Sasquatch Chronicles - SC EP:1042 The Silence

Episode Date: March 23, 2024

John writes "I have something to share with you from when I was 17 and bow hunting in the woods of NJ. I'm 46 now and I had a brush with a large 2 legged animal in the early hours of that fall day." Spoke to the eyewitness and he said "It was about 2am and I was excited to go hunting. I was sitting in my tree stand when everything went dead silent. I became fearful and was not sure why. I could hear this thing coming to my tree stand and it was heavy, you could almost feel this thing walking and it was on two feet. It was in front of my tree stand and I pulled an arrow and it stopped. It was breathing heavy and I tapped the arrow against the bow and it took off running. In a matter of seconds it covered 100 yards and I saw it running through the corn field. I never went back."

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 forwards.

I know what a bear looks like and there is no way on this planet that what I saw were bears. What would he report in? Jesus Christ, you better? Care. See you. 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-oh. This is Mr. Rogers from Phoenix, Arizona, and the only podcast we listen to in my neighborhood is Sasquatch Chronicles. Welcome to the show, everyone. Thanks for being here tonight. Got a great show plan for you.

We'll be chatting with John. and John comes to us from New Jersey and about 30 years ago he was out bow hunting and had this very strange experience when he was out there kind of a scary experience actually and I'll kind of let John go into that towards the end John will wrap up with this very odd moment that happened in his life

and I asked if he would share it on the show and it's not Bigfoot related but it's a very strange event 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 to check out Sasquatch Chronicles.com, you can become a member and get additional shows. Let's jump into it tonight. I want to welcome John to the show.

John, thanks for coming on. Thanks, Wes. Thanks for having me. Yeah, and you had this terrifying account. that happened to you. And I think from your email, it was about 30 years ago or so. If you would, would you start from the beginning? I mean, when did this happen?

And if you would, just kind of walk me into what happened? So this goes back to 1995. So I had just turned 17. I was pretty excited. I grew up in a family that, you know, all we did was fish and hunt. and our family vacations were camping trips. And I've hunted up and down the East Coast. And, you know, I've traveled out to South Africa hunting.

And, I mean, I absolutely love hunting. So I was pretty excited back during this bow hunt trip because I had just got my driver's license and I had a car. And, you know, I didn't have to bum a ride with a friend to go hunting or get my dad to bring me or an uncle or something. So it was pretty stoked. You know, I had the tree stand. I got all packed up.

I went out. I found a deer run that I liked. I set it up a little bit deeper into the woods. This is late in October. So there was leaves were changed and some had fallen to the ground. It was pretty dry. So if you weren't in the little deer trail there, you're walking through the wooded area,

you'd be making some noise. So it was nice to have that big deer trail there because you could walk through there pretty quietly. So I had myself all set up and I was playing on hunting, you know, that, I guess it was a Saturday because I was in, you know, high school at the time. And I went to bed early, you know, I probably went to bed at like 8 o'clock, all excited about, you know, getting up and going out and hunting by myself and went to bed a little bit too early because I woke up at like 2 in the morning. And I looked at the

alarm clock and I'm, you know, I'm sitting there and I'm like, well, I can't go back to sleep. You know, maybe, you know, if I force myself back to sleep, maybe I won't hear the alarm. I I was getting ants in my pants. I wanted to get out in the woods. So I said, let me just go hop on my car and head out there onto that dirt road where I walk a couple of fields and then into the woods where my stand is. And I got in the car.

I headed out there. It was about 45 minutes west of the shore because I live over in the Jersey shore. And, you know, it's all farmland out there, pretty flat farmland, you know, and, you know, the wooded areas are pretty thick, you know, thickets and tall trees and swampy and some lakes. I was at a state park. I was hunting off of a cornfield. So I get there, you know, I was probably, I'm guessing now,

it was, you know, probably 3.30 in the morning. It's still too early to walk in. I'm like, ah, let me just keep my eyes closed here for a little bit. And then I'm thinking to myself, I'm like, you know, if I get into the woods early enough and then I settle down, I'm nice and quiet, you know, the wildlife will not know that I'm there and it'll be more likely for me to see some, some deer rolling through. So I said, let me, let me just get into the woods early. So I grabbed my

little mag light, you know, back then there was those little, either had a big mag light or a little black mag light. Grab my little mag light in my backpack and my PSC compound bow and my aluminum arrows because that's what we used back then and the broad, broad tips. And I started hiking through the fields, through the hedgerows along the fields. I got three fields in. And then I cut up that deer trail up to where my stand was, probably 100 yards in. And it was, it was a still night, not much wind, no moon, wasn't too cold. And I got up, climbed up my stand. I used to try to keep my stand up a little higher because, you know, the higher you are, the less likely a deer has, will smell you. So I got up, I guess it was probably 15 feet in the air. Pretty high for a bow shop.

But I've always been pretty fortunate and I'm pretty decent shot. So I get up in my stand and I hang my backpack up and it's funny. I get a little anxiety when I start telling the story because it, you know, brings me back there. And it was, you know, traumatic for sure. So I hang my bag up and hang my bow up because it's hours before, you know, the sun comes up. And I strap myself to the tree and I'm sitting in my stand and I'm just kind of like, you know, opening and close my eyes and thinking to myself, I'm like, holy mackerel. Like, I got in the woods way too early.

Like, this is crazy, you know? And as I'm sitting there, all of a sudden, the sounds of the forest go completely just drop right out. Like, you can't hear a peep is the craziest thing ever. And then in the distance from the deep woods, I hear walking through the leaves. And I'm like, what is that coming out of the deep woods? And it's walking on two legs. I hear it rustling through, stepping through the leaves.

And I'm thinking, maybe it's a homeless person lives in the back woods and they're coming out for work or something. Like, I had no clue. And as it was getting closer, I realized it was coming right at me. So now, as it's closing in, my heart's pounding. You know, I'm 17 years old. I only have a bow. You know, back then there was, you didn't have any concealed carry like we do now. And I, you know, I wouldn't go in the woods today without a, you know,

know, sidearm or a shotgun. And my heart's pounded and I'm all nervous. I'm like, oh, my goodness, what am I going to do? So as this thing's getting closer, it's getting louder and louder and louder to the point where these steps are not the sound of a human's, like, it's just, they're so, it's just, it's magnified the sound. So, you know, if a little baby was walking through the leaves, it would be, you know, whatever decibel.

And then when you get something, it just sounds. it enormous coming through the woods. My heart's pounded. It's definitely on two legs. You know, I grew up in New Jersey. I've seen bear in the woods. I watched them for my deer stand when it wasn't deer season. You know, they mosey around. They sniff the ground. They kind of don't always walk in the, you know, they kind of, you're foraging, you know. This thing was walking on two legs, be lining it right down towards my trail to walk right in front of my stand. So as it's getting closer, I realize, like, maybe if I make some noise, it'll scare it off or something because, you know, you don't know what it is because you can't see anything. I stand up in my tree stand and as I make that creek, the sound just stops.

You can't hear anything at this point in the woods. But then I faintly hear this thing moving, closing the distance down the trail. now my heart's really, really pounding. Because this thing is like all of a sudden it went from making a lot of noise to not making any noise at all, but yet it's still moving towards me. So I reach over. I feel like I don't have enough time to grab my backpack and rifle through my bag and grab my flashlight.

Quite honestly, like, I don't even want to see what this thing is because it's freaking me out that bad. Like, you know, I'm not one to believe in monsters, but like, what is this thing coming down the woods. I turn that flashlight on and it's going to scare the bejesus out of me. If I, you know, who knows what it is. So I grab my, my compound bow and I have it in my hand. And as this thing's coming down the trail and it's getting closer, I realize like I have to protect myself. So I said, you know what? Let me draw the bow back and just point it in the area that I think this thing is. And hopefully if it sees me and I can't see it, it'll know not to

mess around me because I could shoot it with an arrow. So I draw back. And as I draw back, And as I draw back, this thing just stops. And I hear faint breathing. And it's freaking me out. And as this has happened, I feel like I'm in a dream state. It's like I'm in like a weird vortex and like it's just so odd. It's like it's hard to really. It's like you're getting fuzzy and cloudy at the same time.

Like, you know, you're aware of your surroundings, but you're not. And it's just so weird, you know. And as the arrow is drawn. back, I feel like I'm in like a stalemate. Now, I'm holding back. I forget what the bow was said. It might have been 70 pounds, 80 pounds, whatever it was. And holding that drawback, I might have been a 40, you know, 40 pound whole weight. I can't hold this thing forever, you know. And I, you know, my hand's starting to shake a little bit because I'm just holding it, holding it. And I feel like I have to make some sounds. Maybe I can, you know, break this stalemate.

So as the arrows draw back, if you, you know, if you ever draw a bow back, you realize that your fingers kind of roll the string, the bowline, and that will want to pull the arrow off of the rest, and you keep your finger, your pointer finger, and I'm a left, and you keep your pointer finger on the arrow to keep it on the rest. So I let the arrow come off a little bit. Now, this is an eastern aluminum arrow, right? Hollow. And this, I guess it's a graphite bow. I don't know. I mean, it's from the mid-90s. And I tap with my feet. finger, I tapped the arrow onto the bow. And the sound was so loud because you couldn't hear anything. I did it three times. It was bang, bang, bang, bang with my finger, boom, boom. And with this,

this, whatever this thing was, took off. And within 10 steps, it was out of 100-yard woods. It was just, boom. And I saw that, I saw a big shadow running through the cornfields. And these cornfields at this point were, you know, this is late October. So these cornfields were all, you know, taken down already. They were, you know, I don't know, maybe, you know, ankle high, knee high. And as it ran off, I just, the sound, the sounds in the woods started coming back. And I was just asking myself, I'm like, what, what in the world was that? Like, what, what just happened to me? What walks on two legs out of the woods? And when you make a sound, goes completely silent and still closes in on you and then stops in front of your standing,

you feel like it's staring at you. And it makes you feel like you're in a dream state. And then just takes off running and runs 100 yards in a couple steps. Like it just, it literally freaked me out so bad. As soon as that sun came up, I took my tree stand out of there. And I tell you the truth, I haven't hunted that state park since. Always bothered me. And I, you know, it's funny, right?

I looked, you know, I did an aerial view, you know, years later, when Google Earth and I'm looking at it. And, you know, it's all farmland. And there's state parks. And you know, you could take these, you could walk through these farmlands, you know, and make it to the Appalachian Trail. And, you know, it just, it just blows my mind to think that whatever this thing could be, it was big enough, loud enough, but yet could go completely silent.

And it just, you know, to this day, like, whenever I go in the woods, I always carry, you know, I have a 10 millimeter, bring that with me, carry a shotgun, 12-gauge, when I'm with the kids, if I'm out in the woods, very cognizant of exactly where they're at, especially if we're in deep woods, because I don't know what's out there. You know, like, I don't know. This thing permanently freaked me out to the point

where my life is now changed in the fact that I don't know what's out there. I don't think I'm the top of the food chain, and I don't ever want to have a situation where my children or any of my loved ones or family members, you know, has not only any counter, but God forbid gets grabbed, you know, because you hear some stories of crazy things happening to people out in the back woods.

And I just, I couldn't imagine that happening to me or my family, you know, and now I think it's a possibility that it could. So that's my story with my encounter while bow hunting when I was 17 years old back in 1995. It's a scary account. I mean, it would have frightened me I try to put myself in people's position. And as I listen to you recount this, John, you know, the first thing going through my mind

probably would have been, oh, that's a man. But the behavior of it and everything else you describe around it, especially with the forest going silent, and just its behavior, you know, I would, for me, I'd be like, okay, this isn't a man, but it's on two feet. I know when it ran off into the cornfield, you kind of got a glimpse of something very large on two feet running. But as you were standing there with your arrow pulled back and kind of looking in the direction of the sound you're hearing, were you able to see it at all? No, it was if you've, you know, so it's always darker in the woods than it is out in the field. Whenever, you know, whenever you're in.

And there was no moon out that night. It was the craziest thing ever. it was pitch, pitch black. And I didn't know if I shot that arrow, whether I would have, you know, I could have shot it in the toe. I could have missed it by 10 feet. It could have been, you know, human.

It could be, but it doesn't make sense for, like, you know, a human wouldn't, wouldn't have gone into stealth mode. You know what I mean? Like a human would, you know, might have made a sound. I don't know. It's just a human wouldn't have walked that heavy through the woods. Like as it closed the gap to me, it just got so loud. It sounded like this thing was ginormous walking through the woods.

And it was 100% walking on two legs. You know, and, you know, I've seen raccoon and bobcat and bear and deer and, you know, and, you know, they could all be quiet when they want to be. But I've never, I don't know. It's just, you know, it's unlike anything I've ever experienced in my 46 years on the planet and probably 35 years in the woods hunting. Like I've never ever experienced anything like that. And I don't know.

I don't think it was a human being. I truly think that it was, I just think it was a monster. As crazy as that sounds, I don't know what kind of monster it was, but it just, it just was something, you know, it just, and it put the fear, it put fear into me like I've never experienced before. Like I've never felt this total. panic come over me, you know? And it just, and the way that it moved down the trail after I made that sound, like it was so light and faint. It was, it was so hard to explain, you know, and how did it

know to stop right in front of me? If it was a human being, how did it know where to stop? You know, like, how did this thing, it just, I don't know, you know, it just scared the life out of me, truly did, you know? And, you know, 100 yards in the woods in a heavy tree area, it was, it was hard to distinguish what it was running through the field. But it appeared, you know, through the trees, it appeared to be tall and dark. And that's all, really all I could see. Yeah, nothing about it sounds like a human being to me, especially with everything you described, John. The creepy part, though, I guess for me, and listening to you recount this, would be, you know, you hear the same coming. And it's not until you pull your,

weapon up that it stops. And so I would imagine for a split moment, you were probably thinking, oh, I can't see you, but you can see me. I felt like whatever it was looking right at me. I felt like if I released that arrow, I would not been able to knock another arrow in time. I felt like whatever it was, it could have reached up and plucked me right off that tree stand. And, you know, at 15 foot in the air, and I'm, you know, I'm 5'11. I'm a pretty big guy. And I'm not one to be scared in the woods. You know, I'm very comfortable in the woods. And I've never, ever experienced anything like that.

It was just, you know, everything went dead silent just prior to hearing the sound in the woods, like the rustling of the leaves. It never could really make out, you know, you just, you can't, you just don't know. Like it's so, and I'm almost glad that I didn't have a flashlight. I mean, because, you know, if they're all. are saskwashes. And I turned that light on and there was a saskwatch in front of me. My heart might have just stopped.

You know what I mean? Like I might have just lost complete function and control. You know, like it just, I don't know. I just, I think that the best ending is what happened. And John, let me ask you, how far away from you was at cornfield? Cornfield. So, so at the state park there was, I guess there was, oh, so the cornfield. that I saw a run into was it was probably, I'm guessing 100 yards.

I had my deer standing about 100 yards. As I said earlier, I don't think you ran into human, but even the speed of how quickly this thing made its exit. And you hear a lot of eyewitnesses talk about how fast, unnaturally fast, these things can run and 100 yards in a matter of seconds. That's quick. Seconds. I mean, seconds.

It was the creepiest part of the whole. thing wasn't so much when I first heard the walking through the leaves. It was when I initially stood up in the tree stand. And then to hear this thing, just faint sounds of it coming down the trail in like stealth mode and then just coming right in front of me and stopping. And I felt like it was glaring at me. And I, you ever feel like, you know, you say you're standing at a mall or something or and you're looking, and you feel like somebody's looking at you, you know, turn around and look and somebody will be looking at you. Like, you know, You could sense when you have eyes on you.

I'm telling you, I had eyes on me. This thing knew exactly where I was. It was looking at me and it was trying to distinguish what my move is going to be. And my move was completely defensive, not aggressive. It was just like, you know, leave me alone. You know, like I just wanted to get myself out of that situation the best that I could. And to this day, I've never gone back. And, you know, we're not talking about like, you know, thousands of acres of woods here.

You know, it, you know, it's a, you know, I don't know how many acres is. It might be 300 acres, might be 500 acres, surrounded by, you know, all farmland. You know, it just doesn't strike me as an area that I would have to worry about, stuff like that. You know, you hear stories from the pine lands about the Jersey devil and, you know, who knows. You know, I just, you know, I just, to this day, I just don't, I just know that I was scared. That the way that this thing moved didn't make sense. It didn't move in a way that was consistent with any animal I've ever seen in my life. And it scared the bejesus out of me.

Literally, you know, my heart, I could, you know, was so still and so quiet. I literally could hear my heart thumping in my chest, you know? You know, when I hear situations like this, I always look to behavior. And what's fascinating about the behavior is, generally speaking, you'll get a one set of behavior for someone out fishing, and it's usually rocks being thrown at them, you know, that sort of thing. Regular hunters, you'll get another sort of reaction from them. Bow hunters, I think, surprise these things because most of the reaction is, you know, almost kind of, they're surprised. You know, bow hunters are on a whole different level. I've been out,

I was a former hunter myself, and, you know, you run into hunting. hunters when you're out there. And generally speaking, people are pretty cool. I don't like I've ever ran into a bow hunter, though, because they're always up in a tree. They're decked out. And unless you're really looking for them, you're never going to see them because they don't move. It's like a whole different skill set. And it makes me wonder, as this creature was kind of approaching, it may not have known you were there. I mean, it kind of like walked up and And it wasn't until some noise was made. It was like, oh, oh, no, someone's, you know, I almost wonder if it didn't even know

you were there until the last moment. I think, I think that it, I think that it wasn't aware of me until I stood up. And when I stood up, it heard a creek. And I think it moved in to, to see what it was. And then when it, when it came up on me, I was all decked out. I had my tree stand all covered in branches and everything. Like, I really, I really go out of my way to really have good gear and to, you know, conceal myself as much as possible, especially with bow hunting because you need to have, you know,

deer's got to be within 30, 40 yards for you to take a, you know, an ethical shot, you know. And I know, some people argue about that, but I, you know, I try not to take shots over 40 yards. But yeah, I just, it was just, it was a moment in time that felt like hours was going by. And you know it was crazy too? Like when the arrow touched, when I touched the arrow on the, when I touched the arrow on that bow, like it sounded like lightning. It was so loud because there was not a sound in the woods. Everything, every single sound, my puppy is looking at me. Every single sound in the forest just immediately stopped.

It was the craziest thing ever, you know? It's just like what makes everything turn off in the woods? What makes the crickets and even the trees swaying? Like there was no sound. There was no movement. It was almost like everything just knew to be still and not move. It was wild. Absolutely wild.

Yeah, I really wanted to ask you about that. I've experienced it before in my own encounter. And it's really hard to explain the deafening silence. It's almost disorienting because it is so silent. You know, if you ever, you want to hear the forest when it's loud, go. out when the sun's not up because all the insects are going off, the animals are out. I mean, the forest is a lot of place. Even during the day, it's a lot of place. And for everything to shut off. And some people will say, I think people have never hunted before, we'll go, well, you know,

when a predator's around, everything goes quiet. Yes, that's true to an extent. I mean, your prey will be quiet. But your crickets, your insects, the wind, none of that cares whether there's a big predator around or not. And when it goes silent to the point of, you know, you almost hear your heartbeat in your ears and you're like, gosh, I hope this thing can't hear my heartbeat because it's the only thing I can hear at the moment. It feels very unnatural. I mean, in your opinion, when everything went quiet like that, did it feel unnatural? Did it feel a little bit like paranormal? Yeah, it didn't feel natural.

It didn't make sense how the second the sound turned off, then all of a sudden the walking started in the deep woods towards my way. You know, it was just, you know, I don't know. You know, it was almost like, so, you know, we talk about paranormal. Like, I don't know that I believe in ghosts. I don't know that I don't believe in ghosts. You know, I definitely believe in God and I believe in spirits and I believe in demons. ends. I, you know, but do I think this thing walked through a portal and popped out?

I don't know. But it was weird because it was far enough away where it went from, like, you know how when something's walking through the woods, the volume will go from nothing all way up until it gets to you? And you can recognize things making sounds and the distance is what, you know, the volume of the sounds shows you the distance you are from whatever that is, you know? And this thing went from deep in the woods, it just all of a sudden it popped up, like it came out of the ground or something, you know?

Like it went from, it wasn't like it wasn't like it started all the way off and then started to me. It was like it just, it just all of a sudden the noise shut off. And then, you know, within, you know, 150 yards, maybe 200 yards, it just all of a sudden started walking. And then it was walking so loud through the woods. It was, it was like it had no care in the world for anything that was going on now. This is like 3.30 in the morning. What kind of deer, it's not another hunter because this is, this is the deepest part of the woods in the state park. And, you know, nobody lives in there. You know, a hunter wouldn't be walking from, from deep in the

woods at 3 in the morning coming out. It's not like there's people camping in there or anything, because there's no campgrounds in here. It's really just a game reserve. And, And it just was completely bizarre. It went from me walking down my, you know, down my trail and climbing up my stand and getting set and everything was normal to to a couple minutes later. It just went silent. And the second, the sound shut off, like a millisecond that it shut off, I heard this, this loud walking coming from deep in the forest, coming out towards my way.

And as it came down that trail or came down through the, the woods, it got louder and louder, louder and louder and louder to the point where it was too heavy and too big to be a human being walking through the woods. It just, and then it was still in the woods when I, when I stood up and made the sound, you know, because, you know, aluminum stands on trees that, you know, they'll give up some sound when you stand up, you know? And the second I did that, it just, it went from making sound to not making any sound and is still moving down the trail. And I couldn't, I couldn't hear it coming down. Maybe it, maybe it was

faint, but I felt it coming down, if that makes sense. You know, it came right down, right in front of my stand. It was, you know, the deer trail was probably like, I know, seven, eight yards off the bottom of my tree. So it was, you know, it was, what, 20 feet away from me, stop the right of my stand and I just can't help but feel like it was just whatever this was, staring at me, you know, waiting to see, you know, what I was, what I was doing, and what I was about to do. And, you know, like I said, you knock an arrow. You got one shot, you know, like, you know, maybe if something grabbed my leg, I, you know, would have released an arrow. I don't, you know, I don't know. Literally, I had to tell you to my heart, like, I probably lost some years off

of my life from that encounter because you literally could feel my, you probably could have saw my heart beating in my chest to tell how heavy it was. You know, the normal human reaction would be, hey, man, I'm down here, or, hey, who's up there? Or, you know, hunters will call out to each other, especially if they're in a situation like this. And so everything you're describing, there's nothing about it that sounds like a man to me. And I think you said earlier that you had not gone back, or maybe I misheard that. Have you ever gone back? No, I haven't.

I really, I never wanted to go back there. Like, I, like, you know, it's funny, right? So I never grew up thinking that there was Bigfoot, right? It just wasn't what it was. But on all these camping trips that I went on as a kid, we, you know, we used to go up to northern, northwestern New Jersey, and it's heavily wooded up there. I mean, it's right on the Appalachian Trail and it's mountain ridges that, you know, run from, you know, the Carolinas or maybe Alabama or wherever it starts all the way up to Maine.

And we used to, you know, camp, we used to hike back. to this little valley alongside this lake. And we'd camp back there with my mom and my dad, you know, and my little brother years and years and years ago. And off the lake, you would hear these sounds often off the woods. And as a kid, you never really knew what it was, you know. And you listen to the hoop and the hollering on some of the stuff that you've played. And it almost brings a bell like, you know, did I hear these creatures when I was a kid,

you know, making these sounds in the forest and I just was naive to what it was, you know, like, maybe, I mean, I'm starting to really believe that there truly is a population of, of this, whatever this thing is in the world. And, and I think it traverses around to different areas. And I don't know why it does. And I, you know, was, you know, what was it, what was it doing back in 1995, like walking through, you know, this game land there? And was it, you know, I just, you know, was heading in a southerly direction. Like, you know, I think I have more questions than I do answers, but that was the realest experience in my life and was the closest I ever felt like I came to death. I felt like I felt like my life was in jeopardy and whatever this thing was,

it could have snatched me right. I felt like it could have just reached up and grabbed me right off, right off the deer stand. Yeah, I think fear takes over in situations. like these, John. And, you know, at least when you can see the creature, you can be like, okay, I'm looking at a freak show, but you're watching every movement it's making so you can react or, you know, somehow defend yourself in this situation. When you don't see it, you don't have that. And so fear definitely, I could see it taking over. And, you know, you always hear of investigators, they'll have infrared cameras or whatever at night. And one thing I've heard over the years is that they'll still hide in infrared, in pitch black, they'll still hide and watch.

And it makes me think that they believe we can see at night the same way they can see at night. So while this creature was looking at you, it probably assumed you were looking at it. it's creepy, man. You know, I ask everyone on the show, what do you think Sasquatch is? And I'm curious, John, what's your thoughts on it? Man, there's no wrong answer, of course. So I used to think that it was, you know, it was a cromagnon man or some adaptation of a human being. But I'm starting to believe that it could be Nephlin.

You know, I'm starting to think that, like, it's just, it's just an unexplained, creature that that may be commingled with, you know, human women at some point. And, you know, I don't know why they have, they're covered in fur. And I don't know why, but like, I just, it doesn't make sense how these animals can, can move through a forest and traverse hills and mountains, like, with ease, you know, and, you know, and if it wants you, it, it's going to grab you. And, you know, you hear, over the years, I've listened to different stories and I've listened to, you know, some of your podcasts and, and, you know, they're not always benevolent creatures. You know, sometimes they're, you know, they're trying to harm you, you know, and I just think

that it's in, you know, I think maybe it's a fallen angel that, that, you know, I think the Bible says, and I'm not a, you know, I was a Catholic school boy and did a little bit of altar boy, and, you know, I can't really quote Bible verses, but, you know, I think they talk about the watchers, you know, and, you know, the fallen angels and watchers. And yet, you almost wonder if, you know, if these are the watchers, because they're always like spying on humans, you know, they're always peeking from behind trees or they're, you know, they're looking through windows or, you know, I don't know, it's just, it's so freaky. And they can't, it can't be an all out of salt on human beings because I think more people would go missing. But people do go missing in

the forest. Little kids go missing. And, you know, I don't know if you ever heard some of the missing 4-1-1, but, you know, you hear about kids being found like, you know, 24 hours later and like 30 miles away on mountaintops. Like, it doesn't make sense unless, I don't know. It's just it's really hard to say what they are, except for they don't exhibit human characteristics. You know, we go in the woods and we have to look at the ground to walk. otherwise we're going to be making way too much sound. And if you're looking at the ground, you're not paying attention to what's around you. And, you know, it's just these things seem to be able to not look at the ground, not make any sound, and move around and just hide in ways.

You know, they know how to contort their body so that when you look at them, you don't say, oh, that's a head or that's a knee. You know, they kind of turn into balls or bushes or rocks or it's just wild. You know, it's just, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know what it is, but it scares me. You know, we go up to Lake George, which is a nice lake up in the Adirondacks, go like every summer. And one side of the lake is populated. The other side of the lake is all, you know, if it's state land or whatever it is, but it's like private, you know, federal land.

And it's beautiful over there. You know, it looks to me what I see sometimes in like. like Washington State, when you get into those, you know, those tree with all the moss, and it looks like a rainforest, you know, and it's wild. But I won't let my kids walk around in the woods there because I'm deathly afraid that someone's going to snatch them. And there's no way for me to be able to recover a child if it were to get snatched and take off.

So whatever it was, this thing was, left such an imprint on me that to this day, I still love hunting and camping and I love taking my kids in the woods, but I will not let them you know, outside of 20 foot of me, and I will not be in the woods without a high, powerful rifle or a handgun. And I can understand that, John. And I can understand the way you feel, you know, as far as what these things are. You know, when you, as you're recounting it, like I said, I mean, your first thought is, oh, it's a man.

But then as you listen to it, there's nothing about it that sounds like a man, but it's not really reacting like an animal either. You know, if an animal would have heard you move around in your tree stand or that aluminum kind of creak and crack as you were standing up to pull an arrow out or draw an arrow, you know, any other animal would have taken off the slightest noise like that or it's like this thing was just curious. Like, what are you doing up there? And pulling the arrow is really what I think made it run off like, okay, this guy isn't playing. Even though I know, I know full well, I could have dragged you out of that tree stand and there's really nothing you could have done about it.

I know before we're coming on the air, John, you were talking about this strange event in your life and I didn't quite get to hear the whole thing. Would you tell me about it? Tell me about this weird event that happened to you. Kind of what were you doing and how long ago was this? Yeah, this is a pretty neat story. My wife had actually run over to the school to do some stuff. She could have, she was, you know, her and I were dating at the time and really, really neat little stories.

And so anyway, so I finished college and there's a, there's a large farm near me near where I grew up and always loved this farm. And there was an old farmhouse on there. I was just got out of college and I was working in New York City and the caretaker of the farm, I was chatting with him. And he said, hey, if I fixed up this little old farmhouse, small little farmhouse, it actually was a dance tall at one time. He walked in there. It was a big fireplace in just one gigantic room. He said, if you fix this room, you know, fix up the farmhouse and make it livable,

you could live here for free for a couple of years and then, you know, you start paying rent, you know, pretty wild, you know, it was great. So I would go to work and this farm wasn't too far away from my grandmother's house at the time. And I would work, you know, to five or six at night. And then I would go over to the farmhouse and work on the farmhouse until about nine o'clock and then head over to my grandmother just have a bite to eat and I either stay there, you know, go to my parents' house, whatever, whatever I was doing that night. So on the road,

on the pave you'd come down off the farm on a dirt road, then we'd turn into a paved road. It would go back behind an old country club that's been there forever. And there was this kind of a bowl in the road where we would dip down and come back up. And at the bottom of the bowl, there was this old, old, old oak tree. And the power company came in and they lopped off the top of this tree just below the power lines. And it was like a table top. You know, it was just this ginormous oak tree that was just squared. Like, I don't know how high the power lines are up there, maybe, you know, 30 feet, maybe 20 feet.

And when they cut it off, I would look at it and I was compelled. And this sounds crazy, but this is, I have people that will tell you and collaborate my story. I was compelled to put a crucifix on top of this tree. It was the most wild thing ever. And I would drive by if I had my grandmother and I was showing the farmhouse, you know, what we were doing there. Or if I had my girlfriend, who's my wife now, and if she was here, she'd tell you it. I would say to them, like, I feel like I need to put a crucifix on top of this tree.

And they're like, why? And I'm like, I have no clue. It doesn't make sense to me. It's just I'm compelled to do this. So a couple of months go by. We're getting towards winter. And it's December, just before Christmas. And I'm leaving the farmhouse.

It's probably 9.30 at night. And I'm driving down the dirt road. It's a still cold night. It was, you know, probably in the 30s. It was quiet. No moon or maybe a small moon out. And as I'm coming down the road, heading towards my grandmother's house, right before I get to that bowl dip that goes down where the cut tree is and comes back up,

I see what looks like if you were to go into a room in night with no lights on, if you were to take a light, a flashlight, and spin it on the floor. You just see the light spin in circles, right? I saw this and it was bizarre. So I come down the hill, and as I get to the bottom of the hill, I see a car. And the cars was in a crash. And the back of the car is up against this tree that got lopped off on top that I was compelled to put the crucifix on. And I realized that they had just gotten into a car accident.

And you could still see the, they must have been salting and sanding the roads prior to it because there was all in, you could see like little crystals or, you know, looks like glitter in the air and the flash, in the headlight because it was it was the dust settling down, you know, in front of the headlights of this car. And I get out, I grab my flashlight. It's a big mag light. I had a, I had this wool pull over zip up that I was wearing. and I look in the car and I see this young kid, he's probably 20 years old, and he's sitting in the passenger seat, and he's got white fluid coming out of his nose, and he's unconscious, and I tap him on his shoulder, go, are you okay? Are you okay? And he opens his eyes, and I go, where's the driver? And he goes, what driver? And I go, I go, you're in a car. He goes, I'm not in a car. I'm like, so I realize that he's in shock. So I take my, I take this, this fleece flannel thing off, and I put it on him. and I walk over to the other side of the car, which is up against the tree. And as I walk, I'm figuring this kid, you know, whoever was driving got thrown into the, on the side of the road in the grass.

This is right alongside of a farm fence that's all overgrown. And the back of the car is crashed up against this big oak tree that had gotten cut off. And as I'm looking and nervously looking in the grass to find this whoever it was, I pan back to the back of the car and I see this poor. kid who when the car spun around and the back of the car hit this tree, the back of the seat that he was the driver's seat, the back of it broke and he got ejected. So as he went through the back window, it tore his clothes off, tore shirt and it tore his pants off down to his knees. And it twisted his torso. So his knees, his knees,

and his feet were in the car and is is from his knees out he was outside of the car but his torso was twisted so his you know his head was facing like where his butt would be if that makes sense you know like he was he was broken in half and he was bleeding out of his face and his eyes were open and he was a lot he was still alive and I looked at him and he looked at me and he was he was shaking and he And he goes, am I going to die? You know, and I was like, I didn't know what to say. And as this happened, another car pulled up and the woman got out and she was screaming,

oh, my God, oh my God, oh my God. I told her to call 911. And she goes, already did. And I turned back and, you know, and the boy died. And I was just sitting here looking at this poor young boy whose life just ended because of a car accident. And it just, you know, it was. It was just surreal. You know, it was a couple nights before Christmas, and it was unbelievable.

So it occurred to me that, and I later found out because, you know, it's the town that I live in, that these two kids were at a party. And he had just gotten this new car. He had worked at a Costco up in, you know, up in Hazlitt. And he was bragging about how fast his new car was. And he took this younger kid who was at the party out for a joyride. And they were going way too fast down the road. And they came over a little bump and the car had gone airborne slightly. And when he landed, the car shot up to the right a little bit.

And this is an old road that led to the farm. So there's all these oaks and locusts and everything, you know, growing along the side of the road. And when he shot up, the front right, he overcorrected in the front right of his car caught a tree. And it caused the car to go. into a spin, and when it hit the tree, it abruptly stopped. And that's when he got ejected and crushed. And, you know, his torso broke.

So, you know, the cops came and I gave a statement. And I went home that night, you know, and I actually went to my grandmother's house. And I'll never forget this. Like, it was, you know how like right before you go to sleep, you're like in a twilight? You're not awake and you're not asleep yet. So he was there. He was standing there and he goes, hey, am I dead? And I'm like, I guess you are.

He goes, well, where do I go? I'm like, I don't know. And it's probably not the right thing to say in hindsight, but I said, but you know, you can't stay here to him, which I don't know if that was as smart as to say, but it was what I said, you know? And it always, it just, it rattled my cage and it always blew my mind that why, like,

why in the world was I compelled to put it, to put a crucifix on top of a tree that months later I would find a, you know, a boy there that died, you know? Like, so are, you know, are we living lives that are already foretold, you know, is our lifelines already, you know, like, you know, I'm going to live to a certain age and that age was already distinguished the day I was born? You know, just so many questions pop up. And it, you know, I grew up, I went to Catholic school and I was an altar boy. And, you know, I have listening to church and yeah, yeah, yada, yada, yada. But I got to say like that, that was a clear sign to me that that they're absolutely positively is a God. And how I knew about that, I don't know.

You know, how I knew that that was going to happen. I don't know. And then, you know, that kind of goes back into the, you know, the whole Nephlin thing. Like if there's a, if there, if God exists, which I believe he does, and Jesus was real, which I I believe he was, and the Bible is accurate, then maybe these creatures, just because we see them as hairy animals, doesn't mean that, you know, who's to say what a fallen angel is supposed to look like, right? Who's to say what, you know, like, it's just, you know, it's just amazing when you think about, you know, you hear vampire stories, you know, like, oh, vampire stories. And then, you know, you read about, you know, bloodletting and you see people in Hollywood that are drinking blood for ceremonies and, you know, people need permission to go in your house when they're, you know, you know, people need permission to go in your house. And they, you know, it's just weird, so many weird things in this world that, you know, we're not conditioned to understand. It's almost like we're, you know, we're led to believe that there is, you know, there is no God.

There is no devil. There is no this. There is no that. It's just, you know, we're just supposed to work all day and pair taxes and buy things and build houses and send our kids to colleges and get liberal educations. And, you know, it's just, I don't know, it's just wild. Yeah, it makes you realize how short life really is and, you know, why it's, it life is so much easier when you're kind to people. You know, it takes a lot of work to be a dick, but it doesn't take a lot of work to be kind to someone. And to know that life is so short, you know, God willing, someone's here for 80, 85 years maybe.

But in the grand scheme of life, that's very short. It's a blink of an eye and you're gone. What a tragic situation for both of these young men and their families. I mean, my heart goes out to them. I can't imagine the pain of losing a child. I would think that would be the most painful thing to go through on the planet. Later, when you saw this kid after he had passed and you were, were you sleeping or were you awake when you saw him? And he was saying, well, where do I go?

It was the twilight. It was, it was, it was, it was, I was laying on the couch. She, you know, she had this like mother daughter thing and I, I would, you know, whenever I stayed there, I would stay downstairs in like a little little living room, I'd sleep on the couch. And it was right when I was falling asleep. So I don't know. Like, I saw the boy.

I saw him. He was, he was dressed when he was standing there. You know, he was, and he was asking me honest questions on like, what's supposed to happen now? And it was wild, you know, like, did he follow me home? You know, like, you know, was I just dreaming this? Was it, was it a traumatic experience that caused me to think that he showed up? Like, I don't know, you know, like, but it was just so real. It was so real.

And I, 100%, and I could give you, I could have 10 people, like friends, my now wife, my grandmother who's still with us, they'll tell you that, that, yeah, absolutely. He just, he was ranting and raven about how he needs to. to put a crucifix on top of the tree months before a kid died. So, you know, I was meant to be at that place at that time. I was meant to see that, you know, for what reason? I don't know. Yeah, I can imagine it would be a terrible sight to see.

The weird part, though, is that crucifix that you kept putting up. You know, if I had a friend that was doing that, it'd be like, what's wrong with this guy? You know, like, what are you doing? And then that wreck happens, it's a weird, it's a very strange coincidence. incidents. Did the other boy, did he survive? He did. He did. And, you know, he's still, his family is still floating around in town. And I have some mutual friends with him. And I, I thought about reaching out to one of the guys that I bring, when I, you know, if I harvest the deer, one of the guys that I bring over to butcher him, he's actually friends with the, with that kid's

father. So I had brought the story up to him, I mentioned. And, you know, everybody knows that he was in an accident, and everybody knows that, you know, the kid worked at Costco the past, and, you know, he said to me if I ever wanted to meet the kid, I could. I don't know that, you know, I don't know that that, when he good would that come from there, you know, like, am I just going to bring the both of us back to a traumatic experience where, you know, there was pain and suffering, you know, like I, I don't know. Like, I don't know what the answers are, you know. It's hard to know, really what to say, you know, even when someone loses a loved one,

It's hard to know really the right words to say or, you know, I get where you're coming from. I think as a father, I would want to know this, but, you know, I'm speaking out of turn to some extent because I didn't lose my child that night in that car, in that spot. And again, I've never experienced a loss of a child, but I can't imagine anything more painful to actually go through in line. and it's hard to know really what the right thing to do is. You know, if you tell them, are you opening up more wounds? Or, you know, it does it cause pain to come back, you know, over this incident? It's better to let it go. It's really hard to know what to say or what to do in a situation like this.

Though the whole situation of putting the crucifix up, though, is very strange. And the fact that someone died there is even more strange to me. it's a reminder I think a lot of us need of tomorrow isn't promised you know and life is so delicate and it can be taken away so quickly and again I do appreciate you sharing it and I appreciate you sharing the the Sasquatch encounter you know that would have absolutely terrified me this incident with the car wreck I think would have had way more impact on me and and just being in that situation. So my heart goes out to you on both situations in your life.

And I really appreciate you taking the time to come on and share it with us. I really enjoyed chatting with you, John. Yeah, Wesley. Thanks for giving me an outlet to speak about these things because, you know, there were profound experiences in my life. And it feels, you know, you feel healthier when you express these other people. and you don't know if you get them off your chest, but it just helps relieve, you know,

some of the angst that you have in your life from situations like. But those are my two profound life stories, and I'm really happy that you took the time to listen. Thank you. Thanks again, John. 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.

and if you get a chance to check out Sasquatch Chronicles.com you can become a member and get additional shows. This is Sarah McLeod. We've got tonight. Check her out on YouTube. Until next time, everyone.

I know it's late. I know you're only. Why should we worry? No far away. We've got tonight.