Those Aren't People!

Tonight we're doing something a little different here on Sasquatch Odyssey. We're setting aside the witness interviews and the evidence analysis and the investigative reports, and instead we're gathering around the fire to tell a story the old fashioned way. This is a Christmas tale about a young Sasquatch named Thorn who has spent the autumn watching a human family from the treeline above their mountain cabin.He's fascinated by their laughter, their warmth, their strange rituals of carving pumpkins and roasting marshmallows and dragging trees inside their homes to cover them with lights. His kind has always kept their distance from humans, but something about this family calls to him in ways he doesn't quite understand. On Christmas Eve, when the teenage daughter Emma leaves a plate of cookies on the porch railing and looks up toward the treeline with a knowing smile, everything changes. Thorn makes a decision that will alter the course of his life and theirs. What follows is a journey through a blizzard, an impossible winter rose, a lost little boy named Jacob who followed what he thought were Santa's footprints into the storm, and a rescue that bridges the vast distance between two worlds that were never supposed to meet. Pour yourself something warm, dim the lights, and let the snow fall as we journey deep into the ancient Appalachian hills for a Christmas Eve you won't soon forget. It' s suitable for listeners of all ages and makes for perfect holiday listening with the whole family gathered close. From all of us here at Sasquatch Odyssey, we wish you a Christmas filled with magic, kindness, and the reminder that you are never truly alone. Keep your eyes on the treeline, friends. And maybe leave a little something on the porch tonight, just in case.Get Our FREE NewsletterGet Brian's Books Leave Us A VoicemailVisit Our WebsiteSupport Our SponsorsBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/sasquatch-odyssey--4839697/support.

24 Joulu 1h 19min

I love a good Christmas story.The kind where something strange and wonderful happens out in the wilderness. Where the magic of the season reaches places most people never go. Where even the darkest corners of the forest feel touched by something warm and old and meaningful.Over the years, I’ve told you stories like that.Stories of Sasquatch sightings on snowy December mornings.Of mysterious gifts left on remote cabin doorsteps.Of unexplained tracks leading to and from places where no tracks should exist at all.But tonight, friends, I’m not here to warm your heart.Tonight, I’m here to freeze your blood.South Carolina. 1985.A young insurance adjuster named Gerald Hutchins inherits a remote cabin deep in the forest from his great-uncle Amos. The old man had lived alone out there for more than twenty years, and the family whispered that he came back from the war… changed. Haunted. Given to muttering in languages no one recognized. Drawing strange symbols he would immediately burn in the fireplace.Gerald decides the cabin would be the perfect place to spend Christmas with his wife, Ellen, and their thirteen-year-old son, Marcus.A real holiday, he tells them. The kind they used to have before television and convenience took over. Just a family, a fire, and the quiet peace of the winter woods.What Gerald doesn’t tell them is what he found when he first visited the cabin alone.The chains hanging above the fireplace.The birch switches stained dark with something he didn’t want to examine too closely.And the mask. A horrible wooden mask with hollow eyes and a grin carved with far too many teeth.He doesn’t tell them about the sound he heard coming from the second floor.The sound of hooves on hardwood. As Christmas Eve settles in, the temperature drops and the snow begins to fall. And the Hutchins family will learn that some traditions are older than Christianity. Some punishments are older than coal in a stocking. And some things that were meant to stay in the old country followed our ancestors across the ocean—hiding in the shadows of their ships, waiting patiently for the right moment to remind us that the old ways never truly died.They just learned how to wait.Long before Santa Claus became the jolly gift-giver we know today, the winter solstice was a time of fear as much as celebration in the Alpine regions of Europe. While Saint Nicholas rewarded good children, his dark companion dealt with the rest.Krampus. Half-goat. Half-demon. All nightmare. A creature with curved horns, a serpentine tongue, chains forged in hellfire, and birch switches for the wicked. A basket on its back to carry its prizes away—down to whatever hell it called home.Krampusnacht, celebrated on December fifth, saw young men dress as the creature and roam the streets, terrorizing towns. But the oldest stories—the ones whispered long before costumes—spoke of something far older than men in masks. A being that existed before Christianity tried to tame it. A being that still walks the winter forests when nights grow long and the barriers between worlds wear thin.A being that always comes back.Content Warning:This episode contains intense horror imagery, supernatural violence, and themes involving harm to a family, including a child. Listener discretion is strongly advised.  This one is not for the faint of heart—and absolutely not for little ones. I’ve spent a long time telling stories about strange things in the woods. Bigfoot encounters. Unexplained phenomena. Creatures that linger just beyond the firelight. Even the scariest of those stories often carry a strange warmth—a sense that whatever’s out there might be mysterious, might be frightening, but isn’t necessarily evil. This story is different. This story is about something very evil.Something that has been doing terrible things to humanity for a very long time.Something that doesn’t care about your Christmas spirit, your good intentions, or your prayers.I wanted to tell this story because I think we’ve sanitized our holidays. We’ve forgotten that our ancestors celebrated the winter solstice not just with feasts and gifts—but with rituals meant to protect them from the darkness. They understood something we’ve chosen to forget.The longest night of the year is the longest for a reason.So as you listen, maybe keep a candle burning.Maybe check the locks on your doors.And if you hear something on the roof that sounds a little too heavy to be reindeer…Well. You know what to do.Until next time…Sweet dreams.And Merry Christmas. 🎄Leave Brian A Voicemail Get Our FREE NewsletterGet Brian's Books Leave Us A VoicemailVisit Our WebsiteSupport Our SponsorsBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/sasquatch-odyssey--4839697/support.

24 Joulu 1h 18min

This is not a show I ever planned to do. In all my years of podcasting, I've never felt compelled to look back and take stock of where we've been. But twenty twenty-four and twenty twenty-five have been different. These years have been brutal for our community, and I couldn't stay silent any longer. We lost giants. Real giants. Men who shaped the very foundation of modern Sasquatch research and carried the torch forward into the twenty-first century. Tonight, I'm setting aside whatever differences might have existed to honor what they gave us and acknowledge that we've lost some truly important figures.Doctor Jeff Meldrum passed away in September of twenty twenty-five after a brief battle with brain cancer. He was sixty-seven years old. The full professor of anatomy and anthropology at Idaho State University gave our community something precious: legitimacy. With his collection of over three hundred footprint casts and his landmark book Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science, he picked up where Grover Krantz left off and continued the tradition of academic rigor in a field that desperately needed it.I had the privilege of sitting down with Jeff just a few weeks before he passed, and that conversation will stay with me forever.Henry Franzoni died on August twenty-second, twenty twenty-four, also at sixty-seven. If Meldrum brought scientific credibility to Bigfoot research, Henry brought the internet. Back in nineteen ninety-three, he created the first Bigfoot website and the first online discussion group, the Internet Virtual Bigfoot Conference. From that foundation grew pretty much every Bigfoot organization and website you see today. I interviewed Henry about a year before he passed, and afterward he sent me a signed copy of his book, Failing in a Cooler Way: Why I Never Found Bigfoot. That title tells you everything you need to know about who Henry was as a person.Steven Streufert, owner of Bigfoot Books in Willow Creek, California, is also gone now. Steven was an institution, a historian and scholar who knew the stories, the players, and the timeline of how this phenomenon evolved from local legend to international sensation. He was a key member of the Bluff Creek Project, the team that rediscovered the exact location where Patterson and Gimlin filmed their famous footage in nineteen sixty-seven. Steven and I had our public disagreements in his Facebook group, but that's what a community of researchers should look like. We can all have our opinions and still show mutual respect for one another.Beyond the deaths, we lost places too. The Bigfoot Discovery Museum in Felton, California, closed its doors after twenty years. And in December of twenty twenty-four, two men from Portland died from exposure in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest while searching for Sasquatch on Christmas Eve.I explore the legacies of these three researchers, discuss the current state of Sasquatch research, examine the Patterson-Gimlin film at fifty-seven years, address what the skeptics say, talk about the nearly one thousand witnesses I've interviewed over almost forty years, and reflect on the lessons we can learn from the men we lost. I also share a word about safety for anyone venturing into the wilderness in pursuit of this mystery.The disagreements don't matter. The bickering doesn't matter. What matters is the work. What matters is the pursuit. These men spent their lives investigating something that most of society considers a joke, and they did it because they believed the truth was worth pursuing. Their torches have been passed. We'll do our best to carry them forward.Leave Brian A Voicemail Get Our FREE NewsletterGet Brian's Books Leave Us A VoicemailVisit Our WebsiteSupport Our SponsorsBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/sasquatch-odyssey--4839697/support.

21 Joulu 1h 11min

In this episode of Sasquatch Odyssey, Hugh from Oregon takes us on a remarkable journey from lifelong skeptic to committed Sasquatch researcher. What began as disbelief quickly transformed into obsession after a chilling discovery—a brutally slaughtered deer—followed by an unexpected and unforgettable Sasquatch encounter.Hugh recounts a series of extraordinary experiences that pulled him deeper into the world of cryptozoology, including multiple visual sightings, unexplained tree manipulations, and compelling audio evidence captured in the field. He also shares behind-the-scenes stories from his time working alongside well-known Bigfoot researcher Todd Standing, offering candid insight into both the breakthroughs and controversies within the Bigfoot research community.This episode delivers a fascinating, boots-on-the-ground perspective into modern Sasquatch investigation, blending personal testimony, field research, and hard-earned experience. Whether you’re a believer, skeptic, or somewhere in between, Hugh’s story challenges assumptions and invites listeners to reconsider what may still be lurking in the wilderness.NW Yeti Quest YouTube ChannelLeave Brian A Voicemail Get Our FREE NewsletterGet Brian's Books Leave Us A VoicemailVisit Our WebsiteSupport Our SponsorsBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/sasquatch-odyssey--4839697/support.

19 Joulu 1h 8min

After weeks of strange encounters and mounting dread, the group finds themselves surrounded by Lenape hunters deep in the wilderness. Rather than the violence they expect, they're taken to meet Gray Owl, an elder so ancient his face has become a map of wrinkles and his eyes have clouded with cataracts. Yet somehow, he sees everything. What he tells them about the Mesingw challenges everything they thought they knew. These creatures are not spirits or demons. They are simply old. Older than humanity itself. And they have been waiting.Gray Owl gives Elijah a stone pendant carved with symbols that shift in firelight, telling him it may buy time when the creatures finally decide what to do with them. The warning is clear. They have been marked. For good or ill, there is no turning back now. What follows is two weeks of psychological warfare that tests every man to his breaking point. The knocking escalates into something like war drums. Howls split the night, reaching into frequencies that touch something primal in the human mind. Equipment is moved while they sleep. Enormous footprints appear inches from where their heads rested. And then one of their horses is torn apart in a display of raw power that defies comprehension. The expedition pushes on into Shawnee territory, where Cornstalk's Son shares his own people's history with the Old Enemies. A war that lasted generations. Warriors who went into the mountains and came back broken, wearing the shapes of men but no longer truly human. An uneasy agreement that has held for longer than memory.Now that boundary has been crossed. And the creatures have followed.Part Two builds toward a reckoning that has been centuries in the making. The tests are not over. The judgment has not been rendered. And somewhere in the darkness, ancient eyes are still watching.Leave Brian A Voicemail Get Our FREE NewsletterGet Brian's Books Leave Us A VoicemailVisit Our WebsiteSupport Our SponsorsBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/sasquatch-odyssey--4839697/support.

17 Joulu 40min

Jerry is back to continue our ongoing series of encounters from the South Mountains and coastal regions of North Carolina—and this chapter takes us deep into one of the most haunting landscapes in the state: the Great Dismal Swamp.In this episode, we hear the chilling account of Mike, a former U.S. military veteran who sets out alone on a hiking and camping trip in the North Carolina section of the swamp.Drawn by solitude and the familiar pull of danger he once knew in the service, Mike hopes the wilderness will fill the void left behind after military life. Instead, the swamp delivers something far more disturbing. As night falls, Mike becomes aware that he’s not alone. Strange ape-like vocalizations echo through the darkness. A foul, unfamiliar odor lingers in the air. The sense of being watched grows overwhelming. What begins as unease escalates into a series of close, deeply unsettling encounters with something he cannot identify—something that doesn’t want him there. His search for adrenaline is quickly replaced by raw fear and survival instincts.The episode also weaves in parallel encounters from Robert and Angie, along with their friends, near a rural home in coastal North Carolina. Their experiences include unexplained noises in the woods, rocks being thrown from unseen sources, and shadowy figures moving just beyond the tree line—events that mirror Mike’s terror and suggest a wider, ongoing presence in the region.Blending wilderness survival, psychological tension, and the supernatural, this episode explores the ancient history and eerie reputation of the Great Dismal Swamp while confronting the unnerving question: what still lives in these forgotten places—and why do some people encounter it while others never do?Get Our FREE NewsletterGet Brian's Books Leave Us A VoicemailVisit Our WebsiteSupport Our SponsorsBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/sasquatch-odyssey--4839697/support.

17 Joulu 53min

What would you do if everything you thought you knew about your father turned out to be wrong? What if his silence, his distance, his strange obsession with the mountains wasn't coldness at all, but something else entirely? What if he'd been guarding a secret so profound, so impossible, that it had consumed his entire life? That's the question facing Marcus Stone as he pulls up to a cabin he hasn't entered in twenty-three years. His father is dead. The funeral has already happened, and Marcus wasn't there. Twenty-three years of silence between them, hardened into something neither could break. And now it's too late.Or is it? Because Robert Stone left something behind. A trunk in the cellar. A note in his father's handwriting that speaks of burdens and secrets and an ancestor named Captain Elijah Stone.A note that hints at something that's been passed down through generations, waiting for someone brave enough to finally bring it into the light. What Marcus finds in that cellar will change everything he thinks he knows about his family, about history, and about what really walks in the deep places of the American wilderness. Seven leather-bound journals. Letters tied with twine that's gone black with age. A stone pendant carved with symbols that don't match any language Marcus has ever seen. And the words of a man who died two hundred years ago, preserved in ink that has faded from black to brown but remains perfectly legible.March fifteenth, seventeen ninety-nine.Captain Elijah Stone. Revolutionary War veteran. A man haunted by stories he heard during the brutal winter at Valley Forge. Stories told by Oneida scouts around dying fires. Stories of the elder brothers. The ones who were here before us. The ones who watch from the shadows of ancient forests.This is the beginning of an expedition into the unknown. Nine men riding west from Richmond, following legends and whispers toward something that might not exist. A hot-tempered Scottish soldier carrying grief like a loaded weapon. A Kentucky frontiersman who's been waiting twenty years for someone to go looking. A Philadelphia naturalist convinced that science can explain anything. A former minister searching for proof of God in a world that suddenly seems random and cruel.And leading them all, a captain who knows, somehow, that not all of them will return.The signs begin almost immediately. Footprints eighteen inches long, pressed deep into mud by something that weighs five hundred pounds. Wood knocking in the darkness, three sharp strikes echoing through the trees. Food stolen from bundles hung fifteen feet in the air. Structures built with purpose and intention, a language in the landscape that speaks of intelligence, of planning, of something that thinks. They know we're here, the frontiersman says. They've known since we crossed into the mountains. And then comes the story that changes everything. A blizzard twenty years ago. A young trapper who thought he was going to die. And something that carried him through the storm, examined him in a dark cave, and made a decision. They were deciding what to do with me.What walks in those mountains? What has been watching humanity since before we learned to walk upright? And what did Robert Stone spend his entire life guarding? The answers are waiting in the pages of those journals. And Marcus Stone is about to discover that some inheritances come with a price.This is The Bigfoot Journals, Part One.The expedition has begun.Get Our FREE NewsletterGet Brian's Books Leave Us A VoicemailVisit Our WebsiteSupport Our SponsorsBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/sasquatch-odyssey--4839697/support.

14 Joulu 59min

In this chilling episode, Fred from Alaska recounts the harrowing true story of Michael Hollister, a former Alaskan resident whose routine black bear hunt in the Kenai Mountains took a deeply unsettling turn nearly fifteen years ago. What began as a familiar pursuit in the rugged wilderness near Portlock, Alaska, quickly spiraled into a series of events that defied logic and explanation.As Michael tracked a black bear through remote terrain, he became overwhelmed by an oppressive sense of being watched. Strange, unidentifiable noises echoed through the forest, and the atmosphere shifted from solitude to sheer dread. The tension escalated when Michael came face-to-face with a massive, humanoid figure—something he could only describe as Bigfoot-like—standing where no human should have been.Shaken but determined, Michael continued his hunt, only to encounter even more disturbing anomalies during his retreat: the sudden appearance of an unmarked black helicopter overhead and an aggressive brown bear charge that forced him into a calculated, life-or-death escape.Fred walks listeners through Michael’s methodical withdrawal from the wilderness, highlighting the instincts and experience that ultimately saved his life. This episode is a powerful and unnerving account of survival, mystery, and the unknown forces that may still lurk in Alaska’s untamed backcountry. Fred closes by expressing deep gratitude to Michael for coming forward and sharing an experience that continues to haunt him—and may challenge everything you think you know about the wild.Get Our FREE NewsletterGet Brian's Books Leave Us A VoicemailVisit Our WebsiteSupport Our SponsorsBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/sasquatch-odyssey--4839697/support.

14 Joulu 43min