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 --> 00:00:47.600 and let's head off into. 13 00:00:47.439 --> 00:01:03.759 The woods if you dare. This is the fourth. 14 00:01:03.520 --> 00:01:06.239 Installment in a ten part series from a listener named 15 00:01:06.280 --> 00:01:09.920 Garrett who's been sharing a decade of escalating encounters on 16 00:01:09.959 --> 00:01:13.359 a remote mountain property in the southern Appalachians of western 17 00:01:13.359 --> 00:01:17.239 North Carolina. If you're just finding this series, I'd really 18 00:01:17.319 --> 00:01:20.319 encourage you to go back and start with Part one. 19 00:01:20.400 --> 00:01:22.879 Each of these stories builds on the last, and the 20 00:01:22.920 --> 00:01:25.920 cumulative weight of what Garrett's describing is part of what 21 00:01:26.040 --> 00:01:29.439 makes it so compelling, But here's where we stand. In 22 00:01:29.519 --> 00:01:32.239 Part one, Garrett told us how he purchased a forty 23 00:01:32.280 --> 00:01:35.719 seven acre property and handbuilt cabin from an elderly man 24 00:01:35.840 --> 00:01:40.079 named Earl in the spring of twenty fourteen. That first summer, 25 00:01:40.200 --> 00:01:43.760 he began hearing deliberate wood knocks from the ridgeline. After sunset, 26 00:01:44.439 --> 00:01:47.920 he found seventeen inch bipedal tracks in the clay, and 27 00:01:47.959 --> 00:01:50.519 on the night of September twenty seventh, he saw the 28 00:01:50.560 --> 00:01:54.400 thing responsible standing at the edge of his meadow. In 29 00:01:54.480 --> 00:01:57.879 Part two, Garrett planted a garden, and something began harvesting 30 00:01:57.879 --> 00:02:02.480 his right produce overnight with se precision. His countermeasures were 31 00:02:02.480 --> 00:02:06.400 defeated one by one. A trail camera captured an infrared 32 00:02:06.480 --> 00:02:10.199 image of an enormous hand on the lens. He eventually 33 00:02:10.240 --> 00:02:14.000 watched the creature harvest from a workshop window. The story 34 00:02:14.120 --> 00:02:17.479 ended with the creature visiting the cabinet night, breathing against 35 00:02:17.560 --> 00:02:21.199 the walls, and tapping the kitchen window. In part three, 36 00:02:21.280 --> 00:02:25.639 the encounter shifted from physical to psychological. While walking the 37 00:02:25.680 --> 00:02:28.919 back acreage, Garrett heard his brother Wade's voice call his 38 00:02:29.000 --> 00:02:32.840 name from the woods, a perfect replication, and then heard 39 00:02:32.840 --> 00:02:37.759 it from two directions simultaneously boxing him into a ravine. 40 00:02:37.800 --> 00:02:42.000 He climbed out in a panic, experienced total spatial disorientation 41 00:02:42.159 --> 00:02:44.759 on his own land, and returned to find a single 42 00:02:44.800 --> 00:02:48.759 footprint pressed into the clay beside his back door. Each 43 00:02:48.879 --> 00:02:52.479 encounter has been more intimate than the last, more personal, 44 00:02:52.919 --> 00:02:56.520 more deliberate, and what Garrett's about to share in story 45 00:02:56.599 --> 00:03:01.360 for is in some ways the most unsettling all because 46 00:03:01.360 --> 00:03:04.639 it answers a question he'd been afraid to ask, how 47 00:03:04.639 --> 00:03:07.840 close does it get when he's asleep. Here's what Garrett 48 00:03:07.879 --> 00:03:11.360 wrote after what happened in the ravine in October, I 49 00:03:11.400 --> 00:03:14.199 went through a stretch that I'd described as controlled retreat. 50 00:03:14.919 --> 00:03:17.639 I didn't stop going outside. I didn't board up the 51 00:03:17.680 --> 00:03:20.039 windows or sit in the cabin with a shotgun across 52 00:03:20.039 --> 00:03:23.919 my knees. But I pulled back. I shortened my world, 53 00:03:24.520 --> 00:03:29.360 the porch, the workshop, the meadow, the truck that was 54 00:03:29.400 --> 00:03:33.759 my territory. I stopped walking the back acreage, I stopped 55 00:03:33.800 --> 00:03:36.719 hiking to the ridge line. I stayed where the ground 56 00:03:36.759 --> 00:03:39.080 was open and the site lines were clear, and I 57 00:03:39.080 --> 00:03:42.000 didn't venture into the trees unless I had to, And 58 00:03:42.080 --> 00:03:44.680 even then I kept it to the first thirty yards 59 00:03:44.680 --> 00:03:46.520 of the slope, where I could still see the cabin 60 00:03:46.639 --> 00:03:51.080 roof through the branches. Bowie adjusted with me. His morning 61 00:03:51.159 --> 00:03:54.439 root contracted instead of the full loop down to Bishop 62 00:03:54.479 --> 00:03:56.919 Creek and along the tree line. He'd trot to the 63 00:03:57.039 --> 00:03:59.960 edge of the meadow, do a quick scan, and come back. 64 00:04:00.800 --> 00:04:03.360 He'd still occasionally stand at the northern tree line and 65 00:04:03.439 --> 00:04:05.639 stare into the forest for three or four minutes at 66 00:04:05.639 --> 00:04:11.360 a stretch, nose working ears forward, processing information I couldn't access. 67 00:04:12.039 --> 00:04:15.039 But he didn't cross into the trees anymore, not even 68 00:04:15.080 --> 00:04:19.120 with me. November came and went. The knocking was sporadic, 69 00:04:19.680 --> 00:04:23.480 maybe once a week, sometimes less. The mountain was going 70 00:04:23.480 --> 00:04:26.560 dormant in the way it does every fall, the insects 71 00:04:26.639 --> 00:04:30.560 dying off, the birds migrating, the canopy thinning until the 72 00:04:30.639 --> 00:04:34.360 ridge line stood bare and skeletal against the sky. The 73 00:04:34.399 --> 00:04:37.839 silence that replaced the summer noise was different from the pressurized, 74 00:04:37.879 --> 00:04:43.000 ominous silence of the encounters. This was seasonal, natural, the 75 00:04:43.040 --> 00:04:47.319 mountain exhaling before winter. The isolation was harder in November 76 00:04:47.360 --> 00:04:50.199 than it had been the previous year. The first winter 77 00:04:50.279 --> 00:04:53.600 on the mountain, I'd been fresh, new to the property, 78 00:04:53.959 --> 00:04:56.680 new to the quiet riding, the high of owning a 79 00:04:56.720 --> 00:04:59.000 place that felt like it was mine in a way 80 00:04:59.040 --> 00:05:02.600 nothing else in my life life ever had. That novelty 81 00:05:02.639 --> 00:05:05.199 had carried me through the dark months without much trouble, 82 00:05:05.879 --> 00:05:09.560 But now, heading into my second winter, the novelty was gone, 83 00:05:10.040 --> 00:05:12.959 and what replaced it was the accumulated weight of everything 84 00:05:12.959 --> 00:05:16.480 I'd experienced and couldn't talk about. I'd go to work 85 00:05:16.519 --> 00:05:19.519 in Hendersonville and spend the day with my crew framing 86 00:05:19.560 --> 00:05:22.839 walls and running wire and talking about football and deer season, 87 00:05:23.319 --> 00:05:25.879 and the whole time there'd be a secondary track running 88 00:05:25.920 --> 00:05:29.759 in my head. The knocking patterns, the hand on the camera, 89 00:05:30.279 --> 00:05:33.800 the breathing against the wall, Wade's voice in the ravine, 90 00:05:34.600 --> 00:05:37.000 all of it cycling on a loop I couldn't shut off, 91 00:05:37.519 --> 00:05:40.920 running underneath the normal conversation, like a radio station bleeding 92 00:05:40.920 --> 00:05:45.560 through from another frequency. I started losing weight, not deliberately, 93 00:05:46.040 --> 00:05:49.519 I just wasn't eating enough. I'd make dinner, sit down 94 00:05:49.560 --> 00:05:52.319 at the table and realize after twenty minutes that I'd 95 00:05:52.360 --> 00:05:55.480 been staring at the kitchen window instead of eating. My 96 00:05:55.560 --> 00:05:59.519 appetite had gone somewhere I couldn't follow. Cliff noticed during 97 00:05:59.560 --> 00:06:01.399 a phone call and told me I sounded like I 98 00:06:01.439 --> 00:06:04.319 was running on fumes. I told him I was fine. 99 00:06:04.800 --> 00:06:07.399 He said, that's the same thing you said before your 100 00:06:07.439 --> 00:06:11.079 mom died. You weren't fine then either. He had a point. 101 00:06:11.519 --> 00:06:15.319 I spent Thanksgiving at Wade's place in Winston Salem. Colleen 102 00:06:15.360 --> 00:06:17.240 cooked a turkey that was too big for the oven 103 00:06:17.439 --> 00:06:19.519 and they had to finish it on the grill, which 104 00:06:19.560 --> 00:06:22.800 became a running joke for the rest of the weekend. Owen, 105 00:06:22.839 --> 00:06:25.800 who was eleven, showed me the curveball he'd been working on, 106 00:06:26.319 --> 00:06:28.560 and I adjusted his grip the same way Wade had 107 00:06:28.560 --> 00:06:32.759 adjusted mine twenty five years earlier. Maggie played jingle bells 108 00:06:32.800 --> 00:06:36.079 on the upright piano in the living room, halting but proud, 109 00:06:36.360 --> 00:06:39.839 and everybody clapped like she'd performed at Carnegie Hall. It 110 00:06:39.920 --> 00:06:43.600 was a good weekend, normal, the kind of family gathering 111 00:06:43.639 --> 00:06:45.839 that exists in a different dimension from the things that 112 00:06:45.920 --> 00:06:49.040 happen on the mountain. Wade asked me twice if I 113 00:06:49.120 --> 00:06:52.319 was okay. He said I looked thin. He said I 114 00:06:52.319 --> 00:06:55.240 had a thousand yard stare going on, which was a 115 00:06:55.279 --> 00:06:57.439 phrase he'd picked up in the Marines and applied to 116 00:06:57.480 --> 00:07:01.120 anyone who seemed distracted. Told him I'd been working too 117 00:07:01.120 --> 00:07:04.639 hard and sleeping too little. That was true, just not 118 00:07:04.720 --> 00:07:07.839 for the reasons he assumed. I drove back to the 119 00:07:07.839 --> 00:07:10.560 cabin on Sunday afternoon and found it exactly as I'd 120 00:07:10.600 --> 00:07:14.399 left it. Bowie, who'd stayed at a boarding kennel in Hendersonville, 121 00:07:14.480 --> 00:07:17.879 was ecstatic to be home. He sprinted the full perimeter 122 00:07:17.959 --> 00:07:21.120 of the meadow twice peed on every vertical surface he 123 00:07:21.160 --> 00:07:24.160 could find, and collapsed on the porch like he'd run 124 00:07:24.199 --> 00:07:27.199 a marathon. I sat beside him with a cup of 125 00:07:27.199 --> 00:07:30.120 coffee and watched the last daylight drain off the ridge, 126 00:07:30.519 --> 00:07:32.680 and I thought about how strange it was to feel 127 00:07:32.759 --> 00:07:37.040 both relieved and apprehensive about being back. Relieved because this 128 00:07:37.240 --> 00:07:40.800 was home, and home is where your body settles, even 129 00:07:40.800 --> 00:07:44.680 when your mind is unsettled. Apprehensive because the mountain had 130 00:07:44.720 --> 00:07:47.759 been unattended for four days and I had no idea 131 00:07:47.800 --> 00:07:50.519 what had happened up here while I was gone. I 132 00:07:50.600 --> 00:07:54.439 checked the perimeter. Nothing, no marks, no prints in the 133 00:07:54.439 --> 00:07:57.879 clay by the back door. The workshop was locked, the 134 00:07:57.959 --> 00:08:02.800 porch was clean, everything was order. December was cold but dry. 135 00:08:03.560 --> 00:08:07.160 We didn't get any significant precipitation until the week before Christmas, 136 00:08:07.480 --> 00:08:09.680 when a front moved in from the west and dropped 137 00:08:09.680 --> 00:08:12.600 about two inches of sleet that coated every surface on 138 00:08:12.639 --> 00:08:15.800 the mountain in a crust of ice. The gravel road 139 00:08:15.839 --> 00:08:19.839 became impassable for three days. I was stranded, which didn't 140 00:08:19.839 --> 00:08:23.439 bother me much. I'd been stranded before, and Earl had 141 00:08:23.439 --> 00:08:27.439 built this place for exactly that contingency. I had firewood 142 00:08:27.480 --> 00:08:30.759 stacked six cords deep along the south side of the workshop. 143 00:08:31.439 --> 00:08:34.840 I had canned food, dried goods, and a freezer chest 144 00:08:34.879 --> 00:08:37.600 on the back porch that functioned as a refrigerator in 145 00:08:37.600 --> 00:08:40.320 the winter because the ambient temperature kept it at a 146 00:08:40.320 --> 00:08:43.879 steady thirty four degrees. I had water from the well, 147 00:08:44.159 --> 00:08:46.919 which drew from an aquifer that ran beneath the frost 148 00:08:47.000 --> 00:08:50.720 line and never froze even when the temperatures above ground 149 00:08:50.799 --> 00:08:53.960 stayed below twenty for a week straight. I had heat 150 00:08:53.960 --> 00:08:56.279 from the fireplace and the wood stove in the kitchen, 151 00:08:56.720 --> 00:08:59.519 a cast iron box that Earl had installed in seventy 152 00:08:59.519 --> 00:09:02.320 three after rebetold him she was tired of cooking on 153 00:09:02.360 --> 00:09:05.120 an electric stove that went dead every time the power 154 00:09:05.159 --> 00:09:08.559 went out. The wood stove could heat the entire cabin 155 00:09:08.600 --> 00:09:11.360 by itself if you fed it right, and it doubled 156 00:09:11.399 --> 00:09:14.519 as a cooking surface that could boil water, simmer soup, 157 00:09:14.799 --> 00:09:18.159 and bake corn bread in a Dutch oven. Earl had 158 00:09:18.159 --> 00:09:21.519 designed this cabin for mountain winters, and it performed exactly 159 00:09:21.559 --> 00:09:25.039 as intended. During the sleet storm, I stayed inside for 160 00:09:25.080 --> 00:09:28.480 the better part of three days. Red worked on some 161 00:09:28.519 --> 00:09:32.440 small carpentry projects using hand tools in the cabin, listen 162 00:09:32.480 --> 00:09:34.440 to podcasts, including Yours. 163 00:09:35.519 --> 00:09:36.159 Bowie and I. 164 00:09:36.200 --> 00:09:38.840 Developed a routine of short walks on the icy meadow, 165 00:09:39.039 --> 00:09:41.480 where I'd shuffle along in my boots and he'd skid 166 00:09:41.519 --> 00:09:44.919 beside me like a furry hockey puck legs splaying in 167 00:09:44.960 --> 00:09:49.720 every direction, tail wagging. Despite the indignity, those three days 168 00:09:49.759 --> 00:09:52.080 were the closest thing to normal I'd felt since the 169 00:09:52.120 --> 00:09:56.879 garden raids. No knocking, no tracks, no signs of anything 170 00:09:56.919 --> 00:10:00.360 beyond the usual winter wildlife. A pair of cars dinals 171 00:10:00.360 --> 00:10:03.360 at the feeder. Earl had hung a hawk circling over 172 00:10:03.399 --> 00:10:07.240 the meadow deer tracks along Bishop Creek. By the time 173 00:10:07.320 --> 00:10:10.080 the ice melted and the road opened up, Christmas had 174 00:10:10.080 --> 00:10:13.559 come and gone. I'd spend it alone by choice. The 175 00:10:13.600 --> 00:10:17.360 first Christmas without family. It was quieter than I'd expected 176 00:10:17.399 --> 00:10:22.159 it to be. Not sad exactly, just still. I cooked 177 00:10:22.159 --> 00:10:25.039 a small ham on the woodstove, gave Bowie a raw 178 00:10:25.120 --> 00:10:28.000 hide bone wrapped in butcher paper, and called Wade and 179 00:10:28.000 --> 00:10:31.879 Cliff on the phone. Both conversations were short and warm, 180 00:10:31.919 --> 00:10:35.120 and completely free of anything related to the mountain. I 181 00:10:35.200 --> 00:10:37.919 needed that, a day where the only thing I thought 182 00:10:37.960 --> 00:10:40.399 about was the people I loved and the food in 183 00:10:40.399 --> 00:10:43.639 front of me and the fire in the hearth. The 184 00:10:43.679 --> 00:10:47.120 knocking stopped entirely around the second week of December, the 185 00:10:47.159 --> 00:10:50.440 same pattern as the previous year. Whatever was on the 186 00:10:50.519 --> 00:10:53.240 ridge seemed to go quiet when the temperatures dropped below 187 00:10:53.279 --> 00:10:56.320 freezing and stayed there. I'd started to think of this 188 00:10:56.399 --> 00:11:01.080 as a seasonal rhythm, active spring through fall, dormant and winter, 189 00:11:01.759 --> 00:11:06.480 like a bear in a sense, not hibernating necessarily, but withdrawing, 190 00:11:07.360 --> 00:11:09.960 pulling back into the deeper forest where the terrain was 191 00:11:10.080 --> 00:11:13.200 rougher and the elevation was higher and the human presence 192 00:11:13.279 --> 00:11:18.320 was zero. That assumption held until January ninth, twenty sixteen. 193 00:11:19.200 --> 00:11:21.720 The forecast had been calling for snow since the fifth 194 00:11:22.360 --> 00:11:25.279 A big system was pushing in from the gulf, pulling 195 00:11:25.320 --> 00:11:28.559 moisture up against the mountains, and the models were predicting 196 00:11:28.639 --> 00:11:31.960 six to ten inches for the elevations above three thousand feet. 197 00:11:32.759 --> 00:11:35.519 My property sits at about thirty four hundred, so I 198 00:11:35.600 --> 00:11:36.399 was squarely in. 199 00:11:36.360 --> 00:11:37.720 The bull's eye. 200 00:11:37.759 --> 00:11:40.039 I spent the days leading up to the storm doing 201 00:11:40.039 --> 00:11:43.559 what mountain people do, topping off the firewood racks on 202 00:11:43.600 --> 00:11:47.720 the porch, running the truck down to Hendersonville for groceries, batteries, 203 00:11:47.720 --> 00:11:51.039 and lamp oil, making sure the well pump was insulated 204 00:11:51.080 --> 00:11:54.519 and the pipes under the cabin were wrapped. Stacking extra 205 00:11:54.559 --> 00:11:57.039 blankets on the bed because the bedroom was the coldest 206 00:11:57.120 --> 00:12:00.200 room in the house, being the furthest from the fireplace. 207 00:12:01.039 --> 00:12:03.519 The snow started falling around four in the afternoon on 208 00:12:03.559 --> 00:12:07.320 the eighth. It came in soft and steady, no wind, 209 00:12:07.759 --> 00:12:10.200 just a curtain of white dropping straight down out of 210 00:12:10.200 --> 00:12:13.919 a pewter sky. By dark, there were three inches on 211 00:12:13.960 --> 00:12:16.440 the ground and the meadow had disappeared under a smooth, 212 00:12:16.600 --> 00:12:20.159 unbroken sheet. The trees along the ridge caught the snow 213 00:12:20.159 --> 00:12:23.120 on their bare branches and held it, turning the forest 214 00:12:23.159 --> 00:12:26.519 into something that looked like a charcoal drawing all black 215 00:12:26.600 --> 00:12:30.799 lines and white spaces. The creek, which usually ran loud 216 00:12:30.879 --> 00:12:33.639 enough to hear from the porch, went quiet under a 217 00:12:33.720 --> 00:12:36.960 layer of ice along the banks. The only sound was 218 00:12:36.960 --> 00:12:40.679 the snow itself, that soft, constant hiss of billions of 219 00:12:40.679 --> 00:12:44.080 crystals landing on billions of other crystals, which is one 220 00:12:44.080 --> 00:12:46.200 of the most peaceful sounds on Earth if you're in 221 00:12:46.240 --> 00:12:48.799 a place where you can hear it without the interference 222 00:12:48.840 --> 00:12:52.799 of plows and traffic and civilization. Bowie and I sat 223 00:12:52.840 --> 00:12:55.080 on the porch and watched it come down until the 224 00:12:55.120 --> 00:12:58.559 cold drove us inside around seven. He had snow on 225 00:12:58.639 --> 00:13:01.240 his nose from sticking his face into the accumulation on 226 00:13:01.279 --> 00:13:04.360 the porch rail, and he tracked wet paw prints across 227 00:13:04.399 --> 00:13:06.399 the cabin floor in a way that would have annoyed 228 00:13:06.440 --> 00:13:09.320 me on any other night, but felt charming this time. 229 00:13:10.159 --> 00:13:12.799 There's something about a snowstorm that makes you tolerant of 230 00:13:12.840 --> 00:13:17.240 small inconveniences. The world is being rewritten outside your door, 231 00:13:17.600 --> 00:13:19.919 and the mess your dog makes on the hardwood floor 232 00:13:20.360 --> 00:13:23.759 just doesn't register. I built a fire in the fireplace 233 00:13:23.840 --> 00:13:26.120 using some of the split hickory from the porch rack, 234 00:13:26.639 --> 00:13:29.639 and the cabin filled with that deep, sweet smoke smell 235 00:13:29.679 --> 00:13:31.840 that had been a part of every winter on the mountain. 236 00:13:32.679 --> 00:13:34.960 I made a pot of chili from canned tomatoes and 237 00:13:35.000 --> 00:13:37.960 ground beef I'd picked up in Hendersonville and ate it 238 00:13:38.000 --> 00:13:40.279 on the couch while Bowie lay on his blanket near 239 00:13:40.320 --> 00:13:43.799 the hearth and twitched in his sleep, chasing rabbits in 240 00:13:43.840 --> 00:13:48.000 his dreams. The fire popped and settled. The snow hissed 241 00:13:48.039 --> 00:13:51.399 against the windows. The world contracted to the size of 242 00:13:51.440 --> 00:13:55.440 four walls and a roof, and inside those walls everything 243 00:13:55.519 --> 00:13:58.759 was warm and still. By ten o'clock there were six 244 00:13:58.840 --> 00:14:01.080 inches on the ground and the snow was still falling. 245 00:14:01.879 --> 00:14:05.440 The storm had tightened the flakes smaller and denser, the 246 00:14:05.519 --> 00:14:09.039 kind that stacks up fast and packs down tight. I 247 00:14:09.120 --> 00:14:11.320 banked the fire with a green oak log that would 248 00:14:11.360 --> 00:14:14.600 burn slow through the night, checked the locks on both doors, 249 00:14:14.600 --> 00:14:17.879 out of habit and went to bed. I slept well 250 00:14:17.919 --> 00:14:21.559 that night, better than I had in weeks. There's something 251 00:14:21.600 --> 00:14:23.720 about a heavy snowfall that insulates you. 252 00:14:23.679 --> 00:14:24.399 From the world. 253 00:14:25.039 --> 00:14:29.519 It muffles sound, it softens edges, It wraps the cabin 254 00:14:29.559 --> 00:14:31.799 in a layer of white that makes the interior feel 255 00:14:31.840 --> 00:14:36.360 smaller and warmer and more enclosed like a den. The 256 00:14:36.399 --> 00:14:39.960 fire crackled in the other room. The wind was calm, 257 00:14:40.080 --> 00:14:42.879 and I slept straight through to morning, which was notable 258 00:14:42.879 --> 00:14:45.720 because I hadn't done that consistently since the Ravine encounter 259 00:14:45.759 --> 00:14:46.480 in October. 260 00:14:47.200 --> 00:14:48.720 I woke up at six forty. 261 00:14:48.480 --> 00:14:52.200 Five on January ninth. Bowie was already at the front door, 262 00:14:52.440 --> 00:14:55.320 doing his impatient shuffle, the one that means he needs 263 00:14:55.360 --> 00:14:57.399 to go out and has been waiting politely for as 264 00:14:57.480 --> 00:14:59.960 long as his bladder can manage. Stay tuned from more 265 00:15:00.200 --> 00:15:03.759 back woods big Foot stories. We'll be back after these messages. 266 00:15:05.799 --> 00:15:09.039 I pulled on jeans, a flannel boots, and a heavy 267 00:15:09.039 --> 00:15:12.480 coat and opened the door. The world had been replaced. 268 00:15:13.000 --> 00:15:17.080 Nine inches of fresh, undisturbed snow covered everything. The meadow 269 00:15:17.159 --> 00:15:20.080 was a perfect white plane that glowed faintly pink in 270 00:15:20.120 --> 00:15:24.039 the pre dawn light. The trees were loaded, branches bowed 271 00:15:24.120 --> 00:15:26.960 under the weight, and the sky overhead was clearing to 272 00:15:27.039 --> 00:15:30.320 a pale blue that meant the storm had passed. The 273 00:15:30.360 --> 00:15:34.519 air was sharp, maybe eighteen degrees, cold enough that my 274 00:15:34.639 --> 00:15:38.320 first breath felt like swallowing a blade. My nose hairs 275 00:15:38.399 --> 00:15:43.519 froze instantly. The silence was total, not the pressurized, ominous 276 00:15:43.559 --> 00:15:47.399 silence of the encounters, the genuine silence of a landscape 277 00:15:47.440 --> 00:15:51.000 buried in fresh snow, where every surface has been dampened 278 00:15:51.039 --> 00:15:53.840 and every sound has been absorbed, and the only thing 279 00:15:53.879 --> 00:15:56.360 you can hear is the creak of your own footsteps. 280 00:15:57.159 --> 00:15:59.519 Bowie bounded off the porch and plunged into the snow 281 00:15:59.600 --> 00:16:02.080 up to his chest. He looked back at me with 282 00:16:02.120 --> 00:16:06.240 an expression of pure delirious joy, his tongue out, his 283 00:16:06.320 --> 00:16:10.279 ears up, snow crusted on his nose. Then he took 284 00:16:10.320 --> 00:16:12.559 off across the meadow and a series of leaps that 285 00:16:12.639 --> 00:16:16.919 threw white powder in every direction. He was, in that moment, 286 00:16:17.399 --> 00:16:20.720 the happiest creature on Earth. I stood on the porch 287 00:16:20.799 --> 00:16:23.720 with my coffee and watched him run. The morning was 288 00:16:23.759 --> 00:16:25.519 beautiful in a way that made the rest of the 289 00:16:25.519 --> 00:16:29.600 world seem irrelevant. No sound but Bowie crashing through the 290 00:16:29.679 --> 00:16:32.679 snow and the occasional soft thump of a branch releasing 291 00:16:32.679 --> 00:16:36.559 its load, No movement but his, and the slow rotation 292 00:16:36.679 --> 00:16:39.720 of the earth bringing the sun up behind the ridge. 293 00:16:39.840 --> 00:16:43.039 Everything else was still. Then I looked to my right, 294 00:16:43.519 --> 00:16:46.120 toward the back of the cabin, toward the east side, 295 00:16:46.480 --> 00:16:48.840 where the ground dropped slightly toward the tree line and 296 00:16:48.879 --> 00:16:52.759 the forest begins. There were tracks in the snow, not 297 00:16:52.879 --> 00:16:56.120 Bowie's tracks. Bowie had gone off the porch to the 298 00:16:56.200 --> 00:16:59.519 left into the meadow, and his trail was a chaotic, 299 00:16:59.759 --> 00:17:03.399 ziz zagging mess of paw prints and belly furrows where 300 00:17:03.399 --> 00:17:06.519 he dived through the drifts. These tracks were on the 301 00:17:06.559 --> 00:17:09.759 opposite side of the cabin, to the right, and they 302 00:17:09.799 --> 00:17:13.519 were nothing like a dog's. My coffee stopped halfway to 303 00:17:13.559 --> 00:17:17.079 my mouth. I set it on the porch rail very slowly, 304 00:17:17.559 --> 00:17:19.799 the way you set down something fragile when you've just 305 00:17:19.880 --> 00:17:23.079 realized you need both hands free, and walked around the 306 00:17:23.079 --> 00:17:26.720 north side of the cabin, stepping carefully, placing my boots 307 00:17:26.720 --> 00:17:30.279 in the undisturbed snow. My own prints were the only 308 00:17:30.359 --> 00:17:34.519 human marks on the property. Everything else was pristine, a 309 00:17:34.559 --> 00:17:36.920 blank page that had been written on during the night 310 00:17:37.000 --> 00:17:39.920 by whatever had walked through it. The tracks came from 311 00:17:39.960 --> 00:17:43.880 the northeast, from the direction of the ridge. They emerged 312 00:17:43.880 --> 00:17:46.160 from the tree line at a point about seventy yards 313 00:17:46.160 --> 00:17:49.240 from the cabin, crossed the open ground between the forest 314 00:17:49.279 --> 00:17:52.680 and the house in a straight, deliberate line, and arrived 315 00:17:52.720 --> 00:17:56.240 at the northeast corner of the cabin. There was no wandering, 316 00:17:56.680 --> 00:18:00.480 no zig zagging, no pausing to investigate bushes or stumps 317 00:18:00.519 --> 00:18:03.559 or other features of the landscape. The trail was a 318 00:18:03.640 --> 00:18:07.400 ruled line, a straight shot from forest to house, as 319 00:18:07.440 --> 00:18:09.720 if the thing making it had known exactly where it 320 00:18:09.759 --> 00:18:12.519 was going and taken the most direct route to get there. 321 00:18:13.319 --> 00:18:16.160 The stride was enormous. I could see from where I 322 00:18:16.160 --> 00:18:19.319 stood that the distance between individual prints was four and 323 00:18:19.359 --> 00:18:24.279 a half to five feet walking pace, No running, no bounding, 324 00:18:25.079 --> 00:18:28.240 just a long, steady, confident walk through nine inches of 325 00:18:28.240 --> 00:18:31.839 fresh powder, straight from the trees to my house. What 326 00:18:31.960 --> 00:18:34.359 struck me first wasn't the size of the prince, but 327 00:18:34.440 --> 00:18:38.160 their depth. My own boot prints, made moments earlier on 328 00:18:38.200 --> 00:18:41.079 the porch steps had compressed the snow maybe two or 329 00:18:41.119 --> 00:18:44.640 three inches. These prints had punched clean through the full 330 00:18:44.759 --> 00:18:47.960 nine inch layer and cratered into the frozen ground. Underneath 331 00:18:48.759 --> 00:18:51.599 each one was a hole in the snow pack, not 332 00:18:51.680 --> 00:18:54.519 just an impression on the surface, but a cylinder board 333 00:18:54.599 --> 00:18:57.799 straight down, as if the weight behind each step was 334 00:18:57.839 --> 00:19:01.680 so substantial that the snow couldn't distribute and simply collapsed. 335 00:19:02.519 --> 00:19:05.000 I followed the trail along the north side of the cabin. 336 00:19:05.640 --> 00:19:09.240 The tracks ran parallel to the wall about three feet out, 337 00:19:09.920 --> 00:19:12.440 close enough that whatever made them could have reached out 338 00:19:12.440 --> 00:19:16.079 and touched the logs. The prints were deep, punching through 339 00:19:16.119 --> 00:19:18.920 the full nine inches of snow and into the frozen ground. 340 00:19:19.000 --> 00:19:23.160 Underneath each one was a clean oval depression, with distinct 341 00:19:23.240 --> 00:19:28.440 toe impressions at the front five toes wide, spacing the 342 00:19:28.480 --> 00:19:33.160 big toe offset inward, the same configuration I documented twice before. 343 00:19:33.880 --> 00:19:36.640 The snow preserved every detail with a clarity that dirt 344 00:19:36.680 --> 00:19:39.759 and clay never could. I could see the contour of 345 00:19:39.799 --> 00:19:42.599 the arch. I could see where the heel had compressed 346 00:19:42.599 --> 00:19:45.440 the snow differently than the ball of the foot. I 347 00:19:45.480 --> 00:19:49.079 could see, in one particularly well defined print, what looked 348 00:19:49.079 --> 00:19:52.319 like creases across the soul, the kind of skin folds 349 00:19:52.359 --> 00:19:54.480 you see on the bottom of a bare human foot, 350 00:19:55.039 --> 00:19:58.480 magnified to a scale that made my stomach drop. The 351 00:19:58.519 --> 00:20:00.440 tracks turned the corner at the north ward west end 352 00:20:00.440 --> 00:20:03.519 of the cabin and continued along the west side, past 353 00:20:03.599 --> 00:20:07.039 the porch, past the front door, past the windows of 354 00:20:07.039 --> 00:20:09.000 the living room, where I'd been sleeping on the couch 355 00:20:09.119 --> 00:20:13.359 less than eight hours ago. The stride remained consistent. The 356 00:20:13.440 --> 00:20:17.599 depth remained consistent. Whatever had walked this route had done 357 00:20:17.599 --> 00:20:21.119 so at a steady pace, without stopping until it reached 358 00:20:21.119 --> 00:20:25.599 the southwest corner. There the tracks paused. I could tell 359 00:20:25.640 --> 00:20:29.240 because the prints were deeper, more compressed, and slightly overlapping. 360 00:20:30.000 --> 00:20:31.960 The thing had stood in that spot for a period 361 00:20:32.000 --> 00:20:34.440 of time, long enough to shift its weight. 362 00:20:35.319 --> 00:20:35.880 There were two. 363 00:20:35.799 --> 00:20:39.480 Prints facing the cabin wall, overlapping at the heels, and 364 00:20:39.519 --> 00:20:41.680 then a slight pivot mark where it had turned to 365 00:20:41.759 --> 00:20:46.599 face west toward the meadow before continuing. The southwest corner 366 00:20:46.640 --> 00:20:49.720 is directly outside the bedroom window. I need to let 367 00:20:49.720 --> 00:20:51.880 that sink in for a second, because it took a 368 00:20:51.920 --> 00:20:54.720 while to sink in for me. The bedroom is on 369 00:20:54.759 --> 00:20:57.279 the south end of the cabin. My bed is against 370 00:20:57.279 --> 00:21:00.400 the east wall, but the window faces south, and the 371 00:21:00.400 --> 00:21:03.039 southwest corner of the building is about four feet from 372 00:21:03.079 --> 00:21:06.839 that window. Whatever had stood at that corner shifting its 373 00:21:06.880 --> 00:21:09.839 weight in the snow had been standing within arm's reach 374 00:21:09.920 --> 00:21:13.079 of the glass behind which I was sleeping. And I 375 00:21:13.119 --> 00:21:17.200 hadn't heard a thing. Nine inches of fresh snow, eighteen 376 00:21:17.240 --> 00:21:21.319 degree air, total silence, and something had walked to my 377 00:21:21.359 --> 00:21:24.279 bedroom window and stood there and I'd slept through it. 378 00:21:24.960 --> 00:21:28.319 Bowie had slept through it. The dog who'd appointed himself 379 00:21:28.440 --> 00:21:31.440 night sentry, who'd been sleeping in the hallway since July, 380 00:21:32.079 --> 00:21:34.039 who could hear a squirrel on the roof at three 381 00:21:34.039 --> 00:21:37.079 in the morning, had not reacted to something standing four 382 00:21:37.119 --> 00:21:39.640 feet from us on the other side of a log wall. 383 00:21:40.519 --> 00:21:42.599 I don't know what to make of that. I've thought 384 00:21:42.599 --> 00:21:45.920 about it hundreds of times. The best explanation I can 385 00:21:45.920 --> 00:21:48.920 come up with is the snow itself. Snow is an 386 00:21:48.920 --> 00:21:53.079 extraordinary sound insulator. Nine inches of fresh powder would have 387 00:21:53.119 --> 00:21:57.400 muffled footsteps to almost nothing, even heavy ones, and the 388 00:21:57.440 --> 00:21:59.799 cold that night was deep enough that all the windows 389 00:21:59.799 --> 00:22:03.000 were closed and frosted on the outside, which would have 390 00:22:03.079 --> 00:22:06.880 further blocked any noise. It's also possible that whatever this 391 00:22:07.000 --> 00:22:11.079 thing is, it knows how to move quietly, deliberately, the 392 00:22:11.119 --> 00:22:14.759 way a cat moves when it's stalking, not accidentally, silent, 393 00:22:15.319 --> 00:22:19.680 intentionally so. But there's another possibility that I can't dismiss, 394 00:22:20.079 --> 00:22:21.839 and it's the one that keeps me up at night. 395 00:22:22.640 --> 00:22:26.240 Maybe Bowie did sense it. Maybe he woke up oriented 396 00:22:26.240 --> 00:22:30.160 toward the south wall, processed the information, and made a decision. 397 00:22:30.880 --> 00:22:33.039 The same kind of decision he'd been making for over 398 00:22:33.079 --> 00:22:36.920 a year, the decision to not react, to not bark, 399 00:22:37.359 --> 00:22:41.880 not growl, not alert me, because alerting me would mean confrontation, 400 00:22:42.519 --> 00:22:46.119 and confrontation with something that size, that close through a 401 00:22:46.160 --> 00:22:49.039