Speaker 1: You're listening to Bigvo Society, and I'm Jeremiah Byron Tonight's
Speaker 1: story doesn't come from a researcher or a thrill seeking camper.
Speaker 1: It comes from a Navy veteran just back from service
Speaker 1: who took a snowy drive into the mountains of western
Speaker 1: North Carolina and came back changed forever. No cell phones,
Speaker 1: no internet, just a nineteen ninety three night on Mount Mitchell,
Speaker 1: a jeep, a few friends, and something waiting in the snow.
Speaker 1: Massive footprints, deer frozen in place, and the undeniable feeling
Speaker 1: that they weren't alone out there. They didn't go looking
Speaker 1: for Bigfoot, but something was already watching them. This is
Speaker 1: the story of Greg'szapp in the night the mountains went silent.
Speaker 2: Stay with us.
Speaker 1: I Big That Society. We got the privilege of talking
Speaker 1: to mister Greg Zapp today. Greg is an individual I
Speaker 1: got connected to over on the x or Twitter platform
Speaker 1: some people might know it as and we got to talking.
Speaker 1: It turns out Greg has some interesting things that have
Speaker 1: happened over the years. We're glad to have Greg on
Speaker 1: the show here and how's it going today?
Speaker 2: Greg? Very well, Jeremy, and thank you for having me.
Speaker 2: I really appreciate it absolutely, sir.
Speaker 1: Well, you know, I want to make sure that we
Speaker 1: have the time for you to share what you experienced after.
Speaker 1: You know, we were just talking about we got a
Speaker 1: little blizzard coming in here in Iowa, but I think
Speaker 1: we're gonna we're gonna make it through. But you know,
Speaker 1: feel free to take take it from here, sir, and
Speaker 1: take us back to when this all started happening for you.
Speaker 2: Sure thing. I grew up in the western North Carolina Mountains,
Speaker 2: just under Mount Mitchell, and anyone familiar with the area
Speaker 2: knows they closed the parkway after probably around Halloween. They
Speaker 2: used to close it because it started getting heavy snows
Speaker 2: past the Little Switzerland all the way up to Mount
Speaker 2: Mitchell and then down on the other side going into Asheville,
Speaker 2: usually about the Weaverville where you pop off the parkway
Speaker 2: and go into Weaverville the back way. That's usually where
Speaker 2: the gate is open again, or the parkway opens up
Speaker 2: down south to Atville. My friends and I we used
Speaker 2: to love to go to Buck Creek Campground. Buck Creek
Speaker 2: Campground is right off of eighty, right off the parkway
Speaker 2: going up to Mount Mitchell. It's Carolina hemlocks that area,
Speaker 2: and it has a road at the back of the
Speaker 2: campground that goes to the Parkway. Sometimes that gate is
Speaker 2: open in winter and sometimes it's not. I haven't been
Speaker 2: there in years. I don't know what the status of
Speaker 2: it is now. When it would rain in Marion and
Speaker 2: Spruce Pond, wherever we happened to be that night, and
Speaker 2: it was thirty five thirty six degrees, we would always
Speaker 2: go up to Mount Mitchell see if we go hang
Speaker 2: out in snow. We never gave two thoughts to anything
Speaker 2: else other than seeing snow. That was our entire purpose
Speaker 2: for going up there. So we've done this several times
Speaker 2: over the years. I'd just gotten out of the military.
Speaker 2: It's March of ninety three and it was thirty four
Speaker 2: to thirty five degrees down and Marion I was visiting
Speaker 2: my friend. I wasn't quite out of the military, but
Speaker 2: I was really close and he said, as usual, let's
Speaker 2: go Mount Mitche. Let's see if can get up to
Speaker 2: the top of Mount Mitchell. Okay, no problem, We're getting
Speaker 2: his jeep. He had a CJ seven, very good at
Speaker 2: driving in the snow, because when you go to the
Speaker 2: Parkway and there's nobody there. You're the only one in
Speaker 2: and out right, so I know the whole night nobody
Speaker 2: came behind us. I'm skimming ahead. Sorry. That night we left,
Speaker 2: we went to Bucks Creek. We got there, went to
Speaker 2: the back road, got up to the parkway. The gate
Speaker 2: was open, not an issue. Got on the parkway three
Speaker 2: four inches of snow. It took us probably till ten
Speaker 2: thirty ten forty five at night. It took us about
Speaker 2: an hour to get up there from Marion. It wasn't
Speaker 2: that bad. At the top, they usually have a gate
Speaker 2: that closes off going to the welcome center and the
Speaker 2: campground because it splits off in a couple. There's the
Speaker 2: one road that goes to Mount Mitchell, one way in,
Speaker 2: one way out up to the top of Mount Mitchell
Speaker 2: from the parkway. That probably mile and a half road
Speaker 2: is where we had our whatever happened, we go all
Speaker 2: the way to the top, or excuse me, we go
Speaker 2: as far as we can before the gate right before
Speaker 2: the welcome center of the gates closed. We mess around
Speaker 2: in some snow drifts because right there is where the
Speaker 2: snow drifts come over. Goofed off, got in the jeep,
Speaker 2: came back down the hill. As we're coming down the hill,
Speaker 2: you'll I've got it marked on a GPS spot and
Speaker 2: when you take out the trees you're able to see
Speaker 2: how it was in nineteen ninety three, thirty two years ago.
Speaker 2: It's flat right off the road, but then there's an
Speaker 2: embankment that goes up, and of course the hill the
Speaker 2: mountain continues going up because you're coming down the mountain
Speaker 2: at that point. Just a little bit. We come around
Speaker 2: the right turn and there's deer, deer tracks, deer jumping around.
Speaker 2: We get out. We look at the deer tracks. Oh
Speaker 2: that's cool. It's my friend and I. He's driving. I'm
Speaker 2: in the passenger's side. We go probably a quarter mile.
Speaker 2: We see those deer deer tracks. Get out. Look that's great.
Speaker 2: Get back in the jeep. Go down again. I see
Speaker 2: more tracks, but it looks a little bit different. And
Speaker 2: I told my friend to stop, and he said, no,
Speaker 2: I'm not going to stop. It's just deer track. And
Speaker 2: he stopped. I got out, he said, I instantly turned white,
Speaker 2: trick white as a sheet. I felt. I felt immediately frozen.
Speaker 2: If I just froze, I couldn't move. I was astounded, stunned,
Speaker 2: and what was there was a huge footprint bear. There
Speaker 2: are no other tracks. Nobody knew we were going up there.
Speaker 2: It could have been a hoax, absolutely, but I'm telling you,
Speaker 2: nobody knew we were there. I didn't give a crap
Speaker 2: about Bigfoot. I never gave two thoughts to it, never,
Speaker 2: never in my life. And I can just I can
Speaker 2: still see it. So I jumped ran back to the jeep,
Speaker 2: and he said, what's wrong? Because I was telling him, googy,
Speaker 2: get out of here, to get out of here, get
Speaker 2: out of here. He said what He stopped, He got out,
Speaker 2: he went, He looked and I saw him his face
Speaker 2: he turned white, white as a sheet. He come running
Speaker 2: back in, jumped in the jeep. We took off and
Speaker 2: it took about ten seconds. Wait wait, wait, wait, somebody
Speaker 2: is messing with us. Somebody is having somebody's hoax and us.
Speaker 2: There's a ranger up here. He's you know, he's messing
Speaker 2: with us. Somebody. This can't be real. This has got
Speaker 2: to be a joke. We turned back around, We go
Speaker 2: back up to the clearing. We only went maybe one
Speaker 2: hundred yards down the road before we stopped and turn around.
Speaker 2: So we get out. We look and that whatever it
Speaker 2: was with no shoes, whose feet were eighteen inches sixteen
Speaker 2: seventeen inches long in the snow, was standing there with
Speaker 2: the deer. So we had a spotlight. He took the
Speaker 2: spotlight and went up in the tree line above us
Speaker 2: and eyes flash and I crap my pants. It was deer.
Speaker 2: But still it was kind of funny because like, oh,
Speaker 2: and it was deer, but seeing that they were still there,
Speaker 2: and I thought that, I thought that whatever was with
Speaker 2: the deer and whatever was watching over was watching us,
Speaker 2: and it was just you just got a funny, funny,
Speaker 2: funky feeling. So and looking at what the deer did.
Speaker 2: They went up one way up the embankment, but whatever
Speaker 2: was standing there watching get this so you can plainly
Speaker 2: see it goes uphill. Now, now we did go back
Speaker 2: down and grab a video camera and come back up,
Speaker 2: and I'll get to that in a minute, because we
Speaker 2: had to document the strides of how far this whatever
Speaker 2: it was, traveled, because you can't. I couldn't hoax it
Speaker 2: no matter how much I tried. The the area was
Speaker 2: a little flat, goes up a hill on up a
Speaker 2: small embankment, so it had one foot at the bottom
Speaker 2: of the embankment, its left foot was at the bottom,
Speaker 2: its right foot was in the middle of the hill,
Speaker 2: but its right foot was pointed towards the road, and
Speaker 2: its left foot was just above it, pointed towards the woods,
Speaker 2: going straight uphill. Okay, So as we looked and discovered
Speaker 2: the position of everything, we think that we were so
Speaker 2: freaking close to seeing him eye to eye when we
Speaker 2: came around the corner, because his foot was pointing at
Speaker 2: the truck coming around the corner. You know, he was
Speaker 2: watching us come around. And then he jumped one more
Speaker 2: step up on top of the embankment, and then he
Speaker 2: took off through the woods. So one at the bottom,
Speaker 2: two in the middle, one at the top. I went
Speaker 2: over probably five seven feet left of him and did
Speaker 2: my best to get up the hill. And there's a
Speaker 2: foot of snow. There's more than a foot of snow
Speaker 2: at this point, because this was an hour later and
Speaker 2: on top of Mount Mitchell. So we stayed there a
Speaker 2: pretty good while, and it snowed pretty hard. It took
Speaker 2: me eighteen steps to get up that embankment. I'm six
Speaker 2: foot two, two hundred and ten pounds, and I was
Speaker 2: a heck of an athlete. Still am I'm close to several. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I'm not a lazy person by any means. So whatever
Speaker 2: it was had zero problem climbing up that hill in
Speaker 2: three And that would have been impossible for me in
Speaker 2: the dry land if it was flat impossible for me,
Speaker 2: maybe not somebody else but me let alone and over
Speaker 2: a foot of snow. So we haul back down the mountain,
Speaker 2: grab the video camera, Grab our other friend, Jeff comes
Speaker 2: with us. We all get up there and he's thinking
Speaker 2: it's a hope. Well we're telling him the truth. Well,
Speaker 2: this is it. This is blah blah blah, blah blah.
Speaker 2: We get up there, we film it. We filmed the
Speaker 2: whole site, and it snowed a little bit. It was
Speaker 2: a little rough. I mean, this is nineteen ninety three,
Speaker 2: so it's not you know, four K ultra vision. But
Speaker 2: my friend has downloaded that to Google and you get
Speaker 2: a sense of you can see where it went up
Speaker 2: the hill and went up to the embankment and how
Speaker 2: big the size of the prince were compared to my shoe.
Speaker 2: And I was wearing a size twelve boot at the time,
Speaker 2: and it just was one and a half the size
Speaker 2: of mine. Five distinct toes huge man. It was huge,
Speaker 2: and it sank all the way down. You know, I
Speaker 2: did not even at two ten, two twenty. I didn't
Speaker 2: sink all the way down, but it did. We filmed
Speaker 2: it and put it on Google. Forgot about it. My
Speaker 2: friend found the tape after his mother passed, found it
Speaker 2: in the garage, and ever since then I've been fascinated
Speaker 2: with it. I never gave it two seconds salt. It's
Speaker 2: just not been my thing. But ever since then, I
Speaker 2: can't help but think how to this we came to
Speaker 2: seeing one and how it really changed changed my view
Speaker 2: on a lot of things. But it was pretty cool.
Speaker 2: Either somebody pulled a really good hopes or we saw
Speaker 2: something up there that was unexplainable at the time.
Speaker 1: Wow, Greg, that is man. It's one of those stories
Speaker 1: where it's like it's so so close, man, But it
Speaker 1: sounded like it really did change the rest of your life.
Speaker 1: Did you did you get involved with trying to go
Speaker 1: out again and have another close encounter after this at all?
Speaker 2: Well? I sure did. As long as I was in
Speaker 2: the area, I always would go to Mount Mitchell. That's
Speaker 2: where I proposed to my wife. I would always ride
Speaker 2: my motorcycle up there. It's just a really special place
Speaker 2: because there's nobody around for miles. Well, what you don't
Speaker 2: understand is when you get to Mount Mitchell there are
Speaker 2: no businesses, there are no homes, there are no streets,
Speaker 2: there are no turns, there are no lights, none of that,
Speaker 2: and it's completely shut off in the winter, so there's
Speaker 2: nothing there. And it racked my brain on who or
Speaker 2: what could that do. Now we did in the summertime,
Speaker 2: we went back up to speak to a ranger and
Speaker 2: I said, Hey, have you ever had And I asked
Speaker 2: him just a roundabout question, you know, and I said,
Speaker 2: we came up here in the winter and saw something
Speaker 2: rather questionable. And he kind of looked at us kind
Speaker 2: of funny, like, what do you mean questionable? And I said, well,
Speaker 2: you know, we just saw tracks and he said really
Speaker 2: big tracks and I said yeah, and he just kind
Speaker 2: of chuckled and didn't say anything else about it. I
Speaker 2: I've never had another experience. I've never come close. I've
Speaker 2: never heard anything. You know, I never did before, I
Speaker 2: never did after, but I certainly do look listen and
Speaker 2: you know, Thinker Thunker is one of my He's one
Speaker 2: of my one of the guys that I love to
Speaker 2: listen to his reason and his logic and how he
Speaker 2: breaks it down. And I've always had something of that
Speaker 2: nature in me. And we actually have a friend who says,
Speaker 2: if he ever sees bigfoot, he's gonna shoot him, and
Speaker 2: I said, if you shoot him, I'm gonna shoot you.
Speaker 2: And we kind of go back and forth at it,
Speaker 2: but we thought it'd be a good reality show to
Speaker 2: take him out and see if we couldn't find one.
Speaker 2: But uh, you know, it's it's something that I just
Speaker 2: believe as wholeheartedly as there we don't know everything that's
Speaker 2: on this place, and that's very I don't know, that's
Speaker 2: very grandiose if we think we know everything that's going on.
Speaker 2: So I try and leave an open mind and who
Speaker 2: knows what's out there?
Speaker 1: Oh, I agree one hundred percent. You know, you always
Speaker 1: see the reports of what new animals are discovered in
Speaker 1: the year and all the things down the rainforest, and
Speaker 1: I don't think it's out of the question to, you know,
Speaker 1: think we've got something in North America as well that
Speaker 1: we still haven't got down yet. That that's what my
Speaker 1: hope is. But is this footage available to watch anywhere?
Speaker 2: Well, I'm one hundred percent sure I can get it
Speaker 2: for my friend. I mean he he did download it
Speaker 2: to Google Drive and he sent it to me. Okay,
Speaker 2: I since moved and let me look real quick because
Speaker 2: I might have it if I can, I could just
Speaker 2: you know, you know, I did Google Earth the location
Speaker 2: and you can certainly see what I'm talking about where
Speaker 2: we come around the corner.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's pretty cool. Sometimes. You know, people I talked
Speaker 1: to they have they actually have, you know, a video,
Speaker 1: and I've started to actually put it in some of
Speaker 1: them our recent episodes. I mean, if if it's something
Speaker 1: where you would be up for that, or if not,
Speaker 1: that's that's fine too.
Speaker 2: I can always just yeah, I would be Yeah, I
Speaker 2: got zero problem doing that. That would be I think
Speaker 2: that'd be really cool. Yeah, yeah, totally yeah. I can
Speaker 2: tell him to send that to me right now. Actually,
Speaker 2: I just get him on sure.
Speaker 1: Have you ever heard anyone else in that Mount Mitchell
Speaker 1: area having interactions or seeing weird things like what happened
Speaker 1: to you guys?
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, that's uh, it's pretty much. Uh. In Bakersville
Speaker 2: towards the Rhone, they have the same thing and people
Speaker 2: are a lot of people are putting up their their
Speaker 2: their trop cam's or ring footage, you know, and they're
Speaker 2: getting some really funky stuff in the woods at night.
Speaker 2: The the closest one that we have here is Little
Speaker 2: Switzerland and fire Tower Road. They have a couple of
Speaker 2: people that have been there for generations, you know, a
Speaker 2: few hundred a couple of hundred years probably, And this
Speaker 2: guy swears up and down that bigfoot comes up, takes
Speaker 2: his food, takes his trash, runs through it because of
Speaker 2: what he does. And it's pretty funny because it's it's
Speaker 2: something that I could I could get behind here and
Speaker 2: the guy speak, you know, I'm just thinking, yeah, I
Speaker 2: can see this, and and you do get a lot
Speaker 2: of questionable footage as what as to what that is?
Speaker 2: People hunting? The big one is the North Carolina hunter
Speaker 2: and Thanksgiving. I'm sure you've you've had to have seen
Speaker 2: this footage. But he's in a tree stand and one
Speaker 2: comes underneath him. And he's in Bakerfield, which is seven
Speaker 2: eight miles away from us, and it's crazy what went
Speaker 2: right underneath him, huge and hooping like a like an owl,
Speaker 2: excuse me, like a monkey.
Speaker 1: I believe I know the one you're talking about. So
Speaker 1: do you know the indi sedule that was involved with that,
Speaker 1: or just it's one that.
Speaker 2: Gets past it. I do not. Yeah, it's just one
Speaker 2: that gets past I know. I know several people that
Speaker 2: claim they have it on their their ring cam, and
Speaker 2: it's just you gotta you gotta wonder what's what's out
Speaker 2: there because anything is possible.
Speaker 1: So oh so I just kind of realize what you said.
Speaker 1: So you know actual people that have the like the
Speaker 1: ring cam where you just have it on your back
Speaker 1: door and they've captured stuff. Yes, oh man, that's not stude.
Speaker 1: I wonder if a ring cam has I R.
Speaker 2: I know, I'm trying to think somebody else said the
Speaker 2: reason what it was here and over what I've heard,
Speaker 2: and I'm not sure which one is which, but it
Speaker 2: seems to be somewhat true. The they have a trouble
Speaker 2: or excuse me, they don't have a problem seeing infra
Speaker 2: red light. But a man in Texas was with a
Speaker 2: sniperscope inside of his house and he said every time
Speaker 2: he was inside using his scope and using IR he
Speaker 2: could see him, but when he went outside he couldn't.
Speaker 2: And he thinks that they have some they have somewhere
Speaker 2: of detecting what light. I don't know. I think anything
Speaker 2: is possible at this point. It's it's just blowing my mind.
Speaker 2: And I've vacationed in Siberia, traveled there several times, lived
Speaker 2: in Japan, and they just know it's a it's a fact.
Speaker 2: It's just something that lives out in the wild, the
Speaker 2: wild man, and it's you you want to talk about.
Speaker 2: They talk about the Almaski. That's him. Yeah, yeah, they
Speaker 2: they yeah, they don't have any problems saying, yeah, we
Speaker 2: know it is we leave alone.
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly. I h this is years and years ago.
Speaker 1: I interviewed a lady, her name is Jackie Talks. She's
Speaker 1: a researcher from the UK, and she would go to
Speaker 1: that area, you know, Siberia and Russia and looking for
Speaker 1: the Almasti and it was so funny that the farmers
Speaker 1: were just like totally confused. They were like, why are
Speaker 1: you guys spending all this time and money looking for
Speaker 1: something that obviously exists and we see it all the time.
Speaker 1: It was just the craziest thing to them. So I
Speaker 1: thought that was the coolest thing ever. But yeah, it's
Speaker 1: good to show you perspective. But when you're in some
Speaker 1: of these areas like Siberia or Japan, So you were
Speaker 1: talking to people over there like, Okay, what kind of
Speaker 1: weird stuff you guys got over here or things like that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely absolutely, And I'm a cold and snow guy.
Speaker 2: I've always been a cold and snow guy, which is
Speaker 2: why we would go up to Mount Mitchell. It was
Speaker 2: never about Bigfoot or anything else. It was just cold snow.
Speaker 2: So one of my places I've always wanted to go
Speaker 2: to Siberia, and when I got there, I had already
Speaker 2: had my incident. So I asked around when I was there, Greg,
Speaker 2: everyone knows this exists. Why you ask, you know, the
Speaker 2: common knowledge like, not even a big deal.
Speaker 1: Wow, was there any any conversation like that over in
Speaker 1: Japan at all? Any any weirdness?
Speaker 2: Oh? Yeah, you know, Japan doesn't. They don't have I
Speaker 2: think that's one of the few places that does not
Speaker 2: have some kind of forced giant, but they still have
Speaker 2: the Kappa, which is this extreme. I don't know how
Speaker 2: to I don't know how to describe it, but it's
Speaker 2: it's a it's a weird animal sprite kind of I
Speaker 2: don't know, man, I've never had any of those experiences.
Speaker 1: So yeah, you forget them.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, but I never heard of big foot or
Speaker 2: anything like that being in Ja man.
Speaker 1: I think uh, I think turtle sprite is probably a
Speaker 1: good way to put it. It's it's a weird it's
Speaker 1: a weird crypt I remember reading and seeing about it
Speaker 1: in Lauren Coleman's museum out in Maine, and there's some
Speaker 1: weird stuff.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: Listeners can can do some research check that out if
Speaker 1: you want. But it's it's interesting Japanese crypti culture is
Speaker 1: is a interesting time. But you know, based off of.
Speaker 2: This.
Speaker 1: Okay, so a few things this area, this Mount Mitchell area.
Speaker 1: First off, was it was it hit pretty hard by
Speaker 1: the hurricane that went through a few years ago.
Speaker 2: I would imagine six months ago. Yeah, I would imagine
Speaker 2: it was yeah, oh my goodness, it was last September. Yeah,
Speaker 2: so it's I would imagine they got hit. But man,
Speaker 2: that place gets stormed all the time. So it's it's
Speaker 2: nothing new for Mount Mitchell. But there's not many people
Speaker 2: up there. I think actually it was worse at lower
Speaker 2: lower elevation. I don't know, I could be wrong, but
Speaker 2: it's the perfect place for one to be if you
Speaker 2: think about it, in the area. You were in the
Speaker 2: area I am where I am. It's it's the only
Speaker 2: place where there isn't a population of people anywhere. There's
Speaker 2: nobody there, you know. It's that's what gets me, is
Speaker 2: is is the fact there's no one around and nobody
Speaker 2: knew we were going there that night. We didn't even
Speaker 2: know we were going there that night and that happened.
Speaker 2: It's it's it's just confusing.
Speaker 1: Are there any any stories or legends that get passed
Speaker 1: down in this area about them? Do you think this
Speaker 1: is a creature that's been seen for for quite a while.
Speaker 2: Yeah, when you go back and look in North Carolina
Speaker 2: in this area since the nineteen early nineteen seventies. One
Speaker 2: one lady here in Bakersville, which is the next town
Speaker 2: over I mentioned before, same things, she saw one through
Speaker 2: her backyard and for about a couple of weeks there
Speaker 2: in nineteen I don't know what year it was, seventy one,
Speaker 2: seventy two. There were a lot of sightings in Bakersville,
Speaker 2: like there was one that was just you know, walking around.
Speaker 2: But it's sporadic at best. And I always thought the
Speaker 2: best place to have it, do do a recrin and
Speaker 2: do a research would be Mount Mitchell because there's just
Speaker 2: nothing there. But you know, you've got to stay in
Speaker 2: the winter time, get special permits and be allowed to
Speaker 2: stay there and camp there for a couple of weeks
Speaker 2: because you're not just going to walk up on something.
Speaker 2: It has to find you. You're not gonna we're not
Speaker 2: gonna find get you know, we all know if it's
Speaker 2: gonna find you, it'll find you. But I'm not gonna
Speaker 2: be able to track something down like that. There's no way, no.
Speaker 1: I I agree with you. You know, people think that they're
Speaker 1: gonna do some some sneaking up on it. You're gonna
Speaker 1: the moment that you're in that area, like it's it
Speaker 1: already knows already.
Speaker 2: It knows, it knows. It's It's very interesting to see
Speaker 2: how many they have the Bigfoot Festival and Marion every year.
Speaker 2: I think that's coming up in May, uh and they
Speaker 2: they always have that, and my friends have We've talked
Speaker 2: about it for years, about telling our story, but I don't.
Speaker 2: I don't tell many people. I just don't. You know,
Speaker 2: that's not I tell a few people, few of my
Speaker 2: good friends know, and a lot of my good friends
Speaker 2: don't because I don't. It's not that I'm embarrassed. I
Speaker 2: just didn't. It was tough to tell people because they
Speaker 2: instantly think you're pulling their leg or you're full of crap,
Speaker 2: you know, and it's just it's I don't need that attention.
Speaker 2: It's kind of it's unsettling to realize there's something there
Speaker 2: that could snap me in half. And I'm just I
Speaker 2: don't know. He's just I was really yeah, I was
Speaker 2: freakiously aware in my I still to this day, my
Speaker 2: hair stands up and I can remember it instantly, you know.
Speaker 2: It's it's something that you don't forget. I never want to.
Speaker 1: Did you guys send in a report to the BFRO.
Speaker 2: My buddy did. He gave the same report to the
Speaker 2: North Carolina Bigfoot Researchers and he sent it to me.
Speaker 2: He said, hey, here's what I wrote. And you know,
Speaker 2: we've never collaborated or collaborated or told stories. It's everybody,
Speaker 2: all four of us have the version, and it's just
Speaker 2: it's pretty cool to hear them tell their side of
Speaker 2: the story because from what they saw, their perspective, you know,
Speaker 2: we all had that different view. But Marty made us
Speaker 2: take him up there the next day and we took
Speaker 2: him up there and showed him and he was completely
Speaker 2: blown away because the tracks were still there and nothing left,
Speaker 2: you know, and the snow stopped, so it was preserved
Speaker 2: for quite some time.
Speaker 1: It's there's some intro. It's very so this is such
Speaker 1: a cool example of I love it when there's a
Speaker 1: person I'm talking to but then there's a report, but
Speaker 1: the report is from a different person in the same party.
Speaker 1: It is so cool just because there's different ways of
Speaker 1: looking at things, and sometimes there's other details. For example,
Speaker 1: you know, he does call out the length of the
Speaker 1: tracks are about fourteen inches long, but also is seven
Speaker 1: inches wide, which is a really interesting detail for him
Speaker 1: to throw in.
Speaker 2: Interesting. Well, so you're looking at it right there.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, I got it.
Speaker 2: I got it right. So the years, the years have grown,
Speaker 2: the fish has gotten bigger, would I say, like sixteen
Speaker 2: or sixteen or seventeen inches?
Speaker 1: Well, I mean, and that's I don't think, you know.
Speaker 2: It could have been dependent upon a track as well.
Speaker 2: I mean, a different track of different spot, snow melt,
Speaker 2: several issues.
Speaker 1: And that's the thing is, it's like, you know, I've
Speaker 1: I've experienced this myself personally, like just being out in
Speaker 1: Oregon because I didn't make notes like I can't. I
Speaker 1: found tracks way out in the woods, and I would
Speaker 1: have to say they were either fifteen or sixteen inches.
Speaker 1: I can't say one hundred percent because I didn't write
Speaker 1: it down.
Speaker 2: And that was just this last July. So wow.
Speaker 1: Another cool thing is that he does say that the
Speaker 1: four wheeling in a jeep, no one in the vehicle
Speaker 1: had a drop to drink anytime that evening, which is
Speaker 1: that's actually a super huge detail.
Speaker 2: So I couldn't. I couldn't be a part of any
Speaker 2: drugs or any type of none of that. And my
Speaker 2: mother was hit by a drunk driver. I never drank
Speaker 2: and drive never. I still don't drink to this day.
Speaker 2: I just don't.
Speaker 1: Sorry, sorry to hear that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that is.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, it's it's funny how you mentioned what
Speaker 1: you had said to the the ranger, because you know,
Speaker 1: I hear you hear just different versions of that. But
Speaker 1: it's almost like the guy is saying in his mind,
Speaker 1: you know, come come back when I'm retired. You know,
Speaker 1: we'll have a chat, because you would have You wouldn't
Speaker 1: even believe the stuff that I've experienced and heard up
Speaker 1: up here.
Speaker 2: But I can only imagine I let those guys see
Speaker 2: all kinds of stuff.
Speaker 1: When after the hurricane happened. This is just off to
Speaker 1: the side. I don't even know if I'll leave this
Speaker 1: in But did you did you hear any any stories
Speaker 1: going around of people having sightings after the hurricane hit
Speaker 1: up there?
Speaker 2: I did not.
Speaker 1: Okay, that's something I joking once in a while, because
Speaker 1: I did have someone reach out to me once. I
Speaker 1: used to do a call in show and actually it
Speaker 1: was weird, man. They reached They reached out during the
Speaker 1: call in show and they were sharing about how they
Speaker 1: had left their house and there was there were like
Speaker 1: these volunteers that come in to try to help out.
Speaker 1: They weren't there the homeowners, and they were finding all
Speaker 1: sorts of stuff. And then as she's sharing all this,
Speaker 1: the phone gets disconnected and I couldn't get back in
Speaker 1: touch with her.
Speaker 2: I was like that kind of.
Speaker 1: Thing, That kind of thing makes you wonder. It happens
Speaker 1: a lot to me. Actually, yeah, it's it's pretty wild stuff.
Speaker 1: So this Mount Mitchell, when you say that there's a
Speaker 1: lot of space up there where just people aren't around,
Speaker 1: can you give us a rough estimate as like how
Speaker 1: much of an area is it where there's just not
Speaker 1: people out there, and it's a perfect spot for this
Speaker 1: guy to be up there.
Speaker 2: You go from you go from about thirty eight hundred
Speaker 2: feet thirty six thirty seven hundred feet just above the
Speaker 2: little Switzerland to where they they close it off. From there, nobody,
Speaker 2: no business is four thirty five forty miles up to
Speaker 2: the top. And if you continued on and went down
Speaker 2: the other side, you're looking again at another twenty twenty
Speaker 2: five miles, So it would probably be fifty five sixty
Speaker 2: miles of nothing on a one way in, one way
Speaker 2: out road right, just one road. There are no branches,
Speaker 2: there are no other sub roads except for the occasional
Speaker 2: fire road. And that's the state park. So I don't
Speaker 2: know the exact square mileage of that state park. But
Speaker 2: nobody's there, No businesses, no homes, nothing, it's not allowed. Man.
Speaker 1: That's that's that's the kind of thing that makes you wonder, because, yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: you got like forty fifty miles. That's a nice little
Speaker 1: east of land, especially for the East Coast, where something could.
Speaker 2: Just hang out and not have to unprotected.
Speaker 1: Yeah, especially since you're saying it's a one way in,
Speaker 1: one way out road, so very easy to keep an
Speaker 1: eye on.
Speaker 2: For sure. I really think it would be worth the
Speaker 2: worth the effort to to have some type of reconnaissance
Speaker 2: or show up in up at Mount Mitchell and just
Speaker 2: have you know, the ability to stay there for a
Speaker 2: couple of weeks. I think you could get a really good,
Speaker 2: surprising result. It's not a well known place. People don't
Speaker 2: really go looking forward up there, that kind of thing,
Speaker 2: So you know, the less it's sought after, I guess
Speaker 2: maybe the better off it is remaining hidden. I don't know.
Speaker 2: It's kind of a twenty.
Speaker 1: Two Yeah, that's the thing. I mean, it's it can
Speaker 1: get so interesting because it's like as humans and I
Speaker 1: guess I'm just speaking for myself, I mean, we have
Speaker 1: that curiosity if there is you know, living in a
Speaker 1: culture where we have so much information and we think
Speaker 1: we have all the information in the world, and then
Speaker 1: if you find out no, there's this big thing where
Speaker 1: you guys have no idea what's going on. I think
Speaker 1: it just it just eats at us as a culture
Speaker 1: and we're like, no, we have to know exactly what's
Speaker 1: going on. And then another side you have to think
Speaker 1: is it really the best for whatever is going on.
Speaker 1: If we go in there and mess it up, I
Speaker 1: don't know, man.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm a little I would be a little weary
Speaker 2: of doing that. Just just do to why mess up
Speaker 2: his home? Yeah? I mean if it is and this
Speaker 2: is a species, I think why he doesn't of that?
Speaker 2: You know, I can let it exist without having that issue,
Speaker 2: But it's something I'd love to see and I'd love
Speaker 2: to get more into.
Speaker 1: Absolutely the other individuals that other individuals that were with
Speaker 1: you in the jeep, did this affect them at all? Either?
Speaker 1: Did they start becoming really interested in the subject or
Speaker 1: not so much?
Speaker 2: Yeah? They do. And we still, you know, we still
Speaker 2: talk about it and make jokes about it and send
Speaker 2: bigfoot stuff to each other all the time. It's funny,
Speaker 2: but you know, we we all have our own lives.
Speaker 2: We lead our lives. But still none of us stopped
Speaker 2: everything and became a complete, you know, big pootoholic. But
Speaker 2: we certainly have, yeah, the ability to turn it on
Speaker 2: and listen and be aware of other stories and encounters
Speaker 2: because it makes it all tells a story when you
Speaker 2: start putting them all together, that this many people can't
Speaker 2: be in on something like that. It's just it's too convenient. Oh,
Speaker 2: it's too easy.
Speaker 1: In this kind of show, you know, it will it
Speaker 1: will bring out other people that have had things happen.
Speaker 1: And the way that you're talking about this area like
Speaker 1: there have been other people that have had stuff happen.
Speaker 1: I guarantee it, like it is just an absolutely area.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: I'm sure that you've you've played over that night a
Speaker 1: lot over the years. You probably you know, thought of
Speaker 1: it a few times. Is there if you could go
Speaker 1: back to that that time, is there anything that you
Speaker 1: would choose to do differently or have things play out
Speaker 1: as as they did?
Speaker 2: Uh? You know, I went up when I went up
Speaker 2: the embankment, I've followed through the woods a little bit.
Speaker 2: I went through I don't know, maybe twenty five thirty
Speaker 2: feet and I can still see the light from the
Speaker 2: jeep down at the ball them. But it stepped, it
Speaker 2: took one step, and then it cleared a branch that
Speaker 2: was about four feet high and it was three or
Speaker 2: four feet on the on the other side of it,
Speaker 2: you know, and I had to go under it, and
Speaker 2: I just remember looking up at the trees and the
Speaker 2: snow was cleared eight feet now whether or not it
Speaker 2: was using its hands when it was walking through or
Speaker 2: its head or whatever the case was. I just thought, man,
Speaker 2: I really don't need What am I going to do?
Speaker 2: What am I going to do if I stop and
Speaker 2: see it, you know, crap my pants and then what's
Speaker 2: going to happen then? So I didn't have to ride
Speaker 2: home with that? Yeah, I can't think of anything else
Speaker 2: I would do different other than I wish. I just
Speaker 2: really part of me wants, part of me wants to
Speaker 2: go back and just arrived five seconds earlier with the
Speaker 2: lights off and bang, turn them on and see what
Speaker 2: he looked like. Just see what it look like, you know,
Speaker 2: just was it white? Was it dark? Brown? Was it red?
Speaker 2: Was it black? Was he you know? What was he?
Speaker 2: Because he lives up on the mountain Mitche when it
Speaker 2: snows all the time. Did he have whiter skin or
Speaker 2: whiter hair, grayer hair, whatever the case may be. It's
Speaker 2: It's something I would love to have seen. Maybe it
Speaker 2: would have affected me different.
Speaker 1: The cool thing is that you are still going up
Speaker 1: there at different times of the year. When you're up there,
Speaker 1: do you ever hear any noises that don't belong or
Speaker 1: smell anything of the ordinary when you're up there.
Speaker 2: I know I don't. And the only few times that
Speaker 2: I've really stopped and you know, listened, I think to myself,
Speaker 2: am I doing this? Am I wanting something? Am I
Speaker 2: wanting to hear something? Am I going to make up
Speaker 2: in my mind that I did hear something this time?
Speaker 2: You know what I mean? Because it was so full
Speaker 2: fetched for us to see anything like that whatsoever. The
Speaker 2: odds are just through the room that that would happen.
Speaker 2: And it's yeah, I I want to say, yeah, I
Speaker 2: grew something, but I've never I never have never seen anything,
Speaker 2: never even come closed, never heard anything. It's crazy. It's
Speaker 2: just that one time and boom been looking ever since.
Speaker 1: The really cool thing though about this, this whole thing,
Speaker 1: is that you do have footage of what happened. It
Speaker 1: sounds like and and so often you know people that
Speaker 1: share their encounters, it's just it's just a memory they have.
Speaker 1: But you have something tangible, if it's still you know, uh,
Speaker 1: it's if it still exists. You have something tangible that
Speaker 1: that he does.
Speaker 2: He's going to send it. You were there, so I'll
Speaker 2: email it to you. Yeah, so make sure you send
Speaker 2: me an email and I'll email it to you. Sure. Yeah, absolutely, yeah,
Speaker 2: that was that, you know, that was the tale to
Speaker 2: sign because he said, my friend said, nobody's gonna believe us.
Speaker 2: We got to go home and get the video camera.
Speaker 2: We got to go get the video camera. We got
Speaker 2: to go get the video and he loved camera. So
Speaker 2: bang we went go. Now instantly we went down so
Speaker 2: fast and that it was raining by the time we
Speaker 2: got the buck Creek, so we were able to make
Speaker 2: it down the mountain pretty quick.
Speaker 1: Man, that would be very interesting. Uh, I'll get you
Speaker 1: that information so we can hopefully you'll be able to
Speaker 1: get sent over and then maybe we can even put
Speaker 1: it in this this video. We'll see if I can
Speaker 1: get all the text stuff to work out. But Greg,
Speaker 1: it's been it's been a real fun time chatting with you.
Speaker 1: I want to make sure is there anything else that
Speaker 1: you wanted to to to share or make sure you
Speaker 1: share before we we finished out our conversation today.
Speaker 2: Nothing I can think of, Nothing I can think of.
Speaker 2: I just if you're out and about, just stay alert,
Speaker 2: stay vigilant, and I think if you do come across something,
Speaker 2: I really believe it has the ability to to know
Speaker 2: our intentions and know our thoughts and I've always I've
Speaker 2: always kept a happy mind on those trails so that
Speaker 2: you know there's no issue, and I don't. I make
Speaker 2: sure I'm not invading someone else's space. It's to be respectful, right,
Speaker 2: no matter what it is, you can at least be respectful.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, Well, thank you so much for chatting.
Speaker 2: It's been with you. I appreciate it. Jeremie, you have
Speaker 2: yourself a great day, sir.
Speaker 1: Just wanted to take a moment to say thank you
Speaker 1: truly for listening to this episode of the big Foot
Speaker 1: Society podcast. Greg's story is one of those rare encounters
Speaker 1: that sticks with you, not just because of what was
Speaker 1: found in the snow, but because of how close it
Speaker 1: came to being something more huge. Thanks to Greg for
Speaker 1: sharing his memories from that chilling night on Mount Mitchell,
Speaker 1: and for reminding us that sometimes the unexplained finds you
Speaker 1: when you least expect it. If you enjoyed this conversation,
Speaker 1: please subscribe on YouTube to us hit That so you
Speaker 1: don't miss any new episodes, and share this one with
Speaker 1: a friend who's into Bigfoot, Appalachia or just good old
Speaker 1: fashioned mystery. If you're listening on Apple podcasts or Spotify.
Speaker 1: Make sure you're following the show and if you'd be
Speaker 1: willing to leave a review, it really helps more folks
Speaker 1: find us.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: If you are someone you know has had a Bigfoot encounter,
Speaker 1: especially in western North Carolina around places like Buck Creek,
Speaker 1: Little Switzerland, Bakersville, or anywhere near Mount Mitchell, I'd love
Speaker 1: to hear from you. Shoot me an email at Bigfoot
Speaker 1: Society at gmail dot com and let's talk. Also, don't
Speaker 1: forget Sasquatch Summerfest is coming up July eleven through twelfth
Speaker 1: at Greenwaters Park in Oakridge, Oregon. Bigfoot Society listeners can
Speaker 1: grab a two day pass for the price of one
Speaker 1: with code BFS at checkout Huge Thanks to Priscilla for
Speaker 1: making that happen. Tickets are available now at www dot
Speaker 1: Sasquatch Summerfest dot com. Thanks again for being part of
Speaker 1: the Bigfoot Society, and until next time, keep your eyes open,
Speaker 1: trust your gut, and never stop asking what else might
Speaker 1: be out there just to see you in the woods.