Speaker 1: Welcome to Big for Society. If you have bigfoot activity
Speaker 1: to report from the same areas discussed in this episode,
Speaker 1: please reach out to me directly after this episode. And
Speaker 1: if you'd like to be on the podcast to discuss
Speaker 1: a personal bigfoot encounter, please reach out to me directly
Speaker 1: at Bigfoot Society at gmail dot com. Do you wish
Speaker 1: there was more Big for Society to listen to every week?
Speaker 1: Well there is now. If you become a supporting member
Speaker 1: over at Patreon, you get a special members only episode
Speaker 1: every single week on Wednesdays, and sometimes even more episodes.
Speaker 1: Head on over to patreon dot com. Forward slash the
Speaker 1: big for Society, and now let's get on with the show.
Speaker 1: All right, Bigfoot Society, You've got the privilege of talking
Speaker 1: to Jeff today. Jeff is an individual that reached out
Speaker 1: to me after I had requested to see if anyone
Speaker 1: had had bigfoot encounters in the Chattahoochee National Forest. He
Speaker 1: reached out through email wanting to share something that had
Speaker 1: happened to him, and we've already been talking in the
Speaker 1: pre interview a little bit in side like it was
Speaker 1: a pretty traumatic experience. So welcome to the show. Jeff
Speaker 1: how's it going today.
Speaker 2: Thank you.
Speaker 3: It's an honor to be on your show, Jeremiah. I
Speaker 3: appreciate it.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Thank you. I appreciate that as as well.
Speaker 1: You know, Jeff, I'm going to say, if there's anything
Speaker 1: that you would like the listeners to know about you
Speaker 1: for contact wise, feel free to share that as well.
Speaker 1: But I will go ahead and give the floor over
Speaker 1: to you and feel free to take us back to
Speaker 1: when this all happened.
Speaker 2: I'll start with the context of my background.
Speaker 3: I mean, I grew up in the wilderness, a lot
Speaker 3: at chaffelt of backwater basin.
Speaker 2: When I was younger.
Speaker 3: My parents had we had one hundred and eighteen acres,
Speaker 3: and our neighbors had a thousand or more acres of
Speaker 3: small playing and remote wilderness. So I spent a lot
Speaker 3: of time as a youth in the woods in the Chaffelaya,
Speaker 3: and then obviously meandered on later in my career that
Speaker 3: I would go to remote places. I was a paramedica
Speaker 3: in New Orleans for eleven years, and then I got,
Speaker 3: you know, burned out with after Hurricane Katrina and the
Speaker 3: Horizon spill, and went on to to just go do
Speaker 3: international safety, which is what a lot of my medical
Speaker 3: bodies do. And I had a partner that you know,
Speaker 3: brought me over to Africa, and I was working as
Speaker 3: a company manager. So I got to see all different
Speaker 3: types of wilderness creatures, you know, lions up in Yon
Speaker 3: Carry Game Reserve. I went four times into the game reserve,
Speaker 3: so I got to see elephants, and I got to
Speaker 3: see all different types of animals, and I got to
Speaker 3: learn about, you know, the primates. I was, you know, naturally,
Speaker 3: when you're in Africa, you're curious about those kind of animals.
Speaker 3: And you find out that the guerrillas aren't just in
Speaker 3: the Vangi or in the mountains areas. They're all over.
Speaker 3: They have lowland guerrillas. When I went down toward the
Speaker 3: areas of Abraca in the southern part of Nigeria and
Speaker 3: southwestern and northeastern part of Nigeria's it, I traveled a
Speaker 3: lot around Africa, and like I said, I've done a
Speaker 3: lot of international work Indonesia. I got to see a
Speaker 3: lot of different animals, species and all of that. I
Speaker 3: never seen anything like I saw in the in the
Speaker 3: Chattahoochee that was that was something I guess I'll start
Speaker 3: that we ended up moving up here in twenty twenty
Speaker 3: into into the Appalachian southern Southern Appalachian Mountains up in the.
Speaker 2: Northwestern part of Georgia.
Speaker 3: And one of the things that caught my eye was,
Speaker 3: I was I had saw I was working on a
Speaker 3: project at the time. I was right now on a
Speaker 3: project and I saw your your presentation about northwest Georgia,
Speaker 3: and it was like, oh my goodness. I said, I
Speaker 3: had this this experience up there on the Yellow Mountain Trail,
Speaker 3: and I guess I'll just go go from there with that.
Speaker 2: Jeremiah.
Speaker 3: It was June eleventh, twenty twenty two, and I was, you.
Speaker 2: Know, there was a lot.
Speaker 3: I was working on a project, A lot was going on,
Speaker 3: and typically what I do is I just take a break.
Speaker 3: Me and a wife had been had been talking in
Speaker 3: the morning about some things, and you know, I kind
Speaker 3: of ed said, look, I need a break from from
Speaker 3: this and I'm going to go for a walking on
Speaker 3: a trail. And I've done this, you know, thousands of times.
Speaker 3: It's nothing I haven't done before. And there's been some
Speaker 3: times when I get out there, when I get out
Speaker 3: on especially these beautiful Appalachian mountains, you know, the wildlife,
Speaker 3: the scenery, the peacefulness of everything. I'll stay out there,
Speaker 3: you know, almost still dark, and sometimes I've got my
Speaker 3: butt shewed by my wife for being a little too late, you.
Speaker 2: Know, and my mother in law and father in law.
Speaker 3: But what happened was I went out on a new
Speaker 3: trail and I broke all the rules. And I should
Speaker 3: have known better, because I mean, part of my career
Speaker 3: doing paramedica and doing consultation work for some of these
Speaker 3: old companies was teaching them about seeing a wearing and
Speaker 3: scene safety and those kind of things.
Speaker 2: So I went up there.
Speaker 3: This was supposed to be a you probably heard this before,
Speaker 3: supposed to be a thirty minute walk.
Speaker 2: Just go do a walk on this trail. Figured i'd
Speaker 2: go up.
Speaker 3: To the peak of a yellow mountain and come back down.
Speaker 3: And I got I got out there, and I didn't
Speaker 3: bring my day back with me. I didn't bring any
Speaker 3: water because it was just gonna be a quick hike
Speaker 3: cup And I got on the trail and I found
Speaker 3: weirdly enough, I got to the top and I find
Speaker 3: this this little cairn at the at the top. The
Speaker 3: trail doesn't have doesn't get partly any activity, which was
Speaker 3: kind of curious for me too, because it's like, wow,
Speaker 3: this is like people don't really come out here all
Speaker 3: that much. And then you look at the designage of
Speaker 3: the places kind of kind of run down and broken
Speaker 3: off and that kind of stuff.
Speaker 2: So I, you know, just said.
Speaker 3: Well, I thought it was a great experience to be
Speaker 3: able to see, you know, these ancient trees in this.
Speaker 2: Particular area I was at. So I went down.
Speaker 3: Past ADDIE's Gap and went into what they called Chestnut Mountain,
Speaker 3: and I'd found these beautiful waterfalls and the cave systems
Speaker 3: and everything, and was having a pretty great adventure. I
Speaker 3: found these towering blueberry bushes and you know, waterfalls, like
Speaker 3: I'd said, the cave systems, and then I said, well,
Speaker 3: I've started realizing I'd been out there more than thirty minutes,
Speaker 3: and the wife would get concerned. So I turned back
Speaker 3: around to go back up, and I don't know how
Speaker 3: it happened to this day. I still get clowned about
Speaker 3: it from the family because I'm usually not want to,
Speaker 3: you know.
Speaker 2: Make a mistake like that.
Speaker 3: But I came back up and was going down the
Speaker 3: trail and started walking and said, I figured, all right,
Speaker 3: I'm going back over passing the cairn, I'm going back down.
Speaker 3: And I got on the trail and realized these trees
Speaker 3: didn't look the same and the forest didn't look the same,
Speaker 3: and I realized that I was going in the wrong
Speaker 3: direction of where I had originally came from, and so
Speaker 3: I went back around. And of course where I'm at
Speaker 3: up there, there's no phone services nowhere for me to
Speaker 3: look at my topographical map or anything like that. So
Speaker 3: I said, okay, I'll just go back around this way.
Speaker 3: But what I have experienced before in the Appalachian Forest was,
Speaker 3: you know, when you get on a trail, out of
Speaker 3: your trail out if you go for days. So it
Speaker 3: was like a little concerned at the time, but not
Speaker 3: overly concerned. So I came back up around, and I
Speaker 3: don't know how, I zigged and then zagged back across
Speaker 3: these trails for about about another hour, and I was realizing,
Speaker 3: how you know.
Speaker 2: Starting to get a little.
Speaker 3: Bit more concerned, and then I finally figured out a
Speaker 3: way to get to a steep enbank and came back
Speaker 3: around to the sub what I would I would find
Speaker 3: out later on, was the southern part of Cooper's Creek,
Speaker 3: and it was getting to be dark, and I was like,
Speaker 3: oh boy, I'm really going to get it for being
Speaker 3: being late now. And I followed what I thought was
Speaker 3: a path that was going to bring me right out,
Speaker 3: and it wasn't. It was another hour and a half
Speaker 3: before I actually reached down near a seldom used forestry road,
Speaker 3: like just an offshoot. And by this time I was like, okay,
Speaker 3: it's getting to be about ten o'clock. The moon's coming up.
Speaker 3: I'm really like starting to feel it now. I'm like,
Speaker 3: oh boy, I don't really done a number here, but
Speaker 3: at least I found the forestry road, and where I
Speaker 3: was at I made the mistake of thinking I was
Speaker 3: going north, which is going to bring me back up
Speaker 3: to Multi Gap Road, and I had another at least
Speaker 3: six seven miles to walk to get to where my
Speaker 3: vehicle was and and where Yellow Mountain was up on
Speaker 3: the Duncan Ridge. So what ended up happening was I
Speaker 3: made the mistake and went south and ended up going
Speaker 3: right into the Southern Port, heading toward Morganton and such as,
Speaker 3: and not even realizing it, and you know, it was
Speaker 3: ten o'clock at night, I was on my my third
Speaker 3: I was I was heading I realized where it was
Speaker 3: by this time, because I recognized that one of the
Speaker 3: forest rills me and my wife had taken near Cooper's Creek.
Speaker 3: And then I crossed past the creek and kept going,
Speaker 3: and I just figured, all right, I'll just meet it
Speaker 3: out here, final phone seeing, and I'll just call and
Speaker 3: get get my you know, get my wife or somebody
Speaker 3: in the family to come pick me up, you know,
Speaker 3: and I'll have a lot of explaining to me once
Speaker 3: I get home.
Speaker 2: So so around the first.
Speaker 3: Bend, I didn't, I didn't there. It was very well moonlight,
Speaker 3: and you could see, you know, you could hear water,
Speaker 3: you know, gurgling in the in the nearby creek to
Speaker 3: my right. You could see they where it was inclining
Speaker 3: up into the mountains to my left, and you could
Speaker 3: see animals obviously moving around in the forest, you know,
Speaker 3: which is quite common there with where I was at.
Speaker 3: So I was making my second turn and not thinking
Speaker 3: of it, and just wanted to just get on out
Speaker 3: of the woods, trying to conserve my battery, not using
Speaker 3: my light and just using the moon light.
Speaker 2: When I made the.
Speaker 3: Third bind, I saw a shadow or something go across
Speaker 3: the road, and I just took it to be either
Speaker 3: a deer or a bear or just you know, because
Speaker 3: that's they're quite common around here.
Speaker 2: And and didn't think none of it.
Speaker 3: And a weird thing had happened just before I got
Speaker 3: made that third bind. There was and I was still
Speaker 3: in my head thinking that I'll you know that that
Speaker 3: I was heading toward Mulky Branch and then I'll just
Speaker 3: get on Mulki Branch got roaded and I saw an
Speaker 3: offshoot trail and it was a fork in the road,
Speaker 3: and it was you know, something said, you know, don't
Speaker 3: take that that particular trail, so I was gonna take it.
Speaker 3: I was thinking, well, maybe I'll just take a short cut.
Speaker 3: I'll cut out all this this extra distance and I'll
Speaker 3: be able to across through the woods and up on
Speaker 3: the other side over there. But I decided not to
Speaker 3: A good thing I didn't because it was on the
Speaker 3: third bend that I was coming that.
Speaker 2: Something just below me on that.
Speaker 3: Particular trail, which was right next to us until some
Speaker 3: kind of a creek or some kind of waterway at
Speaker 3: the time, something moved and I didn't think.
Speaker 2: I first, you know, it moved.
Speaker 3: I didn't think much of it, but it stomped, and
Speaker 3: when it stopped, it shook and it shook the ground,
Speaker 3: and I was like, goodness, that's a big bear, you know.
Speaker 3: That's the way I was thinking. Was still wasn't thinking
Speaker 3: anything else but bear or something big, you know, Except
Speaker 3: it stomped again, and I said, wait, it's not on
Speaker 3: four legs, it's on two. And it shook the ground again,
Speaker 3: and it's you know, kind of I was like, at
Speaker 3: this point, I'm like the way they's getting a little closer,
Speaker 3: and it ain't scared, So I'm gonna holler at it
Speaker 3: and holler bear. So hey bear, Hey bear. And I
Speaker 3: made fun of people all the time about this, Oh yeah,
Speaker 3: that's going to stop a bear. But I hollered again,
Speaker 3: and I mean I hollered loud man, I mean I
Speaker 3: usually I let my voice go it, you know. And
Speaker 3: it kept moving forward, not even phased at what I
Speaker 3: was doing, and I said, this is one big animal
Speaker 3: that's that's not scared of people.
Speaker 2: So I said, okay, well we're just going to go
Speaker 2: around and just mose.
Speaker 3: I almost thought about running back, and I said that
Speaker 3: would have probably been a bad idea.
Speaker 2: So at this.
Speaker 3: Point, it kept coming forward and I just man, I
Speaker 3: didn't know what to think, so at for a moment there,
Speaker 3: I clicked my light on and shined my light up,
Speaker 3: and when I did, there was a group of trees.
Speaker 2: It's just like yesterday. There was some laurel bushes.
Speaker 3: There was a sweet shrub bush right in there, right
Speaker 3: next to the road system, and then there was a
Speaker 3: it was a dumb tree, I guess. And this hand
Speaker 3: comes up and breaks a branch right right above me,
Speaker 3: and I'm like, and the first thing is it's a hand.
Speaker 2: That that that freaked me out right off the back.
Speaker 3: The second thing that freaked me out about it was
Speaker 3: the height of the hand from the base of where
Speaker 3: it was coming from. You know, it was if I
Speaker 3: had to guess, I mean, just an estimate, the branch
Speaker 3: from the road to the to the top had been
Speaker 3: at least from where I was gathering. From from where
Speaker 3: this thing was standing, it would be at least eight
Speaker 3: to nine feet. And I was like freaked out already.
Speaker 3: But then it was you know, I'm thinking Paul, expecting Paul,
Speaker 3: not hand, and it was a primate hand, and it
Speaker 3: was the biggest thing I ever saw in my life.
Speaker 3: And I've seen guerrillas before, man zoos out in the wild,
Speaker 3: you name it. And when I saw that, I ain't
Speaker 3: gonna lie to you, I paniced. I ran like I ran,
Speaker 3: Like I tell people all the time. I ran like
Speaker 3: the devil. Hi stuff was chasing me, and I ran
Speaker 3: and I didn't. I did not look back, And I
Speaker 3: tell you that was the the I think. By the
Speaker 3: time I finished running, almost almost tripped over a to
Speaker 3: a box turtle on the way heading out, I didn't
Speaker 3: even the whole time. I kept thinking this thing was
Speaker 3: gonna probably jump out and come after me. But I
Speaker 3: was scared to death.
Speaker 2: Man.
Speaker 3: I ain't never been scared of any animal in my life.
Speaker 3: But when you see something like that, now that size,
Speaker 3: in that setting, and you're by yourself, and there's I
Speaker 3: had nothing, no weapon of any sword, and I don't
Speaker 3: I don't even think a gun would have done.
Speaker 2: Anything to this. But by the time I'd finished running,
Speaker 2: I didn't stop. I mean, IM was heaving.
Speaker 3: By the time I must have gone ten ten at
Speaker 3: least ten miles from when I gathered just he even dry,
Speaker 3: even you know, throat feeling like I had sandpaper in
Speaker 3: it because I was exhausted. But I kept kept on
Speaker 3: up on hiking through and running, and I finally came
Speaker 3: out into an open area, an open field, and I
Speaker 3: opened it looked like an open pasture where there was
Speaker 3: moonlight and there's mountains all around, pine covered mountains. And
Speaker 3: I looked over to my left and realized i'd shine
Speaker 3: my light up because I couldn't really see it. But
Speaker 3: I saw a sign and the science showed that Cooper's
Speaker 3: Creek Wildlife Management Area. So I was like, WHOA, I said,
Speaker 3: how in the heck did I get this far? And
Speaker 3: I didn't even at the time, I didn't realize it,
Speaker 3: but I had come out out near Morganton and such as,
Speaker 3: which was way way far from where I, you know,
Speaker 3: from where I was at and you know, from my
Speaker 3: from my hometown. And when ended up happening, it was
Speaker 3: I don't know how to how to explain the rest
Speaker 3: of it. That I came out there still was no
Speaker 3: phone signal. It was the creepiest, eeriest feeling, you know,
Speaker 3: realizing after I got my wind that that where I
Speaker 3: was at was, you know, it still had me creaked
Speaker 3: out that there might be things still out there coming
Speaker 3: and I just kept on moving. But there was a
Speaker 3: beautiful church, uh beautiful Appalachian church down and I saw
Speaker 3: a sign which kind of to me that hasn't The
Speaker 3: word providence has a dual meaning for me now. Providence
Speaker 3: for me means you know, with with with my writing
Speaker 3: and all this, you know, you know, the home of
Speaker 3: Heart Phillips Lovecraft. But also for me, Providence is that church,
Speaker 3: that moonlit night where I got to come out and
Speaker 3: see this sign in this place and finally get some
Speaker 3: semblance and then get back to civilization. But totally freaked out.
Speaker 3: Well what I still trying to process even even now.
Speaker 3: And I got to to the to an asphalt wrote
Speaker 3: about half an hour later, and I almost made a
Speaker 3: mistake and was going to go south again when I
Speaker 3: went said no, no, no, I'm going this. I'm going right
Speaker 3: to start of the north, and I managed about about
Speaker 3: fifteen twenty minutes later, I managed to get a text
Speaker 3: to my my very very worried wife, and it was
Speaker 3: almost one in the morning, and man, I found the first,
Speaker 3: I hate to say, the well in the woods when
Speaker 3: I had gotten the hydro when I was getting turned around,
Speaker 3: i'd drink some of the spring water up there and
Speaker 3: it was the finest.
Speaker 2: Like I told Dave, Maccara when I.
Speaker 3: Reported to him a couple of days later, the water
Speaker 3: up here was the best water I ever drank in
Speaker 3: my life. And then I said, you know, and then
Speaker 3: and down and then waiting for my family was probably
Speaker 3: one of the creepiest things I ever had to do,
Speaker 3: waiting for somebody to come and get me.
Speaker 2: And I was I wasn't going to report.
Speaker 3: Because I was embarrassed more than anything getting lost and
Speaker 3: then running into you know, I run into an obviously bigfoot.
Speaker 3: I was embarrassed on on that. But then you know,
Speaker 3: I'm still you know, trying to process it all. And
Speaker 3: my daughter at the time, Caitlin, had had kept in,
Speaker 3: you know, telling me, I need I need to report
Speaker 3: I need to report this. I need to report it
Speaker 3: to the to the to the Bigfoot place, which is
Speaker 3: just down the road from us. And that's when I called.
Speaker 3: And I you know, at the time, I didn't know
Speaker 3: how I was gonna approach it. But mister Dave was
Speaker 3: the day of care, was was great. The way he
Speaker 3: actually it was kind of a funny thing, Jeremi. He
Speaker 3: he starts with, oh, so you saw faral people, and
Speaker 3: I went like they got fair of people like I
Speaker 3: freaked out. I was like, you got fair of people
Speaker 3: out of here, which I have to seeing a big foot.
Speaker 3: I mean, I mean, I'm open for anything these days, man.
Speaker 3: But that's pretty much the extent of what happened. It
Speaker 3: took me, I guess it must have taken well after
Speaker 3: getting I got my butte about the family they really
Speaker 3: torn to me. But uh, it took me about it. It
Speaker 3: took me a couple of weeks to get my knees hurt,
Speaker 3: my body eight and and all of that. And then
Speaker 3: once we might mean the father in law said down
Speaker 3: it had been at least it must have. I must
Speaker 3: have checked at least twenty seven miles zig zagging back
Speaker 3: and forth across the mountains, and you know, totally trying
Speaker 3: to figure out where I was to get out of
Speaker 3: get out of there. But just you know, simple goofy
Speaker 3: mistakes like that, you know, and you get you turned around.
Speaker 3: But never, in my wildest means I think I was
Speaker 3: going to run into something like that out there.
Speaker 2: Man.
Speaker 1: That is such a fascinating story. It's also a great
Speaker 1: cautionary tale. It is something that you know, people will say, yes,
Speaker 1: you know, we hear stuff like that. You know what
Speaker 1: could happen even if you're only going out for half
Speaker 1: an hour. Make sure you got a day pack. That's
Speaker 1: what I try to do myself. You never ever know
Speaker 1: what you could get yourself into. And I think you're probably,
Speaker 1: you know, one of the luckiest guys in a while
Speaker 1: down there that nothing did happen to you and you
Speaker 1: were able to get to get back, So yeah, good
Speaker 1: for you.
Speaker 2: Man.
Speaker 1: Regarding the hand that you saw that was about eight
Speaker 1: to nine feet up, were there certain details that you
Speaker 1: first saw that made you think, oh, this is some
Speaker 1: kind of huge primate hand up here.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: The nail color and the decreases, that's what what threw me.
Speaker 3: And then obviously the hair. The hair was more like
Speaker 3: you know what I'm saying, I mean, gorilla handed. It's
Speaker 3: just it just blew my mind. It was like, let
Speaker 3: me wait up. You know, I'm thinking bear claw, you know,
Speaker 3: bear scratching on a blog or whatever, and he's just
Speaker 3: you're not gonna be bothered with me. That's the first
Speaker 3: thing that got me. The fact that it cracked a
Speaker 3: branch that was about four inches four inches in diameter,
Speaker 3: like it was like it was a toothpick, like you
Speaker 3: and I would crack a little stick for kindle, and
Speaker 3: that's what got me right, and all of that. And
Speaker 3: it wasn't claws, you know that I was expecting claws,
Speaker 3: you know, I figured I was estimating. I was figuring, mind,
Speaker 3: it's gonna be about eight hundred pounds or you know,
Speaker 3: black bear or something, because this is black bear all
Speaker 3: over the place around here. And when it wasn't claws,
Speaker 3: and then it was nails that that that threw me.
Speaker 3: And then obviously the reddish grayish colored fur on the
Speaker 3: on the hand that that wasn't you know that That's
Speaker 3: what was like, you know, like if you took the
Speaker 3: easiest way to describe with somewhat like a ranguting but
Speaker 3: not quite you had like you could tell that it's
Speaker 3: more of a used to a mountainous kind of a climate,
Speaker 3: you know what I'm saying. It's the best way I
Speaker 3: could describe it, more of a the color slightly reddish,
Speaker 3: but then it had color colors of brownish gray in
Speaker 3: it too. That was that was another thing. But as
Speaker 3: far as the sea in the eyes or any of that.
Speaker 3: And I saw when I saw the hand, that was
Speaker 3: enough for me. And I mean I caught thinking back
Speaker 3: a couple of days after, it was like, all right,
Speaker 3: I did see the silhouette, but I didn't. They were
Speaker 3: talking about grunts and groans and all of that, and
Speaker 3: the smell. I didn't catch any of that, and that
Speaker 3: might be from where it was located.
Speaker 2: That was blowing.
Speaker 3: But man, I still think, man, if I'd have went
Speaker 3: on that Fort trail, what would have happened if I'd
Speaker 3: have ran into that thing?
Speaker 2: Because there's nothing there was, you know.
Speaker 3: You know, there's those moments when you realize there's nothing
Speaker 3: you would have been able to do, you know, and
Speaker 3: it makes.
Speaker 2: Me go back.
Speaker 3: And I started researching, like, did not David Poliita stuff
Speaker 3: after that, and it made me start wondering, well, well,
Speaker 3: if you run.
Speaker 2: Into something like that out there and it's.
Speaker 3: Decided, well today you're on the menu, you know, And
Speaker 3: I don't know if it's on you know, I don't
Speaker 3: know if it's omnivore or what.
Speaker 2: I know. It broke a branch like it was a toothpage.
Speaker 2: It was. Man, it took me two years to go
Speaker 2: back in the woods.
Speaker 1: Brother, Oh wow, is that the woods in general or
Speaker 1: just this one area of woods that you wouldn't go
Speaker 1: back in for two years.
Speaker 2: Just that particular area, that particular area.
Speaker 3: And actually, to be honest with you, if I'm gonna
Speaker 3: be honest, I mean as far as like remote force,
Speaker 3: I haven't know. I didn't go back in I made
Speaker 3: I may didn't make a trick. About a year ago,
Speaker 3: I did.
Speaker 2: I went on.
Speaker 3: I drove back up to the top of Duncan. Me
Speaker 3: and my father in law were up there, and you know,
Speaker 3: so I wasn't alone that time, but that we drove
Speaker 3: up and we were just looking at one of the
Speaker 3: local creeks.
Speaker 2: But that was it.
Speaker 3: As far as like remote, I haven't been back in there,
Speaker 3: you know. And I try to make a drive to
Speaker 3: a yellow mountain in this park and just listen, you know,
Speaker 3: And but that was it. Yeah, it's carried me. It
Speaker 3: spooked me for a while. It spooked me for a while.
Speaker 3: I'll tell you that much. For God, it goes out,
Speaker 3: It goes out in the woods all the time.
Speaker 2: Like I do.
Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely, now going into the woods. Now, do you
Speaker 1: find yourself preparing differently when you go on day hikes
Speaker 1: like that?
Speaker 3: Absolutely? Absolutely? If I go on, but I don't, we don't.
Speaker 3: The last time I made a made it, we made
Speaker 3: an attempt. We have the seventy acre park nearby, so
Speaker 3: that that's plenty of fun for me these days.
Speaker 2: It's got the river and all of that.
Speaker 3: But if I do make any type if I'll go
Speaker 3: with and I'm using going with somebody now, I'll carry
Speaker 3: a pack. We carry a day pack. You know that
Speaker 3: you know, obviously protect ourselves, if you know what I mean.
Speaker 3: Oh my goodness, it's that eerie feeling though after you know,
Speaker 3: it's like the same feeling I had, like when I
Speaker 3: when I came came out of the loud of Cooper's Creek.
Speaker 3: It was the the idea that that thing could be there,
Speaker 3: could be that thing or a group of them, you know, watching,
Speaker 3: you know, watching you or keeping an eye on you,
Speaker 3: you know, and you don't even know they're there, and
Speaker 3: they know you're there. But it's it's it's it's, yeah,
Speaker 3: I understand that animals, especially well before. Yeah, like deer,
Speaker 3: and so they're always aware of you. We get deer
Speaker 3: up on the top of the hill right here right
Speaker 3: by the house, and that down in the valley and
Speaker 3: all of that. There's been times when I used to
Speaker 3: go walk to the Duncan Ridge of the Benton Mackay that,
Speaker 3: or get down from the Duncky Ridge to the Bent
Speaker 3: Mackay that. You know, you'd see me sitting on a
Speaker 3: rock and you know, look, a mountainine might come out
Speaker 3: and look at you and go back into the woods.
Speaker 3: Or you might see a bear down in the valley.
Speaker 3: But you always know they're there. But you know, just
Speaker 3: like with this, this this big footed you know it's there,
Speaker 3: but you hear the stories and you hear the myths
Speaker 3: and you hear all the stuff. And I scoffed it off.
Speaker 3: But not now, No, indeed not.
Speaker 1: So you know, I love talking to the guys up
Speaker 1: at the Expedition Bigfoot Museum, which is no relation to
Speaker 1: the show. I always point that out. But when you
Speaker 1: talk to David, what was his reaction when you told
Speaker 1: him where the area was that you had that encounter.
Speaker 1: Was it, oh, that's kind of a new place, or like, yeah,
Speaker 1: there's been other things that have happened there too.
Speaker 3: He made me feel more at ease when he told me,
Speaker 3: he said, Jeff, the police you went walking through is
Speaker 3: a Bigfoot hotspot.
Speaker 2: So that was an eye opener.
Speaker 3: I said, great, I said, of all the places I
Speaker 3: decided to go trap it around, which I was just
Speaker 3: going to be honest. I was going down to see
Speaker 3: some of the there's an ancient forest that runs up
Speaker 3: that runs down south past Chestnut. I was going to
Speaker 3: check those beautiful trees out because even as a kid,
Speaker 3: we had these giant, five hundred thousand year old ancient cypress,
Speaker 3: and then out.
Speaker 2: Here these woods make those make those.
Speaker 3: Trees back in the swamp look like toothpicks, I mean
Speaker 3: these ancient trees. So yeah, when I told Dave when
Speaker 3: I when I when I explained to him where he knew,
Speaker 3: he was like right off the back and all that.
Speaker 3: Then when I said, you got to tell me more
Speaker 3: about this feral people thing, man, He's like, he said, yeah,
Speaker 3: that's the thing. I'm like, oh my goodness, but yeah,
Speaker 3: he yeah, it was a hot spot. Yeah, I walked
Speaker 3: into I don't know how I did it, but I
Speaker 3: walked right smacked.
Speaker 2: In the I should have known it. It's such an
Speaker 2: ancient police you know.
Speaker 3: I saw a fella I talked when I actually I
Speaker 3: ran into a fella that was talking about I was
Speaker 3: telling him about He was asking me about being chaffel
Speaker 3: line in this in cypress, and I was still I
Speaker 3: used to deer hunt off of them. I'd sit on
Speaker 3: top of one of these cypress, and I said, they
Speaker 3: were so big you could literally I mean they the
Speaker 3: cypress and needs would grow together and make make caves
Speaker 3: inside of him. I said, but it ain't nothing like
Speaker 3: out here. He said, no, it's nothing like out here.
Speaker 2: So it was.
Speaker 3: And then once I got to see some of these
Speaker 3: giant polplers that are, man, I don't know how old
Speaker 3: these trees are, and these great oaks and all of that.
Speaker 3: It was beautiful.
Speaker 2: Man.
Speaker 3: It was, I mean one of the best, best and
Speaker 3: worst experiences in my life. I can tell you that much.
Speaker 2: It was wild.
Speaker 1: Who the people that you you told about what you saw,
Speaker 1: how was their reaction? Did they believe you or did
Speaker 1: they find it hard to believe what you had seen?
Speaker 2: My?
Speaker 3: Uh, my my daughter she she she she she believed
Speaker 3: she because she was there. She came and picked me up.
Speaker 3: And and then her boyfriend the time, he said, man,
Speaker 3: this was nightmare like. He looked where I was at
Speaker 3: and how I came out the woods and you know,
Speaker 3: and he said, it was like nightmare. Fewel man, where
Speaker 3: you came out at us? Said you telling me and
Speaker 3: all of that, and then they knew.
Speaker 2: I mean I was.
Speaker 3: I was, man, I've never been that beat up. Oh
Speaker 3: my goodness, I was beating. They had to like literally
Speaker 3: get me into the car. They had water, some more water,
Speaker 3: but yeah, they they had. My wife was more, you know,
Speaker 3: more concerned with the idea that you know, that I
Speaker 3: was out there and that with a predator that could
Speaker 3: have you know, could.
Speaker 2: Have taken me down and all that. My father and
Speaker 2: mother in law.
Speaker 3: My father law says, we don't go out there without
Speaker 3: We don't go out there without weapon.
Speaker 2: He does. My mother in law had no. Yeah, they
Speaker 2: had no no.
Speaker 3: Yeah when I came, because they know when I talk
Speaker 3: about you know, these things. Yeah, he said, no, we
Speaker 3: ain't going out there with that now. And we definitely
Speaker 3: don't go out there at night. I can tell you
Speaker 3: that much.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So yeah, the general consensus was, yeah, I saw
Speaker 3: something out there. But that's the thing that you know,
Speaker 3: that's what I was more worried about than anything. How
Speaker 3: am I going to explain this to people. That's the
Speaker 3: part that it just gets me, is like, man, I mean,
Speaker 3: at this point, I don't care if people believe me
Speaker 3: or not. It's it's the idea that I know what
Speaker 3: I saw out there that night. I've seen a lot
Speaker 3: of animals in different places. You know, Komoda dragon swimming
Speaker 3: in and down there in the Komoda Islands. Whoknew that
Speaker 3: they swam like gators and this thing. Yeah, I have
Speaker 3: no doubt these things exist. No, Now, Yeah, you take
Speaker 3: a lot of precautions when we go out in the woods.
Speaker 2: I can tell you that much the way.
Speaker 1: Thinking about how this affected you when you saw that
Speaker 1: hand break that branch, uh, was it similar to being
Speaker 1: affected by seeing any of these Safari animals that you've
Speaker 1: mentioned that you've had run ins with, like going over
Speaker 1: to Africa or anything like that.
Speaker 3: The closest thing that comes that comes to mind was
Speaker 3: this giant bull elephant that when we were we want
Speaker 3: the last round, we going obviously going to just like
Speaker 3: you see them as far as the big armored trucks.
Speaker 3: So you got that with you, but that wouldn't have
Speaker 3: stopped this particular bull elephant.
Speaker 2: It was that feeling we was.
Speaker 3: I was with a guy named Renaissy, and I was
Speaker 3: with one of my good friends, Mustafa. He lived in
Speaker 3: the area, so he knew he knew the animals. Sometimes
Speaker 3: I couldn't spy the animals because I wasn't used to
Speaker 3: a different color pattern. And he could spot like a
Speaker 3: guinea or he could spot a you know, a water
Speaker 3: hog before we could.
Speaker 2: And all of that, and I mean brilliant, but neither
Speaker 2: none of.
Speaker 3: Us expected a bull elephant to push down a big, old,
Speaker 3: giant teak tree that was man the size of some
Speaker 3: of the the Appalachian oaks around here, just pushed it
Speaker 3: down and then started at us. And moustaf areknew right
Speaker 3: then and there when he did that, he was showing
Speaker 3: a display that we needed to get out of there
Speaker 3: because he was gonna come and run. He was defending
Speaker 3: his There was a big herd of elephant there, but
Speaker 3: that was about if there's anything that came. And then
Speaker 3: the Lowland obviously when I was scuba diving down there,
Speaker 3: the Ethiopic River, the the the Lowland gorilla when they
Speaker 3: when they were going across because their their feet are
Speaker 3: different than the than the silver backs, because they're they're
Speaker 3: more having to go across water and aquatic and climbing
Speaker 3: trees more than the silver backs climbing through the mountain
Speaker 3: jungles and stuff. Yeah, I'd say it was about like that. Yeah,
Speaker 3: except it was a big giant. It was three times
Speaker 3: the size of the silver bag. Oh man.
Speaker 1: Yeah, sometimes when people have experiences like this, it ends
Speaker 1: up putting them on a just kind of a quest
Speaker 1: to figure out what other things like this are happening
Speaker 1: around their area. Is that anything you experienced or was
Speaker 1: the the most of that? Just going up to talk
Speaker 1: to David mkhera.
Speaker 3: Well, well, first, Dave's Dave's place over there at Terry Hill.
Speaker 3: It's amazing. I mean, he's he's taking a science, scientific
Speaker 3: approach to it and his his concepts and his ideas.
Speaker 3: I mean, I mean that was one of the things
Speaker 3: that when when we would bring when we brought friends
Speaker 3: to when we're interested in the play, they wanted to
Speaker 3: go see you know that the scientific approach he's.
Speaker 2: Got to it.
Speaker 3: But yeah, I took a deep dive into the boogers
Speaker 3: they call him. I want to know more about but that,
Speaker 3: And then I saw that you had you had done one,
Speaker 3: you'd done an interview with I believe one of the
Speaker 3: Bigfoot people about about them. And then there's this fella
Speaker 3: out of mortgage and that's talking about other cryptid stuff.
Speaker 3: It's places, I mean if there's ever going to be
Speaker 3: a place you're going to find something like like these,
Speaker 3: these animals. This this is the place because of the
Speaker 3: age of the mountains. I mean, I was doing research
Speaker 3: and it I had to know. I wanted to know
Speaker 3: how these mountains were.
Speaker 2: That was my big thing.
Speaker 3: And nobody's given a really given a They're they're staying
Speaker 3: anywhere from five hundred million to maybe a billion years old,
Speaker 3: these mountains. They're really not given an accurate estimate of
Speaker 3: It's kind of it's. Yeah, if there's ever in the
Speaker 3: diversity of life up here, it's just off the chain
Speaker 3: of never seen anything like you.
Speaker 2: Man, whew.
Speaker 1: So it sounds like there are definite areas in this
Speaker 1: national forest where things could hide and very rarely be
Speaker 1: seen if they didn't want to.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I definitely believe that.
Speaker 3: I mean, just I didn't realize the cave systems how
Speaker 3: intricate they are. They've got caves, they talk about the
Speaker 3: deepest cave systems up in Tennessee and all because we
Speaker 3: we had a cabin up there and like Ruby Falls,
Speaker 3: but they they're cave systems. I mean, just one of
Speaker 3: the one of the guys were watching before this, this
Speaker 3: this thing happened with the Bigfoot.
Speaker 2: Actually venture twins.
Speaker 3: They go down in these cave systems, and I was
Speaker 3: blown away by the They've got canyons of cave systems
Speaker 3: up and the around in this area, and it's yeah,
Speaker 3: if something wants to hide, it can hide around here.
Speaker 1: Do you have any advice for people that find themselves
Speaker 1: in a situation close to it what you experienced that night?
Speaker 3: My best advice is, don't go out there at night,
Speaker 3: and if if you, if you find yourself you know,
Speaker 3: and and that, make sure you bring a day pack
Speaker 3: with you when you go and all that, and bring
Speaker 3: a backup compass. Don't don't be you won't be able
Speaker 3: to have a phone. You won't use the phone up there.
Speaker 3: There's no phone service up there in those in those areas,
Speaker 3: and you won't be able to use GPS, even if
Speaker 3: even using the garments up there. I've heard stories from locals,
Speaker 3: I mean, people in at that that they got lost
Speaker 3: or got turned around. So yeah, make sure you have
Speaker 3: a backup compass and definitely water.
Speaker 1: Oh boy, absolutely, I think that's that's good advice. Jeff.
Speaker 1: It has been a extremely interesting account that you you
Speaker 1: shared with us, and I want to say thank you
Speaker 1: for coming on the show. If you had the chance
Speaker 1: to experience something like this again or to maybe get
Speaker 1: a better view of one of these creatures. Is that
Speaker 1: something that you would want to go towards having happen
Speaker 1: or not so much.
Speaker 3: To be well, there's the curiosity to see you know.
Speaker 3: I guess it's like people like climb into a cage,
Speaker 3: you go see a great white shark.
Speaker 2: You know, it's like that.
Speaker 3: You know, there's the anticipation of the of the event
Speaker 3: and the action. Then you get the actual event if
Speaker 3: this thing comes bumping at you or whatever the sides.
Speaker 2: Instead of breaking a branch throwing a rock.
Speaker 3: You know, there's a there's a curiosity to know more
Speaker 3: about them. But at the same time as that is
Speaker 3: that underlying It's kind of like most of the stuff
Speaker 3: in the appellation is that beauty side of things, in
Speaker 3: that nostalgia. But at the same time you keep your
Speaker 3: mind about you. You know, it's kind of I'm up
Speaker 3: on the fence about that one. I don't think i'd
Speaker 3: want to run into one at night again, I can
Speaker 3: tell you that much. Maybe from about two mile distance
Speaker 3: with a zoom lands that makes any sense, absolutely, Yeah,
Speaker 3: that was a little too close, too close for comfort
Speaker 3: for me.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I would.
Speaker 1: I would say so as well this experience. Did you
Speaker 1: notice anything out of the ordinary happening in your home
Speaker 1: after you got back from this experience over the years.
Speaker 3: Other than I sat down and started writing down everything
Speaker 3: I could about it, and then, you know, I think
Speaker 3: I had to.
Speaker 2: I had to find a sense of humor.
Speaker 3: But well, we once we got over the initial show,
Speaker 3: we started to try to find a sense of humor
Speaker 3: about it. So like I wrote a song called Bigfoot,
Speaker 3: leave Me Alone, let Me Go Home, and that's that's.
Speaker 3: That's about all I could say about that. They you know,
Speaker 3: it's trying to make leavit, you know, because it's like
Speaker 3: I had to fall back on the stuff my years
Speaker 3: of working as a paramatic.
Speaker 2: When you see some of the.
Speaker 3: Darker sides of humanity and and and and deal with
Speaker 3: some of the more traumatic things, you know, you you
Speaker 3: you try to find a sense of humor or try
Speaker 3: to find a way to process and then move on,
Speaker 3: you know, or some surrounded by of course, I'm surrounded
Speaker 3: by force.
Speaker 1: So yeah, exactly the area where you're at, there's a
Speaker 1: pretty much force everywhere. Before we do close out our
Speaker 1: our interview. I want to make sure just to double
Speaker 1: check was there anything else that you wanted to share
Speaker 1: regarding this account or anything that might be related to it.
Speaker 3: That's you know, that's pretty much Jeremi. I mean, yeah,
Speaker 3: it's good talking to you about it. You know, it
Speaker 3: always feels good to talk about it and explain it,
Speaker 3: you know, without you know, trying to sound like you
Speaker 3: know you, you know, trying to you know, trying to
Speaker 3: keep it, you know, level ahead about it the way
Speaker 3: way it happened and and everything.
Speaker 2: That's that. Yeah, thank you absolutely.
Speaker 1: If there's anything that I can ever do to help,
Speaker 1: feel free to reach out and thank you for coming
Speaker 1: on the show to chat today.
Speaker 2: Jeff, Yeah, thank thank you as well. Jerema you have
Speaker 2: a good day.
Speaker 1: You as well. Just wanted to take a few minutes
Speaker 1: to say thank you to you all my listeners for
Speaker 1: listening to the podcast. Please take a minute to help
Speaker 1: out the show by subscribing on YouTube, making sure you
Speaker 1: hit the bell so you don't miss any notifications, and
Speaker 1: share the episode on YouTube with a friend. Also, if
Speaker 1: you're listening to us on a podcast, thank you so much.
Speaker 1: Make sure that you're subscribed, Share the show with a friend. Really,
Speaker 1: it's all about sharing the show wherever you can. If
Speaker 1: you've had a bigfoot encounter related to the following or
Speaker 1: know someone who has, please reach out to me at
Speaker 1: Bigfoot Society at gmail dot com or pass on my email.
Speaker 1: Here's the list. Number one encounters from Franklin County, Texas.
Speaker 1: Number two encounters from the entire state of Iowa. Number
Speaker 1: three encounters from Oakridge, Oregon or the surrounding area. Number
Speaker 1: four any individuals that know about bigfoot being flown off
Speaker 1: after the Mount Saint Helens eruption. Number five. Individuals that
Speaker 1: have had a bigfoot encounter well in the military. Number
Speaker 1: six those that have had a bigfoot encounter in the
Speaker 1: southern New Hampshire or north central Massachusetts area, including Franklin County, Massachusetts.
Speaker 1: Number seven individuals that have had a bigfoot encounter in
Speaker 1: a Bible camp or boy Scout camp setting eight individuals
Speaker 1: that have had bigfoot try to enter their house forcibly
Speaker 1: while they were living inside. Number nine individuals that have
Speaker 1: actively have a bigfoot living on their property. And lastly,
Speaker 1: any sightings that are in the watchitat National Forest Area
Speaker 1: of Oklahoma or Arkansas. A special Thank you to all
Speaker 1: the Bigfoot Society, Patreon and YouTube channel members. It's your
Speaker 1: support that helps keep the show going and I extremely
Speaker 1: appreciate it. I'll see you back next time. Listeners. SASA
Speaker 1: Summerfest this year July eleventh through the twelfth. It's going
Speaker 1: to be fantastic. July eleventh through twelve in Greenwaters Park
Speaker 1: and Oakridge, Ore again and listeners, if you're going to go,
Speaker 1: you can get a two day ticket for the cost
Speaker 1: of one if you use the code b FS like
Speaker 1: Bigfoot Society, but bfs'll get used some off your cost.
Speaker 1: Priscilla was nice enough to provide that for my listeners.
Speaker 1: So there you go. I look forward to seeing you there,
Speaker 1: so make sure you head over to www dot Sasquatch
Speaker 1: Summerfest dot com and pick up your tickets today