Bigfoot Society - Campfire Ambush in Elk State Forest!

Episode Date: May 31, 2025

What happens when six seasoned campers — three of them military — head deep into the remote wilds of Pennsylvania’s Elk State Forest... and something starts throwing rocks at them from the darkness? In this unnerving episode, we hear firsthand from Jim, a lifelong outdoorsman who went from skeptic to believer after one terrifying night in the woods. As their camp was silently surrounded, rocks began flying, brush cracked under heavy footfalls, and something large — and intelligent — made its presence known. You’ll hear how a weeklong trip turned into a desperate retreat, the strange footprint they found the next morning, and why they’ll never return to that spot again. We also touch on Bigfoot activity near Wharton, Allegheny National Forest, and the mysterious silence of the woods when predators aren’t the only ones hunting. This episode isn’t a campfire tale. It’s a warning.🗣️ Share Your StoryHad a Bigfoot encounter or strange experience?Send it to [e-mail] – your story might be featured on the show!🎥 Watch & Subscribe on YouTube🔴 Subscribe here → Bigfoot Society YouTube💬 Leave a comment & let us know your thoughts!📞 Leave a voicemail with your story → Speakpipe (Use multiple voicemails if needed)👥 Share this episode → Watch & Share🎧 More episodes → Podcast Playlist🌲 Recommended: New Jersey Bigfoot Encounters💥 Support the Show & Get Perks✅ Join the community on Patreon – Become a Member✅ Listen ad-free & early on YouTube – Join Here📱 Let’s ConnectInstagram: @bigfootsocietyTwitter: @bigfoot_societyTikTok: @bigfoot.society🧰 Tools & Partners I Use (Affiliate Links)These help support the show at no extra cost to you:Beam (Better Sleep): Try BeamWildgrain (Better Bread): Join HereSeed (Probiotics): Get SeedMedi-Share (Healthcare): Learn MoreLMNT (Electrolytes) Free Sample Pack with your first purchase! : Get LMNT🎙️ Podcasting Tools:Repurpose.io: Try ItDescript: Sign UpStreamyard: Start RecordingRiverside.fm: Try Riverside🎧 My Audio Interface: View on Amazon☕ Buy Me a Coffee – Support Here🛍️ Grab Some Merch – Shop on Etsy📬 Mailing Address:Bigfoot Society125 E 1st St. #233Earlham, IA 50072📧 Business Inquiries:[e-mail]

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Valid through 527, while supplies last. Selection varies by location. See Lose.com for details. Visit your nearby Lowe's on West Pico Boulevard in Los Angeles. You're listening to Bigfoot Society and I'm Jeremiah Byron. Tonight's account is from a group of six-seasoned campers, three of them trained military who ventured deep into the rugged heart of Elk State Forest in Pennsylvania. They planned a week-long escape off trail, but what they got was something entirely different. This is the night that Jim stopped believing that Bigfoot was

a myth, so stay with us. All right, Bigfoot Society. You've got the privilege of talking to Jim, Jim today, Jim is an individual that I was introduced to after seeing a Reddit post that he had left. I believe it was an R slash Bigfoot. And he is able to come on the show to share some interesting things that happened when he was out camping in northern Pennsylvania. And welcome to the show, Jim. How's it going, man? It is going great. Thank you for having me.

Absolutely. You know, we don't get a lot of northern Pennsylvania. So it is always fun when we get to talk to someone from that state, as there is a lot of activity that goes on out there. But, you know, feel free, Jim, to take us back to what was going on that night when you had some weird things happen out there in northern Pennsylvania. All righty. So me and five of my buddies, we were going on a week-long camping trip up in Elk State Forest. And it's north central, Pennsylvania. We were, I want to say, northeast of Wharton, which is a little town up.

That way it lies right on the edge of Elk County or Elk State Forest. Anyhow, and like I said, we were going up on a week-long trip. And we were going off trail and just what we had to carry with us. And each of my friends, we had all been going camping together since we were teenagers. We've known each other for years. And about the most reliable kind of people you could have around, honestly, especially in the woods. All very capable people. But we ended up going, found a good spot to park.

and we just set off into the woods. We ended up going, I believe it was northwest, into the woods, and we got to our spot where we parked at about noon, because we don't live up that way. We live down in southwestern Pennsylvania, a lot of us. And it was a long drive-up, as you can imagine, it's a big state. Anyway, we got into where we parked our cars at about, like I said, noon, and we had about four to five hours before dark because it was getting into fall.

Leaves hadn't really started to fall heavy yet. It was more still into changing colors and all that. But it was getting to it. So days were getting shorter and all that. Whenever we had set off, we started up this one mountain. And it was fairly rugged and very, very minimal sign of any kind of, like human interference, you know, like there wasn't a whole lot of garbage. And like I said, we were going off trail anyway, so we didn't expect to find much anyway.

So we had hiked for the better part of four, four hours or so. When it was just getting starting to be dusk, we had ended up finding a clearing near the top end of this mountainside and decided to set up camp. So we set up our fires. We set up our hammocks because 10 camping is for suckers, in my own personal opinion. And I will recommend that. If you have never been hammock camping, it is something you absolutely have to try. You get the right hang. It is way better night sleeping, sleeping on the ground.

No, it's great. I used to do that on the Appalachian Trail all the time. Yeah, that's great stuff. So anyway, we had set up our camp in this little clearing. we had made dinner and I'd settled in and as you can imagine a bunch of middle age middle mid 20 you know grown men hanging out in the woods we're going to be laughing and carrying on having a good time you know and we're sitting around campfire carrying on having a good time and it's getting in dark and just as about we were getting ready to go to bed which I would imagine to be around between

anywhere between 11 and 1 o'clock in the morning. None of us were really paying attention to the time. But dark, dark, kind of, you know. And I'm sitting in my chair and something hit me in the back. You know, nothing hard, you know, nothing crazy. So I stood up and I'm facing campfire, you know, and all five of us are sitting around it. So I turned around and looked into the woods.

And as you know, fire blindness is a very big thing. And I couldn't see very far past the tree line at all. And didn't see nothing. And I pulled up my flashlight. And I carry, whenever we go camping or hiking together, I always make sure I have a really good flashlight. And I'm actually still using the same one to this day. It's about 3,000 lumens.

So it'll cut through a little bit of nymphs. night. And I shined it in the direction of what I thought. And I didn't see anything, you know, no movement, no nothing. And I looked down in the chair and it was a rock. You know, something, you know, I wouldn't say any bigger than maybe like a half dollar size around. Nothing crazy big, you know. And it wasn't like it was thrown with any kind of force.

It was like more of a toss kind of thing. That's why I was figuring like, well, whatever threw it or whatever hit me would have been right there, you know, within eye shot, even in the dark, you know, but like I said, I didn't see a thing. And whenever I had stood up and pulled my

flashlight up, the rest of my buddies, they all had went silent, and it was kind of like a silent rule between a lot of us that if we're out in the woods together and any one of us, you know, perks up because of something going on, we all just shut up, and we all pay attention. Well,

after I was satisfied that there was pretty much nothing there for me to see, I go and turn back to the fire, and no sooner do I do that, did I see a rock come out of the woods, about the same size of what had hit me, in the complete opposite direction hitting my buddy. That was across the campfire from me. Now, mind you, in this amount of time, there wasn't but maybe 20 seconds, you know, so nothing's going to move outside of the line of sight. of all six of us in 20 seconds to get around behind us without making any noise. You know, especially in the dark and with no light. I don't care what it is. It's going to make some kind of a noise. It's going to be seen.

And that's when I realized that, well, whatever hit me hasn't moved and now there's something on the other side of us. So now all six of us are up. And I'm running through my head of, well, what kind of animal can actually throw anything? And there ain't many. And my mind immediately went to, well, there's somebody out here with us. You know, thinking probably people.

But I don't know anyone with enough guts to walk up on six grown men in the middle of the woods at night, especially with, like I said, no light without announcing themselves. I mean And at that point I had my 45 on me, 45 ACP and I pulled it out

and whatever was seeing us would have absolutely noticed me doing that and they did and that's when things became I wouldn't say aggressive but more than what it was before they started moving around circling around

us and they continued throwing stones at us, you know, from off where we couldn't see them. And they were thrown quite a bit harder than they were before, you know. And there was no communication. And like I said, we didn't see any lights out in the woods either. So whatever was doing it was doing it out there basically blind. And we had a decent fire going. So it's not like they were close to us to be able to not, for us not to see it. And at this point all of us had carried sidearms, you know, all of us had carried guns with us to

poor protection. Because, I mean, there's elk up there, obviously, hence the name of the forest. But there's also black bear, there's bobcat, there's coyotes, and you never know what an animal's going to be going, especially when it's hungry. So we'd always carried those just to keep ourselves safe and

whatever was out there knew full well that every one of us was armed and this is when I realized that we weren't dealing with people because anybody that would be out there whether it be

you know teenagers playing a prank or even a random bunch of hillbillies if you want to go that route they would have said okay hey then jokes over now you know and I was

Like I said Didn't hear any of that But whatever was out there circling around us throughout the night It was definitely At least as big as a man Because it sounded like a grown man Crashing through brush And the forest and footsteps

I mean we could hear footsteps being You know stomping through and around And like I said Throughout the night night, most of us, you know, none of us could obviously even consider going to sleep. We'd ended up staying up until it was getting into dawn. And just before the sun started peeking over the mountains, they had turned and ran off in opposite directions away from us before that lights really started to kick in.

and now none of us had any fear of the forest at all. None of us had any fear, you know, the animals that were out there. It's not like we were dealing that we ever would have had to worry about dealing with a grizzly bear or a moose. We just don't live in that area. But it was definitely a surreal moment for us. And like I said, this happened on our first night of what was supposed to be, seven-day trip. And we ended up packing our bags and we had left.

We left that day, you know, the next day. As soon as it was bright enough for us to pack up our gear, we were out. And as me and my one buddy, my Marine buddy that was with us, had finished packing up first, we decided it's bright enough. We knew they ran off. We're going to go see if we could figure out with was going on.

And we walked off into the tree line, probably 15, 20 yards into the tree line, and we could see where they were circling around us. All the brush was, you know, broken out into a path. All the leaf litter was beaten down. And I had ended up coming across a print that we, we... looked human, you know, if you were barefoot, but it would have a distinct lack of a foot arch. And I mean, I don't claim to be any, you know, master tracker or anything like that, but I know what a human footprint looks like in the mud or in the sand.

And whenever you look at it, you can tell which, which foot it is pretty simply by the toes and again, by the arch, because there's a hollow spot in that footprint. And this one didn't have it. It looked more, you know, flat-footed. and it was no bigger than mine, you know, like if I were taking my boot off and stepped there in that same mud, it wasn't any longer than mine. It was a little bit wider, but the impression that it made was a lot deeper, which pretty simply put, that just goes to tell you that whatever was out there and made that print was a lot heavier than I was. Now at the time, I was between 180 and 190 pounds. So whatever it made that print had to be at least 2,250, if not more.

But it had the same footprint length that I had. And I guess I should put in it for a reference that I wear a size 11. So I have a fairly large foot. But, you know, it was after we had found that, we had regrouped with the rest of our buddies. And like I said, we had finished packing up. And we went straight back to our cars and we had left. We weren't staying there another night. That is some really interesting stuff that happened to you guys, Jim.

And how far out would you approximate mile-wise you were? Well, from where we had left to where we had ended up, I would say, every bit of between four to five miles. We weren't trying to set the world on fire, you know, or make any land speed records there. We were taking our time, and it was rough terrain. But I have, you know, every one of us were in fairly good shape. Three of us were military, not myself, but three of us were military that were there. So we were all in pretty good shape. And I would imagine that we made at least four miles, if not five.

Gotcha. Did you notice anything weird around the spot where you were camping when it comes to, like, trees being, like, tree arches or trees broken or maybe X marks, anything weird? anything weird like that? I mean, I didn't notice it, but, I mean, at the time, I wasn't really looking for it either on our way in. You know, because, I mean, I'm going to be up front and tell you. I mean, I wasn't a believer in Bigfoot until that happened, you know, because that was the only thing that I could logically think of that could potentially have done that to us, you know. And actually coming back to the Reddit post, I had a couple of comments on there. and the one guy had asked me

that if I thought that they could be potentially juvenile you know especially because speaking about the fact of finding that footprint being close to the size of mine you know and it would make sense you know

especially if you take into account how sensational some of these sightings can be with eight and nine foot monsters out there in the woods you know, something that big is not going to be afraid of a human, you know. But if it's young, it's going to be smaller, and they could have been. You know, they could have been closer to our size.

Yeah, absolutely. And the thing is, well, a lot of witnesses will say, the way that you were getting messed with, a lot of people will say, well, that kind of sounds like, well, maybe it was a juvenile type thing. And that is kind of conjecture and, you know, guessing, but a lot of people do bring that up. And, you know, who knows what they were trying to do when they were, you know, trying to hit you in the back

where they were trying to get your attention or just mess with you? You know, we don't know. But were there any sounds around in the forest during that time? Well, there were no other animal sounds. Okay. You know, like there wasn't any crickets. wasn't owls, there wasn't bats.

We didn't even hear any coyotes, you know, which I've been up to elk forest before. I would go up there trout fishing, you know, more towards warden, but we would go trout fishing up there all the time. And at night, you would hear coyotes all day, you know, all night long. It was, they're just so plentiful up there. We didn't hear not a one. Okay. And aside, aside from, you know, crashing through.

bushes and all that as they were circling around us, I couldn't really tell if they were, they were making any kind of a noise or communication. They were being so loud crashing around through the woods that I couldn't, couldn't tell you if they were. Gotcha. Were there any weird smells around that time that you noticed? It's not really. On the way, like I said, It was getting into fall. So, I mean, you have that smell of, you know, damp forest and the decay of, like, leaves and all that, you know, that, like, real, like, the best way to put it on it, like, dirty smell. Like, it smells like dirt, you know what I mean? Like, whenever those leaves get real wet that are just laying around.

And, but, like, in the actual event, not really. I mean, we had a campfire going, so. but I mean, you also got to understand this is, this happened coming up on seven years ago when this had happened to me. But no, I mean, not to my recollection, I wouldn't say that there was any kind of out-of-place smells, I'll put it that way. Absolutely. You know, when you, during the time around the campfire that night, or I guess, you know, through the night, did anyone in the, the group have any weird physical things happen to them that they weren't able to explain? No.

Okay. No, we were all pretty much fine. I mean, aside from a few bruises from some of the rocks they were thrown a little bit harder than they were originally, you know, we were all completely physically fine on the way back out. And during that, you know, more broken pride kind of thing than anything else, because, you know, I mean, like I said, there were six grown men out there, and we've all been in the woods at least 10 years, you know, each of us. And here we are running away.

Oh, absolutely. I mean, and you said a few of those individuals had a military background as well. Yes. One of them was Air Force, and two of them were, well, actively still Marine Corps. Wow. That is very, very interesting. after you guys, so you left the next day and you went to, you know, your different homes, did anything, did anyone have anything out of the ordinary happen, anything unexplained or weird happen after that? Not today it told me.

We have talked about the situation before because we still go camping together today, you know, to this day. We go every year at least a few times together. sometimes we go with just the guys and I mean most of us have kids now and we at least make it a point to go together at least one time every year with our kids we don't go back up to Elf Forest we are usually go to Alleganian National Forest

now up past East Hickory that's about the same distance time-wise from where we live like I said we live down near Pittsburgh but it's in a different section of a state That's interesting because, I mean, Allegheny National Forest is definitely known for a lot of Bigfoot activity. That's where a lot of researchers will go to check things out. Nothing happened during your time in that area.

Well, nothing that I would say that was out of the ordinary. I mean, we've come across black bears before we've had coyotes coming to camp in the middle of the night and stuff like that. But nothing that I wouldn't say that wouldn't be expected to be seen. You know what I mean? like actually, you know, wildlife that you would expect to see there. How did this affect you personally after you had this happen that night? Well, so like I said, I wasn't a big foot believer beforehand. You know what I mean?

Wasn't even a thought that it crossed my mind. Like, yeah, it's a cool story, but I mean, it's not, you know, something I think is real because I hadn't seen it or I hadn't experienced anything like that, you know. And afterward, I mean, I kind of leaned into it pretty heavy about, you know, wanting to learn more about it and hearing, you know, firsthand accounts of what it was like to see if mine was out of the ordinary in any way. On this episode of plant killers, we'll explore one nation's most notorious fruit and vegetable killer, bad dirt. What makes bad dirt so bad? The answer? The ingredients.

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you know, going camping. I tend to stick a little bit closer to the campsites nowadays, though. I am getting older. I'm 31, only 32 this year. But I don't think that it is affecting me so much because I've been up back up to Elk Forest since then. And I have camped up there since then. But that particular experience, that was kind of like one of those instincts like, I'm not welcome here. I'm going to leave kind of thing. So when you went back to Elk State Forest, did you go to the same spot again, or was it a different campsite that you were staying in? No, we had not gone back to that same campsite, no. Okay. And like I said, we were off trail. It'd be hard to find her again. I'm sure we could if we absolutely had to.

But we had just picked the direction from where we had parked and we had went. And it's pretty rugged terrain up there. and I mean, again, seven years ago, could change the layout a lot between now and then. And I probably could find the general area of where we were at, but I've never been back there personally, and I've never gone that deep back into those woods ever again. Absolutely.

When you're in that area, do you ever go out by yourself, or are you usually in a group? I've been out there as the only adult. I've taken my daughter fishing up there before right along East Fork Road, and there's a creek that runs along East Fork Road. It's a great spot for trout fishing, and I'm sure there's going to be plenty of people that are going to be upset that I'm giving that out. But I've taken my daughter up there to go fishing before.

I've camped up there a couple of times with me or, you know, a couple of my buddies before, but I've never, never once camped there by myself before, and I don't plan on it. Yeah, absolutely. I might be a little cautious to do that as well going off of what you guys experienced. So after you got home, was this a thing where you had shared what happened right away with the rest of your family? or did you hold on to it for a while to kind of work things through in your head? Well, I mean, I had, like I had told my wife, you know, because she was wondering why I was home six days early.

I had told her why, and she pretty much laughed at me, which I expected. And the only other person that I told in any expedience, I think about a week or two later, I had told my father about it. and he had never now he has never been in that particular uh forced for to my knowledge he may have at some point in his life but i had never been up there with him um but uh he kind of brushed it off and he had told me that he was one of the he's one of them people that i've spent so much time in the woods i would have seen something by now and never have happened. kind of guys. It's pretty much how he answered back that, you know. And I mean, I would assume that's why I was the way I was about it too, because, you know, I'm not going to believe it until I experience it. Yeah, absolutely. Have you ever done any research to see if there's been similar experiences that have happened in that state forest?

never in particular to that but just going based off of the way that because I have in like you said whenever when we were talking about Allegheny National we were talking about how there's plenty of sightings up there and the amount of sightings that are in PA and and all that it doesn't surprise it wouldn't surprise me if there have been more sightings or experiences like I had had up there. but I never did any particular research in that specific area afterward. But I have definitely done research on sightings and experiences here in PA since then. Gotcha. And especially you said you're from southwest Pennsylvania, right? Yeah, I live north of Pittsburgh. Okay, north of Pittsburgh. I mean, you're aware that even down there, I guess more south of Pittsburgh,

there's some weird stuff that happened just down in that area as well. Oh, absolutely. You get down into Washington County and even lower in places like Beaver and everything else down there down near West Virginia. I would imagine that, yeah, there would be a bunch because there's a lot of unclaimed untouched forest out down there. A lot of old growth forests where pretty much anything you could imagine would live, you know, I'm sure. But, no, what I'm going to try to say here? It's gone. I've lost it. It sounds like it's a thing where you're interested in the subject, but you are maybe not going out and actively seeking it in the woods. No, I would actually prefer to not have another experience like that, but I'm not going to let it control my life if it does happen.

Okay. Gotcha. Gotcha. Do you think that's the same way your buddies are feeling about that as well? or did it make any of them not go in the woods again after that? No, no, every one of it, that whole group, that group of six of us, we, like I said, we regularly go camping together. Okay. You know, we still know it to this day. It hasn't deterred us from going hunting or camping or fishing or anything like that, you know, at all. But there are certain places we just, we will not go. And I'm sure, like I said, like we go to Allegheny, like we go to Allegheny.

National Forest mostly now. And until I'm given a reason not to, I'm going to continue going. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. It's just, it's, that's a really, really weird situation. I think the weirdest thing is that it definitely was not anyone messing with you guys because you were, I mean, five, six miles off the trail. just in the woods.

No one was out there messing with you. There's no lights. That's just weird. Yeah, I mean, plus, I mean, like I said,

I don't know any man that's going to be able to keep his cool under the pressure of knowing that there's six guys just within, you know, 20,

30 yards of you that that have firearms. Every one of us were armed, you know? I don't know anybody that's not going to be like, hey, sorry.

I was just messing with you. I don't know anyway. I wouldn't make themselves known at that point. Is there anything that you would have done differently that night if you could go back and do things over? Honestly, not really. I think that we made a fairly good decision because we had all stayed together, you know, and none of us had strayed away at any point. But I don't know if that was.

out of like some kind of us being smarter if it was just sheer instinct of the whole strength and numbers kind of thing. Absolutely. But, you know, I don't think that I would have personally done anything different. I can't speak for the way my friends may have acted. You know, you never know what a Marine will do whenever you get pissy. But, you know, I don't think, I think that we were all smart enough to be like, yeah, it's probably just the best. to let them stay over there, let us stay here where we can see. Because, like I said before, that they had walked up on us.

And no, granted, whenever they had come up on us, we were carrying on having a good time. We weren't being quiet. So they could have very well come up on us being just as loud as they were whenever they had, you know, whenever we had all stood up and they had started crashing through, through the brush and everything. you know we we wouldn't have heard them but uh they walked up on us with no lights because we would have seen them you know and you said you were a hiker on the appalachian trail before you know how dark it gets out in the woods and in the mountains and night oh yeah it's it's different kind of dark you can't see your hand in front of your face you're not making it through

as thick of woods as we were in with a rough terrain as we were in without a light without falling on your face at least a dozen times. Absolutely. It's just not going to have it. I know that you said this happened, what, about six, seven years ago? Coming up on seven years this fall. Do you happen to remember what was what you guys had for supper that night at the campsite? That's a great question.

I would imagine, I know that I had made coffee because I know what my friends are. I had made myself instant coffee because I was not going to be able to stay up with the rest of them without it. I want to say that we probably had made burgers. We usually eat pretty good on our first night when we go out for multiple nights. But, and I want to say probably potatoes is usually our first night thing. It's almost a ritual. Yeah, gotcha. Gotcha.

That's pretty solid. Just, I always check for certain patterns. A pattern I've noticed is that a lot of, a lot of people will say they were cooking bacon or they were, it's usually bacon. Yeah, it's usually bacon, which is weird. But, I mean, it smells delicious. You know that. So, you know, I can't blame them. Right.

There's a big reason for that. Yeah. So not to go down a dark path here, but the serial killers that were cannibals, they say that human flesh tastes like pork. So it's a little unsettling. Thanks. That's weird. I mean, that's the, I had to just had cannibals come up and another thing. I didn't want to go down that dark path.

Yeah. Something about it. Hey, well, I mean, I had no idea. It's good to know, I guess. It's wild, wild stuff. Yeah, if you're down in the, I don't know how far away this would be for me. If you're wanting to go to an area that has big foot activity, it doesn't really sound like you care either way. But forb State Forest down there, I don't know if you've heard of that area or the Laurel,

That area is extremely active. So it might be a place you might not want to go to, actually. But that place is pretty well. I mean, I'm not wanting to go out looking for for trouble. I did that more than enough when I was a teenager. And I've grown smart enough not to want to do that. But I'm not, like I said, I'm still not scared to go into the woods and go hunting and camping and all that. and until like I said

Alligating National Forest we go there all the time and apparently it's a pretty big hotspot for Bigfoot activity. It is, yeah. And I will continue to go there until I find a reason not to. You know, I mean, it doesn't bother

me going out into the woods and going to have a good time and I will no matter where it's at until I get given that reason to stay away from it. Just a few more questions. Just in case you remember some specific details about the footprints that you saw. Were you able to see toes in those footprints, toe indentations?

I could see the first four toes coming from the inside to the outside very clearly. Pinky toe generally not really. I couldn't see. Okay. Like I said before, it had a distinct lack of an arch, like a human footprint would. Yeah, right. It was very, very flat-footed, but it had the general idea of the same shape, you know, tapered from the back, you know, tapered at the back. There was a distinction between, you know, there was a clear, how do I, how should I explain this?

there was a clear distinction between the main pad of the foot and the toes. There was a distance there, you know what I mean, where it had not been pressed in so far, you could tell. Like I said, it was pressed in deep, a lot deeper than I would have been able to unless maybe I jumped and jumped into that and like jumped down into it to, you know. So I would, like I said, I would have assumed that whatever it may have. that print was a fair bit heavier than myself. Yeah, absolutely. And was it just one print that you had seen, or were there multiple prints?

We did find a couple that were fairly good. There was a couple that were more partial than anything. But most of the ground was covered in dead leaves and all that, where it was rocky. So being able to find any was pretty quick a miracle at that point. There was just a couple of spots where the ground was soft enough or there was mud that we were actually able to find anything. That makes sense.

If you were able to follow the tracks for a while, what did the path of the tracks look like? So the ring that they had ran around us for at least a couple of hours, a couple three, four hours before daylight started to come. It was wider than your average person, you know. And I mean, with them circling there for as long as they did, that's not really surprising. But it was wide enough to where I could stand broad. And my buddy that was on that ring with us, he could stand next to me without touching,

without either was touching either side of that that brush that they have broken down. Now I don't mean both of us like shorter but you know

shoulder to shoulder he like if he would have been facing me and I would have been standing broad, we would have been able to fit completely fine. So about a man and a half wide. Gotcha.

And how let's say you're looking at one track and then you're looking at the track next in line and then one next in line, how far apart were the tracks usually? Well, that would be an estimate.

I don't know. Like I said, there weren't very many tracks that, and especially not in succession that we could see. Gotcha. But I had to guess, I mean, just going based on, you know, human proportions, you know, I wouldn't say that their stride would have been much more than us. But, again, they had circled and circled us for hours.

course. So they would have been stepping over each one multiple times, aside from the ones that were closer, where they had probably stopped to throw something at us. You know what I mean? Yeah, absolutely. It'll be interesting to see, you know, once I put this up, to see if there's other people that have had things happen in the same area. That's usually how it works with these. there'll be people that reach out and they'll say, oh, yeah. I've been in El State Forest stuff has happened. So that will be interesting. Do you ever have any desire to have a visual sighting of one?

Or really, it's just you're kind of going along your business and still trying to go out in camp in the woods? I would have loved to have been able to actually have seen something the way, at least I knew I could put a face to whatever it was, but it just, I didn't get that opportunity. But like I said, I'm not, I'm not going to go out there and actively, you know, look for that. You know, if it happens, it happens kind of thing, you know. Absolutely. Yeah. It's a something where, you know, I haven't even had that happen myself yet. I'm not sure. Well, I mean, I've talked to plenty of people where they have that happen. them, but to have that happen to yourself is a different story.

It's just, it's a totally different story. But Jim, I just want to say thank you for coming on the show to share what you and your buddies experienced that night out in the Elk State Forest. It's a new area for us to look into for Pennsylvania. And I appreciate you coming on. I do want to make sure that you were able to share everything that you. had come on the show to share tonight? Yeah, pretty much.

Without actually seeing anything, there's not really much more to put into it. It was just, you know, explaining the experience, you know, because that's essentially all it was. You know, we didn't, none of us had seen anything. And none of my friends that had told me since then that they had heard anything or had seen anything. and I would just assume that like myself, we didn't see it.

We had not seen anything, but there was undoubtedly something out there with us, you know. Oh, no doubt about it. And, you know, I would say if anything ever happens when you guys are out in the Allegheny National Forest, definitely feel free to reach out. There's been, you know, sightings in that area. There have been people that have been affected by infrasound. in that area. So there's a lot of interesting reports that happened over the years. Well, I have to look

into it. But yeah, no, absolutely. If I ever have another experience or even with one of my friends do, I'll have them reach out to you. But yeah, no, if anything happens to me and I will make sure I let you know. Fantastic. Well, thanks for chatting tonight, Jim. I do appreciate it.

Yeah, thank you for having me. I just wanted to take a minute to say thank you for listening to this episode of the Bigfoot Society podcast. Jim's encounter is the kind that linkers not because of what he saw, but because of what he couldn't see. The silence, the rocks, the circling, the moment that he realized that something was watching and it didn't care if he was armed or not. So huge thanks to Jim for coming on and sharing such a raw personal story.

These moments remind us why we listen and why some trails are better left untrodden. If you enjoy this episode, please subscribe to us on YouTube and hit the bell icon so you never miss a new story. And if you're listening on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, make sure you're following the show and leave a review if you can. It helps more people discover these accounts. And if you've had a Bigfoot encounter, especially in Pennsylvania, around Elk State Forest, Wharton, or the Allegheny Forest, I'd love to hear from you. So please email me at Bigfoot Society at gmail.com. And one last thing, don't forget, Sasquatch Summerfest is happening July 11th through the 12th in Oak Ridge, Oregon. Bigfoot Society listeners can get a two-day pass with the price of a one-day admission with a code.

BFS at checkout. You can get your tickets now over at www.sasquatch Summerfest.com. Thank you again for being part of the Bigfoot Society. Until next time, trust your gut, stay curious, and keep your eyes on the tree line. And see you in the woods. On this episode of plant killers, we'll explore one nation's most notorious fruit and vegetable killer, bad dirt. What makes bad dirt so bad? The answer? The ingredients. But fear not, true crime enthusiasts. This story has a happy ending. Miracle grow, organic raised bed and garden soil. It's made with quality organic ingredients from upcycled green waste like compost and aged bark.

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