Speaker 1: Back in nineteen eighty four, my family lived on a
Speaker 1: farm on the edge of town in the heart of Kentucky.
Speaker 1: The house sat on a hilltop with a big black
Speaker 1: barn behind it and a long, narrow valley beyond that.
Speaker 1: The house set well above the roadway and even higher
Speaker 1: above the valley. The valley sat even lower and was
Speaker 1: surrounded by woods. I was sixteen and feeling pretty low.
Speaker 1: My girlfriend had just called me on the phone and
Speaker 1: broken up with me after two months. She didn't even
Speaker 1: give me a reason. It was February, but the weather
Speaker 1: was beginning to show signs of spring after a long winter.
Speaker 1: The temperature was somewhat in the mid forties, and there
Speaker 1: were only a few patches of snow here and there.
Speaker 1: I needed to get away and think, so I headed
Speaker 1: for my favorite spot for me, that the woods. I
Speaker 1: spent a great deal of time there, and sometimes with friends,
Speaker 1: but usually alone. My father had left my mother when
Speaker 1: I was young, so the male role models in my
Speaker 1: life were my two uncles. They taught me to hunt
Speaker 1: and fish, and to appreciate the beauty and wonder of
Speaker 1: nature in those woods. They were a couple of great guys.
Speaker 1: Looking back, I really missed those times that we spent together.
Speaker 1: I walked down to the bottom of the valley, like
Speaker 1: I generally did. I was deep in thought about why
Speaker 1: my girl would break up with me, and I wasn't
Speaker 1: paying attention when I heard a thumping sound. It was
Speaker 1: something solid hitting the grass covered ground. I looked around
Speaker 1: and saw a rock about twenty feet from me, rolling uphill.
Speaker 1: I figured it was either my sister or my brother
Speaker 1: playing a trick on me, so I turned to look
Speaker 1: back the way I came, expecting to see one of them,
Speaker 1: and I scanned around looking, but they weren't there. As
Speaker 1: I turned to my left, still looking for my siblings,
Speaker 1: I saw a twenty foot patch of snow with four
Speaker 1: human shaped footprints in it. It was a little unnerving
Speaker 1: to see the footprints because first, whoever made these prints
Speaker 1: wasn't wearing shoes. It wasn't freezing out, but it was
Speaker 1: still cold. Walking in the snow would have made it
Speaker 1: feel even colder. Second, these prints were huge. I walked
Speaker 1: over and compared them to my boot. They were nearly
Speaker 1: twice as long as my foot and much wider, and
Speaker 1: the stride was a lot longer than I could have made.
Speaker 1: I was still examining the footprints when I heard another
Speaker 1: rock hit the ground, and I turned in the direction
Speaker 1: of the sound, and I saw the rock twenty feet
Speaker 1: away rolling downhill. This time it was bigger than the first,
Speaker 1: roughly the size of my fist, and I knew immediately
Speaker 1: it couldn't have been my brother or sister. I was
Speaker 1: far older and stronger than them, and I doubt I
Speaker 1: could have thrown it from any possible hiding spots. I
Speaker 1: then thought it might have been one of my friends
Speaker 1: who lived close. I knew Tommy was out of town
Speaker 1: visiting relatives, and Scotty had been in bed all week
Speaker 1: with a bad case of the flu. They were the
Speaker 1: only ones who ever came over, so I looked around again.
Speaker 1: Who was throwing rocks at me? The tracks probably should
Speaker 1: have sent me running home, but I honestly thought someone
Speaker 1: was playing a prank on me. My uncle's taught me
Speaker 1: that tracks made in the snow will expand when they melt,
Speaker 1: so I figured it was just a joke. I walked
Speaker 1: forward with a lot of confidence. You better knock it off.
Speaker 1: I'm throw rocks too, I said. Another rock was chucked
Speaker 1: at me. This time I saw it in mid flight,
Speaker 1: so I knew it was coming from the left corner
Speaker 1: of the woods near the property line. It was two
Speaker 1: hundred feet from me, and I thought, whoever was throwing
Speaker 1: these rocks must have a pretty good arm. Another rock
Speaker 1: landed ten feet to my right. I was getting angry now,
Speaker 1: so I walked over and picked it up before it
Speaker 1: stopped rolling. It was a little bigger than I would
Speaker 1: have normally wanted to throw, but in my frustration, I
Speaker 1: threw it back. Then I screamed an insult at whoever
Speaker 1: this was for good measure. My throw was way off
Speaker 1: the mark. It hit the ground well short of the
Speaker 1: tree line, so I looked around for another rock to throw.
Speaker 1: I found a few in the grass between the patches
Speaker 1: of snow, so I picked one up that fitted my
Speaker 1: hand better. This time, it hit a tree just inside
Speaker 1: the woodline. Then I saw a movement eighty feet to
Speaker 1: my left in the nearest section of trees. It was
Speaker 1: a lot closer to me than where the rocks were
Speaker 1: coming from. I only got a glimpse, maybe four or
Speaker 1: five seconds at most. Most of it was obscured by
Speaker 1: the thick brush and trees. I saw a dark upper
Speaker 1: portion of a massive right shoulder blade and a huge
Speaker 1: moving arm about seven feet off the ground. Also, I
Speaker 1: saw what looked like thick legs as it ran behind
Speaker 1: a tree. It was completely covered in reddish hair that
Speaker 1: bounced as it disappeared into the trees. I was nearly
Speaker 1: awe struck. Its movements were so graceful and fluid. It
Speaker 1: was completely different from how a deer or a human
Speaker 1: would move. Now I knew immediately it wasn't a bear
Speaker 1: or a cougar. It was too large. Both bears and
Speaker 1: cougars are extremely rare in Kentucky, and neither of them
Speaker 1: throw rocks. I barely had time to register what I
Speaker 1: was seeing when another rock landed five feet from me.
Speaker 1: It came from the same direction as the others. Then
Speaker 1: I heard heavy footfalls in the woods from that same direction.
Speaker 1: There were definitely more than one of them. To say
Speaker 1: I wasn't terrified would be a bold faced lie. I
Speaker 1: knew I had to get out of there. I was
Speaker 1: alone and on The nearest house was over half a
Speaker 1: mile away, on the other side of the valley and
Speaker 1: flanked by thick trees. I knew the elderly couple who
Speaker 1: lived there. They were nice people, but they wouldn't have
Speaker 1: been able to hear me even if they were outside,
Speaker 1: which they rarely were. My house was over three quarters
Speaker 1: of a mile away, and my mom and siblings had
Speaker 1: been inside watching TV when I left. At that moment,
Speaker 1: I forgot all about my girlfriend. Survival was my priority.
Speaker 1: I wanted to run, but I remembered what my uncles
Speaker 1: had told me about predators. Never turn your back on them,
Speaker 1: and running will kick in their instinct to chase. Fear
Speaker 1: turned into anger as I picked up as many rocks
Speaker 1: as I could find and started throwing them back towards
Speaker 1: the woods as fast as I could. I at least
Speaker 1: a string of obscenities and foul language as I did,
Speaker 1: all the while moving backwards a few dozen paces at
Speaker 1: a time. Years later, during my time in the military,
Speaker 1: I learned to call that a tactical retreat. More rocks
Speaker 1: are being thrown back at me now, and from two
Speaker 1: different directions. I switched targets back and forth as I
Speaker 1: slowly made my way back down the valley. Locked in
Speaker 1: combat with an unseen enemy. I was outnumbered and out
Speaker 1: gun but I kept throwing and moving and cussing and cursing.
Speaker 1: I doubted the cussing helped me, but it made me
Speaker 1: feel braver. It was probably only five minutes before I
Speaker 1: felt the hill under my feet, but it felt like hours.
Speaker 1: That meant I was closer to the relative safety of home.
Speaker 1: By now, those creatures had stopped throwing rocks at me.
Speaker 1: My accuracy had dropped off dramatically by then, anyway, and
Speaker 1: I scanned the woods once more for movement and listened
Speaker 1: for sounds. I didn't see or hear anything, and exhausted
Speaker 1: and sweating like i'd run a marathon, I took off
Speaker 1: my coat and stood there for another five minutes before
Speaker 1: I felt it was safe enough to turn and high
Speaker 1: tailor at home. I didn't tell my mother and siblings
Speaker 1: what had happened. I didn't want to scare them. The
Speaker 1: next day I told one of my uncles, who brought
Speaker 1: his shotgun over and slipped down into the valley with
Speaker 1: me to retrace my steps. I showed him the tracks
Speaker 1: in the snow. There were huge gouges in the hard
Speaker 1: dirt where the rocks and landed. We walked into the
Speaker 1: woodline where I had seen the one running. That's where
Speaker 1: I compared the size and height of the trees to
Speaker 1: the spot where I saw the shoulder and the arm.
Speaker 1: This thing must have been massive, but we didn't find
Speaker 1: any tracks there. We left the area, but not before
Speaker 1: I noticed that my uncle was being unusually quiet. After
Speaker 1: we got back to the house and well away from
Speaker 1: my mom, he told me that he'd had a strange
Speaker 1: experience there many years before. My eldest uncle served in Vietnam.
Speaker 1: He's a quiet man who rarely shows his emotions or
Speaker 1: gets upset. When he came home from the war, he
Speaker 1: couldn't wait to get back into his beloved woods where
Speaker 1: he could hunt and fish. And then he finally got
Speaker 1: the chance, and it was a bittersweet experience. It isn't
Speaker 1: an easy transition from life of daily combat back to
Speaker 1: a peaceful civilian existence. The woods of Kentucky looked nothing
Speaker 1: like the jungles of Southeast Asia, but the oppressive feeling
Speaker 1: of the dense vegetation and the limited visibility are similar.
Speaker 1: It took him quite a while to get over the
Speaker 1: nagging fear of someone waiting behind every bush to kill him.
Speaker 1: Slowly he worked his way back to his favorite fishing spots.
Speaker 1: Once he was comfortable, he began to hunt again. One
Speaker 1: day he was out hunting squirrel alone with his twenty
Speaker 1: two rifle. He was also carrying a revolver in his
Speaker 1: hip holster. He walked for hours and saw a few
Speaker 1: squirrels that they were too small to trouble with. When
Speaker 1: he decided to take a break, he sat down under
Speaker 1: a large tree on top of a heavily wooded ridge line.
Speaker 1: From there, he had a clear view down into the
Speaker 1: nearby holler. He'd been sitting there for about ten minutes
Speaker 1: when he saw movement below. He only saw bushes moving,
Speaker 1: but he suspected it was a deer. It was too
Speaker 1: early for deer season, but knowing their paths might help
Speaker 1: him decide where to build a stand later. He decided
Speaker 1: to go down check it out. He got up and
Speaker 1: slowly made his way down to the holler. The trees
Speaker 1: and underbrush made it impossible to get a clear view
Speaker 1: of whatever was moving around, but he found a little
Speaker 1: path that had made Whatever it was, he knew it
Speaker 1: wasn't a deer. It looked almost like a small bulldozer
Speaker 1: had made the path, like six deer had walked inside
Speaker 1: by side. He never seen them move that way, and
Speaker 1: plus the vegetation looked like it had been smashed aside
Speaker 1: and pulled out of the way. He didn't find any tracks,
Speaker 1: but it was clear that something heavy had walked through here.
Speaker 1: He told me he should have left right then and there,
Speaker 1: but he was young and curiosity got the better of him.
Speaker 1: He moved forward, pondering what kind of critter could make
Speaker 1: such a path. Was it a bear? No, Black bears
Speaker 1: aren't much whiter than a deer. Besides, he'd never seen
Speaker 1: a bear in this part of the state. Cougars and
Speaker 1: mountain lions came to mind, but he quickly ruled them
Speaker 1: out as well. Suddenly there was a loud crash, like
Speaker 1: a tree breaking under a great strain, and it echoed
Speaker 1: across the haller. Then the woods grew eerily quiet. There
Speaker 1: were no birds chirping, no bees buzzing, no worlds or
Speaker 1: any other animals making any sounds. Alarmed, and reverting back
Speaker 1: to his military training, he quickly veered off the trail
Speaker 1: and hid down among the tall grass on his belly.
Speaker 1: He lay there in the silence for several minutes, wondering
Speaker 1: if his mind was playing tricks on him. He was
Speaker 1: about to move away when he heard a sound that
Speaker 1: I was familiar with. First, there was a thump several
Speaker 1: yards away, and then another one a little closer. He
Speaker 1: looked up over the tall grass and he saw a
Speaker 1: rock coming in his direction. He crawled away, hoping that
Speaker 1: that would throw his attacker off his position, and it
Speaker 1: almost worked. The next rock landed farther away, but it
Speaker 1: was adjusting for his movement. He decided that this thing
Speaker 1: must be a human. He couldn't think of anything else
Speaker 1: in Kentucky that could throw rocks. With his rifle and pistol,
Speaker 1: my uncle felt reasonably assured that he was sick, so
Speaker 1: he stood up and he called out. He doesn't remember
Speaker 1: what he said, but it was something to the effect
Speaker 1: of asking them not to throw rocks at him, but
Speaker 1: no one answered. He then told them that he was armed,
Speaker 1: and he expected to get an answer, or at least
Speaker 1: hear them leave, but he got neither. He began to
Speaker 1: make his way out of there. Like me, He walked backwards,
Speaker 1: with his eyes scanning for threats. He moved quickly. It
Speaker 1: was too late to worry about being quiet. Whatever it was,
Speaker 1: it knew exactly where he was. Another rock hit the
Speaker 1: ground at his feet and bounced into his right leg.
Speaker 1: It didn't hurt him. But it startled him greatly. He
Speaker 1: didn't lose his cool. He pulled his rifle up and
Speaker 1: scanned the area in a quick three sixty. He was
Speaker 1: still convinced it was people, so he threatened to shoot
Speaker 1: if another rock was thrown. Well, something moved in the bushes,
Speaker 1: but he couldn't see what it was. It had to
Speaker 1: be a human. He wasn't prepared to accept any other alternative.
Speaker 1: He kept backing up and moving his head from side
Speaker 1: to side, and then an incredibly loud growl broke the
Speaker 1: silence and reverberated through his chest. He said he'd never
Speaker 1: heard anything like it before or since. At this point,
Speaker 1: my uncle knew two things. It was very close, and
Speaker 1: it wasn't human. Instinct kicked in. He fired into the bushes,
Speaker 1: shifted position, chambered another round, and then he fired again.
Speaker 1: He doubted he hid anything, but he was hoping to
Speaker 1: scare it off. And then another rock flew at him.
Speaker 1: It landed a little further away than the last, but
Speaker 1: that was enough. He turned and bolted for a nearby
Speaker 1: grove of trees. It didn't offer much shelter, but it
Speaker 1: was better than nothing. He pulled at his pistol and
Speaker 1: sat there for maybe an hour, waiting for or another confrontation.
Speaker 1: His nerves were on edge. He's not a religious man,
Speaker 1: but he said he did a lot of praying that day.
Speaker 1: But nothing more happened, and soon the sounds of the
Speaker 1: woods were turned to normal, as if nothing had ever happened.
Speaker 1: He was feeling foolish, and he made his way back
Speaker 1: to the ridge and looked over the area one more time.
Speaker 1: He didn't see anything unusual and gladly went home empty handed.
Speaker 1: He didn't tell anyone else about his experience for a
Speaker 1: long time. He didn't think anyone would believe him. Eventually
Speaker 1: he told his brother later. He told me. In a way,
Speaker 1: my uncle and I bonded that day, we both had
Speaker 1: a strange experience that we couldn't explain. At least, he'd
Speaker 1: been armed with throwing rocks back at something that's throwing
Speaker 1: rocks at me. Probably wasn't very smart, but it seemed
Speaker 1: like my best option at the time. Fortunately, neither of
Speaker 1: us had seen anything. Since, now that I'm older and
Speaker 1: perhaps a bit wiser, I don't think that whatever was
Speaker 1: throwing rocks at us was trying to hurt us. I
Speaker 1: think it was warning us to get out of the area.
Speaker 1: At least, that's my two cents worth. You can believe
Speaker 1: whatever you choose to believe.