1
00:00:09,919 --> 00:00:12,240
Speaker 1: I was born and raised in what used to be

2
00:00:12,359 --> 00:00:16,760
rural Madison County and North Alabama. It was a kind

3
00:00:16,800 --> 00:00:20,320
of place where everyone knew everyone. That meant kids always

4
00:00:20,399 --> 00:00:23,839
had to be good, because misbehavior would always make it

5
00:00:23,920 --> 00:00:27,839
back to their parents. In nineteen seventy four, when I

6
00:00:28,000 --> 00:00:30,559
was eight, we had some of the worst tornadoes this

7
00:00:30,679 --> 00:00:34,960
area has ever seen. My grandfather, who lived in Mississippi,

8
00:00:35,159 --> 00:00:39,240
died during those from a heart attack. Afterwards, there were

9
00:00:39,280 --> 00:00:41,880
so many trees down it was hard to imagine it

10
00:00:41,960 --> 00:00:46,079
was the same place. There was a family that lived

11
00:00:46,119 --> 00:00:48,359
about a half a mile away from ours who had

12
00:00:48,439 --> 00:00:51,840
girls close to my age. We would meet in the

13
00:00:51,840 --> 00:00:55,439
woods and play. We made up names for different stands

14
00:00:55,439 --> 00:00:59,119
of trees so we always knew where to meet. The

15
00:00:59,119 --> 00:01:01,520
big stand that was the farthest from any of our

16
00:01:01,560 --> 00:01:05,920
houses was called Big Pines. Little Pines was closer to

17
00:01:05,959 --> 00:01:11,000
their house. Tiny Pines was right behind my house. Our

18
00:01:11,040 --> 00:01:17,079
imagination in naming them knew no bounds. It's pretty original. Oh,

19
00:01:17,159 --> 00:01:19,239
it just reminded me of a story about my son.

20
00:01:19,319 --> 00:01:22,319
But I'll tell you all that another time. She writes.

21
00:01:22,400 --> 00:01:25,319
The summer after the tornadoes changed the look of the

22
00:01:25,319 --> 00:01:29,680
woods a lot, especially the Big Pines area. There was

23
00:01:29,719 --> 00:01:32,760
one place where three trees had fallen together that we

24
00:01:32,879 --> 00:01:36,760
decided to make our clubhouse. The trees had fallen in

25
00:01:36,840 --> 00:01:39,519
sort of a triangle, with one on top and two

26
00:01:39,560 --> 00:01:43,159
on the bottom. Once we got inside and started cutting

27
00:01:43,239 --> 00:01:46,280
out the inner branches to give us room, it was perfect.

28
00:01:47,359 --> 00:01:50,280
We started bringing in some stuff so that it was

29
00:01:50,359 --> 00:01:54,359
more homey and to make it our clubhouse. It was

30
00:01:54,400 --> 00:01:57,000
still a time when kids were giving free rein of

31
00:01:57,040 --> 00:01:59,760
their days, and I could tell my parents that I

32
00:01:59,799 --> 00:02:03,480
was going to meet Donna in Big Pines and they'd answer, okay,

33
00:02:04,040 --> 00:02:07,519
that was enough for them. There was no checking in,

34
00:02:08,080 --> 00:02:11,439
no specific time to be home, and no stranger danger.

35
00:02:11,520 --> 00:02:15,159
Back then, I wish my daughter could have experienced that

36
00:02:15,280 --> 00:02:20,919
easy freedom that's gone forever now. On this particular day,

37
00:02:21,080 --> 00:02:23,560
Donna and I were going to meet at the clubhouse

38
00:02:23,599 --> 00:02:27,039
in Big Pines. I don't remember what time it was,

39
00:02:27,120 --> 00:02:30,479
but I got there before she did. I was playing

40
00:02:30,520 --> 00:02:34,439
around inside the clubhouse when I heard something. I figured

41
00:02:34,479 --> 00:02:37,159
it was Donna coming, so I didn't think much about it.

42
00:02:38,199 --> 00:02:41,960
After a few minutes, Donna didn't show up. Well, I

43
00:02:42,000 --> 00:02:44,479
got curious, so I peeked out through the branches in

44
00:02:44,520 --> 00:02:48,479
the clubhouse, and I looked around. At first, I didn't

45
00:02:48,520 --> 00:02:53,039
see anything. Donna's older brother was fond of harassing us,

46
00:02:53,639 --> 00:02:55,680
and if it was him, I didn't want him to

47
00:02:55,759 --> 00:02:58,159
know that I was there. That guy gave me the

48
00:02:58,280 --> 00:03:02,560
creeps back to playing inside the clubhouse, but I kept

49
00:03:02,560 --> 00:03:06,240
hearing small sounds, so I would periodically look out in

50
00:03:06,319 --> 00:03:10,039
their direction. And I still didn't see anything, but I

51
00:03:10,159 --> 00:03:13,280
noticed that all the normal sounds coming to the woods

52
00:03:13,319 --> 00:03:18,360
were gone. It was eerily quiet. Finally, I caught a

53
00:03:18,400 --> 00:03:22,199
glimpse of something that was large, black and tan and

54
00:03:22,240 --> 00:03:26,439
about the same size as my German shepherd's Sindbad. Even

55
00:03:26,479 --> 00:03:29,759
though he never followed me to Big Pines, I assume

56
00:03:29,800 --> 00:03:33,639
it was him. I didn't call out to him. Instead,

57
00:03:34,199 --> 00:03:36,479
I watched to see what he would do, or if

58
00:03:36,479 --> 00:03:40,800
he would find me hidden in our little clubhouse. A

59
00:03:40,840 --> 00:03:44,240
few minutes passed, I'm not sure how many. I was

60
00:03:44,280 --> 00:03:48,000
only eight at the time. It didn't move much, so

61
00:03:48,080 --> 00:03:50,080
I didn't get a good look at it. I was

62
00:03:50,159 --> 00:03:52,800
considering just calling him to me so he could play

63
00:03:52,800 --> 00:03:55,639
in the clubhouse with me, when I suddenly felt very

64
00:03:55,680 --> 00:04:00,000
glad that I didn't. I was looking directly at it

65
00:04:00,240 --> 00:04:03,800
when with no warning, it jumped onto the trunk of

66
00:04:03,840 --> 00:04:08,000
a pine tree and climbed straight up. My dog could

67
00:04:08,039 --> 00:04:10,280
do a lot of things, but he could not climb

68
00:04:10,319 --> 00:04:14,120
a tree. Now froze and for a minute I just

69
00:04:14,199 --> 00:04:17,959
sat there, and whatever it was, I never saw or

70
00:04:18,000 --> 00:04:23,199
heard it climb back down. I didn't move for two hours.

71
00:04:24,519 --> 00:04:28,920
Donna never came. I don't remember why. At that point,

72
00:04:29,040 --> 00:04:32,519
I'm not sure I would have wanted her to. I

73
00:04:32,560 --> 00:04:34,680
had heard of a mountain lion being caught in the

74
00:04:34,759 --> 00:04:38,040
area over thirty years earlier, but there had been no

75
00:04:38,079 --> 00:04:42,120
sign of one since. I've often wondered what it was

76
00:04:42,279 --> 00:04:44,839
that I saw that day, but I'm convinced it was

77
00:04:44,920 --> 00:04:48,319
not a mountain lion. I never went back to Big

78
00:04:48,360 --> 00:04:52,720
Pines alone again. I still live within a mile of

79
00:04:52,759 --> 00:04:55,519
that area. I lived way back off the road at

80
00:04:55,560 --> 00:04:57,879
the edge of the woods and mountains, but I've never

81
00:04:57,920 --> 00:05:01,959
seen anything that terrified me a lot that we do

82
00:05:02,000 --> 00:05:04,920
have black bears and bobcats here, but it was neither

83
00:05:04,959 --> 00:05:09,360
of those. I can still shut my eyes and see

84
00:05:09,360 --> 00:05:12,800
it in my mind, and even as an adult, I

85
00:05:12,879 --> 00:05:19,360
have no answers. Oh Beca, Becca Beca. What a great story,

86
00:05:19,879 --> 00:05:22,279
And I'm sure it still haunts you today. And I

87
00:05:22,439 --> 00:05:26,560
absolutely understand what you said there at the end. It's

88
00:05:26,639 --> 00:05:31,600
like these images are cast in your mind forever. It's

89
00:05:31,680 --> 00:05:36,399
like you never you never forget exactly. It's never hazy,

90
00:05:36,800 --> 00:05:39,879
it's never far off in your memory. Whenever that memory

91
00:05:39,920 --> 00:05:43,360
comes back, it is exactly the same and as exactly

92
00:05:43,439 --> 00:05:45,800
as you saw it the day you saw it. I

93
00:05:45,839 --> 00:05:48,360
have a few of those. They don't have to do

94
00:05:48,439 --> 00:05:50,720
with monsters. They may have to do with my father,

95
00:05:51,000 --> 00:05:54,079
or my mother, or you know, some event in my life.

96
00:05:55,000 --> 00:05:58,199
I know exactly what you mean. And to see something

97
00:05:58,319 --> 00:06:00,360
like that as an eight year little, eight year old

98
00:06:00,439 --> 00:06:03,720
little girl, I'm sure that's something that scared you to death.

99
00:06:04,480 --> 00:06:08,079
But I'll make one suggestion. And I don't know that

100
00:06:08,600 --> 00:06:11,399
you know. I'm not always I never try to debunk

101
00:06:11,439 --> 00:06:13,680
these stories. I just read them and we go on.

102
00:06:14,600 --> 00:06:17,279
I remember when I was a kid, there weren't there

103
00:06:17,279 --> 00:06:21,120
were hardly any any any turkeys at all in the woods,

104
00:06:21,639 --> 00:06:23,879
and I saw this thing run up a tree, or

105
00:06:23,920 --> 00:06:25,800
it looked like it ran up a tree. It was

106
00:06:25,839 --> 00:06:28,639
a big big to me, it was big, a big,

107
00:06:28,759 --> 00:06:32,480
dark object, and it made these weird noises when it

108
00:06:32,519 --> 00:06:34,319
flew up in the tree, and it was right in

109
00:06:34,399 --> 00:06:39,240
the evening. Like you, I remember that vision vividly, and

110
00:06:39,279 --> 00:06:42,000
I can run it through my mind. And the more

111
00:06:42,240 --> 00:06:47,439
I think about what I saw after years of hunting turkeys,

112
00:06:48,120 --> 00:06:50,920
I'm pretty sure that's what I saw. But I didn't

113
00:06:50,920 --> 00:06:53,160
even know turkeys were in the woods when I was

114
00:06:53,160 --> 00:06:56,759
a kid. I thought turkeys were something that people raised

115
00:06:56,839 --> 00:06:59,439
on a farm. I'm not even sure I knew what

116
00:06:59,480 --> 00:07:02,519
a turkey. A turkey to me was a big, frozen,

117
00:07:02,879 --> 00:07:05,519
giant heavy ball that you pulled out of the freezer

118
00:07:05,560 --> 00:07:08,399
at the grocery store. Then I figured out what they

119
00:07:08,439 --> 00:07:10,600
were and we started hunting them. By the way, a

120
00:07:10,639 --> 00:07:13,399
wild turkey doesn't look like that when it's when it's

121
00:07:13,399 --> 00:07:17,040
cleaned out. They're they're quite a bit smaller, but they're

122
00:07:17,120 --> 00:07:20,720
but the meat is delicious. It is so good that

123
00:07:20,759 --> 00:07:23,399
when you breast them out, they're just oh man, it's

124
00:07:23,399 --> 00:07:26,439
some of the it's like the nectar of meat. To me.

125
00:07:26,639 --> 00:07:29,399
That and venison just the best meat in the world.

126
00:07:29,439 --> 00:07:32,959
It's clean and it's it. They don't they're not fed.

127
00:07:33,480 --> 00:07:35,680
All right, I'm going off on a tangent again. I

128
00:07:35,720 --> 00:07:38,600
don't mean to do that, but so maybe it was

129
00:07:38,639 --> 00:07:41,959
a turkey, I'm not saying it was, but think about that.

130
00:07:42,279 --> 00:07:45,079
You have the image in your mind, Maybe get on

131
00:07:45,120 --> 00:07:47,959
YouTube and look at things climbing trees and kind of

132
00:07:48,040 --> 00:07:50,160
zero in on a turkey and see if that's not

133
00:07:50,199 --> 00:07:52,959
what you saw. But if that's not what you saw

134
00:07:53,079 --> 00:07:56,959
and it was bigger and more menacing, then it could

135
00:07:56,959 --> 00:07:58,920
have been a bigfoot, could have been a dog man

136
00:07:59,040 --> 00:08:02,160
or some other creature that wanders those woods. I don't know,

137
00:08:02,560 --> 00:08:05,879
but I love the story, Becca, and I really appreciate

138
00:08:05,920 --> 00:08:08,759
you sending it. Nioma liked it too. She was telling

139
00:08:08,759 --> 00:08:11,079
me that it's one of those stories it just kind

140
00:08:11,120 --> 00:08:14,959
of makes her skin crawl because I don't know, especially

141
00:08:14,959 --> 00:08:18,199
as it happens with little kids and stuff. It's you know,

142
00:08:18,240 --> 00:08:20,839
it's kind of speaky. But Becca, thank you. I'll lave

143
00:08:20,920 --> 00:08:21,759
quit yack and hear.

144
00:08:25,920 --> 00:08:28,600
Speaker 2: My first encounter with what I believe was a bigfoot

145
00:08:28,639 --> 00:08:31,360
happened in nineteen eighty five or eighty six, when I

146
00:08:31,439 --> 00:08:34,799
was about three or four years old. My parents and

147
00:08:34,840 --> 00:08:37,000
I were living with my dad's mom on a little

148
00:08:37,039 --> 00:08:40,240
dirt road in western Georgia at the time, less than

149
00:08:40,279 --> 00:08:42,559
a quarter of a mile from my grandmother's house. Was

150
00:08:42,600 --> 00:08:46,720
a small graveyard. It seemed like people were always there

151
00:08:46,759 --> 00:08:50,559
fixing headstones. I would watch as they reset stones that

152
00:08:50,600 --> 00:08:53,399
had been pushed over and repair those that had been

153
00:08:53,399 --> 00:08:56,600
broken in the process. Even in my late teens, I

154
00:08:56,639 --> 00:09:00,080
remember writing past and seeing the people working on the headstones,

155
00:09:00,559 --> 00:09:03,960
some for the third or fourth time. One evening, my

156
00:09:04,080 --> 00:09:06,919
dad decided to walk to his mom's brother's house about

157
00:09:06,919 --> 00:09:09,320
a mile down the road. I was a daddy's boy,

158
00:09:09,399 --> 00:09:12,120
so I went with him. There was a full, bright

159
00:09:12,200 --> 00:09:14,240
moon that night that hung in the sky like a

160
00:09:14,320 --> 00:09:16,960
giant lantern. It was so big I felt like I

161
00:09:17,000 --> 00:09:20,279
could reach out and touch it. Dad was walking in

162
00:09:20,279 --> 00:09:22,519
front of me, maybe ten or twelve feet. As I

163
00:09:22,600 --> 00:09:26,080
passed the lock gate to the cemetery. I jumped when

164
00:09:26,080 --> 00:09:28,519
I heard what sounded like a wet rug being dropped

165
00:09:28,519 --> 00:09:31,919
onto a concrete floor, followed by a heavy chuffing sound

166
00:09:32,000 --> 00:09:34,919
like a bull when it coughs. I looked at my dad,

167
00:09:35,000 --> 00:09:37,399
unsure if he'd heard it, but then he turned a

168
00:09:37,440 --> 00:09:40,639
little to the right without quite turning, offered me his

169
00:09:40,759 --> 00:09:44,440
hand without quite lifting it from his side, and said,

170
00:09:44,919 --> 00:09:48,480
come on, son, and a soft voice that was not

171
00:09:48,639 --> 00:09:52,519
quite ominous from the house to the graveyard. The little

172
00:09:52,559 --> 00:09:55,639
dirt road as straight. There are no curves or hills

173
00:09:55,679 --> 00:09:58,039
to obscure the view from the house where we stood.

174
00:09:59,120 --> 00:10:01,120
Just before I moved to take my dad's hand, I

175
00:10:01,159 --> 00:10:04,559
glanced over my shoulder, but I couldn't see our house

176
00:10:04,840 --> 00:10:07,919
or the street light in our yard. I couldn't see

177
00:10:07,919 --> 00:10:10,759
any of the neighbor's street lights either. I looked back

178
00:10:10,799 --> 00:10:14,159
several times, but I didn't see anything until maybe the

179
00:10:14,240 --> 00:10:17,960
fourth time I saw someone behind us. They were about

180
00:10:17,960 --> 00:10:22,000
thirty or forty feet back. Who's that following us, I

181
00:10:22,080 --> 00:10:28,080
asked my dad. Nobody, he answered in that same quiet voice. Then,

182
00:10:28,200 --> 00:10:31,399
in an even softer voice laden with urgency, he added,

183
00:10:31,639 --> 00:10:34,720
come on. I started walking faster to keep up with

184
00:10:34,759 --> 00:10:36,879
my dad, but now I was suddenly aware of the

185
00:10:36,919 --> 00:10:41,799
sounds of footsteps. They were getting harder, louder, closer, faster

186
00:10:42,080 --> 00:10:45,720
with each step I took. I turned again to look

187
00:10:45,759 --> 00:10:49,799
back over my shoulder. The distant lights outlined someone big

188
00:10:49,840 --> 00:10:53,000
in what I took to be a wooly sweater. Before

189
00:10:53,039 --> 00:10:55,120
I could fully turn back to my dad, I felt

190
00:10:55,200 --> 00:10:57,519
him lifting me off the ground and swinging me onto

191
00:10:57,559 --> 00:11:01,240
his shoulders. He began to run with me. I tried

192
00:11:01,240 --> 00:11:03,240
to look back at the wooly sweater, but it was

193
00:11:03,279 --> 00:11:05,240
all I could do to hang onto my dad's head

194
00:11:05,240 --> 00:11:08,639
as he ran as fast as he could. Like I said,

195
00:11:09,080 --> 00:11:11,679
I was only about three or four then. I wasn't

196
00:11:11,720 --> 00:11:15,799
in school yet. I don't remember much beyond that. Clearly

197
00:11:15,799 --> 00:11:19,039
we escaped our stalker, but my memory fails me beyond

198
00:11:19,080 --> 00:11:23,440
my dad running with me on his shoulders. Years later,

199
00:11:23,480 --> 00:11:25,720
when I was in my early teens, I found what

200
00:11:25,799 --> 00:11:28,360
I thought and still believed to be a den in

201
00:11:28,399 --> 00:11:31,320
the side of a creek bank. The whole head of

202
00:11:31,320 --> 00:11:34,240
a cow was sticking out of the hole, half submerged

203
00:11:34,240 --> 00:11:37,480
in water. As I stood there looking at it, something

204
00:11:37,559 --> 00:11:39,720
snatched it from the other side of that hole and

205
00:11:39,759 --> 00:11:42,879
pulled it out of sight. I didn't wait around to

206
00:11:42,879 --> 00:11:46,360
see what had the ability to do that. I'm thirty

207
00:11:46,360 --> 00:11:50,919
eight now, and I still have trouble sleeping. Sleeping meanstreaming about,

208
00:11:50,919 --> 00:11:55,000
wooly sweaters chasing me, and cowheads disappearing into holes and

209
00:11:55,080 --> 00:11:59,120
creek banks, and means remembering other things as well. I

210
00:11:59,200 --> 00:12:02,080
once spoke on the phone with my dead aunt. I've

211
00:12:02,120 --> 00:12:05,600
had two other bigfoot encounters too. I'd rather deal with

212
00:12:05,639 --> 00:12:08,519
bigfoot than talk to dead people, but both terrify me.

213
00:12:09,320 --> 00:12:11,919
The things I've told you here are the God's honest truth.

214
00:12:12,440 --> 00:12:15,120
I'll be writing to you about the other two encounters

215
00:12:15,600 --> 00:12:18,679
I have to tell someone. Maybe once I tell them

216
00:12:18,679 --> 00:12:21,039
and get them out of my system, I'll be able

217
00:12:21,080 --> 00:12:21,879
to sleep.

218
00:12:23,480 --> 00:12:23,679
Speaker 1: Well.

219
00:12:23,720 --> 00:12:27,720
Speaker 2: I thought that was a fantastic story. Can you imagine

220
00:12:27,759 --> 00:12:31,000
being only three or four years old and your father's

221
00:12:31,039 --> 00:12:33,399
so frightened he sweeps you up on his shoulders and

222
00:12:33,480 --> 00:12:36,000
starts to run, and you don't even know what you're

223
00:12:36,159 --> 00:12:39,200
running from except for something in a big wooly sweater.

224
00:12:39,840 --> 00:12:43,600
It must have been terrifying. And then later when he

225
00:12:43,639 --> 00:12:46,519
saw the cow's head and the whole being just pulled in,

226
00:12:47,360 --> 00:12:51,720
Oh my gosh, no wonder you don't sleep, Wara. I

227
00:12:51,759 --> 00:12:54,960
wouldn't sleep either. Thank you for sending in the story,

228
00:12:55,440 --> 00:12:57,240
and thank you Cam for letting me read it.

229
00:13:01,120 --> 00:13:03,720
Speaker 1: When I was a young man growing up in central

230
00:13:03,879 --> 00:13:06,679
New York, my uncle used to tell the family a

231
00:13:06,759 --> 00:13:10,879
story of what he called the swamp monsters. This was

232
00:13:10,960 --> 00:13:14,360
long before you could hear any talk about Bigfoot. He

233
00:13:14,399 --> 00:13:17,720
would tell a story whenever the cousins would gather. He

234
00:13:17,799 --> 00:13:19,919
and my aunt were working on a farm back in

235
00:13:19,960 --> 00:13:24,440
the nineteen thirties. The family farm had big, open fields

236
00:13:24,480 --> 00:13:28,200
surrounded by rolling forested hills, and he would tell the

237
00:13:28,279 --> 00:13:31,879
story of two huge creatures covered with dark black hair

238
00:13:32,240 --> 00:13:34,480
that came from the forest and walked in front of

239
00:13:34,519 --> 00:13:38,879
he and my aunt across the farm fields. He estimated

240
00:13:38,919 --> 00:13:43,840
the distance at seventy five yards. When they reached every fence,

241
00:13:43,919 --> 00:13:46,840
they simply stepped over them, as if they were not there.

242
00:13:47,639 --> 00:13:50,480
I never made the connection with Bigfoot at the time.

243
00:13:52,200 --> 00:13:54,480
When I was eight, my dad was reading the newspaper

244
00:13:54,480 --> 00:13:57,480
and he showed me an article of giant Bigfoot prints

245
00:13:57,519 --> 00:14:01,399
found in California. The tracks were the first that I

246
00:14:01,440 --> 00:14:04,879
had heard of Bigfoot. I can remember cutting out the

247
00:14:05,000 --> 00:14:07,519
article and running down the street to find my friends

248
00:14:07,519 --> 00:14:12,000
and show them the story. I remember us discussing that

249
00:14:12,080 --> 00:14:14,559
it was way out in California and that it would

250
00:14:14,600 --> 00:14:18,480
never come to New York. Well, time went on, and

251
00:14:18,519 --> 00:14:20,759
when I was fifteen, my friend and I wanted to

252
00:14:20,799 --> 00:14:23,559
go to a party that was twenty miles from our house.

253
00:14:24,720 --> 00:14:26,559
The only way that we could get there would be

254
00:14:26,639 --> 00:14:30,440
to sneak our whole. Doca Road towed one hundred motorcycle

255
00:14:30,440 --> 00:14:33,440
out of the barn. We would take the back roads

256
00:14:33,480 --> 00:14:36,679
and ride double since we didn't have driver's licenses and

257
00:14:36,720 --> 00:14:40,960
the motorcycle was also not licensed. We were cutting through

258
00:14:40,960 --> 00:14:43,840
a state forest about four miles from the nearest town,

259
00:14:44,320 --> 00:14:47,320
and as we started up a large hill, the motorcycle

260
00:14:47,399 --> 00:14:50,879
stalled out and was out of gas. We flipped the

261
00:14:50,919 --> 00:14:54,039
reserve tank lever and attempted to start the bike, and

262
00:14:54,080 --> 00:14:57,360
we could not get it to fire up. We began

263
00:14:57,440 --> 00:15:00,519
pushing the bike up the hill. It was really and

264
00:15:00,679 --> 00:15:03,879
very quiet, and as we pushed the motorcycle, we began

265
00:15:03,919 --> 00:15:07,720
to hear something walking in the woods paralleling us. It

266
00:15:07,840 --> 00:15:12,080
was loud and it sounded by a peetle. Whenever we stopped,

267
00:15:12,080 --> 00:15:14,960
it would stop, and we could hear sticks breaking and

268
00:15:15,039 --> 00:15:18,399
clearly something walking like a man. We both said, what

269
00:15:18,440 --> 00:15:22,879
the hell is that? It started to move directly at us,

270
00:15:23,039 --> 00:15:27,320
this time not stopping when we did. I started yelling

271
00:15:27,360 --> 00:15:30,639
at my buddy to get that motorcycle started, and just

272
00:15:30,679 --> 00:15:33,320
as we thought the creature was about to reach us,

273
00:15:33,679 --> 00:15:37,559
the bike started and off we went. Every hair on

274
00:15:37,600 --> 00:15:40,759
our body stood on end. We had no clue why

275
00:15:40,840 --> 00:15:43,440
we were so afraid, and we did not talk of

276
00:15:43,480 --> 00:15:47,120
this again. Time went on and I began to take

277
00:15:47,200 --> 00:15:50,799
remote fishing trips to Quebec, and on these trips I

278
00:15:50,799 --> 00:15:54,679
would always find topographical maps and try to reach an

279
00:15:54,720 --> 00:15:57,559
even more remote lake for fishing, always trying to get

280
00:15:57,600 --> 00:16:01,600
to where no one else had fished before. While fishing

281
00:16:01,600 --> 00:16:04,440
a lake about one hundred miles from Oh God, here's

282
00:16:04,480 --> 00:16:08,159
a here's a word, I'm gonna blow senataire s e

283
00:16:08,399 --> 00:16:13,279
n n e t e r r e Quebec sentiary

284
00:16:13,480 --> 00:16:17,720
sentataire senatire. That's all I can do help meet Canadians.

285
00:16:18,679 --> 00:16:20,840
I found a lake that would take work to get to.

286
00:16:22,000 --> 00:16:25,240
We headed down a small river that connected the two lakes,

287
00:16:25,279 --> 00:16:29,159
and the path was blocked by many beaver dams. We

288
00:16:29,200 --> 00:16:31,440
would break a small hole in each dam and then

289
00:16:31,559 --> 00:16:33,759
turn and make a run at it and jump the dam.

290
00:16:34,600 --> 00:16:37,200
It was a great adventure and fill with excitement of

291
00:16:37,320 --> 00:16:40,840
virgin waters full of fish. I would have a chance

292
00:16:40,919 --> 00:16:46,519
to pursue a trophy northern and incredible walleye fishing. When

293
00:16:46,519 --> 00:16:50,559
we finally reached the lake, the fishing was awesome walleye northerns.

294
00:16:50,679 --> 00:16:54,519
Cast after cast, there was a silence that I couldn't explain,

295
00:16:54,639 --> 00:16:59,720
though everything was deathly quiet. Also, there was a feeling

296
00:16:59,759 --> 00:17:02,960
of fear that I couldn't explain. I had reached one

297
00:17:02,960 --> 00:17:05,480
of the fishing spots that I had dreamed about, and

298
00:17:05,519 --> 00:17:08,839
all I wanted to do was leave. I didn't say

299
00:17:08,880 --> 00:17:12,039
anything about this to my fishing partner, and I convinced

300
00:17:12,119 --> 00:17:16,400
him to head back. A year later, I returned to

301
00:17:16,440 --> 00:17:18,680
the same lake, and one evening we were jigging for

302
00:17:18,839 --> 00:17:22,599
walleye close to the mouth of the river. Something came

303
00:17:22,640 --> 00:17:25,640
over me and filled me with a sense of fear.

304
00:17:26,519 --> 00:17:28,640
All of a sudden, we heard a great roar or

305
00:17:28,680 --> 00:17:32,960
a scream louder than I can explain. I would estimated

306
00:17:33,079 --> 00:17:35,799
it came from three hundred yards away, and it shook

307
00:17:35,839 --> 00:17:38,920
my insides and every hair on my body stood on end.

308
00:17:40,000 --> 00:17:43,240
My fishing partner said the same thing, it was, what

309
00:17:43,359 --> 00:17:47,039
the hell moment? We pulled up the anchor and we

310
00:17:47,119 --> 00:17:49,880
headed back to camp, and one of our guides liked

311
00:17:49,880 --> 00:17:52,960
to sleep in a tent, and after we informed him

312
00:17:53,000 --> 00:17:55,880
of what had happened, he moved inside and got out

313
00:17:55,880 --> 00:17:59,559
of that tent. I returned another year later to the

314
00:17:59,559 --> 00:18:02,200
same lil and was determined to face my fear and

315
00:18:02,240 --> 00:18:05,519
head up the river and fish that distant lake. And

316
00:18:05,559 --> 00:18:08,440
when I looked at the topographical maps. I noticed a lake.

317
00:18:08,519 --> 00:18:11,480
Beyond the lake that had previously filled me with fear,

318
00:18:12,759 --> 00:18:15,240
there was a river that connected the two, and I

319
00:18:15,319 --> 00:18:17,799
decided that I would push it a step further and

320
00:18:17,920 --> 00:18:22,880
travel to that lake. We started before sunrising headed down

321
00:18:22,960 --> 00:18:26,160
that river. Just as the sun came up again. We

322
00:18:26,240 --> 00:18:29,279
broke beaver dams and turned and made runs and jumped

323
00:18:29,279 --> 00:18:32,400
the boat over each one. We crossed five or six

324
00:18:32,480 --> 00:18:36,480
dams in this manner. We reached the lake and followed

325
00:18:36,480 --> 00:18:39,119
them up to the small river or stream and started

326
00:18:39,160 --> 00:18:43,440
pushing forward. We finally hit a shallow spot where the

327
00:18:43,440 --> 00:18:46,000
boat was dragging on the bottom and I would need

328
00:18:46,039 --> 00:18:48,480
to get out and pull it. My partner would stay

329
00:18:48,480 --> 00:18:51,799
in the boat with the motor tipped up. I knew

330
00:18:51,839 --> 00:18:55,359
why I was there to face my fear. As I

331
00:18:55,400 --> 00:18:57,880
pulled the boat forward, I noticed a set of tracks

332
00:18:57,880 --> 00:19:02,519
ahead in the water, mud lifted from the tracks. These

333
00:19:02,559 --> 00:19:07,039
tracks were fresh, maybe a few minutes old. I reluctantly

334
00:19:07,079 --> 00:19:09,640
pulled the boat forward to inspect the tracks, holding my

335
00:19:09,799 --> 00:19:14,160
breath filled with fear. I reached the tracks and breathed

336
00:19:14,160 --> 00:19:15,960
a sigh of relief, and I yelled back to my

337
00:19:16,039 --> 00:19:19,319
fishing partner that it was only a bear. Imagine that

338
00:19:19,559 --> 00:19:23,200
it was just a bear. I should still have been afraid,

339
00:19:23,200 --> 00:19:27,240
but I was relieved. We finally got to the second

340
00:19:27,279 --> 00:19:30,400
lake to find very good fishing. We turned back and

341
00:19:30,480 --> 00:19:32,960
spent the remainder of the day fishing that lake that

342
00:19:33,079 --> 00:19:37,519
originally filled me with fear. The fishing was great. I

343
00:19:37,559 --> 00:19:41,880
had no feelings of fear, just caught a bunch of fish.

344
00:19:42,160 --> 00:19:44,359
I made four more trips to these lakes and never

345
00:19:44,440 --> 00:19:48,759
had another feeling of fear or dead silence. I was

346
00:19:48,799 --> 00:19:52,079
talking to my cousin's husband, and he proceeded to tell

347
00:19:52,119 --> 00:19:54,519
me a story that spun out of control and caused

348
00:19:54,599 --> 00:19:57,160
him to hurt his father in law. My uncle that

349
00:19:57,240 --> 00:20:01,599
had seen the swamp monsters today, he recognized them for

350
00:20:01,680 --> 00:20:06,799
what they were. They were bigfoots or sasquatches. My cousin's

351
00:20:06,880 --> 00:20:09,799
husband made a set of bigfoot prints and strapped them

352
00:20:09,839 --> 00:20:11,680
on to his feet and ran through the woods in

353
00:20:11,759 --> 00:20:15,519
the snow to my uncle's property. My uncle found the

354
00:20:15,559 --> 00:20:18,200
prince and ran inside and began to call all the neighbors.

355
00:20:18,720 --> 00:20:21,119
He told them to keep their children and pets inside

356
00:20:21,160 --> 00:20:23,599
because he had found bigfoot prints and there was one

357
00:20:23,599 --> 00:20:27,200
in the area. After he called all the neighbors, he

358
00:20:27,279 --> 00:20:29,640
called my cousin and told her what he had found.

359
00:20:30,319 --> 00:20:32,599
He explained that he had called all the neighbors and

360
00:20:32,680 --> 00:20:36,480
warned them. My cousin's husband heard the news and didn't

361
00:20:36,480 --> 00:20:39,319
know what to do. He said. My uncle never came

362
00:20:39,359 --> 00:20:43,519
over to their house for an unannounced visit. My cousin's

363
00:20:43,599 --> 00:20:46,119
husband was in the garage and still had the bigfoot

364
00:20:46,160 --> 00:20:50,160
tracks hanging on the wall. My uncle walked in and

365
00:20:50,240 --> 00:20:53,039
looked at the wooden feet with boots attached hanging on

366
00:20:53,079 --> 00:20:55,240
the wall, and looked at his son in law and

367
00:20:55,279 --> 00:20:58,519
didn't say a word. He simply turned around and walked

368
00:20:58,519 --> 00:21:02,960
away with a sad, broken lad on his face. Since

369
00:21:03,039 --> 00:21:05,599
my experiences, I have known there is something that I

370
00:21:05,640 --> 00:21:09,200
don't understand that is out there. In my younger days,

371
00:21:09,200 --> 00:21:11,640
I would travel deep into the woods to deer hunt,

372
00:21:11,839 --> 00:21:15,680
and I would stay well after dark. Sometimes I would

373
00:21:15,759 --> 00:21:18,279
make a kill at sunset and track and retrieve my

374
00:21:18,400 --> 00:21:22,200
kills after dark, with no fear, no feeling of uneasiness.

375
00:21:23,359 --> 00:21:27,440
But now I don't feel that way. I'm always uneasy

376
00:21:27,480 --> 00:21:31,480
after dark. I'm always looking over my shoulder if I

377
00:21:31,559 --> 00:21:33,839
make a kill at the end of the day. It

378
00:21:33,960 --> 00:21:37,039
is not pleasant to track and retrieve the kill after dark.

379
00:21:37,720 --> 00:21:40,119
I'm always looking over my shoulder, and, come to think

380
00:21:40,160 --> 00:21:43,480
of it, I rarely hunt alone. One day, I was

381
00:21:43,559 --> 00:21:45,880
hunting on my brother in law's property and I found

382
00:21:45,880 --> 00:21:48,519
some stones up in the woods stacked in a formation.

383
00:21:49,640 --> 00:21:52,839
I had heard stories of bigfoot and rock formations. I

384
00:21:52,960 --> 00:21:56,079
decided I would change the formation and spread them out.

385
00:21:56,440 --> 00:21:58,319
And I didn't think much of it, and I moved

386
00:21:58,319 --> 00:22:02,160
on hunted the property again and I walked by that

387
00:22:02,240 --> 00:22:05,200
spot and the rocks were stacked again. I thought, Wow,

388
00:22:05,240 --> 00:22:08,160
that's strange. Who would return the rocks to that formation?

389
00:22:09,160 --> 00:22:11,799
And I began to think if this could be a Sosquatch.

390
00:22:12,519 --> 00:22:15,319
I changed the formation, and I continued to hunt the

391
00:22:15,319 --> 00:22:18,240
property and change the formation every time I passed it,

392
00:22:18,319 --> 00:22:22,319
each time wondering what it could be. One night, after

393
00:22:22,400 --> 00:22:24,960
hunting with my daughter, we decided to stop and have

394
00:22:25,000 --> 00:22:27,319
a beer with my brother in law, and after a

395
00:22:27,400 --> 00:22:29,880
couple of beers, I told my brother in law, I'm

396
00:22:29,880 --> 00:22:32,119
starting to get a little freaked out about a rock

397
00:22:32,240 --> 00:22:36,079
formation that I'm finding on this property. I changed the

398
00:22:36,119 --> 00:22:39,279
formation every time I passed, and it always returns to

399
00:22:39,359 --> 00:22:43,000
the same formation. When I come back, he broke out

400
00:22:43,079 --> 00:22:45,759
laughing and he said, damn, that was you doing that.

401
00:22:46,519 --> 00:22:49,359
We marked our dog's grave with those rocks, and we

402
00:22:49,359 --> 00:22:51,960
were starting to get a little freaked out ourselves because

403
00:22:51,960 --> 00:22:56,119
something kept unstacking the rocks. Boy, did I feel stupid.

404
00:22:57,880 --> 00:23:00,440
This year, I was camping in the Adirondez and my

405
00:23:00,519 --> 00:23:03,200
son drove up to camp with us. He had made

406
00:23:03,200 --> 00:23:05,759
a plan to wake up about ten thirty pm and

407
00:23:05,839 --> 00:23:08,440
drive to White Face Mountain in the middle of the night.

408
00:23:09,440 --> 00:23:11,359
He planned to meet a couple of friends there and

409
00:23:11,440 --> 00:23:14,480
hike the mountain in the dark. The goal was to

410
00:23:14,480 --> 00:23:17,839
be at the top for sunrise. I thought this was

411
00:23:17,880 --> 00:23:21,440
a crazy idea. There was no cell phone reception there

412
00:23:21,559 --> 00:23:24,960
and no idea how to find the trailhead. Well, it

413
00:23:25,039 --> 00:23:27,240
took my GPS and I marked a route that I

414
00:23:27,279 --> 00:23:30,000
thought would take him to the trailhead, and off he

415
00:23:30,079 --> 00:23:33,519
went in the middle of the night. He returned the

416
00:23:33,559 --> 00:23:36,119
next day at three pm to my campsite, and he

417
00:23:36,160 --> 00:23:39,359
proceeded to talk about his height. It was amazing to

418
00:23:39,400 --> 00:23:42,240
watch the sunrise from the tip of White Face Mountain,

419
00:23:42,240 --> 00:23:45,519
he said, and that about halfway up the mountain they

420
00:23:45,599 --> 00:23:49,279
ran into an intense smell. He said, it smell like

421
00:23:49,359 --> 00:23:55,000
garbage and mixed with body odor. Oh, my gosh, these

422
00:23:55,640 --> 00:23:59,039
oh never mind, it's the descriptions of these odors. They

423
00:23:59,119 --> 00:24:02,640
catch me off guard and I start laughing. He writes,

424
00:24:02,680 --> 00:24:09,680
it was so strong that they imagine garbage and body odor. Oh,

425
00:24:09,720 --> 00:24:12,440
it's like some old bomb laying in a big pile

426
00:24:12,480 --> 00:24:15,279
of garbage. I don't know, laying in a garbage truck

427
00:24:15,359 --> 00:24:18,599
or something. Okay, I gotta get that out of my mind.

428
00:24:19,319 --> 00:24:21,240
It was so strong that they had to cover their

429
00:24:21,240 --> 00:24:25,960
face with a claw. The smell stayed with them the

430
00:24:26,000 --> 00:24:28,200
rest of the night, and when the sun rose, the

431
00:24:28,240 --> 00:24:31,480
smell went away. He said that on the return hike

432
00:24:31,559 --> 00:24:33,880
down the mountain, they found no trace of the smell.

433
00:24:34,480 --> 00:24:36,759
He asked me what I thought. I told him that

434
00:24:36,839 --> 00:24:40,400
I thought they were followed by a sisquatch. That was

435
00:24:40,440 --> 00:24:42,640
his thought too, and he just wanted to hear someone

436
00:24:42,680 --> 00:24:46,839
else confirm his thoughts. Later that night, I sat by

437
00:24:46,880 --> 00:24:50,039
my campfire, thinking I was possibly changing the rock pattern

438
00:24:50,079 --> 00:24:53,319
again by telling him it was sisquatch. I know there

439
00:24:53,359 --> 00:24:56,680
is something out there, but it is not behind every tree.

440
00:24:57,720 --> 00:25:00,920
And he signs the regards Charles Charles I'm sorry I

441
00:25:01,000 --> 00:25:03,359
laughed at your story, but I think you got a minute.

442
00:25:03,640 --> 00:25:07,039
I think you were probably laughing at the whole thing too. Now,

443
00:25:07,079 --> 00:25:09,599
this is a story I didn't edit. Normally, I get

444
00:25:09,599 --> 00:25:12,440
these stories in and I read through them and some

445
00:25:13,279 --> 00:25:18,200
lily hush, she's barking at a chicken. Sometimes it's like

446
00:25:18,319 --> 00:25:21,440
the order of things is a little out and I'll

447
00:25:21,440 --> 00:25:25,920
rearrange paragraphs. No, all you bigfoot purists, I don't change

448
00:25:26,000 --> 00:25:29,440
the stories. I don't write every story. I do make

449
00:25:29,480 --> 00:25:31,599
them where they sound good. I try to make them

450
00:25:31,599 --> 00:25:34,559
where they're easy to follow and good. But anyway, all

451
00:25:34,599 --> 00:25:37,319
that said, I didn't do that on this one. And

452
00:25:37,519 --> 00:25:40,720
in the middle there's some and I couldn't quite understand

453
00:25:40,720 --> 00:25:43,240
what was going on with the guy with the wooden

454
00:25:43,319 --> 00:25:47,319
bigfoot feet walking around. I couldn't quite tell what was

455
00:25:47,359 --> 00:25:49,920
going on in that part. Maybe you guys want to

456
00:25:49,960 --> 00:25:51,680
go back and listen to it, but I just read

457
00:25:51,720 --> 00:25:54,640
his letters straight off. I thought this was a good story,

458
00:25:54,640 --> 00:25:56,559
and I thought it would include. It was a good story.

459
00:25:56,640 --> 00:25:58,680
It was a really good story. So I hope you

460
00:25:58,680 --> 00:26:01,680
guys enjoyed it, and maybe all can figure out how

461
00:26:02,880 --> 00:26:07,880
his cousin or his cousin's husband. How that story went.

462
00:26:08,079 --> 00:26:11,640
Somebody saw bigfoot tracks, they went and warned all their neighbors.

463
00:26:11,759 --> 00:26:15,079
They found out that they were hoaxed, and they just

464
00:26:15,200 --> 00:26:17,640
hung their head and walked off. But I couldn't quite

465
00:26:17,720 --> 00:26:20,640
figure out how that fit in this whole story. But

466
00:26:20,680 --> 00:26:26,559
that doesn't matter. It's a real good story.

