SC EP:1089 They Were All Around Us

Damon writes "Hello, I wanted to just share my encounter I had in Vancouver, Canada. I was on a hiking tour with my mom,aunt, and cousin through a redwood forest. I grew up in rural Louisiana. So me and my cousin had plenty of experience of exploring the woods. We were the kind of kids that were kinda rowdy and always getting into something at a young age. At the time I was around 16 years old when this happened. We were walking thru the forest getting bored of the hiking tour. So me and my cousin decided we were going to try to break off from this tour and walk through the forest ourselves, because we were passing up some really good areas that looked like they had some interesting things back off into the thickets. So we fell back to the back of the tour group, and saw a very heavily covered trail to our left and decided this is our chance. We ducked off through the bushes and made our way over some logs and branches. We walked through the winding forest for about 100-150 yards. Then we came up on a redwood tree that had fallen. This really amazed us. The size of the tree even laying down was more impressive. We walked along the tree, with it being on our left side. Rubbing our hands along it as we walked down the trunk of the tree, coming up towards the roots that was exposed. Once we got near the roots of the tree, we had to walk around them to our right to get pass the roots. I was leading the way. So once I came around the roots of this huge tree, what I saw had me in a total shock. I came around the roots and I was within 10ft of what I thought was a bear at first. I stopped. And froze. But my cousin was still walking up behind me, and he made a noise coming through the roots and brush. This thing had it's back to me and was in a squatting position. With shaggy reddish hair. It appeared to be about 5 feet in height at the shoulders. So that's why my first thought was "oh shoot, I just walked up behind a bear" I assume it heard my cousin, and it started to stand up and turn towards us. But it didn't stand like a bear. I saw arms come out from it's sides and stand up like a man. That's when I saw the legs and head and shoulders. I cant recall if I said any thing besides run to my cousin. And we ran through the way we came. I felt like this thing gave chase for a minute. But I was to afraid to turn around. We hit the tour trail and ran until we caught up with the group. We both were hyperventilating and couldn't talk. I tried to explain to the group what we just saw, but I couldn't say Sasquatch. I thought they will think I'm crazy. So I just said "Idk ,I saw something back there". We were both panicked. I always tried to deny what I saw because it wasn't the right color of big foot videos and pics I've seen on T.V. and books. So I told myself, it must have been a big orangutan the escaped or a red monkey. I've never told many people about this. Maybe 5 people my entire life. Just family members. Its was just to unbelievable even for me. Not until I heard a story on your show about a sasquatch the was a reddish color that I knew what I saw was exactly what it was."

21 Juli 202456min

Mark writes "I thought I would give you some bullet points to a Bigfoot Weekend I was blessed to have experiences. This started on Friday July 21st and ended on July 23. Just so you know how the weekend started I responded to our camp site and picked as spot to pitch my tent. After setting up my area m met some people from outside Houston who were there with their ten year old son, closest to my tent. The ten year old asked to go to a nearby creek and look for some rocks there. He left but returned after about 5 minutes. He had chosen a way that was at the bottom of where two hills met. Add into this that I knew it had rained the night before in this area as I followed the weather in order to pack right for the weekend. The kid stopped about 25 feet from my tent and behind his parent's tent. He said, "I found a foot print." We kind of blew it off and then Jesse Morgan came by to introduce himself. The boy told him what he had found and he went to check. Sure enough there was a larger and smaller print. I took some photos. I attached the smaller one first and the second is the track that was plastered. That is the fourth photo. I found another track about 30 yards away from the other two and it was 15 1/2 inches. The plater cast measures 17 1/2 inches. Part of the foot did not get plastered as it was on a slight slope. That is what was found in my first 20 minutes after setting up my tent. Here are the bullet points for the rest of the weekend, I believe in chronological order. 1) Night hike with small tree breaks and a head seen by Alan Megargle through therm. 2) After that heard some light chatter by a stream. 3) One person in my group saw a shadow running bent over near the ridge. Second day: 1) We did a recon a mountain we had to bushwhack up into. No trail. Found these quartz rock circles set up in the ground. Not sure who did that. 2) We found many trees twisted and broken at about the six foot level. 3) We found a 15 inch track almost near the top with a small one next to it. 4) The mountain was completely quiet Second night: 1) Went back to mountain and bushwhacked up at about 10 pm. except for our start by the road the woods were silent. 2) We ascended (Myself and 6 other guys) to the top. Where I separated from the group. They eventually settled down and were quiet. I then heard something moving around my perimeter. It started around my 9 o'clock and stopped around my 2 o'clock. It stopped and it was dead silent. I then moved my position and it did roughly the same thing again. It stopped. 3) It stayed silent for about 5 or so minutes and then we all heard the howl from down in the valley. 4) It stayed quiet for some time and we decided to head down, getting lost in the process. This was around midnight. 5) As we were walking 2 guys heard something pacing us. 6) One guy saw green eye shine. 7) We stopped to get our bearing and one guy pulled his thermal scope out and saw one. He handed them to me and I clearly saw a head. 8) We started back down and I heard something, in what was like a conversational tone, right in front of me in a thicket, say something like,"HeeeeeeYou", which was just so close to me. It sounded like a twelve year old male. My wife and I did head back to the same mountain in late September and she found a small trackway. Like a bone head I did not photograph those.. Well, that was it, but there are details to fill in."

13 Juli 202455min

Tonight I will be speaking to Jeremy. In 1984 he was on vacation with his family. The family stopped in Colorado to take a break from their road trip. Jeremy stepped out of the camper to pee and was face to face with a creature. I will also be speaking to Pete. Pete owns a home in rural New Hampshire. Recently he has noticed a lot of strange activity on his property.

7 Juli 20241h 3min

Tonight my guest is Stacy Brown, he will be discussing his new film The Journey To Belief. From thejourneytobelief.com/ "Bigfoot: The Journey to Belief" is a four-part documentary series where Bigfoot researcher Stacy Brown Jr. attempts to prove the existence of Bigfoot to his skeptical filmmaker friend Joseph Badia. Joined by author Richard Laudenslager they hit the road as The journey begins with Stacy introducing Joey to thirteen credible witnesses who recount their harrowing encounters with the elusive creature. They then delve into the state of Florida's documents, searching for references to Bigfoot sightings in the journals of past governors, as well as requesting emails and reports from state agencies hoping to link modern-day encounters to historical legends. The series culminates in an expedition to a property with ongoing Bigfoot activity. "Bigfoot: The Journey to Belief" weaves firsthand accounts, document research, and fieldwork to explore whether these experiences and evidence can transform Joey from a skeptic into a believer. Link to the trailer

29 Juni 202457min

Kenny writes "I had an encounter in 2005 about a week after hurricane Katrina. I’m from a small town about an hour north of New Orleans called Ponchatoula. We didn’t get any structural damage but we did get a lot of downed trees. I was about ten years old and living with my grandparents. For the next couple of weeks after the storm me and my grandpa would clear as much of the trees and other crap out of the yard. After a few days we were starting to run out of clean clothes so my grandma had me go out to the pond in our backyard to get some water so that she could boil up and wash some clothes in this big 55 gal pot we had (typically used for crawfish) because we still didn’t have any power. I didn’t think much of it and went out there with some buckets. For some backstory we only lived about 3 miles aways from Manchac Swamp and were surrounded by pine forest except for the 7 acres of land we lived on which was clear except for about 30 pecan trees. Anyways, when I went down the bank I heard a bunch of noise like trees crashing from the other side of the pond. I started watching over there and then what I thought was a bear came out of the woods and stopped at the opposite side of the bank. I knew we had a few black bears in the swamp but had never seen any so I just stood still to watch it. After what felt like a few minutes I saw it reach into the water and snag up a catfish (cats were the only fish we kept stocked in the pond). Being a 10 y/o who loved nature I thought that was pretty cool until it stood up and stretched. The kind of way someone who just woke up would with its arms reaching up to the sky. I could see that it still had the catfish in its hand. Seeing that thing stand up I froze. I don’t think it ever noticed me because as soon as it got done stretching it simply turned around and went right back the way it came. After a few minutes when I couldn’t hear it anymore I just ran inside and needless to say we didn’t get any laundry washed that night. I never saw or heard anything else after that but yeah that’s my story and just thought that I would share.”   Dusty writes "I've been thinking about writing you for a while now but haven't committed to the idea yet; well here goes. I have had many strange encounters with paranormal and supposedly "unknown" or at least "unpublished" entities. I had a sasquatch road crossing encounter when I was a kid. It was pretty basic, it just ran across the road in the middle of the night while I was out with a cousin of mine. I was 12, and my mom had passed away in March of 2000, and this encounter was close to the 4th of July. After my mom died I was kind of on my own most of the time, and would get dumped off with various people from time to time because I wasn't welcome at "home". Life was pretty traumatic at the time looking back, and maybe that's why that encounter didn't really stick with me to be honest. It happens at night, probably around 0100-0300 in the morning, I had been with an older cousin of mine who was more of a child than I ever realized, and he never really grew up. But when you're 12 and life goes tits up you don't think about those things. I would hang out with him and his drunken friends a lot and cruise back roads and things like that. I started learning to drive because they're getting drunk and stupid and I'd drive people home. We were going to his house from a local lake one night, and a sasquatch just crossed the road in front of us, probably in 3 east steps, and walked into a big field headed for a creek. I turned in my seat and watched it for a few seconds. We made it to the highway and turned and headed for town in shock. We made it to his house and I didn't think I slept much, and I was just flabbergasted the next few days. But nobody cared to notice, and my cousin was so drunk and hungover he didn't remember what happened. The creature was massive, bulky, tall, upright Harry and the Hendersons looking critter. It was a breathtaking experience and it happened so quickly that it almost didn't register for a while what we saw. We both just looked at each other, wide eyed and pale as could be. I remember saying we just saw a bigfoot!!! But that was about the end of that encounter. I went into the Marine Corps at 17, and was stationed in Washington DC in late 2006, at a ceremonial unit that marches funerals in Arlington, Presidential ceremonies, among other important ceremonial jobs for the Marone Corps. Our barracks was "out in town" as we didn't have a formal "base" it is just a small post just north of the navy yard. It is the oldest post in the Corps, and has been in place since 1801. During the war of 1812 when the white house was burned by the British, the Marine barracks and Navy Yard were attacked and the Marine barracks supposedly burned down. From the stories I've heard several Marines were killed in the collapsed barracks. One night while on duty I was walking down the lower parking area, an underground secure parking garage under the barracks. I heard screaming and yelling coming from the locked, heavy steel door that closed off the electrical equipment room for the barracks. A secure concrete room with a heavy steel door. It sounds like dozens of people inside screaming and yelling to get out, rifles slamming on the door from the inside, and then it just stopped. The hair on the back of my neck stood on end, the temp dropped and it was so scary down there I just took off running. I hot the stairs well closest to me and ran up several flights of stairs in dress shoes, which isn't easy to do. I made it to my duty post and didn't leave for the rest of the night. Another night I encountered another spirit down there. Another "barracks ghost story" for which there was no shortage. A young girl had been run over one night playing with her ball on the ramp between parking levels. I was on duty walking the lower parking, and as I got closer to the ramp I could hear little feet slapping the concrete, a small girl giggling and a ball bouncing up and down the ramp. She was headed down the ramp to me as I ran past. That was the last time I was ever down there after dark alone."

23 Juni 202457min

Frank was hunting in 2010 with a friend of his in Georgia. Frank later found his friend in his truck shaking and he looked like he was in shock. He explained to Frank what he had seen that day. Many years later Frank would see a creature and he describes it tip-toeing up to a deer before grabbing it and running off into the woods.

15 Juni 20241h

Tonight I will be speaking to Kelly and Zach. Kelly writes "I'm an avid outdoors person and have had multiple jobs which required me to work in remote locations, sleeping out under the stars and having experiences I can't explain. My brother turned me on to your podcast about a year ago after I had an encounter myself. I called and told him about it and he told me to listen to your podcast. After hearing some other stories I realized I had more encounters that I had never shared because I didn't know how to explain them. I'll just share some of them here and see if you would like more info. The encounter I told my brother about that had him recommend your show took place in western North Carolina near the town of Hot Springs. I was out exploring on my own, which I do a lot and found this abandoned road. I began following it and maybe a mile down the road I saw some skid marks. Being curious about the marks because the road was not accessible, I wandered off the road near the skid. About 300 yards away I found a small teepee type structure built that was about the size of a small tent. I kind of assumed it was built as a blind by hunters. There was no trail or anything. As I looked closer at the structure I could tell the branches had been snapped off to make this structure, not cut with a saw. Not knowing anything about sasquatch or the huts people have reported I looked at this thing a long time trying to figure out how a human would have made it. The other curious thing was the leaves on the inside of the hut were not disturbed, like the structure had been there a while without anyone going inside of it. I began looking around the area more and found two smaller, similar structures. At this point I thought it was a boy scout camp or something where they had built these. I looked around further and started noticing that small saplings had been snapped all around these huts. The only thing I could think is that a vehicle had driven over them but there was no way a vehicle could access this area without leaving a massive sign. I'm about 6'2 220 and I tried snapping them and couldn't get anywhere near being able to snap them. As I began to look around the area further I noticed all the birds stopped chirping and there was a weird chill in the air. I became pretty uncomfortable and then I started hearing what sounded like someone clicking their tongue extremely loud and occasionally a high pitched whistle. At this point I decided I must have stumbled into someone's property or drug area and started to move away. The clicking began to surround me and scared the shit out of me so I started moving quickly to get out. I then heard what sounded like rocks were being thrown. I never stopped to look back but just got to my vehicle as quickly as possible and drove to the nearest bar where I wrote down my encounter. After listening to other episodes I was reminded about a time I worked out at a hunting and fishing lodge in northern New Mexico. I used to get up at 4am every morning and drive around the ranch to make sure all the boats were cleaned and dried out for the guests. This was a gigantic ranch (they say it was bigger than Rhode Island) so you could easily go days without seeing another human. I drove to this remote area in the high country and came around a turn right around sunrise. I spooked this massive creature, which I assumed initially was a bear, it went from being on two legs down to all fours and ran like a wolf. The area it ran was through this open meadow that was probably about 1-2 miles long (if not further) downhill. Its hard to explain but the vantage point I had was from up above and the animal ran down towards a lake. This thing ran those 2 miles in under 10 seconds. It ran with long strides like a wolf but the ground it covered was insane. I told people about it at the ranch and they all made fun of me and said I was seeing things. I have a couple of other stories that are similar if you'd like to hear more. Thanks for taking the time to read this."   Zach writes "I emailed you about 2 years ago regarding the footprints my uncle and I found in Schuylkill county, Pennsylvania. After taking some time to think about my own sighting and some other encounters and stories told to me by family, friends and coworkers.....I've decided to finally type up an email. My sighting: In April of 2014, I was in my last few months of high school and had been working at a nursing home in Pottsville, PA in the kitchen. My mother at the time was the supervisor of the the place and I was getting a ride home with her after working 0700-1500. We were driving south towards my hometown, which is only about 4 miles from this sighting. I was in the passenger seat looking out the window, down towards the Schuylkill River and railroad tracks that run along the same route. The train tracks are about 75 yards from the road on a 45 degree angle. The leaves were not on the trees yet because it was right before spring, so I can see the tracks pretty good. Next thing, I see this tall and lengthy.....creature. It almost had the look of Treebeard from the Lord of the Rings Movie. Very tall, long, thin appendages and I could see dark brown/black hair. This creature was standing on the side of the railroad closest to me, looking down at the ground. Not sure why, but it was so eerie and just didn't register in my head until we got home. I told my Mom and she really didn't react. Totally didn't think it could be a sasquatch until you described the different types.

9 Juni 202456min

Bernie writes "Wes, I'm seventy three years old now and live in the beautiful Texas hill country southwest of Austin. This is what happened fourteen years ago. It was my last night at work and I was closing up my department in Salmon Creek, at the north end of Vancouver, Washington. My best friend called and asked if I was flying out soon. She wanted me to come by, and said she had a twelve pack of Blue Moon. "Prettiest lady I know" I affirmed as I headed toward Battleground. We hung out for a couple hours. Her boyfriend had cheated on her and I listened to her broken heart with sympathy, and I tried to give her hope for the future. We said our hasta la vistas. I got back on I-5 north and got off at Woodland and headed up Lewis River Road. I had been living there for six weeks in a spare bedroom I was renting. It was a ways to my boss's property, on up past the fish hatchery, almost to Ariel where D.B. Cooper supposedly bailed out of that airliner, west of Mt. St. Helens. The moon was nearly full on that night of August 22, 2010, as I parked in my spot 30 feet from the forest, just off to my left. My window was down and I was listening to the radio. The Foo Fighters were playing "Times Like These." The tree frogs loudly approved and I popped open my last Blue Moon that Darcy sent home with me. I lit a cigarette, reflecting on our good times, how much I was going to miss her, and hoping our paths would meet again. Speaking of missing, I was seriously missing my two teenaged daughters that currently lived in Texas for the past six weeks. Tomorrow was Monday, my son's 39th birthday, and I'd be in Raleigh with him Wednesday night. I had a lot on my mind. I looked to my right scanning for life. Tina's doublewide sat on 4 acres, and was dark and silent, the front door 80 feet from me at my 3 o'clock. No signs of her sister and brother-in-law, who were notorious for wandering in the moonlight, but it was only one o'clock in the morning right now. I had another smoke and nursed my beer as it had been a very long day at work. I couldn't believe my ears when suddenly out of nowhere, what sounded like a million birds started screaming in the forest just to my left. Every hair on my body stood out as I reached to kill the radio. This surreal cacophony went on for maybe a whole minute when I heard something that would have knocked me over had I not been sitting in my car. I have since listened to vocalizations on YouTube and the nearest thing to what I heard was "The Ohio Sound," except that was far away and I was probably less than 100 feet away from the source here. Also there was no descending vocalization once it reached it's deafening crescendo. The force behind that howl/scream was somewhere between a really hungry lion, and a very pissed off T-Rex. Think up-close Jurassic Park. I was sitting in my old Ford Contour and my bones and organs were vibrating. I have since learned that was the result of the infrasound it produced. I was terrified and felt disoriented, also effects of infrasound. Things have never really scared me. Hell, I'm an old guy from Texas. I'd seen lots of crazy shit, but I jus0couldn't move. I just sat there thinking someone like me might get eaten. When the roar finally peaked, the birds and frogs were totally silent; not a single peep or croak was heard, and I was still vibrating. The silence was broken by a few seconds of the sound of something moving away in the woods. There was a creek in a ravine out there about 50 yards straight ahead and I started hearing what sounded like large rocks smashing against others. I happened to look at the front porch as Tina turned the light on and stuck her head out, looked my way, dipped back and closed the door. I figured since the beast was in the ravine, I had a chance to make a run for the house. I was shaking when I entered, and she said I was pale and asked what was wrong. I told her I thought she had a Sasquatch in her back yard. She just laughed and laughed and laughed. I told her I was serious, but she snickered and I went to bed. It took a long time to fall asleep that night. The next day I avoided the backyard and drove into Vancouver to get my cat. I pretty much stayed in my room when we got back. The next day I sold my car to Tina's mother and stayed in my room. Wednesday, Tina drove me to Portland to fly to Raleigh. I told my son about it after I had been there a couple days. He was intrigued, and then I put it all in a box for several years. I knew people would laugh. I wish assholes were as hard to find as Sasquatches. I never mentioned it again. A couple months ago I started listening to podcasts, especially yours, and it's really been all consuming, but in a very beneficial way: the realization of the existence of an ancient, feral species that has no concept or need of money to survive. They are truly free. I feel we are the newcomers here, living our lives in chains."

2 Juni 202455min