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Speaker 1: It was in the mid nineteen nineties in Georgetown, Kentucky,

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and I walked or rode my bike everywhere. Near the

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center of town was a beautifully maintained, wooded cemetery that

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I walked through almost daily to get from one place

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to another. One evening, around dusk, I was running late

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for my karate class, and I took a shortcut through

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that cemetery, as I always did. As soon as I entered,

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I felt something walking along the path with me, but

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staying just far enough behind that I would have to

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turn my head to see it. The strangest thing of

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all was that I was overcome with peace and calm,

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and despite the urge to turn my head and look,

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I couldn't do it. I could hear heavy footsteps, but

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there was no bad smell, just the sense that I

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was not alone, that I was eighth, and whatever it

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was didn't mean to harm me. I continued to walk

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through the cemetery. I felt this thing get close enough

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that I could have reached out and touched it, but

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I felt no urge to do that. I felt as

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if my body was on autopilot and I had no

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real control over what I was doing. As I neared

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the exit of the cemetery. Whatever this thing was seemed

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to back off and was completely gone by the time

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I got to the gate, and then, and only then

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was I able to turn around and look behind me.

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I wish I could say I saw it run behind

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a tree or something like that, but I didn't see anything. Well.

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I got to my karate class just a few minutes later,

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only to find that I was nearly half an hour late.

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The walk that only took me ten minutes had taken

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twice that I couldn't make sense of the lost time.

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I kept walking through the cemetery often for the rest

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of my youth years in that town, and only one

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other time did I feel anything a sensation of being

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watched as I walked home one evening. To this day,

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I don't know what happened that night. I know something

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was there. I could feel it, I could hear it

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walking behind me, But I cannot explain the missing time

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or why I couldn't make myself look behind me at

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what was following. I just hope that whatever it was

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continues to watch after those who walk through that place.

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I hope that those who walk through there are respectful

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enough not to earn its Anger. I live in northwest

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Arkansas near Beaver Lake, and I have been an avid

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hunter since I was eight years old, and I've experienced

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everything my area has to offer for over four decades.

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In my passion for the outdoors, I've encountered nearly every

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creature native to this region, but this one has gotten

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me scratching my head. In twenty seventeen, I was hunting

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behind my house for deer in a small wooded lot

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that runs down to the lake a few miles away.

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The area I live in has houses mixed with fields

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and small patches of woods just one hundred yards outside

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the city limits. There are deer in the area, but

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it's by no means isolated, certainly not enough for a

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bigfoot encounter, or so I thought. I stayed in my

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tree stand until it was too dark to shoot. I

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finally gave up and headed back to my house. Just

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four hundred yards away between me and my house was

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a deep valley. Now, I approached the slight rise before

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the valley and something was on the other side, and

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it started making a sound I'd never heard before. It

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started in a low half growl and ended in a

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high pitched screen that lasted nearly ten seconds. It repeated

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this cost several times, as if to let me know

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it was there and it was not happy. I'd walked

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up on it a frozen place, trying to see what

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was making the sound, but I couldn't lay eyes on it.

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After a minute of this thing screaming at me, it

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broke and ran to my left down the valley. I

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could hear its heavy footsteps, rocks being kicked and disturbed,

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and large branches snapping and breaking as it ran off.

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To this day, I still don't have an explanation for

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what it was. We don't have wild hogs in this area,

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and I know it wasn't a bear. It was far

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too heavy to be a fox, and its call was

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completely different. I'm not saying this was a bigfoot, but

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I'm left with little elks to consider. I just know that,

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even with my forty plus years of hunting, that experience

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leaves me stump. Keep up the good work. I love

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the channel sign, Dennis. I've been rigging in installing twenty

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four thousand pound, five million dollar radiation therapy machines for

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twelve years now. One night I had just finished installing

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an upgrade on a machine in Montgomery, Alabama, and I

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was planning to drive all the way home north of

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Atlanta late that night. But as luck would have it,

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when I finished the installation, the owner of our company

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call me directly saying he needed my partner in me

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to head straight to pick a Une, Mississippi. So there

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we were driving the six hours to Mississippi with my

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partner asleep in the seat next to me. Around three am,

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my GPS re routed us off of Highway ten onto

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a parallel route through the Pascagoula National Forest. Things felt

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strange as soon as I got onto this tiny road,

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with swamps all around us in nurald old trees casting

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eerie shadows, my eyes darting all around, taking in all

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the creepiness. About halfway through the forest, I came to

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a complete stop and I looked to my right. There

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in a cove was a round dark craft hovering at

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the top of the tree line, buzzing like a giant

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electric box, and it was emitting a glowing green light

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down to the ground. Well. I was in shock. I

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finally spoke up, my eyes glued to this thing, poking

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my partner until he woke up. He looked at me,

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frowning and confused. I pointed out the window and I said,

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tell me what that is. He frowned again, looked out

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his window, and he gasped at the thing. He finally

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turned away from it and yelled to me to get

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us out of there. Well. I snapped out of my

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trance and drove away, relieved that he had seen it

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too and that I wasn't going insane. I don't know

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what we encountered, but it was definitely a flying object

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that I could not identify. I grew up in a

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town on the south coast of Maine, in a little

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place called Bath, known for the Navy shipyard. My family

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and I lived in a small house in the woods,

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and come sunrise, we kids did the chores and we

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were kicked out of the house until sundown. As I

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got older, my parents let me pack out and go

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on two or three day camping trips on my own.

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I love being in nature every chance I got. If

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I wasn't in school or the house, you could bet

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the farm that I was out there in the woods.

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One morning, I sweet taught my mother into letting me

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go on a four day camping trip. She agreed so

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long as I took my hunting dog, Sparky with me.

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Sparky and I made it two and a half miles

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away from the house when I decided to camp alongside

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a creek that i'd been following. I set up my

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tent and I started gathering food for the night. In Maine,

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there's food everywhere if you know how to look for it.

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Berries and small game, that sort of thing. I found

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a large patch of blackberries, shot two plump gray squirrels,

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and caught some fish in a nearby lake. I brought

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my bounty back to camp. My backpack was full of

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fish and my pockets were full of berries. One squirrel

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in one hand and the other clenched in Sparky's jaw,

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and we ate like kings of the forest that night.

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The next day we did the same thing, hunting, forge

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in and exploring. At one point Sparky got awful interested

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in something. I followed him, knowing it would lead to

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more fat squirrels or some other critter that we could

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have for dinner. We came across some tracks that I

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could not identify. Maybe it was a large fox or

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a coyote, I thought, but it ended up in a

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strange den in the side of a hill, and there

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were small game bones lying around the outside. I got

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close enough to look at the opening and immediately got

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a bad feeling. I couldn't say what it was, but

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something wasn't right about that place. At night, I woke

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to the sound of shuffling outside the tent. Sparky was

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on his feet, his ears were perked up, and his

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tail was down, and he was sniffing back and forth

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across the bottom of the tent door. I couldn't hear anything,

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no crickets or frogs, not even the occasional hoot of

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an owl. Now I wasn't afraid of what it might be,

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even if it was a black bear or a moose.

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Always stayed cool in nature, knowing that keeping a level

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head was the best way to keep us safe. I

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put my hand on my dog to calm him down,

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and I held my breath and I listened for a while.

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Whatever was shuffling around out there had a strange, scratchy

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kind of breathing. I ran through a mental checklist that

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didn't leave any berries out, and Sparky had finished all

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of his dog food. I brought his bowl into the

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tent along with my backpack, which I had my other supplies.

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And then it hit me. I left the fishbones out

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by the fire. There's a big rookie mistake. And I

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cursed myself, and I guessed it was a black bear

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sniffing around out there, and I wondered how big It was.

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Still Sparky and I remained calm. Most of the time,

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black bears will just take off running when they see people,

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but they are known to attack and mall in some cases.

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I sat there a minute, weighing my options, and in

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the end, I quietly unzipped the window flap and I

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peeked out with one eye. The moonlight was good enough

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that I could see everything around my camp, including what

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was sniffing around. And what I saw shocked me so

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badly that I couldn't even gasp. I had never been

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afraid of any kind of wildlife, no matter how big,

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but that all changed that night. Right then and there.

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Fear took hold of me and I couldn't breathe. The

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Sparky was frozen too. I was looking at a bonafide Oh,

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I don't know how to say this, lunk SEUs and

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the Indian devil. I was looking at a bonafide lunk

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Seuss and the Indian devil. It was a cross between

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a cougar, a bear, and a coyote. In New England folklore,

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old loggers told stories about them. My grandparents even used

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to talk about them around the campfire. According to legend,

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they were extremely fast and stealthy. They were about four

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feet long with wider brown fur, and they had a

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nasty scent, and they had sharp claws. Because they were

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so fast, it was nearly impossible to kill them. They

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weren't afraid of humans, and at night they would creep

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into camps to steal food and sabotag anything they pleased.

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It was down on all fours with its face pressed

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into the fish, and it stink like death and musk.

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My jaw was on the ground. I didn't know what

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to do. And then my dog started whining and making noise,

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and that startled it. Its head snapped toward the tent,

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and in an instant it was gone. I couldn't even

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tell in which direction it had gone. It was just

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a blur of movement, and then there was nothing. I

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still couldn't move. I just sat there listening. There still

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wasn't a single sound just my heart pounding and Sparky's

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quick breathing. Somehow I knew this wasn't over. Sparky slowly

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cocked his head and perked his ears up, tracking something

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neither of us could see, and as quietly as I could,

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I dug my filet knife from my bag and held

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my breath. And then suddenly it charged the tent, heavy footfalls,

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shaking the ground. Sparky exploded, barking and snarling like I'd

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never seen him do before. Our tent was blasted off,

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and Sparky emptied his blidder all over me as this

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thing trampled over us and it kept running, leaving me

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with a bloody lip. For the rest of that night,

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I held my trembling dog close to my chest. Both

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of us were wide awake and terrified. It's sun up.

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We were out of there, Sparky in the lead, both

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of our tails tucked. I did a lot less solo

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camping after that, and I always stayed closer to home.

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Thanks for reading my story. I've been a fan for

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a long time, and I finally worked up the courage

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to share it with you. Keep doing what you're doing,

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and thank you for all that you do. Thank you sir,

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thank you for joining me on this podcast. I'm working

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on a Steve Lilly's story right now, so some of

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these may be a little shorter, but I'm going to

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keep cranking them out about every three or four days.

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Thank you again for listening, and we'll see you guys

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on the next one MM