Speaker 1: You're listening to Bigfoot Society, and I'm Jeremiah Byron. Tonight's
Speaker 1: account is from a group of six seasoned campers, three
Speaker 1: of them trained military, who ventured deep into the rugged
Speaker 1: heart of Elk State Forest in Pennsylvania. They planned a
Speaker 1: week long escape off trail, but what they got was
Speaker 1: something entirely different. This is the night that Jim stopped
Speaker 1: believing that Bigfoot was a myth. So stay with us,
Speaker 1: all right, big the Society that the privilege of talking
Speaker 1: to Jim today. Jim is an individual that I was
Speaker 1: introduced to after seeing a Reddit post that he had left.
Speaker 1: I believe it was an r slash Bigfoot, and he
Speaker 1: is able to come on the show to share some
Speaker 1: interesting things that happened when he was out camping in
Speaker 1: northern Pennsylvania. And welcome to the show, Jim. How's it
Speaker 1: going man, It is going great.
Speaker 2: Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1: Absolutely. You know, we don't get a lot a lot
Speaker 1: of northern Pennsylvania, so it is always a fun when
Speaker 1: we get to talk to someone from that state, as
Speaker 1: there is a lot of activity that goes on out there.
Speaker 1: But you know, feel free, Jim to take us back
Speaker 1: to what was going on that night when you had
Speaker 1: some weird things happen out there in northern Pennsylvania.
Speaker 2: Already. So me and five of my buddies, we were
Speaker 2: going on a week long camping trip up in Elk
Speaker 2: State Forest, and it's north central Pennsylvania. We were I
Speaker 2: want to say, north east of Wharton, which is a
Speaker 2: little town up that way. It lies right on the
Speaker 2: edge of Elk County or Elk State Forest anyhow, And
Speaker 2: like I said, we were going up on a week
Speaker 2: long trip and we were going off trail and just
Speaker 2: what we had to carry with us and each of
Speaker 2: my friends we had all been going camping together since
Speaker 2: we were teenagers. We've known each other for years, and
Speaker 2: about the most reliable kind of people each could have
Speaker 2: around honestly, especially in the woods. All very capable people.
Speaker 2: But we ended up going found a good spot to park,
Speaker 2: and we just set off into the woods. We ended
Speaker 2: up going I believed it was northwest into the woods.
Speaker 2: And we got to our spot where we parked at
Speaker 2: about noon. Because we don't live up that way. We
Speaker 2: lived down in the south western Pennsylvania a lot of
Speaker 2: us and it was a long drive up there, as
Speaker 2: you can imagine, it's a big state. Anyway. We got
Speaker 2: into where we parked our cars at about like said noon,
Speaker 2: and we had about four to five hours before dark
Speaker 2: because it was getting into the fall. Leaves hadn't really
Speaker 2: started to fall heavy yet. It was more still into
Speaker 2: changing colors and all that, but it was getting to it,
Speaker 2: so things were getting shorter and all that. Whenever we
Speaker 2: had set off, we started up this one mountain and
Speaker 2: it was fairly rugged and very very minimal sign of
Speaker 2: any kind of like human interference, you know, like there
Speaker 2: wasn't a whole lot of garbage. And like I said,
Speaker 2: we were going off trail anyway, so we didn't expect
Speaker 2: to find much anyway. So we had hiked for the
Speaker 2: better part of for four hours or so when it
Speaker 2: was just getting starting to be dusk, we had ended
Speaker 2: up finding a clearing near the top end of this
Speaker 2: mountain side and decided to set up camp. So we
Speaker 2: set up our fires, we set up our hammocks. Because
Speaker 2: ten camping is for suckers in my own personal opinion,
Speaker 2: and I will recommend that if you have never been
Speaker 2: hand of camping into something, you absolutely have to try.
Speaker 2: You get the right hang. It is way better night
Speaker 2: sleeping than sleeping on the ground.
Speaker 1: No, it's great. I used to do that on the
Speaker 1: Appalation Trail all the time. Yeah, that's great stuff.
Speaker 2: So anyway, we had set up our camp in this
Speaker 2: little clearing. We had made dinner, and I settled in
Speaker 2: and as you can imagine a munch middle aged and
Speaker 2: middle mid twenty, you know, grown men hanging out in
Speaker 2: the woods. We're gonna be laughing and carrying on having
Speaker 2: a good time, you know. And we're sitting around campfire,
Speaker 2: carrying on having a good time. And it's getting in dark,
Speaker 2: and just as about we were getting ready to go
Speaker 2: to bed, which I would imagine to be around between
Speaker 2: anywhere between eleven and one o'clock in the morning. None
Speaker 2: of us were really paying attention to the time. But dark, dark,
Speaker 2: kind of, you know. And I'm sitting in my chair,
Speaker 2: and something hit me in the back, you know, nothing hard,
Speaker 2: you know, nothing crazy. So I stood up and I'm
Speaker 2: facing campfire, you know, and all five of us are
Speaker 2: sitting around it. So I turned around and looked into
Speaker 2: the woods. And as you as you know, fire blindness
Speaker 2: is a very big thing, and I couldn't see very
Speaker 2: far past the tree line at all and didn't see nothing.
Speaker 2: And I pulled up my flash light and I got
Speaker 2: I carry whenever we go camping or hiking together, I
Speaker 2: always make sure I have a really good flash light
Speaker 2: and I'm actually still using the same one to this day.
Speaker 2: It's about three thousand allomens, so it'll it'll cut through
Speaker 2: a little bit of night. And I shined in the
Speaker 2: direction of what I thought, and I didn't see anything,
Speaker 2: you know, no movement, no nothing. And I looked down
Speaker 2: in the chair and it was a rock, you know,
Speaker 2: something you know, I wouldn't say any bigger than maybe
Speaker 2: like a half dollar size around nothing, nothing crazy big,
Speaker 2: you know. And it wasn't like he was thrown with
Speaker 2: any kind of force. It was like more of a
Speaker 2: toss kind of thing. That's why I was figuring, like, well,
Speaker 2: whatever through it or whatever hit me would have been
Speaker 2: right there, you know, within within eyeshot, even in the dark,
Speaker 2: you know. But like I said, I didn't see a thing.
Speaker 2: And whenever I had stood up and pulled the flashlight up,
Speaker 2: the rest of my buddies they all had went silent.
Speaker 2: And it was kind of like a silent rule between
Speaker 2: a lot of us that if we're out in the
Speaker 2: woods together, and any one of us, you know, perks
Speaker 2: up because of something going on, we all just shut
Speaker 2: up and we all pay attention. Well, after I was
Speaker 2: satisfied that there was pretty much nothing there for me
Speaker 2: to see, I go and turn back to the fire,
Speaker 2: and no, sooner do I do that? Did I see
Speaker 2: a rock come out of the woods but the same size?
Speaker 2: Would it hit me in the complete opposite direction, hitting
Speaker 2: my buddy that was across the campfire from me. Now,
Speaker 2: mind you, in this amount of time, there wasn't but
Speaker 2: maybe twenty seconds, you know, So nothing's going to move
Speaker 2: outside of the line of sight of any of all
Speaker 2: six of us in twenty seconds to get around behind
Speaker 2: us without making any noise, you know, especially in the
Speaker 2: dark and with no light. I don't care what it is,
Speaker 2: it's going to make some kind of a noise. It's
Speaker 2: going to be seen. And that's when I realized that, well,
Speaker 2: whatever hit me hasn't moved, and now there's something on
Speaker 2: the other side of us. So now all six of
Speaker 2: us are out, and I'm running through my head of well,
Speaker 2: what kind of animal can actually throw anything? And there
Speaker 2: ain't many, And my mind immediately went to well, there's
Speaker 2: somebody out here with us, you know, thinking probably people,
Speaker 2: but I don't know anyone with enough guts to to
Speaker 2: walk up on six grown men in the middle of
Speaker 2: the woods at night, especially with like I said, no
Speaker 2: light without announcing themselves. I mean. And at that point
Speaker 2: I had my forty five on me, forty five ACP,
Speaker 2: and I had pulled it out, and whatever was seeing
Speaker 2: us would had absolutely noticed me doing that, and they did,
Speaker 2: and that's when things became I wouldn't say aggressive, but
Speaker 2: more than what it was before. They started moving around,
Speaker 2: circling around us, and they continued throwing stones at us,
Speaker 2: you know, from off where we couldn't see them, and
Speaker 2: they were thrown quite a bit harder than they were before,
Speaker 2: you know, and there was no communication. And like I said,
Speaker 2: we didn't see any lights out in the woods either,
Speaker 2: so whatever was doing it was doing it out there
Speaker 2: basically blind. And we had a decent fire gun, so
Speaker 2: it's not like they were close to us to be
Speaker 2: able to not for us not to see it. And
Speaker 2: at this point all of us had carried side arms,
Speaker 2: you know, all of us had carried guns with us
Speaker 2: to poor protection because I mean, there's Elka bear obviously
Speaker 2: hence the name of the forest. But there's also black bear,
Speaker 2: there's bobcat, there's coyotes, and you never know what an
Speaker 2: animal is gonna be going, especially when it's hungry. So
Speaker 2: we'd always carry those just to keep ourselves safe. And
Speaker 2: whatever was out their new full well that every one
Speaker 2: of us was armed. And this is when I realized
Speaker 2: that we weren't dealing with people, because anybody that would
Speaker 2: be out there, whether it be you know, teenagers playing
Speaker 2: a prank or a brand, a bunch of hillbillies, if
Speaker 2: you want to call you, if you want to go
Speaker 2: that route, they would have said, okay, hey, then joke's
Speaker 2: over now, you know. And I was, like I said,
Speaker 2: I didn't hear any of that. But whatever was out
Speaker 2: there circling around us throughout the night, it was definitely
Speaker 2: at least as big as a man, because it sounded
Speaker 2: like a grown man crashing through brush and forest and footsteps,
Speaker 2: I mean, we could hear footsteps being you know, stomping
Speaker 2: through and around, and like I said, throughout the night,
Speaker 2: most of us, you know, none of us could obviously
Speaker 2: even consider going to sleep. We ended up standing up
Speaker 2: until it was getting getting in the dawn, and before,
Speaker 2: just before the sun started peeking over the mountains, they
Speaker 2: had turned and ran off in opposite directions away from us.
Speaker 2: Before that light's really started to kick in. And now
Speaker 2: none of us had any fear of the forest at all,
Speaker 2: none of the none of us had any fear, you know,
Speaker 2: the animals that were out there. It's not like we
Speaker 2: were dealing that. We ever would have had to worry
Speaker 2: about dealing with the grizzly bear, you know, or a moose.
Speaker 2: We just don't live in that area. But it was
Speaker 2: definitely a surreal moment for us. And like I said,
Speaker 2: this happened on our first night of what was supposed
Speaker 2: to be a seven day trip, and we ended up
Speaker 2: packing our backs and we had left we left that day,
Speaker 2: you know, the next day, as soon as it was
Speaker 2: bright enough for us to pack off our gear. We
Speaker 2: were out. Then, uh as me and my one buddy,
Speaker 2: h my marine buddy that was with us, had finished
Speaker 2: packing up first, we decided it's bright enough, we knew
Speaker 2: they ran off, We're gonna go see if we could
Speaker 2: figure out what was going on. And we walked off
Speaker 2: into the tree line, probably fifteen twenty yards into the
Speaker 2: tree line, and we could see where they were circling
Speaker 2: circling around us. All the brush was you know, broken
Speaker 2: out into a path, all the all the leaf litter
Speaker 2: was beaten down. And I had ended up coming across
Speaker 2: a a print that looked human, you know, if you
Speaker 2: were barefoot, but it would have a distinct lack of
Speaker 2: a foot arch. And I mean, I don't claim to
Speaker 2: be any you know, master tracker or anything like that,
Speaker 2: but I know what a human footprint looks like in
Speaker 2: the mutter and the sand. Whenever you look at it,
Speaker 2: you can tell which which foot it is pretty simply
Speaker 2: by the toes and again by the arch, because there
Speaker 2: was a hally spot in that footprint, and this one
Speaker 2: didn't have it. It looked more you know, flat footed.
Speaker 2: And it was no bigger than mine, you know, like
Speaker 2: if I had taken my foot off, my boot off
Speaker 2: and stepped there in that same mudd, it wasn't any
Speaker 2: longer than mine. It was a little bit wider, but uh,
Speaker 2: the impression that it made was a lot deeper, which
Speaker 2: pretty simply put that just goes to tell you that
Speaker 2: whatever was out there and made that print was a
Speaker 2: lot heavier than I was now at the time. I
Speaker 2: was between one hundred and eighty and one hundred and
Speaker 2: ninety pounds, so whatever it made that print had to
Speaker 2: be at least two to fifty if not more. But
Speaker 2: it had the same footprint, you know, length that I had,
Speaker 2: and I guess it should put in and for a
Speaker 2: reference that I wear a size eleven, so I have
Speaker 2: a fairly large foot But you know, it was after
Speaker 2: we had found that we had regrouped with the rest
Speaker 2: of our buddies, and like I said, we had finished
Speaker 2: packing up and we went straight back to our cars
Speaker 2: and we had left. We weren't staying there another night.
Speaker 1: That is some really interesting stuff that happened to you, guys, Jim.
Speaker 1: And how how far out would you approximate mile wise you.
Speaker 2: Were well from where we had left to where we
Speaker 2: had ended up. I would say every bit of between
Speaker 2: four to five miles. We weren't trying to set the
Speaker 2: world on fire, you know, or make any land speed
Speaker 2: records there. We were taking our time and it was
Speaker 2: rough terrain, but I have you know, every one of
Speaker 2: us were in fairly good shape. I mean three of
Speaker 2: us were military. No myself, but three of us were
Speaker 2: military that were there. So we were all in pretty
Speaker 2: good shape, and I would imagine that we made at
Speaker 2: least four miles, if not five.
Speaker 1: Gotcha, did you notice anything weird around the spot where
Speaker 1: you were camping when it comes to like trees being
Speaker 1: like tree arches, or trees broken, or maybe X marks,
Speaker 1: anything weird, Like.
Speaker 2: I mean, I didn't notice it, But I mean at
Speaker 2: the time, I wasn't really looking forward either on our
Speaker 2: way in, you know, because I mean, I mean, I'm
Speaker 2: gonna be upfront and tell you, I mean I wasn't
Speaker 2: a believer in bigfoot until that happened, you know, because
Speaker 2: that was the only thing that I could logically think
Speaker 2: of that could potentially have done that to us, you know.
Speaker 2: And actually coming back to the Reddit post, I had
Speaker 2: a couple of comments on there, and the one guy
Speaker 2: had asked me, and I was like that if I
Speaker 2: thought that they could be potentially juvenile, you know, especially
Speaker 2: because speaking about the fact of finding that footprint being
Speaker 2: close to the size of mine, you know, and it
Speaker 2: would make sense, you know, especially if you take into
Speaker 2: account how sensational some of these sightings can be. With
Speaker 2: eight and nine foot monsters out there in the woods,
Speaker 2: you know, something that big is not going to be
Speaker 2: afraid of a human, you know, but if it's young,
Speaker 2: it's going to be smaller, and they could have been
Speaker 2: you know, they could have been closer to our size. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, And and the thing is, well, a lot of
Speaker 1: witnesses will say the way that you were getting messed with,
Speaker 1: a lot of people will say, well, that kind of
Speaker 1: sounds like, well maybe it was a juvenile type thing,
Speaker 1: and that is kind of conjecture and you know, guessing,
Speaker 1: but a lot of people do bring that up. And
Speaker 1: you know, who knows what they were trying to do
Speaker 1: when they were, you know, trying to hit you in
Speaker 1: the back where they're trying to get your attention or
Speaker 1: just mess with you. You know, we don't know. But
Speaker 1: were there any sounds around in the forest during that time, Well.
Speaker 2: There were no other animal sounds, okay, you know, like
Speaker 2: there wasn't any crickets, there wasn't owls, there wasn't bats.
Speaker 2: We didn't even hear any coyotes. Which I've been up
Speaker 2: to Elk forst before. I would go up there trout fishing,
Speaker 2: you know, more towards Wharton. But we would go trout
Speaker 2: fishing up there all the time. And at night you
Speaker 2: would hear coyotes all day, you know all you know,
Speaker 2: all night long. It was. They're just so plentiful up there.
Speaker 2: We didn't hear not a one. Oh and aside from
Speaker 2: you know, crashing through bushes and all that as they
Speaker 2: were circling around us, I couldn't really tell if they
Speaker 2: were they were making any kind of a noise or communication.
Speaker 2: They were being so loud crashing around through the woods
Speaker 2: that I couldn't couldn't tell you if they were.
Speaker 1: Gotcha, were there any weird smells around that time that
Speaker 1: you noticed?
Speaker 2: It's not really uh on the way, like I said,
Speaker 2: it was getting into fall, So I mean you have
Speaker 2: that smell of you know, damp forest and the cave
Speaker 2: of like leaves and all that. You know that like
Speaker 2: roll like it's the best way to put it on it,
Speaker 2: like dirty smell, Like it smells like dirt, you know
Speaker 2: what I mean, like whenever those leaves get real wet
Speaker 2: that are just laying around and but like in the
Speaker 2: actual event, not really, I mean we had a campfire going.
Speaker 2: So but I mean, you just gotta understand this is
Speaker 2: this happened coming up on seven years ago, when this
Speaker 2: had happened to me, Uh, but no, I mean, not
Speaker 2: to my recollection, I wouldn't say that there was any
Speaker 2: kind of out of place smells. I'll put it that way.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, you know, when you during the time around the
Speaker 1: campfire that night, or I guess you know, through the night,
Speaker 1: did anyone in the group have any weird physical things
Speaker 1: happened to them that they weren't able to explain?
Speaker 2: No, okay, No, we were all pretty much fine. I mean,
Speaker 2: aside from a few bruises from some of the rocks.
Speaker 2: They were thrown a little bit harder than they were originally.
Speaker 2: You know, we were all completely physically fine on the
Speaker 2: way back out, and during that you know, more broken
Speaker 2: pride kind of thing than anything else, because I mean,
Speaker 2: like I said, there were six grown men out there,
Speaker 2: and we've all been in the woods at least ten
Speaker 2: years between you know, each of us, and here we
Speaker 2: are running away.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, I mean, and you said a few of those
Speaker 1: individuals were had a military background as well.
Speaker 2: Yes, one of them was Air Force and two of
Speaker 2: them were are well actively still Marine Corps.
Speaker 1: Wow, well that is very very interesting. After you guys,
Speaker 1: so you left the next day and you went to
Speaker 1: you know, your different homes, did anything did anyone have
Speaker 1: anything out of the ordinary happen, anything unexplained or weird
Speaker 1: happen after that?
Speaker 2: Not today, it's told me. We have talked about the
Speaker 2: situation before, because we still go camping together today. Okay,
Speaker 2: you know to this day. We go every year at
Speaker 2: least a few times together. Sometimes we go with just
Speaker 2: the guys, and I mean most of us have kids
Speaker 2: now and everyone we at least make it a point
Speaker 2: to go together at least one time every year with
Speaker 2: our kids. We don't go back up the forest. We
Speaker 2: are usually go to Allegaty National Forest now up past
Speaker 2: East Hickory. That's about the same distance time wise from
Speaker 2: where we live. Like I said, we live down near Pittsburgh,
Speaker 2: but it's in a different section of the state.
Speaker 1: That's interesting because I mean, Algaining National Forces is definitely
Speaker 1: known for a lot of big food activity. That's where
Speaker 1: a lot of researchers will go to check things out.
Speaker 1: But nothing happened during your time in that area.
Speaker 2: Well, nothing that I would say that was out of
Speaker 2: the ordinary. I mean, we've come across black bears before,
Speaker 2: We've had coyotes come in to camp in the middle
Speaker 2: of the night, and stuff like that. But nothing that
Speaker 2: I wouldn't say, that wouldn't be expected to be seen,
Speaker 2: you know what I mean, like, actually, you know wildlife
Speaker 2: that you would expect to see there.
Speaker 1: How did this affect you personally after you had this
Speaker 1: happened that night?
Speaker 2: Well, So, like I said, I wasn't a big foot
Speaker 2: believer beforehand, you know what I mean, I wasn't even
Speaker 2: a thought that had crossed my mind, Like, yeah, it's
Speaker 2: a cool story, but I mean it's not, you know,
Speaker 2: something I think is real because I hadn't seen it
Speaker 2: or I hadn't experienced anything like that, you know. And afterward,
Speaker 2: I mean I kind of leaned into it pretty heavy
Speaker 2: about you know, wanting to learn more about it and
Speaker 2: hearing you know, first hand accounts of what it was
Speaker 2: like to see if mine was out of the ordinary
Speaker 2: in any way. But I mean, it hasn't stopped me
Speaker 2: from going hunting, and it hasn't stopped me from you know,
Speaker 2: going camping. I tend to stick a little bit closer
Speaker 2: to the campsites nowadays, though I am getting older. I'm
Speaker 2: thirty one, I'll be thirty two this year. But uh,
Speaker 2: I don't I don't think that it has affected me
Speaker 2: so much because I've been up back up to Elk
Speaker 2: forcet before, you know, since then, and I have camped
Speaker 2: up there since then. But that's particular experience that was
Speaker 2: kind of like one of those instincts like I'm not
Speaker 2: welcome here, I'm going to leave kind of thing.
Speaker 1: So when you went back to Elk State Forest, did
Speaker 1: you go to the same spot again or was it
Speaker 1: a different campsite that you were staying in.
Speaker 2: No, we had not gone back to that same campsite. No,
Speaker 2: And like I said, we were off trail. It'd be
Speaker 2: hard to find her again. I'm sure we could if
Speaker 2: we absolutely had to, but we had just picked a
Speaker 2: direction from where we had parked and we had went,
Speaker 2: and it's pretty rugged train up there, and I mean,
Speaker 2: again seven years ago. Could change change the layout a
Speaker 2: lot between now and then, and I probably could find
Speaker 2: the general area of where we were at. But I've
Speaker 2: never been back there personally, and I've never gone that
Speaker 2: deep back into those woods ever. Again.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, do you when you're in that area, do you
Speaker 1: ever go out by yourself or you usually in a group.
Speaker 2: I've been out there as the only adult. I've taken
Speaker 2: my daughter fishing up there before, right along East Fork Road,
Speaker 2: and there's a creek that runs along East Fork Road.
Speaker 2: It's a great spot for trout fishing. And I'm sure
Speaker 2: there's gonna be plenty of people that are gonna upset
Speaker 2: that I'm giving that out. But I've taken my daughter
Speaker 2: up there to go fishing before. I've camped up there
Speaker 2: a couple of times with me or you know, with
Speaker 2: a couple of my buddies before, but I've never never
Speaker 2: once camped there by myself before, and I don't plan
Speaker 2: on it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely, I might be a little cautious to do
Speaker 1: that as well, going off of what you guys experienced.
Speaker 1: So after you got home, was this a thing where
Speaker 1: you had shared what happened right away with the rest
Speaker 1: of your family or did you hold on to it
Speaker 1: for a while to kind of work things through in
Speaker 1: your head?
Speaker 2: Well, I mean I I have I had. Like I
Speaker 2: told my wife, she was wondering why I was home
Speaker 2: six days early. I told her why and she she
Speaker 2: pretty much laughed at me, which I expected, and the
Speaker 2: only first thing that I told in any expedients. And
Speaker 2: I think about a week or two later I had
Speaker 2: told my father about it, and he had never now,
Speaker 2: he has never been in that particular uh forced forward
Speaker 2: to my knowledge, you may have at some point in
Speaker 2: his life, but I had never been up there with him,
Speaker 2: but he kind of brushed it off, and he had
Speaker 2: told me that he was one of the he's one
Speaker 2: of them people that I've spent so much time in
Speaker 2: the woods, I would have seen something by now and
Speaker 2: never have kind of guys, it's pretty much how he
Speaker 2: answered back that, you know, And I mean I would
Speaker 2: assume that's why I was the way I was about
Speaker 2: it too, because you know, I'm not gonna believe it
Speaker 2: till I experience it. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, have you ever done any research to see if
Speaker 1: there's been similar experiences that have happened in that state forest?
Speaker 2: Never in particular to that, but just going based off
Speaker 2: of the way that because I have and like you said,
Speaker 2: whenever when we were talking about again Aligay National, we
Speaker 2: were talking about how there's plenty of sightings up there
Speaker 2: and the amount of sightings that are in PA and
Speaker 2: and all that. It doesn't surprise it wouldn't surprise me
Speaker 2: if there have been more sightings or experiences like I
Speaker 2: had had up there, But I never did any particular
Speaker 2: research in that specific area afterward. But I have definitely
Speaker 2: done research on sightings and experiences here in PA since then.
Speaker 1: Gotcha? And especially you said you're from southwest Pennsylvania.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I live north of Pittsburgh.
Speaker 1: Okay, north of Pittsburgh. I mean you're aware that even
Speaker 1: down there, I guess more, you know, south of Pittsburgh,
Speaker 1: there's some weird stuff that happens down in that area
Speaker 1: as well.
Speaker 2: Oh. Absolutely, you get down into Washington County and even
Speaker 2: lower in places like Beaver and everything else down there
Speaker 2: down near West Virginia, I would imagine that. Yeah, there
Speaker 2: would be a bunch because it's there's a lot of unclaimed,
Speaker 2: untouched forest out down there, a lot of old growth
Speaker 2: forces where pretty much anything you can imagine with little
Speaker 2: you know, I'm sure, But no, what am I gonna
Speaker 2: try to say here? It's gone? I've lost it.
Speaker 1: Sounds like it's a thing where you're interested in the subject,
Speaker 1: but you are maybe not going out and actively seeking
Speaker 1: it in the woods.
Speaker 2: No, I would actually prefer to not have another experience
Speaker 2: like that, But I'm not going to let it control
Speaker 2: my life if it doesn't help.
Speaker 1: Okay, gotcha, gotcha? Do you think that's Uh, that's the
Speaker 1: same way your buddies are are feeling about that as well,
Speaker 1: or or did it make any of them not go
Speaker 1: in the woods again after that?
Speaker 2: No, No, every one of that whole group, that group
Speaker 2: of six of us, we like I said, we regularly
Speaker 2: go camping together. Okay, so we still know it to
Speaker 2: this day. It hasn't deterred us from going hunting or
Speaker 2: camping or fishing or anything like that, you know, at all.
Speaker 2: But there are certain places we just we will not go.
Speaker 2: And and I'm sure, like I said, like we we
Speaker 2: go to alligating National Forest mostly now, and until I'm
Speaker 2: giving a reason not to, I'm going to continue going.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Absolutely, Yeah, It's just it's that's that's a really
Speaker 1: really weird situation. I think the weirdest thing is that
Speaker 1: it definitely was not anyone messing with you guys, because
Speaker 1: you were i mean five six miles off the trail
Speaker 1: just in the woods. No one was out there messing
Speaker 1: with you. There are no lights, that's just right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, Plus, I mean, like I said, I
Speaker 2: don't know any man that's going to be able to
Speaker 2: keep his cool under the pressure of knowing that there's
Speaker 2: six guys just within you know, twenty thirty yards of
Speaker 2: you that that have firearms. Every one of us were armed,
Speaker 2: you know. I mean, I don't know anybody. It's not
Speaker 2: going to be like hey, sorry, I was just with you.
Speaker 2: I don't know anyway that I wouldn't wouldn't make themselves
Speaker 2: known at that point.
Speaker 1: Is there anything that you would have done differently that
Speaker 1: night if you could go back and do things over.
Speaker 2: Honestly, not really. I think that we made a fairly
Speaker 2: good decision because we had all stayed together, you know,
Speaker 2: and none of us had straight away at any point.
Speaker 2: But I don't know if that was out of like
Speaker 2: some kind of us being smarter, if it was just
Speaker 2: sheer instinct of the whole strength and numbers kind of thing.
Speaker 2: But you know, I don't think that I would have
Speaker 2: personally done anything different. I can't speak for a way
Speaker 2: my friends may have acted. You know, you never know
Speaker 2: what a marine will do whenever he gets busy. But
Speaker 2: you know, I don't well, I don't think I think
Speaker 2: that we were all smart enough to be like, yeah,
Speaker 2: it's probably just the best to let them stay over there,
Speaker 2: let us stay here where we can see because I,
Speaker 2: like you said, like I said, before that they had
Speaker 2: walked up on us. And granted, whenever they had come
Speaker 2: upon us, we were carrying on having a good time.
Speaker 2: We weren't being quiet, so they could have very well
Speaker 2: come up on us, being just as loud as they were.
Speaker 2: Whenever they had, you know, whatever, we had all stood
Speaker 2: up and they had started crashing through through the brush
Speaker 2: and everything. You know, we wouldn't have heard them. But
Speaker 2: they walked up on us with no lights, because we
Speaker 2: would have seen them, you know. And you said you
Speaker 2: were a hiker on the Appalachian Trail before. You know
Speaker 2: how dark it gets out in the out in the
Speaker 2: woods and in the mountains at night. It's the different
Speaker 2: kind of dark. You can't see your hand in front
Speaker 2: of your face. You're not making it through as thick
Speaker 2: of woods as we were in with a rough train
Speaker 2: as we were in without a light without falling on
Speaker 2: your face at least a dozen times. She's just not
Speaker 2: going to happen.
Speaker 1: I know that you said this happened what about six
Speaker 1: seven years.
Speaker 2: Ago, coming up on seven years this fall.
Speaker 1: Do you happen to remember what was what you guys
Speaker 1: had for supper that night at the campsite?
Speaker 2: Oh, that's a great question. I would imagine, I know
Speaker 2: what I had made coffee because I know that what
Speaker 2: my friends are. I had made myself instant coffee because
Speaker 2: I was not going to be able to take up
Speaker 2: with the rest of them without it. I want to
Speaker 2: say that we probably had made burgers. We usually eat
Speaker 2: pretty good on our first name when we go out
Speaker 2: for multiple nights, right, But and I want to say
Speaker 2: probably potatoes is usually our first night thing. It's almost
Speaker 2: a ritual.
Speaker 1: Yeah, gotcha, got you that's pretty solid. Just uh, I
Speaker 1: always check for for certain patterns. Uh. A pattern I've
Speaker 1: noticed is that a lot of a lot of people
Speaker 1: will say they were cooking bacon or they were It's
Speaker 1: usually bacon. Yeah, it's usually bacon, which is weird. I
Speaker 1: mean smells delicious. You know, I can't blame with right.
Speaker 2: But reasons for that. Yeah, so not not to go
Speaker 2: down a dark path here, but the serial killers that
Speaker 2: were cannibals, they say that human flesh tastes like bake,
Speaker 2: like like pork. It's a little unsettling.
Speaker 1: Thanks, that's weird. I mean that's the I had just
Speaker 1: had Campbells.
Speaker 2: Come up something about it.
Speaker 1: Hey, Well, I mean I had no idea but it's
Speaker 1: good to know. I guess that's wild wild stuff. Yeah,
Speaker 1: if you're down in the I don't know how far
Speaker 1: away this would be for me. If you're wanting to
Speaker 1: go to an area that has bigfoot activity, it doesn't
Speaker 1: really sound like you care either way. But Forbes State
Speaker 1: Forest down there, I don't know if you've heard of
Speaker 1: that area or the Laurel Ridge that area. That area
Speaker 1: is extremely active, so it might be a place you
Speaker 1: might not want to go to. Actually, but that.
Speaker 2: I mean, I'm I'm I'm not one to go out
Speaker 2: looking for for trouble. Acted that more than enough when
Speaker 2: I was a teenager, and I'm growing smart enough not
Speaker 2: to want to do that. But I'm not, like I said,
Speaker 2: I'm still not scared to go into the woods and
Speaker 2: go hunting and camping and all that. And until like
Speaker 2: I said, Alligay National National Forest. We go there all
Speaker 2: the time, and apparently it's a pretty big watchpot for
Speaker 2: bigfoot activity. It is, and I will continue to go
Speaker 2: there and till I find a reason not to, you know,
Speaker 2: I mean, it won't. It doesn't bother me going out
Speaker 2: and into the woods and going to have a good time,
Speaker 2: and I will I will no matter where it's at
Speaker 2: until I get given that reason to stay away from it.
Speaker 1: Just a few more questions, just in case you remember
Speaker 1: some specific details about the footprints that you saw. Do
Speaker 1: were you able to see toes in those footprints toe indentations.
Speaker 2: I could see the first fore toes coming from the
Speaker 2: inside to the outside very clearly, generally, not really, I
Speaker 2: couldn't see, uh. Like I said before, it had a
Speaker 2: distinct lack of an arch like a human footprint wood.
Speaker 2: It was very very flat footed, but it had the
Speaker 2: general idea of the same shape, you know, tapered from
Speaker 2: the back, tapered at the back. There was a distinction
Speaker 2: between you know, there was a clear uh, how do
Speaker 2: I home home? How should I explain this? There was
Speaker 2: a clear distinction between the main pad of the foot
Speaker 2: and the toes. You know, there was a distance there,
Speaker 2: you know what I mean, where it had not been
Speaker 2: pressed in so far you could tell, like I said,
Speaker 2: it was pressed in deep, a lot deeper than I
Speaker 2: would have been able to unless maybe I jumped and
Speaker 2: jumped into that and like jumped down into it too,
Speaker 2: you know, so I would have, like I said, I
Speaker 2: would have assumed that whatever had made that print was
Speaker 2: a fair bit heavier than myself.
Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely, And was it just one print that you
Speaker 1: had seen or where there multiple prints?
Speaker 2: We did find a couple that were fairly good. There
Speaker 2: was a couple that were more partial than anything. But
Speaker 2: most of the ground was covered in dead leaves and
Speaker 2: all that where it was rocky, So being able to
Speaker 2: find any was pretty much a miracle at that point.
Speaker 2: You know, there was just a couple of spots where
Speaker 2: the ground was soft enough or there was mud that
Speaker 2: we were actually able to find anything.
Speaker 1: That makes sense if you were able to follow the
Speaker 1: tracks for a while, what did what did the path
Speaker 1: of the tracks look like?
Speaker 2: So the ring that they had ran around us for
Speaker 2: at least a couple of hours, a couple three four
Speaker 2: hours before the daylight started to come, it was wider
Speaker 2: than your average person, you know, And I mean with
Speaker 2: them circling there for as long as they did, that's
Speaker 2: not really surprising. But it was wide enough to where
Speaker 2: I could stand broad and my buddy that was on
Speaker 2: that that ring with us, he could stand next to
Speaker 2: me without touching, without either was touching, you know, either
Speaker 2: side of that that brush that they have broken down, now,
Speaker 2: I don't mean both of the us like shoulder, but
Speaker 2: you know, shoulder to shoulder. He like, if he would
Speaker 2: have been facing me and I would have been standing broad,
Speaker 2: we would have been able to fit completely. Fine, So
Speaker 2: about a man and a half.
Speaker 1: Wide, gotcha? In the how let's say you're looking at
Speaker 1: one track, and then you're looking at the track U
Speaker 1: next in line, and then then one next in line.
Speaker 1: How far apart were the tracks usually?
Speaker 2: Oh, that would be an estimate. I don't know, uh,
Speaker 2: like I said it would. There weren't very many tracks
Speaker 2: that especially not in succession, that we could see, gotcha,
Speaker 2: But I had to guess, I mean just going based
Speaker 2: on you know, human proportions. You know, I wouldn't say
Speaker 2: that they that they would Their stride would have been
Speaker 2: much more than us. But again, they had circled and
Speaker 2: circled and circled us for hours, so they would have
Speaker 2: been stepping over each over each one multiple times, aside
Speaker 2: from the ones that were closer where they had probably
Speaker 2: stopped to throw something at us, you know what I mean?
Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely, m it'll be interesting to see, uh you know,
Speaker 1: once I put this up to see if there's other
Speaker 1: people that have had things happen in the same area.
Speaker 1: That's usually how it works with these There'll be people
Speaker 1: that reach out and they'll say, oh, yeah, I've been
Speaker 1: in state forest stuff has happened, so that will be
Speaker 1: that will be interesting. Do you ever have any desire
Speaker 1: to to have a visual sighting of one or really
Speaker 1: it's just you're kind of going along your business and
Speaker 1: still trying to go out and camp.
Speaker 2: In the woods. I would have loved to have been
Speaker 2: able to actually have seen something the way at least
Speaker 2: I knew I could put a face to whatever it was,
Speaker 2: But it just I didn't get that opportunity. But like
Speaker 2: I said, I'm I'm not going to go out there
Speaker 2: and actively, you know, look for that. You know, if
Speaker 2: it happens, it happens kind of thing, you know.
Speaker 1: Absolutely. Yet it's just something where you know, I haven't
Speaker 1: even had that happen myself yet, and I'm not sure. Well,
Speaker 1: I mean I've talked to any of people where they
Speaker 1: have to happen and it affects them, But to have
Speaker 1: that happen to yourself is a different story in it's
Speaker 1: just it's a totally different story. But Jim, I just
Speaker 1: want to say thank you for coming on the show.
Speaker 1: To share what you and your your buddies experienced that
Speaker 1: night out in the Elk State Forest. It's a new
Speaker 1: area for us to look into for Pennsylvania, and I
Speaker 1: appreciate you coming on. I do want to make sure
Speaker 1: that you were able to share everything that you had
Speaker 1: come on the show to share it tonight.
Speaker 2: Uh. Yeah, pretty much without actually seeing anything. There's not
Speaker 2: really much more to put into it. It was just
Speaker 2: you know, explaining experience, you know, because that's essentially all
Speaker 2: it was. You know, we didn't none of us had
Speaker 2: seen anything, and none of my friends that had had
Speaker 2: it told me since then that they had heard anything
Speaker 2: or it'd seen anything. And I would just assume that,
Speaker 2: like myself, we didn't see it. You know, we had
Speaker 2: not seen anything, but there was undoubtedly something out there
Speaker 2: with us, you know.
Speaker 1: Oh, no doubt about it. And you know, I would
Speaker 1: say if anything ever happens when you guys are out
Speaker 1: in the Allegheny National Forest, definitely feel free to reach out.
Speaker 1: There's been you know, sightings in that area, there have
Speaker 1: been people that have been affected by infrasound in that area.
Speaker 1: So there's a lot of interesting reports that happened over
Speaker 1: the years.
Speaker 2: We'll have to look into it. Uh, but yeah, I
Speaker 2: know absolutely. If I ever have another experience or even
Speaker 2: with one of my friends, do I'll have them reach
Speaker 2: out to you. But yeah, no, if anything happens to me,
Speaker 2: Bricks and I will make sure I'll let you know.
Speaker 1: Fantastic. Well, thanks for chatting tonight, Jim. I do appreciate it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, thank you for having me.
Speaker 1: I just wanted to take a minute to say thank
Speaker 1: you for listening to this episode of The big Foot
Speaker 1: Society podcast. Gym's encounter is the kind that linkers, not
Speaker 1: because of what he saw, but because of what he
Speaker 1: couldn't see. The silence, the rocks, the circling, the moment
Speaker 1: that he realized that something was watching and it didn't
Speaker 1: care if he was armed or not. So huge thanks
Speaker 1: to Jim for coming on and sharing such a raw
Speaker 1: personal story. These moments remind us why we listen and
Speaker 1: why some trails are better left on trodden. If you
Speaker 1: enjoy this episode, please subscribe to us on YouTube and
Speaker 1: hit the bell icons so you never miss a news story.
Speaker 1: And if you're listening on Apple Podcasts or Spotify and
Speaker 1: make sure you're following the show and leave a review
Speaker 1: if you can it helps more people discover these accounts.
Speaker 1: And if you've had a big Foot encounter, especially in
Speaker 1: Pennsylvania around Elk State Forest, Wharton or the Alleghany Forest,
Speaker 1: I'd love to hear from you, so please email me
Speaker 1: at Big for Society at gmail dot com. And one
Speaker 1: last thing, don't forget. Sasquatch Summerfest is happening July eleven
Speaker 1: through the twelfth in Oakridge, Oregon. Big for Society listeners
Speaker 1: can get a two day pass with the price of
Speaker 1: a one day admission with code be at checkout. You
Speaker 1: can get your tickets now over at www dot Sasquatch
Speaker 1: Summerfest dot com. Thank you again for being part of
Speaker 1: the Big for Society. Until next time, trust your gut,
Speaker 1: stay curious, and keep your eyes on the tree line
Speaker 1: and see you in the woods.