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Sasquatch Chronicles - Bigfoot Encounters

People are seeing something in the woods and there are too many reports for this to be ignored. Join us every Sunday night as we discuss recent Sasquatch sightings, encounters and talk to Bigfoot eye witnesses. Listen as we speak with researchers, witnesses and investigators to unravel the mystery of Bigfoot. Every week we will also bring you the latest Bigfoot news and information.

Additional episodes and exclusive content can be found on our website www.sasquatchchronicles.com. Become a Member today and receive access to additional exclusive shows posted weekly, our full back catalog of episodes, the ability to comment on Episodes and Blog entries, and access to our Forums. For the latest news, please visit our Blog. We can also be found on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and YouTube.

Sasquatch Chronicles

Mason writes "I'm not quite sure how to start this other than with my first encounter.
 
In the summer of 2013 or 2014, I went camping with my friend Perry and his father in upstate New York, we lived in Saranac Lake, which is 15 minutes down the road from Lake Placid where the 1980 miracle on ice occurred. Upstate New York is nothing like the city that the state is most famously known for, its mountainous, and covered in forests, and is also home to the Adirondack state park, where our little town was nestled.
 
We had gone with his nearly estranged father to a camping ground near a lake, which one I cannot remember, as the area is littered with them. What I do remember however is Perry's father had stopped us setting up camp to tell us a scary story, ironically enough about Sasquatch. He told us a story about it taking food and attacking campers, but the two of us both teenagers, blew off his story. I for one have always had an interest in Bigfoot, but growing up, every adult in my life had talked down to me or made fun of this interest, causing me to in a sense disengage from them when they attempted to talk shop with me. 
 
This camp ground was large, and had over 20 slots, and his father had splurged in an attempt to reconcile with Perry, opting to rent a site next to the lake. Between our campsite and every other was about 100 feet of thick woods, to allow privacy between the families camping. At the time I believe it was us, and two other families as it was nearing the end of summer, and they were a few sites away from us. The camping was fun, and nothing too exciting occurred other than the three of us learning to set up an over complicated bass pro tent for a small family. At around 10 o'clock that night give or take an hour we had been sitting around our campfire when Perry's father's demeanor changed. For most of this day we had all three been very excited and having fun, but at this point in the night he seemed to suddenly become very serious. He got us to clean up our campsite and pack up everything aside from a large cooler he had brought along. Then he had ushered us into the tent. Perry and I, both being 13 or 14, were still awake, laughing over dumb jokes and attempting not to wake Perry's father when we began to hear walking. At this time I had not been as well versed of the sounds of the woods as I would become later in life, but even then I could distinguish the sound of bipedal walking, especially when it sounded heavy. We heard something begin to approach our campsite, and at first I had wondered if it were a loon or heron which were all over the lake during the day. This however was quickly disproven when it approached our tent. Perry's face suddenly became filled with fear, fear which matched the sudden sinking feeling growing in my chest and stomach. I had turned slightly to my left, onto my back, as I was closest to the side this unknown had approached, and something inside me demanded I not have my back to whatever this was. We sat there for what felt like forever, but could only have been a minute, when the side of the tent began to push in slowly, what was pushing it in has never left me. What I can only describe as a poorly outlined hand had pushed in the side of the tent. The tent wall had bulged inwards a good five or six inches and was starting to stretch as far inward as it could before the tent began to bend. The hand itself reminded me of my fathers hand, he is a man of 6 feet and over 250 pounds, and had hands that remind me of the cartoon character wreck it Ralph, or more accurately like a baseball glove. What shocked me most of all was that this hand seemed to be double or triple the size of my father's hands. 
 
I believe if it were not for what happened next, it may have kept moving its hand further. Perry's father actively spoke in his sleep, a quirk of his that I at the time did not know. He had said something quiet, but just loud enough that it caused this hand to pull away. It was at this moment that the air began to feel electrified, like we had done something wrong, and the fear in my body then and even now rewriting this spiked. The woods had gone deadly silent, the only sound we could hear was the water from the lake make ten feet from our tent. 
 
We froze, Perry and I had lain as flat as possible to avoid bringing attention to ourselves, and were doing our best to slow our breathing, to keep quiet. Perry's father however had mumbled something else, and Perry decided he would attempt to wake him. It half worked, as his father seemed to hear Perry whispering to him, because the next thing I knew his father chuckled and said "You're trying to scare me for the story aren't you? Not gonna work" and moments later, his father was once again asleep.
 
As he spoke, we heard and felt the steps from earlier walk away from us, further into our campsite. We had pitched our tent on the edge of the site because a large picnic table sat in the center, this table is where we left our cooler. I mention this because you could hear the wood suddenly creaking as if something heavy was leaned on it or sat on it. Following this was the sound of the cooler opening, and the sound of plastic bags and cans being sorted through. 
 
Perry and I held our breath, terrified. At the time I refused to believe it was Bigfoot, because I did not want what was happening to ruin my enjoyment of the subject. 
 
We listened to it for quite some time, I believe four or five minutes, rummaging through the cooler, before we heard the cooler close, and the steps begin to move away. The next thing we heard was something entering the water, and the sound of something swimming away. 
 
We stayed awake after that, or more accurately I did, Perry eventually got to sleep, I can only imagine he was exhausted from the terror we had felt. I, in my infinite wisdom of a brazen 13 or 14 year old, waited for sunrise to exit the tent, where I found our cooler still on the table but moved, and many of the items we had brought in the cooler strewn about the site. I did not see tracks, as the ground here was too hard, but what I did notice was that the cooler felt oily on the handles, like someone who had washed their hands in seed oils had touched it, or someone who had done an oil change had just manhandled the cooler. It also smelled slightly of mildew, or more accurately it smelled like stale air. 
 
When Perry woke and so did his father, Perry apparently had decided to not talk about what had happened, and his father thought I was trying to scare him for as he put it "payback for yesterdays story".
 
Suffice to say, I had grown a pair of eyes in the back of my head that night, which would keep me aware in the woods for years to come.
 
My second encounter is extremely brief, and at the time I was convinced by my mother that it was simply foxes attempting to mate. For you if you want to see where this one occurred, we lived at 
 
220 Riverside Drive, Saranac Lake New York. Down the road from my old home was thick woods that went on fire miles, which are still there. My home was just up the road from it.
 
I know this had occurred in 2014 because my father had given me an IPad he no longer wanted for my birthday which was in March of that year. I had been up late watching YouTube, and enjoying some pirated shows on the site, and when I say late I mean 1 or 2 AM late. 
 
I had always been spooked by sounds I'd never heard before, but never as afraid as what this would do to me. 
 
I had just decided I needed to sleep when my dog Lakota, a Keeshond I just recently adopted began to whine. His cage was in my room. For context, this home was three stories tall, but built on an a steep hill. We had gotten this home from a family friend who had been building it for himself, but decided he didn't want it when he found a "better property". My room was on the "ground floor". I put this in quotations because my room and the entire left half of the ground floor sat 10 feet above the driveway. The driveway, was about 40 or 50 feet long, extending past our house to a garage which is built into the hill, the hill itself was covered in thick woods and it was maybe 70 feet between our house and the people behind it. The driveway itself also opened a path up behind the garage, up into the woods. 
 
So my room is about 10 feet above the driveway, but directly beside it, and I have a single window here. I had the window partly cracked, and my room was pretty quiet, I was trying not to wake my mother upstairs because her room was directly above mine and she could be very upset if I was too loud and woke her up. I was relaxed and enjoying myself as I had said before when a sound I can only describe as a bloody scream exploded up from the driveway. It was both deep and high pitched, and vibrated the glass in the windows, my TV and my entire body. I was instantly overcome with the deepest fear I have ever felt, and I threw the iPad down. Normally if I heard something that scared me I would just close the window and my bedroom door and hide under the covers, but this filled me with so much terror I threw my iPad, left my dog behind and went running into the hall. As soon as I made it into the hall, I could hear something in the distance answer back. I too began screaming, only instead of a guttural two toned shrieking I began screaming for my mother.
 
She came rushing down the stairs, I can only assume she too was awoken by these sounds. She however was angry with me. According to her that was foxes sending out a mating call. I had told her I don't believe her and her response still sticks with me as an oddly funny reaction to such a terrifying moment. "What do you want me to do? Go outside and shoot it? I'm not doing that!" 
 
I believe my panic had sent the screamer away from our home, because I never heard that sound again after the initial scream and answer from down the road. 
 
For years I just accepted my mother's reality, because I didn't know what else it could be, until I was listening to your show. I'm not sure what episode it was but I know the sound. The moment I heard it I had a full blown panic attack, and was brought right back to that night. Every time I hear that sound I go back, not as panicked as before thankfully, but that sound will haunt me for the rest of my life. It is only thanks to you that I know what it was now. The audio I think of sounds feminine almost, like a banshee almost, and is followed by a deep call at the end. I believe it may have been on a recent episode.
 
Now for my final encounter or rather what I'd refer to as the most terrifying 3 months of my life. 
 
I moved to Virginia in 2016, and have lived here since then. It was last year, 2024, when I had lost my job in retail. I had lost my grandmother who had been there my whole life, she had been there for me when I lost my sister in 2009 and even been there holding one of my mothers legs when I was born. This loss had hit me hard and I had lost the passion I had for my job and most things around me. It had been my spouse Lynn's suggestion that I go into something new, something that got me outside, to help me find my passion for work again. So I applied to FedEX Ground in Winchester Virginia, and to my delight I got the job fairly quickly. I was trained, and put into my own truck within a month and a half of getting the gig. My route was Luray Virginia, specifically the area around Highway US-211 East, called Fairview. This area is mostly hills, woods, farms, pastures, and creeks. This is about as rural as you can get, internet vanishes here, your phone loses signal, and most people you speak to is related to five others here. I loved my route, except for three places on it.
 
To start was Piney Mountain Road. Piney Mountain goes up to a small paved circle where houses have mailboxes. The houses these boxes belong to were each up a steep mountain whose roads were carved out of the mud and dirt between trees, and every driveway was a challenge: the worst of all was at the top of the mountain, where a house had an inclined driveway. This driveway had no good turn arounds aside from a small patch of dirt that sat precariously over a small drop of about 70 feet onto a slope with a slight incline of 80°. I would have to do an eleven point turn to turn my vehicle around and then pray to god my brakes didn't give out as I delivered these peoples packages. Well the more I delivered to them, the more I felt like someone was going to come out of the woods and attack me in the truck. 
 
Every time I delivered to this home I was filled with dread to the point I once just left their boxes in the driveway and nearly killed myself flying down the mountain. There was one night however, when I was out extremely late delivering, that I arrived at the paved circle at the bottom of the mountain, and decided I was never driving up there again. I parked and was on the phone with my spouse, with an earbud in one ear. I was delivering to the only house at the bottom before I was to go up the mountain, when I began to hear nearly every sound I've ever heard you play on the podcast start up that mountain, I heard arguing samurai chatter, I heard howling, screaming, I heard branches and trees being torn apart, and I flew into my truck, leaving their packages in a drop box that belonged their neighbors and I left in tears.
 
Next, would be Morning Star Road or as google calls it "Jewell Hollow Road." Not much happened here aside from two things. I saw a distant figure up on a hill one day for maybe a moment that was man shaped and black, and an old woman who told me and I quote her directly "the boogers don't like you speeding around here."
 
To finish out I would have to drive up a road directly behind the Shenandoah national park HQ, East Rocky Branch. This road went far back into the woods, surround by it really, on the right side of the road was a 10 foot drop into a ditch with a river at the center, and on the left was a hill connected to a small mountain. I drove this entire road, delivering boxes to every house, except for the ones at the ends. Every time I would drive down this road I would get an odd feeling, like I was being watched. I had chalked it up to paranoia; because I had been listening to your shows episodes I'd downloaded on the app, I just had become a true member and not an Apple podcast listener anymore. For months I was just calling it paranoia, denying the occasional stick break, the woods going silent, or the feeling of being watched. There was even a point when I had gone a different road this occurred so I assumed I had just begun overthinking, until the last two months I worked for FedEX. I had a house I delivered to at the end, which had a large cleared yard with trees surrounding it. There was a large opening about maybe 40 feet wide that looked all the way to a small waterfall about 200 feet from where I'd park in their gravel driveway. I had met the family who lived here a few times, and the father was a good 6'5 maybe 6'6. This is important because I would often see the father about halfway back towards this waterfall, and he would stand beside a tree in this clear view in order to talk with me as I delivered packages, mainly to tell me where to place them.
 
It was November, and I was arriving in their driveway on a day they must not have been home, because their car that usually blocked me from doing an easy turn around in this driveway was gone. So I parked sideways in the driveway, and began to take their package out. I hadn't noticed it yet, but the woods were silent aside from the occasional gust of wind. The package was quite heavy; and I had been spouting some expletives as I was not in the best of shape, but I eventually got it on their porch. Once I did, I turned around and looked back in the clearing.
 
What I saw fills me with dread to this day. "

SC EP:1198 What I saw fills me with dread

Spoke to Drew and he has agreed to come on the show. A listener writes “I’m 56 years old and an avid deer hunter with 39 years of hunting experience to date. I’ve had several experiences in the woods leading up to my day time sighting on my hunting club in SC . My youngest son turned me on to your podcast. I feel compelled to share my experiences.”

SC EP:1196 The Hunting Club

John writes "I was present when the East Central Ohio Bigfoot Chatter was recorded. I am willing to discuss my experiences publicly with some level of discretion." Spoke to John and he agreed to come on the show. John is a working professional, highly educated and comfortable in his routines: commuting, meetings and deadlines. As a child, an incident in the dense woods near a cabin still haunted him.
 
Many years later John listened to a recording on TV of what he heard as a child, remembering that event shattered his worldview. Questions flooded his mind: Was the noise he heard in his youth the elusive creature? Tonight John shares experiences spanning over decades.

SC EP:1194 The Journey

Chris writes "My wife and I were on a car trip back in February. I had 12 hours of driving to do and wanted a new podcast to fill the time with. I was looking for something paranormal or supernatural and came across Sasquatch chronicles. I downloaded a few and off we went. After the first few episodes I started hearing specific details that would remind me of my grandfathers farm. After a few more episodes my wife looks at me and says, “Don’t some of these sound like your ghost stories?” I had been thinking the same thing too.
 
So after 6 months of listening to the archives I’ve finally gotten around to email you about my Grandfathers farm.
 
My grandfather had 80 acres in western North Carolina. We lived in Asheville Nc, about 20 miles north of my grandfather. He was a hermit, divorced from my grandmother. And lived in their old house filled with stuff in case the world entered into another depression.
 
We would visit him about every other month. My mom would sit and talk with him, while my brothers and me would explore thru the junk filled barns, sheds, and out buildings. He had also built a 5 acre pond on his property for his grandsons to be able to fish in. It was stocked with bass and blue gill.
 
He was a hard old man, that told you something only once, and expected it to be done. But he would also joke around with you. He use to tell us to look out for them boogers out there.
 
When I was in 8th grade when my grandfather died and left his farm to my mother. Over the next two years we would go out to the property almost every weekend and holiday. We were cleaning it up. We didn’t know it at the time, but our parents were planning on moving us into the house. We started camping out on the property sometimes when we would stay out there for a few days. It was during these visits, I started hearing neighbors talking about strange things on the property. About being chased away when they tried to fish at the pond. Always feeling like someone was watching them.
 
In the summer of 1998 my parents moved myself and my 4 younger brothers into my grandfathers house. In the 2 years of working on the house to move into it, I had experienced enough to know that the house was haunted, and that my grandfathers ghost lived in the lake. I didn’t tell anyone other than my brothers and my parents. My brothers and I all believed there was something going on. Our parents kept telling it that it was our imagination. So we kept it to ourselves. It just became normal.

SC EP:1192 Sasquatch, The Fog And The Haunted House

Join me this weekend as we celebrate the life of Dr. Jeff Meldrum and his impact on the subject of Sasquatch. I will be joined by many of his friends who come on to share their memories of him. This is part two.

SC EP:1191 Remembering Dr. Jeff Meldrum Part II

Join me this weekend as we celebrate the life of Dr. Jeff Meldrum and his impact on the subject of Sasquatch. I will be joined by many of his friends who come on to share their memories of him.

SC EP:1190 Remembering Dr. Jeff Meldrum

Shannon writes "Yesterday, while being a passenger in our side by side, I saw something in the woods.. between Grisdale & Satsop campground area. There’s a dry river bed area in there and a few campers spotted down on the open rocks camping.
 
As we were headed back towards where our trucks were parked, I saw something lanky, long haired and black with large pieces of olive green moss stick in the mats of it’s ribcage/stomach & left back hip area. It had a dog like face and cat-like reflexes as it twisted in mid-air and sprung off a large old snag. It was about 50 feet in the woods. The animal pushed it’s front upper torso away from the snag and in the air twisted & then let go with it’s back legs/feet and landed on all fours. It was long, like 6 or 7 foot long, thin build & it appeared to have hands and long feet.
 
I immediately said to Brandon in our headphones “…uhh- what the heck was that??? Hun, I just saw something. Like, a weird something…” Last night I had a scary dream that woke me up & I was afraid to go back to sleep because I didn’t want to be back in the dream, but this morning it bothered me so much I needed to draw it. I looked up Google images to understand things that looked like it. But nothing is coming up except a “dogman”??. (Some cryptid scary animal thing) looked like a long haired black Irish wolfhound mixed with an all black long haired sloth bear. I’ve never seen a long haired skinny black bear with cat like reflexes.. but ya.. No idea what it was- but I’m never camping there. That’s for sure.
 
It didn’t hv a neck like a dog, but the whole back half looked like a dire wolf or at least a very large canine look to it. No idea. So hard to explain it though. I’m chalking it up as a really long haired sickly black bear.”
 
 
 
We will also be speaking to Elijah. Elijah is from Virginia and back in the 1980's he was 15 years old staying at a friends cabin. His friend left and was in an accident and did not return for a couple of days. During this time, he ran intro something with red glowing eyes.

SC EP:1188 It Was Not A Sasquatch

Hugh writes "I have had several experiences to share with you. I've been investigating this subject quite heavily following my first experience of seeing one. I've covered a series of canyons and forested mountains with trail cams and all though, I didn't have high expectations of these trail cams; they have captured some bizarre evidence.
 
I've spent many nights alone in these mountains and I've taken a few people out on private experiences of research. I've experienced everything from rock throwing and vocalizations to exchanges of gifting and full-blown sightings. I've recovered hair and more. I've found and filmed amazing structures and tree breaks and more."

SC EP:1186 Sasquatch Valley

Tonight I will be chatting with the creator of the Bigfoot Live Stream App. Logan will be sharing his encounters and why he created this app.
 

 
This app features the ability view 24/7 live streams of Bigfoot Hot Zones. Subscription Information - Title: 24/7 Bigfoot Live Stream - Length of Subscription: Monthly - Price: $4.99 per month
 
 
 
By subscribing, you get access to:
 
| All available live streams
 
| Access to Video On Demand of of every live stream for the past 2 weeks
 
| Uploaded videos from user reports
 
| News and updates
 
| First to see footage reports
 
| Report sightings live!
 
| ML and AI reporting
 
 
 
By creating a login you will then have access to subscribe to the 24/7 Bigfoot Live Stream, this is critical in the function of the app for subscribers. Users will need to first create an account for it is a necessary function within the subscription of the app.
 
Before you create an account, users will have access to content describing about the livestream and Bigfoot Collaboration. Everything pre sign-up is information about the subscription, and our mission statement.
 
You do not get any access to any content for creating an account. Once you create an account it only gives you access to subscribe. If you choose to remove your account there is a link in account section for removal.

SC EP:1184 Bigfoot Live Stream

Ian writes "The story I’m sitting down to tell, is a true one. One experienced by a faithful friend of mine, Sam, and I. I’m often reluctant to tell this story at length to most people, as the subject matter is unexplainable and rather strange. I don’t want to be viewed as the superstitious nut. But having guided all across the country, and having extensive experience in many environments around the united states, I feel I have the authority to tell this story. Essentially what I’m saying is I’ve been around, in the deep dark hollows all across North America, and never experienced something so strange as I did that night.
 
I don’t fancify my experiences in the woods, nor do I hopefully imagine there’s something more to a twig breaking. As anyone who has spent a good deal of time in the woods knows, there’s no reason to. Eventually you’ll experience something daring or fantastic. I am a hunter first and foremost, and to a hunter there’s always an explanation, a reason to the wilderness and her inhabitants. Its how we identify patterns and exploit an animals rhythm to make a successful hunt. As a hunter you’re a sort of woodsman detective, piecing together clues to set yourself up for success. Lets just say this tale is a cold-case.
 
Let’s get into it. It was early summer and I was itching to go camping. I had recently received a new tent and was eager to use it. I called up my good buddy, Sam, and we planned out our camping adventure. We considered going up to the Grayson highlands, or even south into North Carolina. After debating it, we decided it would be more fun to camp somewhere we wouldn’t run into any other people. Deep in the woods, far from anyone else, where we could bushcraft, hoot and holler, and bring a gun without fear of scaring the yuppies camping next to us.
 
While we both lived in the woods, I definitely had access to the most remote stretch of woods between us. So we loaded up our stuff and began hiking, deep into the valley below my childhood home. The hike was almost completely straight down a steep hillside, deep into a a hollow that held a small patch of flat land, a flood plane area and creek. The small creek that ran gave the area a beautiful ambiance. Early signs of summer were visible all around and the weather was great. We hiked until we felt the need to start gathering firewood before nightfall.
 
Behind us a was a steep hillside that rose into the west for miles. In front of us was the creek, and to the left the start of another ridge and hillside that rose high into the east and north. To our right, the valley we were in, continued to go down cutting a deep valley. and on the other side of the creek another ridge, separated by a small stream from the ridge to the left, rose into the west and to the south. These two ridges in front of us ran for miles and the little valley formed by the small creek split these ridges for a long ways up until it hit the spring head. This is important for later in the story. Off to the right, further down the valley, more splits in the ridges are made by little tributaries.
 
We started building camp by clearing the brush and leaves away and constructing a small firepit. I placed a tarp on the ground to separate my tent from the damp earth. Remember this, the tarp extended out roughly a foot on each side of my tent.
 
Sam had a hammock that he planned to sleep in, I’ve only ever camped in a hammock once, and it didn’t go great. But I didn’t say anything to him, thinking that maybe he would enjoy it. We gathered a hefty load of firewood, consisting of some reasonably dry stuff. It was shaping up to be a really nice camping trip. I’ve spoken about the joy of being “out there” on this blog before, so I won’t beat a dead horse, but it was really nice to be away from people. Sam and I sat around the fire and shot the shit until the sun went down.
 
Now one of the things Sam and I have always bonded on, has been Bigfoot shows. We’re both skeptics, and I would say we hold a similar or the same opinion on the subject. Our interest is less about believing in bigfoot, but rather we just find the subject matter to be nostalgic, silly, and a fun thing to joke about.
 
So, I brought up the idea to Sam, that we begin to “Hunt” Bigfoot. He laughed and thought it was a great idea. So we began doing the antics they do in the “Finding Bigfoot” TV show. We started with the classic, Tree knocks.
 
A “Tree Knock” for those unaware, is when you use a stick to beat on a tree, making a loud knocking sound that echoes through the forest. Supposedly sasquatch communicate this way. We didn’t think anything of it at all, as I said before, we didn’t really believe, we were just joking around. So we began by knocking on the trees and then stopping and listening for a response. After a few times of doing this we paused, and hearing nothing I began to think of a joke to crack and something else to do. Before I could open my mouth, we heard clear as day, a tree nock far off somewhere on the ridge to the left.
 
I looked at Sam and said, “Dude.”
 
Sam just looked back at me in surprise. I then did some more knocks, and we listened again. Then off in the distance, we heard more knocks in response. Then the other ridge to the right we began hearing knocks. Sam at this point was beginning to get freaked out a little and was perplexed as to what it could be.
 
I at the time, was such a hard skeptic I carried on and insisted that it was a person or a woodpecker.
 
“but who in the world would be out there? deeper in the woods than we are, on private land? What woodpecker makes three loud booming knocks on the tree, that sound exactly like the knocks we make?” Sam voiced his rebuttal.
 
I ignored these arguments and held strong to the fact that there is no Bigfoot. I then insisted that we push the envelope by doing woops and howls, just like they do on TV. Sam was not very enthused by this idea, being the humbler and smarter one of us that night, knowing sometimes there’s certain things you don’t mess with. But at that time I was full of piss and vinegar, and stubborn as a mule about the fact that Bigfoot, is not real. I also had brought a gun with me, and was certain I could fight off anything we would need to fight off.
 
So we started howling into the woods. It was dark that night, being a new moon, and beyond the firelight you couldn’t see a damn thing. We would howl and wait listening for a reply. After a few howls, the excitement of “What was that?” started to fade and my logical, rational, science based, theory of the woodpecker began to appear true.
 
Then, out of the dark distance came one of the strangest sounds I’ve ever heard. A howl.
 
Not a canine howl, not an owls hoot, but a fucking ape howl.
 
Sam’s eyes were as big as back hoe tires, and even I was finding it hard to reason that one. Despite this, I continued my ignorant stubbornness, and threw out another howl. Off to the left ridge it replied to us again, the clearest ape whoop I’ve ever heard. As if it were recorded by researchers in the Congo.
 
I looked at Sam, myself feeling more curious and excited than anything else, I reiterated, “Duuuude.”
 
Then something truly unexplainable and spooky happened, more whoops and howls began on the ridge to the right and further down the valley. And they weren’t random, they had etiquette, as if they were chatting back and forth with each other. The one to the left would howl, the one to the right would whoop and howl, the first would respond, and then the one way down the valley would chime in.
 
Sam was really freaked out now, and began considering if we should leave. I, being a stubborn idiot, claimed it was owls.
 
“Owls?? We were both raised in these hollers, I’ve heard owls, you’re gonna tell me that was an owl? Have you ever in your life heard an owl that sounded like a fucking ape?” Sam argued against my claim.
 
“Well, no, but there’s no way bigfoot is real. It has to be a bunch of owls speaking to each other. There’s nothing else it could be.” I replied, half laughing in astonishment and disbelief of what was unfolding that night.
 
Sam and I kind of bickered for a minute over it, and then decided the wisest decision was to stop antagonizing whatever it was in the woods miles around us whooping and knocking.
 
It wasn’t too long after that, we decided to go to bed. I crawled into my tent, and Sam into his hammock. We left the fire going, and every time the fire died down, the woods came to life.
 
Whether it was paranoia, or paranormal, something was stirring. All around camp we could hear what sounded like things being thrown and footsteps. From time to time we would hear another knock or another howl coming from a new position. Sam would leap out of his hammock and chuck loads of wood onto the fire and make it as big as possible. He would then lay back down to sleep. This repeated about three more times.
 
Each time the fire died, things got spookier and spookier. A few times Sam would say, “Did you hear that?” and every time I would just blame it on possums nearing camp, hoping to find food scraps.
 
Well, about the third time, Sam ran out of firewood. Meaning that this time when the fire died, it died for good, leaving us to the dark void of the Appalachian holler. I vividly remember I had fallen asleep before the fire died, and after it died, there was so much stirring around camp, I began to wake up.
 
I was slowly waking up, thinking I was having some sort of nightmare, when I finally fully sobered, and realized that my dream was pleasant. It was reality that was full of frightening sounds and things that go bump in the night.
 
The woods around us had become loud with unexplainable movement, the movement of multiple large things. The whooping and knocking had stopped, which did not comfort me, with all the new sounds right outside my door. There was maybe a 30 yard perimeter around camp that the sounds did not cross.
 
Then suddenly, an extremely loud crashing began through the twigs, leaves, and branches. It was something large, running full sprint through the woods. Starting maybe 50 yards away, and running straight towards our camp. It grew louder and louder, until the sound of crushing leaves, turned to crinkling tarp.
 
The creature, was standing on the tarp my tent was situated on.
 
I was frozen. Like a child, Frozen in fear, eyes wide open. My heart was pounding out of my chest so hard I thought it would explode. I Then heard high above my tent, not near the ground, not four feet up, but high above my tent, the most terrifying sound I’ve ever heard. it was the sound of a huff and blow, exactly the way you hear a gorilla do it on TV. Or how the apes in planet of the apes do it. Three forceful huff and blows, then the creature turned around and ran back the way it came, back into the darkness of the night.
 
Sam practically leaped out of his hammock and said, “You had to have heard that!”
 
I replied with, “Yeah lets get the fuck out of here.”
 
I slid a round into the chamber of my 30-30 and crawled out of the tent. We both got busy grabbing only our essentials, and started out of the woods. Using shitty dim flashlights, we made our way up the hill. Frantically looking behind us into the terrible night, and trying to move fast without running. We hiked a long ways and by the time we made it back to the house it was far past midnight.
 
We never did see what it was that charged us, and we never did hear anything else after that. But whatever it was, scared us enough to make us hike out in the dead of night and leave all of our gear there.
 
We returned the next morning in full daylight to gather our things. Looking back, I wish we had surveyed the area for tracks or some clue as to what it was, but at the time we did not want to be down there for any longer than we had to. Having been some years since this happened, I would go down there in a heart beat and not think a thing of it. When I come home, I usually feel a sense of ease in the woods. It feels like a weight is lifted off of your shoulders knowing there are no cougars or grizzly bears to worry about. For my western outdoorsy folk, familiar with cougar country, reading this and thinking, “I don’t feel a weight in the woods.”
 
my reply, would be the question, have you noticed you’ve been stalked before? Cougars are some of the sneakiest creatures in the animal kingdom, and just because you’ve never noticed it, doesn’t mean it hasn’t happened. I myself have been stalked, I’ve written about it here previously. It’s a feeling that will stick with you, and definitely put you on edge in cougar country for a long time after. I have a colleague who guides western big game in New Mexico, who told me a story once that during a hunt he had a fellow guide spotting for him, and that guide watched a cougar stalk my friend through a grove of trees before giving up. My friend never had the slightest idea he was being stalked. I believe for an avid outdoorsman in cougar country, it is inevitable.
 
And as far as grizzly country, it’s a similar feeling but a little different. Most ill bear encounters happen because you surprise the bear in thick woods. I have many friends from my time in Alaska who would share stories of being charged by monster grizzlies from out of no-where. They’re just hiking along, and then BOOM! 800 pounds of death is blasting straight towards them. And the consensus is the same amongst them, if you spend enough time out there, it will happen eventually.
 
I luckily was never charged during my time in Alaska, I avoided known bear hang-outs. But the few times I spent time in bear country, I always had this jack in the box anxiety, just waiting for it to happen.
 
What is funny though, is despite that weight being lifted initially, an old feeling always returns. I know it’s not some sort of psychological thing having to do with that patch of woods specifically, because I feel it in most places in Appalachia. It’s a feeling of being watched, a feeling that something is there, and a feeling of dread. And it amplifies every time you hear some strange crashing in the woods or a sound you cannot explain. Most of the times I’ve experienced this, I’ve had a gun. And I think to myself,
 
“Come on man! You’re the most badass thing out here.”
 
Yet I can never shake that anxiety.
 
My brother, without having ever heard this story, reluctantly asked me over the phone one day,
 
“don’t think I’m crazy but, have you ever felt creeped out in the woods below the house? I don’t know what it is, but every time I go down there I feel like I’m being watched, and I get filled with dread.”
 
Hearing him say that sent shivers down my back. Simply because I always dismissed this feeling, I’ve swept this story under the rug for years, telling myself it was just a bear etc. To hear my brother, who is a marine, tell me that, certified to me that I was not simply being a pussy. I’ve only ever felt this in two regions of the country. Appalachia, and the Redwood Forests of Northern California.
 
Now some of you may be reading this thinking that I am a nut-job Bigfoot believer. I’ve been reluctant to share this story for that reason. But I want to end this, saying, I have no idea what it was that made those calls that night. I also have no idea what it was that busted into our camp. We never did lay our eyes on anything.
 
But I want to re-iterate that the story, is true. Verbatim to how it happened as I can recall it, without any embellishment. I have no idea what it was, and you can make your own decision as to what you think it was. But being an experienced woodsman, never have I ever experienced something like that since, and I have no worldly explanation for it. Those were the events that transpired that night, and I’ll let you make of that what you will.”
 
 
 
Here is a link to Ian's blog

SC EP:1183 Hunting Guides Experience With Sasquatch

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SC EP:76 Open Phone Lines and Your Thoughts

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