Speaker 1: My name is Jerry, and I've always been fascinated with
Speaker 1: the subject of Bigfoot ever since I saw the Legend
Speaker 1: of Boggy Creek in the theater when I was a boy.
Speaker 1: This story is not mine, but was told to me
Speaker 1: twelve years ago. I thought it might push the thought
Speaker 1: button on your other listeners, as it didn't meet. The
Speaker 1: man who told me the story had me absolutely convinced
Speaker 1: it was true by the way he recalled the event
Speaker 1: as if he was reliving it. My wife and I
Speaker 1: started shooting pool in a league playing eight ball. It's
Speaker 1: the thing we like to do together. The rest of
Speaker 1: my hobbies are hunting and fishing related, and she doesn't
Speaker 1: care for those things. I started practicing regularly with a
Speaker 1: guy named Carl. He was an introvert, but after a
Speaker 1: while our friendship grew. We had a lot to talk
Speaker 1: about with our shared interest in outdoor adventures. As we
Speaker 1: were playing pool one night, Carl said he wanted to
Speaker 1: tell me a story, but didn't want me to think
Speaker 1: less of him for what the story was about. After
Speaker 1: I assured him I wouldn't judge him, he proceeded to
Speaker 1: ask me if I believed in Bigfoot of the Skunkgate.
Speaker 1: I told him of my curiosity about the subject, and
Speaker 1: that seemed to relax him a bit. He told me
Speaker 1: how he grew up in South Dade County, Florida, and
Speaker 1: that his parents lived on a few acres that butted
Speaker 1: right up against the Everglades National Wildlife Refuge. His story
Speaker 1: took place in the early nineteen seventies, which in those
Speaker 1: days was serious country living. He explained how he and
Speaker 1: his friends always played in the swamp, doing what boys do.
Speaker 1: One day, he ventured back into the refuge on his own,
Speaker 1: further than he normally would have gone. He had walked
Speaker 1: by the firebreaks that provided the only decent paths through
Speaker 1: the thick growth. He thought he had gone a mile
Speaker 1: or so into the woods. He was taking his time
Speaker 1: along the way, looking for deer signs and keeping an
Speaker 1: eye for snakes. He was a long way from home,
Speaker 1: being ten years old. He stopped to eat a sandwich
Speaker 1: that he had brought. He was sitting in the break
Speaker 1: and had eaten half of it when he heard a
Speaker 1: noise to his left. He turned to look, and there
Speaker 1: in the fire break, about fifty feet away, was a
Speaker 1: creature crouched down watching him. He locked eyes with it,
Speaker 1: and he sat there, frozen in place as it gazed back,
Speaker 1: teetering its head left and right. It made no aggressive
Speaker 1: actions in any way. It appeared to simply be observing
Speaker 1: what he was doing. Carl began to take notice of
Speaker 1: just how large this thing was. It had broad shoulders
Speaker 1: and long muscular arms, covered in matted, dark reddish brown hair.
Speaker 1: The face was human like, with a flat nose and wide,
Speaker 1: thick lips. The facial hair was thin and what he said,
Speaker 1: looked like a scraggly beard and a mustache. It was
Speaker 1: making inquisitive facial gestures that made Carl begin to think,
Speaker 1: what if this thing charges me? Knowing there was no
Speaker 1: way to defend himself from such a beast, he thought
Speaker 1: he had to get up and get out of there
Speaker 1: as fast as he could. Just as he had thought,
Speaker 1: the creature stood as if reading his mind. It was huge,
Speaker 1: especially to a young boy, at least seven to eight
Speaker 1: feet tall. He said this convinced him that he must
Speaker 1: get out of there now. He jumped up and started
Speaker 1: sprinting as fast as he could back the way home.
Speaker 1: He kept running and running, periodically looking back to see
Speaker 1: if it was following him, but he didn't see it,
Speaker 1: believe that his backyard had now come into view. He
Speaker 1: looked back once more, and not seeing it, he stopped
Speaker 1: running and walked the last few hundred yards. Just as
Speaker 1: he got to his backyard, where the firebreak takes a
Speaker 1: ninety degree along the property line, he looked to his right,
Speaker 1: and there it was again. It was only about fifty
Speaker 1: feet away, crouched in a brake just off his backyard,
Speaker 1: and it was looking at him, twisting and tilting its head.
Speaker 1: Before he didn't smell it, but now the wind carried
Speaker 1: its skunky odor in his direction. He thought it had
Speaker 1: a satisfied look on its face and realized this thing
Speaker 1: was just playing with him. His fear left and he smiled.
Speaker 1: It seemed to smile back, and they stared at each
Speaker 1: other for about a minute before it stood up and
Speaker 1: walked back into the thicket. It disappeared, immediately, leaving him
Speaker 1: wanting to see it more. He figured this thing must
Speaker 1: have been watching him play in his yard on a
Speaker 1: regular basis. He'd smelled that skunky odor before on several occasions.
Speaker 1: Not too long after that, his father moved the family
Speaker 1: to Central Florida for work reasons. He had gone back
Speaker 1: into the swamp a few times before they left, hoping
Speaker 1: to see the creature again, but he never did. I
Speaker 1: don't know where Carl is these days, but if we
Speaker 1: ever cross paths again, I would love to hear him
Speaker 1: tell his story to me one more time. Most encounters
Speaker 1: are always about things that people encounter in the woods.
Speaker 1: But imagine seeing a shape shifting alien in the middle
Speaker 1: of a large, busy city during rush hour traffic. You're
Speaker 1: probably wondering how that's possible. So I'll tell you what
Speaker 1: happened to me. In the April of two thousand, twenty
Speaker 1: two years ago, in Fresno, California, during a bright, sunny day,
Speaker 1: my friend picked me up in her car. I think
Speaker 1: we were going over to her house, but I really
Speaker 1: don't remember because of what happened next. I was sitting
Speaker 1: in the passenger front seat. We were slowing down to
Speaker 1: stop at a red light. There were cars to the
Speaker 1: right of me who were already stopped at the light,
Speaker 1: and as my friend slowly pulled up to the car
Speaker 1: to the right of me, the driver of the car
Speaker 1: slowly turned her head to look at me. When she
Speaker 1: had fully turned her head to my direction, she smirked
Speaker 1: at me, kind of like a Mona Lisa smile, and
Speaker 1: then her whole entire head, face and all of it
Speaker 1: turned into a reptile head. It looked like a lizard
Speaker 1: with various shades of brown and burgundy red color and
Speaker 1: a little tan or creamy color mixed in. It looked
Speaker 1: exactly like a camo colored lizard head. Then the face
Speaker 1: shifted back to a human face. The human woman's face
Speaker 1: was a medium skin toned black woman. I couldn't believe
Speaker 1: what I had just seen, and I just stared out
Speaker 1: the window, lost in disbelief. My friend had no idea
Speaker 1: that this was even happening, because she was looking forwards
Speaker 1: that she was driving. Well, the light turned green and
Speaker 1: the alien woman driving the car just drove off, But
Speaker 1: the way she smirked at me was like, yeah, I
Speaker 1: know you saw me. What you're going to do about it?
Speaker 1: I didn't say a word to my friend, and I
Speaker 1: never told anyone about it until maybe five years ago. Now,
Speaker 1: imagine if a shape shifting alien is driving a car
Speaker 1: and blending into society by having a job, a house,
Speaker 1: a car, etc. And then literally anyone could be an
Speaker 1: alien at any time. Think about that, You expect predators
Speaker 1: and unknown things to be in the woods, but you
Speaker 1: don't think about one living next door to you, and
Speaker 1: you have no idea. I suppose it doesn't matter as
Speaker 1: long as they are nice and don't hurt or kill people,
Speaker 1: and follow the rules of society. My adult son and
Speaker 1: I planned a mid December weekend trip to the Big
Speaker 1: Thicket area of Texas, not too far from where we live.
Speaker 1: We arrived on a Friday afternoon, parked the truck, and
Speaker 1: hiked a couple of miles along Turkey Creek to set
Speaker 1: up camp. There was no one else in the area
Speaker 1: at the time. The night was warm and muggy, even
Speaker 1: for Southeast Texas in December. It definitely wasn't a crispfall
Speaker 1: weekend at all. Our encounter came on the second night.
Speaker 1: We had spent Saturday hiking around and joking a little
Speaker 1: bit about Bigfoot and other creatures reputed to be in
Speaker 1: the area, and generally enjoying ourselves. That night was cloudy
Speaker 1: and starless and very dark. Although we stayed awake for
Speaker 1: a little while after supper, I was tired and fell
Speaker 1: asleep first. My son, on the other hand, stayed awake
Speaker 1: a short time later, he woke me up, saying I
Speaker 1: heard it. The it he was referring to was a long,
Speaker 1: low growl howl that built to a crescendo. He had
Speaker 1: seen enough Bigfoot on TV to identify the source. I
Speaker 1: was wide awake now. He said the sound had come
Speaker 1: from far off to our southeast. And we lay there,
Speaker 1: alert and listening, waiting for any other sounds, and looking back,
Speaker 1: I don't remember any other sounds at all. But we
Speaker 1: didn't have to wait long until we heard something. Within
Speaker 1: ten minutes of my son waking me, we heard three
Speaker 1: distinct woodknocks to our northwest. It sounded like a baseball
Speaker 1: bat on a solid wooden fence post. They couldn't have
Speaker 1: been coming from more than one hundred yards away. I
Speaker 1: only thought I was alert before my heart was pounding
Speaker 1: inside my chest like a madman trying to escape an asylum.
Speaker 1: We fought all other urges and lay as silently as
Speaker 1: we could, waiting, and it felt like half an eternity passed.
Speaker 1: But no whoops and no whistles, and no howls, and
Speaker 1: no footfalls. There was just nothing. During the whole time,
Speaker 1: questions raced through my mind if it was a Bigfoot?
Speaker 1: Were there two or more of them? What were their intentions?
Speaker 1: Surely they knew we were there, or were they just trying
Speaker 1: to warn each other about us? Were they trying to
Speaker 1: intimidate us into leaving? Maybe they were just having fun
Speaker 1: scaring the human folk. Or maybe it was some hunters
Speaker 1: trying to attract an encounter and we just happened to
Speaker 1: be there. I really don't know. I do know what
Speaker 1: my son heard, and what I heard matches up with
Speaker 1: what I've heard on television and the internet. They have
Speaker 1: to be real, and we've got to go back someday
Speaker 1: and find out. Growing up, I had many spiritual encounters.
Speaker 1: I spent most of my young life absolutely terrified. I've
Speaker 1: often thought of writing a book about all the experiences
Speaker 1: I've had, but I learned very quickly to keep them
Speaker 1: to myself. Once I finally moved out of the house
Speaker 1: and grew up, the experiences stopped. None of those experiences
Speaker 1: pertained to bigfoot. They were all centered on ghosts and spirits.
Speaker 1: Thirty six years old now, and to this day, I'm
Speaker 1: still terrified of the dark. I removed every closet door
Speaker 1: in my house the day we closed on it. I'm
Speaker 1: not ashamed to say that I still have to sleep
Speaker 1: with a night light on in my room, the bathroom
Speaker 1: light on, and the light over the stove on unless
Speaker 1: it burns out. If it gets dark outside and there's
Speaker 1: still laundry to be hung, I leave it until the
Speaker 1: next morning. And I'm grateful for my husband. I've told
Speaker 1: him everything, and whether or not he believes me, I'll
Speaker 1: never know. But he's never laughed at me or told
Speaker 1: me that I'm crazy, nor has he ever made me
Speaker 1: think he doesn't believe me. He's a very understanding of
Speaker 1: my needs when it comes to the closet doors and
Speaker 1: such as. For Bigfoot, I had never thought about it.
Speaker 1: Nobody ever talked about it while I was growing up,
Speaker 1: so it never crossed my mind until a few years
Speaker 1: ago when I stumbled across a Bigfoot encounter podcast. Immediately
Speaker 1: I became upset, utterly and completely obsessed. I believe all
Speaker 1: of them. I know what it's like to experience something
Speaker 1: and not be believed, and it really sucks. Now I've
Speaker 1: watched all the shows and documentaries and encounter stories. Last week,
Speaker 1: my husband and I took our boys, who were also
Speaker 1: obsessed with Bigfoot, by the way, on vacation to the
Speaker 1: Panhandle of Florida. It was the middle of nowhere, and
Speaker 1: it was pure bliss to visit the springs and the
Speaker 1: beaches that we hadn't been before. We were driving down
Speaker 1: the road with no houses around. There were no other cars,
Speaker 1: and there wasn't any self service, and there was nothing
Speaker 1: for miles and miles. When my husband turned around to
Speaker 1: face the back seat so he could talk to the
Speaker 1: boys about something, I was driving and staring at the
Speaker 1: road ahead of us when I saw this massive, unbelievably
Speaker 1: large thing dart across the road a few hundred yards
Speaker 1: in front of me. It was two our a head
Speaker 1: for us to get any details, but I knew immediately
Speaker 1: what it was. It was so enormous, but it moved
Speaker 1: so fast, and the way it moved, I knew it
Speaker 1: was a bigfoot. I immediately yelled for everyone to look,
Speaker 1: but it was moving so quickly that neither my husband
Speaker 1: nor my boys were able to see it, and by
Speaker 1: the time we got to the place in the road
Speaker 1: where it had crossed, it was nowhere to be found.
Speaker 1: The woods are thick there and it was as if
Speaker 1: they had swallowed it up. It had completely vanished. I
Speaker 1: know this wasn't the best of encounters, but I like
Speaker 1: to think that it was God's way of blessing me
Speaker 1: with a tiny glimpse of what is really out there.
Speaker 1: I've been dreaming excessively about it since that day. It
Speaker 1: replays over and over in my head. My husband and
Speaker 1: my oldest son, who was eight, were disappointed they didn't
Speaker 1: get to see it too, but I feel grateful. I've
Speaker 1: spent the last few years in the woods hoping for
Speaker 1: an encounter, and they got one. In the summer of
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty eight, we went on a family camping trip
Speaker 1: to North Pines in Yosemite. We were there for two
Speaker 1: weeks and our camp site was right next to the lake.
Speaker 1: On the second to the last night, my cousins and
Speaker 1: me decided to go to the lake and the idea
Speaker 1: we were going to see if we could see any animals.
Speaker 1: Back then, I had a maglike it was one of
Speaker 1: the big ones with the four D sized batteries. I
Speaker 1: was scanning the other side of the lake and we
Speaker 1: could all see a pair of red eyes glowing. They
Speaker 1: were low to the water, and I assumed it was
Speaker 1: drinking water. We could not see the body, just the eyes.
Speaker 1: So I had the bright idea of shooting at it
Speaker 1: with our wrist rocket slingshots. We took turns trying to
Speaker 1: hit it. Like I said, it was an idea. Well,
Speaker 1: then the animals stood up. I know it stood up
Speaker 1: because the eyes went up and up up. It must
Speaker 1: have been ten feet tall, and the eyes got bigger.
Speaker 1: We freaked out. Well, we got scared and we ran
Speaker 1: and that's when the animal or whatever it was, got
Speaker 1: up and walked, and all we saw were these huge
Speaker 1: red eyes move like a float. We ran to the campsite,
Speaker 1: and my cousins went and hid in the tent, and
Speaker 1: I sat by the fire with an odd look on
Speaker 1: my face. My two uncles asked me, what did you
Speaker 1: guys do? The boys ran into the tent. I said,
Speaker 1: we saw something that scared us. I said, well, I
Speaker 1: thought it would be funny to shoot at it with rocks.
Speaker 1: My uncle said, well, that wasn't smart, you idiot. I said,
Speaker 1: yeah right, I think it was a bigfoot. And then
Speaker 1: both of my uncles laughed at me and they said,
Speaker 1: don't be stupid, there's no such thing. I will tell
Speaker 1: you what they really said in Spanish, but some people
Speaker 1: would get offended. Until this day, I'm still confused about
Speaker 1: what I saw. The question I have is why would
Speaker 1: a bear stand up and walk away. I'm not saying
Speaker 1: it was bigfoot, I'm just not sure what it was.