Sasquatch Chronicles - SC EP:260 It's eyes were real real evil, real sinister looking

Episode Date: October 9, 2016

Mike Wooley will be my guest tonight and he will be talking about his movie that is now available, and retelling his terrifying encounter with two Sasquatch creatures while he was hunting. That day changed his life, and Mike opens up how the encounter had a negative impact on his life. I will also be speaking to Ben who writes "I'm not sure where to start, but here goes. I'm 37. I'm from middle Tennessee. After reading and listening to probably thousands of accounts over the past 3 or 4 years, and listening to your shows for a few months, I think I may be ready to share my experiences. To say I grew up in the woods doesn't quite cut it. I have always preferred the company of trees over people. I was in my element in nature. I WAS the woods. It wasn't uncommon for me to spend days, weeks, or even months out by myself. I loved it. As a kid I would often hear or feel things that just didn't fit. I would basically laugh it away or just ignore it. I KNEW what was out there and Bigfoot never entered my mind. Even when I saw what could only have been a young one when I was about 14. In the open on an old dirt road not 10 feet from me. Still never thought Bigfoot. Even with all the stick and log structures that we knew "somebody" had to have made. The upside down trees. The rock stacks. The bare footprints. (Not overly large) The sounds. I don't know how the connection was never made. Then comes 2004. I was screamed at twice by "something" just a few months apart. I was alone both times. The first time was during the day. As scary as it was I reasoned it away. The second time I was standing on a bridge in the middle of a very dark night. It ran by within a few feet of me and screamed again! Even though it was so dark that I couldn't actually see it, I could feel the bridge shake with each step. I couldn't explain it this time. I have barely been back in the woods since that night. There is much more to the story and many more things I remember from back when. I haven't told many people about this stuff, not really sure where I would even start. Like I said, I never made the connection to Sasquatch until maybe 4 years ago."

Five, five, four, four, three, three, two, one. One. When I had come down this hill, I had seen this creature cross the road. They would have ripped my locked door from my truck, extracted me from my vehicle, and no one damn thing I could have done about it. This thing I got to notice in its eyes. His eyes was real, real evil, real sinister looking.

You know, the look it was given me. Get somebody out here. What's going on now, sir? That son of a bitch is about six foot. Sir? Yes, I'm looking right at him. Sasquot Chronicle, a place where people share their accounts. Let's start the show.

Welcome to the show, everyone. Thanks for being here tonight. I want to give a couple shoutouts tonight. I want to wish Eric B. the best. I know things aren't going well for you right now. And it meant the world to me. You sent me a message saying you listen to the show, and it's gotten you through some tough times.

And I really appreciate that. that. I mean, that's, you know, I'm humbled by it. It's one of the nicest compliments I think I've ever gotten. And I do get those from time to time. And they really do mean the world to me. I can't respond back to everyone, but I do read every email that comes in. I want to also wish Vanessa, Vanessa B. I hope you're doing better after the accident. I want to give a shout out to your son, Carston, who listens to this show. Carston, thanks for listening. I'm always amazed how many younger men and women listen to the show. You know, sometimes kids listen to the show, and I'm always amazed by that.

I also want to say hello to Sam S. And I know him and his son, Connor, listened to the show. I got your guys' video, absolutely loved it. Almost posted it to the blog, but I wanted to ask permission before I did. Awesome video. I know you guys like to listen to the 5-4-3-2-1 in the beginning, and you guys enjoy the intro. Thank you so much, guys, for taking the time to send me such great messages.

I really do appreciate it, and I'll try and do more shoutouts in the future. If you've had an encounter, and you'd like to be on the show, shoot me an email. My email address is Wes at Sasquatch Chronicles.com. And if you get a chance, check out the website, Sasquatch Chronicles.com. If you want to go on there, become a member, listen to additional shows. The store is also available. Some really cool stuff on the website. I hope you get a chance to check it out.

Again, at Sasquatch Chronicles.com. Thanks so much, guys, for listening tonight. I really appreciate you guys being here. I know it's the eve of an election. Probably most of you are watching the debates by the time this comes out. But thank you so much for taking the time to listen. Tonight's going to be an interesting night.

I'm going to be welcoming Mike Woolley to the show. And Mike had probably one of the most interesting encounters I've ever heard. And it happened back in 1981. And Mike has a movie coming out. Skookum, the Hunt for Bigfoot. I put the trailer to the movie on the website under saskwatch chronicles.com. I hope you get a chance to go check it out.

We're going to discuss a movie here in the beginning of the show for a couple of minutes, and then we'll get right into Mike's encounter. I'll also be welcoming Ben to the show. Ben is a member of the site. He had a very interesting encounter. He was screamed at one time and then heard another vocalization one time. So I'll be playing some sounds tonight, see if it's anything matches up to what Ben heard. Let's jump into it tonight.

I want to welcome Debbie to the show. Debbie, thanks for coming on tonight. I appreciate you being here. Well, thank you so much for having us on here. An honor to be asked to be on it. It would be great. No, the honor is mine. And I know we're going to talk about Skookum, the Hunt for Bigfoot.

and I also want to welcome Mike Woolley to the show. Mike, thanks for coming on, man. Thank you, Wes. Glad to be here. Enjoy it every time. And if you would, Debbie, kind of tell us about this movie. Skook him, The Hunt for Bigfoot. What was the inspiration behind the movie?

Well, actually, I had been involved in some other film projects, in different capacities. I started out from the screenwriting aspect. and then sort of fell into producing a documentary film, a local documentary. And I just decided that I really surprisingly liked the production aspect of filmmaking. So I decided to roll up my sleeves and really get into making a feature-length film. and we would have to write the script. And just from a business aspect, I know that horror films are, you know, a really good genre to produce.

They're less risky than other genres just because they get so much worldwide acceptance. It just seems to be a common universal theme that people love horror films. But I'm not really a horror film aficionado. I mean, I really love Bigfoot. I love the Bigfoot thing, though. And every day when I'd go to work, I worked for a law firm in Texarkana for a long time. And I would drive through Falk, Arkansas. And, of course, I would think about one of my favorite movies of all time,

The Legend of Bongy Creek. And I thought, well, if I'm going to do horror film, I really think I'm going to do a Bigfoot movie, but nobody has ever really done a Bigfoot movie set in Louisiana, which is just right over the state line from, you know, from Falk. So we decided my writing partner and I decided to start writing script. And a friend of mine who is the head of the Shreeport Film Commission, Arlina Agree,

I told her my idea and she said, you have to meet Mike Wully. She said he's a friend of mine and he's helped me with people that have come into scout locations in North Louisiana. and she said he has a fascinating story about his encounter with the Sasquatch back in 1981. So she gave me Mike's information and called Mike and told him that I would be contacting him. And when Mike told me his story, I'll just never forget where I was sitting. I'll never forget the night that he told me on the phone because I knew that every word that he told me about his encounter was the truth. And I knew that I had to incorporate not only his story,

but Mike Willie, the person in the movie, just to make it authentic, you know, just to make it real, make it come to life, not just for me, but for the audience. So that was our starting point, and it's just been just a joy to work with Mike and his wife, Jackie. They have been with me and helped every step along the way. And, I mean, this is seven years since that first time that I talked with him about his encounter. And, of course, we had to take his encounter, which was absolutely true, every word of it, I know it, and just we had to flesh the story out for feature-length filmmaking purposes. But the basic nuggets of it were real, and his encounter, his reaction to it,

and what he thinks about the Sasquatch and his theories, we incorporated all that. and Mike brought in Dr. Jeff Beldrum, which went even more credibility, I feel, to the project. I mean, he played a character in the movie that's basically Dr. Cameron's who he played, but he really sort of played himself. And that worked out really well. He was also a joy to work with very, very professional. And then we, you know, gradually brought in other players. there was a lot of, you know, behind the scenes was actually a lot more dramatic than the actual storyline of the film.

I mean, because we had so many things happened and so many changes. And the most challenging aspect was getting the funding in place and keeping it in place. Because that, you know, initially we were going to film in September of 2011, and we had issue with the executive producer, and that funding fell through. So we had to start from scratch and ended up, it was like two years later before we filmed the movie in April, the month of April of 2013. And, of course, you know, being low budget, we had to slash the budget considerably to be able to make the movie. So that was another challenge to make everything work on such a low, actual hard money budget. But we had lots of volunteers, lots of people slash their normal fees for movies.

lots of people volunteering to serve food. And it worked. We didn't have any post-production funds, so we had to cobble post-production efforts together, and we had to farm out editing. And, you know, that's why it took so long to actually get it out. But it's ready now. We actually, I've been burning copies the last couple of days.

I haven't announced it officially because we need to get our buttons right on the website and get the actual, you know, the jewel case photocopies in and all that. But the movie is available now. We actually have on the website, Skookum, themovie.com on the news page. People can go click the news icon, click the PayPal button, and actually purchase a DVD copy of the movie.

We will be moving into more venues like people will be able to stream it on downloads from Vimeo. will have it on Amazon within the next few weeks, but we're going to do, we're pretty much just a two, three-man show here, so we have to do just a little bit at a time. But the movie's ready, and we are so excited. We're just over the moon over the way it turned out. We had lots of wonderful help during the whole process. Yeah, no, I'm excited to see it. So it's skookum themovie.com. And I've been kind of waiting to see it. I know Mike had given me a a magnet I put on my fridge and I've been really wanted to see it. So Skook him the Hunt for Bigfoot.

Now is it based, and we'll get into Mike's encounter here in a moment, but was it roughly based on his encounter? Is that what the movie's kind of... Yes, absolutely, Wes. It was, that's the foundation of the film. And that's actually where the film starts. You know, we kind of do a little bit of atmospheric buildup, and then we show Mike in the tree with his bow and arrow,

And, of course, like all good hunters, even though, you know, bow and arrow season and, you know, deer hunting season, there's two different seasons there, you know, all good hunters take guns out with them just in case. So that's kind of the way we presented in the movie. That's the way we were able to work it for filming purposes. So, in essence, we introduced Mike first, and we show him with his encounter. and then it goes from there. We kind of, you know, we have to embellish, like I said before, to make the story cohesive and hold together as a story unit. We can't just have somebody in the woods encountering Bigfoot.

But we do show subtly the effects on Mike's life, and he did, in fact, different things that happened to him. You know, for 20 years, he lived with depression because he didn't know what to do with his experience. He didn't know what to do with what happened to him, and he'll get more into that later. And that's a fascinating part of the story. But we do bring that out.

We make him a recluse in the movie. And part of that is because of the effect that his encounter had on his life. So all that is just threaded in, but then the story itself is embellished. You know, you're not far off from, if you ever get a chance to listen to the show when you hear witnesses talk,

one of the thing, one of the common thread, between people who have encounters is they'll talk about depression. I mean, I've talked to alcoholics. It really does take a toll on people when they see these things. And everyone wants to see Bigfoot. And it's like I always tell people, be careful what you wish for, because you might just get it. And when that happens, you have to be prepared for the after effects, the feelings of, you know, like you mentioned, being reclusive. A lot of people become reclusive. And the other other interesting part is a lot of people have encounters, so many witnesses have lost their jobs, you know, because they become so focused on this. You know, the Bigfoot part is fascinating,

but the story around people and what happens to people is even more fascinating. Right, exactly. And we wanted to bring that out in the movie, and Mike had the courage to come out with this and even at it. I mean, we have one scene where he's being interviewed by one of the main characters, Megan, who's a Bigfoot researcher who works with Dr. Cameron, who is Dr. Mildrum, and she is interviewing him about a Bigfoot encounter, and Mike appears very nervous in that scene. And that's real, because when he talks about this experience, even to this day, you can see in his persona, you can see in his face,

you can see in his eyes and his voice, it changes. And he goes back to that moment of the encounter in the woods. It was a trauma. He was like a trauma victim for years and years and years. And it took him a long time to process, but when he goes back and talks about it in that kind of setting, it triggers that and he goes back to that moment. And he'll talk about that later,

so I don't want to take anything away from his story. But it is quite fascinating in the sense. effect it does have on people and it's, you know, and many times very negative and things they have to deal with psychologically for the rest of their lives because they're set apart from the rest of humanity. You know, they've experienced something that's not supposed to exist, but they saw the aspect of it and they know it's real, but they've been discounted by other people who scoff at them and ridicule them because they don't understand it, and probably they do that because it scares them.

But in essence, it's able to involve. I mean, they really need, you know, people that have had an encounter with Bigfoot really need to be in some kind of group, you know, trauma therapy, group therapy or something to that effect, to be able to be with and talk with other people who have had similar experiences, because then that would lend itself to them not feeling so isolated and alienated from the rest of the world,

nor would they doubt themselves continuously. Did this really happen? Did I imagine it? Am I going crazy? Because that seems to be just sort of a standard thread to, you know, with people who have had the experience. They know the experience. There's no doubt about it.

But they can't prove it to anybody, and it's something the rest of the world says, nah, doesn't exist, didn't happen, your line. And that's hurtful to them. That's another trauma in and of itself. No, you're absolutely right. He said it's available now? It's available now. We're going to send you, in fact, I'm going to do that Monday. I'm going to send you a copy of the movie since I've been burning DVDs all day. You're going to be the first one out. You don't have to do that. I'll pay for it just like everyone else. You go to skookum the movie.com.com. And as a that where you can go on and order it? Yes, yes. You can order, go to scookum the movie.combe.com and click the news icon, which is at the very

top, and it'll open the page, and there's a PayPal button. We have Mike Woolie's name at the top. Then we have the trailer for the movie, and then we have the PayPal button that's under test audience. It's no longer a test audience, but we're still offering it at the discounted price, and we'll do that until the end of the year, and then it will probably go up. But we're going to do that for right now. Now, we do have to change. We are going to be changing the PayPal button. My IT person is going to be doing that within the next couple of days, and the PayPal button will

go on the actual homepage, so it will be easier for people to find. But right now, I tested it before you called me, and it is working just fine with going to PayPal. Just one click on that button, but they do have to click the news page, and they'll see Mike Woolley's name, and then they'll see the button on that same page. Just down a little bit from Mike's name. I can't wait to check it out. Debbie, thank you so much for coming on and giving us a heads up on the movie. I've been waiting to see it, and I'm excited to see it.

Well, thank you so much for having us on West. This was, like I said, this was an honor, and I just can't wait to hear from you about how you like the movie. The honor was mine. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you so much. And again, if you go to skukum the movie.com, check out the movie, Mike Woolies.

I know he's put his blood, sweat, and tears into this, along with his group of people there, Debbie, and everyone else. Again, it's skookum the movie.com. There will be a link on the website. I can't wait to check it out. And Mike, it's an honor to have you back on the show. I know back when I was a tiny little podcast, you were one of the, the, very few people that were willing to come on and share the encounter. I have a newer audience now that probably has never heard your encounter. Would you mind starting from the beginning and talk

about that day that changed your life? What were you out doing? And then just walk us right into the encounter, if you don't mind. Okay, sure, Wes. I just want to let you know. I'm glad to be back and do another show, will you? I've always loved. you know, working with you there. Back in 1981, it was a typical day. I was a weekend, and I was going to go deer hunting. And I had a place in a wildlife management area, I don't know, 7 8 miles from my house for a hunt.

It was, that day would have been the fifth day. It was the fifth time to go hunting there. It was a new place that year. A friend had showed it to me. and I took a stand in there, a lane two stand, and it was made out a heavy-duty pipe and had a plywood seat, had a V-cut in it, and you just leaned it up against a tree, and what I'd do, I'd take a big heavy logging chain,

that lock, lock it, you know, where they could steal it. At the end of the season, I'd go back and extract it and get it out of there. I was working shift job, 311, a plywood plant, you know, not far from my house, a mile. And what I would do, I would, you know, get off 11 o'clock at night and go home, get something to eat, get a shop, we'll go to bed, get about four, go get to the woods, and I'd hunt about 11, and I'd come in, lay down a couple hours and then go on work. I did this every day. And on the weekends, I was off, so, you know, I had a little bit more time. But anyway, that week, we'd had a really rough week on the job.

I mean, real stressful. Everything that could go wrong, went wrong. So I was really looking forward to being able to go deer hunting that weekend. You know, really looked forward. So I got off Friday night and went and drank the beer, you know, got to relax a little bit. Got cleaned down. Got all the gear ready. Got the truck loaded up.

So next thing I know, that morning, the birds woke me up. chirping outside the house. Must have been about an hour and I said, oh, crap. You know, I don't overslep. You know, I missed the lawn clock. You know, I was really tired. So I was kind of pealed, you know, about it.

And I thought, you know, I got chores and stuff I need to do, some errands, I need to run. So I'll just do this, finish the morning out with that, and I'll just make an evening hunt. I'll go hunt at an evening time. Well, I did. And I left the house about 2.15. 220 on my way to my deer stand.

What I did, I drove down to Spain Highway, and I turned off the highway, and go back down this old dirt road, about a mile and a half, something like that, and turn back to the left down this old damn logging road, you know, probably had been long in 20 years. But anyway, it run back and dead ended about a mile in the woods. and about a halfway down that logging road at a half mile mark, I would turn my truck around. I'd always turn my truck around face out

where I could get out there if I had to get to get a hurry, you know, because of medical emergency or something. And there was a place there I could, a little room there, I could do it, you know, where they had loaded logs at one time. You know, trucks had beat it all down. But anyway, I would get out of a truck

and ease back there really, really quiet. And my deer stand was at the end of the logging road, and it was really really tight hunting back there. I mean, it's grown up. You really couldn't see. Longest shot probably would have been

40 yards, maybe. And so I went back there and got on a stand, and I always kept logs back then. I wrote down everything, you know, the weather, temperature, you know, what I did, all that. But that particular day, it was a bluebird day, best sky. I mean, it was beautiful.

One new clouds in the sky. The sun was bright. You know, it was about 30, 30, 30, 35 degrees. You know, no wind was blowing. I mean, I thought, man, I ought to do something to give me one today, at least. Well, you know, my stand about 3 o'clock. I'll check my watch. My stand's facing to the north.

And so, I don't know, it's 10-foot, about a 10-foot deer stand, you know. as I get up there, I'm sitting there, you know, and nothing's happening, you know, just looking around, you know. So about 320, I heard some rustling coming from the east, and I was, I slowly turned my hand away, see what's going on. Next thing I know, this little young doe deer, she come running on my deer. stand and laid down under my deer stand and she was actually, her front legs was actually touching the left side of the pipe on the deer stand. It went, you know, in the ground. And she was really panting, just really just wore out.

And I thought, you know, well, the rut was on. If everybody knows what the rut is, you know, when the breeding, you know, this time is and the bucks get kind of crazy you know they get to where they don't care you know that's how a lot of them get killed the big bucks because they get their mind on one thing and uh so that's what i thought you know but uh i had tried to walk back there and look around one time and it was so so many briars uh we've had those big uh thorn trees down here they got four or five inch thorns and they're razor short i mean they'll cut you open like a knife And you have to be careful because they will break.

And, man, they'll get up in. You can have surgery just about get that out. So, you know, if it gets infected, you're really in bad shape. Well, that's what I thought. So out of my peripheral vision, as I turn, slowly turn into look, I cease with something, about two o'clock vision. It come up real quick, got behind a tree. and I saw something tall, black, you know.

It looks at me and I looked at it. And I'm like, you know, it was happening so fast, you really didn't have time to think about nothing. I mean, I thought, what the heck is this? So this thing, it hopped, flat-footed. I mean, it didn't get a backup and get like a running start or like a runner does, an Olympic runner. and it just stood flat foot behind this tree and jumped 20 foot,

went through the air, got off the ground, three, four feet, and landed directly behind this tree that's about 3 o'clock, facing my stand from the east, and landed behind this big oak tree, kind of like a black oak tree, we have down here. And I couldn't, man, they just blow my mind since, that big, go through the air that easy, you know.

I don't know what it was up to. I don't know if it was going to try to work itself around me and go the other way. I don't know. I'm sitting here. I'm looking at all this. I'm trying to take this in. And it's just like,

I couldn't believe what my eyeballs were showing me. You know, you just can't believe that's something that, you know, 7,8 foot tall, 500 pounds. A black and hairy, you got a face like a human. You know, but anyway, I was staring at it and it was staring at me, and I'll never forget how evil the eyes were.

It was horrible. I mean, I've never seen nothing that evil in its eyes and what it was looking. It was like it wanted to make 100% eye contact with me all the time. Like, actually I felt something like it was drawing. like it was trying to look in my soul, you know. And it was a scary. I mean, I'm never my life in that afraid, you know. I had that half-hire deer, Raffle.

And I was still afraid. I mean, he made me feel like Raffel was a BB gun, you know. And so this went on and I kept hoping and praying, you know, maybe this thing, I leave, maybe he'll turn. go back to the way he come, and I'll just head back my truck, and I'll never come back here. They can have a deer stand. You know, I ain't worry about it.

But that didn't happen. And it goes on in time, and he's staring at me. And I got real, I don't know how to say, but I got real clammy. You know, it was 30 degrees, but I got clammy. My throat got real dry. I got dizzy, nauseated. my stomach was just kind of tying the step up and knots. I was shaking.

I never forget. I'm sitting there, and it's just like I hear buzzing going on in my head, and it's like time is stood still or something. It's kind of like I'm going around in a real, real slow circle, and every now then I could see something, you know, part of my life or something. And it was the weirdest thing

I've ever seen. Never in my life but, you know. But anyway, this rocked on. I'm thinking, you know, I'm in a situation here and I'm going to have to make a decision on what to do

and it's going to affect my life. It's going to affect me the rest of my life, whatever, which, whatever I do. You know, whether I live or die, so the thing it looks so human I mean the sun was shining down

through some breaks in the top of the tree and I remember the hair on its shoulder how shiny it was I thought man this is somebody in a costume or something because there's no way that this thing's real you know

uh you know because it's some shiny and I actually I talk to something to I take that suit off and get out of here, take that head off and get out of here, you know.

And I'll never forget, he was looking at me as I was talking to him. He was looking at my lips on my face, you know. But I've got to look in how big it was, you know, and I thought, I mean, there ain't no way somebody could get to say that big. And there ain't no way somebody could hot 20 foot through there that big, you know. And it's just like my, I guess my soul was talking to me. I don't know if I was. questions was coming up

and like, you know, there's a circus in town? No. Anybody hurried, got a report but we're going to look escaping from somewhere. No. I mean, it's just like that. Why? It's fast, you know.

And, but anyway, I'd read a book on some feral humans one time. I don't, you know. But anyway, I thought, well, maybe this is a feral human. You know, and if I shoot this thing,

kill it, you know, I got to the only rest of my life, you know, I committed a homicide, you know. And I said, well, you know, I don't know whether this thing that you'll commit a homicide on me. One of us, you know, it looks like it's going to be somebody's day to die,

and I sure didn't want to be the guy, you know. But anyway, you know, I said, you know, I'm going to look through my scope. I had a three-bin-a-half-pipe scope. And I said, I'm going to look through my scope and just laying his face and all. I'm going to make sure. sure.

This has no kind of human in it. So I'll put my make sure my scope's turned down real while because you can't have them. I'm talking to my hunting that close. I always turn them down to three, you know, when I'm hunting really tight situations.

I take, turn a scope down, and I turn to the right, and I look through my scope at this thing. And, oh, man, you can see the, you know, it was kind of, and cold at the cool out day. And as you would breathe, you can see

that, you know how it is in cold weather, you blow that moisture out through your nose and your mouth, you know, and I can see him breathing. I can see that coming out. And I looked at his eyes, you know, really black. And I could see

your eye, you know, eyelashes moving, everything. I said, oh, crap. I said, you know, I'm in a situation, you know. And all of a sudden, he got mad because I pointed that rifle at him. He got kicked.

He, man, he wigged out. He grouted me, and it was like a pissed off, excuse the language, African line. I mean, if you had been a mile over a mile away, you could have heard that, and here I am about 15 yards from him, you know. and it was like getting hit by a 70 mile power I win I mean it's like I think the reason he roared at me because I pointed a gun at him because after that until you know I left he was mad oh man he was mad

I mean he he he put him over the edge pointing a gun at him he uh he starts stomping uh I call it getting froggy the way he was doing he sort of beating on the tree and you know he was standing behind the tree and he started beating

with the insides of his fist not like a direct punch what a boxer punches but the sides of his fist in a tree he was mad I mean you can hear

hitting that tree man I thought man if I'd have been a human's head he'd been hit but um anyway a whistle shrill whistle

come back to him from the north east I would say anywhere from 75 to 100 yards a real sure of whistle and

he looked over at it turned his head to the right looked over there and then he turned his head back and looked at me and he gave me a grin I mean you know

you know these things they're smarter than what people think they're all right yeah it gave me a grin you know like now you know we're going to go to school you know so he whistles back to this thing he barely turns his head that way he's still looking at me kind of half and half and he gives a he gives a shrill whistle back uh you know i know you said you've worked uh in some meals before and you know how like when it's time to go to break or something like that it's usually

done by a whistle. And you know how that whistle sounds, it's a shrill whistle. You know, and it picks up. Well, he did that back. And, you know, bells went off my headlights. I said, you know, all the years of deer hunted,

I have heard that whistle. And as a matter of fact, I've been on top of it before that close. And I thought it was a bird doing that, you know. I've heard the woodnots. I thought it was a woodpecker, so I didn't know. Well, anyway, when he gave his whistle back response to this whatever it was,

I heard this saying bipedal movement coming to him. Evidently, it was a signal to each other. I know if I went in trouble or whatever, come on and help me out. But it started coming his way. And he's sitting there. He's standing there. they're looking at me kind of got a sheepish grin

on his face, you know, and I'm like, something's telling me, you know, you got to go, you got to go, you're, you know, or one and dollar, you know,

and, you know, I got to think, and I said, you know, I know what he's going to do, he's going to wait until the buddy gets up there, and he'll be standing shoulder,

shoulder, and then what they'll do is he'll put a charge and they'll split on me, you know, want to go to the back of the stand and, and I'll be trying to focus on the one that's facing me

to try to take him out and probably want him to hit him and the other than to come up behind me. I said, you know, it's kind of like shooting fish in a barrel. You know, I ain't got a chance, you know. So I started coming down to stand and got about halfway down and I jumped off a stand. And I was young back then, you know, probably 26, I like that, 25, 26.

Real light and can run. And my legs felt like they waited a, a 500 pounds apiece you know and so I'm running down on the logging road trying to get to my truck which is a half a mile away

and I look over my shoulder as I start going up the road to my truck to see where he is and here he comes you know I'm thinking oh my god you know I was hoping that he would you know turn

and go other way but anyway I just I started running the best I could and he was kind of flanking me he was about I don't know from where I was

he was about 50 feet from me he was running through the woods and I mean he was just he wasn't him he was mowing down trees and brushed I mean he didn't care he was those big thorn trees

uh You know, got five-and-inch thorns. They're black, and they're just, they're cut you in pieces of deadly. He was running through them. I mean, that's what scared me. When I saw what he was doing, the aggression, and what he was putting his body through to try to catch you up. That's what scared me.

I said, oh, man, this thing really wants me, you know, a bat. And, you know, automatically went from me thinking maybe he was trying to bless me, you know, scare me out of the area. But when I saw what he was doing it, I said, he really, this thing wants to kill me, you know. So, anyway, we're moving on, you know, and I can hear him, oh, or are you? He was just grunting and just, you know,

really like a bull, you know, when a bull really gets agitated and he gets mad, you know, the grunts and stuff he puts out, you know. So I'm going along there and, I'm coming up to my truck, and as I get about 75 feet from it, you know, things start going off my head. You know, well, you got to unlock it. You've got to get in there.

You've got to crank it up. What are you going to do about that? When you turn your back, this thing's going to nail you. So I'm getting up about to tailgate of my truck. I take, you know, I think, well, I got Bobby some time. I got to do something, you know. So anyway, I spin around and I shoot my rifle from the hip. It's kind of like a warning shot.

You know, I turned towards him, and the bullet hit the, let me see, each side of the old pine tree. It was a big tree, but it wasn't really a big, big tree. And it determined, I mean, these pine beetles, lusty got in it, because the tree was to see that real bad. I've seen it's a bullet hill about seven foot on the backside of tree. The creature was roughly about three feet from it. And, I mean, just a big old cloud of a blue-black-looking dust coming out of the tree right there all over. Well, I get, I'm done running my truck, did it unlocked, get it cranked up. And, I mean, I throw in gear and I'm going.

And I'm just smoking it, getting it out of it. I looked my rearview mirror, and I see a big old black hand reaching for the tailgate, you know. And he had run away in the truck. I guess he was going to try to get in. I don't know. But when I got on down to the road there, where I had to go down a little curve to slow down, I looked my rear mirror, and there was another one standing by him. So evidently, I guess, the one that signal him, he was pulling up the rear rear.

I never saw. Of course, I didn't look over my back that way. I wasn't looking on my back because this thing. I was looking to the left side of me, you know, because he was running to my side. I didn't look at the back, you know. Sometimes you're actually afraid to, you know, it could slow me down. But anyway, I got to my truck and got in and got out of there.

But, you know, I have a lot of people tell me that I was trying to take food off the table and, you know, stuff like that, and they were mad, and they were just trying to kind of escort me out of there, but, you know, when you see something, you go through what I went through, and you know, you're in your truck, you're trying to leave. I mean, you're trying to end that situation.

You're leaving, and it runs your truck down and tries to get into tobacco truck with you. What's you want to do then, you know? So, you know, that was a rough day. what a rough's days of my life, you know. I can imagine, and I know the whole encounter fascinates me because I hear this behavior constantly from witnesses, and I'll post a picture of the artist's rendition of what you saw,

but for the audience, can you describe the face in detail about what you actually saw, like the nose and the mouth, the jaw of this creature? Well, I've become friends with a lot of different, tribes of Indians all of the U.S. They talked to me and they've listened to my encounter

and saw pictures and most of them said it looked like it had Cherokee in it, you know. And also I've been told that they speak Cherokee because people's, you know,

different people have heard them, you know, in the woods communicating. And it's really weird to hear that. And it had high cheekbones had big teeth, big, big teeth, but they were flat teeth. There wasn't no canine teeth, and I'll tell you why I know, because he kept showing me his teeth.

Why, I don't know. You know, he would show me his teeth open with a slight low growl. He would show me his teeth with his teeth down together, you know. And then he would take, and he would click his teeth that it click, click, click, you know, he had a certain noise, he'd click them. And he would take, and with another different kind of low ground, he would make his lips kind of low, kind of, you know, a little vibration in them, you know. So I thought that was pretty weird.

Yeah, he had all kind of gestures that he did, you know, facial. But, you know, he had a high forward, really blackout. eyes. Did you see any whites to the eyes? You know, I can't remember, Wes. It's been so long ago. I kind of want to say I saw a

very little bit, if any, but I just remember how black his eyes were. You know, but like I said, man, well, we, we looked at each other 15 minutes

saying so, you know, you kind of got, that's still welded in. You know, I'll never forget what that sound, that growl, the face of pictures and, you know, all that other stuff that was going on, you know. You just don't forget that.

No, you don't forget it. You definitely don't forget it. And like I said, when I saw it, and if people want to see it, if they go to Sasquatch Chronicles.com, I'll post Mike's trailer and also a link to the movie, but also a sketch of what Mike saw that day. And what's interesting, Mike, is it's probably one of, and I don't know if most people are this, he'll probably realize this now. You're in the intro of the show. There's a, one of the witnesses is saying the eyes were real, real evil looking real sinister. That's Mike talking for people who are listening to the show. That's actually Mike in the intro. And that always stuck with me. And I remember when I saw your sketch a long time ago, I remember thinking how human it looked in the face, but the rest of the body reminded me of a gorilla or a big, or a big monkey. Well, you know, one of the top artists contacted me, Sabella, Kristen Irwin, and asked me if she could do a sketch, you know. And I said, yeah, you know, she really wanted to do it.

So what we did, we kind of worked back in force. She would send me tea. She would send me lips. She would send me a mouth one day. You know, and as soon as I would agree on it, say, okay, yeah, this is it. She said, okay. And then she'd send me a nose. And eyes, well, this went on for a few months, you know,

and, you know, shove those stuff back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. But she finally got it. She nailed it. She did an awesome job. Beautiful job. She is doing my work, some of the work on my, using some of the work, her work on my T-shirt and some other things. Yeah, Cibilla's great. I wish I had the artistic talent that she has.

And for people listening that probably have no clue we're talking about, about Sibylla Irwin, she does recreations for people about what they saw. She'll take what the witness says, and then she will create an artist rendition of what that person saw. And she does a great job of it. One of the last questions I wanted to ask you, Mike. And if you want to talk about this, you can. If you don't, you know, I have thick skin. You can just say, hey, I'll pass on that.

A lot of witnesses I have on the show, as we were talking about earlier with Debbie, they really struggle, and I struggled with this, and I think anyone who's run into these things struggle with this, you have this weight of the world on your shoulders, and you have this isolation-type feeling when you've run into this thing. It's almost like you, I don't know if you become awake is a great way to describe it, and I don't want to get too philosophical with you, but you go through this weird depression after you've seen it. You want to see it again, but you don't want to see it again. You become fascinated with you. with it, and you wish you could forget it ever happened. It's this huge rainbow of emotions you go through, but if you wouldn't mind, can you talk a little bit about what you went through after this encounter? Because I know you didn't come out with it until years later. Right. Well, like I said, I lived and worked in a small town back there, a small plant, and there's no way I could have went in and told anybody about what happened in because, you know, back then, 81, there wasn't no cell phones out there hardly, no internet, no, no,

nothing, you know, no Facebook. I mean, the communication was limited, you know, to a newspaper or the news somewhat on TV. And, you know, they're not going to report stuff like that. But, you know, I couldn't tell anybody because I knew better. It could ruin me on a job and, you know, I don't know what he picked on and screwed with. And another thing, I was hurt, man. I just, I felt like an omen had been put, come down on me, you know. And at nighttime, man, I couldn't, I had to shut all my curtains in the house, you know.

I couldn't, I always be watching TV and I got that feeling something's looking at me, you know. And I just couldn't go hunting them more early in the morning and dark. I did try to go. I couldn't enjoy it. I ate either a little limb crack or something, man. I was throwing a gun on fire, you know. And I just couldn't, I for call myself. looking for them, more or less looking for a deer, you know.

And I said, you know, that's it. I just, you know, I just, I mean, it did something, you know, it stole something for me. It stole a part of a big part of my life that I really enjoyed. And not only did it steal from me, it stole from my son I'd take with me. It stole from my grandkids. You know, people like that, I never could get to do anything with them in the woods anymore, you know, because I was feared for their lives, you know, and something happened to them. Yeah, it was just very horrific on me.

I would spend a lot of time, you know, how my wife worked one shift. I worked another shift. She worked another different company, and so I had a lot of time on myself, and it was just horrible. sit there at night and listen, you know, for stuff, think about stuff. I would think about why I'd be, why this have to happen to me,

is there something, is there a message being sent to me for some reason? And I would think about stuff, did I do something, did I hurt somebody? And I make somebody, no, you know, I've never had a speeding ticket in my life.

You know, my age has never been arrested, never been in no kind of trouble. You know, did a lot of charity. stuff. I mean, I'm like, you know, why? Why? You know, because at that time, I hadn't heard of anybody having an encounter with one of these things, you know, I just, I'm sure they had, but nobody, they must have not said nothing up there. And that's what I tell everybody. You think there's a lot of counters out there now that people's coming forward. That's nothing compared to what people's

saying that hadn't come forward, you know. and, you know, I actually sat at home before a different time, but I've actually cried. I mean, I mean, I'd get to thinking about this, and it just ended up setting me so bad I cry, you know. And it made me feel like, hey, you know, you just got shown that your life really, in a sense is worthless because, look what you met. This thing come in, and he showed you he was boss. And, you know, you'll never hunt again. And I live for that. Man, deer hunting's my thing.

And, you know, it was just like he'd come in and he run rush out over me. And I said, you know, that could happen again. And I don't know if I could took another one like that. You know, that's just so terrified. And it's real, man, when I've been diagnosed with that PTSD. But really, I think the shock. seeing something like that, you know? The shock is what really hurt you in the beginning the most.

You know, I've got friends that I know. I wish I could run into one. I'll shoot. I'll do this and that one. I got news for you. And I tell everybody, that's the worst thing you can do. I mean, if you're ever out in the woods, you're deer hunting or something, don't shoot when he's things because.

Just because you see one, don't think it's one. He's going to have a buddy with him. And they can call. men from miles around. You know, you can have 15 and 20 on top of you squeak. You won't know what happened. And they stick together, you know.

So I wouldn't advise you to want to. I think it'd be a very bad situation you would bring on for yourself. And I tend to agree. I think that they do work together. And you said something there that

I've been saying a lot on the show is, you know, I know a lot of people want to see them. I get it. I completely get it. You want to see one of these things. But don't be so quick to go and want to see one of these things because it's not, it's not, and this is going to sound odd, it's not positive. It's really not a positive experience in your life running into one of these things. I have the same type of crowd around me. They say, well, I'd love to see one. I would do this, or I would do that, or I would do that, or all of people on the show that give encounters. And they say, well, if I was there, I would have done this. And, you know, I'm really quick to say, you know,

You might want to be careful what you say, what you would do or wouldn't do until you're in that moment in time, because I guarantee you'll do nothing of what you're talking about when you're in that person's shoes. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah, because I'm going to tell you something. He's like, when you see this thing, he's going to be waving at you, he's going to be smiling at you, you know, hey, no, it ain't it'll be like that. You're going to be getting one of the most go-to-hell sinister looks you've ever seen your life. and I know people right now

they go out in the middle of the night 1, 2 o'clock in the morning, pitch black, you can't see your hand and they're beating on the side of the tree doing wood knocks or doing calls or doing whooping. And I told them, I said,

hey, you know what you're going to do when you're out there and you turn around and you got one standing about 10 foot from you looking at you. So what are you going to do then? I don't know. I thought about that.

I said, there you go. You know, I said, now when he comes to pay you, he ain't coming up there to pay you a visit. Okay? And he's coming up there. He's going to go with Cal Warpast, you know. And you just, you better hope to God you can deal with him, you know. So it's like you said, sometimes you don't hurt to wish for, but that's something right there. You don't want to wish for that, you know.

Trust me, you don't. Yeah, it's great advice. And I hope people heed the morning. hey, you know, everyone's going to go out and do whatever they want anyway. But, and, you know, for skeptics and stuff, hey, go out and wish to see one. You know, I guarantee your world's going to be flipped upside down when you see one of these things because they are terrifying. And I don't know what it is about them that makes them so terrifying. You know, I've run into cougars before, and I was scared.

I'll admit it when I ran it. And the cougars we have here in Washington State are huge. I mean, they're like small tigers. You know, and I've been nervous and scared coming across one of them. But, you know, for the most part, they'll leave you alone if you leave them alone. I've had them stalked me before, but nothing came of it. And I've come across Black Bear before, and I was a little nervous running into a Black Bear. They're not real big here in Washington State.

But, you know, in the same breath, Black Bear got a hold of you, rip you from limb to rip you from limb, and there's really nothing you could do about it. But running into these things, it's a whole different level of fear. It's a whole different ballgame running into one of these things. things. I just can't thank you enough for coming on and sharing it. And if people get a chance, go check out scookum the movie.com. You know, order the movie. I can't wait to see it, Mike. I'm really excited to see it. And I'm glad that you and I have been friends over the years. And, you know, you and I talk from time to time. And you're one of those guys that lets me vent.

And I appreciate it because there's very few people I'll vent to or my theories on different things and there's not a lot of people I bounce different things off of and you're one of those guys and I really appreciate our friendship and I just can't thank you enough for coming on the show and sharing the movie and then sharing your encounter with us. I said, thank you so much. Well, you're welcome, Wes. I enjoy talking to you on the show, off the show. And I'll say this, you know, it was a very, one of the most sad deals of my life when that happened. But over the years I have met some of the greatest

people. Don't get me wrong. There's some out there with people I met. They're out there. I've heard some more than stories you won't believe. I've made and met some of my best friends I have today over the Bigfoot ideal. So,

you know, some good did come out. That's my friends, you know, and I love them to death. There's some of the best people in the world out there, you know, in the big footing. But, you know, I just tell her, Just don't go by yourself. Always be armed with a good strong side arm. And watch your back.

And, you know, have to have a good time. But, you know, don't engage these things, you know. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you again, Mike. Okay, Wes. Well, you have a good weekend. What's the left of it. And stay safe.

Next up on the show, I want to welcome Ben. Ben, thanks for coming on, man. I appreciate you being here. Well, thanks for having me, Wes. I'm glad to be here. And if you would, kind of start from the beginning, and then if you would, kind of walk us into what happened to you in 2004. Well, I guess to start with. You know, I literally grew up in the wood. You know, I spent every spare moment I had studying the wood. It was almost an obsession. Like, I just, I had to learn as much as I could about it. You know, from what,

trees were what, what plants I could eat, everything. I just had to know everything about it. And learning all that, I would come across these sounds or, like you said, these structures like lean-toes that looked like they were new but had never been used. And it just didn't make any sense to me. So I just, you know, pass all that stuff off. You know, I would hear, you know, be out by myself at, you know, nine or ten years old at night. and hear owl calls, but they weren't owls.

Like it was somebody trying to imitate alcoes. You know, just stuff like that. And the park just played it off my whole life, I guess. Even through, I mean, being growled at in the middle of the night, I've had that happen a couple times and just thought, you know, just a random dog passing through the woods or something. But to get straight to 2004, at that time, I was, what, 20, I guess about 24.

And I was pretty sure I was getting close to just packing everything, moving up to Alaska, living in the woods the rest of my life pretty much. They had no interest in staying in society from that point at all. I had enough of it. Just wanted to go play in the woods the rest of my life. I'd have been happy as anything probably May of 2004. I had gone into work. The normal day, it started out that you just tell it was going to be just a beautiful spring day.

And no more than I'd gotten there, I met my boss. We both walked outside and looked around and just instantly decided, you know, we're not working a day. Let's go home. And so I went home, packed it up, was headed to the creek for a day of fishing. and, you know, back my backpack up like I've done countless times. Grab my face and fall all headed to the creek. When I got to the creek, you know, parked at the spot I always parked at, and walked down a smaller creek to get to the main creek.

And this creek is pretty much like a small river. Great smallmouth bass fishing, just a great little creek fishing. And I had all day, so I took my time, was wading upstream. The plan was going to park at that spot, laid upstream to the bridge, probably two miles and then walked back to my truck. No big deal, but it's countless times. I think I'd maybe gone a few hundred yards or so in the first hour to see, just moving real slow, catching a bunch of fish, doing pretty good. and as I came around the bed in the creek, I noticed a big tree down, and I could tell it was a big Cicamore tree that had fallen recently

because it still had all the leaves on it and was across most of this creek. And, you know, just a few feet to get around it on the right side of it. And, you know, I just kept fishing, easing my way up to this tree. As I got probably 100 yards from it, I saw these streets of it. mud coming down through the water. And still didn't think much of it. You know, there's probably whatever in that tree, catching bugs off of it, shaking the leaves around, whatever.

And as I got about half that far, 50 yards or so, I started hearing a little splashing. And so I started getting interested. And what I really thought I was about to see was some river otters, because it had been in the news about the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency had been releasing river riders. I really thought I was going to get to see some until I eased around the end of this tree.

And as I made it clear of the last branch for where I could see what was doing the splash, and I saw this dog, a good-sized dog that had his head under the water and was moving like he was chasing something. There was another dog directly behind him, maybe five feet or so, and he was about halfway.

His front feet in the water, his foot, back feet were up on the bank or on the gravel bar. That dog saw me as soon as I saw them and let's lose, almost like a coyote, kind of yiped, like just a really excited, scared yip. As soon as he did, the first dog brought his head up out of the water, and they took off towards the bank. and they were about to run up this really well-worn path up, up probably about a seven into this stand of River Cain and then just bushes up into the wood.

And as I got there, what apparently was the alpha of the three came charging straight down at me. And this dog, from the moment I heard him, He had every intention of eating me. I'm pretty sure the most vicious, too Joe kind of growling barking as it came down the gravel bark towards me. And I'm in, luckily, in water up to, like, my belly button.

As he stopped, when he got to his belly, he stopped and was still barking, raising nine miles of hell. I reached back on my backpack, and my pistol's not there. I had, from the time I was a kid, always had a pistol with me in this time I'd left it laying on my bed. And rock and just died right there.

This dog's going nuts. The other two went to the top of the bank and were stopped and were just looking at me. So I'm back up a couple of feet to the other bank and reach over and pick up two fifth-size rocks. And as soon as I turn around, the bushes, the river cane, And in particular, this one poplar tree, a young poplar that was probably four inches around at the base and maybe 20 foot tall, started whipping back and forth. At the same time, this sound hit me that just shook my entire, like I could feel it rattled my bones pretty much. And it paralyzed me. I couldn't move. What type of sound?

It was, imagine it had a vocal cord quality to it, and it was kind of like an old air raid siren mixed with elephants trumpeting. It's about as close as I could incredibly loud. I couldn't figure out where it was coming from around. There was a pop, and then the sound started. But that one particular poplar tree was whipping back and forth, laying down almost sideways,

each time it went back and forth until it finally broke, and it popped, and it was like a gunshot going off. When that one popped, I dropped my rock. The one's rocks. I had my left hand, and I went to Bend Island to get it, and remember I was standing in, like, belly button deep water. So I turned my head to the right, and I've got my face all the way down into the water, still trying to breathe. and as soon as I touch this rock, something splashes right in front of. And so I stand up real quick thinking it's one of the dogs and I see this stick. Bob back up to the surface, like a two or three foot long and, I don't know, three or four inches stick, just a big stick.

And like I can still my heart beating again. I'll like to calm down because I thought, okay, somebody is on this other bank next to me. threw a stick to help me. You know, that had to be what it was. And so I stood up and I scanned the right bank and there was nobody there. All right, that was enough for me. I had to go. I had to get out of there.

I was just freaking out. The dollars are still going nuts, literally wanting to eat me. And I got whatever this is screaming at me. And apparently it's throwing stakes at him. And that screaming that you heard, is there anything that compares to it? No. Nothing I'd ever heard before that or after that, not in the woods anyway. The only thing I've heard, tongue close, or, you know, sounds on the Internet a big book.

But I still can't say for sure that's what that was because I can't feel those sounds that I'm listening to on the Internet, you know? Like, I could feel this. It literally, in my teeth, like, it, oh. And that's the thing, when you hear the sounds, and I've experienced it myself, but a lot of witnesses that come on the show, they say you feel it as much as you hear it. Right.

Well, that's exactly what this was, man. I'm curious. I have, for the audience listening, here's a mountain lion screaming. Pretty sure I've heard that twice down there close to that Greek over the years. But, I mean, it sounded like a red-tail hawk to me, but I knew it was a cat.

And the scream that you, you heard that day, it wasn't anything like that? Oh, no, no, no. This went on this, that day on the creek, it was like nothing should be able to have a long capacity like that. Carry a sound like that, beginning with, but carried as long as it was blasting at me. And I realized that, you know, when you hear a sound on the internet, it's completely different than when you're in person and you hear it. But was it closer to this?

Closer to that. Of those that sounded, I always called them sonar. Sonar is what it always sounded like to me. But I used to hear that there's like a sonar pain all the time in that area, especially at night. But the one that day on the creek was just so much deeper and loud. It was like one of the, like the, I guess, or I guess that would probably be the best way to describe it. That long, steady, drawn out, blast the sound is what this one was. So was it more like this? Yeah. That, but with the strain in its voice of whipping stuff back and forth,

like the strains of muscle making it wager just a little bit. You know what I mean? Like it was steady like that, but every time, especially before that tree that moving back and forth before it popped. It wavered each time. Like the muscles in its body made its voice wavered. But yeah, that was pretty close to what that one was. What did you think it was?

I had no idea. Actually, I thought, well, there's got to be 20 more of these dogs up on that crink bank. I have to go where they're going to eat me. It is what I was thinking. I didn't know what else to you think. I think it's interesting that the dogs didn't react to these creatures being around. Well, it did.

It did. They did. Kind of. When I first picked up the two rocks from the creek bank, from the other bank, as I was turning around, and I heard the first pop, like a big stick breaker, I guess it was. All three of them took off towards the bank, and we're headed for that trail going up. and when the sound came, the two of them stayed, and the one that I assumed was the alpha came straight back at me. I guess that's when I started reaching from,

no, that was after I read from a pistol. But they did respond to it. And I don't know, I don't understand. I mean, I've read about having pets like that, but it didn't make any sense. It still don't make any sense to do we now. I hear you there. and a lot of times witnesses that don't see their creatures, but they hear strange sounds.

It's like I just had Mike on. And Mike, you know, was talking about hearing wood knocks, and he thought it was a woodpecker. He would hear sharp whistles, and he thought it was a bird. And so I think it's easy for us to pass it off as something else when we're out there, even though we know deep down it doesn't make any sense. All right. Well, that's time what, you know, three or four years ago that got me looking back at all. all this stuff, was watching some documentary about Bigfoot,

and they mentioned something about wood knocking, how they use it for communication, and they commenced to hit a tree with a big stick, and every hair of my body stood up. Sinking about all the times I've been in the woods and heard that acorn or a hickory nut fall from the top of a tree and land on a hollow log just right over and over again. But back then, that's what it had to be.

You know, it had to be a nut falling. What else could it be? But it happened all the time, year-round. Yeah. No, and it's interesting when you go back and you look at experiences that you've had and you can kind of start putting pieces of a puzzle together. One of the encounters I was interested in having your retell was when you were on a bridge. Do you mind telling that story?

That was creepy. I mean, that was a creepy story. Yeah, that's the one that's the age. out of the woods ever since. I was able to play off, or I guess played off in my mind, what happened that day on the creek. It had to be other dogs up there I didn't see, and that was just it.

That couldn't be anything else. I guess fast forward, what, three months or so, four months. It was about the last week in September of 2004. I couldn't sleep. I remember it was a weekend night, probably Friday night. and probably midnight, probably a little after midnight. And I decided I'd just get up, drive down to the creek, and do some catfishing. So I did.

I loaded up my stuff, grabbed some chicken lever, and actually grabbed my pistol this time because I was still thinking about those dogs and stuck it in my pocket, took off to the creek. And pulling up to this bridge, there was just enough room for two cars to park, right behind each other on the right side. And under the bridge, it just dropped straight off of the creek. There's a pretty tall bluff that turned immediately to the left and wrapped around a little bend. Just around the bend in this road, probably a quarter mile away,

was one house. And that was the only house at that time for miles. So I told up, and I shut off the car and opened my door and the down like came on. And I thought, well, I didn't bring a lantern. and I looked through the car, I didn't have a flashlight. I thought, well, I don't know how I'm going to get down to this creek now. And as I had a baby going back to the house, which was only a few minutes away,

I thought, well, I just, I'll walk out on the bridge and see if there's enough moonlight or whatever that my house will just as I can walk down. And so I did. I shut the door. made it maybe a quarter or third of the way onto the bridge when my headlights and dome light timed out and when they did I couldn't see anything at all it was literally like being in a cave

but I couldn't see any stars nothing completely over the dead and so I stood there for a second I reached out and I could feel the concrete railing next to me on the side of the bridge and I leaned over and I looked down towards the water, couldn't see anything but black, and I was sitting there, leaned over, with both hands on that railing looking down,

waiting for my eyes to adjust, when I heard what sounded like starting across the bridge behind me, coming from the other direction, like coming from in front of me, from where I park. But there wasn't anything there. And I thought, well, there was a car just starting down the hill, you know, get a half mile away.

That's what I heard. but then I heard the tires drop onto the bridge, and I heard what's happening like a small car drive behind me. And I turned around to follow the sound, and there was nothing there. I could see anything to dookin to the strike in the middle of the road. And I thought, okay, maybe the wind blowing out of the bed, something, but there's nothing there. My mind is playing tricks I'm out if they can't see.

So I turned back around, put the hands back, on the bridge and I'm looking over and then I hear what it first sounds like going to pass a helicopter off in the distance. Just that the very first couple of three chop chop, chop, and then everything that happens from here in the next probably two seconds felt like forever. Those two or three chop chops turned into plack, tap, tap, that. And by that third or fourth, pat, pat, pat, that, whatever it was was almost behind me. and every time I heard that chop or plat,

it was really like a plait, like some slap in the pavement. I was already reaching for my pistol and turning around. On that last plat, I got up and was standing facing it, and then nothing for like a split second, like it knicked a plat. And then four big slaps on the bridge. The whole bridge shuddered real hard, and then nothing. And by the time I got my pistol up,

to where that last sound was, I heard like a big tree branch swoosh, and then a real light sound of something landing on leaves. And I'm completely freaked out. Instantly flooded with adrenaline, full fighter flights going on. I can't see anything. I can't smell nothing.

I'm freaking out. I'm standing there, you know, got my pistol out, and I'm thinking, why did I come out here? What am I going to do? I can't go anywhere. I don't know what there is. So I think, all right, maybe if I fire a shot off, I can use the light from that shot to see what's out there.

So I pull the hammer back real slow, trying not to make any sound. And as soon as it did, I guess. hit by another stream. Not quite the same as the first one on the creek that day, but I could still feel it, and it only lasted for maybe four, five, six seconds. And once it was over, I'm sitting it completely freaked out. I'm afraid to even breathe.

But I finally managed to say, if there's somebody there, you better start talking because I'm about to start shooting. And I'm just about to squeeze it. trigger when I were next to my car, which is like that I'm facing straight across the bridge. The last sounds I heard running across the bridge when it hit the bluff next to it is about 10 degrees off from facing straight forward to my left. And then my car straight to my left. From straight behind my car, I hear, hello?

You hear what? You hear what? I hear somebody's voice. I hear a man's voice. And he goes, was, hello? Kind of soft. And I say, you know, who the blank is there? And he said to the name, and then I could hear a 10-speed bike clicking, coming towards me real slow.

Just a click-click. And while he's moving towards me, I can hear him start to explain that he lives in the house around the curve and that he just came down because he sees teenagers park right. where I part all the time to come make out or whatever. He was just going to come mess with him. As soon as he got that out, he got close enough for his buff to see each other, and I had my pistol literally inches from his nose.

So he jumps back a little bit, you know, like, whoa, I'm so blatant you think you're doing. Again, and he said, well, I was just coming to mess with the kids. And I said, well, you mess with somebody now, buddy? So I said, you almost just got yourself shot. And then I realized I still had a pistol in his face. So I put it down, down next to my side, and I let the hammer down. I was sitting there breathing.

And he's apologizing, like, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. You know, I didn't need any harm. I was like, well, you can't. And I was casting a pretty bad, and I feel bad about that. Did he hear the scream? Well, at this, this point, I thought it was him. I thought he was the one that screened. That's what I heard coming behind me. And like from the time I heard what I thought was the car to the steps coming behind me

was only a couple of seconds at the most. So I thought it was all the same thing. I thought I just had my, like, my spatial difference was off. And then I just heard the one thing, I guess. I don't on what I thought, but I just thought at that time that it was him that it screened at me. And I remembered the day on the creek, and I thought, well, this old curb, they was just coming down to get a free show for some kids making out the car. That was his dogs on the creek, and why is he screaming at me? You know, that was the only explanation. I mean, it was obvious right then at that second. but I tell him basically

you know get the hell out of here and I turn to walk to the car and I hear him clicking his 10 speed across the bridge I get to my car and open the door and I hear him yell back from the other side of the bridge something about something like me messing with people I'm not the one screaming like you just did

to me and it hit me that he wasn't the one it screamed. He was just as freaked out as I was about the screen, and whatever that was, was still right next to me. Oh, my God. So whatever that was was chasing him across the bridge, planning on doing I don't know what, and I surprised it again for the second time, because they didn't know I was there until I spun around on it, I guess. That's the only thing I can pick it, because there's no way this guy could have screamed from up on the cliff and be behind my car at the same time.

So what did you do next? Do you just get out of there? I dove straight from my car. I broke my neck, getting my head on the roof of the car getting in. I just couldn't get any fast enough except the door. And I started it just to get my head lights on as fast as I could. And I sat there looking up towards that bluff, thinking, oh, my God, what in the hell? And then once I saw his reflectors on his bike,

go around the curve, I put it in gear and floored it. And there's a little spot to turn around just on the other side of the bridge. And when I came back across, I put my bright lights on and drove slud looking up towards that bluff, and then I couldn't see anything there. So I just floored it and went on about, you know, went home, and I didn't tell anybody about that for a long time. I don't know. I felt horrible, horrible.

Because I almost shocked the poor guy. And he wasn't really doing anything other than, you know, purving on some teenagers. Yeah, well, I think most people in that position would have done the same thing. I mean, that's creepy. And it's almost more terrifying, like I said before, the ones that we don't see but we hear. Because it's more of the unknown. It's more of what is this? what is this noise I'm hearing? What is screaming at me? Now, when you can't put it to,

you know, a bobcat or a cougar or, you know, any other animal, and I know you go through your head and you're trying to figure out, okay, is it this? No, is it this? No. Is it this? No. That's almost more terrifying. You know what I mean? Yeah, and I did exactly that. It was like an argument was going on in my head. And it seemed like it lasted forever, but it couldn't have been more than a second and a half, you know, like, what is it? What is it? What is it? No, nope, nope. Do you still go out fishing at night?

No. Maybe closer to Nashville, got married, and I really hadn't been back out in the woods much since. I did go hunting a few years ago with my stepson a couple times, but I don't know. I just, I don't want to see what's out there. I've heard it enough, and I don't want to see it. Well, Ben, I appreciate you coming on, man, and sharing it.

I know people love to hear the sounds when I play the different audio. And, you know, sometimes it's random, but it's nice to have a guest come on and say, hey, was it this that you heard or was it this? Or, you know, just kind of go through the audio and have the audience experience that. And like I said, even the audio that's captured of reported Bigfoot vocals, it still doesn't do it justice when you are there in person. and like when I was in Texas and we had this thing screaming at us, no recording could even compare to the vocals behind this thing,

the power behind it, and as much as you feel it as you do hear it, it doesn't compare. But it's in the same breath for the audience listening. It's nice to be able to play some audio and have them walk through that. So I appreciate you coming on, man, and sharing it. And thank you for being a member of the site. and, you know, just supporting the show and everything, man. I really do appreciate you coming on.

Well, I think you've had me, Wes, and I'm already built up a whole lot better since I've been posting to the forum and all, and I'm pretty sure I'm going to feel a lot better after this. Hopefully I'll be getting myself back out of the woods. Well, thank you again. All right, thanks, Wes. And that's it for tonight, everyone.

Remember if you've had an encounter, shoot me an email. West at Sasquatch Chronicles.com. Until next time, everyone, have a great night. Country faster than the coronavirus and wagering week is your antidote. I'm Tom Martin, and I'm a veteran sports analyst and respected sports handicapper who will help build ESPN's brand. I've been recognized and awarded by Pro Football Weekly and Gaming Today magazine as the honest handicapper.

Let the other guys give you the same old boring sports talk with the same tired storylines. We'll give it to you straight here. Friday on wagering week. Don't gamble with other podcasts. Let SportsGarten Network's wagering week help your bottom line.