Speaker 1: I was seventeen years old in nineteen sixty nine when
Speaker 1: my brother asked me if I'd like to join him
Speaker 1: on a three day hike up in the back country
Speaker 1: of Yosemite National Park. He had just come home from Vietnam.
Speaker 1: Even though I had camped out many times with my family,
Speaker 1: I had never been on a hike for that long before,
Speaker 1: so I said yes. The first day, we followed a
Speaker 1: steep path that dropped a thousand feet to the river.
Speaker 1: It was about the end of April, which is early
Speaker 1: spring in the high country, and Yosemite is a big place.
Speaker 1: We didn't see anyone else throughout the entire trip as
Speaker 1: we traveled over hill and dale in the beautiful Sierra
Speaker 1: Nevada Mountains. The first night, we camped near a babbling stream.
Speaker 1: After lunch the next day, we walked through a sunny
Speaker 1: alpine meadow covered in light green, knee high spring grasses
Speaker 1: and flowers. The meadow was situated in a valley surrounded
Speaker 1: by tall wooded hills, and it was a spectacular sight.
Speaker 1: And then we entered an aspen forest dappled with sunlight.
Speaker 1: There we noticed the faint smell of a skump. It
Speaker 1: was weak enough that We figured the skump must have
Speaker 1: left some time ago, so we kept on walking further
Speaker 1: into the grove, we came across a newly built windowless
Speaker 1: ranger shed constructed of thick corrugated steel. All the necessary
Speaker 1: tools and equipment to repair trails in the back country
Speaker 1: were kept there so the forest rangers wouldn't have to
Speaker 1: haul them back and forth. We knew this because the
Speaker 1: front and one side were torn off, with the heavy
Speaker 1: metal corrugated panels scattered all over the nearby woods. We
Speaker 1: stood there gawking at it for several minutes, trying to
Speaker 1: figure out how this could have happened. My brother said
Speaker 1: it must have been a big bear, freshly awake from
Speaker 1: its winter hibernation that did it. But on closer inspection,
Speaker 1: there were neither claw marks nor teeth marks on any
Speaker 1: of the eight foot long panels. Some of them were
Speaker 1: curled into themselves like a sea, and others were thrown
Speaker 1: up to thirty feet away. It was as if someone
Speaker 1: tall had peeled the sheets off like peeling a banana
Speaker 1: and tossed them aside. Nothing inside the shed was disturbed.
Speaker 1: Whatever peeled away the panels had no interest in the
Speaker 1: contents The bears in California are mostly small brown bears
Speaker 1: like on our state flag. A doubt a bear like
Speaker 1: that could have reached high enough on the shed to
Speaker 1: grab the top of a panel and rip it away.
Speaker 1: It was unnerving to consider what might have been able
Speaker 1: to do that kind of damage. Let's get out of
Speaker 1: here and put a few miles between us and this
Speaker 1: place before we stopped for the night. My brother said,
Speaker 1: I was more than happy to comply. Neither of us
Speaker 1: had ever heard the word sasquatch or bigfoot at the time.
Speaker 1: My brother was carrying a small hunting knife, but that
Speaker 1: was it. We had no guns and no bear spray.
Speaker 1: A small, steady breeze kicked up in the late afternoon
Speaker 1: that stayed with us all night. When we got there,
Speaker 1: we were too tired from our long hike to build
Speaker 1: a fire, so we had supper of salami and cheese
Speaker 1: on bread with a sigh of fruit, and then we
Speaker 1: hung our food pack up in the tree and went
Speaker 1: to bed, and the wind gently swayed our tent for
Speaker 1: the whole night. The sun had not quite set behind
Speaker 1: the tall trees when we fell asleep. Sometime later, something
Speaker 1: woke me up. I had been dreaming that I was
Speaker 1: having a conversation with someone who reminded me of Little Abner.
Speaker 1: I know I'm dating myself now, so I should explain
Speaker 1: that Little Abner was a comic strip character in the
Speaker 1: Sunday Comics when I was growing up. He was a big,
Speaker 1: dark haired man with muscles like Arnold Schwarzenegger. I'm not
Speaker 1: entirely sure the person in my dream was human, or
Speaker 1: that it was even a dream. In any case, we
Speaker 1: talked for a short time, and then something completely woke
Speaker 1: me up. Instantly, I realized something heavy just outside the
Speaker 1: tent was hitting the ground next to my head, and
Speaker 1: I could feel the vibration of the impacts. I laid there,
Speaker 1: frozen in fear as it, whatever it was, took a
Speaker 1: long inhaling sniff only twelve inches from my head. There
Speaker 1: was no doubt that it had taken in my scent
Speaker 1: right through the thin material of our pup tent. Too
Speaker 1: afraid to move, I listened intently to see if it
Speaker 1: would move to my brother's side of the tent and
Speaker 1: sniff there. Instead, he grabbed the tent pole by our
Speaker 1: heads and started shaking violently. Wake up, Wake up, I screamed,
Speaker 1: and as soon as I began to speak, the shaking stopped,
Speaker 1: so my brother didn't see it. He accused me of
Speaker 1: having a nightmare induced by the sight of that shit,
Speaker 1: and told me to go back to sleep, and then
Speaker 1: he rolled over with his back to both me and
Speaker 1: the tent pole. Again, something grabbed the pole and shook
Speaker 1: it violently for three seconds. There's something outside shaking the tent,
Speaker 1: I said, It's just the wind. He answered angrily, Please
Speaker 1: go back to sleep. My brother is more than just
Speaker 1: a brother. He and I are great friends. Never before
Speaker 1: nor since had he ever spoken so gruffly to me.
Speaker 1: That was as much a shock as the tent shaking.
Speaker 1: I was between a rock and a hard place, and
Speaker 1: I was sweating bullets from the fear of what was outside,
Speaker 1: and thoroughly crushed by my brother's reaction. Well, I laid
Speaker 1: there and fought back the panic and frustration, and listened
Speaker 1: for anything that might be moving around outside the tent.
Speaker 1: The gentle breeze covered all the subtle noises, and finally,
Speaker 1: either from shock or exhaustion, I fell asleep. At daybreak.
Speaker 1: We got up. There were no signs of anything having
Speaker 1: been around the tent, so we took down the pack
Speaker 1: and had some water. We decided we walk a couple
Speaker 1: of miles of then stop and eat breakfast. My brother
Speaker 1: was like a mountain goat, and I had twisted my
Speaker 1: ankle on the first day, so I was constantly lagging
Speaker 1: seventy five feet behind him. But as we walked along,
Speaker 1: I began to have a dialogue in my head, as
Speaker 1: if someone were interviewing me in a sort of a
Speaker 1: get acquainted, friendly talking manner. It was as if someone
Speaker 1: else was asking the questions and I was answering them.
Speaker 1: We were still in that high valley, so there were
Speaker 1: no trees on either side of our trail. Clearly there
Speaker 1: was no one around me, but the conversation continued in
Speaker 1: my head for a mile or so. I felt a presence,
Speaker 1: so I kept glancing around to see if anyone was there,
Speaker 1: but no one was there, and still the questions kept
Speaker 1: popping into my head and I kept answering them, and
Speaker 1: then suddenly it stopped. It was as if the interview
Speaker 1: was over, and when it was over, I felt a
Speaker 1: little silly for having thought about myself and my life
Speaker 1: as if someone were there listening to me. It was
Speaker 1: a bright, sunlit day, but I was alone, Why would
Speaker 1: I go on and on about my life and my
Speaker 1: family like that. I've only recently learned about mine to speak,
Speaker 1: and knew nothing of it at the time, and it
Speaker 1: was a very strange feeling. Well, at that point I
Speaker 1: decided to enjoy the walk, and eventually we were back
Speaker 1: at the Big Trees again. There we came across a
Speaker 1: log jam around a deep pool blocking our way. The
Speaker 1: trees were about three feet in diameter. My brother went
Speaker 1: around to the riot, where it was real swampy, and
Speaker 1: I chose to go to the left and jump from
Speaker 1: log to log while keeping my feet as dry as possible. Well,
Speaker 1: one log turned out to be a bad choice. The
Speaker 1: far end was anchored on the bank, but the end
Speaker 1: closest to me was under the log that I had
Speaker 1: been standing on, and I soon learned it was just
Speaker 1: floating in the water, and as soon as I jumped
Speaker 1: down on it, it began to sink. The crystal clear
Speaker 1: pool was about eight to ten feet deep, and as
Speaker 1: I jumped, I heard run in my mind. With a
Speaker 1: burst of speed, I made it to the other end
Speaker 1: of the twenty five foot log before it sank too
Speaker 1: deep and dumped me in the icy snow melt. It
Speaker 1: was the easiest run I had ever experienced. It felt
Speaker 1: like I was feather light, even with a pack. It
Speaker 1: was almost like someone was pushing me while lifting up
Speaker 1: the pack to take the weight off me. The log
Speaker 1: was sinking fast, but I seemed to be flying over it.
Speaker 1: I managed to get across with only one wet foot.
Speaker 1: Even as I was running, though, I couldn't help but think,
Speaker 1: what is happening to me? At the other end, my
Speaker 1: brother was blanched white as he fumbled to get his
Speaker 1: pack off. He thought he was going to have to
Speaker 1: dive in and help me out. At seventeen, it hadn't
Speaker 1: occurred to me just how dangerous the route I had
Speaker 1: taken was, and that maneuver in particular was very dangerous.
Speaker 1: If I had fallen in with the backpack, the water
Speaker 1: absorbed by the sleeping bag alone could have been enough
Speaker 1: to drag me under. This probably all sounds ridiculous to
Speaker 1: anyone listening, but it is how I remember it. Something
Speaker 1: weird happened on that log. There's no way anyone could
Speaker 1: have been behind me. No one was there but my brother.
Speaker 1: He was in front of me. Even if someone had
Speaker 1: been there, their weight would have caused the log to
Speaker 1: sink even more. The explanation I have come up with
Speaker 1: is absurd, to say the least. Many thoughts have run
Speaker 1: through my mind. Was an invisible, hovering sisquatch pushing me
Speaker 1: along and holding up my backpack? Or was something helping
Speaker 1: a human to save a life. It's definitely one for
Speaker 1: the book of the Weird. Now I know I'm probably
Speaker 1: making a mountain out of a mole hill. I wouldn't
Speaker 1: blame you if you laughed at my story. I'm laughing
Speaker 1: right along with you. The only reason I think sisquatch
Speaker 1: is because of the destroyed ranger shed and the smell
Speaker 1: of the skunk just before we found it. And I
Speaker 1: suppose it could have been any benevolent spirit who saved me.
Speaker 1: But something did. As unbelievable as it sounds, it is
Speaker 1: exactly what happened. Nothing else of any significance happened on
Speaker 1: that trip. We never spoke of it again, and I
Speaker 1: forgot all about it. In recent years, I've listened to
Speaker 1: a lot of bigfoot stories on YouTube. It wasn't until recently, though,
Speaker 1: when another person mentioned being sniffed through their tent, that
Speaker 1: all that came back to me. Having something large sniff
Speaker 1: you through a tent is incredibly unsettling. Perhaps that's what
Speaker 1: caused me to repress the memory until now. I never
Speaker 1: saw a side squatch, nor do I know what the
Speaker 1: interviewing thing was. I'm just glad that whatever or whoever
Speaker 1: it was was there to save my life when I
Speaker 1: needed it on that log, God blessed them for that. Okay,
Speaker 1: here's a story about a dog, and you guys are
Speaker 1: going to have to decide whether this is a Bigfoot
Speaker 1: event or something else. But it's a great story. It's
Speaker 1: really a good, real mystery kind of story. This is
Speaker 1: a true story about my dog and our farm near
Speaker 1: North Ogden, Utah. Crystal Blue is my dog's name, but
Speaker 1: everyone calls her Mama. She's a Blue Healer mix and
Speaker 1: in twenty nineteen, she was a year old. She loves
Speaker 1: to run all over the property and she roams the
Speaker 1: neighbor's property too. Around midnight on a cold night in February,
Speaker 1: I led her outside to do her business. It was
Speaker 1: snowy and a fresh blanket of snow covered the ground.
Speaker 1: After letting her walk outside, I walked back to my
Speaker 1: room to get a cigarette. It was a few minutes
Speaker 1: before I got back to the porch and I lit
Speaker 1: up and finished my cigarette, and then I called for her. Typically,
Speaker 1: she comes back to me right away, but she didn't
Speaker 1: on this night, so I yelled louder. Still she didn't come.
Speaker 1: After several attempts, I became warmed. I rushed back inside
Speaker 1: and found my roommate and asked if he would help
Speaker 1: me to find my dog. I think he saw the
Speaker 1: worry in my expression. Well, he agreed, and we went
Speaker 1: back outside and we called some more. She was gone.
Speaker 1: She never came back. Her tracks in the snow were obvious,
Speaker 1: so we began to follow them, and from the tracks,
Speaker 1: we saw that she left the porch and then made
Speaker 1: two circles around the yard and then headed for a
Speaker 1: fence that separated our property from our neighbors. The tracks
Speaker 1: finally turned and it appeared that she had gone under
Speaker 1: the fence. From there were three tracks and then nothing
Speaker 1: but pristine's snow. This area is open, with no trees,
Speaker 1: shrubbery or buildings close by. It was as if she
Speaker 1: vanished into thin air, and to us it looked impossible.
Speaker 1: Neither of us could wrap our head around this. But
Speaker 1: here we were looking at it By this time, I
Speaker 1: was beginning to panic and on the verge of losing it.
Speaker 1: My roommate calmed to me a bit and said that
Speaker 1: we would keep looking. And we spent an hour searching
Speaker 1: everything and everywhere on our property and the neighbors. There
Speaker 1: was no sign of the dog anywhere, not a sound,
Speaker 1: not a track, zero evidence that she went anywhere after
Speaker 1: the tracks ended under the fence. I wanted to keep looking,
Speaker 1: so we split up and we searched everything again. This
Speaker 1: took about an hour. It was still snowing, I was
Speaker 1: bawling uncontrollably, and we were soaked and freezing. We needed
Speaker 1: to get warm, but I wouldn't give up, so we
Speaker 1: split up again to cover the same ground a third time.
Speaker 1: Stumbling now in the snow, I started for the front
Speaker 1: end of the property while my roommate went the other way,
Speaker 1: and I suppose I walked less than a football field
Speaker 1: when some my dog was right in front of me.
Speaker 1: She acted like she had not seen me in a month,
Speaker 1: and I immediately scooped her up in my arms when
Speaker 1: I hugged her, and then I stood and yelled for
Speaker 1: my roommate, I've got her. My roommate, Jim and I
Speaker 1: had spent hours out looking for this dog, and we
Speaker 1: were both soaked and cold. The weird thing was is
Speaker 1: that Mama was dry, like she had never gone outside.
Speaker 1: Even her paws were dry. How was this possible. I
Speaker 1: don't know what happened to my girl that night, but
Speaker 1: I know that several times that month, I saw lights
Speaker 1: in the sky that I had never seen before. And
Speaker 1: it wasn't just me, many people who lived in that
Speaker 1: area saw them. I believe my dog had been abducted
Speaker 1: that night the lights were there. I remember telling them,
Speaker 1: thank you for sending my dog back in, to please
Speaker 1: never take her again, and since then they have not.
Speaker 1: She's almost four now, and I thank the Lord for
Speaker 1: her every day. All Right, this last story is from Bruce,
Speaker 1: and you're gonna think this story is totally nuts. You're
Speaker 1: gonna think this guy's office rocker. I wouldn't say that,
Speaker 1: because as weird as this story is, it actually jogged
Speaker 1: a memory that I had that I had forgotten. And
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna tell the story. I'm gonna tell his story,
Speaker 1: not my story. But at some point I'll probably tell
Speaker 1: my story, but I need to think on it so
Speaker 1: that I can remember. Try to remember as many details
Speaker 1: as I can. But let's get into Bruce's story, because
Speaker 1: this is a doozy. I've decided to tell you about
Speaker 1: my encounter I had back in the early nineteen seventies.
Speaker 1: Something tells me that even the diehard bigfoot enthusiasts might
Speaker 1: think I'm nuts. But after listening to one of your
Speaker 1: tales about two duck hunters seeing a bigfoot and then
Speaker 1: telling everybody they knew in spite of not being taken serious,
Speaker 1: I knew that I would eventually tell this story to you.
Speaker 1: Like the duck hunters, I too, tell the story as
Speaker 1: often as I can, not because people believe it, but
Speaker 1: just to tell the story. I have yet to have
Speaker 1: anyone stop me in mid stream before the tale is over.
Speaker 1: I'm in my sixty third year now, I don't much
Speaker 1: care if people believe me. When I was fifteen, I
Speaker 1: decided to hitchhike to Atlanta, Georgia, where my older brother
Speaker 1: had moved a few years before. It was summer break
Speaker 1: and I had nothing but time on my hands. I
Speaker 1: remember the day was hot when I departed an arbor, Michigan.
Speaker 1: Now remember the further south I went, the hotter it got.
Speaker 1: The weird thing about this trip was the first guy
Speaker 1: that picked me up was going all the way to Florida,
Speaker 1: and he happened to be a real friendly guy. This
Speaker 1: was when Interstate I seventy five was just being built
Speaker 1: through the tallest mountains of Tennessee, and though the road
Speaker 1: was perfect, the downside was that there were no rest
Speaker 1: stops where one could stop to relieve himself, nor were
Speaker 1: there gas stations or anything else. By the time we
Speaker 1: got to the Kentucky Tennessee state line, I had to pee,
Speaker 1: but for some reason I decided to pass up the offer.
Speaker 1: When I had the chance, somewhere in the highest elevations
Speaker 1: of Tennessee, I practically ordered the driver to stop as
Speaker 1: soon as he could so that I could get rid
Speaker 1: of what felt like several gallons ready to explode. He
Speaker 1: told me that he would pull over at the next
Speaker 1: lookout pull off, which was a paved area for equipment
Speaker 1: and supplies used earlier before the crews headed further down
Speaker 1: the road. It was like a sign from God when
Speaker 1: we came upon one of these lookouts and the place
Speaker 1: was full of cars. I bolted from the car and
Speaker 1: hopped over the guardrail, and I made my way down
Speaker 1: a paved ditch, I noticed that the older lady we
Speaker 1: had parked next to was watching me the whole time.
Speaker 1: I thought I had found a place to peace so
Speaker 1: that I had some privacy, But when I looked up
Speaker 1: over my shoulder, I could see her stretching her head
Speaker 1: watching me, and I walked further down past a hill
Speaker 1: that blocked her view. It was a long time emptying
Speaker 1: my bladder, and while I stood there, I heard a
Speaker 1: noise that sounded like a chipmunk, but it was a
Speaker 1: lot bigger. It was coming nearer, and I expected to
Speaker 1: see it cross the ditch any second. I don't know
Speaker 1: if I was in shock or that I had to
Speaker 1: pee so bad, but when this thing popped out of
Speaker 1: the woods just fifteen feet below me, I didn't move
Speaker 1: a muscle other than a steady flow from me. Relieving myself,
Speaker 1: I didn't move at all and became part of the
Speaker 1: landscape as best I could. I was thinking that if
Speaker 1: I lived through this, no one will believe me if
Speaker 1: I tell them. And as I was musing over the
Speaker 1: fact that these creatures have been extinct for millions of years,
Speaker 1: the creature turned its head my way and made squeaking
Speaker 1: chirps as if from a giant chipmunk. But mind you,
Speaker 1: this was no chipmunk. It was a five foot tall dinosaur.
Speaker 1: I'll give you a moment to compose yourself. It was
Speaker 1: standing broadside in front of me, facing to my left,
Speaker 1: and he was fixed on my position. This thing had
Speaker 1: huge muscular legs with a stretched out tail, just like
Speaker 1: in the pictures, and it had little arms which were
Speaker 1: bent up at the elbows with its hands closer to
Speaker 1: its head. Its head was a dino typical, having a
Speaker 1: large jaw filled with several razor sharp teeth. At least
Speaker 1: that's what they look like to me. This whole encounter
Speaker 1: lasted for no more than thirty seconds, but in my
Speaker 1: vulnerable position, it seemed much longer. With a couple of
Speaker 1: more squeaks, it turned and continued its journey to the
Speaker 1: left of me, and it disappeared into the woods. After
Speaker 1: I finished my business, I walked up the mountain, hoping
Speaker 1: that the old woman had seen what had just taken place,
Speaker 1: but she was no longer there. So of course I
Speaker 1: had to tell someone about my strange encounter, and I
Speaker 1: told the dude that I'd been traveling with for the
Speaker 1: past few hours, and even though I felt better about
Speaker 1: telling someone, this man didn't have a thing to say,
Speaker 1: but I could tell by the look on his face
Speaker 1: that he thought I was crazy, which after I had
Speaker 1: finished telling my story, he didn't hesitate to confirm. I
Speaker 1: saw what I saw, and it doesn't matter what people think.
Speaker 1: I know it's true. Over time, people have suggested various
Speaker 1: animals that it might have been, but nothing ever came close.
Speaker 1: Years later, I happened to be in my home in
Speaker 1: Michigan and a TV commercial came on advertising the new
Speaker 1: King Tut exhibit, which would open the following weekend in Chicago, Illinois.
Speaker 1: The commercial was from the view of a man holding
Speaker 1: a camera as he walked past a giant dinosaur on
Speaker 1: the main level of the museum and up a set
Speaker 1: of stairs to the Tut exhibit, and then down the
Speaker 1: hall to the left, where there was a closed door.
Speaker 1: The camera came to that door and then slowly opened
Speaker 1: the door, revealing my old friend from Tennessee, meaning I
Speaker 1: could see the dinosaur there in the background. I instantly
Speaker 1: blurted out to my wife, who, by the way, also
Speaker 1: thinks my Dino's story is a figment of an overreaching imagination.
Speaker 1: We're going to Chicago, I said. The following weekend, we
Speaker 1: were in the car headed to the dinosaur exhibits, King
Speaker 1: who I wasn't interested in, some old has been King. No,
Speaker 1: I had unfinished business and I was about to have
Speaker 1: the proof at my fingertips at any moment. We arrived
Speaker 1: in Chicago and pulled into the museum, and it didn't
Speaker 1: take long before I was viewing firsthand the same view
Speaker 1: I'd seen days before in the commercial. We quickly passed
Speaker 1: the giant dinosaur on the main floor, and I was
Speaker 1: thankful that it wasn't the one that walked out on
Speaker 1: the trail so many years ago, because it was a
Speaker 1: big one. We flew past the King what's his name,
Speaker 1: and as the door down the hallway was beckoning me
Speaker 1: to come closer. Finally, after decades, I would soon be
Speaker 1: standing face to face with the creature I had seen
Speaker 1: in Tennessee. My hand turned the knob on the door,
Speaker 1: and when it swung open, there it was on a
Speaker 1: platform three feet off the ground behind the door. Honey,
Speaker 1: that's the exact same one. This is the creature I saw,
Speaker 1: I said to my wife. I wasn't aware of how
Speaker 1: many people were in the room until it suddenly got quiet,
Speaker 1: but now only in a whisper, I repeated myself, to
Speaker 1: make sure my wife understands and what I had experienced
Speaker 1: all those years ago. I still don't think she believes me. Well,
Speaker 1: that's my story, and I'd be interested if anyone else
Speaker 1: has had such an encounter other than that. Thank you
Speaker 1: again for allowing these kinds of stories to be told.
Speaker 1: Have a good day, Bruce. Oh, someone sees a dinosaur
Speaker 1: in nineteen seventy, Okay, that sounds pretty crazy. However, like
Speaker 1: I said before I started this story, I saw something
Speaker 1: when I was a kid. I think I was maybe
Speaker 1: ten years old. We were at a vacation property that
Speaker 1: my parents owned, and I had been out hiking all
Speaker 1: day with my brother and my sister and my cousins,
Speaker 1: and we kind of got split up and I was
Speaker 1: on my own and I saw something like this for
Speaker 1: a brief second, and then it was gone. And I'm
Speaker 1: gonna try to put my thoughts together and tell me
Speaker 1: that story. I'm saying this all in response to the
Speaker 1: writer who says he was wondering if anybody else had
Speaker 1: had such an encounter. Those are his exact words. I
Speaker 1: don't know what I saw, but I'm going to try
Speaker 1: to think on it and try to recreate that image
Speaker 1: in my mind and see if I can't tell you
Speaker 1: all that story. So thanks to Bruce for sending this story.
Speaker 1: It was great. I really appreciate it. I love stories
Speaker 1: like this, and I actually believe him. I believe he
Speaker 1: saw something strange that day. I don't know if it
Speaker 1: was a dinosaur, but it's pretty interesting. Good stuff, good stuff,