Sasquatch Chronicles - SC EP:1159 Sasquatch Picking Berries

Episode Date: June 1, 2025

Lindsey from northern MN writes "I was raspberry field picking and encountered what I at first thought was a mother bear and 2 cubs but they had hair not fur and it was auburn/brown less black like the bears in the area. The mother (large one) was distinctly "picking" raspberries which has never sat well with me. A bear would have eaten berries off the bush and not as quiet. The two young ones always had their back towards me and I think they were trying to be in little balls. I never saw their faces. They were trying not to appear large. The big one held its head down so I didn't see eyes or face. I didn't even know they were there until I was too damn close to do anything about it. My child mind was in the space of it could have killed me if it wanted to. I picked right around it ended the row and very quietly and slowly retreating back to my grandfather and grandma who were back at the house. I told them there were bears in the field my grandfather shot off a rifle several times to scare them away. I knew damn well it wasn't a bear but I also was under 12 and I didn't know what it was I didn't have words to describe exactly what I had seen nor had I heard of big foot or Sasquatch. I was however completely terrified by this experience. Having seen a grizzly bear as an adult and a very large black bear I can say it was not that. I think it was kneeling and crouching. I was directly on the other side of the bush from it the raspberries were set up in rows. This was a large field surrounded by forest on three sides. Lots of deer lived in the area my family hunted and I grew up spending all my summers with them helping pick. It happened very early in the morning I was the first one out there and the dew was still wet on the leaves and it was cool still. The sun was just starting to come up but it was still filtering through the trees. We didn't start picking this early but I wanted to get a jump on it because the summers were so hot and humid. I used to pick what was equivalent to 24 pints 2 flat carriers before it would get too hot to mess with. Everyone in the area knew my grandma. She was very popular and she raised my mom in Detroit lakes with 5 other siblings. So I didn't want people bothering her as she had dementia and failing heath as she was in her late 90's. I had stumbled on your show by accident but having the experience I had obviously I listened to all the episodes. I never heard anything like the Ohio sounds they make on property nor the gibberish that was recorded in CA. I have heard what I can only describe to you as broken owls. They weren't quite right but I couldn't put my finger on exactly how I knew but I just felt like it was mimicking owl maybe. Grandpa lit the property like it was Fort Knox. I maybe understand that more now after listening to your show. They were one of the first people to move into that area. Across the road from them which is like 1/4 mile away from their house was the nearest neighbor and Skip had a cabin and he would fish on weekends. My grandparents lived there full time. None of their immediate neighbors did. And again very spread out. You were truly on your own out there if anything happened. That was the last time I ever picked berries alone. I wouldn't go that far into that field either. I would never have my back turned to those trees either after that experience."   Lorenzo writes "I have gone back and forth wanting to email you. I'm just going to start from a weird encounter then into the sighting I had. In 2014, My wife and I were visiting her parents in Brookings Oregon, Brookings is a pretty rural area on the southern coast of Oregon on the border of California near the redwoods and being from Southern California it was simply beautiful. My father in law wanted to take us up the Winchuck River to a place called the lundlum house. its an open cabin you can camp at. This cabin is 11 miles up river from the 101. While we were driving up you veer left on wheeler creek rd from Winchuck river road. This road turns into dirt and gravel, while we were driving up a red SUV came flying down the road back towards Winchuck River rd they almost hit us and at the time we thought they were just jerks. We kept going and on the right you see this two story cabin and there is open grass area there's a trail down to the river its beautiful. No one was in the cabin so I went in and explored the cabin and layout. Then I noticed the trail to the river and this is where it got weird. I walk down the trail and I am taking in the scenery I look to my right and see a chair, a fishing pole with the line still in the water and an open beer can almost still full. I found it odd and no one was around... It took me a couple minutes to put it together did those people we past leave this stuff? I showed my wife and we found it odd. November 2016 we were back visiting my in laws with my son who was born in June of 2016. we also had a friend come along and one day we decided to show her the cabin. Right before we do the slight left up the road to the Ludlum house I had an anxious feeling come over me. We were driving slow because we were in a Prius and my son in the car. The river is to our right and around a bend I look down at the river and what I see is something standing upright in the middle of the river and look over its shoulder as we drive past and I say to my wife did you see that and she said yep that was sasquatch. We park in an area where there are camp sights and my wife and our friend get out and I said I am going to stay with the car and the whole time it felt like we were being watch and I basically ushered my friend and her friend back in the car because I didn't like the feeling. Driving back to the main road we were talking about it and we convinced ourselves what we saw we really didn't see it. I was very observant about where I saw the creature and I thought maybe it was a tree or something but I thought I recognized the spot but that spot had nothing in the middle of the river. To me inside I thought oh we did see what we saw and it moved on. Wes ever since that I get a weird feeling going up the Winchuck River after 6 miles, Its beautiful up there but I just don't like going up that way.

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

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

This is Karen from New Zealand, and you're listening to Sasquatch Chronicles, and I'm thankful that I probably will never have one of these encounters. Welcome to the show, everyone. Thanks for being here tonight. Got a great show plan for you. We'll be chatting with Lorenzo. And Lorenzo had an encounter back in 2016, but kind of a strange incident led up to that encounter. I'll let Lorenza go into it. We're also going to be chatting with Lindsay. And Lindsay comes

to us from Minnesota. And 30 years ago, she was picking berries on her grandfather's farm when she had a run-in. Very interesting running. Some of the behavior you'll hear, I think you've heard before. But again, I'll let Lindsay go into it. If you've had an encounter and you'd like to be on the show, shoot me an email. My email address is Wes at Sasquatch Chronicles.com. And if you get a chance to check out Sasquatch Chronicles.com, you can become a member and get additional shows. And I'm planning my next live chat for the members sometime this month. I will update you guys on the blog. Let's jump into it tonight. I want to welcome Lorenzo to the show. Lorenzo, thanks for coming. on? Oh, my pleasure. Thank you. Yeah, and you had this encounter in Oregon. The actual

sighting was in 2016, but something strange happened in 2014. If you would, just kind of start from the very beginning. What were you doing? And what happened? So two things happened. So in 2014, my in-laws moved up here to the southern Oregon coast. And my wife and I were from Southern California. And, you know, we used to come up all the time with them when they went camping. And when they finally moved here, we came up and visited for a couple weeks. And being from Southern California, I've never seen so many trees or green trees and rivers and stuff like that. So my father-in-law was taking us around. You know, he took us up to the Rogue River and just showed us around.

And then there's a smaller river right there on the border of California and Oregon. It's called the Winchuk River. And he said, oh, let's go up the Windchuk. And then so we decided to go up there. And while we were driving, he said, oh, let's go up to the Ludlum House, which is like a just an empty cabin that people can. reserve to camping, there's a little small campsite up that way. And after you go about eight miles up the windchuk, it veers left to a dirt road. And that's where the Ludlum house is towards the end

of that road. So we went up there and let me back up. When we turned off to the dirt road that leads up to the Ludlum house, we were maybe a half mile on that road. And this SUV comes flying right past us. I thought they were going to hit us head on. because how narrow the road is. And we thought that was strange, right? And we just thought, oh, it's just people being people up here in the mountains, you know. And we get to the Ludlam house. We park.

And I thought it was so cool because it's a two-story cabin. The grounds are kind of maintained around it. And I went in. We were checking the inside of it. We were walking on the little trails that go around it. And then there's a little trail that goes down to the creek off to the side. The creek feeds into the Winchuk River. And I go down there and it's like a nice little gravel beach and I look to my right.

And there is a chair, a tackle box, a cooler, and a fishing line that's still in the water and an open beer can. No one's around. I look around. I call out to see if anybody's there. I go over to it. The beer is actually still cold. Kind of weird. So I'm like, maybe it's someone else and he may went to a campsite or something like that maybe come back. We didn't think anything of it until we were driving back because there's a little, right before the Ludham House, there's about like a four camp spot area and no one's there either. No car. There's no signs. And while we were driving back, I was like, I wonder if those people were getting out there.

You know, the stuff belonged to those people. And then we just chalked it up like, oh, that's a weird coincidence. Fast forward to 2016 is actually one when I saw something. 2016, my son was just born in June. It's November. and we go up to visit our in-laws. And we brought her friend and she wanted to see all the same rivers because she's from Southern California. And we're like, sure.

And my wife loves the Winchuk River, the drive, and how it looks up there. While we were driving up, and right before we hit that dirt road to go up to the Lernerham House, uneasy feeling. right and then we're going slowly because there's a little bit of waterfalls to your left so they're taking in the sites and there's a bend to the road and let me take a step back again i'm sorry west to our right it kind of drops down and you can see the creek that's feeding into the woodchuck river along this road there's a bend and i look down and as we're driving, I see something in the middle of the creek and all of a sudden it looks up at us. And it happened. It was like not even five seconds that I saw it. And when I looked up, I was like, oh.

And then when we passed, it continued on the bin. I asked my wife. She goes, yep, that was asked to watch. And then when we got to the Ludlam house, we just had our newborn baby in the car. They wanted to get out. And internally, I was terrified. I didn't want to be there anymore. So while they were looking, you know, my wife came back to the car and I was like, I think we should go.

And as while I convinced them that we should go, we should go check out other sites. We were driving back down that dirt road and I was trying to pay attention to the spot that I saw it. Because maybe it was a tree stump or something like that that just, you know, know, I thought it was something else. But when we hit the spot where I saw it, that thing wasn't in the middle of the creek anymore. And we were driving and we were talking. And then I kind of convinced myself and my wife and our friend that, oh, maybe it was just a tree stump there. But ever since then, fast forward, we moved up here in 2019.

and every single time we get eight miles up the windchuck, uneasy feeling like I'm being watched. I don't like going up there. It just creeps me out. And that was pretty much what happened. And yeah, I have a hard time going up there now. Yeah, the incident in 2014, where you guys almost get hit by someone racing out of there

and then you get to the campsite, it's almost like someone left in a hurricane. Absolutely. I didn't put it together, you know, that day, but later on, I was like, oh, they definitely got out of their rush. And then I was trying to chalk it up to maybe someone got hurt or something like that, you know, but it was just too much of a coincidence. And then you fast forward and I, we see what we saw. I was like, oh, definitely they got out of there. Maybe they saw something too. I don't know. Yeah. Can you take me back to that moment when you saw it? would you describe what you actually saw? Yeah, so it's, I say I saw my wife the other night. It looked like the perspective we were looking down, so I don't know exactly how tall it was, but it felt tall.

And how do I say this? Like a fishing captain with the raincoat kind of like lift up. but furry definitely dark brown and it looked like a fisher's captain if you get what i'm saying with those you know yellow uh jackets and like the hat um but this was all fur and it looked up like over its shoulder looking back at us like what is going by and mind you we were at in 2016 when i saw it we were in a small Prius and we were going slow. So it wasn't making a lot of noise, but I'm pretty sure something triggered it for it to look up back up at us. It looked back out at us, and for a second it's looking at us, and then it

goes back to whatever it was looking at before in the water. But, and I tried to get a perspective. We went back up there not too long ago, about a year or so, and I got the gumption to go down to the creek and try to figure how tall it was, I'm 5'10. It was definitely taller than six feet even more because of the perspective of looking down. But in that's what's looking straight at us like, oh, what's going by up there? Yeah, let me ask you, what was your take on Bigfoot before you saw this thing? So, Wes, when I was younger, when I was about eight, I saw the Patty film. And I grew up in Southern California.

I was like, there's no way there's something like this in the mountains because I grew up going to Big Bear and I don't know if you're familiar with the San Bernardino Mountains up there, but it's not dense. And I'm like, there's no way that there's such a thing. And as I grew older, you know, it's one of those things like the Loch Ness and et cetera, et cetera. But I always told myself, if there is something out there, it would be Bigfoot. And when I first met my wife, she took me up to Jededa Smith in the Redwoods, which is just south of the border here.

It's like no more than eight miles away from where we live and seeing the Redwoods for the first time, it got me like, oh, there's definitely something that could be out here. And that kind of like spiked my interest. I've never really looked into it. I watched the TV shows, et cetera. And I didn't think anything more than, oh, it might be out there, but never had like, oh, it's definitely out there until I actually saw what I saw and started listening to your podcast. And I'm like, there's just too many coincidence.

And then I started talking to people around the area here. And there is a lot of, a lot of people don't like going past a certain point off the Windchuk River Road. There's, you know, they say a whole bunch of things that go on out there. So, but prior to this, it was just like, like a casual interest in Sasquatch. Yeah, you know, I have found a total of three campsites where either something happened or, they left in a hurry. And I can tell you, in all three of them, I get a sinking feeling in my stomach. But in your situation, you know, shortly after that, you had seen the creature near that area. So it makes you wonder, I've never met a fisherman or fisherwoman that leaves their fishing

pull behind. I've just never been around one that does and leaves it and, you know, still out there cast away trying to capture a fish and no one's around. Have you gone back to the Windchuk since then? So my brother-in-law lives on the Windchuk River. And so when you pull off the main highway, which is the 101 going along the coast, he's not, he's less than a mile in. But once I do some work further up, but once I hit the eight-mile mark, the uneasy feeling comes back to me. And if I can avoid it, I will. But if I have to go beyond that, if there's some places that I need to go for work beyond that, I go. But it's like my head, it's on the swivel every single time I'm out there because I just have that, that feeling inside that something is wrong or something is watching. I know something is watching. And I don't like that feeling. And I go for hikes up the Checo River, up the Rogue River. I don't have that feeling. But every single time I go up, there, it's different. I was going to ask you if it was because of what you saw or if there's something

hanging around there. You know, that feeling of being watched, maybe there's something hanging around there. Yeah, there was one episode, and I'm sorry, I should have gotten the episode number, but there was, I believe it was a father and son driving from the Grants Pass area back to Crescent City, and it's the 199, and they had an encounter. There's a road off the Windchuk River Road that actually connects to the same area where they saw the encounter back on the 199. I had a friend offer, hey, I've driven that. Let's go for it.

And I say yes, but at the same time, when we decide to do it, I say no, because I don't want to run into anything. Because he goes, once we get past a certain point, there's like no one around. I was like, I'm not, I don't want to take that risk. Yeah, I hear you. And I know it was kind of a brief siding. I've actually heard many of these where people are driving over bridges over a river and they kind of look down and there's something huge standing in the river kind of looking back up at them. I ask everyone on the show, what do you think Sasquatch is? What's your take?

Yeah, so I've listened to several your shows and I feel. like it's a living thing um you know recently i listened to some recent shows and talking about portals or having um lights balls of light interact i don't i don't know but to me i think it's a living breathing thing um that's how i feel about it but i feel like up in that area or when someone has that feeling that something is kind of off. I don't know how to explain that. If it's spiritual or supernatural, I have no idea. Yeah, I'm not so sure that, you know, that feeling is something paranormal. I think that's something within ourselves that we have for protection. You know, it's like that feeling in your gut or the feeling of being watched or, you know, I, but I get where

coming from. The other thing I wanted to ask you is about your wife. I know when you guys first saw it, she looked down and was like, oh, yeah, that's, that looks like a Sasquatch. But later on, you know, after the incident, what was that conversation like? So my wife is very practical, right? And when she said, yep, I just, that was Sasquatch. But afterwards, she talked about like, oh, there's a lot of things that could play with our mind in different situations. But when I was telling them, I'm like, but we both saw the same thing, right? It's not one of us, you know, that looked over and saw it. It was both of us. When I asked her, I'm like, did you see that? And her reaction was like, yep, that was Sasquatch to our conversation,

heading back down. She was like, well, maybe we just saw Stump and it just looked exactly what maybe Sasquatch looks like and the way we were moving, you know, it moved because the angle of how we were driving by could have been just a tree stump. And I was like, well, maybe, but I saw movement. I saw, you know, when you look behind you like, or who's behind me, that like subtle shoulder movement and the head turn, I was like, but that was too much rotation on something to be looking in, looking up at us. I just couldn't buy it. But I'd try. talked it up like, okay, you know, we convinced ourselves that it was a tree stump. And then recently this past year, when I've been going up the Windchuk River for work,

I was like, and I don't know, you know, this uneasy feeling. I asked other locals who've been living here longer than anything. We did work on his house, and this lady, her parents built a house, and she built another house right there along the Winchuk River. And I asked her and she goes, oh, yeah, I've seen them several times. And to me, I was like, well, okay, that's less than three miles away from where I saw this. I don't know. You know, like, it was so casual in the way she was saying.

Like, oh, yeah, I've seen them. You know, like, it confirmed, like, what I saw is what I saw and it was real. Yeah, you know, I can see someone driving over a bridge. and seeing a tree stump. I don't know about in the middle of the river, but in thinking they're seeing something that they're not, but tree stumps don't look over their shoulder and look up as you're going by

and the fact that you went back and this quote unquote tree stump wasn't there. It wasn't. And I wanted to spend more time. You know, I wanted to stop and get down there and look and spend more time. And then when we went back up again, and I actually went down to the creek and looked in that spot,

there are no stumps anywhere that I can find. That was like also another sign like, I did see something because I can't find anything like that. It would have been a pretty big stump for anybody to drag off or for the creek to get full enough to push it. And the angle just didn't feel right. Yeah, especially the way you and your wife reacted to it Makes me think obviously it wasn't a tree stump.

You know, the name of the river sounds familiar. It's a smaller river. So if you, I mean, really, if you look at a map and if you go to the border of California and you look at the 101 and if you go into Oregon, it's the first river. And then you can see it's pinned. The Ludlund House is pinned and you can see all around it. But, yeah. it goes way back there.

And then I wish I wrote down the episode number, but you can see, you can connect a line pretty much all the way to where that father and son we're talking about is like how trans like station along the 199, it pretty much connects right around there. So that area, as much as I want to explore it, I'm very worried about going up back that way. Yeah, maybe that's, why it sounds so familiar, the, uh, the, uh, the, uh, the, especially that Lulam house. Um,

maybe that was the episode you're referencing because, God, that sounds so familiar for some reason. Uh, but the general area, it really doesn't surprise me that you would see one there. And I know it was kind of a brief siding, but, um, I really appreciate it coming on, Lorenzo. I enjoyed chatting with you. Oh, thank you, Wes. It's just, it feels good to share with like, not like-minded people, but kind of understanding. And, yeah, this summer I may go, you know, be brave enough to take my friend up on his offer to drive up there and spend some time up there and take a look around. But maybe not. I don't know. Well, let me know if you do, man. And stay in touch.

Let me know if anything happens if you go back up there. but thank you again for coming on yeah thank you Wes for having me on and i came across uh this vocalization by a YouTuber and uh bigfoot researcher he goes by grassman 58 um i actually subscribe to his channel i like the stuff he posts uh but this vocalization that he posted personally i think it's wolves I know in Arizona they have the Mexican gray wolf And I hear a bunch of wolves in this vocalization And I'm not criticizing them for posting it Even though I think it's wolves

I think it's a very cool vocalization Either way, this would get your attention at night So a few days after my camping trip I received a text message from a fellow Bigfooter That I know that lives in Spokane he was looking for a place to go for a one-nighter and he was wondering if I had any ideas of where to go so I was like yeah so I sent him to the AZ zone I was hoping he might you know have a chance to experience something out there so he went out for a one-nighter and he caught a very very interesting

vocalization around 1257 a.m. on May 22nd so have a. a listen. Him and I both discussed this vocalization quite a bit. I listen to it at least a hundred times already. And we think there could be multiple subjects vocalizing at the same time by the tail end of it. So have a listen to it. I still hear wolves. But like I said before, no hate, all love, Grassman 58. Even if it is wolves, that is a very cool vocalization. Next up on the show, I want to welcome Lindsay. Lindsay, welcome to the show. Thank you for being here.

Thanks, Wes. Yeah, and you had this incident growing up on your grandfather's farm there in Minnesota. If you would, just kind of start from the very beginning. What were you doing and what happened? Yeah, I was about, I would say like 11 or 10, 10 or 11. I wasn't very old. And this happened near Round Lake in northern Minnesota and kind of near the Detroit Lakes area, but out of ways. So maybe like 40 minutes outside of that.

And back then my grandparents had a raspberry farm, and a lot of the local people knew about it. And my grandma would allow people to pick their own raspberries or you could go out there and we would pick them for you. And that's what I was doing. It was early in the morning. The sun had just started to kind of peek through the trees. It was still like very, you know, a lot of dew on the leaves. And it was still kind of, you know, a little bit dark through the deep woods that are all the way surrounding all three sides of the berry patch. And this happened. They had berries on the front of the home and then like behind behind the home and kind of to the left there. And that extended quite a ways. And I was, I was. was back about three quarters of the way deep. So basically near the line of trees, which were very tall trees. They blocked out a lot of the light when it was early like that. And I was picking down some rows. And I didn't even notice anything going on. And I was going towards the woods. So like, as you are looking at it, like back up towards the house, but I was going towards the woods. So I was

picking, you know, down one row, then the next. And I had, um, a flat of berries, which is basically like 12 pints of them. So I'd been out there for a while. I probably had picked maybe eight pints. And I was just basically going to complete that one bunch, um, and to bring them back. And as I was on what I thought would have been my last row, I noticed that there was something on the other side of the bush picking also. And, um, I was on. And, um, I thought would have been my last row. I noticed that there was something on the other side of the other side of the bush picking also. And at first I thought it was a bear because that's common up there. They're very common. They've got black bear. And but what was different about this, it had kind of more of a reddish Auburn kind of brown. I don't know how to really describe that besides it wasn't a dark black,

like most of the bears that I'd seen out there. And the other thing is there was two, little ones next to it, which I had thought were cubs, but they never, I never saw their faces. It was almost like they were balled up on the ground, like looking the other direction. And I do remember specifically like the sound of picking berries, not like eating them off of a bush, which I feel like would have caused more sound and whatever, because I didn't even really know they were there until I was too close to do a thing about it. So what I did do was. to just kind of pick and then skip a few bushes, pick a few more, and then I made my way back up to my grandparents' house and my grandfather.

Obviously, I let them know what was going on, but I didn't really have words. I'd never heard of anything like that as a kid. So I had kind of told him it was a bear because I just didn't really know what I was seeing, but it's the only thing that was big enough to describe what I did see. and it was massive behind the bush. I mean, it was so much bigger than me. That's why the bear thing never really fit because Black Bear, I don't think, get as big as this was.

It never did stand up. I never got a look at its face. But the hair I got a really good look at, and it was kind of like not, it wasn't fully like straight hair, but it reminded me of human hair in a sense because it was like, I would say like five or, maybe six inches long. And like I said, it seemed like it had turned away from me, even though it had

been picking from the same side, like, but the other side of the bush that I was on. But it seemed like when I got close and when it saw me, when I saw it, it kind of like seemed like it turned away, so I didn't get a good look at the face of it or the features of it. I just got a really good look at the hair and knew that it was a massive thing behind this bush, and it scared the crap bottomy, I, um, I wouldn't, I never went down to that berry patch without my grandparents, like, after that. Um, I used to go in those woods and play, um, because there was a creek back there. And it butts up to, um, an Indian reservation is kind of all that area. And it's the Tamarack area for listeners that might know that area. Um, and the lake was round lake. And they weren't on the lake,

but they were back set behind the lake. And it was a really pretty area. But after that experience, it for sure scared me. And they'd had something else happen on the property there. And I'm not really sure if it was this or something different, like a person. But they used to have a camper that was kind of out in that area where those berries were, that back field. and they had a camper kind of in the woods on the right side of it. At some point, something broke into it.

But what's really strange is, you know, how the campers have those stairs that are off the front that are like, you know, two to three feet off the ground? Whatever this was, ripped the corner of the door open, like, from the top corner. And I would have thought that if it had been like a bear or something, that it would have, like, left all kinds of scratch marks and stuff like that. But that wasn't the case. And when you went in it, it was like, It was almost like something had gone into the cabinets and stuff and ripped all the things out of it.

So that was also weird. And there wasn't really any food there. Usually what we used that for is hunting. A lot of times there was a kind of like an area in there where you could grind up the meat and that kind of thing. They had a grinder in there. And so it was like that's what we used it for as our family would hunt deer in the area. which were plentiful, by the way, and that's where they would clean them. So I could definitely see why something like a bear would want to get into it.

It was just that what happened there at that camper didn't look like a bear from my estimation. But again, I was young when this happened. And they did sell that farm to a native lady, and so she is now the caretaker of it. But I always thought that that was a weird situation that I had. had experienced as a kid. It has obviously been something that has stayed with me forever. I just recently started being able to go into the woods here as an adult. I'm like, you know, 45, so that's how scared I was of what happened. I, you know, like I said, I just didn't really know what I saw initially because I had never really heard of Bigfoot or Sasquatch or any of those

things. So I didn't really have words for what I saw as kid. But as an adult, when I'm hearing other people talk about these, I'm pretty sure that that's what I did encounter that day. And like I said, it was specifically picking berries, not eating them off a bush, which would have been so much louder. I would have noticed that sound from a while before I came up to it. It was so quiet and stealthy. That was the thing that kind of like stuck in my head is how quiet and stealthy it was to be finding it right there, you know, in front of you and just, I mean, like I said, I didn't panic, but as a kid, I was, I was terrified. This thing was definitely, you know, way larger than me in mass as far as like, you know, shoulder build or whatever, like how wide it was. I just knew that if I had run, it would have gotten me and I'd have been dead. that's my feeling. Yeah, that's interesting. So as you're walking up, and you saw three of these that were kind of on the other side of the berry bush, were they picking the berries and eating them?

Yeah, that's what I heard was like something that was picking berries. And I think all three of them were the big one and the two small ones. I think they were all picking and eating them. And I think where they lived, there was a creek that ran through the back part of my grandfather's property. And there was beavers back there and they would damn it up. But I had gone out there a couple times and they had those big bushes, those ones with those little red berries on them, the circular red ones. And at one point in time, I saw something that looked like kind of a bed underneath, like kind of like something held up the bushes so that it could slide underneath it and lay there. I had seen something that looked like kind of a nest under there one time. And that was another weird thing. But I had never really seen these before. My grandfather did have. the whole property lit up like Fort Knox. I mean, it was bright lights all the way around the home and, you know, kind of extending back to the to the start of that berry patch, but then there was no lights from there on. So I could see why nothing would have come up to the actual home.

But back there, it's, it was completely wooded besides the berry patch. Like, it's like they had, you know, put that in, cleared the land, put the berries in. And it takes, you know, five to seven years for those matured berries to really produce the way that some of them, some of them do. And they were very mature trees. So I definitely, or bushes, they were very mature. So they were definitely producing a lot. And when I say that is you could pick them, you know, one day and then they'd be ready to go again in like a week or two. So it was really a good, a good situation if, you know, for them because we wouldn't have known. And they wouldn't have, you know, if they were doing it very early in the morning or something or at night, there's no way we would have known.

And I normally, we didn't normally go out there at that time. It's just we had an order for a lot of berries, like somebody wanted a bunch of them for their family. So that's what I was doing, it was getting a head start on it because by like 10 and 11, you know, it'd be like 90 degrees with humidity and it was miserable out there picking. So I had tried to get an early start. my grandparents weren't even out at that time. They were still eating breakfast when I'd went out there. So that's why I was alone out there. But that never happened again.

I never went out there by myself. Not ever. I was terrified to do that. I did get like, you know, a feeling of dread and a feeling of you're not welcome here. I guess that's the best way I can describe it. And I didn't know really what to do. I said, my child brain was be slow, don't run, pick around them, pick to the end, walk back up slowly. That's exactly what I did. And I think if I would have done anything different than that,

I don't know if it would have gone the same way. Why did you continue to pick berries? I was terrified. I don't know. I thought that it didn't do anything to me while I was picking the berries. So, like, I thought if I changed up my pattern, that, it would have recognized that and, you know, I guess come after me. That's what I was scared of. It hadn't done anything aggressive towards me. So I figured if I just picked around it, which I did do, I skipped like a few feet. It was literally right on the other side of the bush. And it could have reached up over the bush and grabbed me if it was as tall as people say, that seven or eight beat that definitely towers over these berry bushes which you know are about four four and a half to

five feet tall is how how big a mature berry bush is for raspberry so and then the bushes are about you know maybe one and a half to two two and a half feet wide but like i said you could you could certainly um you could certainly see the the brownish chestnut slash you know reddish colored hair through it and it was long, you know, longer hair than a bear. And that's what kind of caught me. Like, I didn't know what to describe it as. But I just, like, the only thing that I could tell my parents or my grandparents was that it was a bear because that's the closest thing I had in my vocabulary to express, like, the scariness of it.

And, you know, also to have my grandfather go down and try to, you know, make sure that it was out of there. but he never, when he went down there and fired off the shots, they weren't there anymore because he was waiting to see them scatter and they didn't. So they bugged out right after I did. So I think that also kind of shows to me some intelligence on their end. I don't think they were expecting to see me. I was sure not expecting to see them. And I had no idea anything like that existed in, like I said, northern Minnesota, nor did I even really know about Sasquatch or Bigfoot back then. I had no idea.

I, like I said, I was going at it from the known animals in the area, which would have been a black bear. And that's about the only thing that it could have been, aside from what I believe that it is as an adult, when I sit back and sit about that and really think about it sounded like my grandma or somebody, just like you or I picking the berries on the other end. That's what it sounded like. Just like picking the berry, you know, instead of putting it in a basket. maybe holding onto it or eating it. And I mean, what a good food source. Yeah, I've never heard of a bear picking berries, but I have heard of Sasquatch definitely picking berries.

How far away from the home was this berry patch? I would say, like, probably what would be equivalent to, like, you would go kind of to the left of the home, and then it would be like a city block back. city blocks tend to be a little bit bigger than, but it was about a city block back. And that was the start of the thing. And then it went back, you know, like 20 some odd rows. And those rows were spaced out by three or four feet because there was plenty of room for somebody to, you know, pick on one side and somebody to go be picking on the other side and then for pass without

touching. So it was decently spread out. And there was two different, I guess you could say, like patches back there. They had like kind of a middle line that went through. it and then, you know, another 20 rows on the other side. It was big. It was big. So you're kind of on one side of the berry patch and they're on the other side. How far away from you was these creatures? And do you think that they noticed you were there? Oh yeah. They noticed me before I noticed them. That was what was so scary about it for me. Because, and when I say that I was probably maybe four feet tops. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that's really close, especially when you were looking through, you know, the sticker bushes at this thing. What was their reaction? I mean, what made you think that

they had seen you? Because of the fact that the little ones turned away and were like doing this ball thing and that the mother, I believe in the mother, turned also so I couldn't see it. they both they were all crouched down like in ball shapes is the best way I can describe it. Yeah, that whole ball, ball shape thing, there was an encounter. Gosh, I wish I could remember the actual numbers of which one it was. But it was a guy and he had his two kids with them and they had seen a family group. And when the family group had actually, I think it was a younger female, had noticed, them. There was kind of a commotion and then he said they all got down into like a ball shape,

almost like a rock. And I had another hunter tell me that. He said it got down and it was kind of a gray, kind of a blackish gray color and it got down into this ball motion. And from a distance, he said it almost looked like a rock. You know, one time I was out at this property and I was talking to the homeowner and I had asked her, hey, have you talked to your neighbors? And it was, it was dusk when we were talking. It was almost dark. And she said, no, I'm not going to go over there and they're going to think I'm crazy. Uh, you know, if I say this thing's running around on my property and eventually got dark. Well, the next door neighbor, the whole area was lit up like a football field. And I looked over at her and I said, oh, your neighbor knows that they're here.

I mean, people out in the country don't light up their property, you know, like a prison out there, unless there's something going on, unless there's something they want to try and keep out. And you had mentioned your grandfather had kind of lit up his property like Fort Knox. Do you think he knew that they were there? I never got to ask him because he passed on before. I really had the vocabulary and the, you know, knowledge. of these creatures existing because I didn't really know what they were until I got into my late teens and he had passed by that point and they'd moved before that. So yeah, I didn't ever get a

chance to talk to him. I asked my uncles to see because they hunted back there to see if they'd seen anything and they both said that they hadn't, but they were also not looking and also, you know, hunting season out there is kind of a big deal and you have a lot of people stopping and through the area. So, you know, there's a lot of noise initially. And they had a blind back there that they set up that kind of was like an igloo shape. And they would kind of overlook that little creek that went through there from that blind. And that's where they, where they would get most of their deer bucks and does, whatever they had permits for. So yeah, it was, it was definitely a fertile area. Anybody that hunts up there and knows somebody with hunting land up there

knows that you're going to get a buck. And, you know, they had every type of food that they could imagine right there. So it, and water. So, you know, when I sit back and think about like, what a sweet situation, you've got berries in the summer. You have deer and other wildlife deer is just the one thing that they have plenty of, but there's other stuff. So, um, yeah, I, it, it kind of, it makes me wonder. and I wish I'd gotten that chance to talk to my grandfather about that. But he wound up kind of going really fast. And they had sold the property when his health started kind of declining in the late 80s. Or late 90s, sorry, late 90s.

So that's kind of this happened in, yeah, I'm 45 now and I was about 12. And so it was a couple years after that that they wound up selling. So not too long either. But yeah, I never got to check. with him and my grandma didn't, you know, she didn't really, she had dementia at the end, so she never really was able to tell me if she had seen anything. Plus, I also think my grandma was the sort of person that would have kind of ignored it and been like, I didn't see that, you know, she was that kind of person. And I mean, northern Minnesota, the people up there are like

salt of the earth people. And I think a lot of times you might not get a lot of discussion about something like that from up there because people and family groups are pretty closed-knit. And like I said, before I came onto your show, I talked to my family first to make sure it was okay because I didn't want to disrespect anybody and I didn't want to cause any waves for anybody. So I did talk to my uncle and I talked to my mom and I talked to, you know, some of the other cousins just to make sure that they thought it was okay to talk to you and to do this show. You know, I know you had mentioned you'd come across kind of a weird nest and then there was the incident with the trailer. Do you remember as a kid running around this property if you ever heard any weird vocalizations or anything like that?

You know, that was the other thing. I never really like, you know, some people talk about like the siren sounds that they hear and stuff like that. I never heard that, but what I did hear was owl sounds kind of a lot. And what was really goofy, though, is I never really thought that they were actually owls. There was something off about them. I couldn't put my finger on it, but it sounded like owl sounds. And I would hear that sometimes being, you know, a kid playing out there or picking when I, you know, when I got older to pick. But I did definitely hear that. And it was day or night. It didn't matter what time of day. And I thought that was kind of also weird too because traditionally you think of owls

being only up at night. But yeah, that was kind of the sound that I would hear. But I didn't hear like, you know, some people talk about wood knocks and some people talk about like that Ohio sound. I don't think I ever heard anything like that on the property. But I was only up there for the summers. That was kind of, I was basically helping out my grandparents on the farm during summers. So that was the time of year that I was up there, not really very much in the winter. Sometimes we'd go for Christmas or something. After your grandparents passed, and I know that you said the property was sold, but have you ever actually gone back there?

Honestly, I had been back, you know, until they sold it. So, yeah, I'd been there every summer afterwards until I was probably like, I don't know, it was just a couple seasons. So it was maybe only three seasons before they sold it after that instance happened. So, yeah, I was back up there the summers for the, that, but then they sold it because my grandfather's health had kind of started going backwards, and they were too far out of Detroit Lakes to really get, you know, medical if they needed it. So I think that's why they moved to Detroit Lakes then and got a place that was much closer,

because they were really 45-ish minutes outside of Detroit Lakes. It would have been, you know, quicker as the crow flies, but of course roads out there. And so, yeah, I definitely understood why they sold it. It did definitely that property had special meaning for the grandchildren specifically. We definitely miss it. But having that experience definitely also told me there's something more than normal activity there too. But no, I never really heard some of the specific things that you, that other guests have told you about. That's not something that I recall. And I never really saw any kind of lights or anything like that in that area. You know, some people report that too.

And I just nothing like that. It was just basically this one situation that I had and then that the camper having been broken in from the top corner of the door being peeled down. That's the best way I could describe it peeled down until the handle and the lock opened. And it always stayed like that. We tried to bend it back and we could never get it all the way flush again. But I've seen bears do stuff since then in Alaska, and there's always scratch marks everywhere on the outside of the home or whatever before they break in. And this didn't have any of that, not at all. It was just like something peeled the door off or down and to the right so that it popped open.

It was just the corner of it. It was almost like it grabbed it by the corner, like with its fingers underneath it and pulled as hard as it could until it opened. That's the way it looked anyway. You know, bears will do that. They will break into those campers, especially if it's like a hunting camper and your grandfather and, you know, his sons were in there cleaning animals. I could definitely see a bear doing that. But having said that, just as you were just saying, Lindsay, you'll always recognize

when a bear did it. You'll see evidence, oh, it was a bear because of the claw marks, because of the bite marks, because of, I mean, there's so many different things. That's weird about it, kind of peeling, peeling the doorback. I'd mentioned to you earlier, I'd heard of them getting into like that ball position and some people saying they look like boulders. When you saw them do that, what's your take on that behavior? Why do you think that they did that?

I think they were trying to protect themselves, I guess, from me. But in a way, I feel like they were trying to not be seen. or to minimize their presence. But, you know, it wasn't, obviously, like, I noticed it. I was scared of it. I didn't smell anything. Some people report, like, really foul odors. I didn't smell anything like that.

Of course, the wind was kind of coming from my back area going towards them. So I think they knew that I was there before I knew that they were there. And like I said, it wasn't until I got close that I heard berry picking sounds. And initially, I had actually assumed that my grandma had slipped passed me because I thought it was her initially. And I believe I might have even said something like grandma, you know, whatever, but then realized it wasn't grandma. Yeah, it scared me. It scared me bad when I realized that it wasn't grandma or grandpa there. Yeah. Yeah, I can imagine. What do you what do you think Sasquatch is? I ask everyone and there's no wrong answer, but I'm, I'm curious.

What do you think that they are? I think, um, I think they're, um, I think they're, close to us actually. Based upon the behavior of it, based upon what it did, I mean, I feel like it's kind of a higher intelligence than a normal bear or something like that. I do think it had intelligence behind it with the way it concealed itself and turned. And I think it was trying to, you know, minimize like my fear as well almost. And I think, I can only think that that's because maybe it was a mother with two babies that it was, you know, more kind than maybe some of the other encounters that I hear where it might be a male. I think she was just trying to keep her young safe and pick the berries and get some food, you know, basically on the table for them. And that's

kind of my take is I think it, I think they're very closely related to us. I do because the intelligence level that I experienced was high. And I don't think, I don't think you would have gotten that kind of behavior with a bear. I think a bear is either on off your food, you're not food, and I think there's no middle ground between that. They're either going to check you out or they're going to let you go by. And that's kind of what my experience has been with bears outside of this situation, obviously. Yeah, you know, with bears, the one thing you can be assured of is if you stumble across to mother and her cubs, she's going to kill you. But with regard to these creatures, you're thinking it's more, basically kind of more man?

Yeah, I do. I think that they're an offshoot of us somehow. Maybe something, you know, back when we went one direction with Neanderthal, they went the other direction with something else. Like, because they just, like, my guesstimation is they seemed very at home doing what they were doing. And I know that it just based upon. on what I saw. That wasn't the first time they'd been taking berries. We just never saw it before. I don't

think anybody ever, and they might be doing it at certain times a day when they knew nobody was going to be there. But I just happened to go out way early that morning, probably about an hour. You know, it was like I said, it was just starting to get light out. So I was out there early, early. And we've never been out there that early before. So I think I caught them in the act. And Yeah, and just their behavior, though, because if it wanted to, it could have killed me easily. I mean, I would have been so, I was probably 100 pounds or less, and I was tiny. I was thin and scrawny. So it could have killed me easily, and it didn't.

And instead, it chose to be quiet and to try to minimize its existence on, you know, even though I did see it. but I think because I continued to pick the way I did, I think I put it at ease and myself at ease. But then, like I said, I got to the end of the row. I had picked maybe, you know, 20 berries between where that happened and the end of the row, just enough to like continue to make noise or whatever. When I got to the end of the row, I went back a row, then back a row. And I retreated really slowly to get to my grandma because I didn't want to startle it and I didn't want it to come after me.

But I also never turned my back because I still had that feeling. of, oh my God, you're screwed, you know, oh my God, you're screwed. So I just, I tried to do it slowly, quietly, and I tried to retreat back. And like I said, by the time Grandpa got down there with the gun, he said that he shot off a bunch of different, you know, shots, but they, he didn't see anything. So they had skied outled right after I had gotten out of there. I think they stayed probably crouching and then just as soon as they saw that I wasn't there, I think they left also.

Yeah. I talked to two hunters one time on the phone. One of them said it was Bigfoot. The other one absolutely would not say it was Bigfoot. He said it was a bear. But the one thing that they agreed upon was it was picking berries. I'm like bears don't. Bears don't pick berries.

But I have heard of that ball motion, you know, getting down and kind of getting in a ball motion that you describe. I've heard it a handful of times, and it's fascinating to me because the larger one could have just killed you. There's really no need to get down into like a ball motion. And it was just like I said, I was looking for like a tail or something like that and I didn't see it. And I was like, that's really weird. And I couldn't also see their feet either because I think it was like they sat on them or something and rolled up. It was just the tightest little ball.

The little ones I would say were like maybe, you know, maybe three feet. in a ball, like a three-football. And the big one was a much larger ball. And I would say, if I had to guess, it was at least six feet, maybe closer to seven. If I were to guess what it would be like when it stood up, because it was, you know, three-quarters of the bush tall as a ball. So big, very big. And like I said, it was so wide. That was the part of it that just didn't, it wasn't a bear. You know, because bears, I know they're wide. But this was like, you know, Mack truck wide. Whereas a bear is like, oh, you know, like three or four feet wide. This was, this was big.

And I just, I can't help but to think like it covered what was essentially two bushes with its wide body. That's how big. And those bushes, like I said, are, you know, two and a half-ish feet wide roughly. So that's how, that's kind of the size of it. And it was very large. And like I said, if it wanted to kill me, I wouldn't be here talking today, Wes. I would have been dead if it wanted to. And it didn't.

I don't. I think it was just content with eating the berries and letting me get out of there and it getting out of there and everybody went their own way. Yeah. It's always a good day when everyone lives and gets to go home and no one dies. And I think for the most part, Sasquatch will leave you alone if you don't screw with them. And I think that, you know, they might do their theatrics as far as trying to scare you, get you to try and leave. but I think for the most part, they'll leave you alone. You see it a lot of times with children when they have encounters.

Sasquatch isn't quite as aggressive as they might be with a hunter or something like that. It's an amazing account. I really appreciate you taking the time to come on the show and share it. Appreciate it, Wes. Thanks again, Lindsay. 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.