Sasquatch Chronicles - SC EP:1026 America's Boogeyman And Sasquatch

Episode Date: January 27, 2024

Tonight I will be speaking to John. John writes "In 2017 we took our cadets out to an FTX (Field Training Exercise) near Tenino, WA. On the 1st night we heard what I now know to be tree knocks, which was curious but nothing unnerving, so we really paid no attention to it. But the 2nd night… around 0130 (1:30 am) we heard a LOUD, chilling, otherworldly yell, that got all the staff out of our tents at lightning speed and on immediate high alert. The length… of the howl / screaming growl; NOTHING I know of has a lung capacity that large. I'm a hunter & fisherman, so I spend a fair amount of time in nature (or at least, I used to) and I've never heard anything like that, ever, in my life. A sustained vocalization of approx 25-30 seconds in one breath. It was chilling. Almost paralyzing. What truly stood my hair on end, was some kind of infrasound reverb passing through my vital organs that accompanied the yell. Like a lion's huff. I Felt the sound waves ripple through my body, vibrating my guts. The voice was strange too. As if multiple sets of vocal cords were overlaid, activating all at once. Like 2 or 3 voices of different octaves and pitch, but altogether, wrapped up in a singular voice. I know that sounds insane, but it's difficult to describe. The 2nd vocalization had us back in our tents drawing our firearms… but for the first time, I had no confidence in my weapon against whatever made that sound. It was so intimidating. I felt thoroughly vulnerable, despite being armed. I mean Utterly helpless. We heard tree knocks again shortly after, and then another vocalization from the other side of the field in the opposite tree line and then tree knocks from that location as well. I don't know if there were two of them communicating across the field, or if it was the same one circling and repositioning around our perimeter. Whichever it was, it sounded aggressive. It certainly wasn't happy we were there. Like I said previously, we never saw it, because it was in the darkness beyond the glow of our bonfire in the center of camp. On the other hand, I hated being so exposed because we were at a tactical disadvantage. We were illuminated by the fire, so it could see us, but we couldn't see it. I wish I had brought NVG's. (I certainly will next time) A rock was thrown at our campfire where we, the staff were in befuddled conversation, about just what the hell to do. A few more rocks were thrown at us periodically but eventually it got quite. Obviously, we couldn't go back to sleep. We stayed up, and remained on watch until sunrise. We packed up and left the following morning."

And so a couple of the staff members had gone to sleep as well. A few of us were still awake and we were just kind of BSing and chit-chat with the kids that were on Firewatch hanging around the campfire. And we started hearing these sounds coming from the woods coming out of the tree line. And there were loud thunks, which I know now to be tree knocking, which I had no idea what that was. You know, I mean, I didn't believe in Sasquatch or anything like that at the time, so I never really dug too deep into the lore or anything. It sounded like logs, man, like the circumference of, it was like a smaller tree had fallen,

and like it had picked up a thinner tree and was hitting a bitter one because they weren't cracks like sticks. They were deep thunks. Dunk, dunk, dunk. I mean, they were, they were, They were deliberate. And this loud, chilling, otherworldly scream, this loud yell came bellowing through the camp. It was paralyzing.

We're all frozen, and we're looking around the vocalization ends. And we are all looking at each other. Like, what the hell are we going to end? We're standing around the campfire. Like, what is going on, right? So we're talking, but we're trying to scan and look and see. And a rock comes flying in to the camp. Like, I didn't know what it was.

I heard the thud, and my buddy goes, whoa, dude, that's a rock. Something just threw a rock at us. 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 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 forth, back and forth. I know what a bear looks like, and there is no way on this planet but what I saw the bears. What are you putting? Jesus Christ, you better 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 in any. Uh-oh. And you're listening to the best podcast ever, Sasquatch Chronicles. The Marines. America's Boogie Man. Welcome to the show, everyone.

Thanks for being here tonight. We've got a great show plan for you. We'll be chatting with John. And John actually had an encounter in Tenino, Washington. And Tenino is notorious for sightings. It's an area where it's shocking how many sightings come out of that area, because there's not a lot of people that live there. But he took these kids out on this camping trip.

I'll kind of let John go into it. and they had a very, very long night. But again, I'll let John go into it. 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 if you get a chance, check out Sasquatch Chronicles.com. You can become a member and get additional shows. Let's jump into it tonight.

I want to welcome to the show, John. John, thanks for coming on. Thank you for having me. Yeah, and I wanted to ask you, John, prior to this incident that happened to you in 2017 out there in Tenina, Washington, what was kind of your thoughts about Sasquatch? What was your feelings about the subject if it was brought up to you? Fairy tales and fun campfire stories, you know, ghost stories that you tell in the dark to freak out, you know, your friends or just, you know, when you want to hear a creepy story, you get chill bumps, you know. But I never took it seriously, not until that night. I hear you. Well, if you would, take me back to 2017.

What were you doing? And walk us into what happened? So, yeah, I'm a veteran of the United States Marine Corps. And I was also a private security contractor and became the commander of an ROTC unit in Washington. we take our kids on all different types of training modules and encampments and stuff like that. And this particular weekend, we had taken them out to an FTX, right, which is a field training exercise. And so we, one of our staff members had a personal connection to somebody who had a large swath of land up in the Tenino area, Tenino, Washington. So we took the kids out on this camping trip and there's, you know, acres and acres.

acres, I mean, dozens of acres of land. It was huge property. And there was forests and, you know, there was a river that cut through it. And so we were going to be able to do all kinds of really cool stuff with the kids, you know, fire pits and fire safety and, you know, how to build shelters and, you know, tarp shelters and, you know, water filtration and stuff like that. And so we brought some paintball guns and the kids were going to have war games and, you know, all kinds of fun stuff for them. And so we go out and we set up that morning. We go when we set up camp and got a big, you know, bonfire pit right in the center of camp.

And then we've got our, you know, the two big GP tents, general purpose tents. They're great big, you know, 15 by 30 or so, you know, size tints. Big, big heavy green canvas tents that are meant to be used out in the field, you know, get rained on, snowed on. And they're really thick and durable, military grade, you know, know, GI issue tents. And so we've got a couple of those for the kids. We've got the staff tents also kind of surrounding those and then some on the other side

of the campfire, right? So the staff tents are kind of encircled around the entire campsite. So we take the kids out and we have a full day of training and, you know, all kinds of fun stuff. We let them after the day's training, you know, we went and hung out. down at the river and, you know, everyone was splashing and, you know, playing. And we had a great time. We came back to camp and, you know, we grilled out and all that stuff. And the kids went to bed. They hit the rack. And, you know, the staff members, we stayed up for a little while.

And we were instructing the kids with Firewatch, right? So Firewatch for anybody who's unfamiliar with the term is a standard practice in the military for guard duty, right? your standing post. It's called Firewatch in case there's, you know, a fire on post or there's a fire within your camp or, you know, they can sound the alarm. Somebody stays awake at night. Generally, it's either depending on the size of your unit, it's between two and four Marines or two or four guys that patrol around and keep an eye out on and everything. And that was to prevent the enemy also from sneaking in in the middle of the night and cutting the throats of your, your squad mates who are asleep, right? So somebody's always awake at night.

And so all the kids had gone and hit the rack. They're all in their tents. And so a couple of the staff members had gone to sleep as well. A few of us were still awake and we were just kind of BSing and chit-chatting with the kids that were on fire watch hanging around the campfire. And we started hearing these sounds coming from the woods coming out of the tree line, right? And there were loud thunks, which I know now to be tree knocking, which I had no idea what that was. I mean, I didn't believe in Sasquatch or anything like that at the time. So I never really dug too deep into the lore or anything.

The knocks, right? It didn't sound like two sticks. It didn't sound like sticks smacking together. It sounded like logs, man, like the circumference of it was like. Like a smaller tree had fallen and like it had picked up a thinner tree and was hitting a bigger one because they weren't cracks like sticks. They were deep thunks. Dunk. Dunk.

I mean, they were deliberate. But the circumference of it, like I said, it was it was like a smaller tree trunk being whacked against a standing tree trunk. And so we ended up really ignoring it. It was kind of a, what the heck is that kind of thing, you know? And oh, well, there's animals out here in these woods and all. And so we just let it go. So the next morning we get up and we have another full day and, you know, we're doing star chart navigation and, you know, little paintball war games and all that stuff, right?

Had them out all over the property. I don't know, five or six mile hike, you know, with their rucksacks. really tuckering them out. And then again, same thing. We let them play in the river, you know, a lot of military customs and courtesies and survival training and stuff like that. But also at the same time, they're kids, you know, they're not soldiers, they're not Marines. You know, we're not turning them into little warriors. You know, it's just to give them everything that they need in order to be successful in life, right? Give them all the tools so that they can chase personal excellence and, you know, whatever it is that they, in their

to pursue in life, they'll have the confidence and, you know, the fortitude to go after it with, you know, with a military tactical mindset. But like I said, they're kids. So we want them to have fun and, you know, have a good time, water balloons and all that stuff. So on the second night, we get back to camp and everyone got MREs, right? We're all sitting around the campfire, having fun and, you know, everyone's eating. And then shortly after the kids go off to bed and, again, some of the staff members go to bed.

So there were three or four of us that were, you know, hanging around the staff members. There were, sorry, let me be more specific. So there were four of us that were around the campfire with a firewatch. And so we, you know, told the firewatch, here's your post, right? And so Firewatch, there's, generally it's a one-hour watch. So you've got two of the kids that are on watch. and then there's a roster. So the two kids do their watch,

and then an hour later, they wake up the next set, and then they get up to do their firewatch, and then the previous kids who are on watch, they hit the rack, right? So it's a rotation. And it's kind of the same thing with the adults, right? But we were doing a two-hour watch. And we always want to have one adult who's awake at all times, you know, in case of an emergency.

So in any case, the adults, the adult staff members, we go and we hit the rack, right? We go to bed and it's probably around 01, 0.1, 015, you know, it's 1 o'clock in the morning. And we're all getting tucked in and settled in. And I'm starting to drift off. You know, I'm already in that place between awake and sleep. and I woke up from sheer abject terror, this loud, chilling, otherworldly scream, this loud yell came bellowing through the camp. And it shocked me awake. It got me out of my sleeping bag and unzipped my tent.

And as I'm popping out of the tent, my three other staff member buddies who had been awake, get up out of their tents and we're looking at each other and like did you hear that i heard that okay you heard that too right we're not i'm not i wasn't dreaming and everyone's trying to figure out like what is going on right and then there's a moment of silence and as we're trying to figure out dude what in the world was there's a second vocalization and that one got us back into our tents and so you got to realize because we are taking kids out into the field right there's cougar and bear, we're out in the middle of nowhere, we bring our firearms because the safety of our cadets is the primary consideration of the utmost importance is the safety of those kids. So,

two of my other staff member buddies have their ARs. Another one only had his sidearm. I've got my sidearm, but I've got my Mossburg 500 tactical combat shotgun. I've got it loaded with six shells in the weapon itself and then six shells on a rack on the buttstock. And I've got double-a-buck as well as PDX personal defense shredder rounds, big one-ounce deer slug with some double-a-buck ball-bearing rounds in there as well. So I've got some heavy hitting ammo. I didn't want to use birdshot or anything. God forbid there's a bear or a mountain lion or something like, right?

I need something that's going to hit. So we pop up out of our tents, right? And I've got my shotgun. I've got I've got the weapon, you know, shouldered at the ready. My other two buddies with their ARs pop out. And we're all looking at each other. And we're in the tent, draw our weapons, get back out of the tent. And we're looking around and the vocalization is still going.

This was a sustained yell. It had to be a good 25, maybe 30 seconds in one breath. It was paralyzed. I now I'm a hunter and a fisherman right I'm an avid outdoorsman I spend a I spend a lot of time in nature right well at least I used to ever since this encounter I have not gone out into the field by myself because there's something in those woods but I haven't gone camping by myself or fishing or hunting by myself since this encounter but I've been I've spent a lot of time out in the field and I have never heard anything like that ever in my life. You know, I've heard elk and, you know, all different kinds of wildlife.

And this sustained yell, it was like, it was so weird. It was like a scream and a growl and a yell all in one. It was like, it was like multiple two or three sets of vocal cords that were overlaid on each other, right? They were all different pitch and octave doing different things, but all wrapped up together in one voice. It was very unsettling. It was like two or three voices all together at one time. And the duration of how long it lasted, there's nothing that I know of that has a lung capacity, that size, which made me think, or how huge it, whatever this thing is, how gargantuan can it be. right now I never I hadn't seen anything right all all we heard was yell but it was weird it was like an instinctual it was instinct I knew that whatever this thing is is it's massive and it really gave me goosebumps and my hair stood up when there was some kind of low frequency bellowing that accompanied the vocalization right it was a reverberation

of like sound waves. I felt them pass through my vital organs, right? It was like infrasound, right? Like a lion, you know, like a lion or a tiger will huff. And you get that. But you can feel the airwaves moving around you, right? And I felt these sound waves ripple through my body. It was vibrating my guts.

And I looked down because I felt my, I felt my guts vibrating. And when I looked down, I remembered looking at my shotgun. And for the first time, I felt I had no confidence in my weapon. Does this shotgun even have the stopping power to stop whatever this, whatever this thing is? It's gargantuan with a lung capacity that large to sustain a vocalization that long. The multiple vocal, it was terrified. And the biggest fear that I had was I didn't know of my weapon. Like I said, I had no confidence in it.

And I've got about 35 to 40 cadets that I need to protect. They're my first priority. So we're all frozen and we're looking around the vocalization ends. And we are all looking at each other. Like, what the hell are we going to? And we're standing around the campfire. Like, what is going on? So we're talking, but we're trying to scan and look and see.

And a rock comes flying in to the camp. Like, I didn't know what it was. I heard the thud, and my buddy goes, whoa, dude, that's a rock. Something just threw a rock at us. And almost instantaneously, there were tree knocks that came from the opposite tree line. So I'm sorry, let me back up a second here. Our camp was in the middle of a field. and there was it was probably about 20 meters to the tree line to our north and about another 15 to 20 meters or so a little bit less to the tree line to our south the vocalizations that we had heard and the tree knocks that we had heard were coming from the north we're standing around trying to total bewilderment befuddled like what the hell is this what are we going to do we've got kids to protect what

Have you ever heard anything like this in your life ever? Do you know what this is? And we've got guys that have multiple, you know, combat tours. We've got guys that have been deployed to other countries and, you know, different areas. We've got national guardsmen that have been out, you know, helping with, you know, flooding or natural disasters and stuff. So, I mean, we've got decades of military experience that is in this huddle. And none of us have ever heard anything like this before. and then all of a sudden to the south there's tree knocking and then a vocalization coming from the south so now our attentions to the south now we're split it was it was we couldn't figure out right my mind started racing oh my god is there more than one how many of them are out there right are we surrounded what what is going and i'm and i in my mind i like instinctually i'm like dude it can't be there's no way that this is

you know, this can't be what I think it is, right? Like, you're crazy. But then I, you know, I'm trying to rationalize what I'm hearing and what I'm feeling because the air is strange too, right? Like the air density got thicker. It was strange. It was almost like the air was palpable, right? It seemed thicker than normal.

Like it was really thick and humid. There wasn't a lot of humidity. You know, it's not like I, you know, like in Miami, right? you got 95% humidity. It's harder to breathe because there's so much moisture in the air. It didn't feel like moisture, but the air was thicker that I had noticed. I'm not going to say it was harder to breathe, but it didn't feel normal. So I'm trying to rationalize what's going on.

And while all this is going, you know, now I'm hearing vocalization and tree knocks coming from the tree line to the south. So now I'm trying to figure out, okay, is this the same one? Has it moved? Are there multiple? Are we surrounded? Or is this thing encircling our camp repositioning? Either way. Either way, it's, you know, I'm feeling sick to my stomach because if there's more than

one, what are we going to do? If it's the same one, why is it moving around us and encircling? And so trying to figure out what? what's going on? If it's more than one, are they communicating with each other? Is something going to happen? And two of my buddies are facing down to the south, to the south tree line. One of my, and I'm still facing the north tree line, right? And we're looking out. And as we're hearing these tree knocks in these vocalizations, we're kind of strafing the area. Like, we're trying to figure it out. and I'm like, dude, we're we're kind of split between aiming and looking to the north tree line,

the south tree line, the other to the east and west, the darkness in the field. We are completely exposed. So we've got our focus and attention split between the north and the south tree line. And we're in the middle of our camp, around our campfire. and we've got tents all around us. And so we can't, we've got our weapons up. But, I mean, if something happened, we can't start firing, we can't fire into the tents. So we've got to push out.

So we realize, okay, we've got to get outside the perimeter. And as we're getting outside the perimeter, I'm thinking, oh, my God, we're illuminated. We're in the middle of this campfire. whatever's out there can see us and we can't see it and I'm fighting the urge I know I've got to step outside the perimeter and my other buddies are we're fighting the instinct to not have to go out but we've got 35 kids to protect we've got other adult staff members we've got other people there we told fire watch sit down don't you move you stay right here do not move and so we push out right and so we don't push push push push and we move between the tents to the outside of the perimeter right

It's the outer part of the glow of the camp. And so we've got the campfire behind us at our backs. And we're, I don't know, maybe three to five feet outside the tent line. And I can just imagine what it must be seeing. We're little black silhouettes. So we're illuminated and I'm trying to focus my eyes out into this pitch black darkness. West, there was no moon, no stars. just from the edge of the glow of our campfire beyond,

beyond where the light had extended from the bonfire, also the tents, the GP tents getting in the way of that light, right? The shadows are playing tricks on you and, you know, the flickering of the flame and our eyes are trying to adjust to the darkness. And I was so frustrated in that moment because I didn't have, we didn't have any NVGs. I didn't have any fleer, you know, thermal sites or anything.

We were just going camping with the kids. Why would we need NVGs, right? So I didn't even think about grabbing my Bushnell, which I'll never make that mistake again. I learned that lesson. Anytime we ever go out into the field, we're taking, you know, infrared night vision. And that's something else that I've always wondered about, which we can circle back to at a later time. I wonder if they're able to see in the infrared. spectrum, if they are able to vocalize in the infrasound spectrum, I wonder if their vision is

in the infrared spectrum. If I kicked on my night vision, would it be able to see, you know, the glow of the IR? So, but in any case, sorry, I'm, you know, the mind rambles and thinks. So my eyes are trying to adjust to the darkness. and I'm looking out I've got no night vision and another rock comes flying in over my

buddy's head, he yells, heads up, and we all look and then it hits the center of, it hits the campfire and it just, it's a big puff of bright light and cinders and smoke going up and it illuminated everything for a moment.

And man, I'm trembling, right? I am not able to control how my body is adrenalineizing. I'm don't. pumping adrenaline into my body. And I had never been, man, all my experience, everything that I've been through, I have never felt that kind of fear. I mean, it was, it literally felt like life and death.

And not my life and death, just me. It's the people and the kids that we have to protect. And I remember standing at the edge of the glow, looking out into the darkness, terrified. My, my shotgun, my hands are shaking. the weapons wobbling in my hands and I'm trying to pull my shit together and it all of a sudden gets completely silent. Well, I think it had already been silent, but I just, I noticed it at that point. So I'm looking out into the darkness. I've got no NVGs.

I've got no vision beyond, you know, maybe five meters past where I am. It's pitch black and it's dead silent. No crickets, no tree frogs, nothing. There's no owl hoots. There is no sound of animal life whatsoever. It was kind of chilling, like it was blood cartling in a way, right? My blood ran cold. I'm like, God, we're in the middle of the woods, and it's dead silent.

So we're spread out. We're outside the perimeter of our campsite just beyond the glow of the campfire so that, you know, our eyes can adjust to the darkness. And we're standing out there for a few minutes. And then I hear the infra... The infrasound again. There was no yell this time. There was no yell, no scream, no howl.

There was no vocalization of any way or of any kind. But I felt the reverb in my guts again without hearing the yell. and what in that moment what really freaked me out was whatever this thing is is massive if it wanted to it could it could have tore through our camp like a locomotive and there's nothing we could have done to stop it i don't i don't i remember thinking that i've got 12 shots right i've got 12 shells in this shotgun. And I don't know if it's going to do a damn thing. And it's dead silent. And this was the scariest part because nothing had happened, right? A couple of rocks got thrown. There was loud, intimidating, utterly intimidating vocalizations, the tree knocking, but there was nothing. You know,

we never saw it. So it was just sound, but it was close. Whatever it was, it was entirely too close, man. It was, you know, it's right there. It's danger close. And you're trying to focus. It's dead silent. And I remember thinking, you know, it's going to tear through our camp. And part of the reason why we had to push out beyond the line was because I was, we had to be able to adjust to the darkness and see. Well, whatever this thing is, if it or if there was multiple, if they ransacked through the camp, if they came bounding in. What if it snatched somebody? It came out of the darkness, jumped into the light, grabbed someone, and jumped and disappeared back into the darkness.

They would have been erased, right? They would have gone. Now, what are we going to do? How are we going to track, trace anybody down? The last thing that I, there is no possible way that I could go back to town and have to tell a parent that a Sasquatch ran off with their. kid. How do you explain something like that to somebody? The psychosis of how crazy that sounds. So in that moment, right, I knew, okay, we got to push with every, we have to protect these kids.

We've got to get outside the perimeter of the tents. So that's when we pushed out into the darkness was because whatever is coming, if anything is coming, because whatever it is sounds aggressive. But there hasn't been any moves made yet. It has not encroached far enough. into the light for us to see it. But I would rather die than lose a kid and have to go back to town and try to convince a parent that a damn big foot

snatched their kid and ran off into the forest. So I figured, you know, it's got, it's got to, it's going to get through me before it gets to any of these kids. So we pushed out outside the fence line. So, or I'm sorry, outside the,

outside the tents, right, outside the perimeter. So, in, In my mind, the safety of the kids is top priority. Whatever it is has to get through me first. I'm going to do everything I can, everything possible to protect these kids. But if it's going to snatch somebody and yank someone into the woods, it's going to be me before any of these kids. Or it's got to be one of the other staff members. It's got to be an adult.

The kids take top priority. So we push out a little bit further. And I'm right at the edge of the glow of the bonfire. and, you know, we hear the reverb again. And there was no more Trenox, right? I just felt the vibration in my chest. And so we just stayed. We had our weapons up trained out, trying to keep, you know, trying to keep the camp to our backs as much as possible.

But the scary thing, though, on top of it is in all of this, right? your body is adrenalineizing. You're trying to, you're trying to figure out exactly what the hell is going on. You're trying to justify what you're hearing. You're trying to make sense of it all. And as we were scanning, right, there's nothing. You can't see anything. It's pitch black.

And we're just kind of, you know, we're training our weapon, right? We're creating manageable sections of fire. So as I'm, as I'm, you know, strafing from left to right, my eyes are struggling. I mean struggling trying to see the tree line. I can't see the trees. I can't see anything. It's pitch black like a dark blanket was thrown over the entire area. I couldn't even see the top of the tree line up against the sky.

I don't know what happened. I can't explain why I couldn't see the top of the trees. It was just pitch black. And as I'm strafing and I'm scanning, I don't see anything. I'm not hearing anything. And then I'm wondering, oh my God, if something happens, we start firing and we start dumping. Are there any houses on the other side of this tree line that we're not aware of? The owner of the property, what direction is their house in?

If we start firing, how far, you know, a couple of these guys got A-Rs, how far are these rounds going to go? Where's the nearest road? If we start firing, God forbid, is a round going to impact a vehicle passing away. And so now we're thinking, oh, my God, I don't want to fire. because I can't see where the rounds are going. I don't have a natural berm. And so then I realized, okay, this is whatever is going to happen. It has to be up close.

You can't, and obviously you can't, you can't just go firing into the darkness, right? You have to have target acquisition. You can't squeeze your trigger until you've properly identified your target and verified that it's a threat. But we realized that it had to be danger close. So I yelled over to the other guys. I'm like, hey, tuck in, pull in, right? And so we pulled back in a little bit so that this way, whatever it was,

it would have to come into the light in order for us to see it and get sights on it. So all that span the time from like 0.130 till about, I don't know, 0200 somewhere. I mean, it was about 30 minutes, maybe 40 minutes, all of it. But it seemed like it was just rapid so fast, one thing after another, after another. Because when you're when you're adrenalineizing, time, man, time just zips by. A lot of people say, oh, time slows down. Bullshit, it speeds up. And in that moment, do you crumble or do you get up and do your job?

And so you forget everything in that moment when your body has, you had a full adrenaline dump. And you're not able to control the rate at which you adrenalize. You're not able to control the stages of. moving into flow state. And when that happens, that's a dangerous spot because now your vision is impaired. Your thought processes are not what they should be, right? You're not able to make smooth calculated decisions. Time, there's like a time dilation.

It shifts. And so all that, you have to take a second, pull, you know, you got to pull your shit together, take a deep breath, exhale, and then execute, right? You've got to go to work. And you understand that whatever's going to happen is going to happen. But these are the hazards of my chosen profession. So, you know, I'm not a school teacher. I'm not a, you know, I'm not an insurance salesman. This is what we're here for.

And now that, once again, we've got that feeling while on a camping trip, needing to protect a group of kids. I had never felt fear like that ever in my life. So we pulled in and we still obviously none of us were going to be able to go back to sleep. So we we tucked in. We got a little bit closer. We kind of stayed inside up against the tents, right, between the tents. So we weren't outside the wire anymore.

We pulled in. We were between the tents. The glow from the bonfire had reached out, you know, I don't know, five to 10 meters or something like that. So we were able to see anything that would have came in to breach our performance. perimeter, but nothing ever happened. Sometime, I guess, around 0400 maybe. It was weird. It was like the density and the air changed.

The quality of air shifted. The activity had ceased. It had been quiet for maybe 90 minutes, two hours, and then the air density changed. And then we just stayed up on watch for the rest of the night until the dawn. The sun started to crack and come up over the horizon. And we didn't even wait, you know, to have breakfast or anything. As soon as light came up, we got everybody up and we had everybody starting to break down, you know, we broke camp and packed up and left. And yeah, I don't know.

I know my story is not as sexy as others because we never saw it. I never saw anything. but the sounds, I'll never forget those sounds. Man, I almost filled my diaper when I heard that yell. And the reverberation, whatever we experienced, it was not something in the normal, natural world that you experience on a day-to-day basis. So we just, we couldn't wait to get out of there. So we pulled up 10 pegs, packed everybody up, and we got out. And I don't know.

If nothing else, I think that was, I think that was its polite way of negotiating with us, you know, saying, you're not welcome. Don't come back. You know, that was a kind way of saying, get off my lawn. Yeah, that's a scary night, John. I always say, you know, it's almost worse when you don't see it as opposed to when you do see it. Because at least when you see it, you can anticipate it. what it's going to do, it's movement and what it's going to do next. When you don't see it, that fear becomes like 10 times as bad.

And the vocalization that you guys heard, I know this was back a couple years ago, and you've been looking into it since then. Had you found any vocalization that kind of matches what you guys heard that night? Not really. I mean, I've heard, you know, I've heard some recordings. but a lot of stuff that I've heard are like whoops and howls and I've heard a couple of yells. There was one that sounded sort of like it. It was it sounded masculine, sounded very masculine, but it didn't have the other layers on it.

Now, I don't know if that's if I don't know if that's because it was a recording. And, you know, not really. I've only heard one thing that made it sound, or I've only heard one thing that sounded similar, but it was missing the other, like, two or, you know, the other sets of vocal chords or pitches and octaves on it. But now, only one yell, but it wasn't the same. I haven't heard anything in any other recordings that sounded like it. Yeah, I know what you mean about the multiple vocal chords. they have a weird way of vocalizing.

And I know Jim Sherman, he captured one on a Michigan property. And when you look at it, well, when I hear it, I hear multiple vocal cords. But when you look at it under a spectrograph, it's not a normal, it's not like any animal I've ever heard. And it's not human, whatever this thing is vocalizing. But I almost wonder if you guys heard, have you ever heard the Ohio Hal? I'm sorry. I can't recall offhand. I'm still, I've been doing research and trying to make sense of what had happened. Yeah, and I respect that very much, Sean. The Ohio was captured, I believe in 94, by Matt Moneymaker, but I've had this weird vocalization sent to me from many different states. I'll play it for you here in a second. This one I'll play comes from Maine.

A listener sent this to me. And if my memory's right, this was going on on his property. Let's take a listen. And again, that was from Maine. This next one is the actual Ohio Howl. And I'm curious, did it sound like this? That's the one that I was referring to, yes. It sounded masculine.

It was long and drawn out. but the one that I heard, the one that we heard, was sustained about 25 seconds. It wasn't one voice that kind of went up and then came down and it went back up. It was sustained. It was like, it felt like it was letting us know, this is my territory. It was just, and it sustained it in one breath. and it, you know, it did it. We heard that, you know, multiple times, and it was the same, you know, each time.

So, but that's, I think that's the one that I was referring to. It sounded masculine, but it only says, it sounds like one voice, right? It kind of sounds human, but it, I don't, but it's not. It's not human. Humans don't get that big. There's no, it's impossible for a human to sustain the length, of a yell that long. The lung capacity is just not that large, physically impossible. Yeah, and I was telling you off the air, John, that tonight in Washington has a notorious

reputation for these things. I mean, there are so many encounters that come out of there, and it's not a very big place. There's not a lot of people there. If you're going up and down I-5, if you blink, you'll miss it. So much comes out of there. You know, you're talking. You're walking 20 meters away out there in the dark, which is what, about 60, 65 feet. It's pretty close. When it was vocalizing, was it that close to you? I mean, do you think it was relatively in that range? I couldn't tell you.

I wasn't sure. Whatever it was, it was too close for comfort. I can tell you that. It was loud. I mean, it wasn't like it, ear piercing, but it was close. It was close enough that it made you back up, like, back up, like you wanted to take a couple of steps back.

If I remember correctly, it made me stumble backwards, and I felt so helpless. Now, I'm a Marine. I've got close quarters, you know, close quarters hand-to-hand training, CQB training, studied multiple disciplines of martial arts. I've got black belts and I felt utterly helpless. I felt completely helpless. Even being armed, hand-to-hand training, I don't, man, whatever this thing was, I had a feeling that it would have just, man,

it would have taken me apart. It had just ripped me in half or, I mean, ripped one of my limbs out. I don't think I would have been able to stand up to, I don't, there's nothing I could have done. I felt utterly helpless. and it was entirely too close. I don't know if it vocalized that close, or if it vocalized and then got closer

and knocked on the trees, it couldn't have been, well, the third vocalization sounded a little further away, maybe, you know, maybe 100 feet or so. Yeah, and going back to your comment about the multiple vocal cords, I know what you mean when you say that.

I mean, when these things vocalize, nothing about it sounds right. but as this thing was vocalizing and you're listening to, you know, its cadence and how it's vocalizing, do you think it was the same one that was vocalizing or do you think there was multiple of these things around you vocalizing at you? See, that's why I was curious if it was repositioning because it kind of sounded the same. The third one sounded further away, so I wasn't able to really. tell, you know, but that one didn't sustain the full length of time. So the first one,

it was, it was a short, it was a short, yeah, it was a short burst, right? Maybe, I don't know, seven to ten seconds, right? And that's what, that's what woke us up and, or not woke us up, but that's what got us out of our tents, right? So that first one, seven to ten seconds, and we were like, what the is that? We were stumbling to get out of our. our tents to find out what is going on because it was too close. It's like, is that in the camp? And so that was a short burst. The second vocalization was a long sustained 25 seconds or something like that. And that's when we were stumbling back into our tents to, you know, draw, get out our firearms, get back out of the tent. And we're drawing up. We've got our weapons up in the

shoulder. We're at the ready. And the voice is still going. It's still vocalizing. And then the third one that we heard from across the field and the other tree line, that one was another shorter, short burst. But again, it sounded like there were two or three sets of voices in the same voice. Thinking back on it now, I don't think that it was multiple. I think it was the same one just encircling us and trying to intimidate us saying, hey, get out of here, beat it.

hey, you're not welcome, leave. I think it was moving around, you know, just trying to shoe us away, even in the midst of all that fear and not knowing what's going on, trying to rationalize what's happening, really looking back on it, it was a peaceful negotiator, really. I mean, it didn't do anything. It didn't harm any of us. I think that was just its, you know, very intense, polite way of saying, get off my lawn. Yeah, and I'm grateful that.

that no one was hurt that night. And, you know, you talked about the air changing. You know, when these things are around, it's like the air felt heavy. And I know what you mean. I mean, when these things are around, you feel them prior to actually seeing them. There's a, there's a, ah, it's hard to describe or hard to articulate. It's almost dread, I guess, is a word. But a lot of weird things happen, you know, like the forest takes a

deep breath. All of a sudden, everything shuts off. The insect shut off. Everything shuts off. And that feeling that you had of the air becoming heavy, it almost feels like unnatural. Completely. You know, I've been shot at, you know, and I've been shot. When all of your senses change, your, your vision blurs, and then it gets sharp. Your, your senses are heightened. but I had never experienced a shift in air density before. It was, like I said, it was kind of like a blanket got thrown over the area. It was, the air just seemed thicker somehow. Like I said, it wasn't moisture, though.

It wasn't humidity. It just seemed thicker. And then around, you know, I don't know, maybe 90 minutes or, you know, 90 minutes or two hours or so it lifted slowly. But it was noticeable though. That's the thing. When everything first started happening, it just seemed to go super quick, right? Like one thing after another was just boom, boom, boom, boom.

And it was difficult to try to make sense of everything that was happening. But after things got quiet and everything had been silent, the lifting of the air density or the shift in the air density, the lifting. It was kind of weird to say, but it kind of felt like the lifting of the veil made it easier to breathe. I had, you know, four other veterans that were armed, and none of us felt, none of us felt secure, none of us felt safe. And afterwards, one of my buddies who had, he had 90 rounds of 556, he had three 30 round magazines with him. And he said something similar to me. He said, bro, I don't know if I had enough. He goes, if I unloaded a whole magazine and ejected the mag, popped in a new mag and still went back, he goes, I felt like I didn't have enough ammo.

So, I don't know. But when the air, the air density changed, it was almost like you could take a sigh of relief, right? Like, okay, I think things are normal now, right? Things have gone back to normal. Like, it didn't feel... So it was kind of like, you know, when someone's looking at you, you know, you're sitting at a red light, you know, and you can just feel someone in another car is looking at you or if you're, you know, you're sitting in the library and you're reading and, you know, you just get that feeling someone's looking at you. And it's not even like you look up and look around. You know the direction that it's coming from, right?

It's weird. It's like a, gosh, it sounds so crazy, but ESP and, you know, I don't know, I don't know about. psychic or any of that stuff. But you know when you're being watched, you know when you're being looked at and you always tend to lift your eyes and look up in that direction. There's almost a channel, you know, or there's some type of a draw that pulls you in that direction. And it's kind of like that.

But the strange thing was, and you may be 100% right. There may have been multiple. I'm not able, I'm not an expert. I don't know the difference between, you know, I don't know. It could have been two males that would. talking to each other. But that was something that made me nervous was, are they in a group? Is there a tribe of them?

How many are there? Yeah, and it's terrifying the way they come into a camp. I mean, it's almost like military precision as a way they actually come in. And, you know, I interviewed Rocky Elmore, and I know what you mean about that feeling of being watched. And what was strange is the government trained these, Rocky Elmore was. a border patrol agent. And the way the government trains these guys is they would set up ambush spots around areas where people would cross the border and they would ambush them and arrest

them. But what's fascinating is the way the government trained these guys was to look at the ground when the people are going by. And I asked, Rocky, why is that? Why are you guys looking at their ground. And he said, because people know when they're being watched. And so if you look at the ground, no one gets their spidey senses going off. So I definitely know what you mean. And you had made a comment about, you know, if they can project their voice into this infrasound spectrum, maybe they can see in a different spectrum that we can't. And I interviewed a guy one time. he had these things on his property and he had a camera. I know the camera he had because I had the exact same one.

It was a cannon. And it's a cool camera. It's a daytime camera. But what's cool about it is that night you can actually click on the starlight scope. And if you can't see far enough, you can click on the IR light. He had seen these two creatures on his property and he wasn't sure. Am I looking at shadows? What am I looking at?

So he clicked on the IR light. light, while it looked these things up, the minute he did that, these two creatures turned and looked directly in, you know, in his direction. So I think that they can see in that spectrum. You know, you went from thinking Bigfoot was, hey, it's cool stories to tell around a campfire, but at the end of the day, it's all BS. After this experience, how did it kind of affect you? I walked away from that place knowing that Sasquatch exists. It's not, it's not, I don't even want to say that I believe in Sasquatch. Even though I didn't see it, I know, I know that there's some species out there that exists right beyond, you know, and outside of, you know, and outside of,

our society outside of the human expanse of, you know, growing neighborhoods and, you know, the human society, right? There's something that's beyond it. And the more that we expand in our population, the further we encroach into its natural habitat. And so maybe that's why we're hearing more and more stories because people are venturing further and further out into their land. And the more, you think of all the different cities in different, you know, directions, and people go out, right?

I mean, I think of it as like raindrops in a pond. Every time the raindrop strikes the water, there's a ripple that goes out in a different direction. Well, if there's a lot of ripples, right? Or if there's a lot of raindrops, then it's all rippling in different directions and they're crossing over each other. So it's only natural that people from different towns and cities and counties going out into the wilderness to go camping or hiking or whatever, we're crisscrossing over each other and moving further and further into their habitat, you know, into their natural territories. So saying that I believe in Bigfoot is that is a collection of words that I never thought would come out of my mouth.

Yeah. Yeah, and I understand the way you feel. I mean, it's a hard pill to swallow, especially when after an experience like this, I wanted to ask you, you know, did you guys ever go back to the guy that owned the property and asked him, you know, what hell's going on around your property? So I didn't, but the other staff member who was associated with them spoke to him and said, you know, hey, we had this experience. and he said, oh, yeah, he goes, that happens.

He goes, yeah, there's, we hear it all the time. I don't know. It's only a secondhand account because I didn't speak to him, but from what I heard, he has seen it or he has seen them on more than one occasion being out on the property. It's a large property, so he's out there on a four-wheeler doing different things. And he said that, you know, he's experienced things, you know, a handful of times and but I don't know.

That's a secondhand account. I can't verify that, so I don't want to say anything. But, yes, the owner of the land said that he was aware, you know, that there was activity out there. Yeah, that would have been a nice piece of information you guys had prior to taking a bunch of kids out there to this property. You know, I ask everyone on the show, what do you think Sasquatch is? And there's no wrong answer, John, because no one really knows. But what do you think Sasquatch is? You know, that's a tricky question.

It's multifaceted. I definitely feel like it's a flesh and blood physical creature, but there was a spiritual component to it. There was an aspect of a spirituality to it. And I can't put my finger on it. I can't denote what. I can't explain it. But there was a very surreal spiritual thing. And I mean, and I don't want to be, you know, I know it's so cliche.

I don't want to be that guy that's like, oh, you know, gigantopithecus. But I mean, really, I mean, perhaps it's an offshoot of that, you know, maybe perhaps it's it's some descendant of something that had survived Noah's flood. I'm not sure. But, I mean, we do know, we do know for a fact that gigantopithecus was a, you know, a species that existed. We have proof of that. So whether this is an offshoot of it, you know, as anybody's guess, I don't know.

But what I do know is with so many accounts from around the world at different periods of time when there was no communication between people, right? People weren't even sailing on ships going to different continents yet, right? But you've got the Yetty that's in the Himalayas, right? you've got, and I forget what they're called, but there's a species down in Australia. On every continent, you have ancient civilizations that talk about this gigantic wild man that lives out in the woods. And, you know, when you take all the continents, you piece them together, you put it all together, right? You got pangia. So the same way that, you know, human beings,

are different races and colors and creeds. White people, black people, Asians, Native Americans, we spread out, right? So Pangea was one landmass. And then when the continents separated, these different species, I believe, that, you know, had gone to different areas. They migrated out the same way that humans did. And when Pangea broke apart and split up and the continents moved away from each other, I think these, you know, the genus ended up evolving to its natural habitat that, you know,

wherever it had ended up at. But these civilizations had no means of communication with each other. So you cannot discount multiple civilizations on different continents that had no way of communicating with each other. they've all got stories that are all very similar. So they're different, but they're the same. And I find that fascinating. So there's something definitely out there. Yeah, you're right.

They're seen all over the world. And, you know, Australia has the Yawi. You know, you got the urine. You got the Olmas in Russia. You got, I mean, they're all over the world. And I had the privilege of talking to some Vietnam veterans. that had encounters with what they called the rock apes and, you know, older men now, good guys. And I had the privilege of chatting with them.

And I asked him, you sure it wasn't some other, you know, at this time I'm thinking Sasquatch is some non-human primate we haven't caught up with. And I asked him, you know, he sure wasn't some primate you guys were just running into? Because Vietnam has other primates. And these guys were like, no, these were very, very different than the local primates running around. you know, the non-human primates. And so it does make you wonder. And I understand, too, about the spiritual side you're talking about, because when you're confronted with one of these sayings, fear doesn't even describe the feeling that you have.

You know, I've come across two Black Bear, and thank God they both ran off. And I was scared. And I've come across one cougar here in Washington. And, you know, the cougars in Washington are pretty big. You know, they'll wreck your day, wreck your world. And luckily, it wanted nothing to do with me. But I was scared. When you come across these sayings, fear doesn't begin to describe the feeling.

It's almost like it's beyond fear. It's almost like at any moment your life is going to be taken. Yes, 100%. You're right on target. I mean, you're hitting the nail on the head. It's a completely different level of fear. You know, I've been in situations where my life has been at risk in armed conflict. I've been out hunting.

You know, I've come across mountain lion and, you know, bear. I've heard all manner of different animals. And even when I saw a bear, you know, you're scared because you're like, oh, you know, is it hungry? Is it going to come from me? Or, you know, you're scared. There's a level of fear, right? Your instinct for natural, you know, self-preservation kicks in. This was an entirely different situation.

Fear doesn't even begin to cover it. There's not another word that there's not a word that I know of that describes the level of, what's the word I'm looking for here, like detriment to your life. I don't know. I'd never felt fear like that ever. And with the way the air density changed, That's something that really sticks with me because, you know, even in these fearful situations, I've never felt like the air quality changed.

I've never experienced, you know, an enemy or a dangerous situation where I felt that it was harder to breathe, the air was thicker. And then once it was over, then the air thinned out or, you know, came, I can't explain it, but there's a level of, there's a spiritual component that is associated with this creature. I believe it's flesh and blood, but there's spirit, I mean, I don't know, I don't know if it's interdimensional, you know, I don't know if it phases or phase shifts and I don't want to say teleport or anything like that, but I mean, I, here I am talking about Bigfoot and I say I don't want to get outside the realm of possibility talking about teleportation.

When the daylight came up, you know, and the sunrise cracked over the horizon and we began packing up, I had no desire to go out into the tree line to go look for prints or fur, you know, that might have snagged on a twig or anything like that. I just wanted to pack up and get my kids out of there to safety. You know, so I don't know. But whatever it is, it's a large physical, I believe it's a physical being. Yeah. Yeah.

And, you know, people will say to you, well, it's just fear. You're experiencing fear. That's why the air felt thicker. That's why, you know, on and on and on. It's like, no, I'm already, I'm already scared. This is something, this is something very different. And there is a weird component to running into these things. And it's hard to really put your finger on it.

You know, what is it? Something's very wrong here. But I really appreciate you coming on and sharing it, John. And I value what you do with the kids, you know, looking after the next generation. I think that's, I respect the hell out of it, man. And thank you so much for your service to our country. Oh, you're most welcome, sir. You don't have to thank me for that. It was the greatest honor of my life to serve. And, you know, I'm a, I'm a servant. I serve, you know, I serve my fellow man, but ultimately it's because I'm serving God. And, and I serve God by giving back to the community and doing everything that I can to ensure that my nation and my people and my community is safe and, you know, just prepared for, excellence and whatever, whatever may occur that, you know, we're, well, I'm rambling now.

I'm sorry. I've been rambling this whole time. I'm so nervous, man. I feel like I, I feel like I've made a fool of myself, gabbling, you know, just. No, you didn't at all, John. It was an honor having you on. Thank you again. 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 Chronicle. com. And if you get a chance, check out Sasquatch Chronicles.com, you can become a member and get additional shows. I'm going to close out tonight with Sarah McLeod. Check her out on YouTube. Sarah with an H. The last name is MCL-E-O-D. And I'm in love with her version of We Got Tonight. I know that Sarah had posted on social media that her father had recently passed away. My heart goes out to you, Sarah. Until next time, everyone.

So long my home I know I'll keep searching Even after Here we all What do you say We've got tonight You've got tonight Of us alone

All of us alone We've got tonight Who needs tomorrow Let's make it laugh Let's fight Come take my head Night baby We've got tonight

Let's make it laugh We've got tonight baby