WEBVTT 1 00:00:04.040 --> 00:00:08.800 Thomas Hale had never believed the woods were neutral. That 2 00:00:08.880 --> 00:00:13.279 was the mistake outsiders made, thinking the forest was passive, 3 00:00:14.759 --> 00:00:20.640 something that simply existed until acted upon. Hale understood better. 4 00:00:21.760 --> 00:00:28.640 Land responded to pressure, It noticed, patterns, it remembered. Over 5 00:00:28.719 --> 00:00:32.119 twenty years of patrol work along the Miller's River had 6 00:00:32.159 --> 00:00:35.679 taught him that much, even if he'd never put it 7 00:00:35.759 --> 00:00:41.039 into words. The first sign something had changed came three 8 00:00:41.119 --> 00:00:45.600 days before Christmas. Hale was walking a familiar stretch of 9 00:00:45.679 --> 00:00:50.679 river corridor north of Greyhaven, a section he'd covered dozens 10 00:00:50.679 --> 00:00:55.079 of times in every season. The Millers ran tighter there, 11 00:00:55.840 --> 00:01:00.880 constrained by rock and slope, Its banks steam enough that 12 00:01:01.039 --> 00:01:05.879 ice formed in ragged shelves along the edges. Snow from 13 00:01:05.920 --> 00:01:09.959 the previous night lay thin and honest, just enough to 14 00:01:10.040 --> 00:01:16.239 record what passed through. The tracks were already there when 15 00:01:16.280 --> 00:01:22.159 he noticed them. They didn't announce themselves. Hale saw them 16 00:01:22.200 --> 00:01:27.840 only because they didn't behave like anything else. Too wide, 17 00:01:28.159 --> 00:01:33.840 too deep, The pressure displacement suggested weight far beyond any 18 00:01:33.920 --> 00:01:38.760 animal common to the region. The stride length was consistent, 19 00:01:39.560 --> 00:01:44.480 almost measured, and the path they followed ran parallel to 20 00:01:44.519 --> 00:01:49.680 the river rather than toward it. Hale knelt and examined 21 00:01:49.680 --> 00:01:56.200 one impression closely. The shape was indistinct, softened by light snowfall, 22 00:01:57.159 --> 00:02:02.519 but the proportions were wrong. Not a bear, not human. 23 00:02:03.400 --> 00:02:06.840 He didn't reach for his camera, he didn't radio it in. 24 00:02:08.080 --> 00:02:14.400 He stood, brushed snow from his gloves, and followed the tracks, 25 00:02:14.520 --> 00:02:19.240 stayed just far enough from the trail to avoid accidental crossing. 26 00:02:20.639 --> 00:02:24.439 They never broke toward the water or climbed toward higher ground. 27 00:02:25.439 --> 00:02:32.520 They moved with purpose, but not urgency. Hale followed them 28 00:02:32.560 --> 00:02:37.039 for nearly a quarter mile before they stopped abruptly near 29 00:02:37.280 --> 00:02:41.919 a stand of old pine. That was when the smell 30 00:02:42.199 --> 00:02:48.120 reached him. It wasn't to kay, It wasn't animal waste. 31 00:02:48.919 --> 00:02:54.240 It was something heavier warmer carried on the cold air 32 00:02:54.360 --> 00:02:56.879 in a way that made it feel out of place. 33 00:02:58.719 --> 00:03:03.159 Hale breathed through his mouth and kept walking. He did 34 00:03:03.240 --> 00:03:08.680 not feel threatened, but he felt assessed. He marked the 35 00:03:08.759 --> 00:03:15.080 location in his notebook and turned back. That afternoon, Hale 36 00:03:15.240 --> 00:03:20.599 closed the trail. He didn't follow a report explaining why 37 00:03:20.680 --> 00:03:24.199 he didn't consult with the county. He simply drew a 38 00:03:24.280 --> 00:03:28.319 line through the access point on the map, wrote the 39 00:03:28.400 --> 00:03:34.039 date beside it and initialed the margin. Anyone who knew 40 00:03:34.159 --> 00:03:38.879 him would have recognized that as a decision he did 41 00:03:38.919 --> 00:03:45.520 not take. Lightly. On Christmas Eve, Hale returned. The weather 42 00:03:45.680 --> 00:03:49.560 had begun to shift. Wind pressed against the trees with 43 00:03:49.680 --> 00:03:56.840 more force than forecast it. The river sounded thicker, its movement, 44 00:03:56.960 --> 00:04:02.400 slowed and burdened by ice. Parked his truck farther south 45 00:04:02.479 --> 00:04:08.479 this time, and walked in quietly, his steps careful, deliberate. 46 00:04:09.639 --> 00:04:16.639 The tracks had returned. They overlapped older impressions, now compressing 47 00:04:16.639 --> 00:04:22.000 the snow deeply enough that the ground beneath had been disturbed. 48 00:04:23.399 --> 00:04:27.839 Hale followed them again, noting where they appeared, and vanished 49 00:04:27.879 --> 00:04:33.720 without explanation. In one place, the Prince circled the pine 50 00:04:33.800 --> 00:04:38.279 stand he'd noted the day before, pressing the snow flat 51 00:04:38.319 --> 00:04:43.639 in a wide ring before ending completely. Hale felt the 52 00:04:43.680 --> 00:04:49.879 sensation before he saw anything. The awareness came first, the 53 00:04:49.920 --> 00:04:55.240 subtle shift and pressure, the sense that the space beside 54 00:04:55.319 --> 00:05:02.920 him was occupied. He slowed, turning slightly, scanning laterally rather 55 00:05:03.040 --> 00:05:11.879 than ahead. The glimpse came, then, brief and unmistakable, tall upright, 56 00:05:13.040 --> 00:05:16.959 moving across his field of vision rather than toward or away. 57 00:05:16.959 --> 00:05:24.399 From him. The motion was smooth, controlled, almost economical. Whatever 58 00:05:24.439 --> 00:05:29.120 it was did not rush, it did not hide. Hale 59 00:05:29.680 --> 00:05:33.759 did not raise his weapon, he did not call out. 60 00:05:34.360 --> 00:05:38.199 He reached for his radio and turned it off. No 61 00:05:38.279 --> 00:05:42.639 one would ever know why he made that choice. Perhaps 62 00:05:43.240 --> 00:05:50.920 he understood that authorities meant nothing here. Perhaps he believed 63 00:05:51.040 --> 00:05:58.040 observation was safer than escalation. Perhaps he recognized intelligence when 64 00:05:58.040 --> 00:06:02.560 he saw it. What mattered was that he remained where 65 00:06:02.600 --> 00:06:08.000 he was. The encounter did not last long. There was 66 00:06:08.040 --> 00:06:16.240 no vocalization, no display, no warning, only proximity, weight and intent. 67 00:06:17.319 --> 00:06:21.279 Hale's injuries would later tell the story. His mouth never 68 00:06:21.360 --> 00:06:28.759 could compression across the shoulders, bruising consistent with restraint. Force 69 00:06:29.040 --> 00:06:35.360 applied with precision rather than chaos. He was not attacked 70 00:06:35.480 --> 00:06:41.519 in panic. He was controlled. When Hale's body was found 71 00:06:41.680 --> 00:06:46.800 hours after Christmas ended, it was placed near a widening 72 00:06:46.920 --> 00:06:51.399 bend of the Miller's River, where the bank sloped gently 73 00:06:51.480 --> 00:06:56.160 and the water slowed. There were no drag marks, no 74 00:06:56.319 --> 00:07:00.639 sign of a fall. The snow around him lay smooth, 75 00:07:00.759 --> 00:07:06.879 as if nothing had disturbed it. The positioning was deliberate. 76 00:07:08.079 --> 00:07:12.720 After Eleanor Price disappeared days later, the meaning of Hale's 77 00:07:12.720 --> 00:07:18.600 death changed. Investigators revisiting the scene no longer viewed it 78 00:07:18.720 --> 00:07:24.000 as an accident shaped by weather. The parallels were too strong. 79 00:07:25.199 --> 00:07:30.959 Eleanor had not been chased, she had not fled. Her 80 00:07:31.000 --> 00:07:34.959 remains told a story of intention rather than violence. For 81 00:07:35.000 --> 00:07:39.360 its own sake. The ear left behind was not evidence 82 00:07:39.439 --> 00:07:44.600 of feeding. It was a symbol a peace taken and returned. 83 00:07:46.000 --> 00:07:52.680 Among older residents and hunters, the stories resurfaced quietly, not folklore, 84 00:07:53.360 --> 00:07:58.759 not campfire tales, but recollections that had never been given 85 00:07:59.160 --> 00:08:06.399 language before. Shapes seen near the river decades earlier, Tracks 86 00:08:06.439 --> 00:08:11.240 that vanished where they shouldn't, have a smell that lingered 87 00:08:11.759 --> 00:08:16.560 after everything else moved on. One man used the old 88 00:08:16.639 --> 00:08:22.639 term his grandfather had taught him. People stealer. Not always, 89 00:08:22.720 --> 00:08:28.560 he said, not without reason. The distinction between Hale and 90 00:08:28.680 --> 00:08:39.720 Eleanor became the unspoken center of every conversation. Hale represented authority, boundaries, enforcement. 91 00:08:40.639 --> 00:08:45.360 He interrupted something that had been allowed to exist without interference. 92 00:08:46.679 --> 00:08:54.200 Eleanor represented curiosity, reverence, a willingness to enter without demanding control. 93 00:08:55.600 --> 00:09:02.600 The Sasquatch recognized the difference, removed because he threatened balance. 94 00:09:03.679 --> 00:09:07.519 Eleanor was taken because she crossed a line she didn't 95 00:09:07.559 --> 00:09:12.639 know existed. By the time New Year's Eve arrived, gray 96 00:09:12.679 --> 00:09:15.759 Haven no longer cared what might happen when the clock 97 00:09:15.840 --> 00:09:22.720 struck midnight. Computers worked, lights stayed on. The world did 98 00:09:22.720 --> 00:09:27.600 not end, but the town understood something it hadn't before. 99 00:09:28.679 --> 00:09:33.519 The woods did not negotiate, and they did not forget. 100 00:09:35.080 --> 00:09:41.360 After the storm that followed Eleanor Price's disappearance, gray Haven 101 00:09:41.519 --> 00:09:46.279 changed in ways that were difficult to quantify but impossible 102 00:09:46.360 --> 00:09:52.799 to miss. There was no announcement, no shared acknowledgment that 103 00:09:53.000 --> 00:10:00.600 something fundamental had shifted. The change lived in habits, in 104 00:10:00.679 --> 00:10:04.759 the way doors were locked earlier, in how people avoided 105 00:10:04.840 --> 00:10:08.759 the north end of town without discussing it. In the 106 00:10:08.759 --> 00:10:13.399 way the Miller's River was no longer treated as scenery. 107 00:10:14.440 --> 00:10:20.679 The investigation moved forward in fragments. Officially, Thomas Hale's death 108 00:10:20.759 --> 00:10:27.559 remained categorized as weather related, pending further review. The paperwork 109 00:10:27.720 --> 00:10:35.519 used careful language that avoided conclusions exposure complicated by environmental factors, 110 00:10:36.559 --> 00:10:42.519 possible disorientation contributing to rain hazards. It was the sort 111 00:10:42.639 --> 00:10:47.200 of phrasing designed to settle into files and never be 112 00:10:47.320 --> 00:10:53.360 disturbed again. Unofficially, no one believed it any more. The 113 00:10:53.399 --> 00:10:59.120 photographs from the recovery were reviewed again, this time without 114 00:10:59.159 --> 00:11:03.519 the assumption of acts accident. The pattern of bruising across 115 00:11:03.559 --> 00:11:08.759 Hale's upper body stood out when seen through a different lens. 116 00:11:08.799 --> 00:11:14.519 The spacing was too consistent, the depth to uniform. His 117 00:11:14.639 --> 00:11:21.639 shoulders bore compression marks that suggested hands, not impact points. 118 00:11:22.960 --> 00:11:26.360 There were no fractures that aligned with a fall from 119 00:11:26.519 --> 00:11:32.320 standing height, no evidence of a slide down the embankment. 120 00:11:33.320 --> 00:11:37.080 Hale had not been struck, he had not lost his footing, 121 00:11:38.039 --> 00:11:43.080 he had been restrained. The decision to re examine his 122 00:11:43.159 --> 00:11:47.840 patrol notes came quietly. A deputy who had worked with 123 00:11:47.960 --> 00:11:51.720 Hale long enough to know his habits, pulled the notebook 124 00:11:51.759 --> 00:11:56.440 from evidence and read through it slowly. Most of the 125 00:11:56.600 --> 00:12:05.000 entries were routine trail conditions, weather changes, minor infractions resolved 126 00:12:05.120 --> 00:12:13.440 without escalation. Then came the closure notation, no explanation, just 127 00:12:13.480 --> 00:12:19.320 a date, a location, and Hale's initials. That was the 128 00:12:19.360 --> 00:12:25.279 moment the timeline shifted. Search crews returned to the closed 129 00:12:25.320 --> 00:12:29.639 section of trail with different eyes. The snow had erased 130 00:12:29.879 --> 00:12:36.600 most surface details by then, but it shaded areas along 131 00:12:36.720 --> 00:12:41.600 the river bank. Impressions lingered where the ground had been 132 00:12:41.639 --> 00:12:48.960 compressed deep enough to resist weather. Trackways appeared intermittently, wide 133 00:12:49.000 --> 00:12:55.039 and heavy, pressing straight down rather than sliding or scuffing. 134 00:12:56.240 --> 00:13:00.679 They did not converge on the trail. They paralleled it, 135 00:13:01.799 --> 00:13:07.080 sometimes for hundreds of yards at a time. The behavior 136 00:13:07.200 --> 00:13:15.639 bothered the men examining them. Animals cross trails, people cross trails. 137 00:13:15.679 --> 00:13:20.240 Whatever made these prints moved as if it understood paths 138 00:13:20.399 --> 00:13:26.240 without using them. The smell was noted again during the search, 139 00:13:27.679 --> 00:13:33.759 not constant, not overpowering, but present enough that several people 140 00:13:34.120 --> 00:13:42.159 commented on it independently, damp, musky, something that did not 141 00:13:42.360 --> 00:13:49.360 belong to winter. No one recorded that observation in the 142 00:13:49.399 --> 00:13:55.840 official report. The difference between Hale's death and Eleanor's disappearance 143 00:13:56.039 --> 00:14:01.639 became clearer with each passing day. Eleanor had not been 144 00:14:01.720 --> 00:14:06.639 found where she fell. The sight where her ear was 145 00:14:06.720 --> 00:14:12.320 recovered showed no signs of a struggle, no torn vegetation, 146 00:14:13.440 --> 00:14:19.759 no chaotic movement. The blood suggested injury, not prolonged violence. 147 00:14:21.039 --> 00:14:26.279 The locket left behind rested on top of the snow, undisturbed, 148 00:14:26.519 --> 00:14:34.639 as if placed rather than dropped. That detail unsettled investigators 149 00:14:34.639 --> 00:14:41.200 more than any other. People did not leave objects behind 150 00:14:41.480 --> 00:14:47.559 neatly in moments of panic. The cloth pouches Eleanor carried 151 00:14:47.600 --> 00:14:53.879 were never recovered, neither was her pack. Whatever took her 152 00:14:54.639 --> 00:15:01.279 had not taken everything, only what mattered to it. Conversations 153 00:15:01.320 --> 00:15:06.840 with long time residence began cautiously and ended quickly. People 154 00:15:06.960 --> 00:15:12.159 did not like being asked direct questions about the woods. Answers, 155 00:15:12.720 --> 00:15:19.720 when they came, were framed as anecdotes rather than beliefs. 156 00:15:20.080 --> 00:15:25.200 A story a grandfather used to tell something some one 157 00:15:25.320 --> 00:15:29.639 had seen once years ago that didn't fit anywhere else. 158 00:15:31.320 --> 00:15:39.759 Warnings passed down without explanation. Eventually a word surfaced, sasquatch. 159 00:15:41.240 --> 00:15:47.080 It was spoken quietly, without drama. No one laughed, no 160 00:15:47.159 --> 00:15:52.080 one challenged it outright. The words settled into the room 161 00:15:52.360 --> 00:15:57.879 like a piece that had been missing. One hunter older 162 00:15:57.919 --> 00:16:04.519 than most explained that distinction that mattered. They're not all 163 00:16:04.679 --> 00:16:08.399 the same, he said, Most of them want nothing to 164 00:16:08.480 --> 00:16:15.960 do with us, but some some remember remember what. No 165 00:16:16.000 --> 00:16:22.039 one asked. The term people steeler came up next, not 166 00:16:22.240 --> 00:16:25.919 as a threat, not as a myth, but as a 167 00:16:25.960 --> 00:16:32.679 category a behavior, something that happened rarely enough to be doubted, 168 00:16:33.440 --> 00:16:38.240 but often enough to be remembered. The stories were consistent 169 00:16:38.399 --> 00:16:44.440 in one way. Those taken were usually alone, usually attentive 170 00:16:44.799 --> 00:16:49.919 to the land, usually unaware they had crossed into something claimed. 171 00:16:51.919 --> 00:16:58.000 The marking was what separated rumor from warning. Taking a 172 00:16:58.080 --> 00:17:03.279 piece and leaving it behind was not about feeding. It 173 00:17:03.399 --> 00:17:08.680 was about a communication, a way of saying that the 174 00:17:08.799 --> 00:17:14.839 removal was intentional, that the boundary existed, whether people acknowledged 175 00:17:14.920 --> 00:17:20.359 it or not. Hale's roll and that context became clear. 176 00:17:21.759 --> 00:17:25.559 He had not been taken because he wandered too far. 177 00:17:26.599 --> 00:17:32.599 He had been confronted because he represented enforcement. His presence 178 00:17:32.799 --> 00:17:37.559 threatened to alter something that had been allowed to persist quietly. 179 00:17:38.720 --> 00:17:43.200 He had not backed away, He had not escalated. He 180 00:17:43.279 --> 00:17:49.960 had chosen to remain. That choice had consequences. Eleanor's role 181 00:17:50.519 --> 00:17:56.400 was different. She had not earned authority or intent to control. 182 00:17:57.240 --> 00:18:02.519 She carried symbols sand from another place, pieces of an 183 00:18:02.519 --> 00:18:08.440 ancient tree, a way of listening that did not demand answers. 184 00:18:09.079 --> 00:18:13.680 That curiosity may have delayed what happened to her. It 185 00:18:13.759 --> 00:18:19.200 may have made her interesting rather than immediately threatening, But 186 00:18:19.319 --> 00:18:25.160 curiosity did not grant permission. By the time the calendar 187 00:18:25.240 --> 00:18:31.480 turned to January, gray Haven had abandoned any lingering concern 188 00:18:31.680 --> 00:18:38.319 about y two K. Midnights passed without incident. Computers worked 189 00:18:38.799 --> 00:18:45.680 like stayed on. Nothing external failed. What had failed was 190 00:18:45.720 --> 00:18:51.200 the town's assumption that the woods were passive. The closed 191 00:18:51.240 --> 00:18:56.519 trail remained closed. No one challenged the restriction, no one 192 00:18:56.640 --> 00:19:01.519 asked when it might reopen. The river corridor north of 193 00:19:01.599 --> 00:19:05.839 town fell quiet in a way it had not been before. 194 00:19:07.400 --> 00:19:14.559 Hunters state south hikers chose other routes. Even fishermen avoided 195 00:19:14.599 --> 00:19:19.559 the bend where Hale had been found. The forest did 196 00:19:19.599 --> 00:19:23.319 not reclaim that space because it had never lost it. 197 00:19:25.160 --> 00:19:32.119 Gray Haven learned slowly and without ceremony, that coexistence depended 198 00:19:32.200 --> 00:19:40.000 on recognition. Some boundaries could not be negotiated. Some warnings 199 00:19:40.519 --> 00:19:46.240 were issued only once, and whatever had been interrupted before 200 00:19:46.359 --> 00:19:50.680 the end of the century had made itself known clearly 201 00:19:50.839 --> 00:19:55.440 enough that no one felt compelled to test it again. 202 00:19:58.519 --> 00:20:02.359 Thanks for listening to Bigfootswilker. That was white Out Warning 203 00:20:02.480 --> 00:20:05.759 Part two. And if you thought things were starting to 204 00:20:05.759 --> 00:20:09.960 make sense, you might want to think again. The storm 205 00:20:10.039 --> 00:20:15.279 isn't finished, and neither is what's moving inside it. Be 206 00:20:15.359 --> 00:20:18.759 sure to tune in for part three, where the truth 207 00:20:18.839 --> 00:20:23.440 begins to surface, and not everyone makes it out of 208 00:20:23.480 --> 00:20:29.319 the snow. Until then, stay aware of your surroundings, trust 209 00:20:29.359 --> 00:20:33.279 what you feel more than what you see, and remember 210 00:20:34.200 --> 00:20:39.559 out there in the quiet, in the cold, you're never 211 00:20:40.440 --> 00:20:48.400 as alone as you think. This is Bigfoots Wilderness. We'll 212 00:20:48.400 --> 00:20:54.720 see you in the next episode.