Bigfoot Society - From Alaska to Ape Island: Bigfoot Investigations with Aleks Petakov

Episode Date: February 24, 2026

In this episode, we sit down with Aleks Petakov of Small Town Monsters to explore years of boots-on-the-ground Bigfoot investigations stretching from the remote coastline of Alaska to the dense forests of Kentucky and beyond. Aleks shares what it is really like to spend extended time in isolated wilderness where help is miles away and unusual activity unfolds long after midnight.On Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula, Aleks recounts late-night wood knocks cutting through the rainforest, rocks striking shoreline waters in the early morning hours, and heavy stomping sounds moving near camp. He describes the discovery of a primate-like handprint on a remote cabin, large impressions pressed deep into moss, and a strange rock-scraping sound heard from across a creek that has never been fully explained.The conversation moves to a cold November night in Kentucky, where a distinct wood knock was followed by a large thermal heat signature on a hillside that disappeared within minutes. Aleks reflects on the challenge of documenting fleeting moments like these, the weight of credible eyewitness testimony, and what long-term fieldwork teaches you about patience, risk, and uncertainty.We also discuss his upcoming Journey to Ape Island project on Vancouver Island, an area layered with Indigenous history, generations of Sasquatch lore, and some of the most rugged terrain in North America.Join us for a grounded, field-driven conversation that brings you into the reality of modern Bigfoot investigation and leaves you thinking long after the episode ends.ResourcesAlaskan Coastal Sasquatch Documentaryhttps://youtu.be/kjLLHL7GouQ?si=ZWykQHuUk-jAlTaNSmall Town Monsters 2026 Kickstarter (UFOs, Dogman & Bigfoot)https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/minervamonster/small-town-monsters-2026-ufos-dogman-and-bigfoot🗣️ 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 Supercast – 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 LMNTOrganic and non-GMO groceries delivered for lesshttp://thrv.me/uarEhS🎙️ 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

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Visit your nearby Lowe's on West Pico Boulevard in Los Angeles. You're listening to Bigfoot Society and I'm Jeremiah Byron. In this show, we go beyond the campfire stories to bring you first-hand encounters from people who say they've seen something impossible. From backwoods trails and remote mountain haulers to quiet farms and crowded highways, the stories come from everywhere. And each one leaves us with more questions than answers. These are the voices of the people who've lived it. So settle in because today you'll hear another account that just might change the way. you see the woods forever.

So stay with us. All right, Bigfoot Society. You've got the privilege of talking to an old friend today, Mr. Alex Petacoff or Alexander Pedicoff. You may know of him from his many documentaries, docuseries, YouTube videos with the Small Town Monsters crew. I would say most notably is, of course,

the Bigfoot Beyond the Trail series, which, according to the information that Alex is given me has amassed over 23 million collective views on YouTube, which is incredible. You haven't heard Alex on this show since episode number 20 in 2020. That was roughly about a thousand episodes ago. So welcome back, Alex. It's been probably too long to have you back on.

But how are you doing today, sir? Wow, man. Thanks for having me on. Yeah, I was thinking in my head. I was like, was it in 2021 or 2020? I couldn't remember when it was that I first came on, but I think it was before any of the trail or anything like that even started. So that is definitely interesting and good to be back, though.

Thank you. That's wild. I mean, and that's probably even before because we did some of some stuff on Clubhouse and some, that's just a whole another lifetime. That was a fun time. But stuff was weird seven years ago. So we made it work. But Alex, is there anything else that you would like the listeners to know about yourself

before we get talking about your many adventures over the years? I don't know. I think just I'd like to tell people that I'm a Sasquatch enthusiast and investigator. I'm not a scientist. I'm just a filmmaker. I really try to showcase my journeys in a way that allows people to. kind of come along for the ride. And, you know, again, filmmaker.

That's kind of my background. So, but I do try to be as analytical and scientific as possible when it comes to the Sasquatch topic. And that's kind of what I try to convey in a lot of my documentaries. So that's, I think, I think that's about it. Absolutely. Let's say there could be some individuals that have never seen any small town monsters films or YouTube series.

Thinking about all the different adventures that you've gone on over the years, maybe specifically with the Bigfoot beyond the trail, is there one that steps out or one that usually people like to start there and is really maybe encompassing of the series in general? That's a tough one to ask because there's so many and, you know, all these different journeys and adventures, they kind of become, they become like, you know, fun kind of things you remember. And it's tough to pick one. Like it's trying to pick your favorite child kind of thing. It can be difficult. I think there's a few that probably stand out

above others. Like I would say some of the Alaska stuff that we've done over the years, in particular at Area A on the Kenai Peninsula, folks might be familiar with the Alaskan coastal Sasquatch. That's sort of a one that really sticks out, I think, that was back in 2022. And I think that really set the course for a lot of the stuff we do, even at Small Town Monsters, especially on like the YouTube

side of things. That's really, I think, when a lot of people became aware of us. And Small Town Monsters in its nature was a production company based on Small Town history and folklore and crypted paranormal urban legend kind of stuff. It was never necessarily like Bigfoot specific, which I think a lot of people

that maybe are not familiar with small town monsters think it's like a bigfoot investigation thing that's just part of it like we do a lot at small town monsters but i think you know in particular like the more youtube and and the docu series side of things that i've focused on has been primarily on youtube and other streaming sites so i think a lot of people become aware of us from there um but we've covered all sorts of topics UFOs mothman uh the bell witch jersey devil i mean i'm just one component small town monsters at this point there's a whole bunch of us there's set prelove heather mozier aaron d's there's a whole bunch of kind of creators there at small town monsters and i i focus on my series again you mentioned bigfoot beyond the trail or beyond the trail

as we kind of call it that's been one that i focused on over the years but i've done a variety of other ones as well and yeah it's been a very interesting journey so far i would say but i would say definitely the one of the more prominent ones is probably the alaskan series that i've done There's a variety of them, but sort of the ones at location called Area A, I think people probably are most familiar with. So that's what I would say sticks out a lot in terms of, you know, I've been there three times now to Area A and the Kenai Peninsula. And it's a place I think about a lot. It is really a fascinating series when you think about even just the Alaska stuff. And I know, man, there's one part that sticks out where, like people almost.

it almost got really serious up there wasn't there like a kayak that got dumped over or yeah there was um you know one of the guys was with us on the trip they uh we were out in this kind of uh these two sea kayaks me and this guy and he ended up actually overturning the sea kayak which was pretty dramatic event i mean that was something that those things can be very i don't want to say wobbly but they it's an acquired skill to learn how to maneuver in a ccic in a sea kayak, especially the waves get a little choppy. So this is the Gulf of Alaska, basically, you know, very cold, very, very deep waters. And I'm behind him and he happens to kind of lose control and tips over. And we were out and the rest of the guys were actually out on a boat

in a different area fishing. So it was a little bit alarming. And I had to compose myself to help him get him to shore. And the idea was we'd hike back to this cabin we were there at and run the woodstove so he didn't get into hypothermic state. It was a very dramatic moment and I asked him after him. I mean, if you don't want me to include this in the film, I won't, right? Like I, you know, but we chose to include it in the end because I feel it kind of, it shows that there's a, you know, the life and death components can be very serious out there in a remote place like Alaska.

And that's something I tried to impart in any of my work that's in like remote areas. But especially Alaska, you know, this is an area where it takes us over an hour on a boat just to get there, right? So any kind of injury can become much more dangerous than it would be in like a normal setting, right? You break your leg out there. I mean, you're very far from help as opposed to in the city park or wherever I can get to the hospital quickly, right? It's not inherently a life-threatening injury as opposed to being out in remote place. So the risk is kind of double with everything, especially something like that. Luckily, the guys were on the boat nearby and they actually saw what happened and they came and they were able to

rescue us. And we were able to get him. But, I mean, again, we would have just hiked back through the woods and I kind of knew my way to the cabin. And the goal would be to, you know, kind of get the woodstove going and help them warm up a little bit. But yeah, that was a very serious moment happened in that first Alaska series. That was one that, you know, hard to forget about something like that.

Absolutely. And this area, it was, it's close to where Les Stroud had his experience, right? Yes and no. So it's a tricky one because the Keny Peninsula, the southern coast of the Keny Peninsula is, I mean, I don't know if you added up all the inlets and the bays. I mean, maybe you've got thousands of miles. There's a lot of space out there, like a ridiculous amount. So this is one bay of hundreds out there, right? But it's the same type of southern coastline.

And I've tried to figure out exactly, I don't know the exact specifics of Les's location. And I've talked to Lesraud about this encounter and, you know, trying to kind of get back to this area, which we hope to do at some point. But it's close, but it's not at the same time if you get what I'm saying. Like Alaska, it's also technically, it's close to Port Chatham, which is one of the most famous kind of areas in Alaska. A lot of people know about Port Chatham and the alleged kind of crazy killer Bigfoot stuff, which I think is. slightly, well, maybe not slightly, but very sensationalized. You know, and I'm not pointing fingers. I think there's between shows and different researchers over the years,

there's been a lot of stories, details added to that. But I've talked to people who grew up in that area, like my buddy Chuk, who's from Homer, which is the closest town to Porchato, and he grew up bear hunting around that area. And people talked about, oh, yeah, there used to be a town here that was abandoned because of Bigfoot. Like, that was kind of a local urban legend sort of thing. But anyway, back to the original point is that you could take a picture of Port Chatham where Leshead is encounter, where Area A is, and to somebody who doesn't know, it all look the same.

It's like this temperate rainforest environment, these giant mountains that just shoot out of the ocean, snow-capped peaks, and these beautiful temperate rainforests. So the habitat's virtually the same as it would be where Les Head is encounter. even if individuals are not into Bigfoot, which why then you're listening to the show is a mystery. But the point I'm trying to make is that those Alaska series documentaries not only have Bigfoot stuff in it, but the scenery that you guys capture is absolutely breathtaking. I mean, it is some really, really good stuff. So that's also another great reason if you're watching. wanting to know what these areas really look like. You guys capture some fantastic scenery along the way as well.

Has there been an incident where you've been up in Alaska in this area where, you know, maybe let's say you never got to go back again. You're thinking about your journal, your travels up there. And you're like, that thing that happened was the best evidence or the best thing that we experienced that told us that yes, Bigfoot is up there. Interesting question. I mean, there's been a few incidents that have happened there that kind of are intriguing to me, like that happened personally while I was there.

I mean, just to back up a little bit, a lot of the stories told there at Area A, I mean, and just to kind of like back up even further, I'll give a really quick summation of what it is. I mean, it's just a code name for a piece of property up on this remote Kenai Peninsula area that a friend of mine, you know, he's an outdoor enthusiast in Alaska, hunting, fishing, as many people in Alaska do. He just happened to come across a parcel of land that he bought in this area and began building a cabin out there with the intent of it being used for hunting and fishing. That was the primary motivation. And pretty much from day one of buying the property and going out there, strange things started happening.

You know, football size rocks flying horizontally out of the woods. these hollow baseball bat kind of noises, wood knock sort of stuff, weird vocalizations, whistling, a lot of the stuff that's purported Bigfoot behavior. And this person, you know, this property owner, he was not into Bigfoot at all, never had any interest. Again, was just an outdoor enthusiast. Never went looking for this stuff. It kind of came to him, as I think is the case with a lot of these remote properties.

I'm sure you've heard stories of this time and time again, as I have. but what was really interesting was when he initially was building this cabin, he was unsure about this activity going on out there, and he reached out to a boat captain who had helped him bring out some of the lumber and the timber and the building materials because you need a much larger kind of transport boat to get all that out, you know, as opposed to like the typical kind of boat somebody has out there isn't enough to haul 10,000 pounds of construction material, right? So he contacts his boat captain and tells him about some of the stuff that's going on,

because he has no idea what it, you know, we're getting rocks thrown at us, whistles, like these strange noises, all this sort of stuff. And this boat captain tells him, well, I mean, you're talking about like Sasquatch type stuff. And, you know, the property owner is like kind of agitated and this is not, this is serious. I'm not joking around here. This is not a joke. He says, no, no, I'm serious. You remember Les Stroud?

And he tells him the story about how this boat captain, the transport boat was actually contracted by Les's production company back in the early 2000s when he was filming Survivor. Man. He was the one that went out and dropped off less when he was doing his overnight when he had that strange encounter. I think it was season two or three. I got to look back. And what's interesting is I went back then and I rewatched that episode of Survivor Man with Les. And I saw they had one shot of less. What they do is they, he said the boat takes them around and kind of films a little bit and they get some B-roll of less paddling past some kayaking past some like glaciers and stuff like that. And then they really just drop them off and they, hey, here's a pickup time in a few days and they leave him. There's no crew or anything that goes with him. And Les happened to get a shot of the boat as it was leaving and I saw the name of it. And that corresponded with the pictures that the property owner of Erie A had sent me about when they dropped the materials off. So I said, oh, there's another link right there. That's a, you know, that's kind of an interesting connection.

But basically after this boat captain had told the property owner, you know, remember Les Stroud, he began to kind of take it a little more seriously because Les, you know, very respected kind of. of outdoor survivalist. He's done a Bigfoot series, but he did a lot before he ever dipped his toe into the Bigfoot world, right? So all the stuff that's happened over the years, there's just been a lot of area, the very typical kind of Bigfoot stuff, commonly reported elsewhere. But in terms of when I went there first, 2022, we had a couple of instances of some interesting stuff, one of which was around like three or four in the morning.

A bunch of us were sitting around this fire pit and just kind of, you know, it would, It was in this, we call it the upper fire pit. It's this little ledge area that's tucked higher up into this hill. And the terrain there is it's just, it's covered in moss. There's these, you know, beautiful trees everywhere, this kind of temperate rainforest-looking environment. And there's a little bit of a hill above us. Nothing very steep, but, you know, it's kind of a little bit of a hill. And this fire pit overlooks kind of the ocean a little bit.

It's a little ways down from there. We were sitting around there three or four in the morning and we heard, you know, these really distinct kind of wood knock type sounds, like very kind of, kind of cut through the night. We have audio recording where, oh, let's listen at. And then we hear what sounds like what I can only describe is rocks being thrown into the ocean, but you didn't just, you didn't just hear the sound of water splashing. So you could say, okay, maybe that could be a sea otter or a seal slapping, right? Like this happens commonly. And especially in other areas with beavers, like you get beaver slabs, right? That can sound like a rock hitting the water.

But what happened here was you'd hear like something moving through the trees, like something hitting debris or branches along the way. And then the shore of the beach there is rocky. You'd hear like a rock smash crack and then kerplunk into the water. This happened quite a few times. Really weird. It mixed in with the wood knocks. It was kind of very interesting.

And we were scanning with the thermals, didn't see anything. Now the hill above us, people could say, well, could it have just rolled down the hill, right? Yes, we tried to emulate that. So first of all, the only rocks you can really find are down by the beach. Picture the two of you sitting side by side, a Mai Tai in your hands, and the sounds of Hawaii around you. You almost forget you're on a plane. And that's the point, because when you fly with Hawaiian Airlines, it's hard to tell where your flight ends and vacation begins. Hawaii starts here. When you fly with Hawaiian Airlines, it's hard to tell where your flight ends.

And vacation begins. Relax with Free Starlink, the fastest Wi-Fi in the sky, thanks to T-Mobile. Go ahead, stream your movie. Book the couple's massage. Make a dinner reservation while we bring you to our island home. Hawaii starts here. And, you know, trying to get 100 feet up a hill in Alaska, very difficult. You have Devil's Club, this kind of large plant that has these thorns that will absolutely mess you up.

but it's not very easy to do. So again, there's only rocks by the beach, and we attempted it. We took some rocks from the upper fire pit and tried to throw them down to hit the beach and then into the water. We tried just rolling them off first, and they just roll down the hill and just get stuck, and you wouldn't even hear it because there's so much moss. Like the entire ground level is just this spongy moss layer. You could just, I've literally slept, I've just laid down in the moss and taken naps before

out there, area, because it's so, it's so comfortable. it acts like a sponge it catches the rocks. The only way we could really get the rocks to make the same kind of sound that we heard was kind of an overhand throw and making sure they hit the beach and then splash into the water. It's very interesting, right? I mean, can I say it's anything definitive? No. We've had that happen.

Based off of that incident, we decided to camp up on that ridge, kind of above there. And the first night we camped up there, I believe it was the night after. Yes, it was the night after we had this kind of rock throw, wood knock incident, whatever you want to call it. We're camping up on this ridge and it's like the only night that first trip where it started drizzling rain a little bit. So you wouldn't be able to hear much because it would kind of like this pitter, patter on the tent. And then it would stop. But we would hear these like stomping noises. Like something was getting closer and kind of stomping.

And we'd hear these wood knocks and more of these kind of rock throw sounds. It was really weird. And I would try to get out of my tent with a thermal and sea, but I couldn't see anything in the terrain where we had set up camp. You know, we've got these big like moss draws kind of like right around us. We were kind of like in a low area on top of the hill. Didn't end up seeing anything. We would hear this and the rain would start. And be like, oh, come on.

Like, go away rain. I can't hear anything now because all here is the tent. And that was a weird one. I don't exactly know what that was about. But it ended. And we camped in that same spot the night after that. Didn't rain at all. Didn't hear anything other than sea lions in the bays making these kind of horrible roaring noises.

Just these, and you'd hear one go off. and like three respond in the other bay, didn't hear anything else weird or suspicious. So that was kind of interesting. And then we also found this kind of weird handprint on the side of the cabin. Oh, yeah, right. Yeah, that we documented and we had somebody afterwards take samples of it. And it was actually all the samples were sent off to Doug Highcheck as part of legend

meat science too. So we still don't really know. It was an interesting handprint. I mean, I think I can't say it's Sasquatch, obviously, but I don't think it was a moose. think it was a bear like it was a clear primate handprint so 50 50 odds pretty good right you know it's either a human or it's not it's not again it's not a bear like there was clear digits there was dramatic glyphics you know found in primates um so i don't know it definitely was an interesting find that was our first trip which was very kind of a couple dramatic things that happened you know

hear these mystery gunshot sort of noises as well we think are just these woodnogs. or rock knocks coming from higher up or something like that is what I assume. Year after that, I went for two weeks out to Area A and we heard pretty much nothing. It was extremely quiet. It was also raining the entire time. That first trip, we went out in 2022. It was sunny, beautiful. We had like one day of rain, that one night where we camped on that ridge.

Second trip in 2023 decided to do two weeks. I thought, okay, maybe if we're out there longer, there'd be more of a chance of something happening. Nothing, almost nothing happened. We found a lot of strange friends. We even had a friend of my name Damon Irons who had a thermal drone. We were deploying the thermal drone with the idea of like if we heard anything, you know, we're camped at the upper fire pit. Damon's down at the cabin.

Hey man, we got some activity, launched the drone and try to triangulate. You know, that's the idea behind like thermal drone usage. Didn't have almost nothing. It was very quiet. You have to realize how much space there is out there. If something doesn't want to be there, it could just be two bays over and never even come in contact with you, right? So that second trip, very uneventful. And then the last trip I went on, which was this past year in 2025, was my third trip out there, went out for a week.

It also rained most of the week, but we had a few good days. And I say rain most of the week. I mean, this is a temperate rainforest, right? So it's not like this is unheard of. But there will be times where it's just beautiful and another times where it's just downpour. It's kind of a toss-up in the summer. But this third trip we went on, nothing super definitive happened. we had this one really weird kind of like rock rubbing incident as we is my friend Brian and I call it my friend Brian Garvey um he was with me and uh we it was our first day there at the property and the property owner a guy named Rob Roy Menzies and a couple other people went off to do some fishing so me and Brian were the only ones there at the cabin it was like right as we were kind of getting set up I didn't even have my audio recorder out which was a total rookie mistake by the way but um he we were about to fly a drone

and we were just kind of like getting random footage. And all of a sudden from like around this bend, we hear this like, I've never heard anything like it. I don't know if I've had like one other person tell me they've heard of it, like this kind of sound with Bigfoot. But I'm not saying it is, but we heard this like strange rock rubbing.

That's the way we would describe it. It's a very weird thing to say. It was like, I'll just emulate what it sounded like for maybe 15, 20 seconds. It was like this like it was just very weird. It literally sounded like, like we tried to recreate it afterwards and just like taking two rocks and just scraping them against each other. It didn't sound like a rock slide, like rocks falling.

I've heard that plenty of times. It didn't sound like something, you know, clacking rocks together. It sounded like scraping, which was, which is weird. I mean, again, I don't know what it was. Like, could it have been sea otter doing that? Like, I guess it's possible. I really don't know. I know they crack stuff with rocks like molo.

mollusks or shells or stuff like that. I know they have been known to do that, but it was so loud. That was so weird. I mean, we're talking like hundreds of yards away from us. Where we were, we're in this bay, and there's like a couple hundred yards, maybe more, probably more, honestly. There's this bend that goes around that we can't see around it, and there's a creek that feeds up from the higher mountains.

And the creek was very low when we first got there because they hadn't had rain. And by the time we left, that was a raging river because of the amount of rain we got that week. But that's where the sound came from. And that was a bit of a weird one because we were kind of like, okay, what did we just hear? Of course, you know, I was like getting a battery or something like that and my camera was standing next to Brian and we were about to do this drone thing. And I was signaling to Brian as we're hearing it like, dude, turn the camera on, hit record, but he didn't know how to operate my Sony A7. And by the time he figured it out, it was already over. It was like 15, 20 seconds. But it was weird. I don't know. Again, I can't say what it is or what it

wasn't, but I wish I had the audio release and then because maybe we could do like a process of elimination and try to figure out what it may have been. But that was, you know, kind of the, well, in this last trip there and the third trip. So yeah, between all the trips, there's been some interesting stuff. You need it on the second trip, even though we didn't have much happen, we did find a lot of these really weird kind of large prints in the in the moss that were like stomped in and multiple of them going up in this very remote area. And, you know, I got 3D scans of some of it and pretty interesting. I don't know. I mean, could it be bear or double step? Possibly. You know, there are big brown bears out there in moose and sick of blacktailed deer and all sorts

and mountain goats, all kinds of animals. But there was a lot of them in like the same area and they were all kind of very similar. So yeah, I guess over the years that to, you know, to answer your question, there's been things that have happened. They're definitely interesting and kind of, if there were a place for something like this to be, I mean, I don't see why it wouldn't be here. you have it's a lot more temperate there than the rest of Alaska. Like it doesn't get into crazy freezing temperatures on the Kenai Peninsula as compared to even like Anchorage, a few hours north, let alone interior Alaska, brutal, brutal winters. And it's a very similar habitat to like that temperate rainforest chain you have basically

from there in Alaska in the Kenai Peninsula all the way down to Northern California and the entire Pacific Northwest, British Columbia. And you think about those areas who typically have. have some of the best amount of Sasquatch sightings, history and lore, really anywhere in the world. And I think it's for good reason. You have food year round and just an incredible amount of space and, you know, both marine and terrestrial resources. Absolutely. Listeners, again, if you haven't checked out any of the Alaska series, you can find those just on the Small Town Monsters YouTube channel still, correct, Alex?

Yeah, yeah. So, I mean, so we did, the Alaskan Coastal Saskwad was part one and two. I mean, I know on YouTube it's a part one and two, and you can find it under the Bigfoot Beyond the Trail series. I mean, for a couple other platforms, I think it was, it's also on streaming. It's in two parts. But the second iteration, which was my second trip out there, is called the Dark Coast, hunt for the Alaskan Bigfoot.

And that's a five-part kind of mini-series. Each episode's like over an hour. and that it chronicles like our full two weeks out there and everything that went down. So it's very exhaustive in the sense that it's like a true boots on the ground investigative series where it's like here's what we did, days one and two. Each episode is a couple of days and just everything that went on, even though there wasn't much and there were still, we were collecting hair samples, you know, trying different kind of experiments and exploring different areas and that sort of stuff.

And then the latest iteration is kind of like a callback to the first Alaskan Coast. two-part series on also part of the Beyond the Trail series. So that's kind of the where you can find that again, YouTube, small town monsters. If you go to like most watched video on small town monsters, they'll be like the Alaskan Coastalbush Part 1 is the one that lays the whole groundwork, the backstory and everything and then gets into the first half of our expedition

and you should be able to find the rest pretty easily from there. But yeah, that's been definitely, you know, very interesting experience. place that I've been very fortunate to go on quite a few occasions. Another thing that I enjoy when it comes out in your series, and it does every once in a while, is you are really into things like survival, bushcraft, but I specifically love when you're

cooking up the food at the fire. That is really cool. Do you have a go-to, you're out big footing but you got to make a meal but you don't just want to do a dehydrated thing do you have a go-to that people could check out you know that's funny a lot of people say that they like that and we will get like people complaining about that like oh you guys spend too much time cooking i'm like it's it's a three-minute sequence within an hour document or like if that's too much time that i'm sorry you're you're like i don't know what to tell you but a lot of people say that I should do like some kind of cookbook. And I'm believe me, I'm not like a big cooking person, you know, like I have my go-to things. But as you mentioned, you know,

when you're not in the woods, you can only eat so many dehydrated either an MRI or like a mountain house meal. I mean, a lot of times when we're backpacking, you know, like we spent time at ape canyon, you know, three days. Like you're, you're five, six miles up in the back country. You've got to lug what's lightweight. So you're bringing the dehydrated stuff. But if you're camping, you know, car camping or in an area where you can get to with the vehicle. or boat, like, might as well step your game up. I'd say, like, classic go-to for camping is probably just like a burger, honestly. That's really, it's easy to do when you're camping.

Nothing like a delicious burger after you've been hiking all day. Throw an egg on there, get some extra protein, like all about the protein, that kind of stuff. But I would say also like a breakfast sandwich, too. I know a lot of people skip breakfast nowadays. I typically don't really eat breakfast when I'm at home. I just go for like a bigger lunch. But when you're out in the woods and exploring all day, you can't start your day in an empty stomach.

And like nothing like a nice good egg, cheese, meat of your choice breakfast sandwich. They just taste better in the woods. I don't know. Like there's something about it, right? Like good way to fuel up. More satisfying when you're out in the woods. So you must have like some kind of cooler with you in the car. because you're not you're not hiking in like burgers and eggs right where are you no maybe we've done

I don't I'm trying to think there's so many like different trips I'm probably conflating stuff now but yeah a lot of times like if you're if we're in some national forest or some area and we can drive in obviously you know you got a cooler it's just going to be easier that way um you know especially like in the lower 48 like there's a lot of places in eastern U.S. and even the western U.S., like Bluff Creek, right? We spend a week at Bluff Creek and we drive in, so we have, luckily, we can have a lot more resources than we would. But even like going to Area A, like, you take a boat over there.

So we do have the ability and, you know, we have some power there too with solar power. So we're able to actually, you know, have a lot of the amenities, which is really nice because a lot of the times we're really roughing it on these trips. I mean, like when you're backpacking six miles into the backcountry, again, you're really you have to you're not only do you have your your survival gear everything you need your tent all your your your sleeping bag everything adds element of weight usually gets colder so you got to think about layers and being prepared then you've got your filmmaking gear obviously I'm out there doing video so I'm carrying multiple cameras and stuff like that with me and then you have your you're like your big

footing gear right your your your other equipment you know whether or not you're like thermals and stuff like that that the average hiker probably is not bringing up so you're bringing up more weight. So then when you want to get to food, it's like the easiest most tempting option. I'm looking over at my closet because I have a whole bunch of MREs and like Mountain House Meals sitting on my shelf. And I'm getting ready to pack them up for an upcoming trip. So it's like that stuff, you know, I usually keep as like a reserve when you're you can drive somewhere car camp. You know, you can buy fresh food. You eat that first and then go for the freeze dried stuff after. Because it's fine. Like the freeze dried stuff and the MREs, they have a time in place.

And I think they really only taste good when you're out in the woods because if you try to eat one of those at home, you might just be like, what am I doing here? Yeah, exactly. Maybe you don't have the best effect on your body either. But in a time of need, it doesn't matter. Again, like, just an example, I'm thinking of, you know, off the top of my mind, we were at 8th Canyon a couple years ago here and, you know, had to bring just a whole bunch of freeze dried food because it's almost no weight. And if I had taken that same amount of food I had in freeze, you know, like for freeze dried foods, it would have been probably like a ridiculous amount. to wait with like fresh foods and you know the risk of cracking eggs hiking up a mountain like you don't want to have to do that so absolutely i guess hats off to you if you are doing that but

most people are not going to do that um do you feel like you have had a visual a visual of a bigfoot yet and if not what do you think the closest that you've been to one has been i can't yeah i can't say I've had a visual. I've had a lot of, I can't say, you know, necessarily a visual, but I have had things that have happened that are like interesting enough. And I can't say, I have to preface, you know, it's not, I'm not saying in Sasquatch, but I've had some weird experiences that kind of fit the purported behavior of Sasquatches. So we're talking like rock throws, wood knocks, whoops, vocalizations, that sort of stuff. I've had quite a few of those. And those can be ambiguous. There's certain times where, like, you know, you get like the thing in Alaska.

It sounds like rocks are being thrown and there's, you know, a wood knocking kind of weird, very distinct element to it. I don't know what that is, right? But if these things are some kind of a species, which they, I mean, they're, you know, I don't think there's very many people who still think there's like one Sasquatch, right? One big foot. That's kind of like the old Easter Bunny sort of a way of looking at it. But there's some kind of species, whatever they are, There's a lot of theories, obviously. But if they are some kind of species, they have certain behaviors that they exhibit, like all species do. Humans do things similarly wherever we are.

Other animals do, too. So there are certain things that are reported time and time again and have been for, I would say hundreds of years at this point in North America. They're like behaviors. So some of the stuff I've experienced maybe fits some of that. I can't prove it. But, you know, as is so often with this subject, it's very anecdotal. So that's kind of in my kind of estimation. There's one time in Kentucky where I saw something weird on a thermal,

but like I'm still very shaky about that. It was I think it was also in 2022, I want to say. And I saw this thing on this hill. I went to this active research, or not active research area, an area that has had history of sightings over the years. There's even a Monster Quest episode there, film like over a decade before I went.

there where a bioacoustics professor had rocks thrown at him. He heard it and they got it on video and he was kind of freaked out. And some, my cat is going to be voicing his opinion in the background. You may hear some meowing. I went to this location based off of what this local researcher had told me and he goes in there solo, just does red light stuff and he hears kind of stuff going on. So I went out there one night and it was like, I was right before Thanksgiving. It was actually after Crypticon. I believe that was the same Crypticon I saw you at. Oh, yeah, sure. Yeah, a few years back. Yep. Yeah, a few years back. I'm pretty sure that was the one we were both at because I think that was the last one I went to, maybe 2022 or 2023. Either way, it doesn't matter. It was around that time period. And I go out there and it was like ridiculously cold fall in November, especially for that part of Kentucky. It's kind of like southern Kentucky-ish, southern central. And it's like a wildlife management area. But it was like, 15 to 15 20 degrees like it was very cold out and I'm from the northeast I'm from new hampshire I got you know cold doesn't phase me all that much I might not like it but um this is just very cold

to be out there for like a sustained period of time so I was going out alone into this area and I heard um this kind of distinct wood knock at one point while I was over by this this creek it didn't sound like a gunshot it was just like a straight up kind of really distinct sort of knock and I was like okay that's interesting so I was scanning with my thermal I'm out there alone. And sometimes when you're alone, it's not fun. Like, you're definitely more on edge because you're kind of like, oh, my God, what am I hearing? What's going on?

Yeah, you're more aware than maybe you are when you're with another person. So I would say your senses are heightened. And I hear this knock and I kind of stay around there for a little bit. And then I start getting really cold. And I'm like, I'm going to go back to the car at a rental car. I'm going to hike back there and, like, warm up for five, ten minutes and then come back out here. And as I'm walking back in this field, I look up. on this hill with this thermal. I see this like big object on the thermal. And the thermal I was

using was a pulsar helion two. It's a pretty advanced thermal. And I see this kind of large object on the hill. And I'm like, oh, man, that's, look at the size of that rock. Yeah, he agrees, the categories. I see this, this object. And what happens a lot of time with thermals is trees and rocks that have been in the sun all day can exert like a ridiculous amount of, a heat on a thermal. This was like the only thing I could see on this hill and it was pretty far away from. Like, man, that's a big rock. It was weird.

It wasn't like upright or anything. It was kind of just like a, it wasn't really horizontal. It was just sort of like this kind of, I wouldn't say a blob, but it was like definitely an object. I kept looking at it, but it was getting cold. I'm looking at it. I'm like, ah, it's probably just a rock. So I go back into the car to warm up and I come back out and it's completely gone. Like I'm scanning the same area.

And I'm like, okay, that's kind of interesting. And like, was it a deer? Was it a bear? Apparently bear are pretty rare in that part of Kentucky. Also, it was very cold. I'd be surprised if a bear was out there at that time of you're not unheard of, but it was a little bit unusual. So that was like a weird one because I don't think I realized that if I just kept, you know, my thermal on that object, maybe I would have seen it, but also it was so cold. And I actually ended up going back there a year later.

And I went out with this guy, Charlie Raymond, with Kentucky Bigfoot research guy. and we did like a recreation of it. I actually had him go up on that hill. And it was the same time of year. Actually, it was early November, not end of November, but it was a lot warmer when I went out that year afterwards. And I had Charlie go up this hill. I, like, hiked him up there, across the creek.

I'd get him up this hill. I'm like, this is around the area. And then I went back down to the field in the car so I could do like a recreation. And he looked a lot smaller than the object. And you could kind of tell, like, his head and shoulders. You could kind of see them on the thermal. And I think on that same trip, I did see deer go up in that same area, but it didn't quite look like that other object.

So again, it wasn't an upright object. It was just like this, I don't know, it was weird. I can't say one way or another. Maybe it just was a deer. I don't know, but I know that thermal pretty well. And that's what kind of was weird was my initial thought was like, wow, look at the size of that rock. And it's like, I guess I didn't notice it earlier or whatever. It was just weird because there was that knock that happened, like, 10.

minutes before I saw that object, but the knock was further off to the right, like down the creek. But from what I've learned, that area has had quite a few encounters. Like I said, Monster Quest. I think it was the Hillbilly Beast episode, if you want to go check that one out. That's the one that had this segment featured in with this bioacoustics professor. And then I've just heard of multiple other researchers have told me about encounters in that same area over the years. So that was, that was like, again, I can't say that's a visual. That was just a weird one. I'm hoping to get something more definitive at some point, obviously, like, who isn't at this point? You know, if you're out there looking, like, you want to get something interesting that kind of confirms it.

Because I've talked to enough people that I do think that there really is something out there. Like, I've got some very credible folks that I've talked to, as I'm sure you know, talking to witnesses over the years, you know, hundreds of them. There's some that are just so compelling. Like, I just don't know why a person like this would make a story up that. they really have nothing to gain from it in a lot of cases right they're just uh makes you wonder and sometimes some of the especially up here in the northeast people especially up here in the northeast people especially like 10 15 years ago when i first got into it people were much more tight-lipped now bigfoot's kind of everywhere and it's a little more i wouldn't say easier but it's people

people are a little more comfortable than they were even when i first started up here in the northeast in new hampshire it's like man i really had to get some of these people like i had to bend over backwards to get them to trust me before they even told me their story i'm like well, why would they then make this story up if they're like, they're not going to tell anyone and they just sit there stewing on it and like it's, it's clearly as traumatized them. Like, why, what do they have to gain by making up a story like this? You know, like it doesn't make any sense to me. No, I agree with you.

I also, listeners and I grew up in New England as well, or I'm originally from there. I grew up there in Western Mass. And New Hampshire is really starting to come out of the woodwork with Bigfoot stuff. People are reaching out in southern Maine too. And when, you know, 20, let's see, well, 20, 30 years ago when I was out there, yeah, you would not hear the word Bigfoot. Maybe you'd hear about coy dogs, but you wouldn't hear about Bigfoot. People just did not want to talk about it. Alex, another question I want to ask you.

Has there been a time when you've been out on one of these shoots and you're in the middle of something and you're realizing this could go really bad, really quick? And I've been in some of those already and it's some horrifying stuff. You've got to have something happen along the way where you're like, okay, time to focus or I might not be getting out of this one. Yeah, that's a good question, man. I mean, I've done a lot of like backcountry stuff over the years even before, you know, I started filming this series. There's moments, you know, that like there's never a moment I've been afraid of like a Sasquatch or something like that.

Like there's never, I mean, honestly, when stuff starts happening, I get excited like something that might freak other people out. Like I'm like, oh my, this is it. Like, let's go. Like I'm ready to go if I'm not caught off guard, which usually I am. But I would. say more like the more dangerous or weird situations have been like non bigfoot related stuff you know um i mean there's times you're out in the woods and you again we talk about like the risk factor with

alaska like that when the kayak fell over or like we're you know two miles in and there's you're just soaking wet and it's getting cold and you're like man this could become very dangerous very soon luckily we've got a cabin to go back to we can warm up in you know imagine if we're just out here roughing it we would have to you know get get going i've been in situations like that before we're like, you have to get a fire and a shelter going within half an hour. People start getting hypothermic. You know, I did some survival training back in the day and like naturalism training. And we were putting those kind of scenarios, very interesting, kind of see how, see what you're made of.

But some of the weird situations specifically with Bigfoot would be on the trail. And again, I say, I probably said this multiple times. There's been so many from trying to like draw from all the different. I mean, we've been all over the, all over North America at this point. There's been a couple people related situations that were a little bit weird, you know, there is one specifically in the Everglades. So there's actually two kind of weird. One was weird in the other, but as with a few people, including Tate Hieronymus, who you know.

And we were out in this area of the Big Cypress National Preserve, and it's like two in the morning. We're walking. There's nobody else camping where we're at. We're in this campground area, but it's a very remote area. And if you look at Big Cyprus on a map, I mean, it's like the size of the state of Rhode Island. it's a huge, huge area. And that Everglades is just millions of acres. Plus, you know, these other habitats.

We're down this crazy road and, like, we're just hiking around, you know, doing our thing with thermals. And all of a sudden, like, we hear this car come, like, flying out of the, there's this road. And I don't remember how long the road is, but from Chopee to, like, this Bear Island campground. I mean, it's like this one straight road that goes on for like 40 minutes. You can literally see a car coming from all the way at the end with the headlights. And it takes like 30 minutes for it to get to you. It's a very weird, surreal kind of feel. Maybe you guys in the Midwest know like those straight roads like that.

But here in New England, you know, we got hills and contour. But anyway, we're like right near the corner where you turn in to get into this like campground area. We just see this car like come flying through. And we're like, oh, what the heck? We decided to all go run into the bushes and kind of crouch. And we've got our thermals. And they come to a screeching halt. And this man and this woman get out and they start arguing.

And we couldn't really hear what. you're arguing about. Like, why would you be driving down this super remote road? Like, I don't think they were up to good, to, so to speak, right? Like, I think they had a dog with them, too. I remember because we're all, like, hiding in the bushes, kind of creeping on them with thermals, which sounds silly. But, like, you don't know what people are capable of out there in the woods,

unfortunately. That was just a weird one where, like, okay. But another time in a different area that South Florida was out there with Tate also, and we're, like, looking at alligator prints in this really cool area. and all of a sudden like these humvies and these swamp buggies start driving through. And there's all these like central American looking dudes like with backpacks and gear and like all this stuff. And like we're in the middle of like all like state preserve and national preserve lands like all side by side. And it was an area we couldn't even get through with the Jeep.

But all of a sudden there's like these humvies and then there's these swamp buggies and there's all these dudes in it. They're just like waving at us. We're just standing there like what is going on here? here. And we're only like six miles from the Gulf of Mexico, Gulf of America, whatever you want to call it, the ocean, right? Like, we're just kind of like, is this smuggling? Like, it was very strange. I don't know how to explain it. If I had to guess, it had something to do with like Florida's citrus industry, but like, why are they in this crazy flooded terrain going with Humvees and swamp buggies? And then a helicopter came over like nearby after that, like right after they

passed us, a helicopter came by. So I'm not. like, did we just witness something? And then the same day, I believe we ran into some Florida Wildlife Commission officers who had like full vests on and with like, you know, rifle loadouts and stuff. And they had been deputized, I guess, by the governor of Florida. And that was the time where there was like some stuff going on in Key West where there was like people from Cuba coming over. So I don't know what that was about. Like I have no idea. It was just the most like the last thing on earth you would expect when you're so far back in an area you can only get into with a Jeep. you're looking at wildlife and alligator prints.

We're an area that had like alleged skunk cave sightings. And we're like, what is that? And you just see these vehicles coming towards you. And there's like five, six humvies, three, four of these big swamp buggies and like dozens of these dudes. And they all had like backpacks and, you know, like clothing like fully, not fully like fully clothed in long sleeves. And even though we're in South Florida. And we're like, okay. That was, that was an experience.

We didn't feel like threatened. But I'm like, man, are we about to, you know, what's going to have? happen. Like what is going on? So that was a moment. And this was this was a couple of time. Right. Sorry. This was years ago, right, Alex? Yeah, this is a couple years ago, 20, 23 maybe. There's been a couple other times where like there was one specifically where I was camp near Mount St. Helens with a friend of mine. And there was like a really, we were in this area where he'd had some encounters. And there was this campground next to us and like a bunch of these people showed up and were like partying. And at like three in the morning, I just start hearing gunshots going

off. And I immediately like, I'm usually armed out in the woods. I immediately grabbed my, my pistol or my revolver. And I kind of was like, you know, I was about to go out there, like, what is going on? And I wanted to check on my friend and his wife who were there too. And they were like, what is happening? I don't know. These people are partying and just started shooting. And it's very scary because you think about like people doing stupid things out in the woods. And then after that, you know, some guy almost comes past my tent. Like they're calling some. dog's name because probably when they shot, this dog decided, hey, I'm over it. And they started, the dog started running away. And then a baby started crying shortly after that. So they're not

only shooting guns in middle of nowhere, they have babies and dogs. And there was like 40 people there in this. It was like a neighboring camp. So you couldn't see them, but you knew they were there from when you drove in. And this is a pretty like remote area in general. It's part of the Gifford Pinchot National Forest. But that was just, there's been a couple scenarios like that where it's like, man, people, people are the biggest concern I have, to be honest, when I'm out there. You know, like other animals, I live in moose country. I deal with moose and bear a lot. I mean, I don't want to say they don't phase me, obviously.

You know, I've had a moose run past my tent. Two of them run past my tent in Northern Maine, and you just hear like the whole ground shaking as they run past you. It's not a fun feeling. No. I'm had face to face with them. But animals, I feel like, I don't know, there's more of a predictability factor maybe than there are human.

humans who are just so wild and unpredictable, like another time in Oregon, one of our first beyond the trails we ran into these kind of like Satanists. I don't know if you want to call them that. Again, I was a Tate and a whole bunch of other people and some of the guys from Cliffs, North American Bigfoot Center. And we went to camp in this specific campsite that was mentioned in Joe B. Lart's Oregon Bigfoot Highway book, which is a fantastic read about the Mount Hood area. there was an encounter there that really interested us because there was this guy fishing with his kids and this

Sasquatch apparently came out and tried to push them out of the area and it got so close to the guy actually used his fishing rod, stuck it out at the Sasquatch and the Sasquatch used its hand and pushed up against it and like drove them out of the area. So like the guys mentioned, oh, there's this area and like, yeah, of course we want to camp there. Let's go. So we go to camp there and we start setting up and there's like this little road that goes over and you kind of got to walk down in the camp and you can see the camp from up on the road but when you're down into the into the like where the campsite is you can't really see the road necessarily so I can be standing at the top of the road and look down in the camp but you can't necessarily see me it's just like the way the geography works and um we got a couple

people in camp we just set up and we were up by the vehicles and there was one of their car parked in front of us somebody were thought oh maybe they're just fishing and I'm standing with a few people and this dude just like walks out of the woods and he's got this weird like golden vest on these really tight pants and he's like this super lanky emaciated looking kind of like a weird looking dude. I mean this is Oregon like there's a lot of strange people out there and we're not that far from Portland which you know has a very interesting kind of culture. Nothing against it. I'm just saying like it's it's an experience for sure. But this guy walks, like he just walks out of the woods and he looked kind of surprised to see us. and Keith, one of the guys who works with Cliff there at the museum, he had like a truck,

and his truck happened to have a front and rear dash cam. And, you know, we got footage at this guy walking by. And, like, he looked like he was coming out of the woods. He got surprised to see us. And then he walked past us and we were kind of like, what are you doing here? And Keith or somebody said, hey, man, like going for an evening stroll. And he kind of just like muttered, you know, yeah, and then kept walking. And then went over this, like, little bridge.

And Keith was like, there's nothing out there. Like, where would you be going on an evening stroll around here? Like, it makes no sense. Like, you're not, this is just, you know, it's not like there's a house or anything nearby. So we assumed he was with the vehicle that was, you know, kind of parked in front of us. It was just a little weird. And then as darkness fell, we saw in the distance, there was like these teaky torches set up and people singing and dancing. And, I mean, there was a fire band.

So that was one that was illegal. They couldn't be doing a fire or teaky torches or anything like that because this is summer in the Pacific Northwest. where more often than not there's going to be a fire band because of the forest fires. And then it was just weird. We were getting like creepy vibes. And then I kind of was walking through the woods a little bit of dark. And I noticed there's a little bit of these trails. And I figured out what I think the guy was doing was he thought we were all in the campsite because we had a couple of people down there.

He didn't know we were up with the vehicles. And he took this little side trail where you can see in our campsite. And then he wanted to go up on the road to like scope us out. Maybe he had a nefarious reason. I don't know. He didn't look trustworthy to me, to be honest. Like, a pretty good judge of character, and he did not look like somebody I'd want to, like, just hang out with.

Like, he looked off. So I think he was trying to scope us out in our camp. And then we took a peek into the vehicle that was there. It was this truck and it had, like, animal bones hanging in it. And there was, like, a pentagram. And that was kind of, like, enough for us to just be like, yeah, I don't know if we necessarily want to, like, share an area with these people. Plus, they're doing something illegal.

So, and, you know, we're out there, Sasquot. We don't want other campers nearby in general. We want to be isolated. So we just kind of packed it up and left. It was maybe a little more freaky in the moment. And there was a bunch of us and we were armed, but I don't think it made anyone feel really like enthusiastic about wanting to stay there, especially because I think he just did not expect us to be there and he just kind of waltzed out of the woods.

That was definitely a weird one. Again, there's been instances like that. There's probably more than I'm not even remembering now. You just never know out there with people in the woods. man unfortunately. You always got to be prepared for the weirdest thing that you can imagine to happen. I agree with you. I would love to spend some time here near the end of the interview, you know, talking about the Kickstarter that Small Town Monsters has going on. And, you know, it's that time of year again where I think of it as a way that the community that you guys have built

up can say, hey, we're in this, we want to see this stuff happen. Can you tell us a little bit about how the Kickstarter is going, what that entails and all that good stuff? I can. Yeah. So we do an annual Kickstarter at Small Town Monsters. Basically, it's a way to fund all the productions we do throughout the year. And that's including everything we do from, you know, we have a whole bunch of like feature films we do. And again, I talked about earlier how we don't just do like Bigfoot stuff, even though a lot of people that maybe follow us from like the YouTube side, they think we're all like just investigators looking for Bigfoot. Like no, Bigfoot beyond the trail is like it's a series that follows my personal investigations into the Bigfoot topic, right?

Like I'm basically given free reigns to do documentaries on places I want to go investigate, whether it's in Alaska or North Carolina or wherever it may be, right? But we have other films we do in other series. So there's other topics. So every year we have like a few films that are part of this Kickstarter that are kind of like the flagship films and series. So this year we have a dogman related film. We have a on the trail of UFO season two, which is a follow up to a previous episodic series. It's also going to be the Sasquatch Factor, which is also an episodic series. And then I'm doing a film called The Journey to Ape Island.

And I can talk about that a little bit. But basically the Kickstarter, it's like almost functions as like a pre-order. campaign because there's different tiers you can back at. And I should preface by saying, you know, we are an independent company. We're not owned by some multi-million dollar corporate network. Like we are literally as independent as you can get. Like when I say that, I mean like it's like a very small crew of us. There's not where again, we're not some major network TV kind of thing.

And I think that's why we have the creative control we do over the films and the productions we do is because a lot of us are also, we, we are interested. in the topics. Like I know people that work in in the entertainment business and, you know, reality TV show stuff. And they're like, oh, guess what I'm doing a ghost show? I'm casting for a ghost show this, this month. So that's just like a project then because the next month they'll be doing a show about like storage wars or, you know, other topics. Like it's, they're not interested in those. Whereas like all of us at some all time monsters, we came from a background where we were interested in cryptozoology and that sort of stuff. Myself and Seth, especially.

you know, Heather Marks Mattsky, Aaron Dees. You know, he used to do a lot of stuff before coming to small town monsters. All of us did. So we really have that, like, enthusiast kind of attentiveness to the topics. Like, I'm genuinely interested in the truth about Sasquatch. I don't need to add any fake kind of stuff to any of my productions because I'm interested in the truth. Like I want to portray what actually goes on when you're out there investigating. And if nothing happens, that's what happens.

So, so yeah, basically the Kickstarter, we do one every year. And it basically, again, it allows us to fund the creation of all the productions, including all the YouTube and episodic stuff. And then the kind of the mainstay films. And you back at different levels. And a lot of them, like, you get your name in the credits. And there's a lot of, like, you know, exclusive stuff, like patches and shirts and, like, artwork. I know one of the tiers this year was, like, artwork from some of the films done by Santino Vitale's dad.

I don't remember his name. He's a guy who does special effects for us. like they're like unique pieces of art and that's part of the cake like there's no there's no other copies of that there's also the these monster statues that jean saint jean does every year and those are um he does a lot of like comic and um action figure kind of stuff very very well-known guy in that community jean saint jean it'll do like a different creature every year and i think this year is the hopkinsville goblin statue um because that's going to be part of the on the trail UFO season two so so yeah these the kickstarter just basically lets us do what we're doing continue

to do it independently. And a lot of it, again, is it's like a pre-order. You get early access to all the films. You get digital copies and then basically hard copies and you can select different levels of stuff. But you see these films and productions like the moment I finish up my Ape Island film and it's like, this is the final version. This is what's going to go to distribution.

Some of the first people to ever see it other than the crew and those involved are like the Kickstarter backers. And they often see these kind of productions. like months before they ever see the public. Months before they get distribution, let alone to other platforms, Kickstarter people see them. So there's a lot behind it.

It's not just like giving money. You get a lot of rewards actually for whatever level you back at. So that's kind of the short of it with the Kickstarter. I know it's a little bit confusing maybe for folks, but we started the Kickstarter at the end of last week as a recording on February 5th, I believe. and it runs till March 5th. And there's 24 days to go.

So far we're over 100% of our goal, but we do have like stretch goals that we announce. So, you know, if we hit a certain goal and then exceed that, there'll be like new items that could add it into kind of entice and help kind of keep it going. But yeah, I want to mention a little bit about the big film

that I'm doing for the Kickstarter, which is the journey to ape island. So that is going to be a feature. production feature documentary about Vancouver Island and British Columbia, Canada. And I'm really excited to do this because I'm hoping that this is kind of going to be what people expect from my typical documentaries, which are, you know, investigative, a lot of travel, adventure kind of elements you see, the really epic stuff, but it's going to be like that tenfold.

I mean, it's going to be a lot more intense, a lot more in-depth. And basically the kind of pitches, myself and Jason Heard, Hewlett, who's done some work with those small town monsters. He's a Canadian paranormal investigator and author. Him and I are teaming up and are going to spend an extended period of time on Vancouver Island and kind of document the whole history of the island from south to north and the history of Sasquatch encounters, which is, I mean, it's immense on Vancouver Island because you have these First Nations indigenous cultures there that have thousands of years of lore, the

Sasquatch, the Zonaqua. They have all these totems. I think Vancouver Island has the most, you know, Sasquatch-related totems. So the story will be grounded in the indigenous folklore and the tales as we travel through the island. But it's also going to talk about more modern encounters, contemporary stories. You know, there's stories by folks that are considered very credible, you know,

people who are into the outdoors, folks that are, you know, a lot of these people that just aren't really out there looking for anything, but sort of have stuff happen. So it's going to be a very in-depth process. And epic cinematography, we're going to be going to some of the most beautiful locations on the island. I mean, it's these temperate rainforest, these mountains, you know, these kind of beautiful valleys. And it's a very rugged place. It's the largest island off the west coast of North America, I believe. So it's a massive, massive area.

And the film is going to be super in-depth. And I'm really excited to dive into it. We haven't begun production yet. But, you know, I can't say when we're going to do it, but we will be doing it. And that'll be a very, very intense kind of film. And Jason Hewlett is also going to be writing a book as kind of a little bit of a companion piece, but also goes off into its own directions, but very in-depth about Vancouver Island. And, you know, as has been kind of known, Ape Island. That is fantastic.

I'm just thinking of people I've talked to over the years from that island. And, man, there's some intense stuff that happens on there. And there's some very, very remote places when you get in. to I'm thinking central northern. Yeah, there's some crazy places up there. So it would be great to see what you guys are able to capture. Another thing that I'm really interested in about, and I know that this one's probably being more planned currently.

The Sasquatch factor, it's a very, very cool idea because it almost sounds like it's a thing where you'll be traveling, potentially across the U.S. to different bigfoot spots. Is that anything where you have any information you can share about about that one, or is that more still really being planned currently?

Yeah, that's still being more planned, I would say. I know it's going to be Seth's series and undertaking, but he wanted myself and Aaron Dees to be kind of involved. So I haven't been told a whole lot. I've been told that I probably will be sent out on some missions, which is cool by me, you know,

but I really don't know a lot at the moment. Obviously, currently I'm focused very heavily on my production, so Bigfoot being on the trail. And then obviously, Journey to Ape Island, like myself and Jason are, like we literally have a meeting after this podcast finishes because we're like, you know, there's so many different elements. Because as you mentioned, there's so many good stories from the island. It's so hard to narrow down.

So we're trying to focus on as much as we can in a realistic possibility. And there's going to be a mix of investigative stuff. and interviews and locations and that sort of stuff. But anyway, back to Sasquatch Factor. Yeah, I think Seth's wanted to do kind of like a, I don't want to say definitive. I don't know if you would use that word, kind of look at the Bigfoot topic in a way that, you know, like this is where we're at. This is, you know, kind of the most credible or the most interesting kind of experiences

and places and that sort of stuff. I think that is going to be part of it. I'm excited to see how it kind of takes off. And again, I know I'll be involved in some capacity. So we'll see what that kind of entails. But I'm excited either way for those productions. Those are obviously more on the Sasquatch side of things. We did just get back from filming for on the trail of UFO season two.

So we already started production on that. Most of the series before the Kickstarter even started. And that was a really interesting experience because that's totally different than a lot of the stuff we usually do or a lot of stuff I usually do with the Sasquatch topic. Like, you know, we were going to the Wright-Patterson Air Force base in Ohio. all these different areas that have long UFO history. So that's just my point in saying that is that that's how much variety of stuff we have at Small Town Monsters where, you know, we're not just in one topic, even though people might think we are. Like it's not just Bigfoot.

And throughout, you know, Small Town Monsters has been around for over 10 years. My first ever production, Small Town Monsters was back in 2018 on the Trail of Champ, which was about the Lake Monster Champ and Lake Champlain before any of this other stuff sort of started. So we really try to cover a lot of the interesting lore. And again, I think we come from a position where we're all enthusiasts. And we are all very interested in the truth of the topics. Like, you know, we don't need to sugarcoat or add dramatics or kind of sensationalize the topic. And especially when it comes to my investigations personally, like I just show what I experience.

Like if I don't have anything weird to happen, I won't, you know, I'm not going to add some in for dramatic effect. But I will try to set the stage and explain the environment and the areas that we're in. So yeah, that's kind of the long and short of it, I guess, with, you know, what we do with Small Time Monsters, I guess, in a long way of putting it. But yeah, again, I think if you're interested in a more like serious look at any of these topics, check us out. I'm not saying, you know, we're the end all be all, of course, but I think we are all genuinely interested. Like, it's not just a job. It's not just something that, you know, again, we're assigned to do this week as Bigfoot, and then next week it'll be some other topic.

Like, there is a genuine curiosity there and, you know, a desire to showcase the truth. Yeah, it is. So one, exciting stuff coming this year. Maybe one more question, Alex. Is there a area that you are hoping to maybe get to some time in the? future that's always been on your bucket list to go and to look for Sasquatch related activity with. There's a few. I'm not going to name them because I don't want to, you know, spoil, give any spoilers or anything like that. But there's, there's one area in particular.

I'll just say it's like in the southernish part of the U.S. that I have not been to yet that I'm hoping to get to very soon. There's areas of Canada too, I think. I've done, you know, I drove up to Alaska and I covered a lot of territory there. in like British Columbia and the Yukon. Been up to British Columbia, Bella Kula, obviously, Ape Island. British Columbia is incredible, but it's so vast.

It's really only second to Alaska and like natural beauty and I'd say like size in North America. It's ridiculous. Both British Columbia and Alaska and the Yukon, that whole area. But there's areas of like Eastern Canada I love to get to. You know, being guy in New England, like you look up at Quebec and it's just millions and millions of acres of woods,

moose, bear, lots of stuff. Not a lot of sightings. There are. And actually, I've talked to folks, multiple French-Canadian folks that have kind of confirmed my theory that I think why a lot of reports don't exist from, as opposed to like Ontario, Canada, English-speaking Canada. A lot of reports from there, Algonquin Park, all these different areas. You get to Quebec, the language barrier. And especially back in the day, there used to be a lot of tension there between French

Canadians and Anglo-Canadians. I mean, there was even, like, terrorist groups in the 70s and the 60s. the FLQ, which wanted like the freedom of liberation of Quebec. And it was actually seen as like offensive to speak English, especially the old-timer. So I think a lot of those old timers in Quebec, they grew up in the woods, the woodsmen, the hunters, the outdoorsmen. They probably had encounters, but they're not going to report it to some American English website about Bigfoot. Like that's the last thing they're going to do.

And I've talked to a couple French Canadians who have actually said, yeah, that sounds pretty, pretty accurate. Like they are very, you know, a lot of the older generations, especially still have that animosity towards like the Anglo, the English-Canadian. So I think that's an area that would interest me to go to Quebec and even further north of there. There's other other place. I'd say those are probably some areas,

but then obviously I'd love to get to like the Himalayas and go look for the Yeti. That's probably one of my top ones because that's what originally got me interested in Sasquatch was the Yeti. That's the story that really kind of stuck out to me. Stuck out to me. Oh, man. Yeah. That would, Himalayas would be wild.

I can't even imagine that. That would be really cool someday. But, man, Alex, thank you so much for coming on. Alex Petikov from Small Town Monsters. It's been great to talk to you again on the show. Do you mind reminding listeners, and I'll have this in the show notes, how they can best keep up to date with what Small Town Monsters is doing? Yeah, I mean, obviously the easiest way is just to Google Small Town Monsters.

Find the website there that'll lead you to you. YouTube, Eligit, all the other stuff. Obviously, you can go to YouTube, Small Town Monsters. And then, you know, if you go to the website, you'll be able to find the link to the Kickstarter and that kind of stuff. But, no, I really appreciate you having me on, man. It's been a blast, kind of, it's fun reminiscing about some of these stories and crazy things that have happened over the years.

And, again, I appreciate you having me on. And, you know, hope the pursuit stays interesting for you. And, you know, we can keep getting out there in the woods and doing what we enjoy doing. And that's what we love doing. Obviously, it's multi-time officers and myself personally, you know, like I'm getting ready to go on a trip soon here. And I just cannot wait. Like it's one of those things like kid on Christmas morning kind of feeling like I get to go spend a week in the woods. Yes.

Have you ever heard all the accounts of Bigfoot activity around Oak Ridge, Oregon? And you think to yourself, man, I would love to get out in those woods and experience it for myself. Well, guess what? this year you can. If this is interesting to you, stay tuned because it's pretty cool. Sasquatch Summerfest is coming up July 10th through the 11th, 2026.

It's going to be even better than the previous year's reason number one. I'll be one of the speakers. It's going to be wild. I'll probably, I'll say this. There may be stuff you haven't heard anywhere else because let's just say sometimes it's, well, you just got to be there. We'll leave it that.

More about looking for Bigfoot in the Oak Ridge Woods. Now check this out. You may know Jason Kenzie from his documentary series searching for Sasquatch. Well, this year, you can not only go to the festival, but you can also sign up for a trek deep in the wild forest outside of Oakridge with Jason Kenzie to the Bigfoot spots

to look for Bigfoot. There's only eight spots to sign up for this. And yes, this will also be filmed for the next chapter in his documentary series, which is searching for Sasquatch. This is a once-in-lifetime deal.

It's just, trust me, it's going to be a wild, wild experience. To get a ticket, head on over to Sasquatch Summerfest.com and listeners can use the code code B-S-P, like Bigfoot Society podcast, in order to get a two-day pass for the price of a one-day pass. So thanks to Priscilla for giving me that code so that you guys can get a little help with the cost there. Appreciate that, Priscilla.

I hope to see you at the booth in Oak Ridge this year. we can talk about your encounter, was able to talk to so many people last year and the year before. It is an incredible time. You're not going to want to miss it, and I'll see you there. Before we wrap this episode,

I want to say something directly to a very specific group of listeners. If you're in the military, any branch, or forces, and if you've seen something that no one can explain, or if you're a national park ranger or forestry worker

who's been told to stay quiet, if you're a pilot, who's seen something strange down on the ground, or if you're with the FBI, a federal agency, or working intelligence, and you've stumbled upon something you're not allowed to talk about. And if you're a firefighter, paramedic, or search and rescue responder,

who's heard screams or found tracks that didn't make sense, if you're in the logging industry on a remote oil field or trucker with government contracts, and you've had something happen that you've never told a soul, and if you're a biologist, a wildlife specialist, or a field researcher under contract, who has found evidence you're not allowed to report, if you're a pastor, a missionary, or someone on a spiritual retreat, and you saw something that shook your faith,

or if you work in the shadows, CIA, NSA, or anything with clearance, and you've seen what the public hasn't, then I want to talk to you. Even if it's anonymous, you can reach me, at bigfoot society at gmail.com the world needs to hear what you've been forced to carry alone and you're not alone you've got the story we've got the mic see you in the woods thank you for listening to this episode of the bigfoot society podcast every encounter we share reminds us that the world is bigger and stranger than we think and that the truth is often hiding just beyond

the tree line if you enjoyed this episode please be sure to subscribe to the channel on YouTube hit the bell so you don't miss the next episode and share this with a friend who's into mysteries monsters or the unexplained and if you're listening to us on spotify or apple podcast please follow the show there and leave us a five-star positive review because all that helps more people discover the show and remember if you or someone you know has had a bigfoot citing please i'd love to hear from you so email me at bigfoot society at gmail.com and let's start the conversation if you haven't gotten a chance yet check out our membership community over at www.

www.bigfootsocietypodcast.com, and that's where you can hear tomorrow's episode today, early and ad-free, and members-only episodes every week. Also, it's a place to connect with other people that are into the Bigfoot subject as much as you are. Thanks again for following along with the Bigfoot Society. Until next time, keep your eyes open,

trust your gut, and never stop asking what else might be out there, and see you in the woods.