WEBVTT 1 00:00:02.520 --> 00:00:05.759 For decades, people have disappeared in the woods without a trace. 2 00:00:06.519 --> 00:00:10.279 Some blame wild animals, others whisper of creatures the world 3 00:00:10.359 --> 00:00:14.160 refuses to believe in. But those who have survived they 4 00:00:14.199 --> 00:00:18.679 know the truth. Welcome to Backwoods Bigfoot Stories, where we 5 00:00:18.719 --> 00:00:22.839 share real encounters with the things lurking in the darkness bigfoot, 6 00:00:23.199 --> 00:00:28.239 dog man, UFOs, and creatures that defy explanation. Some make 7 00:00:28.280 --> 00:00:32.320 it out, others aren't so lucky. Are you ready, because 8 00:00:32.320 --> 00:00:34.640 once you hear these stories, you'll never walk in the 9 00:00:34.640 --> 00:00:38.920 woods alone again. So grab your flashlight, stay close, and 10 00:00:39.039 --> 00:00:41.840 remember some things in the woods don't want to be found. 11 00:00:42.520 --> 00:00:46.240 Hit that follow or subscribe button, turn on auto downloads, 12 00:00:46.439 --> 00:00:48.399 and let's head off into the woods if you dare. 13 00:01:02.799 --> 00:01:06.359 I just finished recording an interview for Sasquatch Odyssey. I 14 00:01:06.400 --> 00:01:09.640 sat down with friend and fellow researcher named Natalie Smearman, 15 00:01:10.239 --> 00:01:12.359 and by the time we wrapped, I knew I'd be 16 00:01:12.400 --> 00:01:14.640 sitting back down at this mic and telling you about 17 00:01:14.680 --> 00:01:17.680 it over here too, because what she shared with me 18 00:01:17.920 --> 00:01:19.879 wasn't the kind of thing you keep to one show. 19 00:01:20.640 --> 00:01:24.879 Some encounters need a wider audience. Some encounters, frankly need 20 00:01:24.879 --> 00:01:27.560 a campfire and a long stretch of quiet woods to 21 00:01:27.599 --> 00:01:30.480 settle into. So that's what we're going to do tonight. 22 00:01:30.959 --> 00:01:34.000 I'm going to tell you what Natalie told me, her words, 23 00:01:34.239 --> 00:01:38.040 her experiences, in the order she lived them, from the 24 00:01:38.079 --> 00:01:41.159 moment she started taking this seriously, all the way through 25 00:01:41.200 --> 00:01:43.439 the week she spent at land between the Lakes that 26 00:01:43.560 --> 00:01:47.640 fundamentally rewrote her understanding of what's out there. Natalie grew 27 00:01:47.719 --> 00:01:50.000 up in West Virginia, and, like a lot of us 28 00:01:50.000 --> 00:01:52.239 who came up in places where the woods pressed right 29 00:01:52.319 --> 00:01:55.400 up against the back porch, she heard the Bigfoot stories 30 00:01:55.439 --> 00:01:59.159 her whole childhood. Heard them at school, heard them from 31 00:01:59.200 --> 00:02:02.400 older cousins, heard them from parents trying to keep kids 32 00:02:02.439 --> 00:02:04.159 from doing the dumb things kids do. 33 00:02:04.159 --> 00:02:05.359 In the woods after dark. 34 00:02:06.159 --> 00:02:08.639 Don't go out to that party, don't run off into 35 00:02:08.719 --> 00:02:11.520 the trees, don't drag a keg out past the tree 36 00:02:11.560 --> 00:02:14.439 line and disappear for the night, because something out there 37 00:02:14.439 --> 00:02:17.479 will get you. She thought it was a joke, That's 38 00:02:17.479 --> 00:02:20.000 how she said it. They all thought it was a joke. 39 00:02:20.520 --> 00:02:23.759 Parental nonsense, the kind of thing grown up say when 40 00:02:23.759 --> 00:02:26.000 they're tired of arguing and want to scare you straight. 41 00:02:26.840 --> 00:02:29.800 She was raised hearing about this creature, and she filed 42 00:02:29.800 --> 00:02:32.159 it under the same drawer where most kids filed the 43 00:02:32.199 --> 00:02:37.639 Boogeyman and the closet monster, funny stories. Nothing more. Then 44 00:02:37.719 --> 00:02:41.400 life moved her down to Florida. She's settling into Central Florida, 45 00:02:41.719 --> 00:02:45.400 raising two kids, going about her business, and one evening, 46 00:02:45.439 --> 00:02:49.159 the local news comes on, not some grainy YouTube channel, 47 00:02:49.560 --> 00:02:52.000 not a friend of a friend on social media, the 48 00:02:52.120 --> 00:02:55.560 actual local news, and the anchor leads with a story 49 00:02:55.599 --> 00:02:58.960 about a bigfoot sighting in the Okalla National Forest about 50 00:02:59.000 --> 00:03:01.400 an hour and a half from where she's living. She 51 00:03:01.520 --> 00:03:04.319 told me her brain just stopped, because if the news 52 00:03:04.360 --> 00:03:07.960 is reporting it, somebody saw something. The news doesn't lead 53 00:03:08.000 --> 00:03:11.000 with the boogeyman. The news leads with what people are 54 00:03:11.039 --> 00:03:14.199 actually calling in about. And here was her local affiliate 55 00:03:14.560 --> 00:03:18.080 in central Florida, of all places, talking about bigfoot in 56 00:03:18.159 --> 00:03:20.479 the swamp pines like it was just another item on 57 00:03:20.520 --> 00:03:23.960 the rundown. That was the moment for her. That was 58 00:03:24.000 --> 00:03:27.439 the spark. She went home and started reading, and she 59 00:03:27.479 --> 00:03:30.759 didn't read casually. She read the way somebody reads when 60 00:03:30.759 --> 00:03:33.360 they've just realized that a thing they laughed at their 61 00:03:33.400 --> 00:03:37.639 whole life might be standing in the trees behind the house. Books, 62 00:03:38.120 --> 00:03:42.400 magazine articles, old interviews, documentaries on whatever. 63 00:03:42.199 --> 00:03:43.599 Channel was running them. 64 00:03:43.879 --> 00:03:47.759 Whatever she could find, she ran down. She started piecing 65 00:03:47.759 --> 00:03:50.240 together a picture of this creature from every angle she 66 00:03:50.280 --> 00:03:54.280 could pull. And then life moved her again. She landed 67 00:03:54.360 --> 00:03:58.240 up north of Boston for a stretch northern Massachusetts, and 68 00:03:58.360 --> 00:04:00.879 right around that time, the local site reports out of 69 00:04:00.879 --> 00:04:05.199 western Massachusetts started coming in heavy forest country out there, 70 00:04:05.639 --> 00:04:09.879 the Berkshires bleeding into the Vermont border, people reporting bipedal 71 00:04:09.919 --> 00:04:13.080 creatures moving through the timber. So she added that to 72 00:04:13.120 --> 00:04:18.680 her file, Florida sidings, Massachusetts sidings. The map kept getting bigger. 73 00:04:19.480 --> 00:04:21.720 By the time she'd move back down to Florida, the 74 00:04:21.720 --> 00:04:24.879 show Finding Bigfoot was on the air. Now, I'll tell 75 00:04:24.879 --> 00:04:27.360 you what she told me about that show. She knew 76 00:04:27.399 --> 00:04:30.720 it was entertainment, she knew it was a production. But 77 00:04:30.800 --> 00:04:33.120 even through the bits that played for laughs, there were 78 00:04:33.199 --> 00:04:36.319 nuggets in there that pointed her toward more serious sources. 79 00:04:36.920 --> 00:04:40.399 She'd watch an episode here, a researcher mentioned a methodology 80 00:04:40.519 --> 00:04:43.000 or a region or a name, and she'd go track 81 00:04:43.040 --> 00:04:45.879 that thread, pull on it, see what was at the 82 00:04:45.920 --> 00:04:49.160 other end. The thing was, she was a mom of 83 00:04:49.199 --> 00:04:52.079 two young kids. At that point, she wasn't packing a 84 00:04:52.120 --> 00:04:55.639 tent and heading into the National forest for a week. Couldn't, 85 00:04:56.240 --> 00:04:59.720 wasn't realistic, So her research stayed in books and on 86 00:04:59.759 --> 00:05:05.040 score theoretical studied. She built up years of reading without 87 00:05:05.079 --> 00:05:07.279 ever once stepping into the woods to look for one 88 00:05:07.319 --> 00:05:10.639 of these things herself. That changed in March of twenty 89 00:05:10.680 --> 00:05:15.240 twenty four. Her marriage ended fast. She didn't dress it 90 00:05:15.319 --> 00:05:16.680 up for me on the call, and I'm not going 91 00:05:16.680 --> 00:05:19.199 to dress it up for you either. It went into 92 00:05:19.240 --> 00:05:22.000 the toilet, was how she put it, quick and ugly. 93 00:05:22.759 --> 00:05:25.600 And her birthday was March sixteenth, right in the middle 94 00:05:25.639 --> 00:05:29.040 of the wreckage. So she did something for herself. She 95 00:05:29.120 --> 00:05:32.240 bought herself a VIP ticket to the Great Florida Bigfoot 96 00:05:32.279 --> 00:05:36.759 Conference in Okalla two days Friday and Saturday, booked a 97 00:05:36.759 --> 00:05:40.480 hotel room, drove herself out there alone, and told herself 98 00:05:40.480 --> 00:05:42.399 she was going to learn as much as she possibly 99 00:05:42.399 --> 00:05:44.600 could and talked to as many people as she possibly 100 00:05:44.639 --> 00:05:47.720 could in the time she had on the ground. That 101 00:05:47.759 --> 00:05:51.040 weekend cracked her life open. She met Adam Davis there, 102 00:05:51.519 --> 00:05:56.120 She met RPG, She met Ken Gearhard, she met witnesses 103 00:05:56.160 --> 00:05:59.040 with encounter stories spanning Florida all the way up through 104 00:05:59.079 --> 00:06:03.399 North Carolina, people who had seen things, heard things, lived 105 00:06:03.439 --> 00:06:06.040 through things, and who were willing to sit and tell 106 00:06:06.040 --> 00:06:09.199 her about it. Because she was sitting and listening, the 107 00:06:09.240 --> 00:06:13.199 southeast was well represented. The Florida community came out in force, 108 00:06:13.639 --> 00:06:15.879 and by the time she drove home from that conference, 109 00:06:16.240 --> 00:06:19.680 her whole posture toward the subject had shifted. She wasn't 110 00:06:19.720 --> 00:06:23.000 a reader anymore. She was about to become a participant. 111 00:06:23.720 --> 00:06:27.480 Her next move was the Gatlinburg conference. She volunteered up there, 112 00:06:27.879 --> 00:06:31.360 worked the event, and then because of the people she'd met, 113 00:06:31.639 --> 00:06:34.839 she got an invitation that most folks dream about. She 114 00:06:34.920 --> 00:06:37.240 got to go out into the forest with Shane Corson, 115 00:06:37.560 --> 00:06:41.399 with Amy bou with Lester Kerr. Names you've heard on 116 00:06:41.439 --> 00:06:45.199 this show, names that mean something in this community. She 117 00:06:45.279 --> 00:06:47.720 told me, she felt like she'd won the lottery. They 118 00:06:47.759 --> 00:06:50.560 took her out for the day, showed her how they squatched, 119 00:06:51.040 --> 00:06:53.959 what to look for, how to read the ground, how 120 00:06:54.000 --> 00:06:57.720 to smell check in area, how rocks get arranged. The 121 00:06:57.720 --> 00:07:01.279 whole vocabulary of field research taught to her first hand 122 00:07:01.319 --> 00:07:04.040 by people who've been doing it for decades. She was 123 00:07:04.040 --> 00:07:08.040 soaking it up asking questions, watching how they moved through 124 00:07:08.079 --> 00:07:10.560 the timber. By the end of that day, she had 125 00:07:10.639 --> 00:07:13.399 more practical knowledge in her head than years of reading 126 00:07:13.480 --> 00:07:15.920 had given her. And that's where she made the mistake. 127 00:07:16.560 --> 00:07:18.560 I'm going to say this exactly the way she said 128 00:07:18.560 --> 00:07:21.720 it to me, because she was emphatic about it. Don't 129 00:07:21.720 --> 00:07:25.920 do this, Nobody listening should ever do this. She decided 130 00:07:25.920 --> 00:07:29.279 to go solo camping in the Everglades. There's a campground 131 00:07:29.279 --> 00:07:32.600 behind the Skunk Ape headquarters, just south of Alligator Alley. 132 00:07:33.160 --> 00:07:37.000 She booked it, drove down by herself off season, set 133 00:07:37.079 --> 00:07:40.000 up her tent. There were a handful of other campers 134 00:07:40.040 --> 00:07:43.240 way off in the distance, but for all practical purposes, 135 00:07:43.279 --> 00:07:45.600 she was alone in one of the most predator rich 136 00:07:45.720 --> 00:07:47.680 environments on the North American continent. 137 00:07:48.360 --> 00:07:50.439 She had her bare spray. That was it. 138 00:07:51.000 --> 00:07:54.160 She set up camp, and she told me looking back, 139 00:07:54.600 --> 00:07:56.199 she set up camp in a way that made her 140 00:07:56.240 --> 00:07:59.759 look as vulnerable as possible. A solo woman in a tent, 141 00:08:00.480 --> 00:08:04.800 off season, way out from any other human being anything 142 00:08:04.800 --> 00:08:07.160 in those swamps could have decided to come check her out, 143 00:08:07.519 --> 00:08:09.399 and there wouldn't have been a single thing she could 144 00:08:09.439 --> 00:08:12.399 have done about it. She knows that now. She knew 145 00:08:12.399 --> 00:08:15.439 it then on some level, but she'd just spent a 146 00:08:15.439 --> 00:08:18.040 weekend with the best researchers in the country, and she 147 00:08:18.120 --> 00:08:21.519 was riding the high Around one point thirty in the morning, 148 00:08:21.759 --> 00:08:25.480 she heard a chirp. Now she's awake, she's lying there 149 00:08:25.480 --> 00:08:29.240 in the tent listening, and she thought to herself, that's 150 00:08:29.279 --> 00:08:32.039 not a normal sound, not for the time of night, 151 00:08:32.600 --> 00:08:35.840 not for the spot, just a single sharp chirp out 152 00:08:35.879 --> 00:08:38.480 in the dark. So she lay there, listening for what 153 00:08:38.600 --> 00:08:42.559 came next. What came next was footsteps right beside her tent, 154 00:08:43.279 --> 00:08:47.679 heavy footsteps, close enough that the ground vibrated, close enough 155 00:08:47.759 --> 00:08:50.360 that she could feel something moving past the thin nylon 156 00:08:50.480 --> 00:08:53.879 wall a few inches from her face. And then after 157 00:08:53.919 --> 00:08:57.000 the footsteps, she heard what sounded like a small child 158 00:08:57.080 --> 00:09:01.919 trying to talk soft garbled, the kind of vocalization that 159 00:09:01.960 --> 00:09:04.000 doesn't belong in a swamp at one point thirty in 160 00:09:04.039 --> 00:09:06.159 the morning, when the nearest human being is half a 161 00:09:06.159 --> 00:09:06.799 mile away. 162 00:09:07.639 --> 00:09:08.399 She sat up. 163 00:09:09.000 --> 00:09:11.039 By the time she sat up and looked, there was 164 00:09:11.080 --> 00:09:14.639 nothing there. Now here's where Natalie's mind started working the 165 00:09:14.679 --> 00:09:17.960 way a researcher's mind ought to work. She got out 166 00:09:17.960 --> 00:09:20.080 of her tent the next morning, talked to some of 167 00:09:20.120 --> 00:09:23.159 the locals around the area. Some of them said, oh, 168 00:09:23.200 --> 00:09:25.799 you had a skunk ape, you had a big foot encounter. 169 00:09:26.120 --> 00:09:28.360 They wanted to plug it right into the most exciting 170 00:09:28.399 --> 00:09:31.799 box on the shelf. She wouldn't let them, She told me, 171 00:09:31.960 --> 00:09:33.679 And this is the part I want you to remember. 172 00:09:33.919 --> 00:09:36.519 You've got to look at it holistically. You've got to 173 00:09:36.559 --> 00:09:40.519 consider every possible explanation. Don't just pick the answer you 174 00:09:40.559 --> 00:09:44.360 want and call it a day. That's not research, that's 175 00:09:44.440 --> 00:09:47.879 wishful thinking. And she was determined not to fall into 176 00:09:47.879 --> 00:09:51.080 that trap her first time out. So she dug into 177 00:09:51.159 --> 00:09:54.279 it and she figured out what had actually happened. It 178 00:09:54.320 --> 00:09:57.679 was a male Florida panther. The chirp was a panther call, 179 00:09:58.200 --> 00:10:01.279 the footsteps were a big cat moved moving in to investigate, 180 00:10:01.639 --> 00:10:04.600 and the small child vocalization was the panther doing what 181 00:10:04.679 --> 00:10:07.320 panthers do when they're trying to figure out what's in 182 00:10:07.360 --> 00:10:10.039 a tent that they can smell from a distance. A 183 00:10:10.080 --> 00:10:12.320 lot of researchers would have walked out of those swamps 184 00:10:12.320 --> 00:10:15.320 the next morning, convinced they'd had a skunk ape encounter, 185 00:10:15.960 --> 00:10:18.039 would have dined out on that story for the rest 186 00:10:18.080 --> 00:10:19.200 of their lives. 187 00:10:19.559 --> 00:10:20.120 She didn't. 188 00:10:20.600 --> 00:10:23.519 She did the work, traced it back to the actual cause, 189 00:10:23.840 --> 00:10:26.080 and added it to her growing body of knowledge as 190 00:10:26.120 --> 00:10:29.519 a lesson in restraint. Don't claim what you can't prove, 191 00:10:30.240 --> 00:10:33.600 even when the story sounds better the other way. A 192 00:10:33.639 --> 00:10:37.759 couple months later, the call came Adam Davis from Relic Films. 193 00:10:38.200 --> 00:10:42.039 He'd been watching her, watching how she carried herself, watching 194 00:10:42.120 --> 00:10:44.600 the work she was putting in, and he told her 195 00:10:44.600 --> 00:10:46.799 they were looking for somebody to bring on for filming 196 00:10:47.000 --> 00:10:50.159 and they'd love to have her on the team. February 197 00:10:50.200 --> 00:10:52.960 of twenty twenty five, she joined them, and from that 198 00:10:53.080 --> 00:10:55.720 point on she wasn't a hobbyist with a tent and 199 00:10:55.759 --> 00:10:59.120 some bear spray. She was a researcher with a film crew, 200 00:10:59.519 --> 00:11:02.240 going into places most of us will never set foot in. 201 00:11:03.039 --> 00:11:03.200 Now. 202 00:11:03.240 --> 00:11:06.840 From February through November of twenty twenty five, Natalie was 203 00:11:06.879 --> 00:11:13.519 out in the field constantly. She heard whoops, wood knocks, screams, growls, grunts. 204 00:11:14.240 --> 00:11:16.919 She heard them in pockets all over the country. She 205 00:11:16.919 --> 00:11:19.399 heard them in the Everglades, where she sat one night 206 00:11:19.480 --> 00:11:22.360 listening to two of these things vocalized back and forth 207 00:11:22.399 --> 00:11:25.679 across miles of open swamp, just talking to each other 208 00:11:25.720 --> 00:11:28.039 in the dark, and she couldn't get a visual on 209 00:11:28.120 --> 00:11:30.240 either one because there's no line of sight in that 210 00:11:30.320 --> 00:11:34.240 country at night. She heard them up north. She investigated 211 00:11:34.279 --> 00:11:37.799 graveyards and forest edges and ridge lines. What she didn't 212 00:11:37.840 --> 00:11:41.799 do in all those months was actually see one until 213 00:11:41.840 --> 00:11:45.039 November of twenty twenty five. And when she finally did, 214 00:11:45.360 --> 00:11:48.919 she didn't see one. She saw several. She saw things 215 00:11:48.919 --> 00:11:52.360 she still doesn't have words for. She saw lights, she 216 00:11:52.399 --> 00:11:55.679 saw orbs. She saw a creature charge her in the dark, 217 00:11:55.960 --> 00:11:57.960 and she saw a bigfoot the size of a small 218 00:11:58.000 --> 00:12:01.120 car walk behind her truck and appear into thin air. 219 00:12:02.000 --> 00:12:04.080 She and the team went to a place called Land 220 00:12:04.120 --> 00:12:07.279 between the Lakes. If you're not familiar with it, let 221 00:12:07.320 --> 00:12:10.240 me set the stage for you, because the geography matters. 222 00:12:11.159 --> 00:12:13.679 Land between the Lakes is a one hundred and seventy 223 00:12:13.759 --> 00:12:17.240 thousand acre stretch of forest sitting between Kentucky Lake and 224 00:12:17.320 --> 00:12:21.080 Lake Barkley along the Kentucky and Tennessee border. It's a 225 00:12:21.159 --> 00:12:25.399 National Recreation Area federally administered, and it has a reputation 226 00:12:25.519 --> 00:12:29.279 in the High Strangeness community that's hard to overstate. People 227 00:12:29.320 --> 00:12:33.080 go missing there, people see things there. Natalie told me 228 00:12:33.120 --> 00:12:35.639 the area has a long and violent history of death 229 00:12:35.679 --> 00:12:41.519 and bloodshed, going back generations, combat disease, the kind of 230 00:12:41.559 --> 00:12:44.480 small town tragedies that pile up over a century and 231 00:12:44.600 --> 00:12:48.159 never quite leave. And scattered across those one hundred and 232 00:12:48.240 --> 00:12:52.480 seventy thousand acres are a great number of cemeteries, old ones, 233 00:12:52.960 --> 00:12:57.000 forgotten ones, family plots that the forest has half swallowed 234 00:12:57.000 --> 00:12:58.039 and never given back. 235 00:12:58.879 --> 00:13:01.120 She has theories about why the area is the way 236 00:13:01.120 --> 00:13:01.519 it is. 237 00:13:02.200 --> 00:13:05.360 We'll get to those for now. Just hold the picture 238 00:13:05.399 --> 00:13:09.799 in your head. One hundred and seventy thousand acres heavy forest, 239 00:13:10.399 --> 00:13:15.159 cemeteries scattered through it like bones, and documented sightings of Bigfoot, 240 00:13:15.519 --> 00:13:20.240 of dog men, of crawlers, of UFOs, of portals of 241 00:13:20.279 --> 00:13:22.919 every category of weird this field knows how to name. 242 00:13:23.679 --> 00:13:26.840 That's where Natalie went in November. Before they ever set 243 00:13:26.840 --> 00:13:29.879 foot on the ground, she had a conversation with Greg Ogles. 244 00:13:30.279 --> 00:13:33.639 Greg is the producer, owner, and director of Relic Films. 245 00:13:34.240 --> 00:13:36.960 He's the man calling shots on what they film and 246 00:13:37.000 --> 00:13:39.519 how they film it, and Natalie had pitched him a 247 00:13:39.559 --> 00:13:42.720 series of experiments she wanted to run that week. Things 248 00:13:42.759 --> 00:13:46.159 She'd been thinking about things that, by her own admission, 249 00:13:46.399 --> 00:13:49.759 were on the outlandish side. She told me, Greg has 250 00:13:49.799 --> 00:13:53.279 never once told her no, not once. She'll come to 251 00:13:53.360 --> 00:13:57.639 him with something dangerous, something strange, something that any reasonable 252 00:13:57.639 --> 00:14:00.440 producer would push back on, and Greg wild look at 253 00:14:00.480 --> 00:14:03.759 her and say, let's try it. So when she pitched 254 00:14:03.759 --> 00:14:06.759 her ideas for Land between the Lakes, he didn't blink. 255 00:14:07.279 --> 00:14:09.679 He told her to go for it. Here was her plan. 256 00:14:10.559 --> 00:14:12.960 She'd been reading reports out of Land between the Lakes 257 00:14:13.000 --> 00:14:17.039 about attacks on people, specifically attacks where the victims were 258 00:14:17.080 --> 00:14:20.960 noted to be wearing heavy perfumes or cologonnes. That detail 259 00:14:21.039 --> 00:14:24.080 kept showing up in the reports. The victim was wearing 260 00:14:24.120 --> 00:14:28.679 something strong, something with pheromones, and Natalie's theory was that 261 00:14:28.759 --> 00:14:31.200 whatever was out there in those woods was being drawn 262 00:14:31.279 --> 00:14:34.919 in by the scent. So she ran the experiment. She 263 00:14:35.039 --> 00:14:37.519 drove to a department store and bought Obsession for Men, 264 00:14:37.759 --> 00:14:42.840 the cologne specifically because it contains pheromones. Obsession for Men 265 00:14:42.919 --> 00:14:45.639 has been used by big Cat researchers for years to 266 00:14:45.759 --> 00:14:49.639 draw cougars and jaguars in for camera trap photography. The 267 00:14:49.679 --> 00:14:52.919 stuff works. She picked that up. Then she went to 268 00:14:53.000 --> 00:14:56.440 Victoria's Secret and bought their teas line, also for the 269 00:14:56.480 --> 00:15:00.360 pheromone content. Then she added Jovanne Musk to the mix, 270 00:15:01.200 --> 00:15:04.519 three different scent products, all loaded with the chemicals that 271 00:15:04.559 --> 00:15:08.360 mammals respond to. Stay tuned for more Backwoods Bigfoot stories. 272 00:15:08.679 --> 00:15:13.200 We'll be back after these messages. Then she went to 273 00:15:13.240 --> 00:15:17.279 the dollar store. She bought brightly colored dog toys, the 274 00:15:17.360 --> 00:15:21.039 cheapest plastic ones she could find, and brightly colored feather 275 00:15:21.120 --> 00:15:24.759 boas because she wanted visual bait as well as scent bait. 276 00:15:25.440 --> 00:15:28.039 She wanted whatever was coming in to see something and 277 00:15:28.080 --> 00:15:31.039 to smell something at the same time. So she got 278 00:15:31.080 --> 00:15:33.960 back to camp and she saturated those dog toys with 279 00:15:34.039 --> 00:15:37.679 all three cents, drowned them in the stuff. Then she 280 00:15:37.759 --> 00:15:40.600 tied them around the trees that ring their base camp, 281 00:15:41.159 --> 00:15:45.679 saturated bait visible from any direction, strung in a perimeter 282 00:15:45.799 --> 00:15:49.120 around where they were sleeping. She told me, why not, 283 00:15:49.919 --> 00:15:51.720 might as well try to bring them right into camp 284 00:15:51.759 --> 00:15:54.960 and see what happens. The first night out, they didn't 285 00:15:55.000 --> 00:15:58.840 stay at camp. They ran their first investigation. They started 286 00:15:58.879 --> 00:16:01.840 in a graveyard. There's a logic to that. By the way, 287 00:16:02.919 --> 00:16:05.799 in land between the lakes, a disproportionate number of the 288 00:16:05.799 --> 00:16:09.679 sidings happen in or around the cemeteries scattered through the forest. 289 00:16:10.480 --> 00:16:13.480 Whatever's in those woods has a relationship with those places. 290 00:16:14.039 --> 00:16:15.919 So the team went to one of the older ones 291 00:16:16.120 --> 00:16:19.559 set up and walked in to establish a baseline. That 292 00:16:19.720 --> 00:16:24.960 standard practice, walk in, calm, look around, listen, see what 293 00:16:25.039 --> 00:16:28.559 the area feels like before you start any active investigation work. 294 00:16:29.039 --> 00:16:31.679 They didn't get to a baseline. The moment they were 295 00:16:31.679 --> 00:16:35.159 inside the cemetery, every single person in the group felt 296 00:16:35.159 --> 00:16:38.960 it at the same time, an intense pressure, the kind 297 00:16:39.000 --> 00:16:41.600 of pressure where you know you're being watched, and you're 298 00:16:41.639 --> 00:16:44.879 not just being watched from one direction, You're being watched 299 00:16:44.879 --> 00:16:48.960 from all sides at once, from the trees, from the ground, 300 00:16:49.559 --> 00:16:52.240 from angles that don't make sense for a single observer. 301 00:16:53.039 --> 00:16:55.960 Martin Groves was with them. Martin had walked a little 302 00:16:55.960 --> 00:16:58.159 ahead of the rest of the group, and he turned 303 00:16:58.200 --> 00:17:01.320 around and told them, calm the way a man like 304 00:17:01.399 --> 00:17:04.480 Martin says things, that he had a crawler in the forest. 305 00:17:05.039 --> 00:17:07.440 He could see it. So the rest of the group 306 00:17:07.519 --> 00:17:08.400 moved up to where. 307 00:17:08.200 --> 00:17:10.480 He was standing and they tried to get eyes on 308 00:17:10.519 --> 00:17:14.359 whatever he'd seen. They couldn't, but that pressure on them 309 00:17:14.440 --> 00:17:17.640 was getting heavier by the minute. Their security team was 310 00:17:17.720 --> 00:17:21.240 running about ten minutes behind. The security team came in 311 00:17:21.279 --> 00:17:24.640 with long guns, two or three men armed and ready, 312 00:17:24.960 --> 00:17:28.000 taking up positions on the perimeter of the group, and 313 00:17:28.119 --> 00:17:30.680 Natalie told me the moment those men with rifles took 314 00:17:30.759 --> 00:17:34.119 up their positions, every bit of the movement around them stopped. 315 00:17:34.640 --> 00:17:38.559 The pressure didn't fully release, but the activity, the sense 316 00:17:38.599 --> 00:17:41.559 of things moving in the trees halted on a dime, 317 00:17:42.240 --> 00:17:45.079 like it was being managed. Martin turned to her and 318 00:17:45.119 --> 00:17:47.119 told her to walk up the hill and start singing. 319 00:17:47.720 --> 00:17:49.319 She told me she looked at him like he had 320 00:17:49.319 --> 00:17:54.599 two heads sing out here in a graveyard in the 321 00:17:54.599 --> 00:17:57.759 middle of the woods, surrounded by armed men and whatever 322 00:17:57.880 --> 00:18:01.319 was in the trees. But Martin doesn't ask for things lightly. 323 00:18:01.839 --> 00:18:04.920 So she and Melissa, another woman on the team, walked 324 00:18:04.960 --> 00:18:08.160 up the hill together and they started singing, and everything 325 00:18:08.200 --> 00:18:13.519 went calm. The pressure released, the anxiety dropped, the sensation 326 00:18:13.640 --> 00:18:18.000 of being surrounded by hostile observers just evaporated. Whatever had 327 00:18:18.039 --> 00:18:20.960 been wringing the men like wolves around a campfire, backed 328 00:18:20.960 --> 00:18:24.519 off and settled down. It was, Natalie said, like a 329 00:18:24.519 --> 00:18:28.559 switch being flipped. Martin had a theory about why. He 330 00:18:28.640 --> 00:18:31.599 told her she'd calmed them the way a mother calms 331 00:18:31.599 --> 00:18:34.519 a frightened child. Most of the people who go into 332 00:18:34.519 --> 00:18:38.039 these woods to look for these creatures are men, loud men, 333 00:18:38.799 --> 00:18:43.160 armed men, men with bright lights and confident postures. And 334 00:18:43.200 --> 00:18:46.640 to whatever's in those woods, that whole package reads his threat. 335 00:18:47.519 --> 00:18:50.400 Three armed men with rifles and headlamps walking into your 336 00:18:50.519 --> 00:18:54.319 territory at night is not a friendly visit. It's an invasion. 337 00:18:55.039 --> 00:18:58.559 But two women walking up a hill singing that apparently 338 00:18:58.599 --> 00:19:02.559 registered differently. Natalie filed that one away, and she made 339 00:19:02.559 --> 00:19:06.400 a decision right there. If they wanted to make actual contact, 340 00:19:06.640 --> 00:19:08.960 they were going to have to go in differently. They 341 00:19:08.960 --> 00:19:12.279 were going to have to go in vulnerable, no long guns, 342 00:19:12.799 --> 00:19:17.200 no security perimeter, just researchers willing to be soft enough 343 00:19:17.240 --> 00:19:20.599 to get close. That decision is the reason for everything 344 00:19:20.640 --> 00:19:24.880 that happened next. It's also almost the reason none of 345 00:19:24.920 --> 00:19:27.960 them came out of those woods the next day at 346 00:19:28.000 --> 00:19:32.599 base camp. The activity started second night in Natalie's lying 347 00:19:32.599 --> 00:19:35.720 in her tent, and she hears heavy footsteps right outside 348 00:19:35.720 --> 00:19:40.960 the tent wall, big ones, not raccoon footsteps, not deer footsteps, 349 00:19:41.640 --> 00:19:43.759 the kind of weight that carries through the ground when 350 00:19:43.759 --> 00:19:47.279 something tall is walking past. She lay there and listened. 351 00:19:47.920 --> 00:19:50.720 Then she heard splashing. The team had a big bin 352 00:19:50.799 --> 00:19:53.559 of water set up at camp for showers, a big 353 00:19:53.599 --> 00:19:56.519 plastic tub of water with the day's heat soaked into it, 354 00:19:57.039 --> 00:20:00.720 and from her tent she heard somebody or something splashing 355 00:20:00.799 --> 00:20:04.240 the water hard, like a hand had gone in and 356 00:20:04.279 --> 00:20:07.519 started slapping the surface. Her first thought was that one 357 00:20:07.559 --> 00:20:09.920 of the guys had gotten drunk and was screwing around, 358 00:20:10.519 --> 00:20:14.720 because that would have been the boring explanation, the mundane explanation. 359 00:20:15.599 --> 00:20:18.759 She told me she was actually irritated lying there, thinking 360 00:20:19.240 --> 00:20:21.319 who is up at this hour playing in the shower 361 00:20:21.400 --> 00:20:24.400 water like a child. She was getting ready to climb 362 00:20:24.400 --> 00:20:26.200 out of her tent and go put a stop to it. 363 00:20:26.839 --> 00:20:29.599 Then she heard the scratching. The team had a big 364 00:20:29.680 --> 00:20:33.440 yetti cooler at camp. YETI coolers have these little molded 365 00:20:33.480 --> 00:20:37.119 indentations along the sides for grip, and whatever was at 366 00:20:37.119 --> 00:20:40.039 her tent had moved over to that cooler and started scratching, 367 00:20:40.759 --> 00:20:45.720 long scratches, methodical, like fingernails being dragged across the plastic, 368 00:20:45.759 --> 00:20:50.400 deliberately finding those indentations one at a time. She sat 369 00:20:50.480 --> 00:20:53.680 up pulled herself out of the tent. By the time 370 00:20:53.720 --> 00:20:56.599 she got out, nothing was there. The water in the 371 00:20:56.640 --> 00:20:59.759 bin was disturbed, the cooler was sitting where it had been, 372 00:21:00.559 --> 00:21:03.799 but whatever had been splashing and scratching was gone, and 373 00:21:03.880 --> 00:21:05.759 no human being had come out of any of the 374 00:21:05.799 --> 00:21:10.599 other tents. She checked. Everybody was asleep. It hadn't been 375 00:21:10.680 --> 00:21:13.880 one of the team. The pheromones were working, or at 376 00:21:13.960 --> 00:21:17.960 least something was working. Whatever Natalie had set up around 377 00:21:17.960 --> 00:21:21.400 camp with that bait was bringing things in, and those 378 00:21:21.400 --> 00:21:23.559 things were bold enough now to come right up to 379 00:21:23.559 --> 00:21:26.440 where the humans were sleeping, to play in their water, 380 00:21:27.039 --> 00:21:30.839 to explore their gear, to see what they were. That 381 00:21:30.960 --> 00:21:34.559 same trip, one night, she got up to use the bathroom. 382 00:21:34.880 --> 00:21:37.480 The bathroom was a structure about thirty or forty yards 383 00:21:37.480 --> 00:21:40.480 from where her tent was set, just a little outhouse 384 00:21:40.480 --> 00:21:44.079 with a hole in the ground, standard primitive camping set up. 385 00:21:44.319 --> 00:21:47.440 She had her flashlight. Everybody at camp knew where she 386 00:21:47.519 --> 00:21:50.839 was going, so she walked it. She got to the outhouse, 387 00:21:51.200 --> 00:21:54.319 did her business, and on her way back in the dark, 388 00:21:54.599 --> 00:21:57.759 she stopped because she heard something in the tree line, 389 00:21:58.359 --> 00:22:02.680 a growl low coming from the woods just beside the trail. 390 00:22:03.440 --> 00:22:07.519 She didn't run, she didn't shout. She turned faced the 391 00:22:07.559 --> 00:22:11.200 tree line, and she said, calm and steady, I hear you. 392 00:22:11.799 --> 00:22:13.960 I'm not going to come for you. I just need 393 00:22:13.960 --> 00:22:16.640 to use the restroom. And the thing in the woods 394 00:22:16.720 --> 00:22:17.799 didn't come for her either. 395 00:22:18.400 --> 00:22:19.599 It just stayed where it. 396 00:22:19.599 --> 00:22:22.799 Was, held its ground, like the two of them had 397 00:22:22.839 --> 00:22:26.119 reached a mutual understanding right there in the dark. You 398 00:22:26.240 --> 00:22:29.440 stay there, I'll stay here. We'll both get on with 399 00:22:29.480 --> 00:22:32.880 our nights. She walked back to her tent, and the 400 00:22:32.920 --> 00:22:36.240 whole way back she sang just a melody to let 401 00:22:36.279 --> 00:22:39.200