SC EP:941 Something Out Of A Nightmare

I am not sure how to write this one up. Spoke to the witness and before we started the interview he said “I have the creepiest paranormal encounter you have probably ever heard….30 min later I said “You were right, that was the creepiest thing I have ever heard.” a listener writes “Hello Wes, I have listened to your show for a couple years now and was curious if you are still doing them. I have had some very strange encounters starting when I was a Senior in High School in 1989. I am now in Western North Carolina and after 4 years of a quiet life, I am now having encounters with creatures in the Smoky Mountains and my home here that sits atop a Mountain just outside the Cherokee Indian Reservation. I would love to discuss some of these events with you and possibly share some of my stories on your show if possible. Please let me know if you are interested. I do have some pics and Audio of some of my encounters as well.”

22 Mars 1h 26min

Kris writes " In early January I decided to head to RMNP west of Estes Park to hike up and snowboard down an old ski hill there. This is something I've done many times on my own and often there are others doing the same. Although I think it's a bit more rare to go at night, you'll still see folks up there hitting a line a night with head lamps and lights. This time I decided to go at night on my own. I did tell 3 friends where I was going and actually texted one friend a starry Pic from the trailhead. The trailhead lot was empty as we're the ranger stations on the way in. So, at this point I headed up the hill. It usually takes about an hour depending on snow conditions. I had a snowboard, a backpack with snacks and a Bluetooth speaker. I typically opt out of using snowshoes because Ive got to carry them down as well. I threw on the whole Sabbath paranoid album to get my head straight and motivated. The hill is a limited number of runs with low angles so there is really no avalanche danger. A week prior, I did the exact same thing. A night hike and boarded down. So, I was confident and enjoying the solace. Even over the sabbath, I could here the wind moving tall trees and flakes hitting the ground. The trail isn't challenging going up and the terrain opens and closes with the trees in the background. About 45 minutes in, I am at the point where the hill opens up and is peppered with trees in the ski slope. The sides are surrounded by darkness due to the trees around. My speaker suddenly says "low battery". I kept walking to the top where the hill funnels you into a narrow trail between more trees. ( i had my phone, so i could point this part out on Google maps) Right then, I decide to reach back and turn off the speaker so I don't have to hear the low battery alert. I continue up this narrow trail for about 80 yards, just short of thr length of a football field. Only hearing the flakes landing, wind, and my crunchy boot prints, out of nowhere came the loudest BARK, with a roaring echo, I've ever heard. At this point, I froze. My whole body went into shock. I went from nice n warm because of all the movement to cold as ice. I lost feeling in my lips. I didn't know what to do, or say or.... So I did what I've done on a couple occasions. I channeled my inner Phil Anselmo and ripped the biggest scream I could. I yelled HEY! With everything I had. I wanted to Guage where this noise came from so I yelled. After, I sat down shaking. About 15 heartbeats later, BARK! At that moment I knew it was in the trees down from me. Silence in-between these barks so I know it wasn't moving. I got into my bag and took out 3 lights I use for night biking. All of which are at least 1000 lumens. I pointed one up the trail, one down the trail, and one right in front of me into the trees. I listened and heard nothing. I'm thinking, did I imagine this? So I go HEY one more time. Sure enough, about 10- 15 heartbeats later, BARK. I almost started crying as I strapped my snowboard faster than I ever could have otherwise. I'm freaking out in silence as I think I'm about to board into this sound by heading down. As I'm thinking all of this, I've gotten ready and am about to stand up. This is where in the trees ahead of me, a crazy loud laughing started. Hat ha ha ha haha. It echoes as if there are multiple somethings laughing at me. Like a mad joker. I flipped at that point. Mentally freaked out. I was having trouble standing up because my hands were sinking into the snow. I quickly found a way and headed down faster than I would have in the day! I didn't sleep gor two nights, and still have trouble doing so. Thx for reading Wes. I was shaking and having a hard time writing this."   We will also be speaking to Augustus, he writes "My uncle just died and he told we to tell you about all of are interesting stories and the crazy we saw while hunting and horseback riding." Augustus is from Utah and shares strange encounters near his families property.

16 Mars 1h

Jackalynn writes "I've been listening to your show for a few months now, I know you mainly do Sasquatch encounters but after listening to Travis Walton fire in the sky I feel like it's time to share my encounter with a group of aliens I had in 2011. I'd like to share with you if you're interested In hearing it." We will also be speaking to Eric. Eric is from New York, he writes "My daughter may have seen a Bigfoot. Back in January my daughter wanted to go on a walk after dinner. She wanted to walk down to the water not far from our house. I reluctantly agreed. The reason I was reluctant was up to that point I’ve had a few experiences that led me to believe Sasquatch may live in or travel through this area. These experiences ultimately are what led me to discover your show. So my daughter and I along with my small dog headed out on our walk. My daughter and I wore headlamps to light our way. The road to the water is unlit and travels through a protected wetland that dead ends at the river. The first thing that happened that in hindsight was a red flag was my dog did not want to walk down that road. Several times she stopped and tried to pull back. About 3/4 of the way down there was a tire track in the dirt road that had frozen over. My seven year old could not resist immediately jumping on the ice. It made a loud hollow crumble noise as the ice exploded beneath her feet. Almost immediately after she did this there was a very heavy thud on the ground off to the left about 50 feet into the woods. I immediately stopped my daughter from making noise and listened for about 45 seconds or so. I heard nothing. We continued on. We reached the water turned around and started to head back without incident. We made it about 90% back to the end of the road when we came upon another frozen tire track that apparently my daughter had overlooked on the way down. Curious, I asked my daughter to jump on the ice like she did the first time. She did so and this time almost immediately after the ice broke, off to the left of the road (the opposite side as the first time) there were strange somewhat high pitched whoops that were crossed with a chatter at the end that went on for several seconds. I could tell there were two noises coming from the same area in the woods because the vocals would overlap at times. We froze immediately. We stood still for several minutes after these strange noises were heard. During this time I was slowly panning my headlamp all around looking to see if I could see anything. As I was looking back down the trail towards the water my daughter suddenly ran into me from behind and latched onto to me. As she did this she said “daddy a man! There’s a man up there!” I asked her where. She pointed in the opposite direction (the way we were headed) and said he crossed the road up there. I kept searching that area up ahead but I couldn’t see anything. We cautiously continued on. She let me know where she saw the man cross the road as we approached the area. There was no evidence of anything having crossed there. We stood there for a few minutes to look and listen. Nothing was observed. Back at the house I asked her what the man looked like. All she could describe was that he was big and black and that it walked across the road up in front of us and she could tell it was looking at us. We went for a walk a few days later down the same road at about the same time with no issue. My dog didn’t pull away like she did the first time. That was the most recent experience I’ve had out of several here in Putnam County New York. The first one was in 2020. I feel like this message is already long so I won’t go into the earlier experiences."

9 Mars 1h 37min

There are many questions about what happened to episode 1000. A listener is going to help me release it.

24 Feb 3min

Mac has agreed to come on the show. He had a very recent encounter in PA. There is a lot more to this encounter but Mac describes this area where he hunts and multiple strange events took place that led up to his sighting. Mac said “I only saw one but I am sure there was two of them. Mac writes “I was out hunting squirrel and raccoon, and I experienced a wood knock, the creature following me, seeing it move through my spotlight, and then catching it’s face looking at me from behind a tree. It was at least seven feet tall, had a gray haired face with sunken in eyes, big brow ridge, and blocky chin. The hair was thin around the face but covered the mouth and cheek area as if it was an old man’s beard. It did not have a cone shaped head, more round like a person. I saw it’s face, a little bit of it’s neck, and a bit of its dark shoulders before it pulled away quickly behind the tree. As I moved away it followed me, to which I then decided to push through thorns to get back into the creek and across it to get back to the road.”

23 Feb 1h 22min

Ernest writes "This encounter takes place in 2001 in Ottawa County, Oklahoma. I was 16 years old. I am 40 now. My three younger sisters and I were coming back from visiting our baby cousin who was recently born. It was about 10 pm driving down the road and headed back home. We see a figure walking down the side of the road, just casually. I mentioned to my sister in the front seat it was awful late to be walking down a dark road without any type of lights. I slow down as I come up behind him. He stood about 9 to 10 feet tall with almost a dark fur coat. He slowly turned his head, and he had the evilest yellow eyes I have ever seen. By this time, my younger sisters are in the back seat screaming and crying, saying don't stop Ernie. I proceed to lock the doors and speed off. To this day we all have the same story. My sister's age at the time is 15 8 6." We will also be speaking to Sara. Sara writes “I was driving in Kansas somewhere just a few miles from Norton. It was about 730 in the morning, the sky was clear blue, no wind, just cold. Out of the blue I felt something hit the back end of my car. It hit me hard enough to look in my rear view mirror…I saw nothing. Then I looked in the Sideview mirror and saw something that looked to be about the size of a small pony or large dog…running across the road. The fields were empty, just fences and fields getting ready to be planted. I got a clear view of it. It had long flowing brown and white hair, like what you would see on an Afghan hound. On the whole body, my brain immediately thought I should stop because I assumed it was a dog. In the middle of nowhere then I saw where the head should be and my brain couldn’t compute at all, because it was a human face looking right at me as it ran across the road. I do not understand what I saw but the vision is clear in my head two weeks later….my son thinks it was a skin walker, or dog man…but I don’t really believe in that so I am not sure what to think…I am just curious if there have been any other similar sightings in the area or if I saw something that I just can’t explain. I would love your opinion.”

16 Feb 58min

I will be welcoming Ron to the show. He had an encounter back in the early 1990's. Ron said "We were on vacation, staying in this cabin in U.P. Michigan. The family was down swimming and fishing. I came back to the cabin and I thought someone was in there. I got to the room I thought an intruder or a thief was in there but something told me not to go in there. Sasquatch never crossed my mind. As I grabbed my shotgun it ran out. I followed it out but lost sight of it. As I walked into the forest looking, the intruder got up and ran for the water and jumped in. It wasn't human, it reminded me of non human primate. I never saw it come up for air, it could have swam around the bay in an area I could not see. It was the strangest thing that ever happened to me."

8 Feb 1h 43min

Rick writes "When I was younger I lived in Mississippi in a very little town called Poplar Creek. Its very remote and there is nothing there but open farm land. I now live in Asheville, NC I sometimes go back to MS to see family from time to time. When I do go back I always drive past where I use to live and where I first saw a creature. My family had about 80 acres of land most of it was woodland and swamp area. I never saw the creature until I was older at the age of 15. All of my life my Grandfather use to tell me and my brothers about a wild man and woman that lived in the area and was known to have been living in the area many years. I do know that land we had was very old my Grandfathers Grandparents owned the land and it was passed on over the years. If there were any activity going on over the years when I was younger I had no knowledge of any happenings. Everything changed the summer I turned 13. It was late June and summer vacation was in full effect. Living in this area everyone has a garden of some type. My family's garden was kind of big because we grew most of our food along with hunting. My Mom and Dad went out of town for a the weekend to visit some of my Dads family. During this time I staid at my Uncles house who also lived on the land we had. That Monday afternoon when my Dad came back home he took a walk in the garden and some plants were torn out of the ground and watermelons were busted open and just left in place but were eaten. Other veggies were also picked and parts were on the ground not fully eaten also. My Dad was pissed! He called me and my Cousins over to the garden and questioned us about it. We told him no it was not us and that we did not do any of this. My Grandfather saw my Dad getting on to us about this so he came over and saw everything that had happen. I will never forget my Granddaddy face as he said " It was not the kids. I know who did this". My Granddaddy told us kids to go play as he explained to my Dad about what had happen. My mom and Uncle grew up on the land so I believe they knew but refused to say anything. Come to find out years before my Granddaddy had problems with the wild man and wild woman getting into his chicken coop until it got to the point he quit raising chickens. My Mom and Dad got married when i was 4 or 5 so he missed out on that time and had no idea that even happened. After my Dad heard the story he was in shock but did not believe it until the next morning when more watermelons and other fruits were completely gone. Our two apple trees were picked bare and branches were broken along with our peach trees with peaches that were half eaten or were stepped on. My Dad noticed that our black-eyed peas were being picked and eaten as he would find half eaten hulls or just the hulls on the ground. That night my Dad called his 3 brothers and they came to our house along with my Granddaddy and uncle and they had a meeting in our Livingroom and we the kids had to go play in our rooms. Wes I'm not joking with this my Uncles were locked and loaded Mississippi rednecks were in full effect. LOL.. My Granddad and uncle ( his son) were in the loft of our barn. Two of my Dads brothers got on top of my Dads work shop and my Dad and his other brother were posted up in the field in the back of his old truck. I do not know what time it was but it was late and guns were going off. I jumped up out of bed and ran to a window to see what was going on. After a bit my Mom was pacing back and forth wondering what had happen. The family walked in and each one was shook up. I think because they saw IT.. They told me to go to bed and don't come back out. I could hear them talking and one of my Uncles saying This is not true There is no way that is real I cant believe it .. They staid the night and in the morning everyone went into the woods looking for what they may have seen the night before. around 11 am the men came back with a lot of questions on their face. None of them talked about it and I was told to not talk about this ever to no one. From then on there were no more encounters until the spring of 1993. I was riding the school bus home and was sitting at the back of the bus on the right hand side and my friend Joe was sitting across from me on the left hand side. We passed a bridge that had a small open field on the side of it. This field met the edge of the land my family owned . There it was squatted down drinking water from his hand and in the split 3 seconds Joe and I saw the creature we both turned to each other asking DID YOU SEE THAT! I said what the Hell was that and Joe straight out said Bigfoot!!! a few moments later i was off the bus and was running into tell my Mom. At this time my Dad and Grand Dad had both passed so now this news really shook up my Mom. It was not until a few months later my mother sold the land and we moved away." We will wrap up with Timothy Renner to discuss his new book, I Have Never Minded the Loneliness: Hermits and Their Stories. What compels a person to leave behind society, forsaking family, friends, and the comforts of modern life to live in solitude? The hermits of the 19th and early 20th Centuries are as fascinating as they are mysterious. These enigmatic figures often became the focus of public interest, with newspaper stories turning them into local legends, folk heroes, and symbols of a life apart. Within these pages, you'll discover the extraordinary lives of hermits who defied convention: John Stink, rumored to have died and risen again–more than once; William Woodruff, whose long vow of silence followed a broken heart; Brusher Mills, the serpent-hunter who sold his own snake-oil remedies; and Truman "Commodore" Downs, who claimed Mars as his homeland. Meet Adolphe-Julian Fouré, the reclusive priest who carved strange tales into Brittany's coastal rocks, and Alice Grace, who made her home in an old bacon box, telling fortunes. From William Pester, the desert-dweller who may have inspired Nat King Cole's Nature Boy, to the Old Leather Man, a wandering enigma clad in patchwork leather, and O.B. Joyful, the hermit some call America's first hippie–these stories, and many more, reveal the complex lives of individuals who chose to live apart from the world. Link to: I Have Never Minded the Loneliness: Hermits and Their Stories

1 Feb 1h 6min