Speaker 1: Today, I want to tell you about a journey that
Speaker 1: I've been on for most of my life. Ever since
Speaker 1: I was a kid, I've heard tales of bigfoot and
Speaker 1: wild men while spending time with my friends and family.
Speaker 1: As I grew older and read more about the paranormal,
Speaker 1: my interest in encryptids and other things strange only deepened.
Speaker 1: That's why I'm so excited to share with you what
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Speaker 1: radionetwork dot com. Today.
Speaker 2: Open up to an A C or there's something in the.
Speaker 3: Woods anat te what you're about to see you?
Speaker 4: Or something in the woods knocking the park con changeer
Speaker 4: Ry the Oman said, don't go outside.
Speaker 2: There's something in the woods tonight.
Speaker 1: I hear rim knocking, shaking bushits footprints.
Speaker 2: Howland on my lung.
Speaker 5: Open up to an hot Assey something.
Speaker 2: In the woods he didn't.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much for joining me for the show. I
Speaker 1: wanted to drop in here before we get into this
Speaker 1: latest episode from North of the Border. We've got Fred
Speaker 1: back here. The first thing you're gonna hear is Fred
Speaker 1: interviewing a guy who had some experiences and they're out
Speaker 1: on location. It's a really cool interview with this guy.
Speaker 1: He had something pacing him and stalking him in the woods.
Speaker 1: It's a really story. If you want to see the
Speaker 1: full video, I will link to it over on the
Speaker 1: Sasquatch Odyssey blog. Head over to Paranormorialproductions dot com. Check
Speaker 1: out the blog at the top of the page and
Speaker 1: you can see this video in its entirety, and you
Speaker 1: can see this area where he had this experience. The
Speaker 1: second part of this episode is Fred sharing a really
Speaker 1: wild encounter that two hunters from South America had while
Speaker 1: hunting for a wolf and bear up in Alaska. Very
Speaker 1: compelling story. I want to say something here about Fred
Speaker 1: before we get into this episode. I have received tons
Speaker 1: of emails from you guys that say you love Fred,
Speaker 1: you love the stories that he shares in the podcast.
Speaker 1: But there has been a few of you who have
Speaker 1: chosen to leave negative reviews on Apple Podcast. The latest
Speaker 1: one came in on Sunday and it says was a
Speaker 1: good show. This was a great show when it started.
Speaker 1: Now it's the Fred from Alaska show. The guy see
Speaker 1: sasquatch in his soup and makes fun of people who
Speaker 1: hire him as a guide. Sounds like a douche. Everyone
Speaker 1: is entitled to their opinion about this show. I always
Speaker 1: welcome listener feedback. But here's the thing. Let's be intellectually honest.
Speaker 1: I put out three shows every single week Wednesday, Friday,
Speaker 1: and Sunday. There's only one episode a week at most
Speaker 1: that features Fred and the Stories from Alaska. The other
Speaker 1: two are completely different. They have nothing to do with Fred.
Speaker 1: So let's be honest. This isn't the Fred from Alaska show.
Speaker 1: This is Sasquatch Honyssy. If you don't like Fred, don't
Speaker 1: tune in and listen to those podcasts. There are other
Speaker 1: episodes that drop every single week, at least two every week,
Speaker 1: that are free to everybody. They're not behind the paywall.
Speaker 1: Everybody can hear them when they drop. So if you
Speaker 1: have a problem with Fred, don't listen to the one
Speaker 1: episode a week that I put out that features Fred
Speaker 1: and the stories from Alaska. But I'm going to continue
Speaker 1: to feature these because I think they're very important. We
Speaker 1: don't get a ton of those stories from Alaska. They
Speaker 1: do share them with Fred because he is First Nations.
Speaker 1: They trust him with their stories and he in turn
Speaker 1: puts them out.
Speaker 2: To the rest of us.
Speaker 1: And they're just as important as any other encounter story
Speaker 1: that we have ever featured on this show or will
Speaker 1: feature in the future.
Speaker 2: But enough of that.
Speaker 1: I know you guys are ready to get into it.
Speaker 1: Bread's on the line, He's ready to go. All this
Speaker 1: left for you to do is sit back, relax, and
Speaker 1: enjoy the show.
Speaker 2: Is Fred and Alaska. Thanks for joining me. We're here
Speaker 2: with Ryan.
Speaker 6: He's taken us to a spot where he had some
Speaker 6: things happen. He's gonna fill us in on that once
Speaker 6: we get there. We're just north of Willow a little ways.
Speaker 6: So I continued along the ridge line. This one behind
Speaker 6: you here, This is a ridge line, he was telling me.
Speaker 6: It wraps around going to circle in about four hundred yards.
Speaker 6: That way is a swamp.
Speaker 3: As I was coming up this ridge here, that's where
Speaker 3: I initially heard another noise, like something just slowly moving
Speaker 3: its way towards me, or maybe something coming up on
Speaker 3: the game trail. Can't assume anything curiosity to me, I'm
Speaker 3: gonna go that direction and check it out. Either it's
Speaker 3: a bear, it's gonna win to go the other way.
Speaker 2: But he was explaining to me he came here.
Speaker 6: He was on the opposite side of this mound right here.
Speaker 2: Go ahead, explain what you're explaining to me.
Speaker 3: Came in from the ridgeline, came to the edge of
Speaker 3: this paring. As I was coming this direction, I was
Speaker 3: upsetting to see if this noise followed me and changed direction.
Speaker 3: Wind did change. It was blown forwards. Whatever was there again,
Speaker 3: we were talking about the bears. Once they smell it,
Speaker 3: these show.
Speaker 6: Away typically unless it's a problem bearer. Then that's a
Speaker 6: cool different rodeo right there.
Speaker 3: So I came to the edge of this clearing. The
Speaker 3: noise was coming along and paralleling me. I was on
Speaker 3: the far side of this mound. It was on this side.
Speaker 3: It was maybe twenty twenty five yards away. I was
Speaker 3: listening to it come in and it stopped, and my
Speaker 3: dogs both were looking at me like it's time to go.
Speaker 3: They were just all hackled up, just super alert and nervous.
Speaker 3: I'm like, okay, let's go. Because it came in, it stopped,
Speaker 3: whatever it was, so I decided to leave started heading
Speaker 3: back towards the ridge line. It started paralleling you. So
Speaker 3: it sounded like it went over this ridge to.
Speaker 2: The left, over this way.
Speaker 3: Yeah, followed along the tree line. The trees open up,
Speaker 3: and I'm going nor and it parallels me, and it
Speaker 3: sounds like maybe sixty or seventy yards away. It was
Speaker 3: loud enough you could hear it moving through the brush,
Speaker 3: and it paralleled me all the way back almost to
Speaker 3: the beginning of the trail.
Speaker 2: Okay, so maybe half a mile here. Let's go to
Speaker 2: the other side of this mound.
Speaker 6: We're just giving a little perspective on the back side
Speaker 6: of the mound, and we'll record from the other side
Speaker 6: to give reference to what he's described. Because, like we
Speaker 6: were saying, bears will wind you and take off before
Speaker 6: you see him, or they'll hear you and circle until
Speaker 6: they could wind you.
Speaker 2: That's typical bear behavior.
Speaker 6: Bears will not usually just come right up on you,
Speaker 6: not typically, unless, of course, that's a real bad day.
Speaker 6: You caught it off card, then that's a very bad day.
Speaker 6: They write books about it far attacks in Alaska. Don't
Speaker 6: read them before going camp in Alaska. But we're going
Speaker 6: to navigate and negotiate this wide open terrain here on
Speaker 6: the other side of this mound.
Speaker 3: Here you were saying, I came in to this clearing
Speaker 3: on this game trail. I was constantly listening to this
Speaker 3: thin parallel to me as coming in and get about
Speaker 3: another ten or fifteen yards here, it changes direction. As
Speaker 3: soon as that mound gets in. It came right in.
Speaker 3: I was right here, pat too, the little group of trees,
Speaker 3: I would say, right with that big spruces. I couldn't
Speaker 3: see it because this still had leaves on it. You
Speaker 3: couldn't see through any of it.
Speaker 6: Once you put leaves on that, I could squat down
Speaker 6: in there. You'd never see me.
Speaker 2: It just gets thick quick.
Speaker 6: We were on the other side of it just a
Speaker 6: moment ago. He was going on in the dusk, dealing
Speaker 6: with this sink pacing him. You were saying, you were
Speaker 6: just on the other side over here. Yep.
Speaker 3: So I stopped here on the other side of these
Speaker 3: trees and just listened for thirty seconds, and it was
Speaker 3: almost like the thinking down the hill behind this mound.
Speaker 3: That's when the dogs were just starting to freak out.
Speaker 3: They weren't making any noise, but normally they stick right
Speaker 3: next to me. They were both to where I could
Speaker 3: barely see them, like fifty or sixty feet away, and
Speaker 3: they're like looking at me. They were just super freaked out,
Speaker 3: and they were like that all the way until we
Speaker 3: got back to the car.
Speaker 6: Just to play Devil's advocate, someone may say that was
Speaker 6: a bear pacing him. That was maybe old and he
Speaker 6: was looking for an easy meal. If that had been
Speaker 6: the case, typically there would have been grunting involved and
Speaker 6: very clear hoffing from the bear teeth chatter. For that
Speaker 6: close of a distance, a bear closing in like that,
Speaker 6: they make certain noises that our tell tale I haven't
Speaker 6: heard of anyone saying a bear came in super silent,
Speaker 6: unless it was something being caught unaware type of deal.
Speaker 3: Or maybe a black bear. Sometimes black bears get curious.
Speaker 3: They'll come in, they sniff you, and then they leave.
Speaker 6: But usually there's some sort of snorting or grunting that
Speaker 6: you can easily perceive as, oh, that's bear activity. I'm
Speaker 6: trying to cross off the list of suspects, right. And
Speaker 6: the fact that it was pacing you and then was
Speaker 6: coming in closer, that's the concern part that splashes.
Speaker 2: In my mind.
Speaker 6: Let's go ahead and continue on so you can lead
Speaker 6: the way there. Yeah, we're not horribly far from homes.
Speaker 6: There's some mushers that live back over that way with
Speaker 6: their dog sled teams that run the Iditarod and whatnot.
Speaker 6: But like I was saying, before you step off the
Speaker 6: road anywhere north of Anchorage, even a near anchorage, you're
Speaker 6: in the wilds of Alaska.
Speaker 2: Even with all the leaves off the trees, there's a
Speaker 2: lot of stuff.
Speaker 3: This was the perspective that I had when it stopped.
Speaker 3: And you can see the mound now, but before they
Speaker 3: will lead and everything, and I was about ten or
Speaker 3: fifteen feet closer. This is the perspective I had. So
Speaker 3: the dogs left, I decided to follow the dogs. I'm like,
Speaker 3: that sounds like a good idea.
Speaker 2: Yeah, time to roll out.
Speaker 3: Then when I started moving, I got about fifty or
Speaker 3: sixty feet out, I heard it start moving around the ridge,
Speaker 3: this little mound to the right. After that, it basically
Speaker 3: pastes me out parallel all the way out to.
Speaker 2: That other opening back over there.
Speaker 6: All right, let's go over that way and then we
Speaker 6: can check out that other that you were describing to
Speaker 6: me on the way out. Just beautiful out here, man,
Speaker 6: be a nice spot right here in this clearic for
Speaker 6: a nice little cabin, and basically point anywhere it's a
Speaker 6: good place for a cabin, all right.
Speaker 2: So we're a couple hundred yards further up the trail here.
Speaker 3: So I came out on the trail, hear this noise
Speaker 3: paralleling me maybe fifty sixty feet away in the woods.
Speaker 3: It wasn't trying to be quiet. This is right about
Speaker 3: the spot that I stopped hearing it, and we're almost
Speaker 3: to the gravel bit we got out.
Speaker 6: Right, so it stopped pacing him right in here right
Speaker 6: behind us that it opens up into the gravel pit here,
Speaker 6: let us continue on.
Speaker 3: So the dogs were about one hundred feet into me.
Speaker 3: They were just you didn't line in sight. So I
Speaker 3: was in the corner. It'd be on this little ridge
Speaker 3: and the run further.
Speaker 2: Gotcha.
Speaker 3: I came over this rig right here. They were both
Speaker 3: standing in the middle of the pit daring that opposite
Speaker 3: ridge plane, this one just straight ahead right yeah, at
Speaker 3: Spruce Street that's about twenty feet tall there, about thirty
Speaker 3: feet off Foller Trail. They were pointed like right there.
Speaker 3: So I caught up to him because they weren't moving,
Speaker 3: they were just sitting there, alerted, ears up, hackled up.
Speaker 3: So I got to the dogs, just watched and listened
Speaker 3: for a few seconds, and turned my flashlight on, lit
Speaker 3: up the ridge line and waited. Couldn't see anything, but
Speaker 3: I heard a shuffling noise. And there's a fairly steep
Speaker 3: ridge behind this that goes down to a tree, and
Speaker 3: I could hear something just slowly shuffling along. It got
Speaker 3: about fifty sixty feet off to the right. I didn't
Speaker 3: hear it anymore. I waited like another thirty seconds and
Speaker 3: just kept bringing my light back and forth on that
Speaker 3: tree line. I didn't hear anything from that.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 6: See, with the way my mind works is that one
Speaker 6: got the dog's attention, got your attention, Now you're focused
Speaker 6: over here.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that whole ambush.
Speaker 6: Those types of things is what really bothers me about
Speaker 6: kind of encounters. So roughly that taller spruce there is
Speaker 6: where the dogs were alerted to about a month ago.
Speaker 6: The sun was going down a little bit later from
Speaker 6: over this direction, it would be a perfect just everything
Speaker 6: would be silhouetted.
Speaker 2: It was dark, the sun was down at that point.
Speaker 3: You had the dust after glow of.
Speaker 2: The sun twilight basically.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And it wasn't dark enough needed a flashlight, but
Speaker 3: I was like, that's a dark pitt of trees. I'm
Speaker 3: gonna light it up and see what's there.
Speaker 6: Yeah, definitely, we're not all that far from dwellings. I
Speaker 6: shared an experience with Jonathan, who lives in the area
Speaker 6: somewhere around here in Willow that happened roughly a week ago,
Speaker 6: but his experience was a little different than Ryan's. Ryan
Speaker 6: didn't go through everything that Jonathan did, but we're within
Speaker 6: reason of the same proximity.
Speaker 3: Yeah, stop right here and lit up that tree line.
Speaker 3: That was it, and then I could hear it shuffling.
Speaker 3: It was about right there where I just couldn't hear
Speaker 3: it anymore, and I waited, and then I went through
Speaker 3: because it's almost if it was a person and they're
Speaker 3: waiting at the end. This is the one way to
Speaker 3: get in and out of this area.
Speaker 6: It's a funnel point, really a choke point, a good
Speaker 6: ambush point. But again that's speculation. I'm not trying to
Speaker 6: say that's what it was. I'm just saying if you
Speaker 6: knew something was coming through a certain area and you
Speaker 6: were hunting, and they're funneling through a small trail like
Speaker 6: we're about to.
Speaker 2: Go through here. It's wide enough for a pickup four wheelers.
Speaker 6: You could see the tracks in here from people coming through,
Speaker 6: but it's all relative in the darkness. Right.
Speaker 2: So here's that little creek up here, well.
Speaker 6: Trump through that. I walked around and I don't have
Speaker 6: on my water boots. But here's the backside of that ridge.
Speaker 6: As you could see what he was talking about here,
Speaker 6: it falls away pretty quickly here down this backside. Whatever
Speaker 6: was making noise was further down.
Speaker 2: That ridge just out of side of here.
Speaker 6: I know there's all sorts of squirrel tracks, just game
Speaker 6: tracks through here, especially moose. I haven't seen any predator tracks,
Speaker 6: but definitely an active area for snowshoe hair, squirrel, moose.
Speaker 6: Isn't there a wolfpackground here somewhere? Is that one further
Speaker 6: up north?
Speaker 2: Oh?
Speaker 6: Okay, all right, we're back at the starting point. But
Speaker 6: there are some things that we didn't touch on. Now,
Speaker 6: what were the feelings during this whole experience, because there's
Speaker 6: that component to it. I think that is overlooked. What
Speaker 6: did it feel like while this stuff was going on?
Speaker 6: What were your inner feelings on it?
Speaker 3: When I changed direction and started coming off that ridgeline,
Speaker 3: it's like a change direction with me. That's what initially
Speaker 3: set off the alarm bells, and I was like, okay,
Speaker 3: could be a curious bear. Whatever, let's see what's going on.
Speaker 3: As it kept closing and closing, the wind changed directions
Speaker 3: and started blowing towards it. I was like, okay, So
Speaker 3: I stopped as soon as the wind changed because I
Speaker 3: wanted to see what the deal. Is it going to
Speaker 3: turn around? Is it going to leave or is it
Speaker 3: going to continue? Right, the wind kept blowing its direction,
Speaker 3: so it ended me and the dogs, and it kept
Speaker 3: coming and I'm like okay, So I started to turn
Speaker 3: and back to the main trail. That's when it came
Speaker 3: down on that clearing. And when it started coming down
Speaker 3: on the opposite side of the little hump, that's when
Speaker 3: my adrenaline just went up, because it's abnormal behavior for
Speaker 3: a bear. It's what is this thing? I didn't see anything,
Speaker 3: I just heard it. But it's just uncanny how it.
Speaker 3: It just stayed out a line of sight the whole.
Speaker 3: Like a bear, usually they'll wind you, you'll see their
Speaker 3: butt running away from.
Speaker 2: You, or you'll hear them tear out of there. Just
Speaker 2: crack it.
Speaker 6: Because when bears are leaving, they don't give a shit
Speaker 6: who's hearing them.
Speaker 3: They're like, I'm the boss, I'm leaving. Yeah, they don't care.
Speaker 3: This was not like that. The way it paralleled me
Speaker 3: out Like the whole time, I was just adrenaline was
Speaker 3: on the max and I wasn't panicked. Maybe if it
Speaker 3: had started making noise, right, vocalizations or something like that,
Speaker 3: then I might have started jogging.
Speaker 2: You were trying to keep your cool, in other words,
Speaker 2: and not get panicked by it. Yeah.
Speaker 3: I got back to the trail. It was like, okay,
Speaker 3: whatever I stopped, I couldn't hear it anymore. Getting back
Speaker 3: to the car was fairly uneventful.
Speaker 6: Once that one stopped making the noise basically behind you.
Speaker 6: At that point you were coming to the clearing when
Speaker 6: the dogs alerted to the other side, to that other
Speaker 6: small ridge we're pointing out.
Speaker 2: What did that do to the whole experience?
Speaker 6: Did that just totally change the whole thing? That just
Speaker 6: the mindset of wait a minute, what's that?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I can't really explain it. It was not like
Speaker 3: a betrayal, but it was just a very uncanny feeling.
Speaker 3: What really sketched me out on that was when the
Speaker 3: dogs stopped. Because the dogs has been running ahead of me. Hey,
Speaker 3: let's get away from whatever this is. But when they
Speaker 3: stop like that, I've learned to listen to their body
Speaker 3: language or body language in the woods just three for
Speaker 3: a loop. And it took a couple of days, like
Speaker 3: calm down from that, but it was really unsettling. Again,
Speaker 3: didn't see anything but the sounds. How close they got
Speaker 3: within twenty five yard.
Speaker 6: Now, you're a lifelong Alaskan, you've been around bears before.
Speaker 6: I have bears ever given you that sense of feeling
Speaker 6: to where it lingered.
Speaker 3: No but you have a bearing counter. You might wake
Speaker 3: up one crossing a field. There'll be fireweed four or
Speaker 3: five feet high. They'll be bedded down for the day,
Speaker 3: and you might stumble on one. I've done that before,
Speaker 3: where I'm three feet from a bear. You both make
Speaker 3: eye contact, both go opposite directions.
Speaker 6: Yeah, you want nothing to do with each other, but
Speaker 6: that initial startled after a few hours and you calm
Speaker 6: down and just subsides and it's almost forgettable after that point.
Speaker 3: Oh, that's a bear experience. That was a bear that
Speaker 3: was spooked. Haven't run into a bear with cubs, luckily,
Speaker 3: because yeah, they get pretty angry when that happens.
Speaker 2: For sure.
Speaker 6: That squirrel chatter is we've been down here almost a
Speaker 6: couple hours, there's been have you noticed any bird noises?
Speaker 2: I haven't noticed any.
Speaker 6: Typically we'd hear some, and I just heard a squirrel
Speaker 6: trip over that way and that's the only sound outside
Speaker 6: of the dogs over here.
Speaker 2: Hey, thanks for joining us, Ryan and sharing.
Speaker 1: With us, and stay tuned for more Sasquatch out to
Speaker 1: sy We'll be right back after these messages.
Speaker 6: I wanted to share with you today was email a
Speaker 6: little while back from Louis and Franco down in South America.
Speaker 6: What intrigue me is these guys came up to Alaska
Speaker 6: three years ago in the spring to do a wolf
Speaker 6: and bear hunt combo. If anyone's ever researched guided hunting
Speaker 6: trips of any kind in Alaska, you're looking at a.
Speaker 2: Very heavy price tag, especially to be taken.
Speaker 6: Where they went was just on the outskirts of Katmai
Speaker 6: Wildlife Refuge down on the Alaska Peninsula. When they arrived,
Speaker 6: it was for bear and wolf. When they got there,
Speaker 6: it was a little early for the bear. The guy
Speaker 6: told them the bears aren't moving as much, so it'd
Speaker 6: be a perfect time to get those wolf tags filled.
Speaker 6: Got them to the spot. Him and Franco had did
Speaker 6: their background work. They took survival classes, bear recognition classes
Speaker 6: to learn recognize male female black brown. They did all
Speaker 6: of it, hiker safety course, anything you could think of,
Speaker 6: they went and did a class for it. Because they're
Speaker 6: coming from South America, they both live in South Paulo, Brazil.
Speaker 6: They work in finance, so Louli and Franco they do
Speaker 6: all their classes. They invest the money with the reputable,
Speaker 6: very reputable guide. He don't want me to mention the
Speaker 6: guide or the exact area. It was just outside of Katmi,
Speaker 6: down on the Alaska Peninsula.
Speaker 2: They were given the lay of the land.
Speaker 6: When they were flying in, the pilot that was dropping
Speaker 6: them off gave them the heads up over here where
Speaker 6: they ended up going. The pilot pointed out that up
Speaker 6: on this ledge the shelf that ran across this basically
Speaker 6: big butte that sit up before it got into the mountains.
Speaker 6: He said, it's a very good place for the wolves
Speaker 6: that come out from a very long valley and a
Speaker 6: couple finger little short finger valleys. They could sit up there,
Speaker 6: spot stock or take their shots. They would have all
Speaker 6: access to a bunch of little rivers and streams that
Speaker 6: float through there.
Speaker 2: So they were stoked.
Speaker 6: They planned on being there just four days to kill
Speaker 6: some time, let the bears come out of their den,
Speaker 6: start moving a little more.
Speaker 2: It's still cold in the spring in Alaska. Don't let
Speaker 2: anyone flye to you. Not a joke.
Speaker 6: They were prepared. They had a two man tent. They
Speaker 6: get unloaded, they had to wait. One of them was
Speaker 6: missing some kind of documentation he had left at camp,
Speaker 6: and they wanted to make sure that they would have
Speaker 6: the tag. If something had happened and he got a wolf.
Speaker 6: You can't just take a wolf and say, oh, my
Speaker 6: tags are over there. You have to have those physically
Speaker 6: on you and punch immediately after the kill. That's what's
Speaker 6: required by state law. So there was a little hiccup
Speaker 6: in that. So they decided the pilot's going to be
Speaker 6: back in four days. Anyway, Louis had his tags to fill,
Speaker 6: so Franco was just Okay, we'll get his wolves and
Speaker 6: if there's more, we'll stay another day and I'll get
Speaker 6: my tags fill mine. Whatever the pilot leaves, they go
Speaker 6: up and they make this little base camp.
Speaker 2: He said.
Speaker 6: They packed out this cove into some willows because there
Speaker 6: was really not a lot of trees to pitch tents
Speaker 6: to or stak down. He wanted a little better cover
Speaker 6: because of the winds that blow over that way. They
Speaker 6: hacked out about a ten foot radius into these willows
Speaker 6: with their machetes. They set up their camp and they
Speaker 6: had their fire pit just outside of it. Basically horse
Speaker 6: you into the willows, their tent in the middle, and
Speaker 6: the willows surrounded the backside. Now, he said, they did
Speaker 6: a little bit of scouting. They basically set up camp
Speaker 6: that first afternoon, followed a couple game trails.
Speaker 2: That time of year, it stays lighter.
Speaker 6: It's not full on bright sunlight close to midnight, but
Speaker 6: it's still on the upward scale of more and more
Speaker 6: daylight by the day. They decide they're going to go
Speaker 6: up on that shelf and just look around, familiarize their
Speaker 6: self with their topographical and put eyes on what they're
Speaker 6: seeing on the map type of thing. They get up there,
Speaker 6: since Franco didn't have his tags, he had left him
Speaker 6: at the outfitters base camp or whatever. He was going
Speaker 6: to spot, and Louis was going to shoot, I believe.
Speaker 6: He said he had a three seventy five h and
Speaker 6: h because he wanted to be able to reach out
Speaker 6: and touch a wolf at a distance and also have
Speaker 6: enough want to get his bear. They get up there,
Speaker 6: he said it was very hard climbing. It was more
Speaker 6: advanced hiking than he had anticipated because of how they
Speaker 6: had to switch back and cut through all the willows.
Speaker 6: It's a thick tangle in some places. So they make
Speaker 6: it up there onto that shelf and they find themselves
Speaker 6: a little spot. Frankel breaks out the spot in scope.
Speaker 6: They're looking down into this particular valley. It's the longest
Speaker 6: one that runs north south, and off of that valley
Speaker 6: there's a couple little finger valleys as it comes and
Speaker 6: opens up into basically a big meadow where a larger
Speaker 6: river meets a smaller creek and so on. They had
Speaker 6: this upper vantage point and they were glassing this valley
Speaker 6: the small fingers. They had a really good vantage point.
Speaker 6: As they're looking, he said, they're sitting there a couple
Speaker 6: hours and they're just about to call it and go
Speaker 6: down and get something to eat, because they wore themselves
Speaker 6: out hiking up to this little ledge, this shelf that
Speaker 6: ran across, and he said, Franco got excited just as
Speaker 6: it was starting to get dark because he saw what
Speaker 6: he thought were two black bears a big brown bear,
Speaker 6: chasing after each other down in between where the bigger
Speaker 6: river meets the smaller creeks. So they're excited for the
Speaker 6: next morning. We got our bear tag. If the bears
Speaker 6: still there and it's of a good size, we'll take
Speaker 6: the bear. Screw the wolves. We'll stick around for the
Speaker 6: wolves or whatever, but let's see if we can get
Speaker 6: that bear. So they go back down to camp reinvigorated.
Speaker 6: A little excited. They knew it was too dark to
Speaker 6: try to spot and stalk this thing. Okay, they get
Speaker 6: to camp, they eat a dinner. They were excited. They
Speaker 6: called it at night early. He said he was having
Speaker 6: a hard time sleeping because he was excited. Way off
Speaker 6: in the distance, he heard what he assumed was wolf howling.
Speaker 6: He said he had studied the sounds of wolves via
Speaker 6: the Internet and recordings to familiarize himself with things he
Speaker 6: might hear now, Harry Man, bigfoot sasquatch. None of that
Speaker 6: was even on their radar. They're from South America. Their
Speaker 6: stuff is different. The things that they worry about are
Speaker 6: a lot smaller. He was sitting there trying to think, Man,
Speaker 6: that doesn't quite sound like a wolf.
Speaker 2: There's too much.
Speaker 6: It's making a lot of noise, for wolves are too
Speaker 6: small to make that kind of noise and hold that
Speaker 6: kind of bellowing howling scream. He heard a scream that
Speaker 6: sounded a lot closer Bupe. He was up in an instant.
Speaker 6: He even got out of the tent. It wasn't still
Speaker 6: quite dark, but it was twilight. Even though the sky
Speaker 6: was a little light. Everything else on the ground level
Speaker 6: with the brush and everything was just dark.
Speaker 2: It was really hard to see.
Speaker 6: He grabs his flashlight and he's scanning around way off
Speaker 6: in the distance. When he was passing with the flashlight,
Speaker 6: he got a glimmer of some eyeshines, so he went
Speaker 6: back to it. Saw just one eye and it disappeared.
Speaker 2: Nothing of it.
Speaker 6: Figured, oh, that must be one of the wolves or something.
Speaker 6: Because it was at such a distance, he couldn't put
Speaker 6: nothing to it. So he's looking around. He doesn't see anything,
Speaker 6: so he decides to call it a night again. He
Speaker 6: crawls back into bed. Here's another screenway off in the distance,
Speaker 6: and ends up falling asleep. He's woken up just before
Speaker 6: daybreak by Franco shaking his leg, telling him something outside.
Speaker 6: I think that bear is outside. So Franco slides the
Speaker 6: rifle out of its case. He's listening very closely. He
Speaker 6: loads up the four rounds. He chambers one as silent
Speaker 6: as he can. He has Franco unzipping the tent so
Speaker 6: he can hold and wheeld the rifle properly and be
Speaker 6: ready to potentially shoot their bear right in camp. Hey,
Speaker 6: great trip, didn't have to hike pack it out is
Speaker 6: right there at camp.
Speaker 2: He unzips it. He leans out with the rifle and
Speaker 2: it's still dark. He can't really see anything.
Speaker 6: So Franco, being a good dude there to help his buddy,
Speaker 6: he beams a flashlight out and panning it back and forth. Now,
Speaker 6: he said, they didn't see anything but some darkness move
Speaker 6: The darkness would move along and stop, move along and stop,
Speaker 6: with no eye shine. Then as he was crawling out
Speaker 6: and he's bumped Franco's arm that was trying to hold
Speaker 6: the light for him, Louis said, when he got out
Speaker 6: and stood up and the light showed again, then he
Speaker 6: saw the eye shine, big eye shine, about forty yards away,
Speaker 6: right next to some small willow shrubs and the tundra.
Speaker 6: All of a sudden, crack car trampled over the willows
Speaker 6: and was gone. And it was still dark enough to
Speaker 6: where he couldn't fully make it out, but he made
Speaker 6: out a dark figurelike thing tearing out. Assumed it was
Speaker 6: the bear, got up to light it up and see
Speaker 6: if they could see it.
Speaker 2: Nothing.
Speaker 6: So now they're awake, they decide, let's stoke the fire,
Speaker 6: let's make some breakfast, let's get a higher vantage point
Speaker 6: and find this bear. They do their thing they get
Speaker 6: back up and they decided to go back up to
Speaker 6: the spot where the Franco had seen what he thought
Speaker 6: were two black bears and one big brown bear. They
Speaker 6: get about halfway back up to that shelf, Franco they're
Speaker 6: taking a breath or whatever, and Franco decides he's going
Speaker 6: to glass where he saw those things last. He breaks
Speaker 6: out the spot and scope and he's free handing it
Speaker 6: without the tripod and he's just glassing back and forth
Speaker 6: as he's doing so where he saw these things running
Speaker 6: around on this finger of the night before, he saw
Speaker 6: a black dot across the smaller creek from there, so
Speaker 6: he started watching that to see maybe the brown bear
Speaker 6: still chasing it around or something to focus on. So
Speaker 6: that's what he did. He focused on it. So as
Speaker 6: he's watching it, he noticed his weird movement because grant you,
Speaker 6: it's not fully light out yet. It's starting to get there,
Speaker 6: but everything's still silhouetted and a lot of shadowy, so
Speaker 6: it wasn't full daylight.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 6: His impression from that distance was a really big black bear,
Speaker 6: really big. He was basically trying to size it up.
Speaker 6: They weren't there for black bear. They were looking at
Speaker 6: what they had available. They were discussing, Hey, maybe we
Speaker 6: should get down off of this high ground and then
Speaker 6: get out into the open and cross over via sandbars
Speaker 6: and get to the opposite side of this little valley
Speaker 6: and see what we can see from there. So they
Speaker 6: decide that's what they were going to try to do.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 6: As they were getting ready to do that, Franco had
Speaker 6: to put the spot and scope back in its case
Speaker 6: get their gear back together. As he's doing that, louis
Speaker 6: looking through his scope in that area, trying to zoom in.
Speaker 6: He had a nine x twelve or something like that,
Speaker 6: or three by twelve type scope. He was fully maxed
Speaker 6: out on his zoom checking out that black dot. He
Speaker 6: noticed that this black dot looked like it was doing tumbles.
Speaker 6: Would stand up on two legs, run a little ways, tumble,
Speaker 6: jump up and run off in the trees, come back
Speaker 6: out and do it again. It was doing this thing
Speaker 6: over and over, and he was transfixed on that because
Speaker 6: he had never seen or heard of that kind of behavior.
Speaker 6: He's new to Alaska's first trip here. Who's like, what
Speaker 6: the hell? He's transfixed on that. Franco gets everything together,
Speaker 6: taps them on show said let's go, and he points out, hey, Franco, look,
Speaker 6: there's something we're going on. So they decided definitely worth
Speaker 6: going to check out. They come back down by camp
Speaker 6: and decided to lighten the load a little bit and
Speaker 6: grab some lighter snacks and go on a day hike.
Speaker 6: As they're at camp doing that, he double checked the
Speaker 6: fire to make sure it was all the way out,
Speaker 6: even though there's no risk of burning anything. He was
Speaker 6: just real conscientious. First trip to Alaska. He didn't want
Speaker 6: to get in trouble for anything, so to speak, because
Speaker 6: he is new to Alaska, new to the states. As
Speaker 6: he's doing his thing, Franco was changing something or another.
Speaker 6: He was a little chilly, so he was adding a
Speaker 6: layer or something like that. Louie hears something very big
Speaker 6: smashing just out of sight behind these willows.
Speaker 2: As it's going along.
Speaker 6: It's like it was whatever was pacing back and forth,
Speaker 6: and as he was listening, he thought something was odd
Speaker 6: about it. He had his rifle loaded. He was prepared
Speaker 6: in case a bear rushed out. But Frankel comes out
Speaker 6: of the tent. When Frankel comes out of the tent,
Speaker 6: he asked him, do you hear that? Do you hear that,
Speaker 6: and he said, yeah, I hear it sounds like that, Barry,
Speaker 6: and he goes two fee walking, not four. So he
Speaker 6: was like, nah, I couldn't tell that. So Franko told him, no,
Speaker 6: I heard two fee, not four. So they were like, gee,
Speaker 6: that's weird. So they decide we'll holler out hey, we're
Speaker 6: right over here.
Speaker 2: Be aware.
Speaker 6: They do that, the thrashing stops and it goes dead silent.
Speaker 6: So they decide, let's make our way around this because
Speaker 6: these willows weren't just knee high, they were ten twelve
Speaker 6: foot tall. So they start going around this game trail
Speaker 6: to intercept this. They didn't know what but they wanted
Speaker 6: to either confirm it's a bear, run it off if
Speaker 6: it's not.
Speaker 2: Whatever. They basically checking it out.
Speaker 6: So as they make their way around, they noticed that
Speaker 6: there was a different feeling in the air. He said
Speaker 6: it almost felt like when he was stalked by a
Speaker 6: jaguar one time down in the jungle.
Speaker 2: He said, it's very similar to that.
Speaker 6: So he immediately thought, oh, it is a bear because
Speaker 6: I'm feeling that sense of a predator nearby. Franco notices
Speaker 6: dark movement just in front of him about thirty five
Speaker 6: feet away. They decided to scream out to scare because
Speaker 6: Franklo thought what he saw was all black, so they
Speaker 6: thought black bear. So they start yelling, screaming, he's not
Speaker 6: pointing the gun in that direction this thing.
Speaker 2: Then it stands up, he said.
Speaker 6: When it stood up, they stumbled back, startled because of
Speaker 6: how tall it was.
Speaker 2: He said.
Speaker 6: It was over seven foot tall, slender humanoid figure, not big, broad,
Speaker 6: bulky shoulders, but slender like a basketball player. But what
Speaker 6: they saw was pitch black. When they stumbled back and
Speaker 6: felt he had dropped his gun and they were just
Speaker 6: awestruck by what's unfolding in front of him. This thing
Speaker 6: made a grunt or two and then ran off, quartering
Speaker 6: away from him, but going uphill towards the shelf that
Speaker 6: they had been spotting from the day before, and they
Speaker 6: didn't know what to do. He jumped up, grabbed his rifle.
Speaker 6: They snapped out of it, ran back over to the tent.
Speaker 6: Were trying to regroup on what the hell was that shit,
Speaker 6: because they were not prepared for any of that. They
Speaker 6: were prepared for bear, wolf, caribou, moose, they were prepared
Speaker 6: for all that, but not this. So immediately Franco, being
Speaker 6: a devout Catholic, he started praying his rosary or whatnot.
Speaker 6: He retreated into the tent to get his rifle out.
Speaker 6: As he was reciting some prayers, Louis said that he
Speaker 6: was keeping an eye in the direction this thing ran.
Speaker 6: He was noticing a black spot up there on that hillside.
Speaker 6: Now this is approximately three hundred yards away at this point,
Speaker 6: but this black spot stood out from all the other
Speaker 6: dark shadows in the brush, so he's focusing on it.
Speaker 6: He pulled his scope up and was trying to get
Speaker 6: a fix on it. He couldn't make anything out. He
Speaker 6: could see the black dot. He had a clear image
Speaker 6: of it being black in a little bit of movement,
Speaker 6: but he saw no bear, pause, no face, and none
Speaker 6: of that.
Speaker 2: He didn't know what to do with that information. He
Speaker 2: was just watching it.
Speaker 6: Now. As he's watching it, he would every once in
Speaker 6: a while take his eye off the scope and speak to Franco,
Speaker 6: who was getting the gun out of the case and
Speaker 6: finding his ammunition. He was telling him, hey, there is
Speaker 6: that dark spot up there. It's not standing though. It
Speaker 6: looks like his croups back down. They're immediately red flags waving.
Speaker 6: They don't know what to do. They don't know if
Speaker 6: they should confront it. They know if what exactly it was.
Speaker 6: They were trying to run down the list of possibilities.
Speaker 6: Was it another hunter in a gilly suit scaring him,
Speaker 6: playing a prank?
Speaker 2: They didn't think.
Speaker 6: The outfitter was way too professional to play stupid games
Speaker 6: like that with people with guns. That would just be
Speaker 6: a good way to get shot. As they're assessing what
Speaker 6: they're doing, he would periodically look back through the scope.
Speaker 6: The second time he did that black dot was gone,
Speaker 6: so he said it must be moving on. They heard nothing.
Speaker 6: Now Franko's armed, he's got his binoculars out. They come
Speaker 6: back up to this game trail and they start to
Speaker 6: corter up the same direction that this thing was. As
Speaker 6: they're doing so, Louis had to stop and relieve himself.
Speaker 6: And as he was relieving himself, he got done and
Speaker 6: he looks up towards the direction he last saw that
Speaker 6: dark spot. There's three standing upright looking down at them
Speaker 6: from about two hundred and twenty yards away, a big,
Speaker 6: lighter brown one that was bigger than the other, two
Speaker 6: smaller dark ones. When they saw that, they basically retreated
Speaker 6: back to camp full on prayers. They were doing their prayers,
Speaker 6: he said, the whole time that they were down on
Speaker 6: their knees praying. They had their rifles by them, but
Speaker 6: they didn't know what else to do because something came
Speaker 6: over them. Once they saw these three beings up on
Speaker 6: the hillside a couple hundred yards away, they didn't feel
Speaker 6: right within themselves. They didn't feel spiritually right, is what
Speaker 6: he said. He said, spiritually, he was immediately exhausted. They
Speaker 6: heard some screams, they heard a bunch of commotion. They
Speaker 6: tried to ignore it. Basically, they stayed. They didn't see
Speaker 6: anything else or hear anything else the next few days
Speaker 6: until the pilot came back to retrieve them. They basically
Speaker 6: stayed in the tent. One would sleep, one would stay awake,
Speaker 6: and they did that for three days.
Speaker 2: He said.
Speaker 6: It ruined the rest of the bear hunt as well,
Speaker 6: because where they were taken for the bear hunt wasn't
Speaker 6: all that far away from where they just were.
Speaker 2: They couldn't get into it.
Speaker 6: Where they went for the bear there was another hunt
Speaker 6: from out of state, somewhere in Idaho, and they asked him, Hey,
Speaker 6: have you seen anything weird like this out of state hunter?
Speaker 6: I was like no, I haven't sounds like a bigfoot
Speaker 6: and blaughed it off. And they just took that information,
Speaker 6: stored it away, left it alone, didn't really get into
Speaker 6: the hunt from there.
Speaker 2: And ended up going home.
Speaker 6: He said that he would pay that money again for
Speaker 6: the same experience, but this time he'd be better prepared.
Speaker 6: And I was like, fair enough, But these poor guys
Speaker 6: went through all that trouble just to be stunted and
Speaker 6: not complete their hunt.
Speaker 2: He said.
Speaker 6: They didn't come in again close to him or anything
Speaker 6: else like that. Once they were praying and they heard
Speaker 6: the screams and the brush breaking. Everything just subsided with
Speaker 6: the prayers, and he was thankful for that. I wasn't there.
Speaker 6: I would have been praying too. Man again, thank you
Speaker 6: for joining me. We'll catch you guys on the next one.
Speaker 5: They say, you don't have to go home, but you
Speaker 5: can't stay, and I don't want to feel.
Speaker 4: A world happened. Step child, this chid, that chart everything,
Speaker 4: call me ride back right back, joy.
Speaker 1: For me, enjoy, stay right.
Speaker 4: Come it right away. Stas stass s st st st
Speaker 4: st stut talking about thessamest STSSSSSSST used thess