Speaker 1: Like most experienced hunters, we are particular who we allowed
Speaker 1: to join us during a fishing or hunting trip. Usually,
Speaker 1: our group included my father, my brothers, my brother in law. However,
Speaker 1: they could not hunt that year, and I was asked
Speaker 1: by a friend of the family he was a good
Speaker 1: and safe hunter, to join him in a group of
Speaker 1: his neighbors. Our group was going to hunt three different
Speaker 1: locations over the next three days, and I was comfortable
Speaker 1: with most of them, but one guy got so drunk
Speaker 1: at dinner he didn't even realize he bought us dinner.
Speaker 1: We took his rifle away from him the whole three
Speaker 1: days of hunting. The next morning, I was up at
Speaker 1: four thirty am, expecting to be in the woods by
Speaker 1: around five thirty am, but I found out that I
Speaker 1: was assigned to the second pickup truck. Unfortunately, they were
Speaker 1: going going to breakfast at six point thirty. We finally
Speaker 1: got to our hunting location at seven thirty am, way
Speaker 1: after daylight. Our first hunting location was a plateau above
Speaker 1: miles of timber and a waterway. There were several other
Speaker 1: vehicles already there. The last thing I was going to
Speaker 1: do was walk in on another hunter's location in broad daylight.
Speaker 1: The other three headed west for the timber. One guy
Speaker 1: I asked where I was going, so I told him
Speaker 1: I was going north, as no tracks in the snow
Speaker 1: were headed that way. He said that he had hunted
Speaker 1: there before and that if I went that way, I
Speaker 1: would be in forty square miles of timber and swamplane.
Speaker 1: Everyone previously that has gone there has gotten lost, and
Speaker 1: we had to contact the game ward and to find
Speaker 1: them after dark. I said, well, that's perfect. Please note
Speaker 1: that I will not get lost. I will hunt until dusk,
Speaker 1: and I'll be walking out after dark, so don't leave me.
Speaker 1: I walked downhill on a game trail for one hundred
Speaker 1: and fifty yards. To my right side was an entanglement
Speaker 1: of brier bushes six feet in heighth with one inch thorns.
Speaker 1: The brier patch ranged its size from thirty five to
Speaker 1: fifty yards in width all the way to the top
Speaker 1: of the hill, just short of the park vehicles, and
Speaker 1: all the way to the bottom of the hill. No
Speaker 1: one in the right mind would even attempt to walk
Speaker 1: through those loose, heavily intertwined briars, even with the heaviest
Speaker 1: protective hunting clothes, because they would be ripped to shreds.
Speaker 1: It is doubtful if even a vehicle could make it
Speaker 1: through there. I reached the bottom of the long hill
Speaker 1: and a thirty foot wide waterway had to be crossed.
Speaker 1: A fallen tree allowed access to the other side. It
Speaker 1: was about halfway across when a tree branch broke and
Speaker 1: I fell into the icy water. Water was four feet deep,
Speaker 1: and I found the river bottom to be quicksand or silk.
Speaker 1: Either way, I was trapped. I couldn't move and I
Speaker 1: was sinking. I couldn't reach the fallen tree, so now
Speaker 1: I was in big trouble. During the last summer, I
Speaker 1: had decided to add a sling to my thirty thirty,
Speaker 1: enabling me to use both hands as necessary. I was
Speaker 1: now just about chest deep, but able to throw the
Speaker 1: sling over a branch and get myself pulled back up
Speaker 1: onto the log and continue to the bank. I have
Speaker 1: been wet before, so once I dumped the water out
Speaker 1: of my boots, walking was the best way to dry off.
Speaker 1: I was on dry land again, and where I wanted
Speaker 1: to hunt was mostly snow covered, but there were some
Speaker 1: bare spots. I looked around, but there were not any
Speaker 1: tracks to my left was a hill, so I headed
Speaker 1: for high ground for a panoramic view. The best area
Speaker 1: looked north, so I trudged back down the hill where
Speaker 1: I crossed the log. Now there were tracks in between
Speaker 1: the patches of snow. At first glance, they appeared to
Speaker 1: be black bear tracks, still not yet in hibernation. It
Speaker 1: must have seen me fall in the water, and I
Speaker 1: figured it would check me out just in case I
Speaker 1: could be a free mill I was wary, but I
Speaker 1: couldn't see the bear, so I went back up on
Speaker 1: the hill again and so as to be on high
Speaker 1: ground in case it came my way. After looking the
Speaker 1: area over, I didn't see any movement and I went
Speaker 1: north along the ridge, but it dead ended, so I
Speaker 1: had to go back down the hill in order to
Speaker 1: continue north. In front of me it looked like a
Speaker 1: very wide and dense patch of wild asparagus. I didn't
Speaker 1: have a choice, so I decided to plow through it
Speaker 1: with chance of running into the bear. I loosened my
Speaker 1: buck knife and I lowered my thirty thirty for a
Speaker 1: quick shot, because it could be the only chance available
Speaker 1: if a bear was waiting for me. Luckily, no bear,
Speaker 1: so I moved back into the open and I found
Speaker 1: several piles of logs, and I climbed up on the
Speaker 1: closest one to wait for an hour because I figured
Speaker 1: the bear was still in the area. It was quiet,
Speaker 1: so I just sat still and I watched four separate
Speaker 1: snowshoe rabbits, which were most undetectable until they moved. I
Speaker 1: guess they weren't too concerned about the bear in the area. Finally,
Speaker 1: two hundred yards at the north end of the log piles,
Speaker 1: seven deer headed east and went across in front of me.
Speaker 1: They were mostly dozes, but the last two were bucks.
Speaker 1: I didn't have a good shot, so I let them go,
Speaker 1: also expecting something or another hunter tracking them. About thirty
Speaker 1: seconds later, a hunter on the trail came into view.
Speaker 1: He didn't see me, so I just watched in case
Speaker 1: the deer circled around, but they never showed, so I
Speaker 1: expect that they kept going east. I climbed down from
Speaker 1: the log pile and I headed north again, going north
Speaker 1: and expecting to find air tracks, but I didn't find
Speaker 1: any of any kind, which really did not make a
Speaker 1: whole lot of sense because this is a very isolated area.
Speaker 1: I kept moving north for several hundred more yards until
Speaker 1: sitting up in a protected area with a great panoramic view,
Speaker 1: but nothing was moving there either, so north again to
Speaker 1: another area, but still no tracks of any kind, which
Speaker 1: again did not make sense because it is a very
Speaker 1: remote area and undisturbed with a lot of cover. Cloud
Speaker 1: cover became heavy and then snowfall became progressively heavier. It
Speaker 1: was getting close to dusk with heavy snowfalling, so I
Speaker 1: started my walk back to the plateau on high ground
Speaker 1: where our vehicles were parked. By the time I reached
Speaker 1: the falling log across the water way, snow was now
Speaker 1: close to blizzard stage, but I was able to cross
Speaker 1: the water this time without falling in. It was now
Speaker 1: pitch dark with limited visibility due to a very heavy snowfall,
Speaker 1: but I was able to reach where we left our vehicles. Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: now the parking area was empty as they had all
Speaker 1: left without me. So now I was stranded in the
Speaker 1: middle of nowhere, on top of an empty plateau in
Speaker 1: a snowstorm, in a blizzard stage. This situation was not good.
Speaker 1: I had waited for about twenty minutes when I heard
Speaker 1: a noise downhill, so I thought it must be a hunter,
Speaker 1: maybe the one I saw earlier in the day. I
Speaker 1: was glad he was able to cross the log over
Speaker 1: the water as well. Visibility was at most ten feet,
Speaker 1: so I couldn't see him. I yelled down to him,
Speaker 1: which might help him find his way up the hill.
Speaker 1: Also figured he must be stranded as well because all
Speaker 1: the v vehicles had left earlier. So I yelled down, hello,
Speaker 1: just so you know, I'm the stranded hunter waiting up
Speaker 1: on the plateau above you. I got no reply, so
Speaker 1: I yelled down again. If you're coming my way, it's okay,
Speaker 1: but you need to identify yourself. Still I got no reply.
Speaker 1: I knew he could hear me as I could hear him,
Speaker 1: so I tried one more time, and I told him
Speaker 1: that I'm a stranded hunter with a loaded rifle. Neither
Speaker 1: one of us need any surprises in this blizzard, So
Speaker 1: for the last time, will you identify yourself? I got
Speaker 1: no answer, But now I could hear someone or something
Speaker 1: heading up hill, but not along the snow covered game trail.
Speaker 1: I couldn't see anything, but still could hear perfectly. Whatever
Speaker 1: was approaching from the bottom of the hill was trying
Speaker 1: to come up through the brier patch. Well, I could
Speaker 1: hear whatever it was walking through the briers and the
Speaker 1: one inch thorns because the snap, snap snap of each
Speaker 1: briar entanglement branch being broken as it approached. It was
Speaker 1: now obvious that this was not a human, nor did
Speaker 1: I think it was a bear. And whatever it was,
Speaker 1: it was by peedle Well. I was now in serious trouble.
Speaker 1: It stranded on top of a plateau with only at
Speaker 1: most ten foot of visibility and no options except to
Speaker 1: stand my ground. I yelled down again to whatever this
Speaker 1: thing was, and I told him that I don't know
Speaker 1: whatever you are, but I do not wish you harm.
Speaker 1: I got no answer again, but it stopped for a
Speaker 1: few seconds, and then there were more snaps. I yelled
Speaker 1: down again. If you continue, I will be forced to
Speaker 1: send around downhill in your direction. It stopped again for
Speaker 1: ten seconds and then snap, snap, snap, here it came.
Speaker 1: By this time whatever it was had unbelievably walked uphill
Speaker 1: through fifty yards of the toughest briars that I had
Speaker 1: ever seen in thirty years of hunting. Also, it is
Speaker 1: now within one hundred yards of my location, and this
Speaker 1: was not good. I have had experience with three bigfoot
Speaker 1: before on a fishing trip. They were eight feet in height,
Speaker 1: totally black, but they were friendly. However, this was a
Speaker 1: very different experience, and seriously I could detect that this
Speaker 1: was not friendly. Now my back was to the wall
Speaker 1: and I was most likely going to have to defend
Speaker 1: myself before it got too close. I only had a
Speaker 1: thirty thirty with me, so I likely would not stop
Speaker 1: a bigfoot, but maybe a warning shot would change its mind.
Speaker 1: I'm a former eighty second Airborne Division, although not a
Speaker 1: trained sniper, but I was a sniper spotterer. So I
Speaker 1: yelled down one more time and advised, now you've given
Speaker 1: me no choice and no options. If you come any closer,
Speaker 1: I will fire. If you continue to approach my locations
Speaker 1: as you obviously are doing, the second round will be closer.
Speaker 1: I got no answer. Then I heard more snaps and
Speaker 1: more snaps. Even in this blizzard condition, I could still
Speaker 1: hear perfectly where the bigfoot was, and I fired, sending
Speaker 1: around to his location, most likely three feet or so
Speaker 1: in front of him. There was silence for a few seconds,
Speaker 1: and then more snaps. This was the end of my
Speaker 1: one sided conversation. I took careful aim, and I sent
Speaker 1: another round as close as possible without intentionally hitting it.
Speaker 1: I knew there were no rocks on the hillside, so
Speaker 1: there was not going to be a ricochet. But by now,
Speaker 1: if the bigfoot for some reason was mad before, it
Speaker 1: had to be furious. By now. There was silence again
Speaker 1: for a few seconds, and then it started coming again.
Speaker 1: I guessed it was now fifty to sixty yards away
Speaker 1: and it was closing. I fired one more round off
Speaker 1: to its left side, just to show that I was
Speaker 1: not trying to hit it, and hopefully the bigfoot recognized
Speaker 1: this fact. Again there was silence, but it was obvious
Speaker 1: that it had not changed its mind, because ten seconds
Speaker 1: later I heard more snapping. It now had to be
Speaker 1: just short of the top of the end of the briers,
Speaker 1: thirty yards in front of my position, meaning with visibility
Speaker 1: of about ten feet, I only had two to three
Speaker 1: seconds before the Bigfoot will be in full charge on
Speaker 1: my location. My only option left to live was going
Speaker 1: to be a headshot, so I prepared to do so,
Speaker 1: and I backed up a few feet for a possible
Speaker 1: split second. Just then I heard something on my right.
Speaker 1: I had backed up about three feet because of the
Speaker 1: pickup truck had just missed me. As it pulled up
Speaker 1: on top of the plateau, the driver, from a few
Speaker 1: feet away, rolled down his window. I said, I told
Speaker 1: you I'd be walking out after dark, and don't leave me.
Speaker 1: I jumped into the vehicle with my loaded rifle. The
Speaker 1: guy in the backseat asked, how come you didn't unload
Speaker 1: your rifle as we're supposed to do at dusk. My
Speaker 1: reply was, you don't want to know. I suggest we
Speaker 1: move out now. For me, they did not deserve an explanation. However,
Speaker 1: if the pickup had not returned, that would have been
Speaker 1: the end of the story. I escaped by just a
Speaker 1: few seconds of fate. So very happy to share this
Speaker 1: experience with you CAM and your listeners.