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Speaker 1: I'm not going to disclose our names because it's not important,

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but I have a story to tell from nineteen seventy eight.

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I was fourteen years old at the time, and I

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grew up in the deep woods of the Catskill Mountains.

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My grandfather's five hundred acre farm bordered many square miles

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of state forest. It was very dense wilderness, and it

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was dotted with old farms that were abandoned years ago.

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These details are important to give you an idea of

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how remote and desolate these woods are. I've spent my

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whole life hunting, trapping, and fishing those woods. This encounter

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happened in late October on a clear, moonlit night. I

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was coon hunting with my uncle, who had well trained coonhounds,

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and it was quite cold out that night, and so

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far the dogs were unusually unsuccessful. After two hours of hunting,

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finally they started barking and they were hot on a trail.

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We were a mile from my grandfather's farm. When we

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started in the direction of the dog's barking. They were

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across the gully in up on the next ridge. My

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uncle and I were walking up a dirt road that

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would take us to an old abandoned farmhouse. It was

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a straight walk down across the gully and up to

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the ridge where the dogs got that raccoon in a tree,

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judging by their barks, and they were steady and in

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one location. By now it was two am and we

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were two hundred yards from the farmhouse. I noticed loud

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footsteps one hundred yards to my right in the woods.

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I didn't think much of it at first, because I

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figured it was a big deer or a bear, But

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as we continued up the road, I noticed it getting

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closer and I could tell that it was on two feet.

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I thought it was another hunter, but that made no

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sense because no one hunts late at night in the

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woods unless they're both raccoon hunting like us. There were

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no other dogs in the woods, and that's when I

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noticed the steps were heavy with the crunch of branches.

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Now I asked my uncle if he heard what I did,

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and he said no, he didn't. Keep in mind, my

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uncle spent two tours in Vietnam. His hearing was bad

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from all the concussion blasts during the combat. He was

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a real badass, with many confirmed kills and multiple gun wounds,

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including hand to hand combat, knife wounds, so he wasn't

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afraid of anything. He grew up in these mountains, as

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did three generations of my family. He had a hard

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time hearing the low frequency noises like footsteps in the leaves,

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and he told me it was my imagination getting away

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from me. I was getting nervous because all we had

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were twenty two rifles and two pistol, which were not

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powerful enough to put down whatever it was coming toward us.

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And then I noticed it started to parallel our direction

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and continued to edge closer to the road. Obviously, it

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was very close, maybe thirty feet off to our right,

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when suddenly my uncle put his hand on my chest

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and he whispered to stop. The steps to our right

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continued for two more steps, and then they stopped. My

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uncle now knew something was definitely there. We took a

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few more steps and it started following again, and again

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my uncle put his arm out to stop us, and

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it took a few more steps before it stopped. I

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could feel the apprehension from my uncle. It was reasonably

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lit on the dirt road because of the full moon,

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but you couldn't see into the woods. My uncle took

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out his flashlight and shined into the woods, but they

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were too dest to see anything. He told me to

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keep moving, and the thing continued to follow us. By

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now I knew my uncle was nervous because it was

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obvious this thing was by petal and large. It was

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now only a few yards away at this point when

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we reached the old farmhouse and we quickly got up

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on the broken down porch, turned around and confront our stalker.

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The beast kept coming, and just when it was about

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to break into the clearing in front of the house,

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it stopped. We stood there, not knowing what was going

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to happen. Next, my uncle shined the flashlight and could

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vaguely see a large figure just inside the tree line,

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but we couldn't see any real detail other than it

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was very dark in color and it was at least

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nine feet tall. It was massive, and there was a

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musky stench in the air I could feel for the

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first time my uncle was actually scared. Then suddenly it

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started to walk right down through the woods away from

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the house. We could hear it leaving as it stomped

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down the hill until we couldn't hear it anymore, and

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we waited ten minutes to listen for any other movement,

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but it remained silent, so we started down the gully

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to where the dogs were still barking. We made it

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there with no further sign of that thing that stalked us.

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We harvested that raccoon and we bagged it and decided

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to call it a night. I remember those woods were

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so quiet, like it was devoid of wildlife. The dogs

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were also acting strange and kept sniffing the air and

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whining the entire way back to the truck, and I

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never seen the mac like that before that night. My

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uncle sold all of his raccoon dogs shortly after that

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and didn't hunt at night anymore. When friends and family

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would ask why, he wouldn't say, only that he wasn't

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making enough money on the pelts to make it worth

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his wild which was blowney because pelts back then on

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a big raccoon so for forty five dollars each more

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than enough to pursue that hobby. If I asked my

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uncle what he thought that was that night, he won't

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talk about it, not even to me, and he rarely

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hunts even during the daytime now neither do I for

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that matter. I've seen large footprints in the snow when

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I was trapping for muskrat a few years earlier, twice

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the length of my snowboot. So I'm pretty sure what

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it was that stalked us that night. If that wasn't

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a bigfoot, then what else could it be. I've had

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other encounters, I've smelled him and since this presence, but

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I've never actually seen one. Clearly, my account of these

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events are exactly as they happen, and they are completely true.

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I really appreciate your channel to allow folks to tell

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their experiences such as mine. I'm glad to know there

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are many others who have had similar experience, so that

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I don't fill alone on this subject anymore. And the

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writer signs off, And that's another raccoon hunting story. You know,

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you hunt raccoons at night. You can hunt them during

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the day, and you can probably kill them during the day,

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but raccoons are primarily nocturnal. They get out and look

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for food at night. All you got to do is

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put out a trail cam on a corn feeder, and

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the raccoons are all over it all night. But I

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think this story is quite typical for people who are

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out at night, especially with dogs. Dogs seem to stir

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these creatures up, and I thought it was interesting. It's

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not much different than a lot of the raccoon hunting

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episodes that I've read. However, this thing tracked them back

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to the old farmhouse and they could actually see the

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outline of it in the woods. That couldn't make out

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any details, but there it was, standing right at the

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edge of the woods, and they could see it nine

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feet tall. Imagine looking out off an old porch and

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seeing a creature on two legs standing upright like a

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man that's nine frickin feet tall. Holy Moley. These are

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true stories that actually happened to me as a child

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and a teenager in Las Casas, Tennessee, fifteen miles outside

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of Murphersburg in the nineteen eighties. Some of my earliest

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memories are of sitting out on my grandfather's yard under

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the trees around dusk and hearing wood knocks. Back in

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the nineteen seventies, my grandfather would say that someone was

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building a barn and hammering nails over in the woods.

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It was almost dark and there was no electricity in

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the thousands of acres across the little gravel road from us.

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Besides that the banging sound came in twos and from

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different areas. My grandfather would then warn us that if

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we ever heard anything that sounded like a woman screaming

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in the woods, to get out of the world woods,

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because it was probably a bobcat. I think he made

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the connection between the banging sound and the sound like

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a woman screaming. My grandfather was my favorite person in

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the world and my best friend. He didn't officially raise me,

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but I spent each summer, school break and holiday break,

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as well as every third weekend at his house. When

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I was twelve, I knew every inch of his one

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hundred acres, as well as much of the surrounding land.

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His land was split up into two different parcels. One

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was thirty nine acres, which he lived on, and the

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other was sixty one acres at the end of the road,

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and it was a mile from where his house was.

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All of his land creeped me out for some reason,

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but I normally chose to hunt the thirty nine acres

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that he lived on because it was close to the house.

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This experience took place in nineteen eighty one. I followed

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a trail from the bottom of our yard through a

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large open field and passed an old log barn and

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into some thick woods with a logging trail as access.

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The trail was two hundred yards long and it ended

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at a field. The trail took me to the end

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of the field, and then I would walk the entire

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length of the field to my deer stand. In the

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field was a pond my grandfather built because he liked

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a fish. It was a quiet and surreal day. I

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walked to the far end of the pond, closest to

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my deer stand, and I noticed movement coming out of

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the thick woods on the right side, and I thought

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at first that it was a big man dressed in brown.

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There was a shimmering appearance to this thing, so that

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it looked like the figure was clouded in a heat mirage.

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This guy was big, and he walked slow and methodical,

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as if he wanted to be seen. His arms swung

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in an exaggerated motion, and they seemed to be longer

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than normal for its height. It had an unusual arch

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in its back and the way it leaned forward, Although

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he did not appear to have much of a neck.

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His head arched forward from a couple of vertebras lower

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than a man. He also never locked his rear legs straight,

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like he was skating or scooting. He took three steps

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out of the woods and then tilted his shoulders, and

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he looked directly at me. When he looked at me,

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I realized that this was not a man. I could

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make out the broad nose, and although his face did

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not appear to be completely covered in hair, there was

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a circle from right over the eyebrows to the bottom

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lip that appeared to be more exposed skin, but the

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rest was hair. I could see his hair glistening in

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the sun. He stared at me, looking in my direction,

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but continued to walk straight ahead, and I felt an

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overwhelming impression that said, don't mess with me, and I

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won't mess with you. If you mess with me, you

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will regret it. Whether it was my mind or common sense,

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I don't know. I just know it was clear. At

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twelve years old, I knew my gun was not enough

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if this thing came at me. I watched the creature

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slowly walk across the field, and at the point that

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he went out of sight, I immediately broke free from

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my frozen position and I ran as fast as I

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could the half mile back to my grandfather's house. When

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I told my grandfather what I had seen, he immediately

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believed me. And when I told my grandmother, she said, Junior,

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you just saw slew foot. That same year, I went

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back in that field during deer season. My first encounter

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happened in September, but this one was close to Thanksgiving.

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I was thoroughly frightened every time I went back there,

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and I would not go deer hunting in the dark.

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I preferred the middle of the day. Even though I

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never saw any deer at that time, I didn't want

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to be in those woods in the dark. As I

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approached that same field, I heard two men talking. I

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could hear at one hundred yards before I made it

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to the field, and as I got closer to the field,

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I began to wonder why I couldn't understand what these

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men were saying. It was obviously two large, loud males talking,

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and I could tell by their booming voices that they

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were just inside the tree line. I finally got to

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where I could clearly hear them, but it wasn't English

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they were speaking, or even a known language. It was

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only grunts and gibberish. I walked further and three deer

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took off from where the noise was, and I shot

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one of the deer. When things were quiet again, the

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voices had stopped. I never knew who or what was

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making these sounds, and I never saw them. I feel

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dressed the deer and I hauled it out without incident.

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My last encounter have years later, when I was sixteen.

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It happened on the banks of the East Fork of

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the Stones River, three miles away from that field. This

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one is crazy. I had sold my next door neighbor

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my fourteen foot v bottom boat because I was now

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more interested in cars and girls than I was fishing.

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His name was Benny and he was thirty years old,

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and he was a rugged Outdorseman. He was not afraid

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of anything and would sometimes sneak up on my friends

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and me when we were out frog gigging without using

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a light. We put the boat in slightly below Guy

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James Bridge in Las Casas, Tennessee. On a mid April

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night in nineteen eighty five, it was still chilly at night.

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We drifted down toward Brown's Mill Dam fishing for small

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mouth bass. That night we camped on a gravel bar

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two miles away from the road. I was familiar with

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that area. That night, at ten o'clock we were catfishing

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from the bank with no success. Benny mentioned how quiet

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it was. I agreed with him, and as if on cue,

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the biggest splash that I had ever heard in my

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entire life hit the water just outside our view. It

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was on the upstream end of the gravel bar. The

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fire we had going wasn't enough to see what made

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the splash, and we sprang up immediately and landed on

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our feet, shaking in fear. Benny grabbed the flashlight and

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now I followed him, and as we got to that

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end of the gravel bar, we could see splash marks

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on the gravel. His flashlight battery was weak, but it

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was all we had. Benny leaned out as far as

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he could over the water, pointing his light at a

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massive object a short distance away. At first we could

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see glowing red eyes. Benny turned back and began to

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whisper to me, it's a monster, it's a monster. Well,

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I was in denial, and I continued to tell Benny

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that it was just a cow that had fallen in

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the water, because cows milled around in that area a lot.

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As our eyes focused better, it became obvious that this

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was not a cow because of the size of its

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head above the eyes was fourteen inches of head sticking up.

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It was big in cone shaped, and it tilted its

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head to the left and then straightened it back up,

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as if it were trying to figure out what we were.

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I remember seeing its eyes blink. Then it did the

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same thing once again, but it tilted its head to

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the right. Benny just kept saying, it's a monster, It's

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a monster. This thing pushed out toward the middle of

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the river and went downstream in a zigzag pattern, much

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faster than the current was going. It didn't look like

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it was swimming. Rather, the movement looked like a six

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foot tall person in a waiting pool and was propelling

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itself with its legs off the bottom. When it stopped,

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it was directly in front of our campfire, just twenty

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feet out in the river. The whole time that its

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zigzagged downstream, both eyes were focused directly on us. It

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never took its eyes off us as it swam by.

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Now we knew it wasn't a cow, and our view

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was vague except for those massive red eyes and the

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silhouette of its big head. It tilted its head once

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again to the left and then straightened its head back

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up where the eyes were level in a few inches

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above the water. Benny said, hand me the shotgun. Now

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I grabbed it. He handed me the flashlight. Benny carried

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a twelve gage with buckshot in his boat all the time. Well,

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now I'm holding the flashlight and Benny puts the shotgun

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up to his shoulder, and the moment he did that,

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this thing went underwater, letting out mass of bubbles. It

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had jumped in the water earlier when we said it

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was quiet outside, and now it was diving under seeing Bennie,

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A'm a shotgun at it. This thing was smart, like

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it understood what we were saying and doing. Five minutes

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clicked off, and finally Benny said, it's got to come

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up for air. Even though I had seen a sisquatch

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walk across the field in broad daylight a few years earlier,

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it never dawned on me that this could be a

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bigfoot until years later when I heard stories by tim

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Coonbo Baker and others about siequatch in the water. I

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just didn't know they got in the water like that.

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Bennie then said, we're going to take turns standing guard

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tonight because this thing could come up out of the

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water and kill us. I told him that I was

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going to sleep. I guess I was still in total denial,

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which was probably a defense mechanism. The human brain doesn't

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have a file for an experience like this. When I

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woke up the next morning, Bennie was still setting up

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with a shotgun and cooking breakfast over the fire, which

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he had kept blazing all night. Next Benny said the

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last words about the experience that I ever heard him

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say as far as I know. He told me that

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it never came up for air. Our relationship was never

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the same after that, and he soon moved away. I

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saw him once more after that night. Benny was a

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good man, but he was dealing with other demons. A

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year and a half later, he took his own life.

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I'm not saying that this experience contributed to it, but

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I know it's hard to process these sorts of things

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from personal experience, although I have had experiences since this

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that could potentially be crypted related. I'm now fifty three

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years old and I have not had the drama your

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face encounters like this since my childhood, in my teenage

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years in Middle Tennessee. That's the end of his story.

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And that's a man. This guy's from the time he

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was twelve to he was sixteen, he was running into

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these things quite regularly. I mean that's four years and

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three three experiences, one quite drastic experience when he's sixteen.

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This thing swimming out in the water. It doesn't appear.

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This thing does not appear this thing was ever aggressive

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with them. It just wanted to get away, and when

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it saw the shotgun, it went underwater and it never

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came back up. Probably swam down the river half a mile,

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then popped up. If they've got lungs that big, they

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can hold their breath for a long time. I'm guessing

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to the writer who I lost your I've got your story,

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but I lost your email information and I can't remember

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your name. But I really appreciate this story. It's really good.

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I don't think I've had this too long, but I

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pulled it up. It was pretty well written. I wanted

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to share it with you all. I hope you enjoyed it.