Bigfoot Society - "Big Red Eye's Curse: Terrified by Bigfoot in New Jersey"

Episode Date: December 4, 2023

In this episode of Bigfoot Society, we interview Mike Familant from the YouTube show 'In the Shadow of Big Red Eye'. Mike gives insights into his YouTube show which seeks to present an authentic portrayal of a Bigfoot researcher’s journey. He details his captivating experiences in various US states in search of Bigfoot, and his interactions with fellow enthusiasts and followers. Additionally, Mike discusses his take on the Bigfoot creature, theorizing it to be more human-like and advises new researchers on safe practices and utilizing local knowledge. Tune in to hear about his close encounters. This episode also details personal anecdotes, including an unexpected medical rescue during a Bigfoot expedition.Share your Bigfoot encounter here: [e-mail](s):https://shadowofredeye.comhttps://www.etsy.com/shop/shadowofredeyehttps://www.youtube.com/@shadowofredeye🔴 Subscribe to hear more Bigfoot encounters: https://www.youtube.com/@BigfootSociety?sub_confirmation=1Share this video with a friend: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5v75Od-X38Watch more episodes of the Bigfoot Society podcast here – https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3t1vwtsKh-MGeHs0XglFJE5LwUHpmJm_&feature=sharedRecommended Playlist – New Jersey Bigfoot Encounters - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3t1vwtsKh-Mk4032IyZtWgP6LVPU8uat✅ Help me help others share their Bigfoot Encounter by joining the community on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/thebigfootsociety✅ Hear ad-free episodes early by joining the community on Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8Qq45W6iaTU8FE9kelxT7Q/joinLet’s connect:Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/bigfootsociety/Twitter – https://twitter.com/bigfoot_societyTiktok - https://www.tiktok.com/@bigfoot.societyAffiliate links mean I earn a commission from qualifying purchases. This helps support my channel at no additional cost to you.My Audio Interface: https://amzn.to/3L1q8XYPut some pep in my step by buying me a coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/bigfootsocietyPick up some merch here: https://www.etsy.com/shop/bigfootsociety/?etsrc=sdtSend mail here:Bigfoot Society125 E 1st St. #233Earlham, IA 50072Send business inquiries to: [e-mail]

Shell v Power Nitro Plus fuels every drive from the Pacific Coast Highway to the Sierra Peaks with a fuel like no other. It provides engine performance that lasts to give you more time on the road. That means more protection with active ingredients for longer lasting engines. Shell v. Power Nitro Plus premium gasoline. Engine performance that lasts. Chances are you're not far from a Shell station. Find it using the Shell app. Formulation unique to Shell compared to minimum detergent gasoline with continuous use of Shell v.

Nitroplus and gasoline direct injection engines. Actual effects and benefits may vary. See Shell.us slash more dash protection for more information. Aging is real. And so are the benefits of adding vital proteins collagen peptides to your daily routine. Because around the age of 30, your body needs backup to keep your collagen up to help support healthy hair, skin, nails, bones, and joints. Available in the classic collagen peptides. Collagen and protein shakes. And new vital proteins collagen sparkling waters. So you can stay vital, stay you. Visit vital proteins.com to learn more and where to buy.

These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose treat cure or prevent any disease. During Memorial Day at Lowe's, shop household must-haves for less. Save $80 on a charbroil performance series for Burner Grill to chef up something special. Plus, get up to 45% off select major appliances to keep things fresh. Our best lineup is here at Lowe's. Loz. We help. You save. Valid through 527.

While supplies last, selection varies by location. See Lowe's.com for details. Visit your nearby lows on West Pico Boulevard in Los Angeles. Over the course of the next 15 minutes, four more of these fifth-sized rocks come crashing landing down five to ten feet from us. My buddy got an idea. I'm going to throw a rock back at it. It was a bad idea.

He took one of the rocks and he chucked it back in that direction. We knew it wasn't a person because a 15-pound laptop-sized boulder came crashing down, landed five feet from us. five feet from us. Bigfoot Society podcast and I'm Jeremiah Byron. Every week I talk to individuals who have experienced Sasquatch in some way or another. So you won't want to miss an episode. Make sure you're subscribed on the platform that you're listening to and share this episode

with a friend. It does not cost a thing and it helps the show continue to grow. If you'd like to hear Bigfoot Society episodes early and ad free, you can do so by becoming a Patreon supporter or a YouTube channel member. Links to those are in the show notes. In Bigfoot Society, I've taken far too much of your time so far. So let's get on with the show. All right, Bigfoot Society, you've got the privilege of talking to Mike Famelot from In the Shadow of Big Red Eye.

How's it going, Mike? Hey, thank you so much for having me. This is awesome. Yeah, in the shadow of Big Red Eye, we're a YouTube show. We go around the country and we look for Bigfoot. It's pretty awesome. Absolutely. Man, it's been a while since I talked to you.

I had interviewed, Mike, you were like one of the first original. interviews that I had. I think so. Yeah, the OG starting off. The OGs, but Zoom destroyed it. Oh, no. It's lost forever. You were one of the first 10 people I talked to. And it was a wild one. And at the end, Zoom was like, nope, it's not going to happen. Yeah. I have to wait a few more years. Well, finally got around to chatting with you. But man, you have really been up to some wild stuff. You are going all over the place. And I'm just. just excited to talk to you. What's the elevator pitch that you give people for in the shadow of a big red eye besides being a rocking YouTube channel all about Bigfoot research?

It's like the true uncut, real, like non-edited version of some of the shows that are on TV right now, except it's what Bigfooting is really about. Some of the shows on TV and people that spend any time or amount of time in the woods looking for Bigfoot realize that the shows on TV, don't accurately depict the way big footing is actually is done. So I was like, I am going to make a show that's not based off of ratings. I don't care if anybody doesn't like the show. It's just a hobby for me. And I started doing that in 2016, making a show. And now we have 2.7,000 subscribers.

It's crazy. There's something for everyone on the channel. You go everywhere from New Jersey, of course, down to Florida. you are going all over, at least definitely the eastern side of the U.S., I would say. I have not been west of the Mississippi yet looking for Bigfoot, but I'm hoping to change that next year for the Mike Famolant Library Tour, searching America Tour 24. I'm telling you, I'm west of the Mississippi, and I'm telling you, Bigfoot is out here.

So you got to get out here. You've got to hit up some Oklahoma. You've got to hit up some. Some Iowa stuff, some Missouri. Oh, man. It's going to get wild for you. But let's rewind a little bit. Mike, what's your origin story with what got you involved with all the Bigfoot craziness to begin with?

Yes. It's a kind of funny story. I was living in Florida. I was working at a beach resort in Sarasota, Florida, which was like the best job that I've ever had before my entire life. And I was watching Finding Bigfoot on TV. It was on in the background. I didn't have any real apparent liking to the show or whatever. It was just on.

And at the end, they were like, hey, if you want to come out with us, you could pay this ridiculous amount of fee and sign your life away. And you can come out on an expedition with these guys. And I'm like, there is no way I am not doing that. That sounds like it's incredible. So I signed up that night. I was engaged at the time. did not tell the fiancé what we were doing.

This is going to be like a little pre-wedding, little surprise thing. Wow. And anyways, this is my first time ever camping. I was an inside child growing up. I was never outside. TVs,

video games, that was my thing. So this was my first time ever camping. I had to acquire some camping gear, my tent, my sleeping bag, literally everything. So I'm getting the stuff prior to this expedition.

And I'm hiding it in the closet. So my fiance didn't see this. Finally, she's cleaning one day, which she never cleaned. So I was shocked that she found it, but she found it. And she was like, Mike, what are we doing? I said, hon, we are going to go look for a big foot in North Florida. And then we broke up. There was that.

But anyways, get up to North Florida. I invite a buddy, an EMT friend of mine. I'm an EMT or used to be an EMT. And I invited a friend of mine. And we went up there on this BFRO expedition. nothing happened. We talked to witnesses, we did the night hikes. We've actually found a Florida Panther footprint, which is really cool.

At the time, there was only like 25 from left in the wild. This is back in 2011. And yeah, so nothing happened except the last night. And it was about 3 o'clock in the morning. And me and my buddy, Jimmy, we are sitting next to our campfire. And we hear a tree knock. I didn't think anything of it. I said, oh, that could be anything.

about two minutes later, a tree dock from the complete opposite direction. So I immediately think that it was the expedition organizers that are in the woods knocking on trees because we paid a lot of money, didn't have any Bigfoot activity. So this has got to be what's going on. They're hoaxing us, obviously. Nothing happens, about 10 minutes goes by, and you hear come crashing down through the trees, a fist-sized rock. and it was at this point in my life where I said, nope, this is how horror movies start.

I am out of here, right? My buddies, if you want to sleep in the car, and by the time he said that, I was just in the car. And finally, he talked some sense into me. Mike, Bigfoot's knock on trees, they throw rocks. This could be a squatchy activity that we're having. So I was like, I suppose so, all right. So he talked me back out by the campfire over the course of the next. 15 minutes, four more of these fifth-sized rocks come crashing landing down five to 10 feet from us.

So that's horrifying as it is, right? So I'm petrified. This is going to be a sleepless night. We already are aware of that. And my buddy, I got an idea. I'm going to throw a rock back at it. That's a bad idea. It was a bad idea.

So he took one of the rocks and he chucked it back in that direction. Right? And we knew it wasn't a person because a 15-pound laptop-sized boulder came crashing down, landed five feet from us. And then that was it. That was done. Nothing else happened that night. The next day, we asked our neighbors, because there was a lot of other people at the expedition, we were like, hey, did you guys hear or see anything? Nobody heard or saw anything. So then we did some measurements because we wanted to be all scientific and stuff, because that's what we saw them do on TV. we did the measurement how close this thing could have been

that was throwing the rocks because of terrain and the topography and stuff, the closest this thing could have been was 75 yards away unless Nolan Ryan's chucking rocks in the middle of the floor to panhandle at 4 o'clock in the morning, I don't know. How did you go to sleep after that?

Oh, you've got to think about it. What can throw rocks? A person, primates, or bigfoot. Those are the only three things, right? If there was a population of primates living in North Florida, I think we would know about it. They're not going to be like big foot stealthy. We would know that they were up there.

We actually, in fact, do know that there's primates living in Florida. But you can rule out a person because it was just so heavy. I couldn't chuck it 10 feet rather than come and crashing down through the woods. That takes substantial power. That kind of gets it on your radar. Was it after that game on, you're going out, you're making this video, or is there a little downtime before the YouTube series actually started kicking off? Yeah, the YouTube series actually took five years to get in the making.

So after this expedition, we are totally into it now. We are everything, Jimmy and I, everything about Bigfoot, we can get our hands on. We're talking to researchers, witnesses, finding hotspots, everything we could do. Because we think this is so cool. And about three weeks goes by, we go out, and we call. we call ourselves experts now because it's been three weeks and we know everything so we're going to go we're going to go out solo doing our own thing one night expedition i'm doing big foot calls like it's my job i'm newing them every two seconds right because that's what i see him do on tv so i'm just imitating what i

see him do on tv right so i'm doing these big foot calls and jimmy he's he's got his 10 million lumen spotlight that he's got shine around, right? The light shines upon two pairs of eyes. One pair was a reflecting red color and the other was like a reflecting aqua blue color. And they were just looking back at us and we thought in our infinite wisdom of everybody and everything in the woods, we thought that it was people. We didn't realize people don't have eyes shine. We can't see at night, right, since we were all so new at this. But anyways, we start yelling, hey, we're just out looking for Bigfoot. Sorry, we'll go back to camp type of thing. And just the eyes are just staring back at us. These things, these suckers are about seven

and a half feet off the ground. So we're like, okay, we still think it's a person. We think they're actually illegally hunting out there because it's a big hunting area. So, and it was poaching at night. But anyways, so the eyes are just staring back. The one set, the red set turns, looks at the other set turns and looks back at us and then blinks another nope moment out of there but we did go back the next day and we found the eyes were at about seven and a half feet we did a recreation like we saw him do on TV and everything like that so those were just the two first times that I went out looking for Bigfoot and we had some really incredible activity and that's what I think got me so into it so hardcore if you will so quickly oh I can definitely see if that level

had happened to me right off the bat, it would have the same effect. We had some wood knox, a tree pushed over on my first time out in Iowa with Tate. When does red eye become involved? Okay, perfect. Perfect segue. 2016, I get a little homesick. I'm living in Florida still. I get a little homesick of New Jersey. Shocking. I know that's crazy to get homesick over New Jersey, but it happens, people. Anyways, so I moved back home and I was like, man, my Bigfooting career's over. There's no Bigfoot New Jersey. Little did I know, starting to do research. And I quickly established that a Facebook group called Sussex County Bigfoot. And I networked with a lot of really interesting people. Met a lot of really cool people. And shortly thereafter, I decided I'm going

to make a show. And it's called In the Shadow of Big Red Eye. And I called it that. because in 1972, a state park ranger up here in High Point State Park Park in northwestern New Jersey, he was on patrol during the night. He was on foot patrol walking one of the trails at night. And he came across two pairs of reflecting red eyes. Very similar. What happened to us in Florida, right? He put that on his report. And somehow the newspaper got a hold of it. And the next day, big red eye was front. page in the newspaper. That's little Sussex County's little Bigfoot claim to fame there. And it looks like from looking over your channel, you've done more than a few investigations in that area of New Jersey, correct?

Yeah, yeah. It's a high point state park is about 45 minutes from me. And we just have so many good squatching areas in northwestern New Jersey. And in New Jersey itself, people don't realize the, this is sheer acreage that we have for something. large to be able to be supported and stuff like that. So it's staggering when you think of Bigfoot, New Jersey, people think you're crazy, but it's really cool. I'm a very big fan of the bear and Bigfoot. They eat similar things to Apex predators living in the same area, probably eat the same things, right? We actually have in Sussex County the highest density of black bear population east of in Mississippi. So I think if there would be anywhere that Bigfoot would be able to be supported,

it's somewhere where it has the food that can support these large predator preachers, right? New Jersey definitely can support a large animal like that. Absolutely. When you are going out to these certain spots in Sussex, have you had any interesting encounters? We've gotten some of the best pieces of evidence that I've ever collected from from Sussis County. And that's probably just to say because I go out there all the time. I'm obviously going to get more evidence for there. But we've collected a footprint back in 2016, 15 to half incher that I posted everywhere that I could possibly find track identification pages, everything like this. And people just say that it can't be real, but I found it.

We've gotten some vocalizations from High Point State Park. There's a gas line that runs through the north end of the county here. If data management is slowing down your business, you need the Intuit ERP. If one entity is here and one here and one here and one here, you need the Intuit ERP. If scaling your business feels like starting over, you need the Intuit ERP. Intuit Enterprise Suite is the AI-native ERP solution that consolidates, migrates, and automates, all in one place. Learn more at intuit.com slash ERP.

I can't wait to meet baby Emma, but how are you? Honestly, I'm overwhelmed. I don't feel like myself at all, but it's probably just a lack of sleep. Hey, I love you. I've been there. Maybe it's something more, like postpartum depression? Only a doctor can tell you, the PPD is a real. real medical condition with treatment.

PPD is not just an adjustment phase. Learn more at treatpPD.com. Sponsored by Supernus and Biogen. They say everything happens for a reason, but I suspect everything happens for a recess. Like this commercial break, did you need 15 seconds away from music, or 15 seconds to eat or Reese's?

Perhaps it's true. Everything happens for a Reese's. And I think that's a bigfoot highway. I think bigfords would follow these gas. lines and power lines and things. But we were on this gas line. We did a barred owl call, which is an owl that lives around here. And about five seconds later, we got like this vocalization three distinct loud howls. I always tried to vet my evidence before I release anything. So I would send it away. I sent that piece of audio off to a linguist from the military,

who also does Bigfoot research on the side. And he came back and said, because X, Y, and Z, this is outside of human vocal range, and it's no known animal. Have you ever heard any whoops type vocalization, anything like the Gibbon type sounds? The most recent one we had up with that was over the summer. I was up in Whitehall, New York, or actually in Vermont, in a Beaumosine, Vermont, in the next to the state park there. And we went up to this one lake, and we hiked up there. And it was like two in the morning.

and it sounded just like a person, but a monkey. We did a whoop, and it just did the same exact thing back. It wasn't an echo. And it was like, man, like we are literally two miles from the closest road. There's no campgrounds. It's those things that make you go and make you really want to go back and figure out what's making those sounds. Going back to New Jersey for a little bit, a few months back,

I had a gentleman on a few times. His name is Swamp Dog. He's a great guy. But he's a guy who is seriously researching in southern New Jersey. Oh, cool. There are some really interesting things going down. I don't know if you're familiar with the Vineland, New Jersey area in the south. Have you ever gone down into the south part of New Jersey at all?

Man, the South Jersey is really wild because you have the 1.1 million acres. pine barons preserve, right? And that's right in violence right inside of that area. And that's obviously known for the Jersey Devil, right? The South Jersey and the Pine Barron is known for the Jersey Devil. But also Bigfoot, we have found Baby Bigfoot tracks down there. So that was very interesting. We actually found him on three separate occasions, three different years apart in the same area. We actually went down there not too long ago. We went out with this YouTuber very popular YouTuber who contacted me. It was like, I'm doing a 50 state cryptid thing.

I want you to be New Jersey's guy. And I'm like, okay. So we went down there looking for the Jersey Devil, and he actually obtained some goats blood, which are goats are, they're said to Jersey Devil said to eat goats. So we got some goat blood and we smeared it all up on this tree, got some trail cans and stuff. Yeah, we go big.

Wow. Who was, do you mind dropping the name of who that was? Channel 5, Andrew Callahan. Okay. I have to look that up. Yeah, yeah. It's like a news, real fake news site. Oh, okay. Cool. Cool. It's interesting. Yeah, he's got like 2.2 million subscribers or something like that. We've been down there. And it's, I always like to have fun. So why just research Bigfoot when you could do both, two birds, one stone, right? All you got to do is look up. It's the same thing. So what are your thoughts as to some people think of the Jersey Devil as just,

interesting folklore story. Some people actually think that there is a creature out in the woods of the pine barons. Do you find yourself more in either camp? Yeah, I think after doing a whole lot of research into it, I want to say it's a really good folklore story. What's interesting about it is that you can piece together.

Every part of that story can have happened. Like the family, the Leeds family is actually a real true family. You could trace it back. I have a brick from, the chimney that the Jersey Devil was said to fly up through, which is really cool from the original household. That's creepy. Andrew Calhane got me that too. Yeah, I will say, though, I do my library presentations, and I do have a slide in there about the Jersey Devil.

I had a presentation in South Jersey down the Pine Barrens area, and I used to say that I think the Jersey Devil was actually a misidentified Bigfoot. And people are a little appalled by that, apparently down in South Jersey. My thing is seven foot tall, screams at night, glowing red eyes. Sounds like a big foot to me. But I think initially it was a misidentification of a sandhill crane, which is a big bird that may have weather pattern could have caused it to come up to New Jersey. And they don't have internet or anything like that.

So there's no way of looking up what kind of bird this is. But it looks like a devil. it screams like a devil and has red eyes. So of course, that would be a flying devil bird, the Jersey devil. I like the idea of it maybe being a misidentified Bigfoot. When I hear about the pine barrens, and I've talked to people a few times about it, there's some really weird stuff that happens in those pine barons for some reasons. Have you ever had anything weird happen to you in there on expeditions?

or routinely when we're camping big trucks will come into the campground and just like idle there for 15 20 minutes um tinted when not a cop type of thing just odd we've been late one night and we were deep in the pine barons driving in there and you can get very lost in there we came across either was somebody bearing a body or somebody looking for big foot one of the two it was one of the two we didn't stick around to find out. But yeah, it's just a crazy area. There's, I will say, if anybody's interested in going out to investigate in the Pine Barrens, the New Jersey State Park Police do a very proficient job making sure nobody is breaking the rules down there.

Keep that in the back of your mind as well. Yes. No breaking the laws, guys. No, and I got pulled over one time. And the cop was really cool. I was at a memorial that's Cranza Memorial, used to be in a Mexican. Mexican aviator went down the pine barons. I put this memorial up for him. And I was down there just showing my friends the memorial because they've never seen it. And state park police pulls up.

What are you doing? And we have all over camera gear. We're in camo. We're looking for Bigfoot. And he's what? Oh, that's interesting. I don't think there's any Bigfoot here. But if you want, you can. You just can't be at the memorial. I was like, okay. Thanks. And then he lets go. So it was weird. You had an interesting video about investigating the Brown Mountain Lights. Oh, that was a cool trip. Yep, down in North Carolina. I did it on a last minute thing.

I knew about it. I was staying down in Asheville, which the Brown Mountain Lights are about hour 15 from Asheville. Just like one night, I'm going to take a ride up there. And the road to get up to where we were, I think we're at Lynnville Gorge. I think it's called is not for the faint of heart. So you need a four-wheel drive to get up there. But if you want to check it out, it's really cool. There's a big overlooking thing.

And what's said is near or on the mountain in the distance, actually not around mountains, a different name of a mountain. But anyways, they say that there's these ghost lights that appear. Some people think they're fires. Somebody starts a fire. Some people think their headlights. And sometimes they even appear off the mountain as in the sky or behind the mountain, which is unusual. and sometimes there's fog that comes off the mountain in very peculiar spots.

I just wanted to go out there just to see if I could find anything. I sat out there for about two hours and did not hear nor see anything. But it was very beautiful. Another one, it really caught my eye, was that what happened to you when you were doing a Bigfoot call one time in Florida. Yeah, yeah, I know what you're talking about. It's maybe even a cautionary tale. All right. Let me just say, this was after like a 10-mile hike in Florida's heat.

This is day 17 tent camping for us. So we were a little exhausted by this point. So the story is we walk out to this lake in the middle of Maya Hacahatchee River State Park or or my, no, my, myaca forest. Anyways, we get out to this area and everybody, Mike, do a big foot call. Mike, do a big foot call. You're the best at it. You're the best at it. I'm like, I'm really not feeling it, guys.

I'm not. And they're like, no, you got to do one. It's the last one at the trip. It's like, all right, fine. I didn't even, it wasn't even like a long hell. It was just a, it was a very good, good, powerful vocalization. And I passed out after it a little bit. You definitely did.

Knowing that background information, I could definitely see how that could happen, though, being deep into camping for that long. You're going around all over the place for Red Eye. Has there been a time when you are going out into a state forest and you've just had something happen that really took you back or it just things got really intense? Yeah. Just the other day, we were hiking.

up in Stoke State Forest, which is in northwestern New Jersey. And we had a class A encounter of a bear box. And let me tell you, they put bear boxes in the state forest by the campsite. So you put your food in there so the bears can't get them. And these things look, or they're about the same size as a extremely large black bear. And dark, they paint them black for some reason. So we were going around a corner and we came across this and it was darker than the rest of it. It's pitch black out. I'm like, fleer, fleer, get

the fleer. And so we're getting the fleer up. There's nothing on it. And finally we get this big spotlight on it. It's just a bare box. So that was crazy. And this happens I think to everybody that goes big footing. You get the occasional I'm walking and I'm going to pick up

a stick from the trail just to make sure it's not to not blocking anybody on the trail, but it's actually a six foot snake, that kind of thing. Oh, boy. That's a common thing that happens to me, apparently. But now, I think the most I take out of going on these expeditions, really, is we get a lot of cool stuff.

I know when I was down in West Virginia, in Sutton, West Virginia, there's this place you go down to, and I went down there and doing a, it's right along this riverboard, and I was doing a big foot call. I wanted to go down there at night, and I literally went down there every night, not because it was squatchy, but the whole forest was just a firefly lit up. It was casting shadows that's how many fireflies there were. I was like, man, this is the coolest thing. This is why you go Bigfoot. It's every place that I go, it's not about looking and finding Bigfoot. That's not what I do. I like to go and see areas that you wouldn't necessarily see.

Like today, we just got back from a little excursion up in the Catskills. We were up there for a couple of days doing a little filming. And we stopped at this waterfall today, Pout kills a waterfall. And it was just absolutely incredible. And it wasn't anything Bigfooty related or anything like that. It's just one of these side things that you do because you're in the area. And it's those things. It's the views from the mountaintops and those waterfall things that really make you remember why you're doing what you're doing.

It's not about finding Bigfoot. it's about seeing something and being outside in nature. That's how it is for me. I got a message back on YouTube, and this is back in like season two. I get an email from somebody that says, because of your videos, I watch your videos every week, and because of your videos, I live vicariously through you because I have a new illness that I will not let me out into the woods anymore. So you're the videos that I watched to experience what I used to do,

because you're doing the same thing that I used to do. And I said, oh, man, that's really me. That's how I knew. Like, we're filming season eight. That's just how it goes, right? Yeah. You experience stuff like that, and you're like, okay, this is actually making a difference in someone's life, for sure. It makes it all worthwhile.

I know. That's why I do it, and I'm pretty sure that's probably why you do it, too. I really like providing a platform for people to share their encounters where It's a safe, respected environment. And I've noticed that you have started to do that as well. Do you mind sharing about you? You have a series where it's almost you run into these people and you get them to share.

How did that come about? Bigfoot Camp Fire store is basically what it was, I have some of these really great long interviews with some really unique people. And I can't, for the life of me, fit them down into one episode of my show because it would just be the interviewers at the whole show and I can't have that you know what I mean so I decided to I'm going to make this extra special series docu series of and it could be from two minutes long to two hours long however

they want to talk about their experiences and what I've gathered from the feedback is that everybody thinks it's it is it's extremely raw it's not edited it's it is right from the mouth of the person that had a class A inciting with a big foot. That's cool. And a lot of times, 90% of the times, were actually back in the area. I know there was one hunter that had not gone back to the area for 30 years

before I took him back there. And he was the first time back there that I took him that he saw and saw a big foot, which is crazy. But yeah. But speaking of platforms to allow people to open up about their Bigfoot encounters. I don't know if you see my vehicle, the Bigfoot Mobile Command Center. It's all graphiced out with, yeah.

I've seen a little bit of it in videos, but tell us about that. It looks very cool. Yeah, it's, I made it myself, took out the back seats, and I made like a raised sleeping platform so I could like sleep in the car. I don't have to pay for Airbnbs and like travel expenses and stuff like that. I just sleep in the car if I need to. I made the storage compartments. I put a secondary car battery in there

so I could charge up all my stuff all the time. But I put graphics on it real big. This is Bigfoot Mobile Command Center. And every other week I would say, I'll be at like 7-Eleven or a convenience store or something like that. And somebody will come up to me and say, hey, I've never told anybody this before, but I saw a Bigfoot 30 years ago.

And that's so wild. And it happens so frequently. It almost would shock you how frequently it happens. But funny story is, so as I'm sure you do, you talk about Bigfoot a lot. If data management is slowing down your business, you need the Intuit ERP. If one entity is here and one here and one here and one here, you need the Intuit ERP. If scaling your business feels like start starting over, you need the Intuit ERP. Intuit Enterprise Suite is the AI-native ERP solution that consolidates, migrates, and automates, all in one place.

Learn more at intuitt.com slash ERP. I can't wait to meet baby Emma, but how are you? Honestly, I'm overwhelmed. I don't feel like myself at all, but it's probably just a lack of sleep. Hey, I love you. I've been there. Maybe it's something more, like postpartum depression? Only a doctor can tell you that.

PPD is a real medical condition with treatment. PPD is not just an adjustment phase. Learn more at treatpPD.com. Sponsored by Sopernus and Biogen. It said everything happens for a reason, but maybe everything happens for a recess. Take noise-canceling headphones. Do they block hearing to heightened taste?

Hmm. That sound seems to show. Everything happens for a recess. Right? And I know for me, If Bigfoot's my job, so I want a day off of my job every once in a while. So like I called my friend up, this is a couple years ago. I called my friend up.

I said, hey, we're going to go out tonight and play some pool, but we're not going to talk about Bigfoot. Bigfoot is off the table, right? So we get there, get out of the car, slam the door. And what do I hear from across the parking lot? Bigfoot. And I'm like, oh, no, here we go. So the guy comes over and he's like. Hey, my grandfather has a big footcast that he's never shown anybody.

Do you want to see it? And I said, no, I'm off tonight. Now, I said, absolutely. Of course I want to see it. Of course. So a couple weeks later, I go up to this gentleman's house, and he has not one, but 70 big foot casts all from Sussex County that he's never shown anybody before.

And you said Sussex County? Yes, sir. Whoa. So that's really interesting. Was he getting the tracks from an area that you hadn't researched before? Gets him from all over the Kidotiddy Ridge line. It actually butts up against it, which is really cool. It's a place that I don't go, especially during the summer,

because there are a ton of rattlesnakes, which is very interesting that he, A, is going up there himself and B, pulling big footprints from the side of a cliff. Your professional opinion, looking at, did the footprints look pretty legit? or? Oh, yeah. Yeah. This guy didn't know how to mix the plaster of Paris at all, but he, the prints were, there are some wonky ones there, but of course you're going to get wonky ones when you have a 70 of them that have captured over the years. But the guy wasn't faking it. He wasn't going to tell anybody about it ever. Like he was going to die, not telling anybody about this. So that's why I know that they're legit. Like he didn't want me to come over.

Like his son, his grandson was the one who told me about it. Like, he didn't call. me. Okay. So you, man, I feel like I need to put some big foot stuff in my car now because that's incredible, man.

Like, you never would have gotten that unless you had Bigfoot command center going on. It's 100% absolutely. Yeah. Dude, I'm going to look into it. I do. Check out the outback stickers on,

on my Etsy. Hey. We'll have to put that in the show notes for sure. People can get those. had to plug it. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, totally. When you are out filming these expeditions,

we've talked about there was an issue with a snake. You picked up a snake. Have you run into any other animals when you're out there looking for Bigfoot? Yeah. The most scared I've ever been in the woods before. The most scared I've ever been in the woods. Let me set the scene for you. Stoke State Forest right before a public Bof.

Faroe expedition. I was an investigator at the time and we got out there a night prior, me and me and another investigator. And it was cold, but it was very, there were no clouds, it's a full moon, right? You could see casting a shadow, no question about it. So I had this one person tent, maybe, maybe like just as, like, you couldn't sit up in it type of thing. Like, the only thing you could do is snuggle up and sleep in it. So since it was cold, I was under my two mummy sleeping bags and I just got situated and a nice warm and everything and then it happened right came up from the top and just the shadow started casting down came right over my head then started dropping down what was it spider oh gross scared I've ever been most scared

of ever been in the woods I screamed like a little girl but that's the three people asked me like oh, you're not scared of bears in the woods. Yeah, inherently bears are scary creatures. But if you don't mess with them, they're not going to mess with you type of thing. So the three things that I don't like in the woods tick spiders and people. Oh, yeah.

Yeah. People, that's a great point. That's a creature that you don't know what's going to happen if you're way out in the boonies. And all of a sudden, there's a person and you don't know if they're actually out of control or if they've got a weapon or? Inherently, as a Bigfoot researcher,

you don't want to see anybody else when you're researching. That's the goal of going out to look for Bigfoot. But we were in the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area. This is going off of what you were just saying. We were doing a, it was a night and a half. It was a very weird night. We almost stepped on a bear, mama bear. No, it was baby bear.

the woods but didn't. But anyways, we were driving through this village called Milbrook Village. It's an old historic village, not it's abandoned, but they fixed it up all nice. Anyway, there was a guy walking along the road. Nobody lives here. Okay. And it's two o'clock in the morning. And he's in shorts and it has a backpack on and flip flops. And it's cold. And I'm like, okay, something's not right. We got to stop. And we drive past them. And I'm like, guys, we got to turn around. And everybody else was like, that's a ghost.

We didn't, that's definitely not a person. That's just a ghost. And I'm like, no, it's not a ghost. It's a person. We got to stop. So we stop.

This guy, he was having a medical emergency, a psychiatric emergency, right? He was actually running away from his house. And he was going to, he was going to attempt to do the Appalachian Trail.

And this is, this was in February. He had his flip-flops on. He wasn't going to make it the night type of thing. No. So we ended up. finally he wouldn't give up any information about when I'm not there's the state police out there but they're just going to lock him up in a hospital or something so we ended up getting

contacting his dad finally after hours of talking with him and his dad came out and got him and stuff so and I wouldn't recommend anybody doing that especially with somebody that's having a psychiatric emergency as I mentioned though before I'm an EMT so I know how to handle those situations, but definitely wouldn't have made it the night. Talking about being in the right place, the right time. Even it, and that's just because we were looking for Bigfoot. God, if we weren't looking for Bigfoot out there, who knows what had happened to that guy? What are the chances, dude, that, you know, just random EMT, Bigfooter just happened to be in the right area so he could help a dude not have his last night.

Like, good on you for sticking it out and making sure that he was good. A few questions that maybe the listeners might be trying to imagine that I would ask. Have you been fortunate enough to have any visual sightings of anything Bigfoot related yourself? Are you still working towards that maybe someday? Another funny story for you. We were down in the Pine Barrens, as we were just talking about, along this river where we found footprints before. And we were walking, and it was me and my friend Tom. and all of a sudden I was a little bit ahead of him,

talked about being at the right place at the right time. All I hear is floop and I turn around and he is literally up to his chest in mud. He fell through, it was like quick mud. He lost his, like he lost his boots type of thing. Like he wouldn't be able to get out if I wasn't there. So if Bigfooters, if you're going to go out, always try to go with another person.

You never know what's going to happen. It could be as freaky as getting. caught in quick mud, but it happens. Anyways, after this, we're walking. He doesn't have any boots on. He's a trooper. He's toughen it out where he's like, I see something. So I grabbed, I wasn't filming my show.

I had a still camera and I just pick up the still camera. I'm just snapping away. And I didn't see anything. He saw it. We went back and looked at the pictures and it was actually like a little, it's blurry, like, tip of a head that you could possibly see that was like coming out over a rock. Oh, man.

It was so far away. You can't make it out. It could have been a deer. Nobody's ever going to see that picture. You know what I mean? Have I seen anything? No. But I think I've come across everything but short of seeing one.

Yeah. I get you. It's one of those things where I've been out two times, which is low number compared to yourself. But I think we both would one day. want to have that experience. There's that old question that always gets brought up. How are you classifying this creature that you're trying to find?

What is Bigfoot to you? I go about researching and looking for this creature the way I would go about researching an extinct or expired animal. So I think they're biological creatures. and the evidence that I have found, aka footprints, I've been given some hair and stuff. Like, if they weren't of this dimension or whatever, this plane that we're on,

I don't think they would leave too much physical evidence. But anyways, it's just, I think that you can't explain an unknown with another unknown. And I think when you have people that are of the realm of Bigfoot are UFOs or intradimensional creatures that we have no, we don't have any knowledge of, you can't use that to explain something else. It just doesn't work like that. So when you have somebody that tries to use that logic to explain something away, it's like, man, we got to think of the most simple, if it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, it's probably a dog. duck, right? So that's what I think big foot is, except obviously a big foot. Absolutely. So we've got definitely, we're in the physical creature. Yeah.

Something flesh and blood camp. So then going down that road, there's a few ways you could go off, right? Are you categorizing it in any specific, you have maybe something more ape like, something more human? Yeah. I think it's got to be, it would be nice if we knew more about this creature, right? But we just don't. And that's the thing. I think we would be speculating at anything if we could guess at that.

But I think personally that it's probably more human, but also has characteristics of primates. I don't think they're intelligent enough as we are. I don't think Bigfoot can start a fire. I do think they have like means of communication, though, so they could talk to each other and communicate with each other. So that's where I think they could use primitive tools to be able to do their daily tasks and get food and stuff like that. That makes sense to me.

So I think that they're like at a pre-Neanderthal level of existence when it comes to where we have evolved from and where they might be right now. I think they have evolved just like we did, except they took a totally different path coming over than we did. If Bigfoot ever discovers fire, we are in a whole bunch of trouble. Can you imagine? Yeah. Force fires everywhere.

That would be bad news or like all of a sudden you'd be in your campsite and this huge like torch would get thrown through your hand. No thanks. That would be some wild stuff. The big red eye is becoming definitely quite, quite the. Quite the thing. You've got, you're sending out a few graphics I've seen where you're trying to almost gather a team together. Can you talk a few minutes about what are certain people you're looking to join your team? Yeah.

So here's what it comes down to it. And this might take your listeners by surprise. But big footing isn't a priority for a lot of people. I do this full time. This is my life. I go around. I support myself. I speak at libraries during the day.

That's how I get to travel around to all these places. I set up a library tour and I'll do seven, 10 libraries over a 12-day period and be camping that whole time, filming the show. It's really awesome. But yeah, it's like pulling teeth, trying to get people to come out to some of these longer expeditions. I'm at a place where I'm able to compensate people now to come out and with, their abilities, whether it be for filming. We are always looking for camera people to come out. I'm getting tired of holding the camera and film on myself.

That's just what it comes down to, but that's, it is what it is. But we're also looking for like somebody who will come out to these expeditions, but manage and be the logistical operations person. Like, we have an interview this time, so we need to leave here and get to the library at this stuff. Just so everything moves easy. And it's gotten to the point where I have to get more people to do this now,

where it's become more of a, it's become big. It's getting larger than myself. Like I said, I do this full time. And it's a full time job editing the show, running my website, doing the library tours. I mean, that in itself is a full-time thing. So we're also looking for people to book podcasts and stuff like that. And just some of the stuff that it would take loads.

off my back, right? We're doing a sponsorship manager now where we have, we're going around looking at companies that could have some items that they would want us to use on our show. We've got that unique following where all you need is a really good email and you could do some pretty amazing things. Let's say you have someone that is new to your channel. do you have a top three videos that you would really want them to check out? Yeah, first would be when I got bear maced. Oh, yeah. That would be number one.

Yeah. Yeah. No, some of the actual, like, legit episodes, I know there's some that I put out, because I put out a video a week and it's almost impossible for me to go on a Bigfoot expedition each week and then hit the show and whatever. That's why there's a lot of episodes. episodes from High Point and from Stokes and stuff like that from Sussets County because that's where I can get to logistically. But check out some of the bigger episodes.

There's a couple that are coming out that are really good. The Whitehall, New York one that we just had, that, that Howl or the Woupon, that one's coming out soon. And I know we just filmed up in the Catskill. So there's going to be a Catskill episode coming out, which is really, it's going to be a really cool episode too. Just check out some of the funny things. I have a thermal capture of a big foot that I filmed in High Point. That it could be a big foot. I don't know what it was, but I filmed it on thermal during the day.

And I actually filmed it on my regular camera during the day too. And I do a side-by-side comparison of where what it was and stuff. So when we actually go back and do a recreation, that's something cool to see as well. Do you have any advice for listeners that are like, I might want to go out and find some state forest? with some Bigfoot action, go out there and see what I can do. Do you have any advice for the new researchers that are trying to get into it? Yeah.

And I've been asked this question a lot. So what I just did because I can is I made up a dokey series called Squatchables. How to Find a Bigfoot, Bigfooting 101. So just pick up a copy of Squatchables. It's 10 bucks on our Etsy. No, but it's what it is, you don't want to go by yourself the first time. You want to play it safe, but you also don't want to go out with a complete stranger, bring one of your friends out and the tools and equipment that you'll need to be able to,

that you would go in on a hike, be smart about it. I would scout out an area during the day first. That's what I do is I don't go to any area that I haven't been first during the day at night because that's dangerous, right? There could be loose rocks or ice or something that you didn't see. So always scope out of place during the day. But the biggest part about it is have fun. Have a good time when you're out there is, like I said before,

see something that you would see sitting on the couch and make it something that you are really interested in and make it how it's going to be fun for you. There's no right or wrong way to look for Bigfoot, right? Absolutely. Yeah. At the end of the day, good Bigfoot outing is also a really good camping outing. if you're doing it right. Camping on steroids. Absolutely.

That's what I tell people, yeah. Do you have any things that you follow when you're trying to find, let's say, I'm going to this state and I'm looking for the good Bigfoot areas? Here's the thing. When I do my tours, the way I find a place to squash or a place to camp is I go and I map out my library locations and then I pick a, state park that's centralized to all them. That just logistically makes it easy for me. I can't be driving three, four hours each day to get to a library. That just doesn't make any sense. So I'll camp in one of these areas that's centralized. Now, that may or may not be the squatchiest area that I can go bigfooting, but that doesn't mean anything to me because just as there are reports of Bigfoot,

there are not reports of Bigfoot. People aren't reporting Bigfoot because either they're not there, or maybe there's just nobody looking there. You need to, have two things to report a bigfoot, a person and a big foot. And if there's no people looking for Bigfoot, you're not going to find one. But I take that a step further. And what I'll do is during my library presentations, I'll just say, they're all local people. I'll say, hey, who here is seeing a Bigfoot? It's my first question that I asked.

And people will come up to me, especially at the end of the thing, and say, I saw Bigfoot here and here in this park and this park. And then I'll go there. why not it sounds so obvious but like it's smart yeah it just ask the people if they local knowledge but where it comes down to i love it i love it that is so awesome uh mike it has been a fun fun chat with you i'm glad we're able to actually uh get it's been an hour that's crazy get an interview and this is if stream yard doesn't mess this up we might be cursed but do you mind spend in a few minutes reminding people how they can keep up to date with what you're doing,

things that you can pick up on your Etsy, stuff like that. Yeah, we have everything that you can imagine here in the shadow of Bigger and I. First and foremost, if you'd want to know anything about the show, head over to our website, shadow of red eye.com. That's a great place to find all of our YouTube episodes, what's coming up, our tours, where our next appearances are going to be, all that good stuff. YouTube is in the shadow of Big Red Eye or at Shadow of Red Eye. that's our bread and butter.

You guys can go ahead and if you want to, subscribe. But the cool thing is, and I will even give you permission to do this, is run my videos in the background all night and day. So I get the watch hours up so I can start making money off of YouTube. But now, we also have an email list. You can reach out to any of our social pages to get signed up for our email list, which has some really cool Etsy deals and stuff, which you also have an Etsy.com slash shop slash shadow of red eye.

We have really cool big foot ornaments because this is the time of the year that is coming out now, right? So look at these guys. How freaking adorable are these things? That's pretty sweet. I like that. Yeah. Yeah. But anyways, yeah, I'm not hard to find if anybody has wants me to come to their area and speak at a library out by them.

or has some interesting stuff that they would like to share with me. You're more than welcome to find me on any platform of social media. Very open. Awesome. Are you really only waiting on your 4,000 hours watch time for the channel? Because you're over like 2K. Okay. So Bigfoot Society, I'm going to talk directly to every listener for a second.

Please make sure you're subscribed to Mike's channel. Hit the bell like you do on Bigfoot Society so you don't miss anything. and then please just watch a few episodes, a lot of episodes, because the fact that Mike hasn't hit 4,000, like we need to fix that for him. We're going to hopefully fix that for you, Mike. Thank you so much for coming on. It has been a really fun chat.

We can't see what comes down the pipe from you guys next. But thank you so much for coming on, man. Hey, next time I'm out in your area. I will let you know for sure. Here at Bigfoot Society, our goal is to provide a platform for those that have encountered Bigfoot to share their encounter in a safe and respected environment. But we need to hear your story. If you've experienced something that you just can't explain, please send me an email at Bigfoot Society at gmail.com.

Then we can start the conversation. I know a lot of you have not shared your encounter at all. It's been 20 years. And it's time that you get to be. get this off your chest, and then you can get some well-deserved for rest because I know you haven't been sleeping. I understand what you're going through, and I appreciate every one of you listening. If data management is slowing down your business, you need the Intuit ERP. If one entity is here and one here and one here, and one here, you need the Intuit ERP. If scaling your business feels like start starting over, you need the Intuit ERP, Intuit Enterprise Suite is the AI-native ERP solution that consolidates, migrates, and automates, all in one place.

Learn more at intuitt.com slash ERP. I can't wait to meet baby Emma, but how are you? Honestly, I'm overwhelmed. I don't feel like myself at all, but it's probably just a lack of sleep. Hey, I love you. I've been there. Maybe it's something more, like postpartum depression? Only a doctor can tell you

the PPD is a real medical condition with treatment. PPD is not just an adjustment phase. Learn more at treatpPD.com, sponsored by Sopernus and Biogen. It said everything happens for a reason, but maybe everything happens for a recess. Take noise-canceling headphones. Do they block hearing to heightened taste?

Hmm. That sound seems to show. Everything happens for a recess. If data management is slowing down your business, you need the Intuit ERP. If one entity is here and one here and one here and one here, you need the Intuit ERP. If scaling your business feels like start starting over, you need the Intuit ERP. Intuit Enterprise Suite is the AI-Native ERP solution that consolidates, migrates, and automates, all in one place. Learn more at Intuit.com slash ERP.

I can't wait to meet baby Emma, but how are you? Honestly, I'm overwhelmed. I don't feel like myself at all, but it's probably just a lack of sleep. Hey, I love you. I've been there. Maybe it's something more like postpartum depression. Only a doctor can tell you, but PPD is a real medical condition with treatment. PPD is not just an adjustment phase.

Learn more at treat ppd.com. It's sponsored by Sopernus and Biogen. It's said everything happens for a reason, but maybe everything happens for a recesses. Take noise-canceling headphones. Do they block hearing to heighten taste? Hmm. That sound seems to show. Everything happens for a recess.

Plan B made over-the-counter emergency contraception legal more than 20 years ago. It's a safe, effective backup birth control option that helps prevent pregnancy before it starts by temporarily delaying ovulation. Plan B is the number one OBGYN recommended brand and the only one that you can find at all major retailers in all 50 U.S. states.

There's no minimum age requirement and you don't need an ID to buy it. You can order it through DoorDash and other major delivery platforms too. That's freedom to be. Use as directed. This is Matt Rogers from Los Culture Reistas

with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang. This is Bowen Yang from Los Culture Reuters with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang. Spend your balance instantly with the Venmo Debit Cardener earn up to 5% cash back on your favorite bundle of brands when you join Venmo Stash. The more you do with Venmo, the more you get. Earn 2% cash back when you set up auto reloads.

Earn 5% cash back with direct deposit. It's great for anyone who doesn't want to transfer funds or weigh days. No monthly fee, no minimum balance. And now you can earn up to 5% cash back at select brands in your bundle every time you check out online with the Venmo button. The Venmo Mastercard is issued by the Bankorp Bank N.A., pursuant to license by MasterCard International Incorporated. Venmo Stash bundle terms and exclusions apply. max $100 cash back per month requires $500 plus in direct deposits. See terms at Venmo.me.com.

Firm.com. Not available at all merchants. This is Daniel Fischel. And Ryder Strong from Podmeet's World. As cat parents, Ryder and I know the feeling of being ignored by our cats. I often wonder, does my cat even love me? Well, there's only one solution to solve that. Sheba.

Feed your cat, Shiba, and go from feeling ignored to truly adored in 12. days guaranteed or your money back. Sheba has so many incredible products that can satisfy even the pickiest eater. Like new Shiba grilled, made in the USA with the finest ingredients from around the world. They are savory strips in a succulent sauce that cats are sure to love. And it's 100% complete and balanced with essential vitamins and nutrients for adult cats like my bill. Made without artificial flavors or preservatives, no corn, wheat, or soy. To learn more, check out shiba.com.