WEBVTT 1 00:00:02.520 --> 00:00:05.759 For decades, people have disappeared in the woods without a trace. 2 00:00:06.519 --> 00:00:10.279 Some blame wild animals, others whisper of creatures the world 3 00:00:10.359 --> 00:00:14.160 refuses to believe in. But those who have survived they 4 00:00:14.199 --> 00:00:18.679 know the truth. Welcome to Backwoods Bigfoot Stories, where we 5 00:00:18.719 --> 00:00:22.839 share real encounters with the things lurking in the darkness bigfoot, 6 00:00:23.199 --> 00:00:28.239 dog man, UFOs, and creatures that defy explanation. Some make 7 00:00:28.280 --> 00:00:32.320 it out, others aren't so lucky. Are you ready, because 8 00:00:32.320 --> 00:00:34.640 once you hear these stories, you'll never walk in the 9 00:00:34.640 --> 00:00:38.920 woods alone again. So grab your flashlight, stay close, and 10 00:00:39.039 --> 00:00:41.840 remember some things in the woods don't want to be found. 11 00:00:42.520 --> 00:00:46.240 Hit that follow or subscribe button, turn on auto downloads, 12 00:00:46.439 --> 00:01:03.439 and let's head off into the woods if you dare. Hey, Brian, 13 00:01:04.120 --> 00:01:06.280 I've been going back and forth with myself about whether 14 00:01:06.359 --> 00:01:09.280 or not to write this for probably two years. I 15 00:01:09.359 --> 00:01:11.879 found your show during the pandemic, like a lot of 16 00:01:11.879 --> 00:01:15.239 people probably did, and I've been a loyal listener ever since. 17 00:01:16.000 --> 00:01:19.959 I've heard you share encounters from law enforcement officers, park rangers, 18 00:01:20.200 --> 00:01:23.319 military folks, and every time I hear one of those stories, 19 00:01:23.640 --> 00:01:26.200 I feel this not tighten in my gut because I 20 00:01:26.239 --> 00:01:29.239 know exactly what those people went through. I know what 21 00:01:29.280 --> 00:01:31.879 it's like to see something that isn't supposed to exist 22 00:01:32.239 --> 00:01:34.200 and then have to figure out how to keep living 23 00:01:34.200 --> 00:01:36.599 your life with that knowledge sitting in the back of 24 00:01:36.640 --> 00:01:39.840 your head like a splinter you can't pull out. I 25 00:01:39.920 --> 00:01:42.159 guess what finally pushed me to sit down and write 26 00:01:42.159 --> 00:01:45.439 this was your episode last month where that retired forest 27 00:01:45.519 --> 00:01:48.480 ranger talked about what he saw in the Sierras back 28 00:01:48.519 --> 00:01:51.879 in the nineties, when he described the way those eyes 29 00:01:51.959 --> 00:01:55.079 looked in the dark, that yellowish white glow that didn't 30 00:01:55.079 --> 00:01:58.040 reflect light so much as it seemed to produce its own. 31 00:01:58.319 --> 00:02:00.439 I actually had to pull my truck over to the 32 00:02:00.480 --> 00:02:03.480 side of the road because my hands were shaking. Not 33 00:02:03.599 --> 00:02:07.000 out of fear, not anymore, but because for the first 34 00:02:07.000 --> 00:02:10.400 time in over thirty five years, I heard somebody describe 35 00:02:10.439 --> 00:02:14.560 exactly what I saw exactly, and I knew right then 36 00:02:14.599 --> 00:02:17.960 that I couldn't keep this to myself any longer. My 37 00:02:18.080 --> 00:02:21.240 name is Kyle. That's not my real name, and i'd 38 00:02:21.240 --> 00:02:23.560 appreciate it if you'd use that one instead when you 39 00:02:23.599 --> 00:02:26.240 share this, if you decide to share it at all. 40 00:02:27.120 --> 00:02:30.520 I'm seventy one years old, now retired, living in a 41 00:02:30.520 --> 00:02:33.840 small town in northern Idaho. I've got no reason to 42 00:02:33.840 --> 00:02:36.400 make any of this up. I've got no book to sell, 43 00:02:36.719 --> 00:02:40.639 no YouTube channel, nothing like that. What I've got is 44 00:02:40.680 --> 00:02:43.439 a story that I've carried with me since nineteen eighty seven, 45 00:02:43.840 --> 00:02:45.960 and a small group of men who carried it with me, 46 00:02:46.599 --> 00:02:49.280 most of whom I've lost touch with over the years. 47 00:02:49.599 --> 00:02:52.439 A couple of them have passed on. But every single 48 00:02:52.479 --> 00:02:54.680 one of us saw what we saw, and not a 49 00:02:54.680 --> 00:02:58.199 single one of us ever talked about it publicly until now. 50 00:02:58.240 --> 00:03:00.840 I suppose I need to get give you some background 51 00:03:00.879 --> 00:03:04.199 so this all makes sense. Back in eighty seven, I 52 00:03:04.280 --> 00:03:06.479 was thirty two years old and in the best shape 53 00:03:06.479 --> 00:03:09.400 of my life. I'd been working with the United States 54 00:03:09.479 --> 00:03:12.599 Forest Service for about nine years by that point, and 55 00:03:12.639 --> 00:03:14.960 I'd worked my way onto a hell Attack crew based 56 00:03:15.000 --> 00:03:19.039 out of the Mendocino National Forest in northern California. For 57 00:03:19.080 --> 00:03:21.800 people who don't know what hell attack is, it's basically 58 00:03:21.800 --> 00:03:25.439 a helicopter delivered firefighting crew. We were the guys who 59 00:03:25.439 --> 00:03:28.560 got dropped into remote, rugged terrain that engine crews and 60 00:03:28.599 --> 00:03:32.759 ground teams couldn't reach or couldn't reach fast enough. We'd 61 00:03:32.759 --> 00:03:35.680 go in by helicopter, usually in teams of anywhere from 62 00:03:35.759 --> 00:03:38.759 seven to twelve, depending on the operation, and we'd do 63 00:03:38.840 --> 00:03:43.680 initial attack on wildfires, cut fire lines, clear brush, whatever 64 00:03:43.759 --> 00:03:45.800 needed to be done to slow a fire down or 65 00:03:45.840 --> 00:03:48.840 stop it before it could blow up into something catastrophic. 66 00:03:49.719 --> 00:03:53.080 It was hard, dangerous work, and I loved every minute 67 00:03:53.080 --> 00:03:56.199 of it. There's a brotherhood that forms on those crews. 68 00:03:56.400 --> 00:03:58.639 It's hard to explain to someone who hasn't lived it. 69 00:03:59.280 --> 00:04:01.879 You're literally try trusting these guys with your life. Every 70 00:04:01.879 --> 00:04:05.560 single day. You eat together, sleep on the ground together, 71 00:04:05.919 --> 00:04:08.719 hike through terrain that would break most people, and you 72 00:04:08.800 --> 00:04:11.000 do it all while a wall of fire is bearing 73 00:04:11.039 --> 00:04:13.759 down on you. It bonds you in a way that 74 00:04:13.840 --> 00:04:17.439 nothing else really can. And I need you to understand 75 00:04:17.439 --> 00:04:20.240 that bond, Brian, because it's part of the reason none 76 00:04:20.279 --> 00:04:23.079 of us ever talked. We made a pact out there 77 00:04:23.079 --> 00:04:26.839 in those mountains, and every man honored it. Now, the 78 00:04:26.839 --> 00:04:29.519 summer of eighty seven was a bad one. I mean, 79 00:04:29.560 --> 00:04:32.759 they're all bad in California fire country, but that year 80 00:04:32.839 --> 00:04:36.839 was something else. The drought conditions were severe, the fuels 81 00:04:36.839 --> 00:04:40.000 were bone dry, and by late August everything was just 82 00:04:40.079 --> 00:04:43.319 waiting for a spark. And on August thirtieth, it got 83 00:04:43.360 --> 00:04:47.040 a whole lot of sparks. Multiple fires broke out across 84 00:04:47.120 --> 00:04:49.519 the state, and within hours we were looking at a 85 00:04:49.560 --> 00:04:53.560 situation that was overwhelming the resources of every agency involved. 86 00:04:54.319 --> 00:04:57.079 The fires tore through tens of thousands of acres across 87 00:04:57.079 --> 00:05:00.480 several counties. The smoke was so thick in some areas 88 00:05:00.519 --> 00:05:04.360 that people hundreds of miles away were dealing with respiratory problems. 89 00:05:05.000 --> 00:05:10.319 It was chaos, organized chaos, but chaos. Nonetheless. Our crew 90 00:05:10.360 --> 00:05:13.000 got the call early on the morning of August thirty first. 91 00:05:13.560 --> 00:05:16.160 I remember it clearly because I'd actually had the previous 92 00:05:16.240 --> 00:05:19.240 day off, which was rare, and i'd driven down to 93 00:05:19.319 --> 00:05:22.439 Yukaia to pick up apart from my truck, I was 94 00:05:22.480 --> 00:05:25.319 sitting in a diner eating breakfast when my pager went off. 95 00:05:25.759 --> 00:05:28.399 I don't even think I finished my coffee. I just 96 00:05:28.439 --> 00:05:30.720 threw some cash on the table and ran for the door. 97 00:05:31.560 --> 00:05:33.600 By the time I got back to base, the rest 98 00:05:33.600 --> 00:05:37.120 of the crew was already there gearing up. Our crew 99 00:05:37.120 --> 00:05:39.839 boss was a guy I'll call Tom, and Tom was 100 00:05:39.839 --> 00:05:42.000 one of those guys who'd been doing this so long 101 00:05:42.240 --> 00:05:46.240 that fire was just part of his DNA. Nothing rattled Tom. 102 00:05:46.639 --> 00:05:49.240 He was maybe forty five at the time, lean and 103 00:05:49.319 --> 00:05:52.680 hard as a railroad spike, with this calm, steady voice 104 00:05:52.680 --> 00:05:55.720 that never changed whether he was ordering breakfast or calling 105 00:05:55.759 --> 00:05:57.759 in an airstrike on a fire that was about to 106 00:05:57.800 --> 00:06:01.920 overrun our position. Tom had at all, or so we thought. 107 00:06:02.800 --> 00:06:05.959 There were nine of us on the crew that day, Tom, myself, 108 00:06:06.279 --> 00:06:09.000 and seven other guys, ranging in age from about twenty 109 00:06:09.000 --> 00:06:12.839 three to maybe forty. I won't use their real names either, 110 00:06:13.240 --> 00:06:15.480 but for the sake of telling the story, I'll call 111 00:06:15.519 --> 00:06:21.480 them Danny, Rich, Marcos, Pete, Bobby, Hank, and Walt. Every 112 00:06:21.519 --> 00:06:24.439 one of them was experienced. Every one of them was solid. 113 00:06:25.079 --> 00:06:28.639 These weren't green horns or weekend warriors. These were seasoned 114 00:06:28.639 --> 00:06:31.399 wild land firefighters who'd spent years in some of the 115 00:06:31.519 --> 00:06:35.800 nastiest fire conditions California could throw at them. Tom briefed 116 00:06:35.879 --> 00:06:38.600 us in the ready room. The situation was bad and 117 00:06:38.680 --> 00:06:42.879 getting worse. Multiple fire complexes were burning across the northern 118 00:06:42.920 --> 00:06:46.000 part of the state, and resources were stretched so thin 119 00:06:46.439 --> 00:06:49.199 that crews were being sent into areas with minimal support. 120 00:06:50.199 --> 00:06:53.199 Our assignment was to helicopter into a remote drainage in 121 00:06:53.240 --> 00:06:56.720 the Mendocino National Forest ahead of one of the advancing 122 00:06:56.759 --> 00:07:00.199 firefronts and cut a fire break along a ridgeline that 123 00:07:00.240 --> 00:07:03.839 the overhead team believed could serve as a natural containment boundary. 124 00:07:04.639 --> 00:07:06.879 The idea was that if we could get a solid 125 00:07:06.920 --> 00:07:10.240 line cut along that ridge, combined with the natural rock 126 00:07:10.279 --> 00:07:12.879 features on the far side, we might be able to 127 00:07:12.959 --> 00:07:15.839 keep the fire from jumping into the next drainage, which 128 00:07:15.879 --> 00:07:18.160 would have put it on a direct path towards several 129 00:07:18.199 --> 00:07:21.920 small communities. The area we were going into was about 130 00:07:21.959 --> 00:07:24.120 as remote as it gets in that part of the state. 131 00:07:24.879 --> 00:07:29.519 No roads, no trails to speak of, heavy timber, steep terrain, 132 00:07:30.319 --> 00:07:32.399 the kind of country where you could walk for days 133 00:07:32.439 --> 00:07:35.959 and never see another human being. The helicopter would drop 134 00:07:36.079 --> 00:07:38.839 us in, we'd cut our line, and then we'd be 135 00:07:38.879 --> 00:07:42.680 extracted once the work was done or the fire situation changed. 136 00:07:43.439 --> 00:07:45.519 We were told to plan for a minimum of three 137 00:07:45.600 --> 00:07:50.079 days on the ground. We packed accordingly, heavy packs, extra 138 00:07:50.120 --> 00:07:54.240 food and water, all our line cutting tools, emergency shelters, 139 00:07:54.480 --> 00:07:58.279 the works. We loaded into the helicopter around zero eight 140 00:07:58.360 --> 00:08:00.920 hundred and lifted off into a sky that was already 141 00:08:00.920 --> 00:08:04.360 starting to turn that sick brownish orange color. That you 142 00:08:04.439 --> 00:08:07.480 get when big fires are pumping smoke into the atmosphere. 143 00:08:08.199 --> 00:08:11.120 The pilot, a Vietnam Vet named Jack who'd been flying 144 00:08:11.120 --> 00:08:13.959 fire missions for years, was quiet on the way in, 145 00:08:14.600 --> 00:08:17.720 which wasn't unusual for Jack, but I remember thinking he 146 00:08:17.759 --> 00:08:21.680 seemed more focused than normal. The fire was moving fast 147 00:08:22.000 --> 00:08:25.079 and the winds were unpredictable. There was talk of the 148 00:08:25.120 --> 00:08:28.160 fire generating its own weather patterns, which is something that 149 00:08:28.240 --> 00:08:31.040 happens with the really big ones, and that made flying 150 00:08:31.079 --> 00:08:35.440 conditions dicey at best. The flight in took about forty minutes. 151 00:08:35.600 --> 00:08:38.679 I was sitting in the back, wedged between Danny and Marcos, 152 00:08:39.080 --> 00:08:41.399 with my pack between my knees and the vibration of 153 00:08:41.399 --> 00:08:44.039 the rotors coming up through the middle floor and into 154 00:08:44.080 --> 00:08:48.480 my bones. Nobody talked much on helicopter flights. The noise 155 00:08:48.480 --> 00:08:51.519 made it impossible without headsets, and only Tom and the 156 00:08:51.519 --> 00:08:54.559 pilot were on the intercom, so you just sat there 157 00:08:54.600 --> 00:08:57.200 with your thoughts and watched the world go by through 158 00:08:57.240 --> 00:09:01.320 the small windows. And what a world it was. Northern 159 00:09:01.399 --> 00:09:03.759 California back country in late summer is one of the 160 00:09:03.759 --> 00:09:07.240 most beautiful landscapes on Earth, and I mean that sincerely, 161 00:09:07.679 --> 00:09:10.440 even though I've seen a lot of country in my years, 162 00:09:10.960 --> 00:09:13.960 rolling ridges covered in thick stands of Douglas fir and 163 00:09:14.039 --> 00:09:18.559 Ponderosa pine, broken by meadows of golden brown grass, and 164 00:09:18.600 --> 00:09:22.080 the occasional silver thread of a creek winding through a canyon, 165 00:09:22.919 --> 00:09:25.960 granite outcrops poking up through the timber like the bones 166 00:09:26.000 --> 00:09:29.639 of the earth, showing through red tailed hawks riding the 167 00:09:29.639 --> 00:09:33.679 thermals below us, looking like toys. From our altitude, it 168 00:09:33.759 --> 00:09:37.480 was gorgeous, and it was all about to burn. Off 169 00:09:37.519 --> 00:09:40.919 to the southeast, maybe thirty miles away. The fire was 170 00:09:40.919 --> 00:09:44.519 making its presence known. An enormous wall of gray and 171 00:09:44.559 --> 00:09:47.320 white smoke boiled up from the ridges like a thunderhead 172 00:09:47.840 --> 00:09:49.960 mushrooming out at the top where it hit the upper 173 00:09:50.000 --> 00:09:53.240 atmosphere and spreading into a dirty brown blanket that was 174 00:09:53.279 --> 00:09:57.159 already starting to filter the sunlight. Beneath the smoke, you 175 00:09:57.200 --> 00:09:59.960 could see occasional flashes of deep orange where the fire 176 00:10:00.240 --> 00:10:02.919 was crowning through the tree tops, running from tree to 177 00:10:03.000 --> 00:10:05.759 tree like a living thing. And at the base of 178 00:10:05.799 --> 00:10:09.720 the column, this seething, roiling mass of darker smoke that 179 00:10:09.840 --> 00:10:12.799 was the main body of the fire, consuming everything in 180 00:10:12.840 --> 00:10:15.799 its path with an appetite that was absolutely indifferent to 181 00:10:15.840 --> 00:10:16.720 anything we might. 182 00:10:16.639 --> 00:10:17.279 Do about it. 183 00:10:18.039 --> 00:10:21.440 Fire does what fire wants. I've learned that lesson more 184 00:10:21.440 --> 00:10:23.759 times than I can count, and it's a lesson that 185 00:10:23.840 --> 00:10:27.519 never gets less humbling. I remember Danny tapping my arm 186 00:10:27.559 --> 00:10:30.240 and pointing out his window at the smoke column, and 187 00:10:30.320 --> 00:10:32.519 I looked at his face and saw something there that 188 00:10:32.559 --> 00:10:37.440 I recognized. Not fear exactly. Danny wasn't afraid of fire. 189 00:10:38.000 --> 00:10:41.440 None of us were, not in the way civilians understand fear. 190 00:10:42.240 --> 00:10:45.519 But there was a respect in his eyes, a seriousness 191 00:10:45.919 --> 00:10:49.159 that told me he understood what we were heading into. 192 00:10:49.320 --> 00:10:51.480 This wasn't going to be a quick in and out. 193 00:10:51.639 --> 00:10:54.159 This was going to be a grind, a multi day 194 00:10:54.200 --> 00:10:57.120 slog and brutal conditions with a monster on our doorstep, 195 00:10:57.480 --> 00:11:00.879 and every man on that helicopter knew it. Jack put 196 00:11:00.919 --> 00:11:03.399 us down in a small clearing on the ridge, a 197 00:11:03.480 --> 00:11:07.039 natural meadow maybe one hundred yards across, surrounded by thick 198 00:11:07.120 --> 00:11:11.320 stands of Douglas fir and Ponderosa pine. As soon as 199 00:11:11.320 --> 00:11:13.799 we offloaded our gear and the helicopter pulled up and 200 00:11:13.799 --> 00:11:18.200 banked away, the silence hit us. That's always the strangest 201 00:11:18.200 --> 00:11:21.120 part of a hell attack. Insertion. You go from the 202 00:11:21.159 --> 00:11:25.559 deafening roar of the rotors to this sudden, almost overwhelming quiet, 203 00:11:25.960 --> 00:11:28.679 and your ears ring for a minute while your brain adjusts. 204 00:11:29.480 --> 00:11:32.679 But even after the ringing stopped, this silence was different. 205 00:11:33.440 --> 00:11:35.960 It was deeper than it should have been. There were 206 00:11:35.960 --> 00:11:41.000 no birds, no insects, buzzing, nothing, just the faint whisper 207 00:11:41.039 --> 00:11:43.840 of wind through the trees, and far off to the south, 208 00:11:44.399 --> 00:11:48.480 this low, almost subliminal rumble that was the fire. Tom 209 00:11:48.519 --> 00:11:51.200 noticed it too. I saw him look around the meadow, 210 00:11:51.559 --> 00:11:54.919 scanning the tree line with that sharp, evaluating gaze he had, 211 00:11:55.440 --> 00:11:57.360 and then he looked at me, and I could see 212 00:11:57.399 --> 00:12:01.559 it on his face. Something wasn't right, not wrong exactly 213 00:12:02.120 --> 00:12:05.440 just off. The air felt heavy, and not just from 214 00:12:05.480 --> 00:12:08.320 the smoke. There was a pressure to it, like the 215 00:12:08.320 --> 00:12:11.200 whole forest was holding its breath. But we had a 216 00:12:11.279 --> 00:12:14.879 job to do and we were burning daylight. Tom got 217 00:12:14.960 --> 00:12:18.320 us organized, assigned tasks, and we moved out toward the 218 00:12:18.360 --> 00:12:21.679 ridge line to start surveying our cut. The terrain was 219 00:12:21.720 --> 00:12:24.399 steep and the undergrowth was thick, and we were all 220 00:12:24.440 --> 00:12:27.799 packing heavy, so it was slow going. We worked our 221 00:12:27.840 --> 00:12:30.559 way along the ridge for maybe half a mile flagging 222 00:12:30.559 --> 00:12:33.240 the route for our fire break. When Danny, who was 223 00:12:33.279 --> 00:12:35.799 on point, stopped dead in his tracks and held up 224 00:12:35.799 --> 00:12:39.720 a fist, we all froze. When your point man stops 225 00:12:39.720 --> 00:12:43.639 on a fire line, you stop. Period. Could be a 226 00:12:43.679 --> 00:12:49.159 hazard tree, a spot fire, a rattlesnake, anything. Danny was 227 00:12:49.159 --> 00:12:51.200 standing at the edge of a small clearing where a 228 00:12:51.240 --> 00:12:54.159 seasonal creek bed cut across our route, and he was 229 00:12:54.200 --> 00:12:57.360 staring at the ground When I came up beside him, 230 00:12:57.519 --> 00:13:00.440 I looked down and felt something cold moved through my stomach. 231 00:13:01.159 --> 00:13:03.440 There were footprints in the dirt along the creek bed, 232 00:13:04.120 --> 00:13:08.960 large footprints, human shaped, but not human, not even close 233 00:13:09.000 --> 00:13:12.200 to human in terms of size. The prints were clearly 234 00:13:12.240 --> 00:13:16.720 defined five toes, a wide ball, a rounded heel, and 235 00:13:16.759 --> 00:13:21.440 they were easily sixteen maybe seventeen inches long. The stride 236 00:13:21.480 --> 00:13:24.679 between them was enormous, way beyond what any person could 237 00:13:24.720 --> 00:13:28.159 produce at a walk, and they were fresh. The edges 238 00:13:28.200 --> 00:13:31.000 were crisp and sharp. The detail in the toes was 239 00:13:31.039 --> 00:13:33.799 clear enough that you could see the individual pressure ridges. 240 00:13:34.519 --> 00:13:37.360 Whatever had made these tracks had come through here recently, 241 00:13:38.039 --> 00:13:42.240 hours maybe less, and there were multiple sets of tracks, 242 00:13:42.759 --> 00:13:46.159 at least three distinct sizes. The largest ones were the 243 00:13:46.240 --> 00:13:48.639 ones Danny and I were staring at, But there were 244 00:13:48.720 --> 00:13:52.279 also medium sized prints that were maybe twelve or thirteen inches, 245 00:13:52.639 --> 00:13:56.159 and then smaller ones, maybe eight or nine inches, that 246 00:13:56.240 --> 00:13:59.559 almost looked like a child's footprint, except for the proportions. 247 00:14:00.320 --> 00:14:02.840 The smaller ones were wider relative to their length than 248 00:14:02.840 --> 00:14:06.320 a human child's foot would be, and the toe'splay was different, 249 00:14:06.799 --> 00:14:09.679 more spread out, more like a hand's fingers than a 250 00:14:09.679 --> 00:14:13.440 foot's toes. One thing that struck me immediately, and I 251 00:14:13.440 --> 00:14:17.000 think Danny noticed it too, was the depth of the impressions. 252 00:14:17.759 --> 00:14:20.120 The large prints were sunk a good two inches into 253 00:14:20.120 --> 00:14:23.679 the dirt that was fairly firm. My size eleven boot 254 00:14:23.919 --> 00:14:26.200 with my one hundred and ninety pounds plus a sixty 255 00:14:26.200 --> 00:14:29.080 pound pack on my back, barely left a quarter inch 256 00:14:29.080 --> 00:14:32.120 impression in the same soil. You could do the math. 257 00:14:32.960 --> 00:14:35.600 Whatever made that track was carrying hundreds of pounds on 258 00:14:35.600 --> 00:14:38.679 a foot that was designed for exactly this kind of terrain, 259 00:14:39.399 --> 00:14:42.600 bare skin on soft earth, gripping and pushing with a 260 00:14:42.639 --> 00:14:47.480 biomechanical efficiency that our boots could never match. Danny looked 261 00:14:47.480 --> 00:14:50.200 at me, and I looked at Danny, and neither one 262 00:14:50.240 --> 00:14:53.039 of us said a word. Danny was from a small 263 00:14:53.080 --> 00:14:55.600 town in the Trinity Alps, and he'd grown up hearing 264 00:14:55.639 --> 00:14:58.679 stories from the old timers about wild men in the mountains. 265 00:14:59.240 --> 00:15:01.639 He knew what we were looking at, so did I, 266 00:15:02.480 --> 00:15:04.480 but neither of us was ready to say it out loud. 267 00:15:04.639 --> 00:15:08.200 Stay tuned for more Backwoods bigfoot stories. We'll be back 268 00:15:08.240 --> 00:15:13.080 after these messages. Tom came up and looked at the tracks, 269 00:15:13.440 --> 00:15:15.919 and I watched his face go through several expressions in 270 00:15:16.039 --> 00:15:21.480 rapid succession. Confusion, then calculation, then something I'd never seen 271 00:15:21.519 --> 00:15:25.759 on Tom's face before, which was uncertainty. Tom knelt down 272 00:15:25.799 --> 00:15:27.919 and put his hand next to one of the large prints, 273 00:15:28.600 --> 00:15:31.159 and his hand looked like a child's hand next to it. 274 00:15:32.000 --> 00:15:35.000 Tom stood up, brushed off his knee and said something 275 00:15:35.039 --> 00:15:38.559 I'll never forget. He said, and I'm quoting him as 276 00:15:38.559 --> 00:15:41.279 best I can remember. I don't know what made these 277 00:15:41.720 --> 00:15:44.919 and right now I don't care. We've got a fire 278 00:15:44.960 --> 00:15:47.559 line to cut in about forty eight hours. 279 00:15:47.200 --> 00:15:47.639 To cut it. 280 00:15:48.200 --> 00:15:52.080 Whatever this is, it lives here and we don't, so 281 00:15:52.200 --> 00:15:55.639 let's give it space and do our jobs. And that 282 00:15:55.759 --> 00:15:59.960 was that. Tom was pragmatic to his core. He acknowledged 283 00:16:00.000 --> 00:16:01.759 there's what was in front of us without letting it 284 00:16:01.799 --> 00:16:05.600 derail the mission. It was exactly the right call, and 285 00:16:05.679 --> 00:16:08.279 it was exactly the kind of leadership that made us 286 00:16:08.279 --> 00:16:11.039 all trust him. But as we moved on from that 287 00:16:11.080 --> 00:16:14.399 creek bed, every single one of us was quieter than before. 288 00:16:15.279 --> 00:16:17.600 Every single one of us was looking into the timber 289 00:16:17.639 --> 00:16:21.480 a little harder, listening a little more carefully, and I 290 00:16:21.480 --> 00:16:24.200 think every single one of us knew in some deep, 291 00:16:24.360 --> 00:16:27.240 primal part of our brains that we weren't alone in 292 00:16:27.240 --> 00:16:30.399 those mountains. We worked through the morning and into the 293 00:16:30.440 --> 00:16:34.519 afternoon cutting line. For those who don't know, cutting a 294 00:16:34.559 --> 00:16:38.159 fire line is exactly what it sounds like. You're clearing 295 00:16:38.159 --> 00:16:41.679 a strip of ground down to mineral soil, removing all vegetation, 296 00:16:42.159 --> 00:16:46.080 all duff all organic material, creating a gap in the 297 00:16:46.080 --> 00:16:49.960 fuel that the fire hopefully can't jump across. It's back 298 00:16:50.000 --> 00:16:53.840 breaking work done with hand tools Pulaski's and maclouds and 299 00:16:53.879 --> 00:16:57.399 shovels and chainsaws, and on steep terrain with heavy smoke 300 00:16:57.480 --> 00:17:00.639 in the air. It's about as physically demanding as anything 301 00:17:00.720 --> 00:17:03.759 a human body can do. We were soaked through with 302 00:17:03.840 --> 00:17:06.519 sweat within the first hour, and the smoke was getting 303 00:17:06.559 --> 00:17:09.559 thicker as the day wore on. You could taste it, 304 00:17:10.000 --> 00:17:13.759 that bitter, acrid flavor that gets into everything, your clothes, 305 00:17:14.160 --> 00:17:18.559 your skin, your lungs. Around fourteen hundred, we took a 306 00:17:18.559 --> 00:17:21.359 break to eat and hydrate. We'd set up in a 307 00:17:21.400 --> 00:17:24.480 small natural opening on the ridge, a little bench of 308 00:17:24.519 --> 00:17:28.319 flat ground with good visibility in three directions. The mood 309 00:17:28.359 --> 00:17:32.279 was subdued. The tracks had gotten under everyone's skin, even 310 00:17:32.319 --> 00:17:35.720 the guys who hadn't seen them firsthand. Because word travels 311 00:17:35.759 --> 00:17:39.599 fast on a small crew, Danny had told Rich, Rich 312 00:17:39.640 --> 00:17:43.799 had told Marcos, and within an hour everybody knew. It 313 00:17:43.839 --> 00:17:46.160 was during that break that we found the tree structures. 314 00:17:46.799 --> 00:17:48.799 Bobby and Hank had walked a little ways down the 315 00:17:48.839 --> 00:17:51.880 slope to relieve themselves, and Bobby came back up with 316 00:17:51.920 --> 00:17:54.559 this look on his face, like he'd just seen a ghost. 317 00:17:55.319 --> 00:17:57.599 He told us to come look at something, and when 318 00:17:57.599 --> 00:18:00.200 we followed him down, we found a cluster of young 319 00:18:00.240 --> 00:18:02.839 trees that had been broken and twisted in ways that 320 00:18:02.960 --> 00:18:06.880 made absolutely no sense. I've spent my whole career in 321 00:18:06.920 --> 00:18:10.119 the woods. I know what wind damage looks like. I 322 00:18:10.160 --> 00:18:13.000 know what snow loading does to trees. I know what 323 00:18:13.039 --> 00:18:15.519 happens when a big tree falls and takes out smaller 324 00:18:15.559 --> 00:18:18.880 ones on the way down. This wasn't any of those things. 325 00:18:19.359 --> 00:18:23.759 These were live green trees, healthy ponderosa saplings with trunks 326 00:18:23.759 --> 00:18:26.640 maybe four to six inches in diameter, and they'd been 327 00:18:26.680 --> 00:18:29.319 snapped or twisted at heights of eight to ten feet. 328 00:18:30.119 --> 00:18:33.000 Some of them were bent over and woven together, almost 329 00:18:33.039 --> 00:18:35.799 like they'd been braided. One of them had been twisted 330 00:18:35.880 --> 00:18:39.319 until the wood fibers separated in a spiral, like ringing 331 00:18:39.400 --> 00:18:42.359 out a wet towel. And the force required to do 332 00:18:42.400 --> 00:18:45.839 that to a live green sapling of that diameter is enormous. 333 00:18:46.400 --> 00:18:48.799 I couldn't have done it. No man on our crew 334 00:18:48.799 --> 00:18:51.119 could have done it. I'm not sure a machine could 335 00:18:51.160 --> 00:18:53.720 have done it that cleanly. There were about a dozen 336 00:18:53.799 --> 00:18:57.000 of these broken and manipulated trees in a rough cluster, 337 00:18:57.480 --> 00:18:59.680 and in the center of the cluster the ground was 338 00:18:59.720 --> 00:19:03.480 matten down flat, like something very large and very heavy 339 00:19:03.519 --> 00:19:06.960 had been bedding there. The matted area was maybe seven 340 00:19:07.000 --> 00:19:10.599 feet long and four feet wide, roughly oval, and the 341 00:19:10.680 --> 00:19:13.680 grass and ground cover were pressed flat and starting to 342 00:19:13.720 --> 00:19:17.960 brown from the compression. There was a smell too. I 343 00:19:18.039 --> 00:19:21.000 need to describe this because it's important. It wasn't a 344 00:19:21.039 --> 00:19:24.319 dead animal smell, and it wasn't a skunk smell, although 345 00:19:24.319 --> 00:19:28.000 there were elements of both. It was this thick, musky, 346 00:19:28.119 --> 00:19:31.119 almost rancid odor that seemed to come from everywhere and 347 00:19:31.240 --> 00:19:34.640 nowhere at once. It filled your nose and sat in 348 00:19:34.680 --> 00:19:37.440 the back of your throat, and it was unlike anything 349 00:19:37.480 --> 00:19:40.680 any of us had ever smelled in the woods. Hank, 350 00:19:40.920 --> 00:19:43.559 who'd been a ranch hand before he became a firefighter 351 00:19:43.799 --> 00:19:46.559 and was as familiar with animal smells as anybody I've 352 00:19:46.559 --> 00:19:48.960 ever known, just shook his head and said he had 353 00:19:49.000 --> 00:19:52.799 no idea what could produce an odor like that. We 354 00:19:52.839 --> 00:19:55.119 found two more of these bedding sites within one hundred 355 00:19:55.200 --> 00:19:58.319 yards of the first one, smaller ones, but with the 356 00:19:58.359 --> 00:20:03.599 same characteristics, broken and twisted trees, matted ground, and that 357 00:20:03.680 --> 00:20:08.640 same overwhelming stench. Three bedding sites, three different sizes of 358 00:20:08.640 --> 00:20:12.279 footprints at the creek. The math wasn't hard, even if 359 00:20:12.319 --> 00:20:15.880 the conclusion was impossible. Tom gathered us up and gave 360 00:20:15.920 --> 00:20:18.440 us a talk. He said that whatever was living in 361 00:20:18.480 --> 00:20:21.359 these mountains, it had clearly been here a long time, 362 00:20:21.799 --> 00:20:24.599 and it was clearly not interested in bothering us, and 363 00:20:24.640 --> 00:20:27.319 we were going to extend it the same courtesy. He 364 00:20:27.400 --> 00:20:29.400 said that when we got back to base, we could 365 00:20:29.440 --> 00:20:32.640 talk about it, report it, do whatever we wanted, but 366 00:20:32.720 --> 00:20:35.720 out here on this ridge, with a fire bearing down 367 00:20:35.759 --> 00:20:38.039 on us, our focus had to be on the mission. 368 00:20:38.839 --> 00:20:40.680 And then he said something that I've thought about a 369 00:20:40.759 --> 00:20:45.119 thousand times since. He said, these things were here before us, 370 00:20:45.480 --> 00:20:48.400 and they'll be here long after we're gone. They've got 371 00:20:48.400 --> 00:20:51.119 bigger problems than us right now, same as we've got 372 00:20:51.119 --> 00:20:54.319 bigger problems than them. That fire doesn't care what any 373 00:20:54.359 --> 00:20:57.680 of us are. Tom was right about that, the fire 374 00:20:57.720 --> 00:21:01.799 didn't care, and it was getting closer. By late afternoon, 375 00:21:01.799 --> 00:21:03.880 the smoke column to the south had grown into a 376 00:21:03.920 --> 00:21:07.079 monstrous pillar that leaned over the landscape like something out 377 00:21:07.079 --> 00:21:09.839 of the Old Testament. We could hear the fire now, 378 00:21:10.319 --> 00:21:14.279 not just that low background rumble, but actual sounds of combustion, 379 00:21:15.119 --> 00:21:18.680 the crackling and popping of burning timber, the occasional deep 380 00:21:18.759 --> 00:21:21.680 whoosh of a crown fire run, and every now and 381 00:21:21.720 --> 00:21:24.119 then this sounded like a freight train. That was the 382 00:21:24.119 --> 00:21:27.920 fire creating its own wind. We had maybe thirty six 383 00:21:27.960 --> 00:21:30.559 to forty eight hours before the front reached our ridge, 384 00:21:30.960 --> 00:21:32.279 and we had a lot of line. 385 00:21:32.119 --> 00:21:32.799 Left to cut. 386 00:21:33.559 --> 00:21:36.400 We worked until dark, until we literally couldn't see what 387 00:21:36.440 --> 00:21:39.240 we were doing anymore, and then Tom called it and 388 00:21:39.279 --> 00:21:41.240 we headed back to the meadow where we'd been dropped 389 00:21:41.240 --> 00:21:44.960 off to make camp. We were exhausted, covered in soot 390 00:21:45.000 --> 00:21:48.279 and sweat, and every muscle in my body ached. But 391 00:21:48.359 --> 00:21:51.559 I was wired. We all were. And it wasn't just 392 00:21:51.599 --> 00:21:55.119 the physical exertion or the proximity of the fire. It 393 00:21:55.160 --> 00:21:58.279 was the knowing, that feeling of being watched that had 394 00:21:58.319 --> 00:22:01.680 been building all day, prickly sensation on the back of 395 00:22:01.680 --> 00:22:04.839 your neck that your rational mind tries to explain away, 396 00:22:05.319 --> 00:22:09.799 but your animal brain absolutely refuses to ignore. We set 397 00:22:09.880 --> 00:22:11.880 up camp in the middle of the meadow as far 398 00:22:11.920 --> 00:22:14.440 from the tree line as we could get, which wasn't 399 00:22:14.440 --> 00:22:16.680 saying much since the meadow was only about one hundred 400 00:22:16.759 --> 00:22:20.680 yards across. We built a fire, partly for warmth, because 401 00:22:20.720 --> 00:22:23.480