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Speaker 1: My grandfather was born in nineteen hundred. It was a

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sad day in nineteen seventy five when the underlying issues

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that had plagued him his entire life finally caught up

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with him and he passed away. He was truly a

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good man before he died. He told me a story

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about when he and a friend of his were nine

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years old, as little boys were inclined to do back then,

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they had taken up a game of cowboys and Indians

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out behind a field, armed with homemade sling shots that

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were taking pot shots at just about anything that could

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draw a bead on. There was a daisy. Pop, Now

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it was a dead daisy. Oh look at that milkweed.

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Bang splattered milk everywhere. They carried on in this fashion,

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shooting and conquering everything in sight. They even took aim

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at a rock and it just ricocheted, But they congratulated

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of themselves on the fine effort. And then my grandfather

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saw the bushy tail of a squirrel sticking out from

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behind a tree, with eyes filled with the glint of

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mischief only a nine year old can muster. He loaded

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his trusty slingshot and pow, he nailed that pesky squirrel

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right in the backside. But it wasn't a squirrel, roar

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cried the squirrel with a deafening thunder as it stood

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up to over eight feet tall and stepped from behind

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the tree. What was worse is right next to the

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giant two legged squirrel was an identical giant two legged

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squirrel who looked just as angry. It's not a squirrel,

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It's not a squirrel, stammered my grandfather's friend, as the

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boy slowly began to back away, Run, screamed my grandfather,

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and they both turned, grabbed hold of the wind and scattered.

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My grandfather chose a route that took him straight to

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an old rickety two seater outhouse that he knew was

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on the property. He got inside and did his best

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to both the door before the creatures caught up with

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him and began to shake and rock the little building

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with all their might. Inside, my grandfather held on to

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the two holes as dirt and debris of the ages

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rained down on his head. He could smell the pit

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directly below him, but his fear of the two beings

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trying to tear down his only shelter outweighed his disgust

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He rattled and bounced around, losing and then regaining his grasp,

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feeling like every joint in his body was being jarred loose,

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until with an awful, moaning crack, the little house began

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to split apart. The plank of wood with the two

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holes gave way, first cracking and splitting before falling into

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the pit below, taking my grandfather right with it to

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eight feet into that hole, landing with a great kerkplop

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into the muck below. Darkness surrounded him as he sat

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quietly listening to the two bigfoot above. Suddenly he heard

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a muffled call from somewhere in the woods, and then

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there was silence. It felt like an eternity before he

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began his long climb back to the world. He grabbed

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at the roots and kicked his feet into the cold

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earth to make footholes, until he was finally standing back

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on the surface, surrounded by the splintered pile that was

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once an old outhouse, and to his great relief, the

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epe boys were gone. That was the day that my grandfather,

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God rest his soul, learned a big lesson on respect

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for others in the woods. I still have his smell.

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He slink shi.

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Speaker 2: Oh.

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Speaker 1: I did pretty good. I got through that without but

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it was coming up. I could feel it coming up,

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and I just kept reading. I kept reading, and that

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was such a good story, and I actually believe it.

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I don't know why. There's just something about this story

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that makes me believe it. Seventy five year old man

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was telling his granddaughter of this story way before Bigfoot

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was a big thing, and I think that's probably the

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thing that makes me believe this story. But wasn't that great?

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Could y'all love that story?

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Speaker 2: Man?

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Speaker 1: I did too, And thank you so much for sending this.

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Speaker 2: I am forty two now I'm a disabled VET. The

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area that I grew up in was a small town

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called cap Housen in Washington State, just outside of Eatonville.

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This area is heavily wooded and most of the industry

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is logging. There's a lake that I live close to

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called cap Housen Lake along an old railroad track them

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we would go about a mile down the tracks and

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the lake was on the left and there was a

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mud flat on the right where nothing grew. My best

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friend and myself decided we would go camping to go

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fishing early in the morning and the mud flat is

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where we set up our camp. I want you to

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understand that I knew these woods and the wildlife as

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I hunted and fished this area with my dad and

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my uncles since I was about six. I also hunted

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herbs and fruit with my mother when I was even younger.

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We were not rich people, so this was used to

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keep food on the table, so even at twelve, I

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was a fair to great woodsman, as most kids were

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that grew up in this town. Me and a friend

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set up our tent and built a rock circle for

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a fire and hung our cooler up in a tree.

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We went fishing until it got dark and came back

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to camp. We started a fire and cooked a few

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of the fish we had caught. As it was early

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spring mid April, just after my twelfth birthday, it got chilly,

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so we went to bed shortly after dark. Some time later,

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I woke up and had to get up and go pee.

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I got out of the tent and went over to

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a tree about twenty five feet from camp. As I

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was finishing up, I noticed someone looking at me across

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the mud flat about thirty feet away. It was light

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enough for me to see fairly well as the moon

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was up and the sky was clear, a rare thing

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in that area. And what was watching me was a

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female bigfoot. I know she saw me as she watched

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me move and followed me with her head. She had

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to be at least seven and a half foot tall.

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I could tell she was not looking to cause problems.

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She seemed to be interested in what I was or

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who I was. I was scared out of my skin,

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but my best friend was in the tent sound asleep,

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and the tent was only about ten feet from her.

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So I slowly went back to the tent and went

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in to wake up my friend as quietly as I could.

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I told him that bigfoot was outside, and he didn't

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believe me until he stuck his head out and was

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looking at her, and he froze. We put on our

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clothes as fast as we could and ran down to

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the tracks as fast as we could, leaving everything behind.

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We got to my house around three am. It takes

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about forty five minutes to walk there, and it was

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a lot less than that to get home, and ended

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up with my mom and dad away because we were

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both in a panic and made a lot of noise

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getting into the house. My Dad didn't believe me, but

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my mom said that many of my uncles said there

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were bigfoot out there, and she seemed to believe us.

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The next morning, Mom went with us boys, and we

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demanded that she bring a rifle just in case. We

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went back to the campsite and got our gearing was around,

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so we packed up fast, and then I brought Mom

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over to where the female bigfoot was and we found

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very clear tracks. I even tracked her a few feet

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into the woods. She had taken our fish on a

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liveline kept at the lake, and there were tracks there too.

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This spooked my mom too, so we got out of there.

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The rest of that year, I did not go into

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that area on the lake to go fishing, and did

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not go there actually for the next two years. This

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got me to looking this stuff up, and I learned

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how to make track casts, and I learned that the

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area was well known for this happening often, and even

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the natives talked about the big man that lived in

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the forest. If you fast forward a couple of years

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and going back to the lake, me and one of

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my cousins decided to spend the weekend on the island

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using a small canoe with fishing gear and a deer rifle.

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So we made camp and we were catching fish like

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crazy and made a fire and made up a few

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of the fish and some beans. Before we went to bed.

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We put our cooler in the canoe and tied it

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off and pushed it out into the water to keep

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the critters out of our food. We went to bed

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and in the middle of the night we heard a

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bunch of noise just outside of the tent and smelled

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this horrid smell, and we stuck our heads out with

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a thirty six leading the way. We didn't see anything,

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but something had moved our canoe. We pushed it back

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out into the water and went back to sleep. The

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next morning, we went looking for tracks and didn't find much,

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as it had rained hard just before daylight and the

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underbrush was very thick. We decided to look further out

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as there were better ground forty feet or so away

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from the camp, and that's when we saw him. He

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just stepped into the woods out of that clearing, so

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we tracked him, Having both a high powered rifle and

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my compound bow with us, we follow him to the

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log bridge, just an old growth tree that fell over,

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making a bridge to the mainland from the island, and

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that's when we got the best view. He was on

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a log just over midway past the middle heading to

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the land. He jumped off and ran through the clear

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cut area into the woods. My cousin just couldn't believe it,

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and we watched him leave in a fast manner. We

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had about fifty foot of clear area and we could

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see him very well. My cousin demanded that we leave.

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We were to spend the whole weekend there, and this

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was Saturday morning, but we went ahead and left early.

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We got home and told our parents. Mom knew I

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wouldn't make this stuff up, so she called my uncle.

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He was about as close to a mountain man as

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you could get in modern times, and I got him

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to help track this bigfoot. We were both on armed

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and we tracked it from our camp across the island

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to the clearcut and into the woods for about three miles.

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My uncle figured that it was long gone and we

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went home. After these sightings, I did not tell many people,

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as my dad thought I was full of it and

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I did not want to be ridiculed. My closest friends

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have been told this story and of course my family.

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I'm not a very good writer and English is not

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my first language, but I hope you can fully understand

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my email, and he signs off. A disabled US Army

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ranger and Jungle Warfare specialist RLC two, I'm fifty eight

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years old. I'm an Eagle Scout, a six year Army veteran,

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and former park ranger of thirteen years. I've had what

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I believe were several encounters with bigfoot. Some happened while

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I was camping with the Boys Scouts. One of those

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incidents I did not recognize as a sisquatch until last

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week when I heard about a bigfoot making a tree

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knock so loud it sounded like a shotgun. It brought

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back along forgotten memory. The times I spent with my

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former Boy Scout troop in central Florida are among the

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fondest memories of my youth. Most everyone in the troop

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had a nickname given by our peers. It was usually

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the result of some humorous or embarrassing incident. When I

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was fifteen, my nickname was sisquatch. I had gotten it

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when camping in the mountains of Northeast Georgia. We were

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chasing each.

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Speaker 1: Other around, and I was appearing on a hillside one

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moment and then reappearing elsewhere the next. They were getting

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only fleeting views of me as I moved quickly and

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quietly around them. After that, they called me Sisquatch. I

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was always good at hiding, ambushing, and sneaking up on people,

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and when I joined the Army, the wargames during training

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were the same. Thirty years ago, my Scout troop went

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to summer camp in Virginia in the Blue Ridge Mountains.

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I came along as an adult leader. I'd gotten out

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of the Army a few months before, so I was

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in great shape. There are a lot of Si Squat

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sightings in this part of the country, but I didn't

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know it at the time, and there was no internet

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to research sightings back then. Although this Scout camp was

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in the mountains, most of the hiking trails went through

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thick patches of bushes and rhododendrons that blocked the scenery.

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I caught a flu bug on the way up to camp.

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Although I thought I'd be okay on the trail, after

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the first day, I got so slow and dizzy on

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the trail that I had to return to base camp.

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We were two miles up a rocky road, so after

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working out our plans with the troop, I went back

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down alone with my backpack. They must have had great

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faith in my ability to make make it back. Once there,

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I spent the day resting in a typical big eight

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foot by eight foot green canvas tent. It was the

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middle of the week, so with most of the scouts

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out on the trail, most of the tents were vacant.

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One boy, who was too young to handle the heavy backpacking,

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had stayed behind to do other activities. His name was Bob.

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I was so sick that I didn't see much of Bob,

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even though he was only two tenths away from me.

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He was the last tint on the road, tucked into

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the corner by the edge of the woods. The bushes

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started at his back door. That evening, after resting, I

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was eating my freeze dried supper at a picnic table

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outside my tent. My fever felt like it had broken,

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and I felt nearly recovered. There was no moon that night.

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It was pitch blackout. A nearby deer gave a loud,

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huffing snort, and I jumped at the sound, but recognized

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it immediately, I just laughed at myself and I went

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back to eating. I was unaware of anything else that

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had happened that night until many years later, when I

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reconnected with Bob on Facebook. By now he was a

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full grown man and had a family of his own.

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He told me that night, while he was in his tent,

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someone had been walking around outside in the nearby bushes.

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He'd always thought it was me because of my reputation

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for sneaking up on people to scare them, but I

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assured him that I had been in my tent that night,

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sound asleep. Bob eventually concluded that it was a bigfoot

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he'd heard that night. The following night, I would have

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my own encounter, but it has taken me nearly thirty

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years to figure out what it was. The next morning,

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I was feeling well enough to rejoin the troop on

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the trail in the mountains. That night, the troop was

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camping on a hilltop with an obstructed view of the ridgeline.

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It was an open area by a power line easement,

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with the electrical lines buzzing all night. I've since been

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told that sisquatch is known to travel along power line easements,

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but I was unaware of that. At the time. I

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was pretty sure we were at the edge of the

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Scout reservation property because I had seen a house earlier.

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I set up my tent at the edge of the

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power line field bordering the woods and settled in for

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the night. Well around midnight, I woke to the sounds

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of someone sneaking up to our campsite in the woods.

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Years of scouting in my military experience had taught me

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to tell the difference between four legged and two legged animals,

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and this was definitely on two legs. It sounded and

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behaved just like I would when I was sneaking up

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on someone. I remembered the house I had seen earlier

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and decided it must be a hillbilly wandering over to

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check us out. I really wasn't concerned. He may have

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been out night hunting and stumbled on our camp by mistake.

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Maybe he was trying to bag a raccoon. Regardless, I

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was impressed since he didn't seem to have a flashlight

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and I had to answer nature's call, so I figured

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i'd get out of the tent and I shined my

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flashlight around. And then he'd realized his mistake and he'd

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go away. It never occurred to me that it might

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not be a man. I was watering a nearby tree

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a few feet from my tent door when I heard

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a loud crack and the guy began running away a

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lot faster than I think I could have. The crack

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was so loud that it sounded just like a shotgun.

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It got my heart pounding, but the guy ran away

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and it was over as soon as it started. Mainly,

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I was impressed that the guy moved so quickly on

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a moonless night without running into a tree. He must

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have been familiar with the area, I thought, because I

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knew if I'd tried that, I'd have knocked myself out

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cold on the first tree that got in my way.

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The next morning, I asked the others if they'd heard

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the noises, but nobody had. It seemed odd, since I

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was sure it was a shotgun that should have woken

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up the whole camp. At that point, I still believed

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it was a hillbilly, but still no one else heard

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it nor seemed to believe me, and I dropped the

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subject and I forgot about it. Nearly thirty years passed

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before I heard the story from the guy who said

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the Sasquatch made a tree knock that sounded like a

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shotgun blast, and the memory came flooding back. Looking back,

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I find it pretty amazing that my troop had two

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bigfoot encounters in one trip and didn't recognize either one.

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I know of no other bigfoot encounters at this scout camp,

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and there have never been any reports of missing people

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there that I know of. My guess is the local

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Sasquatch are just curious about the scouts passing through the area,

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playing their games and chasing each other around and doing

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their usual goofy things. Probably makes for hours of entertainment

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for the Sosquatch. Back when I was fourteen or fifteen

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years old in the early seventies, we lived on State

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Route fifty two in what is called the Gap of

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the Ridge area in Macon County, Tennessee. Back then, I

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spent every free moment I could in the woods, especially

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in the summer when there was no school. It was

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on one of those summer days that I had been

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out hunting groundhogs and enjoying being in the woods more

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than I was joining the actual hunting. It was getting dark,

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so I decided to head for home. I walked to

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an old logging road that wound around and up the

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hill to the highway, and as I turned to start

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up the hill, I heard something running from behind me

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and to my left. I spun around to see what

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was coming. It was dark, solid color, human like thing

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ran from behind a wild rose bush and crossed an

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open area in a stooped or crouched position. The creature,

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I call it a creature because at the time I

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had not heard of bigfoot, ran all the way across

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the clearing, into the woods on the opposite side, and

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down into a draw where I lost sight of it.

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I could still hear it though, as it crashed through

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the wood, snapping branches and breaking saplings. As it ran,

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the hair stood up all over my body. As I

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watched and listened to the destructive power of that thing,

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I wasted no time getting up on the logging road

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to the top of the hill. There, I turned back

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one more time, fired my twenty two rifle into the

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air before yelling and running for home. Two hundred yards away.

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The next day, I went back to where I had

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seen the creature. The wild rose bush where it had

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emerged was six feet tall, stooped over like it was.

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The creature was the same height, so I estimated it

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to be seven and a half to eight feet all

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standing up. That was the only time I've ever seen it,

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but I've heard sounds at night that I am sure

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came from that creature. A few years after my sighting,

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I was walking in the same woods one night. All

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around me were the normal sounds of crickets, chirping, frogs, croaking,

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an occasional night bird, and suddenly I realized everything had

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gone quiet. I stopped in my tracks and I listened

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for a moment. I began to hear the crunching of

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dried leaves. As it got louder and closer, I recognized

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the distinct pattern of a bipedal footstep coming from the

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hill above me. It kept walking, and I kept listening

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until the sound got fainter and I eventually couldn't hear

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it at all. Immediately the night woods returned, and I

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decided it was time for me to go home. Years later,

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in the nineteen nineties, I was visiting my mom and

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dad one evening with my wife and kids. I smoked

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at the time, so I stepped out on the back

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porch to have a cigarette. As I stood there, I

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heard a sound from across the haller that was like

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some sort of language. It was almost like a samurai

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warrior talking, with the grunts and growls thrown in to

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break up the sentences. At the time, I had no

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idea what I was hearing. Then one night a few

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months later, I was listening to Art Bell's show on

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the radio. He had a guest on who was talking

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about recording bigfoot languages. When he played the recording, it

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was the same thing I heard that night in my

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mom and dad's backyard. Most recently, though I didn't see

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or hear anything, I found evidence of them being in

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the area I currently live, about twelve miles from where

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I had my other experiences. I was walking on an

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old logging road that serves as a driveway to my

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neighbor's summerhouse when they're up from Florida, and while walking,

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I observed a fifteen foot tall seedar tree that had

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been twisted until it broke halfway up the trunk, with

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the twisted part hanging down. I assume a bigfoot did

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this to market its territory and to send a message

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to me or another Bigfoot to tread lightly. I got

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the message loud and clear. Well, those are my experiences.

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Feel free to use my name and thank you