Sasquatch Chronicles - SC EP:1006 Big Bay-Ty

Episode Date: November 12, 2023

I am posting a reloaded episode due to illness. I am still fighting a fever and this cold. Forgive me, I will see everyone next week. Scott shares an encounter he had with his cousin in Louisiana. Scott said I was 8 or 9 years old and I was fishing with my cousin who was 20 years old. I saw what I thought was a large human until I really got a look at it. It was huge and I noticed it was covered in hair. It looked like a human in the face but I could not believe how big it was. My cousin saw it as the creature was leaving and told me that was Big Bay-Ty and not to tell anyone and if he ever wants to go fishing with him again to never bring it up. We will also be speaking to Nick. Nick writes "One of my best friends and I went camping in December of 2005, in a vast wilderness area near Jack's River Falls, in the Cohutta Wilderness area of northern Georgia. I was leaving for boot camp in 2 weeks, and he was going a couple of months later. This was a trip just for us. It was a bro-trip where we could go deep into the woods and be away from everything before our lives drastically changed. We were camping along a river situated between two mountains, many miles from any town or other trails, at a time when there is the least amount of traffic, too. It was around midnight when it happened. As we were talking next to the fire about what our futures looked like, we heard an incredible splash in the river around 30-40 feet from us. It sounded like an enormous animal jumped several feet off of the rocks into the water. And then we heard it walking/splashing the 20-30 feet across the river towards us. We both stood up as close to the fire as possible and stared into the black abyss. It was distinctly two legs moving through the water, just a splash-splash, as if an Olympic heavyweight wrestler was crossing the river. And then it stopped right at the bank. I have never been so scared in my life. We were too scared to speak or even look at each other at that point… just staring into the abyss beyond the firelight. I honestly don't know how much time elapsed. It felt like an hour, but in reality it was probably 10-15 minutes. Nothing happened! Total silence, only the crackling of wood on the fire… all the while, I kept expecting to see something or someone come running into the light, charging us like a berserker. After what seemed like an eternity, we heard it start walking around us, the whole time remaining just beyond the blackness of our firelight. It felt like it was within 20 feet or so of us – just remaining out of site – intentionally. We heard an obvious left-right-left-right walking pattern. It sounded like a freaking dude walking in the woods."  

It looked like somebody was bent over and had their head in the window of the deer blind and it either heard me or smelt me and he pulled his head out of the tent and stood straight up and that shocked me. They don't make people that big. The way it moved, almost as if it was gliding across the beach. I've never seen anything moves like that in my life. They were screaming at each other in gibberish. It sounded like a language and they were chuntering away back and forwards, back and forwards, back and forward.

I know what a bear looks like and there is no way on this planet that what I saw were bears. What are you reporting? See him. Hello. Get somebody out here. What's going on now, sir? That son of a bitch is about six foot nine. I don't know.

Do you see him now, sir? Yes, I'm looking right at him. Uh-uh. This is Blair coming to you from DeLonga, Georgia, the home of the first gold rush. And you're listening to the best podcast in the world, Sasquatch Chronicles. Welcome to the show, everyone. Thanks for being here tonight. Got a great show plan for you.

We're going to be chatting with. Scott. And Scott comes to us from Louisiana. And back when he was eight, nine years old, he's out fishing with his cousin who's older than him. And Scott ends up seeing this creature walk right across this river that he was fishing. And his cousin called it Big Bay Thai. I'll let Scott go into it. We're also going to be chatting with Nick. And back in 2005, right before he went on off to basic training for the military. He went out for one last camping trip with his friend in Georgia and had a pretty scary night when they were out there. And I'll let Nick go into that as well. If you've had an encounter and you'd like to be on the show, shoot me an email. My email address is

Wes at Sasquatch Chronicles.com. And I hope everyone is having a great weekend. Let's jump into it tonight. I want to welcome Scott to the show. Scott, thanks for coming on. You're welcome, man. My pleasure. Yeah, the pleasure's mine, Scott. And you had an encounter in Louisiana. You're probably eight, nine years old. How many years ago did this happen to you? It was about 48 to 50 years ago. A little background on this was I was born in Mississippi and I have a bunch of relatives. My mom's people were in Louisiana and South Mississippi,

and my dad's people were from North Mississippi. But anyway, my dad got transferred here with the Department of Agriculture when I was six or seven years old, but Louisiana was always home. East Lysianne Parish is really at home. And every summer I'd go back there and stay with my aunt and uncle and stuff like that. I had a first cousin, her and her husband. He took up a lot of time with me. took me fishing and stuff like that.

And we used to fish religiously three or four days a week where I had my encounter of one afternoon, me and Jimmy, we rode over there down the southeast corner of East Felicia and Paris and there was a creek. We was creek fishing. And what we would do is we parked a truck pretty close to the creek and get out and walk through the little patch of woods and get in the creek and he'd go. north or south and I'd go the opposite direction and we'd stop fishing deep holes. And the creek was probably 20 to 35 yards wide at the widest point.

And most of it was a foot to 18, 20 inches deep. And a lot of rocks on the bottom and stuff. When you just weighed down the creek and fish the deep holes, well, I'd gone down my way and he'd gone down. And I kept getting this feeling, and I know everybody says this, I kept getting this feeling that somebody was watching me or something was. was watching me or something. And it wasn't really, it was just enough feeling to make you uncomfortable,

but not really uneasy. And I guess kind of shrugged it off. So I walked down and fish four or five holes, and I caught a few sock-a Lake Specklepert. And I caught six or eight gruntil mudfish. What we do is we'd cut a stick, make it look like a check mark, and you slide the fish over there on the gills,

and you could tote them a lot easier than if you were trying to, you know, carry them individually or whatever. Anyway, after six or eight of them three or four, five-pound feet, a granule on there, I got tired of toting them. And the creek there had what we call a high bank, the bank away from the low ground, was probably 15, 18 feet tall. And the bank towards the swamp, which would be the south bank, was low and it is 75 to 100 yards from the swamp

there was woods you know and then turned into real low wetlands and so I got tired of toting the fish so I just reached up there and throw them up there on top of the high bank up there and I went on down and fished another hole or two and I heard something walking in the water and you could tell it was on two feet if you've ever been out in the woods

and I know you have you can tell the difference between four legs in the water and two and you can hear plush poofs come and so of course I stopped looking and 35 to 40 yards

somewhere down like me the biggest black man I have ever seen in my life come walking out of the wood I mean he was huge of course I'm just a kid eight or nine years old and I'm just I'm staring at him and I as he's walking across the little open spot and then thin through the creek he's waiting through the creek and I'm just watching and I'm thinking wow we need that cat at LSU playing football that's a bit that's I mean he was huge you can see the muscles in his arms and his lick he was probably three foot wide and I'm

looking at him when he gets to the high bank basically he just sticks one hand up on the bank and more or less just pulls itself up and grabs the rim with the other hand, pulls itself on the bank, walks over there where I threw that stick full of grinal at, squatted down, cool one off of it,

just pulled it off like me or you would, slid it off the stick, and caught it inside the gills, and just pulled it apart and then it went to eat. I'm sitting there and I'm like, that dude's covered with hair. I ain't never seen a black guy that big covered in hair. He sits there and he's eating a while. And about that time I heard my cousin, he whistled because that's the general of what we did

kind of keep up with each other. And he can stick his fingers in the mouth whistle real loud. And when my cousin whistled, he spun around. He didn't turn his head like what me or you would do. he turned his whole body and it was just such a fast fluid motion it was just and i mean he is like he's got mistletone on it i mean he is he is staring down at that and i don't i guess he did not see or had not seen me yet or if he was he wasn't paid no attention to me but man he was he was staring down

he was staring down at my cousin jimmy and uh he's he's just looking like that right there and then my cousin whistled again and the whatever later i know it was a big foot but he was like shifting his weight from one foot to the other from one foot to the other like left to right left or right he's constantly shifting his weight and when he whistled the second time i whistle back course i couldn't whistle there as loud as he did and that that joker he turned around and when he turned around he looked at me and so for the next two or three or three or three or three three minutes. He's looking at me. He's looking at Jimmy. He's looking at me. He's looking. And the whole time, he's like shifting his weight from one foot to the other.

As Jimmy got up there to about 75 to 100 yards from him, he bent. He's still looking at me and Jimmy, but he's got his hand. He kind of bent over, hunched over. And we've all dropped something in the dark and tried to find it. And that's what he looked like. He was patting his hand around in the brush right there, trying to. find that stringer of fish and he's still constantly looking from one to the other one to the other and he's moving his hand around like that when he finally grabs hold of it he picks it up and he kind of eases up and he walks towards that back to the high bank there puts his hand on there grabs hold of a tree just fairly close to it i guess it's about big around as you thigh and just

just basically slides down to the bank and just gets down to the creek, walks right back towards where he came from. When my cousin got up there, I said, man, did you see that big black dude right there? And he's like, yeah, that ain't no big black dude. I said, I thought that was one of Mr. Watson's brothers. That was a friend of our, a black fellow of a friend of ours. and he said that that wasn't no black guy because he said Jimmy called him Big Bay Thai

He said that's Big Bay Thai I said well what is it And he said that's a big foot That's man I can't wait to get home and tell all them that He said we ain't going to tell nobody He said you got to swear to me if you ever want to go fishing again you're not going to say nothing to nobody. And I said, all right, if that's going to keep me from going fishing, I can keep my mouth shut.

And he said, I'm serious. He said, other than this time right now, I don't want you ever talk to me about it. I don't want to talk anybody about it. And then about, I never said anything to anybody until about 15 years ago when Jimmy passed away. Yeah, it's strange that he called it Big Bay Thai. I've actually had a few eyewitnesses tell me that I remember a guy in Mississippi, that's what he called it. And I know another guy in Arkansas, that's what he called it. I wonder why he called it Big Bay Thai.

I mean, I don't know where that name comes from. Did your cousin, obviously, he must have seen this creature before. I don't know because he never would talk about it. Yeah, it's odd that he used that name. What do you make of his reaction of don't talk about it, don't ever bring this up again, or you're not fishing with me? I mean, what do you make of his reaction to the whole thing? Well, the only thing, and of course I put this together later is he was raised right there at the edge of the Honey Island Bayou,

and I figure it was a Honey Island swamp monster, and everybody's heard of that. I assume, and it's just clear an assumption, I don't know this, because his family was from right around there, and that's the way they made their living, fishing, and trapping and stuff like that. So I figured that they must have probably had encountered with them before. Yeah, it makes me wonder. I'm sure you've wondered over the years. I know that you're not that far away from this thing, and when you first see it, you think it's a human being. can he kind of describe the face?

I mean, what was it about it? I mean, would you overall just describe what you saw? It looked like, really it looked like a cross between a black guy and an American Indian. It had a lot of, it had high cheekbones, but it had a big, big flat nose, small ears, prominent brow ridge. I won't say his eyes were sunk back in his head, but they were maybe a little bit deeper than that and his facial expression really

pretty much the whole time that this all went on was just basically neutral he never there was no sign I mean I was nine and I didn't know nothing about Bigfoot or anything and it didn't scare me

I just thought it was you know maybe one of Mr. Watson's brothers I don't know because he was a big man too I thought it may was way maybe his big brother. I didn't, you know, I didn't know. And then, like you said, when I realized it was covered with hair, but his face didn't have much hair on it,

but it looked more human than it did an ape. Yeah, what really fascinates me about this account, Scott, is just from taking many reports from my witnesses, this is my opinion. When it comes to fishermen, they're generally very aggressive with fishermen. You know, they'll throw rocks, So bluff charge them, they'll scream at them.

They tend to be more aggressive with fishermen in general, maybe not so much with kids. But it's almost like this thing had seen people fish in this area. I mean, it's looking at you, it's looking at your cousin approaching, you know, looking back and forth, back and forth. And then it just kind of gets up and walks away like it's going to church. Right, right. I mean, it never, other than my hair on my neck, of course, when you came out in open, I should have backed up and said, you know, the hair on your neck because you're seeing something

that you've never seen before. And it kind of, but as far as like affected me and messing with my psyche like it does a lot of people, and I guess it was like you said, because I was a kid. And I mean, I had no idea what they were. And it really didn't, it really wasn't scary. I mean, I guess that would be the best kind of encounter to have. Yeah, I think a lot of kids, they lack the fear because they're naive to what they're seeing. And, you know, generally with kids, these things really aren't aggressive.

I've never, I'm trying to think of a time, I'm sure I've heard one, but off top of my head, I can't think of a time where these things were super aggressive towards a child. It seems to be, you know, they might growl or something like that if someone gets too close, but not really aggressive in the sense of trying to terrify you. How old was your cousin at the time? I'm guessing he was probably 20. He was 20, 21, something like that. I don't think either one of us were there until he whistled.

But now when he whistled that first, and I mean, I don't know if you're a turkey hunt. and much. You know, you can, you can call a turkey one time, and if they gobble back at you, they know where you, they know within three or four feet where you're at. And when he whistled at one time, I mean, it was just like, I mean, it was just like instant, boom, he knew exactly where he was at. That, that still, I mean, that's, that's, that's one of the biggest, and the muscle tone that thing had, and what, and what, I mean, you were struggling, grunting and everything else to get up that, I mean, it was just like it was just, effortless. It's almost a fluid motion when he moved. It was amazing. And that really

sticks out the ease that he went. And I mean, he's walking through a swamp and thick woods like we'd have to crawl through. And I mean, he's walking through there like he's walking down the sidewalk. Yeah, the part that really sticks with me, though, is he didn't go, hey, it's Bigfoot or it's Sasquatch. He called it Big Bay Thai. And generally down the, there with locals. It's people who have seen it many times, it's been my experience anyway, talking with them over the phone, is people who've seen them many times that will call it that. They'll call it Big Bay Thai. And, you know, any of my listeners in Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, that journal area, if you know where that comes from, put it in the comments

because I have no idea where that name comes from. But the fact that he used that name, Scott, makes me think this guy has seen it before. You know, your cousin had seen it before. And then right afterwards, he tells you, don't talk about it, don't bring it up again. Makes me wonder what he saw. Yeah, yeah. It did me later in life. And unfortunately, as life is, we drifted apart as we got older and everything.

And it's unfortunate a lot of them questions I would like to know now. because I feel quite sure that for him the reaction that he got that he had, it had to be, he had to have seen it more than one time. Yeah, and then even his reaction, you know, as he's walking up, he's seeing it leave. And, you know, the normal reaction is, hey, let's get the hell out of here. But it's not really what he did. He was like, well, we call it big Bay Thai and let's not talk about it anymore. You know, kind of like it was no big deal.

uh, it's strange, you know, his reaction to the whole thing. I know later in life, you had another encounter where, uh, you heard the creature. You didn't see it, but if you would, tell me about it. Yes, sir. Uh, we, I have a share in a fishing club down here south of, just before you get to the Florida line. And, uh, me and my, one of my fishing buddies, me and Robbie and my wife were actually, Actually, all three of us were down there that morning.

And it was about 10 minutes to five, and we had pulled up there to the boat ramp, and we were putting the tackle in the boat. And then we heard this howl, scream, and it was a good distance away. But as soon as we heard that screen, and it's one of those mornings when the clouds are right on top of the trees, and you got this fog all that, you can't see 30 feet in front of you. you get wet just walking through the fog. It's that real fine mist. And you heard this howl just come revibrating through the thing.

And me and him both just stopped and froze. And he was on one side of the boat. And I was at the back of the boat. And he was much up there toward the front on the other side. And we were stopping. We're staring at each other. And my wife, she was just getting out of the truck. And I mean, dogs were going off.

and me and Robbie sitting there looking at each other and it must have been for two or three minutes and he looked over me and he said, did you hear that? And I said, evidently you heard what I heard. And my wife said, y'all hear that? And I said, what was that?

I don't know. And probably 30 seconds later, we heard it again and it had appeared to us The sound of it is either facing away from it when they hollered the first time. The second time, it hollered. It peered to cut the distance in half. Robbie looked at me and said, I don't know about you, but he's going to put this boat in the water. We're going to get our ass out of here now.

And so, but now that, it sent the hairs up on your neck and it scared the mess out of you. I mean, everybody there, all three of us, it. And every time it would have, the dogs around there, it goes nuts. So, yeah, that one was very unnerving right there. Yeah, I bet. And how

many years ago was this, Scott, that you guys heard this? This was three years ago. Oh, pretty recent, really. Has there been anything you found online that kind of is similar to what you guys heard that day? it sounded exactly I'm talking about exactly like the Ohio house from 1994 it sounded in the

reason I know it's 94 because you'll show you as you said it the other night and I was listening to it it sounded exactly like that and that's the only two times we heard it there but but I that is that is the Robbie's really quite comical guy he goes that That's the sound. If I never hear that again, it'll be too soon. And I said, I agree with you 100%. It is very unnerc. When you hear it like the video does not do it just.

The audio does not do it justice. Yeah, I agree. And, you know, it's a whole different ballgame when you're standing there hearing it as opposed to listening to a podcast, someone play it or listening to it on YouTube. And I've had people send me that, that record. the same sound as the Ohio Howl. Actually, here, for new listeners, here's what we're talking about. This is the Ohio Hal. It's a very strange recording.

It's a very strange vocalization that they do. And what I was trying to say, you know, before I mumbled together, a sentence before I played that in the, there in the beginning, you know, I've gotten that same recording from many different states around the United States. People have recorded this exact same sound. and it's very unique because it has that air raid siren sound. And for the life of me, I cannot figure out why they vocalize like that. I don't think it's meant to be intimidating, even though it is. I would imagine when you hear it in person. But I get the sense it's not meant to be intimidating,

but I can't quite figure out why they would vocalize like this. And I don't know you're a woodsman, you're out there all the time. What's your take, Scott? Why do you think they would vocalize like that? Well, I don't know that it's not a locator call that they used to locate each other because we're a major interstate is not a half a mile where we were at. There's a block of woods probably there's a there's roadway and all this stuff down down in that area. They got a terminal down there. But there's a set and there is a major interstate.

It had to be, we were on the east side. interstate and it had to be on the east side interstate in that block of woods which 400 acres is not it is a lot a lot of big block of woods but it's not a lot of woods and uh so at some point or another it had to cross that interstate and i don't know that it had crossed that interstate and couldn't get back because of all the traffic and and it's a locator call it was called into one over there that we couldn't hear but that would be by best guess at it right there. Yeah, it's the only thing that really makes sense to me is that it's a locator call, but it seems like, you know, they're obviously giving away their position. The

scary part is you guys hear it, and then just a few seconds later, you hear it again, like it closed half the distance. I mean, that, you know, and then the fog and everything else, I probably would have fished another day. But I appreciate sharing it, and I really appreciate the encounter when you were a child. And I ask everyone on the show, Scott, what do you think Sasquatch is? And obviously there's no wrong answer. But what are your thoughts? What do you think that this creature is?

I would like to believe that it's a flesh and blood. I really hope that it is a flesh and blood something. But I think there's something more to it. And I don't know if it's through being biblical with a nephalum or, or through genetic tampering or what it is, but I don't think it's 100%. I think it is flesh and blood, but I don't think it was,

I think it has more attributes than that. I just don't think it's a monkey in the woods. Because me and my cousin, we have another, we have a lease, I mean, not my cousin, me and another one of my buddies, we've got a lease out there at the land. And I can tell you, we have heard, not that how, but we have heard, like you said,

the screen, we heard screams out there. And it is eat up with deer. But you can go out there. And sometime in, from the middle of November to the middle of December, it's like the deer vanish. And that's when you find the broken trees. And I cast a footprint. I can send you a picture of the footprint.

I cast this is about 15 inches long. And it actually walked across a pond that was drying. The whole trackway was, there. But when it gets to the edge of the field, which was plowed at the time, the footprints just stop. And that has, that has drove me insane for about two, two and a half, three years now ever since we, we found the footprints.

And it was, I'm trying to remember, it was, I think it was 68 inches from toe to heel on the stride. Yeah, that's five and a half. almost six foot stride. It's a big stride. That's a big stride. And we've got a couple of pictures on game film from game cameras. One, actually, I think it's a pretty good picture.

Of course, the blob squads, nobody wants to, you know, see those. But it's actually a pretty good picture. And after the camera took it, me and troll went out there. And we found where the trick for it, and we measured it. and it was about eight four. Whatever it took a picture was, was about eight foot four. For the camera that would by the tree and everything that was there. And I can tell you another thing that happened out there,

somebody hit a deer on the side of the hard road, a paved road, runs in front of it. And troll had been out there hunting. And he stopped to see if deer had any horns on it, see if it was any good, the meat was still any good or anything. And he got out and looking at it, he heard about six or eight tree snap. I mean, I'm not going to say limb snap. I'm talking about trees snap.

Later we went back and looked, but he said, I have never been as pure terrified as I wasn't. And he said, I couldn't see nothing, couldn't hear nothing, but I could hear something walking in the wood, heard them tree snap. And he said, something told me to get in my truck. leave and he said man i jumped in that truck he said i didn't think twice and uh he called me on the way home and he was he was stuttering and everything he said man we're got to go back we got to go back here and see what it was he said man i had the crap scared out of me so day or two later me and him went out there and uh the trees were broke off somewhere around six feet six foot three

six foot four somewhere around there they were snapped off and they were snapped off The trees that were broken were anywhere from the size of a beer can around to the size of an oil oil can. If you remember how old oil cans, when they used to come in the paper wrapping. And they were just like somebody reached up there and grabbed them and broke them off. Yeah, I'd be real careful on that hunting lease. You know, I know when they lease something like that, you're going to be going out there. And keep me up to date. Let me know if anything else happens out there.

I really appreciate you sharing this encounter when you were young with the Big Bay Thai. It's been a few years since I've heard someone call it that, but I have heard that name before. And, you know, this vocalization that you heard just a few years later, or just a few years ago, actually, I really appreciate your thoughts on everything. And I enjoyed chatting with you, Scott. Thank you again for coming on. You're welcome, Wes, and I enjoy your show. Love it, man.

It's great. Thanks, Scott. Next step on the show, I want to welcome Nick. Nick, thanks for being here. Hey, I appreciate it, Wes. It's great to be here. Yeah, it's great to have you. And first and foremost, I know you served our country.

You're in the Navy. And I want to thank you for your service to our country. And, you know, from, I always say, you know, I never served. And I always feel a little guilty. And I admire people who served our country. So thank you so much for serving. Hey, Westman, it means a lot. I know we say that a lot, but, you know, it means a lot.

Yeah, brother. And if you would, I know you, there's two incidences we're going to chat about tonight. The first one was in 2005 in Georgia. If you would, take me back to that moment. What were you doing and what happened? Yeah, so that was honestly the moment that I feel. like my life turned upside down as far as what I thought I knew versus what I actually knew.

It was December. I was going to boot camp two weeks from then. And I had a buddy that me and him were going. He was actually going into the Marine Corps. And it was one of these things that we were just going to go as, you know, it's like a buddy trip. Let's go to the woods. It's the North Georgia, like the Cucreux.

a HUD of wilderness for people that know we're in the Jacks River area. And we went out, we camped. It was just me and him. We walked, I don't know, maybe four or five miles back into the river area, found this campsite. And once again, you know, it's December and no one's there. And, I mean, we didn't see anybody the entire time. And we're in an area that, you know, it's pretty hard to get to anyone.

ways. It's one of those things that, like, part of the trail sometimes will come down right on to the river bank and then pop back up and to land and pop back down to the river bank and pop back up. And, you know, what I always think is, like, you were in the campsite and we got all the way there. And we just had the time of our lives. and it was one of those things that we were leaving within a couple of months. Like I was going to boot camp within two weeks, and then he was going a couple months after the week. We didn't bring any alcohol.

We didn't bring any illicit drugs. We didn't do anything. You know, it's like we just were out there as like a bros trip. And there's maybe around midnight, midnight, 1 a.m. or so we were hanging out by the fire. And I remember, you know, we were just talking about. our lives are about to change. It's one of those things that it's like, you know, everything we've known up to this point in time is being children,

and we're about to enter a course that will make us, you know, end up to men. We're about to do something that is going to drastically change everything we know. And that's what we focused on. You know, it's one of the things talking about stories, everything that had happened over the previous several years. and it was maybe around midnight 1 a.m. All of a sudden we heard this. It was the loudest splash in the world.

And so, okay, let me back up. Where we were camping, it was deep in this valley that I was talking about. You know, you walk next to this river up and down, up and down. You walk several miles. Where you end up camping is right in between two mountains, where this river perfectly bisects it. And on one side, on the other bank from where we were at, it goes almost straight up.

And right at the river, there's a rock ledge that drops down maybe three feet or so into the water. And I think the water, especially during like wintertime, the water level might be four feet, maybe more, four feet or so. It's kind of a deep hole. I've gone back and fly fished it once. And I think it's maybe four feet or so.

And then it walks towards the shallow to our side, which is about maybe 20 or so feet from that. And it kind of goes on to a sandy rocky beach. And where we were camping, I would say was 25 feet from where we heard this noise. and we were sitting next to a fire and all of a sudden you just heard I mean it sounded like a sumo wrestler

jumped into the water it was just this huge splash jumped into the water and then you hear like something walking across and as it's walking across it's not swimming across it's walking across

it's literally pushing water as it's going. And you hear that just keep going. Like, I mean, as it goes in, you know, from the depths into the shallows right there, it's just pushing, just splash, splash, splash. And it gets lighter and lighter and lighter. And it gets right up until you hear its feet leave the water. And it gets to that.

And like at this point in time, my buddy and I are about to lose our mind. we are so scared we can't even look at each other we straighten up it's one of those things we're standing right next to the fire and we both are staying at attention before we even knew how to stand out attention and we are staring into the darkness i mean absolutely staring into the darkness thinking that you know you have no idea like your mind starts going through this rolodex of like What might be happening right now? Like, I'm deep in the Cahua Wilderness in late December and we're like, you know, it's like something's coming off trail and jumping down into the water and walking towards us and came to the water and then it just stopped. It was dead silent, dead silent. and I don't know how long that dead silent lasts. It felt like that might have lasted, you know, 15 minutes or more. I have no idea.

It might have been one minute. It might have been 20 minutes. I have no idea. That silence almost broke me, though. It was so quiet. It got to the bank. It splash, splash, splash, splash, came across and then stopped. And we know right now, we're like,

like within 25 feet or so from whatever it just walked across to us. And, you know, you go from this loud noise, like this huge thing jumping in, walking across, and then just goes quiet. And then me and him are both just staring into the work. We move to the other side of the fire looking towards it. And you're just looking into the darkness, absolute pitch black. Like, we've got a fire built up. The fire ring might go out, I don't know, 10, 12 feet, maybe 15 feet if we're lucky.

And you're just staring into the blackness. And something has now walked across the river and is standing that close to you and is not moving. And it just goes perfectly still. And in my head, I'm thinking, I'm like, this thing is literally assessing whether or not it wants to, it's next movement. Like, it's literally assessing whether it's going to make an aggressive... Is this thing going to run at me? Is this thing going to go around us?

It just came down. It's in our campsite now. And what's it going to do? And after this silence that felt like it lasted forever, we hear it walking straight up towards our campfire. And I'll just say, too, because, you know, I was 19 and my buddy was, 18 and we did not go we didn't even though we grew up in east Tennessee we didn't have like I mean we had a couple of big buck knives we

I mean I was literally sitting at the campfire whittling when this happened and so I had a spear in one hand and a knife in the other and this thing's walking up to the campsite I'm just like all right well this is how it goes down I you know I'm I'm going to go out with this knife in my hand, and this thing just walks straight up to us and start circling, and circling. And the whole time, it remains right outside of the darkness of the fire ring. And it's circling around us, and we're moving. And as it's circling, we're moving.

and we make 180 degree 270, we're moving in. And the whole time, like in my head, I'm thinking, I'm like, this thing is going to rush us at any point in time. I just keep thinking. I'm like, whatever the heck this thing is, it's about to explode out of the darkness, and it's just going to annihilate us. And it moves around our campsite.

And we try to stay on the, other side of the fire ring, you know, with our knives on our makeshift weapons. And it comes up to a certain point and it stops. And I think it's once again, you know, it's kind of like thinking back and putting what you think is happening. But, you know, I really do think it was a judgment call at that point in time. It was like, these guys aren't worth it. Or, you know, I don't.

know, I don't know. But it decided at that point in time to walk up next. We were in between these two mountains and it decided to walk up this mountain next to us. And it just left our campsite and it kept walking and we listened to it. And I'm talking this like this mountain we are next to. And for people at West, you know, it's not a huge mountain. You're talking about the North Georgia Appalachia. But this thing walked up. until we couldn't hear it anymore. And it just, you know, you heard it digging in, moving up, moving up, moving up. And we sat down and it was one of those moments where, I mean, other than being in a combat zone or having something go horribly wrong on a submarine, have I ever felt like such an adrenaline dump after something has happened.

and then that moment pass. And we, I mean, we could not talk for, I don't even, like, 15, 20, 30 minutes. Like, we could not say anything to each other. It was one of those moments where we're like, that just happened. Let's just have something locked down from a mountain next to us, jumped into the water, waded across, you know, from almost probably four feet deep water, waded across, did not swim, waded across, pushed the water as it walked,

pushed through the water, waded across, stopped at the bank, studied us, who knows how long, walked up to us, circled around the campsite, was smart enough to stay right beyond the firing. Right beyond the firing, move around us, and then walk up this mountain next to us. I will never

forget that thought. Yeah, I hear this behavior all the time from eyewitnesses. They'll report this to where they'll circle camps and circle camps. And the weird part is they always stay out of the firelight so you can't quite see what it is. And I would imagine, you know, if you don't believe in Bigfoot in this position, I mean, you would think it would be a man, you know, someone screwing with you, because I can't think of any other animal that would walk across the river and everything that you're describing. At that time, what did you guys think was going on? I've gone over this so many times.

And my buddy and I, we still, like, we're still really good friends. He's one of my best friends. And, you know, so we talk about it occasionally. And it's one of those things at that time, Sasquatch, Bigfoot, any kind of drifted, anything like that was not even on my radar. I distinctly remember the moment when it was happening, going through a Rolodex in my brain of like cat, no, bear, no, person, no. I really thought, I was like, this is a, this is a damn Sasquatch. I was like, oh my God, this is actually happening. we are having this experience right now.

And just like being without words, just completely taken back. And it wasn't, I mean, we didn't, I don't think we even talked about that for hours. I was still trying to justify what just happened. Like, I was literally trying to force another animal into the box of what just happened. And it was very difficult.

Yeah, I've heard this behavior many times. And I often wonder if they are a little bit trying to intimidate you and also seeing how you're going to react. And, you know, most people, that whole saying, you know, I was frozen with fear. Most people, you know, when people who are truly terrified, when you look at them, You can't tell if they just came from church or if they're actually terrified because we get that frozen with fear type look in our eyes. And the fact that you guys didn't react, I think that's probably why it left. A lot of times people, you know, they'll fire off shots and then these things will react and start throwing rocks, start bluff charging.

But, you know, my opinion, and this is my opinion, of course, I think part of it is really, is coming to check you out. It's a little bit of intimidation and a little bit of a test to see how you're going to react. So did you guys pack up and just get out of there? Yeah, so we wanted to. It was one of those things that we honestly didn't know what just happened. We were so just, I mean, almost like just completely crippled with indecision. Like I said, I don't think we talked. for about 15 minutes.

We sat down next to the fire. And, I mean, we made it, like, we both might have exhaled at the same time. And then looked at each other saying, like, what, you know, what was that? And we ended up, I think we might have ended up going into our tent by five or six in the morning. And maybe lay down and not actually slept until sunrise. And then as soon as the sun came up, we packed up tent and we booked it back to the car. And that's actually one of my biggest regrets. Well, there's a couple of regrets with it.

One was not going down to the Sandy Bank to see if maybe there were tracks of, you know, whatever this thing was that came up. And the other thing was having a flashlight next to me and then just being so scared to turn on a flashlight. because what might be on the other end might be something that you don't want to see, you know? Like, I remember having that flashlight and been like, turn that on. They're like,

well, yeah, I don't think you want to see that. You don't need to see that. Yeah, sometimes seeing it is worse. But, you know,

sometimes not seeing it is almost worse, you know, because like you said, you're playing through your mind. Okay, it's not a bear. Cougar's not going to do that. If you don't believe in Bigfoot, then it has to be a man, a big man,

and what in the world is he doing in the middle of nowhere at 12 o'clock at night in December walking across the river? I mean, nothing would add up for being a man. You mentioned you went back there and you fly-fished? Yeah, so my wife and I just went back recently, actually maybe six months ago. It was the first time I've been back. And it's one of those places that I've wanted to go back for a while. It's so beautiful.

It's an incredible camps, you know, campsite, like all along this river, and they've got wild trout. And finally did it. And my wife and I actually stayed at the exact same spot where the incident happened. I thought my brain was going to explode. So in my head, what I thought was maybe this was something that walked down one mountain, crossed the water, and walked up this other one. I tried to tell myself, this is not, you know, it's not like you're in a habituation zone or something. Like, I really felt like whatever happened to my friend and I was something transiting. That was the feeling I got.

And so it was important for me to go back and just camp there. And we did. I slept, you know, maybe a couple of hours. But it was so amazing to be there. And actually to show my spouse, like, during the daylight, I was like, this is where I heard it jump from. This is the part of the water it crossed from. This is where it walked up to us.

This is how it circled us. and this is where it went up to bank. And where it went up to bank, I mean, you're looking almost like 35, 40 degree probably hill. That, you know, it's actually made it, it made it even more, I don't know, more intense even seeing it during daylight and as an older individual to see the terrain that it came down,

crossed, and went up. You know, I thought that was pretty intense. just to see that. Yeah, it could have been just passing through. And I think it's important that you went back. I think it's important for people to go back where the encounter took place. I don't know that it will give you a closure, but there's something about going back to that spot. There was another incident you and I were going to chat about it.

It was a real weird incident. Did this happen in this area where this first encounter took place? No, so my wife and I actually just had something happen. I guess maybe it was like seven, seven or eight months ago. We went on a, we're both big into fly fishing, backpacking, camping. We do a lot of rock climbing, just outdoor activities. And we went on this camping trip. Actually, it was Fourth of July.

this past year. There's a really well-known fishing area in Tennessee called Teleco River. Anybody that's listening to this, that's from this area, everybody knows Teleco. And there's a wild river that's just up from it called the Bald River. And it's super fun, go up camp and fish some wild fish. we went up, we were thinking, we were like, oh, I think it was actually like Fourth of July weekend or like within a day or two of it where like we're going to be swamped up here and there was nobody. It was the weirdest thing to go up there. And it's, the campsite area is not huge.

I mean, it might hold, you know, five individual campsites or six or so, you know. And no one was there though. And we were pumped. We were like, that's awesome. We'll take. this very back spot and you know we're having the time of our lives there was me and my spouse and uh our dog mountain girl we were there for three days and then over the next several days it was just like so many weird things happening it was like the first day uh at the end of the day and you know it's like things that you can chalk up and might add together in the long run but it's like First day, it's like her glasses. We had them.

Couldn't find them. And at the end of every day, like, you know, we put all our fishing stuff, including our glasses, all in the same spot. And it was like, first day, glasses gone. Second day, my glasses gone. And then that night, we went camping or no, we went fishing down. And we were maybe like half a mile, three quarter mile from our campsite. and there was just dead wind. And we'd seen a bunch of copterheads that day.

And so we had our dog with us. And we were kind of driving the car down the road. And Sarah was like, I'm going to go get in the car with our dog Mountain Girl. I was like, cool. You know, I have maybe an hour's worth of daylight. I'm just going to go down this bank. I'm going to fish it for a little bit. And she went up to the car.

I went down. We were maybe 40 yards across. and went down zero win. Next thing I know it sounds like, you know, a major league slugger hit a tree. And I look up into my left and I see this tree that looks like maybe it's 12 inches, 15 inches cross come tumbling down. Like you just hear the snap and this tree come tumbling.

and it all happened at once of me looking up, seeing where the tree is falling, seeing our car, and seeing them in the car, and I threw my fly rod. And I honestly thought, I was like, oh, my God, I'm about to watch the two people, you know, the person and dog that I care the most about get smushed by this tree. And it lands perfectly in a fork of another tree, maybe 30 feet above them. and I run up to him and you know my spouse was telling she was like I thought a rainstorm was coming because she heard it coming

it just sounded like that loud like soft to loud and so she thought that you know like this rainstorm was coming through and I ran up to the car and was like oh my God are you guys all right and I got to him and got him out and I was like okay

this just happened this is kind of crazy things were still falling I was like we need to go I don't know what just happened. There was zero wind, I mean zero wind. You could drop a feather and it would land right in front of you. There was probably a 12 to 15 inch tree that dropped and almost smushed them. And I didn't realize until the next day when I went back, because it was like, I got to see this.

It was a damn green tree. There wasn't rot. All the leaves. All the leaves were perky. it was one of those things that you think, and I all, and I didn't go, I didn't even want to go up the hill. Like, we literally drove under it on our way out to look at it.

We rushed back to the campsite, which once again, it's not very far, you know, where maybe quarter mile to half a mile away or so. And we rushed back to our campsite. We're like, all right, we're going to, this is where we're just going to, you know, hang out, take a deep breath. That was weird. wake up the next morning we pack up camp as we pack up camp one of the things from what i did

in the military is like i'm very oCD like i've got uh ways to pack things like everything has its place so when we pack i already know in the car where everything's going to go and there was this one picnic table and our dog mountain girl was hanging out underneath the picnic table and i gave her a little bit of food, water, and I put her bag on the table. Well, I only brought enough for that. And so her bag was empty. I think literally her bag, it was like an old, like Whole Foods bag or something. And it might have had a couple of like empty trash bags in it that we use as, you know, like

poop bags or something. But there was no food, you know, no treats, anything like that in it. It was just a bag of bags. And I put that on the picnic table on the side. seat and Mountain Girl was underneath the table. Sarah and I were 10 feet away. We were packing up our camp and we packed up our camp and maybe halfway through Mountain Girl just barks once real loud. It was just like this almost like a startled bark and we investigated it. We're like, all right, maybe she was getting messed with by bees. You know, I don't know what's going on.

we go back, we keep packing, and we get all our stuff together. And I started looking at it. I'm like, hey, where did you put Mountain Girls bag? And she's like, what are you talking about? I'm like, well, Mountain Girls food bag. Like, you know, it was literally right here. It was on this bench. She's like, it's, you know, I haven't touched it.

And we started going back and forth. We're like, well, there's no humans out here within, I don't know, 10 miles of us. Like, where, you know, where's that? this bag at. And so we go back to the car and we even unpack the car, take everything out, go through everything and we're like, where the head, like there's a bag here. Like it was literally right here on this bench and now it's not here. And we unpack everything. We go through everything. We put it back in the car and we have this moment where we look at each other with this like uneasy feeling like I want to get out of here.

And so we put everything back real quick. And I think she even like had to pee and I was like, there's no time to pee. Well, like, you know, if we go, like we're going together. You know, it's like from now on now, there's, you know, no one leaves with that. Like we maintain visual contact from here on until we're out of the woods. Like we literally, like you, now and girl, everybody, we, everybody's got to have eyes on each other. and we load up and drive out. And I remember the next day I went to work.

She actually had that day off and she was unpacking the car and sending her a message like, please tell me you found that. And she just, it was a simple response of, nope, it's gone. Yeah, that's strange. Very strange. How was your dog acting that whole time? And even after you guys got in the car, did you pay attention to your dog? kind of the way it was behaving?

She, so she is very passive by nature, but she seemed even more on guard, like her ears were up. It just seemed like she was constantly scanning. And it was one of those things that, it's like, all right, well, she seems like she, you know, there's something out here. Like, she was just scanning.

She just seemed a little bit on edge when that's not really, not really what she does typically. And so that made me even more nervous. Like, all right, well, she's nervous. I'm nervous. Yeah, I've had friends who have served, and they're very meticulous when they pack. I mean, maybe it's something with the military,

but they are very OCD when you guys pack stuff. And what do you make of that just disappearing? I don't know. It broke my brain, you know. It literally, it broke my brain. I don't know. It was one of those things that I know for a fact where it was. And when I went to check on it, it was not there.

And I'm talking about we were 10 feet away. 10 feet. 10 feet away. That's it. Is there? Not there. There? Not there.

Yeah, makes you wonder. I mean, stuff's disappearing. I know Bob Garrett used to always call these things, campsite robbers because they come in and take all your stuff in the middle of the night. But you guys are right there. And, you know, all the other stuff going on, the tree knocking and then the tree falling over. And your dog barking or doing that real quick bark, it makes me wonder what in the world. Have you guys been back to this area?

No, we actually haven't been back since then. we would, we want to. It's one of our favorite places. It's an absolutely beautiful area. You know, and we've been there numerous times before. It was just one of those things that, you know, that was the time when it happened. You know, that was the weirdness. Yeah, I appreciate you sharing the second incident.

I mean, I know you didn't see anything. You didn't see the creature, but it's weird. That's a really, I'm not sure what to make of it. the first incident that happened to you would have definitely scared me. I know that was 18 years ago that it happened to you. And I know you've had time to kind of think about things. And you've listened to the show. I ask everyone, Nick, on the show, what do you think Sasquatch is?

And obviously there's no wrong answer. But what are your thoughts? You know, I think I've gone on a roller coaster ride of belief when it came to what these things actually are. You know, everybody starts out with like, well, this is just a strange monkey that's living in the woods. And I went through this period of, you know, maybe it's something close to Neanderthal, Homer Erectus. You know, it's another form of human. And I do think it is a, you know, there is a human characteristic there.

but the more I've looked into it, the more I've heard, you know, other experiences. And, you know, I did not see visually what was messing with us. I think there's something more. It's really hard to put a finger down on. You know, it's physical. It's there. You know, there are footprints. There are things that are left behind.

But we're still, you know, what is this? 2023 and we're still having this conversation. How is that? How is this 2023 and we're still having this conversation when this is something that, you know, the famous Patty footage, you know, happened, what, like 50, 60 years ago? Yeah, you bring up a good point about it being 2023 and we're really not that much further ahead. And I'm with you.

I think that they are physical. but there is a lot of weird things that go on within encounters. And if you get a chance, go back and read Fred Beck's account. Everyone knows the Ape Canyon story where on Mount St. Helens, these apes attack these miners in a cabin and they shot their way out. Go back and read his account. You can read it online. And there's a lot of weird stuff that happened prior to everyone knows they, you know, You know, the apes attack the cabin.

Most of the people don't know what happened prior to that. And there's a lot of weird stuff, Fred talks about stuff appearing and disappearing. And, I mean, it gets weirder than you might think. But you do bring up a great point. You know, it is 20, 23. And really, what do we have to show that this thing is out there? It's definitely food for thought. And I really enjoyed chatting with you, Nick.

I can't thank you enough for taking the time to come on the show. Oh, thank you, Wes. You know, I really appreciate everything you do. It's amazing that, you know, you and, you know, listen to your buddy, Tony. You know, the platform that you give folks like us, yeah, just the opportunity to be able to speak on this and go back to that time, whether it was, you know, six months ago or 20 years ago or 40 years ago. Yeah, I really do appreciate it. Thanks, Nick.

And that's it for tonight, everyone. Remember, if you've had an encounter, shoot me an email. My email address is Wes at Sasquatch Chronicles.com. Hope everyone has a great week. I will see you guys next time.