03,560
and peer out and growl and start barking. That went

17
00:01:03,600 --> 00:01:05,519
on for what seemed like it was going to be

18
00:01:05,560 --> 00:01:08,000
an eternity, and I didn't think I was ever going

19
00:01:08,079 --> 00:01:11,319
to get any sleep. I never heard any sounds, and

20
00:01:11,359 --> 00:01:14,760
I don't have a sense of smell. It's a hereditary thing.

21
00:01:15,560 --> 00:01:19,400
My grandfather couldn't smell, and my brother's daughter can't either,

22
00:01:19,519 --> 00:01:22,840
so I didn't smell anything. And winter was kicking in.

23
00:01:23,920 --> 00:01:27,280
It was getting cold. The dogs still weren't letting up,

24
00:01:27,280 --> 00:01:29,760
and during the daytime I kept a pretty good eye

25
00:01:29,840 --> 00:01:32,040
on them because we have had a bunch of missing

26
00:01:32,120 --> 00:01:36,120
cats and dogs in this area recently. The same thing

27
00:01:36,239 --> 00:01:38,359
happened back in the eighties and a couple of guys

28
00:01:38,400 --> 00:01:41,640
were caught stealing people's pets and selling them on the

29
00:01:41,680 --> 00:01:45,480
market for animal food and all kinds of nasty stuff.

30
00:01:46,000 --> 00:01:49,159
So that's what I figured was going on. I was

31
00:01:49,319 --> 00:01:52,120
very watchful, and I would call them in several times

32
00:01:52,159 --> 00:01:55,000
throughout the day and in the evening, just to keep

33
00:01:55,040 --> 00:01:58,239
an eye on them. Then I saw a video where

34
00:01:58,239 --> 00:02:01,560
a man's dog became the target of a sisquatch because

35
00:02:01,560 --> 00:02:05,599
the dog was constantly giving away its position, and something

36
00:02:05,640 --> 00:02:08,400
inside me clicked and I just knew there was more

37
00:02:08,439 --> 00:02:10,960
to this than just a small herd of deer sleeping

38
00:02:11,000 --> 00:02:14,680
there and traversing back and forth. So I decided to

39
00:02:14,719 --> 00:02:17,360
load up a rifle and leave it by my bed

40
00:02:17,439 --> 00:02:20,439
until I managed to get rid of whatever was coming around.

41
00:02:21,639 --> 00:02:24,400
My wife insisted that it was a coyote, because the

42
00:02:24,520 --> 00:02:27,159
year before we had a rather large one come into

43
00:02:27,199 --> 00:02:30,280
the area in broad daylight and it wasn't at all

44
00:02:30,360 --> 00:02:33,719
afraid of us. The rifle I was using had a

45
00:02:33,759 --> 00:02:36,439
red laser sight on the end of it and a

46
00:02:36,560 --> 00:02:40,159
dot site up top for quick tactics and a pinch.

47
00:02:41,360 --> 00:02:45,919
Then on December second, twenty eighteen, around two am, I

48
00:02:45,960 --> 00:02:48,159
turned out the lights and I laid down in bed

49
00:02:48,199 --> 00:02:52,039
to wait, And sure enough, within minutes, my dogs rushed

50
00:02:52,039 --> 00:02:55,240
to the door and started barking like crazy. But this

51
00:02:55,439 --> 00:02:58,560
time they were growling like I've never heard them growl before,

52
00:02:58,599 --> 00:03:02,319
so I knew something was out there. I sat up

53
00:03:02,400 --> 00:03:04,719
part way in bed with the rifle in hand, and

54
00:03:04,800 --> 00:03:07,879
I waited and watched, and sure enough, in the midst

55
00:03:07,960 --> 00:03:12,120
of that cold wind and rainstorm, I saw an almost

56
00:03:12,439 --> 00:03:17,520
man shaped, very dark outline figure step quietly and smoothly

57
00:03:17,759 --> 00:03:20,479
up to the kennel fence and stand there for a moment.

58
00:03:21,479 --> 00:03:24,039
Our kennel is six feet tall, and this creature was

59
00:03:24,080 --> 00:03:26,360
a good two and a half feet taller and was

60
00:03:26,400 --> 00:03:29,759
about four feet wide at the shoulders. I couldn't make

61
00:03:29,800 --> 00:03:33,759
out any details, just its basic shape. I think we

62
00:03:33,879 --> 00:03:37,840
call those blob squatches I moved to put the rifle

63
00:03:37,919 --> 00:03:40,719
up to my shoulder, and it obviously saw me because

64
00:03:40,759 --> 00:03:44,319
it backed off into the darkness again right away, but

65
00:03:44,479 --> 00:03:48,919
still silently and really smoothly, almost like it was floating.

66
00:03:49,840 --> 00:03:52,599
It rained like the days of Noah for a couple

67
00:03:52,599 --> 00:03:54,919
of days, and I never thought to even look for

68
00:03:55,039 --> 00:03:57,879
prints in the mud, but I'm pretty sure there weren't

69
00:03:57,919 --> 00:04:02,000
any after the heavy rains. Anyway. Well, it's not much

70
00:04:02,039 --> 00:04:04,639
of an encounter, but still enough to make me sleep

71
00:04:04,680 --> 00:04:08,719
with a rifle within arm's reach. Not much puts fear

72
00:04:08,759 --> 00:04:12,039
into me, and this squatch didn't either, but it probably

73
00:04:12,120 --> 00:04:15,039
would have if things would have gotten ugly, and I

74
00:04:15,039 --> 00:04:18,680
would be reporting a dead sasquatch because I won't miss

75
00:04:18,720 --> 00:04:22,319
when it comes to protecting my family, and my dogs

76
00:04:22,319 --> 00:04:25,720
are like my kids. I love them that much, so

77
00:04:25,759 --> 00:04:28,439
they get the same protection from me as my son

78
00:04:28,759 --> 00:04:34,720
and wife would. It was not quite daylight on an

79
00:04:34,759 --> 00:04:39,360
early summer morning in the mouth of the I'm never

80
00:04:39,439 --> 00:04:47,240
gonna pronounce this right. It's Coquahaala, Coquahala and Fraser Rivers

81
00:04:47,480 --> 00:04:51,879
in Hope, British Columbia. The tributary was taking on water

82
00:04:51,959 --> 00:04:54,639
because the Fraser was high and the salmon were running.

83
00:04:55,240 --> 00:04:58,319
The river had quite a few dying salmon that were spawning.

84
00:04:59,079 --> 00:05:01,279
I was there to take pictures of the wildlife, so

85
00:05:01,360 --> 00:05:04,680
I pulled out my small director's chair and sat quietly

86
00:05:04,720 --> 00:05:08,279
at the mouth. You have a director's chair. I want

87
00:05:08,279 --> 00:05:11,199
a director's chair. How do you get one of those?

88
00:05:12,399 --> 00:05:15,040
Across the river was a game trail where I have

89
00:05:15,120 --> 00:05:18,920
seen mule deer, white tail coyodies, and even the odd

90
00:05:19,040 --> 00:05:21,720
bobcat in the past, and I was sure I'd have

91
00:05:21,800 --> 00:05:25,319
luck that day. The sun was just beginning to creep

92
00:05:25,319 --> 00:05:33,279
over Mount ogle Ogilvy Ogilvy when two coyotes seventy five

93
00:05:33,360 --> 00:05:36,879
yards away from me began yipping. It's not unusual to

94
00:05:36,920 --> 00:05:40,600
hear coyotes up there, but they sounded frantic, like dogs

95
00:05:40,639 --> 00:05:44,319
when a stranger has come into your yard. Curious, I

96
00:05:44,360 --> 00:05:48,360
looked over in the direction where they were yipping. Squatting

97
00:05:48,399 --> 00:05:50,920
down in the long grass at the water's edge. Another

98
00:05:50,959 --> 00:05:54,800
fifty yards beyond them was a huge figure. At first

99
00:05:54,879 --> 00:05:57,439
I thought it was a bear, and then it turned

100
00:05:57,439 --> 00:05:59,920
its attention on me and it stood up on two left.

101
00:06:01,680 --> 00:06:04,279
A cold chill shot up my spine as the hair

102
00:06:04,319 --> 00:06:06,800
on the back of my neck stood on end, and

103
00:06:06,839 --> 00:06:11,480
I was frozen and shocked staring at a massive male sisquatch.

104
00:06:12,399 --> 00:06:15,560
Behind him were some older saplings that were roughly eight

105
00:06:15,600 --> 00:06:18,519
feet high. They came up to his chest, and he

106
00:06:18,680 --> 00:06:21,759
was covered in dirty blonde colored hair, and he had

107
00:06:21,800 --> 00:06:24,600
a dome shaped head and a very human looking face.

108
00:06:25,759 --> 00:06:28,160
His nose was a bit whiter than a man's, and

109
00:06:28,199 --> 00:06:31,199
it looked like he didn't have a neck. We stared

110
00:06:31,240 --> 00:06:34,079
at each other for a good twenty seconds before he

111
00:06:34,199 --> 00:06:38,720
let out an unbelievably loud scream that was strangely high

112
00:06:38,839 --> 00:06:42,639
pitch for something that large. I'll never forget the look

113
00:06:42,639 --> 00:06:46,439
of disgust he gave me before he did something totally unexpected.

114
00:06:47,240 --> 00:06:50,439
He began talking, for lack of a better word, and

115
00:06:50,560 --> 00:06:53,120
some sort of gibberish that was a mix of high

116
00:06:53,160 --> 00:06:56,519
and low tones. And then he grunted and raised his

117
00:06:56,639 --> 00:06:58,839
hand and flung it at me as if to say,

118
00:06:58,920 --> 00:07:02,720
leave me alone. I noticed he had a salmon in

119
00:07:02,800 --> 00:07:06,040
his other hand. His annoyance with me and his hand

120
00:07:06,120 --> 00:07:09,399
gestures were so human that I relaxed a little bit.

121
00:07:10,680 --> 00:07:14,120
He turned and started walking away, and from behind I

122
00:07:14,120 --> 00:07:16,360
could see that he was wide in the shoulders and

123
00:07:16,399 --> 00:07:19,399
he was lean in the waist. I guessed him to

124
00:07:19,439 --> 00:07:23,040
be eleven hundred pounds. I've seen big bears, and he

125
00:07:23,160 --> 00:07:27,399
dwarfed them. His strides were six feet each, and every

126
00:07:27,519 --> 00:07:30,759
step as he casually walked away from me, he turned

127
00:07:30,759 --> 00:07:34,480
and looked back over his shoulder. It reminded me so

128
00:07:34,600 --> 00:07:38,399
much of the Patterson Gimlin film. He looked just like Patty,

129
00:07:38,439 --> 00:07:41,920
but without the breasts. He looked back at me one

130
00:07:42,040 --> 00:07:44,680
last time, and he stopped and flung his hand at

131
00:07:44,680 --> 00:07:47,399
me in an annoyance again, and then he stepped into

132
00:07:47,439 --> 00:07:51,680
the bush. Clearly he was angry that I interrupted his meal,

133
00:07:51,720 --> 00:07:54,279
and he scolded me for it. But I was in

134
00:07:54,360 --> 00:08:01,600
awe throughout the whole experience. Five. I was a fifteen

135
00:08:01,720 --> 00:08:05,839
year old growing up in southwestern Virginia. I've spent most

136
00:08:05,839 --> 00:08:08,639
of my life in the woods. I still love to

137
00:08:08,680 --> 00:08:10,800
be in nature. It's where I believe I have a

138
00:08:10,800 --> 00:08:15,800
stronger relationship with my creator. I was sitting under some

139
00:08:15,920 --> 00:08:19,560
pines overlooking a deer trail on a cold morning. My

140
00:08:19,639 --> 00:08:21,879
uncle had a deer stand in an old tree in

141
00:08:21,920 --> 00:08:24,879
the same spot, and he'd killed a few deer from

142
00:08:24,920 --> 00:08:28,160
there because of that. In the cold front that had

143
00:08:28,199 --> 00:08:31,079
come through the night before. I had a feeling something

144
00:08:31,360 --> 00:08:35,200
was going to happen. As I sat there with my

145
00:08:35,360 --> 00:08:39,440
old side hammer muzzleloader loaded and ready for any deer

146
00:08:39,519 --> 00:08:43,320
to walk by, I heard the distinct sound of something

147
00:08:43,360 --> 00:08:46,840
crunching through the leaves. I put my rifle to my

148
00:08:46,960 --> 00:08:50,159
shoulder in anticipation of the deer I knew was about

149
00:08:50,200 --> 00:08:53,960
to pop up over the hill. What came over the

150
00:08:54,039 --> 00:08:57,200
hill wasn't a deer. There was a man who looked

151
00:08:57,200 --> 00:09:01,679
to be in his forties. I noticed he was wearing

152
00:09:01,759 --> 00:09:04,720
clothes that weren't from this era. He had on a

153
00:09:04,720 --> 00:09:08,120
flat brim leather hat with metal buttons on the front

154
00:09:08,159 --> 00:09:12,720
for decoration. His coat was made with the fur turned

155
00:09:12,759 --> 00:09:16,080
to the inside, and his pants were the same, with

156
00:09:16,240 --> 00:09:21,519
worn leather on the outside. His shoes were harsh soul moccasins,

157
00:09:21,559 --> 00:09:25,720
and he carried a leather possible's bag, the bag muzzleloader

158
00:09:25,759 --> 00:09:30,159
hunters carry with everything they need inside. It was across

159
00:09:30,200 --> 00:09:33,440
one shoulder with a powder horn on his opposite shoulder.

160
00:09:35,080 --> 00:09:38,759
His rifle was longer than the hawking style rifle I had.

161
00:09:39,759 --> 00:09:43,399
His hair was coarse and brown. His bright blue eyes

162
00:09:43,519 --> 00:09:46,360
sized me up from a face covered in a full

163
00:09:46,519 --> 00:09:50,200
graying beard. It was as if he had stepped through

164
00:09:50,240 --> 00:09:54,279
the mists from a distant past. He had a look

165
00:09:54,320 --> 00:09:58,120
of confusion on his face as he approached, but asked

166
00:09:58,159 --> 00:10:01,879
in a congenial voice if I had seen anything yet.

167
00:10:02,840 --> 00:10:05,879
Perplexed by the fact that someone was hunting the farm

168
00:10:06,039 --> 00:10:09,440
that I knew I had sold permission to hunt, I

169
00:10:09,559 --> 00:10:15,159
managed only a kurt no. He took another minute to

170
00:10:15,159 --> 00:10:17,480
look me up and down, and I did the same

171
00:10:17,559 --> 00:10:22,960
to him. Can I see your gun, he asked. I

172
00:10:23,000 --> 00:10:26,360
handed it over, and he passed his to me. He

173
00:10:26,480 --> 00:10:29,639
sat down and we each inspected each other's weapon with

174
00:10:29,799 --> 00:10:34,159
all Although his gun was longer than mine, it was lighter.

175
00:10:34,919 --> 00:10:38,240
More impressive to me than the gun was the man's appearance.

176
00:10:39,240 --> 00:10:42,080
I was amazed that someone was hunting in full mountain

177
00:10:42,120 --> 00:10:45,720
man apparel. Nothing he wore could have been as warm

178
00:10:45,759 --> 00:10:49,879
as my modern day insulated clothing. It was a sight

179
00:10:50,279 --> 00:10:52,639
I never would have expected to see here in the

180
00:10:52,679 --> 00:10:55,840
Blue Ridge Mountains. But I thought he must be a

181
00:10:55,879 --> 00:10:59,240
man who wished to live in a different time, and

182
00:10:59,320 --> 00:11:03,679
this was his coming as close to that as possible. Still,

183
00:11:03,679 --> 00:11:06,039
I couldn't help but wonder at his reaction to me.

184
00:11:06,879 --> 00:11:10,919
Maybe he really was from a different time. He handed

185
00:11:10,960 --> 00:11:13,159
back our guns and he smiled at me as he

186
00:11:13,200 --> 00:11:16,360
stood up. I might have asked him a few questions,

187
00:11:16,399 --> 00:11:19,320
but at that moment we both heard the sound of

188
00:11:19,360 --> 00:11:25,240
a deer walking. He's coming, the man said, without another word.

189
00:11:25,320 --> 00:11:28,159
The man got behind me and we both watched as

190
00:11:28,200 --> 00:11:31,559
a buck came over the hill. The man put his

191
00:11:31,559 --> 00:11:33,919
hand on my shoulder and he told me to take

192
00:11:33,960 --> 00:11:37,399
a deep breath and squeeze the trigger. I did as

193
00:11:37,440 --> 00:11:42,440
I was told. Pop. It wasn't the boom of the rifle,

194
00:11:42,720 --> 00:11:45,879
just the pop of the percrussion cap and the powder igniting.

195
00:11:47,000 --> 00:11:50,279
It was enough to send the buck running. The man's

196
00:11:50,320 --> 00:11:52,840
hand was still on my shoulder. As I turned around

197
00:11:52,840 --> 00:11:56,679
to say something, the words died on my lips. Though

198
00:11:56,720 --> 00:12:00,639
as I looked around for him, he wasn't there. I

199
00:12:00,679 --> 00:12:03,279
could still feel his hand on my shoulder, but he

200
00:12:03,440 --> 00:12:07,000
just wasn't there. I jumped up, and as I did so,

201
00:12:07,159 --> 00:12:11,399
the weight of his hand fell away. I decided it

202
00:12:11,440 --> 00:12:13,879
was time for me to call it a day. I

203
00:12:14,000 --> 00:12:16,919
was confused and frightened, but I didn't feel he meant

204
00:12:16,960 --> 00:12:19,960
me any harm, so there was no need to run.

205
00:12:20,960 --> 00:12:24,240
I just walked home. Reliving those moments in my head,

206
00:12:24,559 --> 00:12:26,960
wondering who he could have been or where he might

207
00:12:27,000 --> 00:12:31,600
have come from. When I got home, I put another

208
00:12:31,639 --> 00:12:35,600
percussion cap in the gun and fired. This time the

209
00:12:35,720 --> 00:12:40,279
rifle operated properly. I cleaned my gun and put it away.

210
00:12:41,639 --> 00:12:44,080
I never got the man's name, nor did I ever

211
00:12:44,120 --> 00:12:47,000
figure out where or when he may have come from,

212
00:12:47,320 --> 00:12:50,960
and I've never seen him again. I'm thirty now, and

213
00:12:51,000 --> 00:12:55,480
I haven't hunted that area since. Sometimes I think about

214
00:12:55,600 --> 00:12:58,240
going back, just to see if he might be there.

215
00:12:59,360 --> 00:13:02,000
There's some old old rock walls in that area, said

216
00:13:02,039 --> 00:13:04,919
to be from the eighteen hundreds, though no one knows

217
00:13:05,000 --> 00:13:08,440
what they were for or who built them. I like

218
00:13:08,559 --> 00:13:14,720
to think they were his. Once. My father was a

219
00:13:14,759 --> 00:13:19,440
master sergeant in the Green Beret Special Forces. My parents

220
00:13:19,440 --> 00:13:22,360
were friends with their captain and we would spend time

221
00:13:22,399 --> 00:13:26,360
with their family. Their house was located in a community

222
00:13:26,519 --> 00:13:32,200
in northwest Dade County called Palm Springs North. This area

223
00:13:32,399 --> 00:13:36,720
was the last development northwest of Dade County. To the

224
00:13:36,759 --> 00:13:40,240
west of there, there is nothing but woods and everglades.

225
00:13:41,600 --> 00:13:45,120
While our parents played cards until late their son Doug

226
00:13:45,200 --> 00:13:47,759
and I would ride our bikes all over the area.

227
00:13:48,279 --> 00:13:53,879
Sometimes not getting home until after midnight. On July the second,

228
00:13:54,240 --> 00:13:58,279
nineteen sixty six, Doug and I went to the neighborhood

229
00:13:58,320 --> 00:14:02,440
convenience store for snack. It was much too late for

230
00:14:02,519 --> 00:14:05,240
two twelve year old boys to be out, but times

231
00:14:05,279 --> 00:14:09,559
were different then. We then rode back to a vacant

232
00:14:09,639 --> 00:14:12,559
lot on the lake close to Doug's house to grub

233
00:14:12,559 --> 00:14:16,519
out on the junk food. On the way there, I

234
00:14:16,600 --> 00:14:20,320
had spotted a huge white owl in a tree with

235
00:14:20,559 --> 00:14:25,360
large black, oval shaped eyes. It was so strange and

236
00:14:25,399 --> 00:14:28,759
I had never seen anything like this. I could not

237
00:14:28,919 --> 00:14:32,519
take my eyes off it. Doug was way ahead of me,

238
00:14:32,600 --> 00:14:35,000
and he turned back to asking if I was coming.

239
00:14:35,679 --> 00:14:38,360
I broke eye contact with the owl and I yelled

240
00:14:38,360 --> 00:14:41,159
to Doug, Yeah, Yeah, I'm coming. And when I look

241
00:14:41,279 --> 00:14:45,519
back for the owl, it was gone. We arrived at

242
00:14:45,519 --> 00:14:48,879
the vacant lot on the lake. It was a beautiful night.

243
00:14:49,240 --> 00:14:54,720
Stars carpeted the black sky. Not long after dropping our bikes,

244
00:14:54,840 --> 00:14:59,639
we saw a cylinder shaped object glowing faintly across the lake.

245
00:15:00,720 --> 00:15:04,159
It appeared cylinder shaped from our point of view, and

246
00:15:04,240 --> 00:15:06,639
at the time, neither of us had ever heard of

247
00:15:06,799 --> 00:15:11,399
or knew anything about UFOs. We had only seen them

248
00:15:11,519 --> 00:15:16,799
in old, cheesy Martian movies. The object hovered over the

249
00:15:16,919 --> 00:15:20,480
trees with what appeared to be an electrical charge to it,

250
00:15:20,759 --> 00:15:23,919
and then it landed across the lake behind some trees

251
00:15:23,960 --> 00:15:28,879
and the glowing stopped. It never made a sound. We

252
00:15:29,000 --> 00:15:32,159
had to see what this was. It was about one am,

253
00:15:32,200 --> 00:15:35,000
and two twelve year old boys made the long ride

254
00:15:35,039 --> 00:15:38,440
around the lake to the area we thought the object landed.

255
00:15:39,679 --> 00:15:42,360
We lined up his parents' house across the lake, and

256
00:15:42,399 --> 00:15:45,600
we knew we were in the right spot. We only

257
00:15:45,679 --> 00:15:48,960
needed to find a way to that forest. Well. I

258
00:15:49,039 --> 00:15:52,759
knew this area. An old man in the neighborhood paid

259
00:15:52,799 --> 00:15:55,080
me to cut his grass, and I was here every

260
00:15:55,120 --> 00:15:58,879
week or so. Now I was thinking maybe this thing

261
00:15:59,039 --> 00:16:03,240
landed close to him his house. The dirt road leading

262
00:16:03,240 --> 00:16:05,799
to his house came into view on my right and

263
00:16:05,840 --> 00:16:09,080
we took it. The wooded area was dark and I

264
00:16:09,120 --> 00:16:12,080
had trouble seeing the road. I actually didn't want to

265
00:16:12,120 --> 00:16:15,720
go further, but we peddled on and then I could

266
00:16:15,720 --> 00:16:18,720
see the road clearly, like the sun had come up.

267
00:16:19,600 --> 00:16:22,679
I was confused at the light. It didn't make sense

268
00:16:22,759 --> 00:16:24,960
and it should not have been there, but I was

269
00:16:25,000 --> 00:16:28,000
thankful to be able to finally see where I was peddling.

270
00:16:29,159 --> 00:16:33,679
Something was off about this, though. My last memory of

271
00:16:33,720 --> 00:16:37,200
the ride down the dusty road was a tingling sensation

272
00:16:37,480 --> 00:16:41,039
all over my body. I became dizzy and I dropped

273
00:16:41,080 --> 00:16:43,960
the bike in the middle of the road, so did Doug.

274
00:16:44,799 --> 00:16:49,120
I remember standing straight up and looking ahead, and that's it.

275
00:16:50,799 --> 00:16:53,440
Doug was shaking me and telling me to wake up.

276
00:16:53,879 --> 00:16:57,080
I was laying on the ground. Sand was all over me,

277
00:16:57,240 --> 00:17:00,600
like I had been rolling in It helped me up

278
00:17:00,639 --> 00:17:03,240
and I saw it was almost daylight and we were

279
00:17:03,279 --> 00:17:06,160
standing in the tall weeds of the vacant lot by

280
00:17:06,200 --> 00:17:10,640
the lake, our bikes laying beside us, both of us

281
00:17:10,680 --> 00:17:13,720
still groggy, dusted the sand off our clothes, and we

282
00:17:13,759 --> 00:17:17,240
walked our bikes back to Doug's house, neither of us

283
00:17:17,359 --> 00:17:21,200
could ride. Before we got there, we saw a police

284
00:17:21,240 --> 00:17:24,799
car in the drive. Our parents noticed us walking in

285
00:17:24,839 --> 00:17:28,359
the street and they came running. At first, they were

286
00:17:28,400 --> 00:17:31,599
happy to see us. Our mother smothered us with hugs,

287
00:17:31,799 --> 00:17:35,400
but they soon got hacked off at us. The usual

288
00:17:35,559 --> 00:17:39,519
questions followed, and we couldn't answer any of them, making

289
00:17:39,599 --> 00:17:43,279
our parents think that we were covering something up. Of

290
00:17:43,319 --> 00:17:46,400
course we weren't, but how would we explain what had

291
00:17:46,440 --> 00:17:50,720
really happened. It was early Saturday morning, and when we

292
00:17:50,799 --> 00:17:54,000
got home, I went straight to bed and I slept

293
00:17:54,160 --> 00:17:59,240
until Sunday morning. I never woke once, no dreams, no

294
00:17:59,359 --> 00:18:04,519
trips to the bathroom, solid sleep for over twenty four hours.

295
00:18:05,440 --> 00:18:08,720
That weekend, I was supposed to cut that old man's yard,

296
00:18:08,880 --> 00:18:10,960
so I got up and I gassed up the mower.

297
00:18:11,839 --> 00:18:14,000
I was about to get on my bike and drag

298
00:18:14,039 --> 00:18:17,519
the mower over there, but I felt hungry. I went

299
00:18:17,559 --> 00:18:20,319
back inside and I found a note on the kitchen

300
00:18:20,359 --> 00:18:24,799
table in my mother's handwriting. It said that mister Shagg

301
00:18:24,920 --> 00:18:28,839
had called and to forget about cutting his grass. I

302
00:18:28,920 --> 00:18:32,039
was disappointed because I wanted to make some money that day.

303
00:18:33,160 --> 00:18:36,279
I rode over to mister Shagg's place down the same

304
00:18:36,359 --> 00:18:39,680
dirt road where this incident happened, to see if he

305
00:18:39,759 --> 00:18:42,359
had fired me or maybe found someone to cut the

306
00:18:42,440 --> 00:18:46,279
yard cheaper. He was standing in the yard when I

307
00:18:46,400 --> 00:18:51,680
rode up. His lawn was black. Something had caught it

308
00:18:51,759 --> 00:18:55,440
on fire and burned that beautiful long down to nothing.

309
00:18:56,599 --> 00:18:59,319
We walked around the back and his healthy garden looked

310
00:18:59,319 --> 00:19:03,519
the same. Who burns your yard up, mister Shagg. I asked,

311
00:19:04,079 --> 00:19:07,240
nothing burned it up? He said, I woke up yesterday.

312
00:19:07,440 --> 00:19:09,960
I came out and this is what I found. There

313
00:19:10,039 --> 00:19:12,839
was no fire. Reach down and grab a water of

314
00:19:12,839 --> 00:19:16,599
that black grass and smell it. I did, and I

315
00:19:16,680 --> 00:19:20,039
expected to catch a strong, charred odor, but it had

316
00:19:20,079 --> 00:19:24,319
no odor at all. Something had just sucked the life

317
00:19:24,440 --> 00:19:29,039
out of everything green on that property. His yard started

318
00:19:29,079 --> 00:19:32,160
growing back that summer, but it was almost two months

319
00:19:32,200 --> 00:19:35,000
before he needed it cut again, and by the time

320
00:19:35,039 --> 00:19:38,000
I next cut his yard, I had forgotten about the

321
00:19:38,160 --> 00:19:43,000
entire incident. Mister Shagg talked about black grass and how

322
00:19:43,039 --> 00:19:45,160
long it had taken to grow back, and I had

323
00:19:45,200 --> 00:19:49,000
no clue what he was talking about. That bugged me

324
00:19:49,119 --> 00:19:52,640
for years after. I actually thought that he had become

325
00:19:52,799 --> 00:19:58,079
senile and was dreaming things up. Eight or nine years ago,

326
00:19:58,319 --> 00:20:02,680
I was surfing through YouTube videos. I was always drawn

327
00:20:02,759 --> 00:20:07,559
to the UFO and alien videos. In one video, a

328
00:20:07,680 --> 00:20:12,559
man stated that many abductees report seeing a large white

329
00:20:12,640 --> 00:20:17,480
owl within hours before their abduction, and that clicked with me.

330
00:20:18,680 --> 00:20:21,960
The memories didn't come flooding back, but I remembered the

331
00:20:22,039 --> 00:20:26,720
owl that night, piece by piece that night's events came

332
00:20:26,799 --> 00:20:30,160
back to me over the next year. Some of those

333
00:20:30,200 --> 00:20:35,119
pieces fell into place in dreams. I finally remembered as

334
00:20:35,200 --> 00:20:38,039
much as I have written in this email. But that

335
00:20:38,200 --> 00:20:41,359
is all I can remember. I have been stuck here

336
00:20:41,440 --> 00:20:45,480
ever since. There are four or five hours missing and

337
00:20:45,599 --> 00:20:49,680
I cannot find them. I'm on a dirt road surrounded

338
00:20:49,720 --> 00:20:53,000
by light. Five hours later, I wake up with my

339
00:20:53,119 --> 00:20:57,000
buddy in an overgrown field of weeds and sand. It

340
00:20:57,039 --> 00:21:01,920
doesn't make sense. Doug and I stayed friends for years.

341
00:21:02,599 --> 00:21:05,519
It was not long after this incident that my family

342
00:21:05,599 --> 00:21:09,359
moved closer to Doug's house. Life went on, and we

343
00:21:09,440 --> 00:21:12,920
never spoke about it. It wasn't in either of our

344
00:21:13,000 --> 00:21:17,240
memories at the time. After he and I graduated and

345
00:21:17,279 --> 00:21:19,920
went off to school, I lost track of him, and

346
00:21:19,960 --> 00:21:24,920
I haven't spoken to him since. Throughout my adult life,

347
00:21:24,960 --> 00:21:29,240
I have suffered from anxiety neither. Can I be closed

348
00:21:29,279 --> 00:21:33,279
in a room with no obvious exits That sends me

349
00:21:33,519 --> 00:21:37,559
off the deep end. This all started in my thirties.

350
00:21:38,319 --> 00:21:41,359
I was raised in a happy, two parent home. My

351
00:21:41,559 --> 00:21:45,400
childhood and adolescent years were normal and a lot of fun.

352
00:21:46,559 --> 00:21:49,440
I always had a great attitude, and I don't remember

353
00:21:49,519 --> 00:21:53,759
being sad a day in my life. I spoke with

354
00:21:53,839 --> 00:21:56,880
a therapist for a season, and he believes it is

355
00:21:56,920 --> 00:22:03,519
the result of a traumatic experience or PTSD. At that time,

356
00:22:03,640 --> 00:22:07,359
I had no memory of that night in nineteen sixty six.

357
00:22:08,599 --> 00:22:11,000
I have recently tried to look Doug up, but I

358
00:22:11,039 --> 00:22:13,559
have no way to know where life took that kid.

359
00:22:14,519 --> 00:22:18,400
I'll keep looking. Maybe he has more answers than I do.

360
00:22:21,799 --> 00:22:23,519
When I was a kid, I lived a mile from

361
00:22:23,559 --> 00:22:26,480
my school. Sometimes, when I was in a hurry, I

362
00:22:26,599 --> 00:22:29,920
walked the highway to get home faster. I like to

363
00:22:29,960 --> 00:22:33,400
explore the woods back then. One day, on one of

364
00:22:33,400 --> 00:22:36,359
my explorations, I wandered down a couple of different logging

365
00:22:36,440 --> 00:22:39,319
roads that cut through the woods, and I discovered that

366
00:22:39,400 --> 00:22:42,599
they took me to the school as well. They were

367
00:22:42,759 --> 00:22:46,359
less travel than the highway, but still easily walked, and

368
00:22:46,400 --> 00:22:48,680
it took a little longer to go that way, but

369
00:22:48,759 --> 00:22:52,640
it gave me time for myself. One late fall day,

370
00:22:52,680 --> 00:22:54,680
when I didn't have to be home right away to

371
00:22:54,759 --> 00:22:58,759
babysit my brother, I decided to go that route instead.

372
00:22:59,680 --> 00:23:02,160
It was kind of beautiful fall day when I could

373
00:23:02,240 --> 00:23:05,079
let my mind wander and enjoy the peace and quiet

374
00:23:05,079 --> 00:23:08,440
of the woods. I hadn't gone far and I noticed

375
00:23:08,440 --> 00:23:11,880
something big and black was following me one hundred yards away.

376
00:23:12,559 --> 00:23:14,440
I thought it was a bear, and my heart began

377
00:23:14,480 --> 00:23:17,880
to race, and then I realized it had stopped walking

378
00:23:18,119 --> 00:23:21,599
and it slinked behind a tree. I could tell it

379
00:23:21,640 --> 00:23:24,440
was black as night, and it was really big. It

380
00:23:24,559 --> 00:23:28,759
was muscular with short hair, like a gorilla. He couldn't

381
00:23:28,839 --> 00:23:32,920
hide from me, though he obviously didn't like it. I

382
00:23:33,000 --> 00:23:36,279
had had one encounter with a bigfoot before, it was

383
00:23:36,319 --> 00:23:39,160
a friendly one. I was pretty sure this one wasn't

384
00:23:39,200 --> 00:23:42,599
going to be friendly, though. He walked toward me a

385
00:23:42,640 --> 00:23:45,359
few steps and then stopped, as if he were pondering

386
00:23:45,400 --> 00:23:49,440
what to do. My adrenaline levels were already through the roof,

387
00:23:49,759 --> 00:23:53,839
so I bolted. He proceeded to follow me, and I

388
00:23:53,920 --> 00:23:56,359
was running with all my might, but he seemed to

389
00:23:56,359 --> 00:23:59,119
be running with ease, as if he was just pacing me.

390
00:24:00,319 --> 00:24:03,279
Fear was pushing me onward as fast as I could go,

391
00:24:03,759 --> 00:24:06,119
and I threw my books aside and I ran until

392
00:24:06,160 --> 00:24:09,039
my lungs felt like they were going to burst. I

393
00:24:09,079 --> 00:24:11,359
wasn't looking anymore to see if it was behind me.

394
00:24:11,839 --> 00:24:15,920
I just wanted to go home. Finally, when my heart

395
00:24:16,000 --> 00:24:18,720
felt like it was thundering in my throat, I stopped

396
00:24:18,759 --> 00:24:22,680
and looked around, and the creature was gone. I looked

397
00:24:22,720 --> 00:24:25,680
all around me several times and I didn't see him anywhere.

398
00:24:26,200 --> 00:24:28,839
But I didn't trust it, so I took off runting again,

399
00:24:29,400 --> 00:24:33,480
and I didn't stop until I got home. I struggled

400
00:24:33,519 --> 00:24:36,240
to get the key in the door, but somehow I managed,

401
00:24:36,319 --> 00:24:39,119
and once I was inside, I slammed the door shut

402
00:24:39,160 --> 00:24:42,680
and I locked it. I knew from my last experience

403
00:24:42,799 --> 00:24:46,519
that this wouldn't keep him out. My last encounter taught

404
00:24:46,559 --> 00:24:50,160
me that I spent the rest of the day freaked

405
00:24:50,160 --> 00:24:53,960
out and scared. I never went back through those woods again.

406
00:24:54,680 --> 00:24:56,599
I got into a lot of trouble at school for

407
00:24:56,680 --> 00:24:59,519
losing my books, but I didn't care. I wasn't going

408
00:24:59,559 --> 00:25:03,279
back in there. For him, that was his territory and

409
00:25:03,480 --> 00:25:09,160
he could keep it. M