Sasquatch Chronicles - SC EP:1076 The Unknown In The Ozarks

Episode Date: July 27, 2024

Billy writes "I had an incident happen to me two years ago, in August 2022. This incident has affected my life in a serious way. I have stopped almost all of my outdoor activities, hunting, fishing, and hiking, which have been a big part of my life. Since the incident, I have been off and on in a state of depression, and I have gained about 35 pounds. I really need to talk to someone who has experience with these types of events and will take it seriously, and maybe help me move on from it. In summary, the incident involved being stalked on a daylight hike in the Ozark Mountains by something I could not see initially, which caused the entire forest to go silent and the air to seem to stop moving. The woods became so silent that I could hear myself breathing. I was videoing myself during this time and commenting about the lack of noise and that I could occasionally hear something off to my right following me, always just beyond my sight in the woods, maybe 30 meters. The woods are very thick in this area. At one point, I was taking a break and getting a drink when, looking back up the trail I came from, I saw a large black object on the side of the trail. My first thought was that it was a black bear. As I watched this thing about 300–400 meters away, it did not move. I ruled out the bear because it did not move and would have to have been sitting like a dog if it were a bear. I took out my iPhone 13 Pro and started to film. I zoomed into the thing, and it was black to a degree that could only be from something burnt. It had a sort of rectangle body, the head and neck was like a deer, with horns similar to those of a cow. The whole object was as black as anything I have ever seen, with no details. This sounds strange, but it is on film. I assumed it was a burned stump but wondered how I could walk past such a strange object and not notice it. On my return trip, I walked past where the object was but found nothing that even remotely looked like the object I filmed. However, the area just behind where the object was had been smashed flat, as if something large had walked or sat there recently; I filmed this as well. Near the end of the hike, I noticed a pile of animal scats in the middle of the trail. This was deer scat, but it was large for deer. I bent over to film it. I intended to show this to my brother, who has hunted this area a lot. While doing this, I heard a very large twig snap directly in front of me. I jerked my head up, still filming, looking into the woods. The woods were thinner here than on the rest of the trail. The twig snap was from a large twig; in order to break something that size it would take something large as well. I could see nothing in the direction of the twig snap. I felt a huge urge to run at this moment; it took everything I could muster to not to. I told myself it was daylight; I couldn't see anything, and if it were a mountain lion or something running, running could trigger an attack. I walked to my truck and was very nervous that it would not start or something and I would be stuck out there. My truck never had any problems, so that wasn't a normal feeling. I drove away and stopped for a few minutes down the road to think about what happened. I was pretty shook up. I stopped going into the woods after this incident. I would usually be fishing on a river near by, not near any roads and trails several times a week. Sometimes coming out after dark alone. I stopped scouting for turkey and deer seasons because I did this alone. I did not do any hunting the following year, even with others. About a year after the incident, I started to think about why I was so bothered by this incident. 1. Whatever was following me could have been a predator of some type, I suppose. However, bears are not that stealthy, I have seen a few of them in the wild. There are no mountain lions in the area. Whatever it was, it made the forest go absolutely silent. I stopped walking when I noticed this, it was so silent that I snapped my fingers a couple of times to make sure I had not lost my hearing. The air stopped moving, like I was in a vacuum. I don't know any animal that causes that. 2. The object I filmed. What was it, and why was it not there when I first walked by or on the return? I have zoomed and slowed the video I took of it, and it seems to have turned its head slightly at one point. I have not heard of anyone having an experience like that. 3. The twig snaps at the end of the hike. Why could I not see what caused it? Something large enough to break a large twig by stepping on it should have been easily visible, but I saw nothing. I focused on the twig snap and my lack of seeing anything. I thought about how quiet it was previously following me along the trail, but it was so loud at that point. I realized it made a mistake at that point right then by stepping on the twig. Why would it do that right then? I then realized that at that moment I was bent over, head down. filming scat. I was completely vulnerable and unaware of my surroundings then. I concluded that whatever it was, it probably saw its opportunity and charged me. Like you see in videos from Africa when a gazelle bends down to drink the cheetah springs on them. This thought really bothered me. What would have happened if the twig had not snapped? Would it have gotten to me? Why did it stop when I lifted my head up? I could not see anything, it could have continued for me. I was unarmed."  

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 are you reporting? Get somebody out here. What's going on now, sir? That's son of a bitch is about six of a bear. This is about six foot nine. I don't know. Is he a male, sir? Yes, I'm looking right here.

This is Mike Marawa, and you're listening to Sasquatch Crompals. Welcome to the show, everyone. Thanks for being here tonight. Got a great show planned for you. We will be chatting with Billy. And Billy comes to us from Arkansas. He had this really bizarre account, this running with this creature, and I'm still stumped by it. I really don't know what Billy saw.

I'll kind of let him go into it. But, you know, I've had shows like this before where people will see something strange, have no idea what they're seeing, and then other people will come forward and go, I know what he saw. That's exactly what I saw. So I'm kind of hoping that happens tonight. 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 Billy to the show. Billy, thanks for coming on. Thanks for having me. I appreciate it. Yeah, back in 2022, you were in the Ozarks. If you would, just kind of start from the very beginning.

What were you doing and walk me into what you saw? Sure. So, you know, I'm originally from the Ozarks area, and we moved away when I was a kid living in Arizona. I'm 50 years old now. You know, we lived in Arizona most of my life. And, you know, our kids are grown and married and out of college and the whole thing. So my wife and I decided to move to Arkansas.

It's just, you know, the green and the, you know, just being close to the hunting and fishing and family that I haven't seen a lot of, you know. So we moved back here in 2021. And instantly I started, I've been a big hiker hunting, fishing. fishing. I've been all over Arizona, the southwest, California, instantly started going on hikes and fishing the area because so many things are within, you know, less than an hour drive in my house, which I'm not used to in Arizona. Usually it's an entire day thing to get to something interesting. And on that day, I'd plan, I think it was a Saturday. I don't remember exactly, but I'd planned on going for a hike, but it was raining most of the day. It was kind of

off and on. So I didn't go. And then in the afternoon, it stopped raining. So, you know, I started looking online for some, uh, some hikes closer to the house. I could get to pretty quickly. Um,

and I found one that had, uh, three different waterfalls along the trail. You know, it wasn't very far from my house, me about 30 minutes. So I'm like, let me try that.

So, um, you know, drove out there. It was kind of a cloudy overcast day. Um, you know, I got to the trailhead,

probably about 3.30, which is, you know, later than I normally do. You know, it was, pretty far back into the woods. I was kind of impressed that in that short amount of time I could get

feeling that deep away from everything. There was a few farms nearby, but not much else. And the trail was kind of like an old, like it looked like it had been an ATV trail at one time, but it was really overgrown. Doesn't look like anybody takes ATVs down there any longer. You know, just started out down the trail. It's like any other hike. It was just walking along, not thinking about anything in particular, just

enjoying myself. And then at some point about, I don't know, maybe a mile into the trail. This is, I think, about, I think it's a two mile in, two mile out, or maybe three, somewhere about there. About a third of the way in, I just all of a sudden noticed that had gotten extremely quiet. Like, you know, the ground was kind of soft from the rain that day, and I could hear my footsteps and my own breathing. I was like, it was very odd. I stopped for a second to listen. I remember that being so quiet that I actually snapped my fingers to make sure I hadn't lost my hearing.

I mean, that's how ridiculously quiet. And like in the Ozarks in late August, you might as well be in like the Amazon jungle. It is just noisy with birds and crickets and frogs, all kinds of things, you know. So I couldn't hear anything. I was like, that is bizarre. And I'm looking around, I've never been anywhere in a situation like that. And I'm like looking around and it was like almost like the, you know, like the air stopped moving. Like you're in a vacuum.

It was just the most bizarre thing I ever heard. It gave me kind of an eerie feeling, which was odd because it's, you know, it's daytime. And, you know, there's nothing particularly a scary situation or anything. I just got this real weird feeling. I was like, okay, you know, so I kept on going. And then shortly after that, because it was so quiet, I started to hear. something off to my right in the woods. Just a slight movement, like something brushing past something, just ever so often.

And it was maybe, I don't know, like 30 meters away. And the woods in that area is just thick. You can't see more than 10 feet in. If something's like 20, 30 feet away, if they're standing behind something, you'll never see it. And I kept hearing it, like, every once in a while. And I got to the point where I actually played a little game. I, like, would be walking and I would stop suddenly, like, before I took the next step to see if I could hear something. And one time I actually did, something actually seemed like it continued to walk and then stopped right after I did.

This kept going for a while. You know, I kept on toward the first waterfall of the three. Even though at that point, I still felt like I kind of wanted to leave. But I don't know if it was just, you know, being a bit macho or something, I didn't want to, like, turn around and not go because something, you know, made me uncomfortable. But as I got further down the trail, the noises, normal noise kind of returned, not quite as loud as it was, but it was pretty normal. And I didn't hear anything, you know, off in the woods anymore. So I'm like, okay, everything's good.

Got to the first waterfall, and it was pretty much dry. It was just a trickle. That's kind of disappointed. I'm like, well, I'm not going to, you know, continue on to the other two if this one's pretty much dry. They're all running on the same stream. So I turned to head back and, you know, I'm just walking along and, well, actually, let me back up a bit. There was a part I missed. Sorry. This is the first time I've told this story, like, completely. I've started down the storyline before with people. And once I get to this part that I'm going to talk about now, they go from interested to, they give me a strange look. You know what I mean?

They don't want to, they were interested, like hunters and people, like, they have some experiences too. They want to share. But once I get to the part I'm about to talk about, they kind of, they get a weird look on their face. You know, they kind of sit up and like on the way down the trail, you know, after the noises, it kind of returned a little bit and everything seemed good. I was stopping to take a drink of water.

And I just looked back down the trail where I was. and this is maybe, you know, three, 400 meters, quarter mile maybe back down the trail. On the side of the trail was a large black object, just blacker than anything else in the forest. And my initial thought, like, instantly was that it was a bear. And I was like, you know, holy crap, that was a bear that was trailing me in the woods. And then, you know, within a few seconds, I'm like, okay, that's not a bear. It's not moving. And if it was a bear to be like sitting on its haunches or sitting down like a dog,

and I'm like, what in the world is that? So I grabbed my phone and started filming and talking about it. And, you know, how I thought that was a bear or something. And I zoomed in with my phone. Zoom wasn't very good at the time. On my phone was like an iPhone 13th. But it was a bizarre looking object. It was kind of like a rectangle body.

if that makes any sense. And then it had the neck and head of what appeared to be a deer. And then kind of almost cow like horns. And this is all in silhouette because there's no detail in the shape at all. Like you couldn't see face, eye, you know, nothing. It was just kind of a silhouette shape. And I kept looking at it. And I'm like, you know, it's got to be like a burned out stump or something weird.

and, you know, I'm thinking to myself, how did I walk past something so odd and not see it? You know, I have tons of pictures in my phone of, like, weird rock formations or trees or interesting stuff. You know, I was like, okay, well, that's weird. And, you know, then I continued on down the trail to the first waterfall. I got there and, you know, headed back. Nothing spectacular happened, you know, on the way back toward the, toward the, end of the trail. When I got to the spot where I saw the

black strange stump, I was like, oh yeah, that's right around here. I started to look and, you know, I went to the spot and I'm like, there's absolutely nothing in that area that resembles that shape. There's nothing even that color. There's nothing dark. And I'm looking back down the trail. I kind of gauge,

okay, I was there. I'm looking here. It has to be right here. And then I started looking at the tree line, kind of walking in back and forth and saying, you know, maybe several trees lined up to make this thing, make that shape. And no, there's nothing that even matches the color. It was just darker than it was pitch black, you know, whatever the object was. But it wasn't there.

And I'm filming the whole time talking about it. And just inside the tree line, we're in the area where I saw this thing, there's a lot of pine needles. And you tell that the pine needles had been smashed down. like something had been walking or sitting. If I didn't know better, I would think it would be like a deer bed, a place where a deer had been laying. But, you know, they don't lay inches off a trail, so that doesn't make sense.

Again, very weird feeling. I'm like, that's, you know, I'm an analytical person. So I like to kind of make sense of something of things and not have it just, you know, sit in the back of your head spinning about what is this, you know? So I continue on and I'm about, maybe a quarter mile from the end of the trail. And I know it's a large pile of animal scat. And I know it's deer scat.

It's just really large. You know, I'm like, that's strange. So I was bent over. I had a walking stick that I had taken with me. You know, I'm poking at it and filming it. And this is going to show my brother about how large it is. You know, and he's a hunter in there and ask him about it. And at that very moment, like straight ahead of me into the tree line,

I hear a twig snap that's, extremely loud. It's not, you know, like a small branch. It's like maybe an inch thick type of branch that was on the ground that was stepped on and snapped. Very loud, very close. You know, I jerked my head up and I still have the phone in my head. I'm trying to film into the woods, but the phone is like, I think I had it vertical and it's filming horizontal or vice versa. And I'm trying to see because whatever it was, I should be able to see it. It's so close. And, you know, something have to be, you know, I don't know, 100 pounds or something to step on a twig that big and snap it. And the woods in this area is much less dense than the rest of the trail that I was on.

So I should have been able to see something. It couldn't be more than, I'm guessing, you know, 20, 30 meters away. But I see nothing. Absolutely nothing. You know, the loudness of the crack shocked me. So it was a little on edge when I popped my head up. and while I'm just scanning the woods looking like, what in the world? What was that?

I get this feeling that I've never had in the woods before. Like my entire body had electricity flowing through it and just came on in an instant. Like the hair on the back of my neck stood up. I had goosebumps in my arms. And like internally my body or my mind was telling me to run to the point where I nearly took a first step to run. and, you know, I'm having this battle inside myself. Like, everything about me is saying run. I'm like, hold on, like, stop.

This is daytime. I don't see anything. You know, and then I was like trying to, you know, reason to myself, if it were a predator or a mountain lion or there aren't any mountain lions in the area, but, you know, if there was a, you know, something, that could actually trigger it to attack if I run. You know, I've just never felt so in danger. if that's, I mean, that sounds kind of dramatic, but that's kind of what it felt like.

You know, I walked the rest of the way kind of looking over my shoulder constantly. I remember approaching the end of the trail and getting to my truck, and I'm thinking, you know, I hope it starts, please start, please start. And it was like, that was not a normal thing. There was no problems with my truck. I never had it. It never didn't start. It was a newer truck still at the time.

And, you know, I'm like, it doesn't make sense. I remember getting to the car and before I opened my door I'm looking over both shoulders like as if I were in a bad inner city neighborhood or something worrying about being mugged got in the car and then

started up, felt relief and kind of drove off and I was going through all the events in my head you know over and over to the point where I actually maybe a couple miles down the road I pulled over just for a minute to sit there and think it just it just kind of you know shook me it was very weird the whole incident you know

I wasn't I don't know I couldn't attribute it to anything if I had seen some kind of animal if I had seen a Sasquatch or anything at least that would be something that I could reconcile you know in my head that this is I saw you know X this creature this thing whatever but you know it was very disturbing and for gosh maybe more than a year, I stayed completely out of the woods. I started to return to fishing, but staying much closer to the roads in my truck than I used to. And then I think about, I think in the, I think it was January of 2024, I went hunting with my brother, deer hunting, and he wanted to go to that same area. And I was a little nervous, and I told him that's, you know, that's where I had my thing.

and he just kind of blew it off. He didn't know. You know, he's not, I don't have a lot of, a lot of people that take the story very seriously. You know, they chuckle at it and, you know, we laugh at it. But I was legitimately really worried. But, you know, at that time of year in January, the woods are much less dense. You can see a lot further, you know, we do a lot of some deer stand, some spot in stock type of hunting. And, you know, I was able to kind of get out by myself.

and, you know, fully armed this time. At the time I was on that hike, I wasn't unarmed. You know, I had, when deer hunting, I had a pistol with me and a 9 millimeter and my rifle, you know, I was reasoning with myself if I can, you know, if I have that much, you know, firepower and they can still, something can still get to me. I guess they deserve to eat me or whatever it's going to happen.

You know, and at one point, you know, maybe about a year and a half after the incident, I started to ask myself questions. What is bothering me so much about this incident? and I kind of listed it out. First off, was the quiet that happened. You know, what can make something so quiet? I've been close to bears, and I've actually been close to a mountain lion when I was younger.

I don't think I've ever been stalked by a large predator. But, you know, what can make, like, literally almost the bugs be quiet? And you feel like you're in a vacuum. That doesn't make any sense. I couldn't come up one good idea of how that could happen. You know, the second thing was the black object I saw along the edge of the trail. I mean, it had to be, I'm guessing, you know, it appeared to be in a crouched or squatting position. It had to be maybe four to five feet high.

And then I can find no evidence of it, not even the color or shape reference in that area where, you know, I've got on video. and, you know, I took a screen capture of that, of the object, you know, zoomed in as many times as I can, and it just doesn't make sense what that was. But third and the most, the thing that bothered me the most was the toward the end of the hike, the twig snap that startled me and the inability to see something. I know that something had to be within, you know, 20 yards of me, and I felt the presence of something close to me. Yeah.

And it was just, I can't reconcile it. Like, what does that mean? What, I mean, you know, I started to think why at that moment? Because whatever was following me was very quiet, very stealthy, could barely hear it only when there was no other sounds around. But right at that moment, it made a loud, you know, twig snap. You know, I was like, well, why would it do it right then? that's like a mistake.

It's not being stealthy right there. Then I realized at that moment I had my head down bent over like filming something on the ground. I was completely unaware. And I was like, I started to think that's, you know, it's almost like a gazelle you see in the old mutual Omaha TV show. Like the gazelle bends down to get a drink of water and that's when the cheetah springs from the brush to get them. I almost felt like it was something like that. I was completely unaware of my surroundings. My head was down.

I was very vulnerable. And I felt, and maybe that whatever it was made a charge toward me. And that twig snap, you know, alerted me. But, you know, that doesn't make a whole lot of sense either because why did it stop? I mean, I couldn't see it. I wasn't armed. If there was something charged me, it could have continued.

I mean, I don't know. I don't know what it was. And then if, you know, if the twig hadn't snapped, what would have happened? Would something have got to me? What would have done? I mean, what was it? And then, you know, your mind just goes spinning. Like, what, it doesn't make sense.

You know, eventually, and I started to think about, I read David Pilates' book, Missing 411 when it, not too long after it came out. And I started to think, I goes, is that what happens when someone, you know, quote, disappears? You know, something unseen to them comes and just kind of takes them. I mean, I don't know. Yeah, there's a couple things about your encounter. Do you still have the picture in the video?

I do, yeah. I was just checking that make sure they're on my Google Drive that I have before we started talking. Will you send that to me? Absolutely, yeah. Yeah, I would love to see it. You know, Billy, I've had a few accounts like this on the show. I had this guy on the show one time. and he was in this clear-cut area on the side of a hill.

And he sees this like a stump. It's a weird-looking stump because it looks like it's been burnt out. It's black. You know, when they clear-cut, they don't burn anything. They're just cutting. And he goes, there's something very odd about this stump. He goes, and it wasn't moving, and it was just sitting there. And he's like, I wonder if someone lit that on fire.

So he starts walking towards it while this stump gets up and walks off. and it actually walks into the tree line. And it was a Sasquatch. And he was like, I really thought it was a stump. It wasn't until I got up on it. I realized that it was something living. I want to ask you, you know, when you're walking up on this saying, can you kind of describe it?

I realize you didn't really know what it was, but you described kind of a dog's head or a deer's head? Yeah, so the body was kind of, as I called it, out of body. The bottom portion was like three quarters of it. It seemed to be kind of rectangular. And then it had something that looked very much like a neck.

Like you see a young deer's neck. Same size and kind of shape. And the head, the portion I'm calling the head, looked to me like a small deer's head. But then it had very undefined like horns.

I mean, it looked like like a young bull horns that they're, you know, they're just starting, you know, there may be eight inches on each side and very, like, just, you know, not very, they're kind of going straight out, maybe like a cow horn. Yeah, it was really, and the thing was it was, it stood out from everything else because it was just so dark. When I was thinking it was something that burnt, I'm like, okay, how would that, you know, I was just that, how did that one stump burn like that and everything else looks fine?

And I was like, you know, one of the things about the video, I've tried kind of, I'm not very good at video editing, but I've tried to zoom in on that and stabilize it a bit and go slow motion as, you know, my phone's zoomed in, so it's kind of shaky. And I swear at one point when I go to take my phone away from it, it looks like the head of it turns slightly, just ever so slightly against, and in the opposite, direction that I'm moving the phone. If that makes sense, you know, I'm like, the video is kind of moving to the left, but his head seems to turn the other direction just slightly. Yeah, I mean, that's, you know, when I get to that part of the story, it's when, you know, the hunters and people that I've told this to lose interest, they're like, they're like, what? I go, I go, yeah, it doesn't make sense, but, you know, I don't, that's, that's what I saw. And, you know, I've never heard anybody else seeing something like that. And then not, it's just not being there.

I go with. Yeah, I've heard of them. I've heard of people seeing stuff and then not being there on their return back. Yeah, it's interesting about the horns. I mean, for a moment, I was almost thinking like dog man, but the horns kind of throw me off. I wonder if it could mimic something. It's trying to mimic a deer or trying to look.

I don't know. I don't know. Yeah, it's hard to say, but you know, you're describing, you'd made a comment there and I was muted out. I kind of, I was shaking my head when you talked about, oh, the force went so quiet, I snapped my fingers so that I, you know, I wasn't sure if I lost my hearing. When the force goes quiet like that, it's exactly what it feels like. I mean, the moment that you're like, hey, I want to stamp my fingers, make sure I'm still hearing, that's exactly what it's like. Everything

goes dead silent. And I would imagine the Ozarks, like you said earlier, is probably like the Pacific Northwest. It's loud during the day. And it's even loud. or at night and for it to go dead silent like that. How far away from you was that object when you first saw it? You know, it was back up the trail and just at the corner of a bend. I'm guessing, I don't know, three, 400 meters. It was far enough where I, with a naked eye, you know, when I first glance, I'm like, you know, that's a bear. It's a black bear. But then, you know, I started to stare at it from a minute. It's not moving. It's like, what is it? I'm just sitting there. yeah

so roughly about maybe a thousand feet from you yeah yeah yeah that's bizarre when I zoomed in it was the thing that bothering me too is it's just like there was just like it's just a silhouette like there's no like a stump you might see

you know something you know just it's not smooth you know what I'm saying it would be like rough and there'd be broken pieces and you know this part sticks out further than this part but you know it was just it was almost like like if you had

I don't know how to describe it like cut taking a picture and cut out a piece you know you cut a piece of it out and just left up the background black or something I don't know how to describe it it's just void of colors I guess I'm the mistake I got you

and you come back out and it's not there now you're finding scat in the middle of the trail you sure that was deer scat um it it kind of looked like it at first I thought it might be you know elk because it was a weird it was a weird scat because it was like in between like you know deer have more kind of you know goat like scat and then elk have more kind of larger scat and I'm like

that's why I was confused I just assumed it was a large large deer scat and that's why I was filming and I was like I was going to show my brother and say you know have you seen this is large deer or what you know but yeah it had been there a while so I mean I didn't notice it on the way and I just happened to, you know, notice it on the way out and was, you know, filming it. Yeah, and then the creepy part is hearing that snap in the woodline. How far away from you was that snap? You know, I would say 20 yards to the point where, you know, it's like when I pop my head up, I expected to see someone or something standing, you know, and right in front of me, you know, you could hit them with a rock, that type of thing, you know, and there was nothing. And,

And it was like, that was kind of shocking, you know, and after, you know, maybe 10 seconds of me looking in the woods and looking around and all of a sudden I just, you know, it felt like my entire body was, like I had a rush of adrenaline. I think it's what it was. And it was like that fight or flight response kicked in. And it was, I think I initially took like, I started to take a first step to run. And then, you know, I caught myself. I'm like, wait a minute, hold on.

What, why are, you know, it's daytime. It's, you know, four o'clock, maybe 3.30. four o'clock. I don't see anything. I mean, this is ridiculous. You can't take off running out of the woods. I mean, but that it was a constant battle for the rest of that, you know, maybe quarter a mile to the end of the trail to just not take off running. And it was bizarre. I'd never felt, I don't want to say in danger because it sounds so dramatic, but I felt like, you know, like something was telling me to get out of there. You know, I was like my instincts were saying, go, go, go. but yeah, I've never felt that before. I've been around. I've been close to Black Bear. I've also been close to mountain lions.

And, you know, I've never, you know, felt quite like that. Yeah, it was very strange. When you were walking in, you started noticing, oh, something's pacing me in. How far away do you think it was when it was pacing you? You know, from the sound, I would say maybe, it was probably only like 30 meters away, maybe. 30 to 40 yards if it makes sense because it was that part of the woods it was so thick you know you couldn't

you couldn't see more than 20 yards in if you could have you know you could have a cow pacing you along maybe 30 40 yards away you would not you would hear it but you probably wouldn't be able to see much of it that's how thick it was you know it was close enough that it was just it was quiet but it was close enough that I could hear it

and it was because it was you know all the noise had you know was gone. And I wondered if if something had been trailing me the whole time. It was just normal forest noise. I wasn't picking it up. Like I said, at one point, I tried to, you know, I was like, I went to make a step and I stopped

all of a sudden. I tried that a couple times. And one time I actually heard something off to the side make another slight movement before it stopped. So I'm like, okay, this is, there's something, you know, kind of trailing me. bears aren't that stealthy they don't do that i'm thinking mountain line but there's no from arizona i'm used to people warning about mountain lines but i there's none in the ozarks per se deer don't do that so yeah the weird part is um you know it's pacing you like what you hear

with these dog man creatures or saskatch i mean that's kind of how they pace people step for step they'll match you which is weird in itself because if you can't see it how can they see you and piece you, but people report that all the time. The word part is the description of it with the horns that's kind of throwing me off. Let me ask you, I mean, going off your gut, what do you think that you ran into? You know, I actually, I'd heard of dog man before, but, you know, I'd never consider that until you're saying that. You know, I, the thing that, you know, when I start thinking about whatever the shape was I saw on the side, that can't be what was following. I mean, you know, so you go through your head, what does that mean?

Is it able to mimic something? Is it able to, you know, try to blend in? Is that what its real shape is? Or, you know, it's just, that's the most confusing thing. It's like, I almost wish I'd seen a saskatch. At least, as ridiculous as that sounds, at least that would make sense in my head, you know. I saw this physical creature. And, you know, at the, you know, toward the end of the trail,

where I felt like something had charged me, you know, if it were a Sasquatch, I mean, I could at least make a plan, you know, I could run, I could fight, I could, you know, I knew what to do. I knew, you know, it's some physical thing that's coming toward me. But to not see anything was the most disturbing. It was like, that doesn't make sense. You know, it's, and the, you know, combined with the weird shape I saw, it's like, I don't know what to do with it. You know, it's not, I wasn't in a haunted house. I wasn't doing anything, you know, I'm in the woods and, you know, late afternoon and just, you know. Yeah, I get it. I don't know what to attribute it to. That's probably the thing that's boggled me the most being a very analytical person. You know, it's constantly like, I'll be

crunching ideas in my head, you know, while I'm doing other things sometimes and that just comes up and it's just, it never settles on anything. Okay, I think it was this or I think it was that. Did you happen to see ears on this creature? No. But, you know, maybe, You know, what I are calling horns were kind of a, just a shape. They kind of went from a, you know, a thick shape. Like if you were to take a pyramid and stretch it out kind of long, that's what they look like. It's a shape. Kind of like a Doverman's ears straight up?

Kind of, but they were out to, they went sideways, like almost like a cow horn. You know, Billy, I'm fascinated by what you saw. And I wish I had a great answer for you. I wish I could go, oh, this is what you saw. You know, I'd be lying to you if I did that. But there was a guy I had on the show. Gosh, this was years ago. And he was a truck driver, a long haul truck driver. And he had shared his Sasquatch encounter. And we were getting wrapping up the show. And I asked him, you know, what's a weirdest thing you've ever seen while out there? And he had shared his Sasquatch encounter. And we were getting wrapping up the show. And I asked him, you know, what's a weirdest thing you've ever seen while out there? And he. doing these long-haul drives across the United States. Assuming he's probably going to say, you know, I saw UFO or, you know, something to that effect. Well, he starts telling me about this encounter he had. I can't remember exactly where he was at. I have to go back and listen. He told me exactly where he was at.

But anyway, he's going down the road and he sees this woman on the side of the road. And kind of halfway in the other lane. and she's just walking. And as he's pulling up on her, he realizes, oh, she's basically naked from the top up. And it threw him off. He's like, is this woman okay? Does she need help? Like, you know, the spidey senses are kicking up.

And as he pulled up on her and the light hit her more, he was like, the bottom half of her was a deer. The top half was like a naked woman. I was like, what? He's like, yeah. And as I passed by, we made eye contact. and her eyes were jet black. There were no whites to her eyes. And he goes, I had this overwhelming fear.

I needed, he basically hit the gas and got out of there. But as a show ended, I remember thinking like, gosh, I wonder what that guy saw. That's the weirdest thing I've ever heard. Well, the next day, I started getting emails from different tribes around the United States that were explaining to me what this guy saw. I think it's called the Dear Woman. I could be wrong on the name. but it's a demonic entity that presents itself to be very physical,

lowers men away. And every tribe kind of had the same story about this thing. And, you know, then it kind of made sense. I was like, because I have no idea what this guy saw. And I kind of hoping it happens with your encounter because it's such a strange account. I can't wait to see the pictures. I realize it's going to be like a blob squatch on an iPhone 13 when you're you zoom in. The pixels become too much. It almost destroys a picture of them where you zoom in on it,

but I'd still like to check it out in the video as well. It's a very strange account, especially all the stuff that was going on around the encounter. The forest goes quiet. You feel like you're being watched. You hear what sounds like you're being paced out of the woods. And then seeing this weird black object up ahead, you snap a picture of it and on your way back, it's not there. How did this kind of affect you as far as going back out in the woods? Yeah, I mean, honestly for like a year, I didn't do anything. I mean, when we first moved back to Arkansas in 2021, I was in the woods fishing,

scouting, hiking, you know, gosh, probably three or four days a week. After this incident, I literally didn't go out in the woods for probably a year. I returned to fishing, but I used to, there's a local river here, I used to fish. I would park my truck somewhere and then, you know, I'd be waiting and hiking. I'd be miles away from my truck down in places where people, you know, only get to by, you know, kayak or canoe and they go by to fish. But, you know, I stopped doing that as well. And it wasn't until just this year, 2024, that I kind of, you know, got deep into the woods again when I went hunting with my brother.

but I felt a lot more comfortable because the woods, you know, in January or a lot less thick. You can see a lot further. You know, I was armed. And now I don't go even on just regular hikes without being armed, which isn't really a bad idea anyways. But, you know, I used to take my sidearm if I was thinking about it or sometimes I'd just be in a hurry and be like, you know. But now I definitely don't ever go out without it, you know, in the woods. So it's definitely changed, you know. And the woods were kind of my sanctuary.

You know, that's where I kind of all my stress relief and just any activity, just being out there, not seeing anybody, just being alone. You know, I do some fly fishing, just standing, you know, knee deep in the creek with the water flowing by. And you're just fly fishing. You don't see anybody the entire day. It's really peaceful. That was always my, you know, my escape. You know, this has been a tough year, 2024 for me. have lost two relatives and my best friend of 36 years died of cancer this year just last month.

And it's like, you know, I really could use that time, but I'm still hesitant to do that, you know. Yeah, I'm so sorry to hear about your friend, your best friend dying of cancer and just kind of the rough year. And I get it, man. In moments like this, it kind of steals that sanctuary of the force that we have of wanting to go out there. you know, the Ozarks are a weird place. I kind of liken it to, in Kentucky, the LBL. You always hear weird, strange encounters beyond Sasquatch and Dogman. You hear other things.

You're just like, I have no idea what this person saw. And I've had that happen to me when witnesses come forward from the Ozarks as well. They'll have these, you know, it's like I really, my knee jerk reaction is to go, well, it was probably a dog man, but. You know, the way you describe it with the horns and everything, I, you know, I just don't know. One question I wanted to ask you was, you know, when you were being paced out of this area, and you heard whatever it was behind you kind of off to the side of you, matching you step for step, would it be possible?

I don't know the trail outline or how it's kind of outlaid. Would it be possible for whatever was pacing you to get in front of you without you seeing it on the trail? Yeah, yeah. I've looked at topographic maps of the area. The right side of when you're heading into toward the waterfalls, the right side of the trail, there's about, I don't know, about 50 yards that are fairly flat, and then it drops steeply into a canyon

where that's where the stream that comes down and creates the waterfalls that you go to. So it's kind of steep, but there's this kind of like plateau area where you can come up out of the steep canyon creek area and it could have, yeah, it could have been right along there. And, you know, where I saw it was,

there's a turn right there. So if he would have like gone straight from, you know, where he was tracking me backwards, that would have been, it would have been right at that point. They could have come right out at that point there. But, yeah, easily. There's a whole section on that side of the trail

that is wooded and yeah. I actually thought about going off trail at one point to kind of take a shortcut to go to the waterfalls because the trail seemed to be kind of, like I said, it used to be an old maybe ATV trail or something. So it probably was going where it's convenient for that. And I thought about just going off trail directly down toward the waterfalls, but looking at the map, it seemed kind of steep. So I decided not to once you got to a certain point. the spot where I saw the object was right near a spot I thought about this once before

I didn't have it mattered where I had stopped and urinated on the side of the trail I mean it was literally like within several feet of where I had done that and I thought about that I was like was it coming to like did it think I was marking my

spot or something bizarre because it was tracking me at one point and then went back to that point around right there. So I thought that was kind of odd. Yeah, that is. I mean, that might have had something to do with it. It's hard to say. You know, when the forest goes quiet, like how you experienced and how many people have experienced, it's generally one of two things, either Sasquatch is around or a dog man is around. And it's very hard to, because it's more than just a forest going quiet. It's like how you described. Even the insects are go dead

silent. You know, you almost have to snap your fingers to make sure you're still hearing. It's like that. There's no doubt in my mind you ran into something. You know, I just don't know what you actually ran into. Like I said earlier, my knee jerk reaction is to go, oh, it was a dog man, but, you know, the horns and everything. I'm, you know, I really don't know. You know, I ask everyone on the show, what do you think Sasquatch is? I know you've been a listener for a short amount of time. What's your take, Billy? What do you think Sasquatch? watch is. Well, you know, I definitely think it's more than a physical creature. I don't know what that means, but I feel like it has, I don't know, more intelligence than just an animal, which I think a lot of

the, you know, the shows on TV that try to track it and find it and whatnot. It's like they're treating it like it's a, you know, a bear or a deer or, and it's not, you know, it's, I don't know if it's closer to human, if it's more than human. But it's definitely something more than just animal. Maybe it's, you know, you can get into craziness, you know, thinking about it. It's a spiritual,

extra-dimensional. I, you know, you don't know, but you, like Indian, Native American stories, talk about, you know, things in the woods and that they're similar to Sasquatch, but they have the ability to, you know, not be seen or to disappear or or strange stuff like that. So, you know, I don't really know.

I just think it's much more than just an animal. And I think that's why people have had such trouble, you know, capturing video or whatever. Yeah. Yeah, you bring up a good point. You know, if you talk to a lot of the Native Americans, they do have a lot of stories and a lot of history of, I guess, what Bigfoot researchers would call Woo-woo. there's a lot of weird stuff they talk about. That sounds very paranormal. Now, maybe some of it isn't, but I had JD on from episode 1074. He's an engineer, a little bit more than an engineer, but he's like 10 times smarter than I am, which isn't saying much. But he was talking

about his theory about the lights, the smell, and, you know, this infrasound. And he, he broke it down into such a simple explanation to where he was saying, you know, Infrasound would explain why even the bugs go quiet or why we get this overwhelming fear while we're out in the woods. Infrasound can do that. And he's not wrong. He's absolutely right when he says that. And it was just kind of fascinating to hear him talk about his different theories, especially coming from kind of a science background, actually more than a science background. It was fascinating to hear his theories on that. So, I mean, could that be part of it?

I don't know. I think there's a lot of weird things that go on. And like I said, man, I wish I had a great answer for you. I wish I could be, you know, Mr. Nodal and be like, hey, this is what she saw. I'm just not sure. And analyzing it, you know, one thing that it leans toward not being a Sasquatch is I've heard, you know, people talk about the smell. I have a really good sense of smell. I've always have, like, I've usually smell things way before, you know, anybody else does.

But I don't, I didn't smell anything. Even where, you know, I was thinking about where I was walking around where whatever it was there, you know, I didn't smell anything. I didn't smell anything at the end. You know, I thought about that later. I'm like, okay, yeah, no, I didn't. Normally if something's weird smelling, I'll pick it up. I can, you know, dead animal or something, you know, way before most people in my group would. I don't remember anything out of the ordinary with that.

Yeah, the smell doesn't get reported as much as you might think. Definitely it doesn't get reported in every encounter. I mean, obviously it does get reported from time to time. But I'll say most encounters, people don't report the smell. So, you know, I don't know if I'd put all my eggs in the smell basket, so to speak, because it's not every time someone smells it. it's definitely a head scratcher. And I'll post your picture in your video when you sent him to me underneath this episode.

I'm kind of hoping, you know, whenever I do shows like this, Billy, sometimes someone will come forward and go, I saw exactly what he saw. What he's describing is what I saw. And I'm kind of hoping that happens because, you know, I'm kind of at a loss as far as what you actually saw. There's no doubt in my mind, but there are everything else going on and around your encounter. there was something there. What it was, I'm just not sure. Yeah, I appreciate you listening. Like I said, this is the first time that, you know, I've kind of told the story in its entirety, you know, and kind of a, you know, where someone actually listened to me seriously. You know, I didn't,

I didn't want to see something bizarre. You know, if I would have told people, hey, I saw a Sasquatch, I think they would be less, more likely to believe me than what, you know, when I tell them the whole story and I'm like, you know, I didn't, I didn't set out to, you know, see anything bizarre or didn't want to see anything bizarre. I'm just telling you what I saw. I'd much rather seen something much more explainable, but, you know, and in the email I sent you, I kind of rambled on about it because that was the first time I'd actually written down any thoughts about the experience also. So it's been very helpful for me. I think I feel, you know, better talking to someone who's heard stories and had their own experiences and, you know, it can kind of verify that, yes,

there's something, something out of the ordinary occurred. You know, it wasn't just, you know, imagination or, you know, you didn't get spooked. You know, people, well, you just got spooked by, and I'm like, it was in the middle of the day. And it's like, you know, I wasn't doing anything scary. And there was no, you know, you didn't go backpacking in the middle of the night or go to a haunted house or something. just an afternoon hike, you know, so. Yeah, well, I'm honored you would come on the show and share it, Billy. I really enjoyed chatting with you.

And hopefully there's another listener out there that ran into what you ran into. Like I said before, no doubt in my mind you ran into something, what it was. I'm not sure. But thank you again for taking the time to come on. Yeah, I appreciate you listening to me. Thanks again, Billy. And that's it for tonight. not 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.