Sasquatch Chronicles - SC EP:1075 I Ran As Fast As I Could

Episode Date: July 21, 2024

Damon writes "Hello, I wanted to just share my encounter I had in Vancouver, Canada. I was on a hiking tour with my mom,aunt, and cousin through a redwood forest. I grew up in rural Louisiana. So me and my cousin had plenty of experience of exploring the woods. We were the kind of kids that were kinda rowdy and always getting into something at a young age. At the time I was around 16 years old when this happened. We were walking thru the forest getting bored of the hiking tour. So me and my cousin decided we were going to try to break off from this tour and walk through the forest ourselves, because we were passing up some really good areas that looked like they had some interesting things back off into the thickets. So we fell back to the back of the tour group, and saw a very heavily covered trail to our left and decided this is our chance. We ducked off through the bushes and made our way over some logs and branches. We walked through the winding forest for about 100-150 yards. Then we came up on a redwood tree that had fallen. This really amazed us. The size of the tree even laying down was more impressive. We walked along the tree, with it being on our left side. Rubbing our hands along it as we walked down the trunk of the tree, coming up towards the roots that was exposed. Once we got near the roots of the tree, we had to walk around them to our right to get pass the roots. I was leading the way. So once I came around the roots of this huge tree, what I saw had me in a total shock. I came around the roots and I was within 10ft of what I thought was a bear at first. I stopped. And froze. But my cousin was still walking up behind me, and he made a noise coming through the roots and brush. This thing had it's back to me and was in a squatting position. With shaggy reddish hair. It appeared to be about 5 feet in height at the shoulders. So that's why my first thought was "oh shoot, I just walked up behind a bear" I assume it heard my cousin, and it started to stand up and turn towards us. But it didn't stand like a bear. I saw arms come out from it's sides and stand up like a man. That's when I saw the legs and head and shoulders. I cant recall if I said any thing besides run to my cousin. And we ran through the way we came. I felt like this thing gave chase for a minute. But I was to afraid to turn around. We hit the tour trail and ran until we caught up with the group. We both were hyperventilating and couldn't talk. I tried to explain to the group what we just saw, but I couldn't say Sasquatch. I thought they will think I'm crazy. So I just said "Idk ,I saw something back there". We were both panicked. I always tried to deny what I saw because it wasn't the right color of big foot videos and pics I've seen on T.V. and books. So I told myself, it must have been a big orangutan the escaped or a red monkey. I've never told many people about this. Maybe 5 people my entire life. Just family members. Its was just to unbelievable even for me. Not until I heard a story on your show about a sasquatch the was a reddish color that I knew what I saw was exactly what it was."

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 that big. The way it moved, almost as if it was gliding across the beach. I've never seen anything moves like that in my life. They were screaming at each other in gibberish. It sounded like a language and they were chuntering away back and forwards, back and forwards, back and forward.

I know what a bear looks like and there is no way on this planet that what I saw were bears. Why don't what he were putting? Jesus Christ, you bet. Can't get somebody out here. 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 here. Uh-uh. This is Colonel Nathan R. Jessa, commanding officer Marine Ground Forces, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. And you are listening to Sasquatch Chronicles. Welcome to the show, everyone. Thanks for being here tonight. Got a great show

plan for you. We'll be chatting with Damon. And 34 years ago, he had an in encounter in Vancouver, Canada. He was actually out on a hiking tour. He never talked about it because he didn't really know what it was. Bigfoot was always a darker creature like a black color. And that's not what he saw that day. I'm honored to have him on the show to talk about it tonight, kind of share it publicly. 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 Damon to the show. Damon, thanks for coming on. No problem, man. Yeah, and you had this encounter in Vancouver, Canada. We're going back over 30 years ago. And, you know, before you actually had this encounter, If someone were to say to you, hey, Damon, what do you think of Sasquatch?

How do you think you might have answered? Probably, I wouldn't really believe it. It was a thing I kind of saw on TV. I saw the Gremlin, the Patterson tape. I mean, I've seen specials on that when I was a kid, but I didn't really pay much attention to it. It was just something that just wasn't spoken about, especially in my home and my neighborhood where we grew up.

And it was just something that, you know, I saw. And it was like, oh, okay. You know, but it was so far out there. I was as a kid, I didn't really pay much attention to it, to be honest. Yeah, I think a lot of people kind of still have that mindset. I know they did mainly back in the 90s when this happened to you. But, you know, even today, before people have encounters, They're usually like that.

They're like, hey, I didn't really buy into it. I've heard about it, but I didn't really think it was real. This encounter happened when you were 16. Before you actually go into the encounter, why were you guys in Vancouver, Canada? Not that there's anything wrong with that. Vancouver is beautiful. Well, I grew up in central Louisiana, Rapids Parish area. I grew up there and it was kind of tough, you know, how we came up.

We didn't have much money or whatever. And it was me, my cousin. We were living with my grandmother. We kind of rowdy kids coming up. We go out. We live near, you know, woods and everything. So we always getting into something, you know, we got used to going out in the woods and doing other things and building tree houses and all kind of stuff out there. But by age, I think 10 years old, my cousin went to go live with his mom in federal way, Washington.

And I stayed in Louisiana. And by me being in Louisiana, you know, me growing up there, you know, I started getting in a little trouble. So the idea came over, hey, want us to go stay up with your aunt and cousin up there and see how, you know, hopefully, things have changed for me. And I was like, hey, that was good. I love that idea. So we went to go, I went to Federal Way, Washington. And when I got up there, you know, reunited with my cousin, you know, happy to, you know, glad of that.

Yeah, that was pretty much it. And so I was starting a new life or whatever. Yeah, I understand. Well, why did you guys go to Vancouver, Canada? Well, my aunt wanted me to pretty much, like, you know, I was down there now and like, hey, let's take a trip, you know, let's take the kids to see Canada. And, you know, I've never been out of the country, you know, so I think I was down with that. And she said, let's, we're going to go to his redwood forest. They had some type of tour.

we went to Vancouver to go out there and you know and I was really interested in redwood trees I've never seen one in Louisiana we don't have nothing like it was just pine trees old trees and things like that so you know we got out there these big trees we pulled up you know you can see them of course and so we got a tour guide and there was a group of people maybe about maybe about 10, 15,000, of us. And so we just started going through the woods. But it wasn't too long before, you know, I guess we were on the tour for maybe 15, 20 minutes, kind of hiking up through the woods, looking at the redwood trees and stuff. But for some reason, we couldn't get near them or I don't know if we could touch them or not. They didn't want anything like that. And so the tour got really bored to me and my cousin real quick. Like I say, we were always into something and, you know, kind of knuckleheads tell you the truth. But so I guess me and him got the bright idea, hey, let's ditch this tour right in the middle of it.

And let's go out into these woods, you know, because we were used to the woods. And I'm like, hey, let's just get off this tour and let's do our own exploring. That was my idea. And he was like, hey, yeah, that sounds like a good idea. And so we just had to find the right opportunity to this tour without my aunt actually noticing us. And so we started kind of floating back towards the end of the group. And, you know, every now and then she'll look back, you know, where those guys are and see us back there. But we start hanging back, hanging back, hanging back.

Then we're at the back of the group. And so we were walking along and I saw this little, I'm playing. It wasn't even a path. It was just like a little indentation inside these bushes to the left of me. And I thought like, hey, that's an opportunity we can cut through here and get off into these woods and really get to explore these woods. And I noticed him and we shot off through there. It was a beautiful, you know, forest, you know. It's just taking in all the nature and everything.

And we had to cut through all this brush and everything. So we were used to that. we weren't scared of anything in the woods. You know, going over logs and all the type of stuff was getting back in there. And I'd say probably got about 100, maybe 150 yards off into this area. And we saw in the distance right there coming up, it was a redwood tree actually laying on his side.

And that was amazing to us because we were like, you know, like, wow, we get to actually, maybe we can get on top of this thing. That's what I'm thinking. Like, we can climb this thing. Even that it's on his side laying down on the ground, this thing was still way taller than us. It was huge. But we couldn't really find a way to get up on it. I think I maybe jumped on one of his branches or something at one point, but we couldn't get on the main trunk of this thing.

So pretty much we decided just to walk down this thing to see how long it is. you know, it was really long. And, you know, it was on the left of us. And I'm kind of rubbing my hand along the trunk as I walk and just kind of admiring this thing. And coming up, I could see the roots. And, you know, my cousin, I was like, hey, look, it's the roots of this tree. Like, we really wanted to see, you know, these big roots that were down there.

And I was like, wow, look, look at these roots. And so we kind of walk down towards the end of that tree. And, you know, the roots are coming out, you know, sprayed out from the tree. So we got to kind of walk around to the right, you know, because I want to see what's underneath the tree, you know, what's behind that. And we kind of walk around to the right. And we come around kind of go through a couple of roots that was out. And when we do that, that's when we saw it.

So I saw, I mean, to this, I don't know, man, it's, it's, what I saw, it just didn't make sense to me at first. Because my brain wanted to tell, well, my brain initially thought, I just walked up on a bear. Because all I saw within, maybe, it was, it was within 10 feet from me, 10 feet at the most. I just walked on a bear and my cousin was behind me to my right. All I did was put my hand back, like making a stop motion because I thought, my brain instantly was like, I walked up on a bear and it hadn't seen, you know, its back is to me. It didn't, it doesn't know I'm here.

And so I just froze. And my cousin Mike said, he didn't say anything. He made a noise because he still was coming up. behind me. And all I, well, let me say this first. All I saw when I first saw this thing was just hair. And it wasn't, it was strange to me. The whole thing was alien to my, to what I'm, to everything I know. Because if I see something, an animal, I'm used to fur, but this was hair. and it was like a reddish color, reddish brown color, I guess, I guess.

And it was maybe five to six inches long maybe. But it was, and so my brain registered bear, you know, and so I just froze. And when my cousin made that noise walking up, I didn't, I wasn't looking at him. So I don't know what, you know, where he maybe stepped on a brain. and so.

The things, this thing started to stand, it started to stand. And that's what really freaked me out about it. Because the first thing I saw it start to rise up, I saw, I didn't see feet or I didn't see the hills of this thing. I saw the,

the calf in the Achilles area of, that's what it looked like. And I know in my brain, that's not supposed to be there. You know, it was so, it was all, it was slow, but it was fast. It was really strange how it was happening. This thing, this thing rose up. And then I seen arms come out from it.

It was arms. And that's, the whole thing was really freaking me out as this thing was moving. because now it has arms. Now my brain is telling me this isn't a bear. It's bad enough. I thought it was a bear. But now it's not a bear. And it's at first, when I first saw it, it maybe was maybe five foot tall, five foot height.

You know, I'm a five, ten. So it was about five. But as this thing stood or rose up, even, you know, it was up there. The height was up there. And as it rose, it started to turn because I saw those arms come out. And then I saw a head with I can see that's a head pop up, kind of come up over the shoulders area. And it started to turn to its right to as it was turning.

I was so scared. I didn't get to see the face of this thing. but I saw the arms come out and it was turning his waist. It was turning at the waist. It didn't turn his feet. It didn't put a foot back to turn. It just turned at the waist. And I don't know if I hit my, he said I didn't say nothing because he told me later that he was, he came up on me because he was wondering, why am I frozen?

Like, he said, you were frozen. And this thing turned and I just hit him and we, I took off running. and he took off running also. And I was, I don't know, it was a, it was a fear that I've never experienced and I've never experienced that,

you know, I've been through some sticky situations in my life, but that type of fear was different. It was very different. And I don't know, I had a feeling that this thing was given Chase. I never did look back at it, but I felt like it was behind us.

Because I was hearing, I knew the sound of us going through the bush, the bushes and everything like that that was out there. But if I felt like this thing, it was noise that was coming, you know, from behind us, you know, so, but I've never looked around. And it was a weird thing that happened. Um, also, I don't recall, and maybe it was the fear. I don't recall running back. I remember starting to run and hearing this thing behind us.

But I don't recall getting, I know we was far from that trail, but I don't recall that time between it stopped at one point. And all of a sudden, I'm coming up on the trail that we got off of earlier. I don't know it was the fear that made my mind blink out like that or what it was, but I just don't recall it. And next thing, you know, when we. hit the trail, we took a left, and we didn't stop. And we ran all the way up until we caught up to the group. We were just in a panic. And then the whole group in my aunt was like,

where were you guys? And what's wrong with you? What's going on? And I couldn't speak. I was so tired and panicked. I just couldn't speak. And I just, only thing I can get out is It's something back there. It's something back there. And I just kept repeating that. It's something back there. And I was trying, I just couldn't explain it. What I saw because it was so foreign to my mind, it didn't make sense to me.

Even the old Sasquatch videos I've seen on TV and pictures, I've never seen anything. None of them are reddish color. They were all brown, black, you know, or none of them were reddish in color. So it still didn't register to me that that's what it was that I just saw. And it just never made, my mind immediately started to do this strange thing where it wanted to reject what I just saw. And, you know, just have some, like a, it wanted to disconnect itself from it. Because I fooled myself into thinking, I just saw an around. ring a tang, you know, like an escape orangutan. And that's what it was. And I told myself that,

yeah, that's what it was. That's what it was. It had to be. You know, that's what that was. You know, it was because of the color, that's what my mind told me. It had to be an orangutan. So I don't know that sounds crazy, man, but that's what happened. I don't think it sounds crazy at all. I can tell you from interviewing many eyewitnesses, especially hunters, they'll generally say what you said, Damon. They'll say, you know, I thought it was an orangutan. And I'll ask them why. Obviously, it's much bigger than any orangutan out there.

But, you know, I'll ask them why. Why do you think it was an orangutan? And probably the number one answer is because of the color. You know, that Auburn red color. They're not expecting to see that. Because, you know, if Bigfoot is real in their mind, it must be black or it must be what the Patterson Gimlin guys captured in that film. They're expecting to run into Patty.

And most people don't run into Patty. That's not what they see. The other thing, too, is eyewitnesses in your shoes, Damon, they'll say, I don't think it was Sasquatch. And I'll ask them why. And they'll say because it was white. Everything, the fur was white. Everything about it was white.

And so it throws them off because it's not kind of what is in the culture as far as what Bigfoot is. But I think a lot of eyewitnesses go through what you were going through. I went through it, you know, after my own encounter, I was like, God, did I have a stroke? I mean, am I hallucinating? And I think a lot of people go through that. And a lot of people will try to rationalize what they saw. I hear from a lot of hunters, you know, well, I've never seen Sasquatch. but I saw this weird bear one time.

It was on two feet and running around like a man. So I think our brain tries to almost protect us in a way, tries to convince us. You know, it wasn't some weird monster you saw. It wasn't orangutan. You got startled and then you took off. That's kind of my take on it. Exactly. That's what I've been telling myself.

I've been telling myself that for years and I, pushed it so far back in the back of my head that I pretty much almost forgot about it. And, you know, I, I wasn't, after that experience, I wasn't doing so well up there, you know, because me and my cousin, like, we, we get together and it wasn't a good thing to do. So I ended up getting shipped back to Louisiana and about six months later. So even it's years since I seen. him. And that's what I did with that experience until years later, I see him and I bring it up. And I almost tricked myself into thinking it was a dream or it was something I made up myself,

you know, or that didn't really happen. Because I didn't want to believe that's what I saw. I don't, you know, I didn't want to believe it, you know, because it didn't fit the description of a Sasquatch that I knew at the time. And to be honest with you, I came across your channel and I didn't even know it existed until I heard someone on your channel say it was red. It was a reddish color. And then that's when it all came back like, oh, my girl. Oh, you know, oh, my.

That's, you know, I couldn't deny it anymore because I was hanging on to that color. That's what I was hanging on to to deny. diet. Like, yeah, you saw something, you know, it wasn't what you saw. And the hair, and then the, and then also, I'm thinking of fur, but I'm like, in my mind, I'm telling myself, well, no, this thing had hair. It wasn't fur. This thing, it had, it had hair almost like a person, you know, and that's, so that's, that doesn't fit what people, what you've heard about this thing. So that's not what it was. It had to be because I've seen hair on a orangutan before like that.

So that's why I was telling myself, hey, that's probably what it was. Even though this thing was way bigger, this thing, when it stood up, like I said, I was 5'10, 511, 510. This thing was probably around 5. The position, and when I thought about it, I caught it in, it was squatting down. It was squatting down with its elbows in. And so if you come up on someone even squatting down like that, all you see is a back, you know. So that's why I thought bare because it was round and it was wide. That's all I saw.

But as it stood up, I saw the back of the legs and these huge arms come out from the side of it. And that's when my mom was like, this thing's standing up like a man, not a bear. You know, not like a bear wood. It looks like a huge, I mean, a huge, huge, huge man. It's huge. It's just that the size of this thing, the back, the back of it. It was, yeah, it was, it was, it was really wide, really wide. And the hair was,

you know, it wasn't, I heard some of your caller saying it was all, some of their, what they've seen was matted up hair and things like that. This wasn't that. It was, this thing was actually well, like, well kept. It looked when I, you know, when I think about it, it looked really nice. But it was, it was hair, though. It wasn't fur at all. But I just, I just couldn't understand it.

I had to fight my own mind about it for so long. And I never spoke to anybody. it. Yeah, and I can understand that. And, you know, I kind of have a theory on what it was doing. I've heard this sort of encounter several times, but we'll get to that here in a moment. After you guys kind of fled the area, you get back down to the group. Do you tell your aunt, I realize when you guys first get their adrenaline's pumping. You guys are terrified. You guys just got done running for your life or you feel like you ran for your life. But, But as you calmed down, did you tell your aunt what you ran into?

No, no. I didn't, when I told her it was something and that's all I could get out at the time. She was more upset that we disappeared. And so she was more upset about that. And she wasn't really concerned about what we saw. And my cousin, he was with me, but he said from his. angle. The only thing he saw was brown fur, you know, because he said you were kind of,

you were in the way of it. You were in a way. And he said, for a split second, he was curious, like, what is this with brown fur? And he said, as soon as he thought that, I turned around it, it was time to run, you know. But I just didn't tell to her. I couldn't, I couldn't. Like I said, it would, yeah, I just couldn't. because my mind was already making up excuses.

Already. Like, no, you didn't? No, nope. That was an orangutan. And so I would thought, and so at the time, I thought like, that'd be crazy. I'm not going to tell her I saw it rangatang out of her because we're in Canada. What were to orangutang? But that's what I had to tell.

My brain was telling me because I think your brain kind of tries to protect you in a way. It tries to keep your reality the same. your mind tries to do that. I, you know, from different experiences in my life, it tries to protect you and tries to rationalize things for you in the background. That's what I experienced with that situation. I just realized, like, yeah, you know,

that's what it was. And that's what I'm going to believe from here on, you know. Yeah, welcome to the club, man. Like I said, you know, when I'm talking to hunters, I'm like, let me get this straight. You saw something upright. covered in hair, roughly seven and a half, eight feet tall, running like a man, and it had hands. And they're like, yeah.

And I'm like, and you think that's a bear? They're like, well, what else could it be? So sometimes they get frustrated, but I do understand the psychology behind it of people not wanting to really admit what they had seen, even though in your heart, you know, that wasn't a ringetang or that wasn't a bear. One thing I want to ask you, a lot of people will describe this sort of encounter where the witness these creatures on the ground and as it stands up, they'll say, man, it just kept going up and up and it was way bigger than I thought it was. When you saw this creature and it finally stood up, I realize all of this is happening very, very quickly, how tall do you think this creature was? when I turned my, when I turned away from it to run, he was just about, and it was weird.

I know I'm describing it as unfolding as he comes up, but that's what it seemed like he was doing. Like the body was moving in a way that it seemed like it wasn't going to stop going up. And I'm thinking when I saw him, he immediately was, when he started, he immediately got taller than me. And I think he was coming up on, oh, my God, he might have been coming up on, like, close to seven feet. And keep this in mind, he wasn't finished rising when I turned around. He was just about done because I saw enough as he was, you know, standing,

standing up. He wasn't just about finished, but he was coming up on seven feet. I've been around, man, I got, I think I got a good judge on height because I've been around a lot of basketball players in my life that are six, I played basketball, you know, before, and six eight, six nine guys, you know, hey, used to being around him. But this dude, this, this, I don't know, I can't even say the word, but okay, but this thing was, I just never seen nothing that big before and that close, and it just really freaked me out at, you know, but I don't know what he was doing on the ground squatting down like that. You would think a guy, you know, if you came up on a guy doing that, you would think, okay, he's using the restroom, you know, he's, but I didn't see any of that.

it was, I don't know, I don't know what it was doing in that position, but I thought it would have heard us coming up because we weren't trying to be quiet or anything. We weren't making noise. You know, we're just walking through the woods. Yeah, I was kind of curious on what you thought the creature was actually doing. And I could tell you what I think it was doing. I wasn't there.

I don't know what it was doing, but I can give you my opinion because I, I've heard this sort of encounter many times, and people will walk up on these things when a tree has been either pushed over, mainly when it's been pushed over, or fallen over, and the roots are exposed. I think what they're doing is they're eating, because when people will walk up on them, and I've heard it from both sides where people will walk up and see the back of them, kind of like what you saw. but I've also had people who see them from the other side, see them from the front side. And most of those people go, oh, no, that's a bear.

You know, oh, crap, I just walked up on a bear. The unfolding motion that you're talking about, because underneath these trees, there's a ton of food. There's grubs. There's a ton of food underneath a tree. Probably some of the best protein you'll ever find is actually underneath these trees. So when you walk up on this thing, you describe this unfolding motion. And what I think is the creature was probably sitting on its haunches,

had its arms in front of it, kind of wrapped around in front of it, probably eating, probably had its head down. So when you walk up, all you would see is a back. And that unfolding motion, because they don't stand up like how you and I stand up. If you ever see a guy stand up, he puts one hand down, we kind of push ourselves up. That's not how these things stand up.

They will just go from a hunch position to straight up. And I can imagine as you were seeing this creature, seeing just the back of it, that unfolding motion of the arms coming out as it's standing up and the head kind of lifting up, I get why you thought it was a bear when you first walked up on it. That's kind of my theory on what I think it was doing, not that I know by any means, but just from so many eyewitnesses coming forward and sharing their testimony, I've heard this sort of behavior before. And it matches exactly how you describe the same standing up is exactly how other eyewitnesses describe that unfolding motion. That makes a whole lot of sense.

That makes a whole lot of sense because I couldn't understand, you know, why would I only see it like that? You know, head was down. So I didn't see a head initially. I didn't see a head. I just saw a big back. And to me, it looks like, oh, I'm looking at the back of a bear. You know, I'm looking at a, you know, in his butts right here. I'm looking at a, you know, and that's what I thought.

I was like, oh, I just walked up on a bear. I'm gone. But, and I was already scared, like I said. But when it started to do that, yeah, that scrambled my head up a whole lot. I don't understand what I'm seeing here, you know, anymore, what I thought I was looking at anyway. And like I said, until I listened to your show, I had no idea that they actually come and,

people were seeing them. I don't know about the Washington, Canada area. What color is the color that people mostly seeing up that way. But, and my, I spoke to my cousin about this thing, to make sure I wasn't so I remember exactly what happened with this whole day. And he told me about he's been holding on to something for years that he didn't speak about. And he just told me recently about the experience that he had up near Mount Rainier. Tell me about that. If it's okay to share. Well, he said him and his friends, they were up in the hill. He said it was a mountainous

area near Mount Rainier. And he said it was nighttime. They went up there just to go camping. They brought, you know, beer and all kind of other things, you know, to have a good time up there and music and everything. And, you know, and once they got up there, they started having a good time or whatever. And he said one of his friends had like this lantern, this lantern thing. And he said, he got really foggy for some reason.

And he said, but they were high up. And he said that they were up on the hill. And he said, they can look out. And the fog was actually below them. And they can see, you know, for a good distance. And they can see the top of these trees come poking out the fog in the distance. And he said, he was just beautiful up there. He said, started getting dark.

And so they were just walking through the woods, you know, just talking and doing. know, just kind of like just exploring a little bit down these trails. And he said that, now my, now before I say this, my cousin, he doesn't listen to, you know, he doesn't watch anything on Sasquatch or nothing like that. He just told me this story and had no idea. Now, I knew about it because I listened to your podcast. And so he just told me, man, We were sitting there, he said, we were walking.

And all of a sudden, through the fog, he said, it was a little foggy. He said, but we saw these two eyes, but they appeared like a light red color, maybe a peakish color. He said, but the thing about it would freak us out was that these eyes didn't, he said they were big, but they didn't reflect. He said, they, now this is, this is his words. He compared it to a toy that we, that was around when we're kids. He said, you remember that glowworm toy? And I was like, yeah, I remember that.

He said the eyes glow, they glowed. It wasn't reflecting like you see like a cat or a dog reflect light. He said, no, it was putting out its own light. That's what it looked like. And he said, that's what scared us. And it was like a pinkish color. reddish, light reddish color. He said, and we were looking at it.

He said, but we're freaked this out when it blinked, and we knew that there were eyes when it blinked. He said, one of the guys, when it did that, you know, they all got really scared and freaked out a little bit. One of the guys, I think, with the lantern, he ran down there towards it for some reason. He said, but then the eyes actually closed and it was nothing there when they got there.

Let's just say that. There was nothing there. And then I told him, I said, you ought to listen to this show, but you probably don't know. But people have said that, yeah, it seems like the eyes give off light instead of reflecting it. It's a weird thing with the eyes of these things. You probably did see a Sasquatch out there.

Yeah, you're right. I've interviewed a lot of hunters over the years and probably insulted most of them because I'm like, you sure those eyes were glowing? Sure it wasn't just reflection. And they're like, no, these eyes were glowing. That Mount Rainier area is pretty notorious for sightings. Actually, even UFO sightings. And I'm not trying to alarm anyone, but a lot of people go missing in that area as well. So tell your cousin to be safe up there. Kind of going back to your encounter. You know, I was telling you about what I think the creature was actually doing. The tree that fell, I realize you're 16 when this happened.

Did it seem like a dead tree that just fell over? Or did it seem like it was alive and it was laying on its side? It didn't look. No, it wasn't dead. No, it wasn't dead. It looked pretty healthy. It wasn't nothing rot. I didn't see any rotting, you know, anything rotting on it.

it looked pretty healthy. Now, I don't know if a storm knocked it down, how that tree got down like that. But it wasn't, you know, it looked pretty healthy to us to do. The reason why I asked you that is I've had a handful of eyewitnesses that I've actually seen them push trees over and then do what appears to be foraging or eating underneath these trees. You know, when you guys, so you see this creature, you guys take off and you had the feeling that this thing was chasing you guys, or more than the feeling you heard it coming for you guys. Was it chasing you guys off to the side or was it directly behind you guys? It was the sound I was hearing and like, hey, we all have been chased in our lines before. and I've played a lot of games as a kid in the woods,

so we've all ran through the woods and chasing each other. The sound I was hearing was coming from the back left of me. It wasn't directly behind me. It was coming from the back left, and it was probably about as far as I, you know, when I first saw it, it was probably no more than 10 feet away. But this thing seemed like it was hanging, back a little bit further than that.

That was the sound I was hearing it. It sounded like something was just cutting through, not making a lot of noise, because I'm thinking like something that big, if it was cutting through the brush, and we had like an old, old deer trail. It was a trail.

I don't think people made this little trail that we were trying to get through to get back there. But this thing, if it was coming through there like that, I don't see how it, it should have been making more noise than that. But I could hear it was something coming, like staying with us to the back left.

And my cousin was right beside me, you know, running with me. It's kind of, that's why I kind of like, I don't think that that thing was, but I was hearing it, hearing something coming, you know, right with us. It was staying with us. And so I'm like, how something that big should have been making more noise than that, you know, coming through that.

Because he wasn't on the trail. He wasn't right behind us if he was. He was coming through all the bushes and shrubs and everything that was right there, trees. And it was just, it was real thick. So I don't know how he could have been cutting through that, making, you know, minimal noise that he was making. Yeah. Many eyewitnesses say that. You know, for the size of something, it should have sounded like a truck, you know, going through the brush.

That's not always the case. I don't have a great answer for that because it would make sense. You would hear, you know, crashing. But there's a lot going on, too. There's adrenaline. There's, you know, you guys are in fear at this point. And I know that you don't know and I don't know. But why do you think it didn't run you guys down?

Look, this thing, big as this thing was, you know, my cousins, he was a track star. So he's fast. And he usually beats me at running. That day, I was right with him. I was so, you know, that's how scared I was. And this thing, I don't think it would, if it wanted to, if it wanted to harm us, I think it would have. it could have easily caught us, you know, because this thing, even though his back was about, you know,

when I was looking at it, it looked like it's about four foot wide at the shoulders, you know, but this thing, as it stood up, I didn't see any muscles because the hair was pretty much covered. And like I said, I was looking at his back. So, yeah, I don't think that thing would have any problem catching us, but I think if anything, if they're, if he's just pacing you anything, anything, I think he's just, just kind of like just making sure you get out of the area, you know, if anything.

Like, hey, you guys don't need to be, you know, probably you don't need to be around here. You guys need to get somewhere else. And that's what we did as fast as we could. I agree with you. I think that's exactly what that behavior is. Because, you know, like you were saying, Damon, if it wanted to run you guys down, it would have. And you hear that from other eyewitnesses, you know, when you find out how fast,

these things can actually move, you realize how much in danger you really are. You know, you can be a track star all day long. You're not outrunning one of these things. And the fact that it never ever really runs anyone down, the weird part is they will chase you out. Rarely is it ever from behind. I'm not saying that doesn't happen. But most of the time, it's kind of off to the side and they will run you to an area and they'll stop. Kind of like you guys hit the trail and it basically stopped. Other eyewitnesses will run out of the forest. The minute they hit pavement, the creature stops.

And I kind of think it's like, get out of here. You know, make sure you leave the area and make sure the threat is gone. You know, I ask everyone on the show, what do you think Sasquatch is? What's kind of your take? I think, I think it's been around a long time and it's been able to. able to evade us, come in minimal contact with us, especially as a society as we get bigger. And, you know, we kind of grow out. But, you know, a lot of people wonder, like, probably, like, how is it able to hide itself so well, you know, in this. But if you ever take a cross-country

trip, you don't really see how wide and how much area that we do not populate in this country, you know, I really don't know what it is. It seemed like it was a man or, I don't know. It just, it might be a close relative to us in some kind of way, but it's totally different. It's totally different because the way, how big this thing's arm, I've never seen arms as big before. Yeah, so I really, it's really hard for me to say, I'm not a lot of it. I really don't know what this thing is. And it's even hard for me to say I saw a Sasquatch even to this day.

But I can't deny it. That's what I saw. I can't, you know, I don't try to prove it. I will never try to prove it to anybody. Like I haven't told anybody this story, maybe five people my whole life. And I just got, I just started speaking about it recently. So I just don't know what this. I can just tell you what I saw because I try to fool myself for a long time about what I saw.

And now I just got to admit, yeah, it was a Sasquatch I saw that day. And I don't know. I just don't know if I'm going to speak about it more to anybody else after the day. But this thing is, I know for a fact that it is something out there in those woods. besides us and what we commonly know for us, you know, for us, the animals we think that's out there. Now, how they're hiding and not being seen, I don't think it's that many of them. I don't think it's a whole lot of them. You know, you might have cave systems that they're hiding and are living in, you know,

it's all type of ways. I mean, people in India say, you know, you won't ever see a tiger until it's too late, But they're all over the place, you know, in the jungles. You know, same thing go for, what is it, bears also in the woods. You never see bears hardly, but they're there. What I saw that day, those things I think have to be really disciplined and how they move around in order to avoid humans as much as they do. to be on their piece and cues probably moving around and how they move around.

Unlike us, we just walk out there, you know, just, you know, blowing with the breeze and seeing where we want to go and, you know, we're out there just exploring. But I think that they don't want to be, you know, I hear some people saying, hey, you know, we need to discover them and somebody need to bring it to light, but I don't think they want that. They want to, if they wanted to be discovered, I think they're just walking. out into your local city downtown and hey, here I am, but they tend to want to stay away from us. Yeah, you bring up a good point, Damon.

I mean, as far as never seeing a bear, it's kind of like the Pacific Northwest. I think if people knew how many cougars are actually out there, they would never go out in the woods without a firearm. But rarely will you ever see a cougar? you know, after all of these years, kind of looking back at this moment, is there a small part of you that wishes you would have waited half a second later to see the face? I was so, like I said, the whole situation when I first thought it was a bear, time seems to almost slow down. and I was like pretty much looking at this thing rise up in slow motion it felt like even when I played in my mind now it seemed like slow motion it was rising and I did I

wanted I wanted I wanted to see his face I wish I would have seen his face but then in a way I I don't think I I don't think I would have liked I don't know it was hard enough to that would happen out of my mind. If I would have seen his face probably would have stayed with me a lot longer. I don't know. If what kind of mental mind stayed out of been, you know, if I'd have been there to get that face out of my mind, you know. Because not seeing his face gave me a way out to be able to deny what I saw.

I think if I had seen his face and would I hurt how these things look in their face, I would have knew it wasn't an orangutangang, you know, but not seeing his face gave me a way out mentally. That's actually a pretty good point. I never really thought about it in that way. But I completely understand the way you feel. And again, there's no doubt in my mind you saw one of these things. It's a little details, you know, like how you talk about it unfolding as it stood up. Again, there's no doubt in my mind, you and your cuff. and actually ran into one of these things. After all these years, you know, 34 years ago, if he had the chance, would you want to see another one? Not that close. I don't think no one should be that close up on that,

on something like that. It's, first off, it's a total invasion of that's, you know, it's space. And you don't want to surprise. it like we came up on it and surprised it. Maybe at a distance? Maybe. Oh, man, that's hard. That's a hard question, man.

Because it was so hard for me to get, to get my mind to believe, hey, that was just, you know, that's not what you saw. And then if I saw this thing again, I don't know how I'd feel about it. I guess at a distance I would like to see it. I wouldn't mind at a distance. Maybe a football fill away. You know, maybe and they can't see me.

Maybe from a helicopter. Yeah, yeah. Binoculars or something. I don't know. That was a really hard question, man, which once you see these, once you experience this, and I will say that to anyone out there, it's different. If you haven't seen it, you're like, oh, yeah, I would love to see this thing. but to see something in the flesh right here in front of you,

it changes. It changes. It will change your perception on how you feel about this subject. It will change you. You not only know the danger, but you know it's real. And you have to think about that. Would you like to see that again? That's something you would have to think about.

Would you like to experience that again? And I think most people will be like to see that again. like, no, I'm good. You know, that one time was good enough for me because it changed. People don't like their reality messed with. Us as humans, we don't like it to be messed with. And when someone messes with your reality, your mind goes into self-preservation to try to get you back to normal.

It tries to tell you lies, try to tell you things, try to tell, you know, you didn't see that. You didn't, you know, you didn't hear that. You know, no, you didn't hear that. it tries to protect you. And do you want your reality actually changed forever? And it's a question that you should ask, a person would ask themselves before they agree,

like, oh, yeah, I would love to see this thing. Because now you know, you're not the only one that's here that's, you know, you ain't the king of the jungle anymore. It's something else out there that appears like it has a good amount of intelligence with it. Be careful what you wish for because you might just get it. It seems like the older I get in life, that becomes more and more true. And you're right, even people who believe in Bigfoot when they run into it, they're like

it wasn't like what I thought it was going to be. I know this happened to you over 34 years ago. You haven't shared it with a lot of people. I'm honored you would come on and share it with us. I really enjoyed chatting with you, Damon. Thank you so much. All right. No problem,

Wes. Thanks again, Damon. 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, check out Sasquatch Chronicles.com, you can become a member and get additional shows. Until next time, everyone.