Sasquatch Chronicles - SC EP:456 The Pinecone Throwing Incident

Episode Date: July 29, 2018

Tonight I will be speaking to Rob and he shares two encounters with us tonight. Both encounters he had something thrown at him. The second encounter he describes seeing a "Hairy man" after having a boulder thrown at him. I will also be speaking to Tony Merkel from The Confessionals podcast. With the upcoming International Bigfoot Conference coming up and Travis Walton will be a guest we discuss the "fire in the sky" incident. I will also be playing a clip of Travis talking about his encounter while on the ship to bring everyone up to speed before I interview him at the end of August. Rob writes "My name is Rob and I started listening to your show in August of 2015 while I was stationed at Fort Lee, Virginia for a 4 month leadership course. I found it very interesting, some of the behaviors people were reporting, mostly because of 2 occurrences I had, one in fall of 2011 and the other in the summer of 2014. I say occurrences because I was, and Still am not 100% what exactly happened in 2011 and what I saw in 2014. I am born and raised in Enumclaw Washington. I spent my life going river fishing with my dad. We would not even waste time with se river access and preferred and still do prefer solitude while fishing. So we would leave early in the mornings and head for mounting river fishing wherever we felt like we could make a good hike and be left alone. In 2011 I had just returned back to Washington from attending college in Ohio. For the 2 years I was out there finishing my degree I never quite had the time or opportunity to come home often, to spend much time with family, or fish. Once I graduated and came home, that fall my dad and I left early on a Saturday morning and headed over Snoqualmie to the head waters of the Yakima river just outside of Easton. We took the exit and drove in until we came to a bridge over the river. We crossed it, hoping that the road on the other side might follow the river a little further down stream, mostly just so we didn't risk being in the first spot any other fisherman might come to. However, once we crossed the bridge and drove for a little while, we found out that the road didn't follow the river hardly at all, so we turned back, crossed the bridge again and parked. We took our poles and headed down to the bank just upstream of the bridge. While we were talking about the best ways to fish that particular area, a pine cone came out of nowhere and landed just at our feet, about 3 feet from the water of the bank we were standing on. The bank was about 45 feet wide, and while there were pine trees up hill from where we were standing, they were in no way reaching anywhere close to over us. Not even close enough for a generous bounce and roll to reach us. We thought it was odd but kept talking and then pulled out the lures and began fishing. My dad walked upriver from me about 120 feet from me, completely visible to me. It was not even 3 minutes with my lure in the water before another pinecone landed to my left about 2 feet away. I never saw the arc of the fall of the pine cone. It just landed there. Pretty soon my dad called out saying that a pine cone hit him. At this point we started looking around to see if there was anyone, anything, a tree, and how they were flying in to judge where they might be coming from. It was so eerie, and I instantly became uncomfortable, but it didn't seem to bother my dad too much. So we went back to fishing, but again not even 3 minutes and pinecone started falling so close, one bounced and hit my shoe. At that instant I called up to my dad and told him I had an uneasy feeling about what was happening, and that I was ready to go. He assured me it was alright, but said he was willing to head back to the car and try to work our way down river to find another spot, he just needed to use the wood line to "drop off a package". So while he headed for the brush, I walked back up to the car to put the gear away. I was seated, just waiting for him, when he finally got back, he seemed pretty hasty, but I just assumed he was eager to get to a peaceful spot on the river and get to fishing ( This becomes important in 2017). So we headed back to I-90 and started to work our way down toward Ellensburg, trying to find spots along the river to fish. The rest of the trip was uneventful. In 2012 I joined the Army Reserve and met my finance, in 2013 I was married, and in 2014 I got divorced. When I got married I moved to Spokane and really didn't have the chance to fish or spend time with my dad, so when I was divorced and moved back to Enumclaw, we decided that a Sunday on the Ohanapecosh would help get my mind off of things. So we took off, headed for Green Water, entered Mt. Rainier National park and headed over Cayuse pass toward Randall and Packwood. We had stopped along that road once before and walked down to the river to do some fishing, well that day we stopped in the same place only the river had moved. From the time we parked the car and actually got to where the river was at that time took 15 minutes, and we crossed 4 dry river beds with large patches of forest growing back up between them. Once we found the river, it had worked its way along a cliff. Like there had been the foot of a hill there until the water eroded it away. The cliff face was a good 25' high which really didn't mean to much, apart from the fact that where we arrived at the river, upstream was an enormous log jam. The log jam was so high that it reached to the top off the cliff wall. The log jam stretched from the cliff face, across the river, and was anchored in the forest of the last dry river bed we had come to. Like I said, it was enormous. The other thing that really didn't mean much at the time was that the Jam had at some point collected enough sediment that a few small deciduous bushes were growing on the top. Well, my dad headed down stream, out of sight and I stayed there where we had come out to the river, I would guess about 200 feet away from the base of the log jam. I had been fishing about 10 minutes when I heard what sounded like a tree break. I looked up at the log jam but didn't see anything. So I went back to fishing. About 5 minutes later though, a rock, easily the size of a beach ball hit the face of the log jam, making a breaking sound as it bounced, and then came to a stop in the river bank. As I looked over, having heard the branches it broke, then watching it thud to the ground, I saw movement on top the log jam. Honestly Wes, I don't know what I saw, but to me, it looked like a furry human backside, up right, had run behind the bushes on top the jam. I saw what looked like a trailing thigh, knee, ass, and foot, ALL BLACK and FURRY or Hairy I guess, disappear into the bushes up top. I was horrified. And for a minute thought maybe it was a black bear. Any way. I turned by face back straight, keeping my eyes right and upstream while I calmly reeled in my line. Once I had my line in, I turned down stream to walk to my dad, all the time, not looking directly back, but keeping my head turned one direction or the other to keep my peripheral vision on the jam. When I found my dad I just told him that I wasn't feeling too good and that the stress of the divorce was too much and I really wanted to go home and lay down. He was very sympathetic and reeled in his line and we headed back through the forest and dry river beds back to the truck. It was the most heightened state of alert in my life, every time we would cross a river bed and have to forge through the forest growing back in. We got back to the truck and headed home. I never told him what I had seen. Mostly because as terrified as I was I thought maybe there was a chance, in fright and panic, that I misidentified and it was just some normal animal. Fast forward to 2015, I was at Fort Lee, VA for an extended training course and had a lot of free time on m hands. There is not a whole lot to do there, and not a whole lot just off post. However there was a bookstore and I spent a lot of free time just browsing. One day I wandered through the Occult/ mystery / alien/ etc. etc. etc. section, and just perused some books on the subjects. When I got back to the fort that day I just happened to start looking at related videos on YouTube and stumbled across your show. Episode 11. Siege of Honobia. I listened to it, and I listened to more, and then all of the fishing events came back. I spent the rest of my time there reading and listening. I read David Paulides books religiously and listened to your show. When I got home after I started talking to my dad about bigfoot and other fringe topics, and he instantly brought up the Yakima occurrence. He told me that while he was in the wood line, another pinecone hit him, hard, while he was squatted in there, he said he absolutely had no Idea where it came from, and that he was actually pretty disturbed by it. So we started listening to your show when we would get together. We have even made 2 drives out to Yacolt, hoping to see something that would completely confirm the tiny bit of what I saw. We drove up Mt. Yacolt, just off the main road before you come into town by the school. That is an eerie feeling driving that road. The woods seem so claustrophobic and dark, even on the sunny day we went. The second trip down, we drove to Sunset falls, and drove all the way up to ( I believe FSR 50) and the feeling is much the same. Still no confirmation for me though. I don't really know how to word it. I saw something. That much I know. I know what it kind of looked like. But it was just a 1 second glance. I do believe now, after listening to your show that there is something out there. I just cant say for certain that is what I really saw. But I would like to see one. I also don't know about the pinecone throwing. That is not one I have heard on your show, or anywhere else, but maybe that is something someone has shared with you privately before? Lastly, I just wonder if you have gotten any reports off the Ohanapecosh or Yakima River in the Easton area?"  

Black thing go from left to right, and I thought, I'm going to die out here and no one's ever going to know. I couldn't believe what my eyeballs were showing me. I'll never forget how evil the eyes were. It was horrible. I mean, I've never seen nothing that evil. It ran towards me at a rate that I can't even explain, turned and stared at me. And this look of, I just want to kill you. I want to say it was human, but it wasn't.

He was yelling out, maybe grab a gun, grab a gun. I was like, for what? He said, just grab a gun. And there's footprints all the way to the door of my house. It had went inside my garage all the way to the door. 911, what are you reporting? Get somebody out here. What's going on now, sir? That son of a bitch is about six foot, nine, I don't know.

Do you see him now, sir? Yes, I'm looking right at him. Uh-uh. You're listening to Sasquatch Chronicles. Check us out online at Sasquatch Chronicles.com. If you've had an encounter, email me. My email address is Wes at Sasquatch Chronicles.com. Welcome to the show, everyone.

Thanks for being here tonight. Got a great show planned for you tonight. Can I be talking to Rob. And Rob comes to us from Washington State. He had two encounters, both with his father. One was a pine cone throwing incident. And the other one, he actually had a boulder toss. at him. And he got a good look at what I'd actually throw in the boulder at him.

Should be a great show tonight. I'll also be talking to Tony Merkel from the Confessionals podcast. Check out the Confessionals podcast on iTunes. Tony's going to come on. We're going to be talking a little bit about Travis Walton tonight. Not Bigfoot related, but Travis Walton will be at the International Bigfoot Conference in Kennewick, Washington at the end of August. And I plan on sitting down having an interview with him. He's a guy from the movie Fire in the Sky. And I'll play a clip for you. A really fascinating interview towards the end of the show with Travis to kind of get everyone up to speed on what actually happened during his encounter. I'm very, very, very, very excited to actually talk with Travis at the end of the next month.

If you want to come hang out, check out the International Bigfootconference.com. It's in Kenilwick, Washington, the end of August, beginning of September. Go to the International Bigfootconference.com. Get your tickets. I hope to see you guys out there. Thank you so much for listening tonight. If you get a chance to check out Sasquatch Chronicles.com for additional shows. And as always, if you've had an encounter, email me.

My email address is Wes at Sasquatch Chronicles.com. Let's jump into it tonight. I want to welcome Rob to the show. Rob, thanks for coming on. Thanks for having me. Yeah, no, I appreciate you being here. It's nice to have you on. You know, I know we're neighbors.

We're both in Washington. I can complain about the heat. You know exactly what I mean. I complain about the heat to my buddies down in Texas, and they just laugh at me. But I appreciate you. Appreciate you being here. Tell me about your encounter. I know you've had a couple encounters, and I know the first one you don't think is very interesting.

I think it's very interesting with your dad. Tell us what you were doing and just kind of walk us into what happened, if you would. Kind of like the tail into fall. I'm sorry, tail into something. or beginning of fall. And we were going to go fishing up at the headwaters of Yakima River. And so we left early in the morning, and we headed up I-90, went over Snowquamie Pass, and we took the eastern exit.

And if you drive back in there a little ways, you come to a bridge over the Yakima River. And it was just starting to get light, and we could see, you know, pretty well. We were looking just for kind of like a more private spot to fish. And it looked pretty good. And there was no one around. But we decided, oh, we'll drive down the road a little more, see if we can meet up with the river again. And so we drove down a little ways.

Couldn't find any spots. So we drove back to the bridge, found a place to the park, and we walked down to the river. Probably within like three or four minutes, we got down there and the bank on the river is pretty wide. It's about 45, 50 feet from just the bank and you're out on like a sandbar. And we were sitting there talking about, you know, like best spot to fish and what we were going to use. And all of a sudden, a pine cone lands, you know, about three feet from us.

And between us and the river on the bank. and we were looking around and, you know, there's plenty of pine trees, but they're all uphill and far away. It's not like they're reaching, reaching around, you know, and hanging over. So we just kind of ignored it and went back to doing what we were doing. So my dad hiked up river from me. He's probably about 120 feet away. and I just threw my line in, and I was waiting, and it was probably about, I don't know, three, four minutes

since the first pine cone had come in. And another pine cone landed, but it landed like at my feet, about two feet away from my feet. I looked around and I didn't see anything, and I didn't see where it had come from. And so I kind of ignored it and just kept fishing. And within minutes, my dad said, hey, I just got hit by a pine cone.

And so we kind of got back together and we were looking around and still didn't see anything. And another pine cone came flying in and it landed really close to us. And it was really unsettling more than anything. And so I told him, you know, I don't know if there's somebody messing with us or what, but I feel kind of uncomfortable. Maybe we should just, you know, head down, and we were going to head towards Ellensburg and fish the Yakima River down that way.

So I told him, maybe we should just head out of here and head on down the road. So he said, yeah, yeah. So I took the poles, and I headed back up to the car, and he needed to use the restroom. So he went and he jumped in the bushes. And I was up at the car and had everything put away. and just was waiting for him to get back up there.

And he came back. He wasn't, he's normally pretty chatty and pretty excited. And he'd be like, oh, yeah, well, let's head on down. He's like, well, let's get out of here. And he seemed pretty rushed. And once we got out of there, he said, man, I don't know what happened, but I was out there and he was taking number two in the woods. And he said, a pine cone just flew in and hit me in the face.

And so didn't really think too much about it. that we just headed down. And so I don't know. I didn't really see anything or hear anything, but you couldn't see the trajectory of the pine cone. You couldn't see where it was coming from, which was just really odd. Yeah, that is bizarre, isn't it? It's like you and I were just talking about before it came on the air. I've actually talked to a lot of hunters that, you hear that from a lot of witnesses.

Either it's pine cones or it's little pebbles that are getting thrown at you, and you can't really see where they're coming from. What did you think was going on at the time? I mean, honestly, I don't, it's hard to say. I mean, growing up in the Northwest, you hear about Bigfoot. Just even if you're not out there actively studying the subject, you hear about stories and things like that. So it kind of crosses your mind, but, I mean, not having seen or heard anything,

It just kind of was like maybe someone's messing with us, but it was really eerie because there wasn't, there was nobody out there. We didn't even see anybody down the road. You know, the bridge probably is like maybe a couple miles in, but it's not, it's not like it was highly trafficked. I mean, we didn't even see a car the whole time we were there. You couldn't hear anybody. You couldn't see anything. So, yeah, I really don't, I don't know quite what I was thinking it could be, but I think that thought's always kind of in the back of your mind. that you know.

Yeah, I understand that. Yeah. Yeah, no, I completely understand what you mean. It's, and the area where you guys were at, you and your dad were at, is pretty notorious for sightings, really. That's strange behavior. And it's frustrating we don't see what is actually doing it. But a couple of years later, Rob, you actually had another encounter, didn't you?

Yeah, so, yeah, my dad was actually with me that time as well. after the first encounter I had joined the army and I'd gone off to basic training, come back and got married, moved across the state to Spokane, got divorced within a year, moved back, and I wasn't feeling particularly awesome. And so my dad said, hey, you know, why don't we just, while we pack up some gear and let's head up and go fishing? And so we took 410 and headed up. You get up there and it whys off and Chinat goes over towards eastern Washington

and Cayuse kind of wraps back around. And so we took Caius pass and we headed over and saw the Ohana Pukosh and it was quiet and just kind of peaceful. So we pulled over in a spot that we had fished before and the river actually normally was right up next to, but it had been a while since we'd been there and we didn't see the river. And so we packed up our gear and we hiked down and we started crossing dry river beds. And, you know, you'd cross a dry river bed and come into like a little section of forest or woods. And then you go through that and you cross another one.

And we hiked for about 15 minutes crossing dry river beds. and the little forest patches between them. And we came out to where the river had moved so far towards that little mountain there that it had cut away at the bank. And we got out onto the sandbar there, and it was kind of cool, like just looking at the cliff and the water's just like the brightest blue you've ever seen, and then you can see through to the bottom. The rocks are purple, and yet it's just so awesome.

But we were over there. And where we came out, there was a big log jam kind of upstream. And it was so big that it had kind of made almost like a bridge, I guess, for lack of a better term. It just, it was over the river. The river was flowing underneath it. But it was so tall that it reached up to the top of the cliff. And I guess that cliff maybe like 20, 25 feet. So it wasn't huge, but up at the top of the cliff was just the rest of the mountain,

you know, hills or trees and going uphill. And so I just kind of stayed there and my dad hiked downstream and he was way downstream. I mean, I couldn't see him, couldn't hear him or anything. And so I was fishing. They'd probably been fishing about 10, 15 minutes and I just kind of heard a sound and it sounded like logs moving. And I looked over and I didn't really see anything. And so I just kind of put my head back down, was enjoying it. All of a sudden, I hear this big smash.

And I looked over and I saw the rock basically falling from where it had bounced on the logjam. But a rock about the size of two basketballs had hit the side of the logjam closest to me and bounced in Atlanta. and it landed on the sandbar, and it was a huge thud. And it's kind of like time slows down a little bit. It was seconds, but it seemed like forever because it looked up, and you can see the logs moving, and then as you look up towards the top, I saw what looked like the backside of a hairy man,

just black hair, I saw, you know, like a back and a butt, and legs walking. behind a bush towards the uphill side of that cliff and he just disappeared and i was super nervous it was almost like that where you're so afraid you can't really move so i just kind of reeled in my line real slow and i just kept looking ahead and like looking out of the corner of my eye and once i got my line in i grabbed my gear pretended like nothing had happened and just kind of slowly walked downstream

but keeping like, you know, turning my head so I see that logjam out of my peripheral vision the whole time. They eventually got down there and found my dad and didn't really want to what I saw. So I just kind of was like, you know, I'm not feeling good about things that it's, you know, everything that was going on in my life personally.

I was like, I think I'm just ready to go home and kind of, you know, go to bed and relax. But that walk out was the longest 15-minute hike back through those dry river beds and those bushes. I can imagine. I can imagine. I can imagine. I chuckle because I wasn't there. But I can imagine, man, walking out of there. You know, when you say it's the longest walk, it's kind of like when that rock gets thrown, it's odd.

I know what you mean. it's kind of like a car crash. You know, everything kind of slows down. Your sense has become very real at that moment. Yeah, I know exactly what you mean. It's very odd. What did you think you were looking at when he saw this tall, hairy man, you see his back, his butt, his thighs as he's walking back into the brush?

Are you thinking, Sasquatch at that point? Or are you, what were you thinking at that moment? Fair, yes. I was thinking, you know, like before my dad became comfortable with the subject, like I when we would talk about it I'd be like well you know maybe it was like a like a black bear like I saw the the rear end of a black bear but in your mind you can you really you say it so you don't get ridiculed but you can't really justify it like this black bear's throwing big rocks yeah you don't you don't want to be you don't want to be label crazy so no

I get it. I get it. Yeah, no, and black bears don't throw rocks, and they definitely don't throw boulders. And if that thing would have been even closer to you, it probably would have killed you. You know, you're talking two times the size of a basketball. That's a big boulder, man, being tossed in your direction. And just the, I mean, you can feel it. It's huge. It's huge force. You're right. Absolutely. Do you think it was trying to hit you? Or do you think it was more of a warning? You know, I don't know. I guess maybe like a warning is definitely less than impression, that's for sure. I mean, if it wanted me to go, it did a good job because that's all I wanted to do after that.

But you would think like maybe you'd get pine combs. You know, it's just, I guess it's different. It's hard to say, but I felt like it was a warning and it definitely worked. Yeah. No, I understand. Do you, was there any details that you remember when you looked up and he saw the butt, the back, and the back thighs of the same moving? Was there any details that you remember? I remember that the hair long in it, not like an afro, but, you know, like people grow their hair out, it's kind of longer and it gets really curly and it's straight towards like the scalp, but as it gets away, it kind of curly cues out. It was kind of like that. and the other thing I remember seeing was like the bottom of the foot and they didn't see like toes or anything like that but I just remember like you would see like a pad on a dog or or something like that behind like underneath the hair like the hair went down to like the very edge of its foot but then there was like a grayish colored and it I just remember that I never really. saw like a face, but I saw like a back, just the way that the bush on the top of that logjam was hanging over. I didn't see like a shoulder or a head, but like a guy that's really

jacked, you know, and he's got that nice V shape going up and you get kind of, you know, like halfway between your waist and your armpit. Like I saw that like leaning over headed into the behind the bush. And then like from there, I mean, it definitely looked like, like a hairy man. I mean, it was definitely, definitely enough that you would say that's, that looks like a person or human-like. But it was also at the same time, like, you could say, to like save your ridicule, you'd be like, well, it could have been a black bear. But I don't. Yeah, that's interesting about the bottom of the foot as it's walking off.

How big do you think it was compared to like, I don't know, a guy who's six foot tall? I mean, what kind of a size are you, do you think it was as you, I realize you're looking up at a hillside, so you may not be to answer the question. And I'm okay with that. But how big do you think it was looking up? I mean, are we talking, you said jacked, so we're talking a pretty big guy? You know, just back about how big that bush looked in comparison to like the cliff that it was kind of situated on, it, that cliff is easily totally. 25 feet. And so that bush was maybe like just shy of, I don't know, a third of it. Yeah, I'd say probably like eight feet would be the bush. And where where he had like walked behind it,

he was kind of like almost, almost like if you were taking a stride, you kind of lean forward a little bit. And I would say that part like midway between his armpit and his waist was hitting that bush probably about, I'd say six foot easily. I gotcha. Did you ever go back to your dad and say, hey, dad, listen. Remember that time we were fishing? Here's what actually happened.

Did you ever have that conversation with your dad? Yes, about a year ago, we just were kind of talking about stories and about fishing and things like that. And we brought up the pine cone thing came up and we were talking about it. And I told him, you know, I said, I didn't want to tell you. But when I asked you to leave the Ohana Pukash that day,

I saw something that I couldn't really explain, and I just didn't want you to think that I was crazy. And he was actually very receptive to it. And his attitude towards it was there's a lot of wilderness out there, and there's a lot of unexplained things, and people find, you know, they find new animals every day. day, find new creatures in the ocean, you know. So he was pretty receptive to it. Yeah, so your dad wasn't, there was no ridicule with him, which is nice when you try and tell someone.

Yeah, it's hard to say what that Sasquatch was doing. You know, I've had reports of them. There's a river near Oregon City, and you'll know what I mean. When you drive over the bridge, you drive over this river. I forget what the river's name is. Anyway, I had a guy contact me back a couple years back, and he was down there fly fishing on the river. And he said this Neanderthal came out of the woods just screaming and throwing a fit and rushing him. And I talked to him for a long time, and he said, yeah, it was a Neanderthal. It was a caveman. And I said, you sure it wasn't.

And I was asking him, do you think it could have been a Sasquatch? And he said, well, I don't know what you call a Sasquatch, but this was a caveman. ran out of the river. The guy's a cop, too, by the way, in the area. And he said the same just bum rushed him from the brush, and they left their poles there. They left everything there. And so you'll find a lot of this type of behavior with hunters. You'll find this type of behavior, a lot of time with people who are out fishing. And I think it's because it's a competition for food. And I think that's how these things see it. You're coming in, taking the food. They want the food. And so you get this aggression, you know, boulders,

being thrown, pine cones being thrown, that sort of thing. You know what I mean? Yeah. No, definitely. Well, Rob, what do you think Sasquatch is? I know you've been looking into it for a while, and I know, you know, with your dad and all the different incidents that happened, what do you think Sasquatch is? Hard, because you, I, my mind kind of wanders sometimes, and I always think it's so interesting that you know like they didn't even know for the longest time that the mountain gorilla was there so I feel like yes it could be um it could be some kind of humanoid primate that is just very elusive doesn't want anything to do with people and wants to be left alone. And then, like I said, my mind kind of wanders, and I think about things like,

why is it that it seems like, you know, everybody's always on the search for, for, like, the missing link that connects us to, to different primates. And why, why can't you find that? And sometimes I wonder, you know, like, I don't know if it, it, it don't want to sound crazy, but Sometimes I wonder like, maybe, like, we're not, you know, maybe this is not like our, our home. You know, maybe this is their home. But I don't know, you know, like I said, I don't want to sound crazy. No, I get it. Things I think about, it's just, you know, it doesn't quite make sense why you can't find those things.

It's interesting to say that. I had a witness on one time. Gosh, I can remember the show. And he was saying, if you, I think, gosh, who was it? Maybe it was Tommy. Anyway, he was saying, if you put a gorilla, a Sasquatch, and a chimpanzee, and a human, around a fire, and you ask someone which one doesn't belong, every time they'll point out the human. And that's what his answer was when I asked him, what is Sasquatch?

He was saying, we don't belong. And I don't know if that's what you were getting at or not. But it's kind of fascinating because you're right. I mean, if you put those four individuals or four beings around a fire and ask someone which one doesn't belong, everyone's going to point out the human. You know, there's something different about it. It's not. I don't know. I sound like a kook now, but you know what I mean.

I don't know if that's where you're going with it. That's what I meant is one of these things is not like the others. And it was fascinating when he said that. You know, it's, well, we'll have to hook up. Rob, we'll have to, I'll take you to some areas. We'll hang out at Bumping Lake, and I've been looking for someone in the area that wants to go out. So, yeah, my cell phone never, man. Hit me up anytime.

We'll go out. Definitely. Anytime. And I appreciate you coming on, brother, and sharing your encounter. Thanks for taking the time. Yeah, thanks again for having me. We're talking about Travis Ball. Let's do us.

All right. Here we go. What can I say, man? I like recording and I'm pretty good at just talking. We do. Well, next up on the show, I want to welcome Tony Merkel from the Confessionals. If you listen to Sasquatch Chronicles, like on iTunes, Stitcher, look up the Confessionals. Tony, welcome to the show.

Thanks for being here, brother. Hey, man. It's been a little bit since I've been on the show, man. Thanks for having me. Yeah, I was just on your show. It's all my angel story. I'm not sure when it's going to air, but definitely tune in for the Confessionals. You know, like I said on the show, you're the only person I told.

I told my mother and I told you. And I kind of kept the story to myself. It's about a homeless guy. If you get a chance, check it out. Confessionals, I tell the whole story there. Go to the Confessionalspodcast.com. I don't know. I think that's pretty much it.

Anything else, Tony? To be honest with you, Wes, that show that you were just on was for patrons only. Oh, I got you. People can't just look. listen to it publicly, that it's going to be a member's only show. Well, sign up. Sign up. Be a member.

Tony does a great job. He does a great job. I know it's not the confessionals commercial. The reason why I brought you on, Tony, is it's funny. Like, the last probably five or six guests I've had on, you know, the international Bigfoot conference is coming up. And even though you got a room, you got a ticket, you got everything, you're not coming, which whatever.

But anyway, the, the, you know. Travis Walton's going to be there. So if you're in the area, you want to go to the International Bigfoot Conference. Go to the International Bigfoot Conference.com. Get your tickets. Come hang out. Travis Walton will be there. But anyway, the last couple of guests, Tony, I was telling you about, I asked him.

I said, do you know who Travis Walton is? No one knew who he was. And I was like, how could you guys not know who this guy is? Like, I grew up watching Fire in the Sky, you know, the famous case. And I'm always shocked when people say they have no clothes. I'm like, how could you have no clue, man? This was huge. Yeah, I mean, he's the Bob Gimlin of the UFO field. Totally the Bob Gimlin of the UFO field.

And I'm so happy to have him there. I can't wait. This time next month, expect an interview. I'll be sitting down with him. We'll do an interview over his encounter. But it's a fascinating account, Tony. I don't know if there's any questions you would ask him. I got about 50 questions I want to ask him. But, you know, his encounter was very fascinating.

It's not a Bigfoot encounter. These guys were loggers. They went out, did a lot of clearing, you know, brush clearing. They'd come back on the fires, that sort of thing. And they were out there one night, and they saw what the guys described as a, they thought it was a fire. It was so bright. It lit up everything.

They really thought it was a fire. They pull up, and there's a saying hovering above this clearing. Travis gets out. He starts walking towards a craft, and as you can have, imagine all the people that were there, they were like, what the after are you doing? Get back to the truck, a hole, you know, on and on and on, all the normal stuff you would hear from guys. He kept walking towards this UFO, and it, if you read the reports from the time when the guys talked to the cops at that time, what you'll find is across the board, they're very consistent.

They described this blue flame coming out of this craft, hitting their friend and throwing them about 50, 60 feet in the air like a rag doll. And they thought it killed them. They all take off in the truck and head down the mountain. And they come back with this cockamamie story about how UFOs had taken their friend, or a UFO had taken their friend. And as you can imagine, the cops didn't believe it. And I often wonder what would happen to those guys if that happened in this day and age.

Because right off the bat, your knee-jerk reaction is, one of these guys killed this guy. And they left them out there. They came back with this BS story. Yeah. But it was just weird, like, drawn-out story that none of these guys ever wavered from. And not only did they not waver from the story, all five guys passed a lie detector test, which is your chances of having five people pass are pretty slim.

And all five guys of these guys passed when they took the lie detector test. What questions would you ask him, Tony? I mean, what do you think about the whole encounter? Well, I mean, obviously, I think the counter is fascinating and it's a classic. I mean, I don't think, it doesn't matter who I have on my show and what big UFO encounter that they have on my show. I mean, Travis Walton's is a classic case and it's always going to go down as one of the best ever.

And I think for me, at least, for some of the things that surround the case for the fact that it happened in front of five other guys and, you know, they all corroborate the same story. They all pass lie detector tests. I think the one guy actually came up as inconclusive. But other than that, I mean, it was just like there was like a no decision on the polygraph, I think the first time and the second time he passed it or something like that. But I mean, one of my questions to him would be, you know, what kind of person were you before this?

Because you see this thing in the sky and you're, you know, all these other guys in the truck with you and you're the one guy that decides to get out, follow the thing and walk up to it. Like, were you the kind of person that would do something that normally, or was it something that, like, maybe did it have, like, a mesmerizing effect on you? Whether, like, literally hypnotized you or, you know, did it have some kind of effect where you're just, like, in awe? You know, it makes me think of the, you remember the movie The Independence Day with Will Smith and the girl on the roof? She was all about the UFO thing. And she's like, take me, you know. I'm sure he wasn't like that and stuff.

But, I mean, what kind of person was? Was he a very curious person or was it something that was out of character for him to pursue something that crazy in the sky? You know, because I don't know how I'd react to that. But I know if I had a bunch of other guys with me that were scared to get out of the truck, I probably wouldn't get out of the truck myself. You know what I mean? So, I mean, and also like the after effects of it. I mean, when you go through a situation like this and you're now back, I think it was what, five days later he came back. I mean, when that happens to you, what kind of?

I mean, I'm assuming he went to counseling. But like, what kind of thing does it affect you mentally afterwards for, you know, years to come? Is it something that he's still dealing with, the realization that he literally was abducted by aliens? He remembers it clearly. And he doesn't describe it as an awful experience. It's more just, you know, he was scared in a moment. But looking back, it seems like he thinks maybe they were trying to help him, like he was killed by whatever hit him. And they were actually reviving him for the reason of the abduction.

Yeah, it's great questions, man. Great questions. I'll definitely throw them in there. I'm curious, too, if he believes in God. I mean, I don't mean to go, like, preacher on you, but I don't know how it would feel towards God if something like that happened. You know, if you were taken away in a craft, the fascinating part, you had alluded to it. If you watched the movie, fire in the sky, and I'm sure I would assume most of the listeners listening to the show have watched it. I'm shocked when I talked to it.

people and they're like have no clue what you're talking about. I'm like, really? That was a huge movie. But like you, Tony, you don't watch movies. I'm like, have you seen fire in the sky? Tony's like, no. I'm like, really? You got to watch it. But anyway, if you watch that movie, the movie isn't quite what happened when he was on the ship. If you listen to what he says when he was on the ship, it's completely different than what they show in the movie. In the movie, he's in these weird pods and he gets his hand stuck and alien goo all the time. And, and he's, and he gets his hand stuck and and the aliens look creepy. But if you hear what actually happened, the actual real story,

I wish they would have stuck with the real story. I don't know if it's because they got to dramatize it because it's Hollywood. But if they would have stuck with the real story, it's a thousand times more fascinating than what is in that movie. I have so many questions for them. I'm so excited. Again, if you are in the area at the end of August, beginning of September, come out to the International Bigfoot Conference.

go to the international bigfootconference.com, get your tickets, and come hang out. And I really can't wait to interview him because I really have like a thousand questions for him about. I'm sure you do. And you're right, Tony. He does say that later because I always wondered why they took them. Like it always crossed my mind. I was like, why did they take that guy? And if you talk to Travis, the older man now, he'll tell you that he thinks they took him to try and fix from getting hit with that.

of light. It's interesting because all the guys describe it as a beam of fire, blue fire, like a blue flame coming out and hitting him. Now when you talk to the older man, Travis, and I hate to say this now because I haven't actually interviewed him, but I've watched many interviews with him. I'm like a fanboy, man. I'm going to be a total fan boy down there. I know. When you told me that he was going to be there, you were like pretty excited. Yeah, I'll be like, Mr. Walton, we sit at my table, please, sir. I wrote your name on my seat No, I'm excited.

I'm excited to meet him And it's just such an amazing encounter That he had with these things And when you hear him talk now He sounds like, you know, he doesn't sound like a kook He sounds like a very sane Like you said, he's like the Bob Gimlin Of the alien world man

I'm super super excited Yeah And you know when it comes to like alien abductions and stuff stuff like that. I mean, it's kind of, I don't know if you want to go this direction, but I'm going to take it anyways. I don't view, like, I know a lot of people, I don't know about your listeners, but for listeners of my show, there are a lot of people that have contacted me and they view alien abduction as a positive thing that they're trying to help the human race and things like that. I don't look at it that way, and maybe it's just my old school mentality, but you're straight

of kidnapping somebody. I don't know how that's a positive thing, you know, but when when he describes it as, you know, he views it as them trying to revive him, I guess there's, you know, maybe situations where it's different. But overall, I mean, like, if you listen to my interview with John Edmonds, he talks about these things abducting his wife out of their house. Like, and it was a terrifying thing to the point where he's, like, shooting at the craft with his gun and stuff. I mean, like, that's not a very good thing to might to me, you know? No, I tend to agree with you. I mean, if you talk about his experience, if you listen to him talk about running around on the craft and trying to fight these things off, and they were very physical, too. That's the other thing, is they were very much physical. He was

trying to fight him off. It's fascinating to hear him talk about it, you know, and his experience, you know, because in his mind, he really thinks they were trying to fix whatever damage that weapon that was used on him caused. But it's way more creepy. I'll play an interview here towards the end of the show, but it's way more creepy when you hear him talk about being on that ship as opposed to just watching fire in the sky of the movie because what happened in that movie isn't quite what happened in real life. No, yeah. That's what I hear. That's what I hear.

I watch the movie. But, you know, for me, the way I look at these things is if I have access to endless interviews. with the guy that it happened to, I'm not really interested in watching the movie. I'm just not a movie person. I just don't really care to watch them and stuff. It's, you know what? You know what I'm really into, though, right now? The curse of Oak Island.

The curse of Oak Island, sweet Jesus. Worst show ever. You're busting my chops like crazy on social media about it. Worst show ever. They never find anything. No, you're wrong. There's one brother who's... No, listen, we're making bad radio right now.

There's one... There's one, oh, I'm going to over talk you. There's one brother who, he's made a name for himself, made a life for himself, and there's one deadbeat. And it always cracks me out because, you know, the other guy with the long hair, he's a deadbeat brother, doesn't have a pot to piss in. Come on, man. And they're always like, yeah, we found a hole. We're going to send Jimmy down, or whatever his name is. We're going to send Jimmy down.

He's going to tell us how things are. You know, you ever notice they don't send down the guy who has the money? Like, he never gets dirty. There's a reason to sign the checks Yeah There's no one to sign the checks Exactly Exactly right

No but here's the thing They do find stuff You just don't appreciate what they're finding They find wood And and a coin that was made in 1652 Right And yeah they find wood But the wood's there for a reason

Like when they pull out these cores And it shows that there's an actual vault down there That just drilled into Like they're really fine Listen you're not a fan of history Okay you don't care about the history of this. Okay, you're all worried about the gold and let's all get rich. I'm like, let's, the art of the search. That's what I'm about, the art of the search. The show is terrible.

Anyone listening knows what I'm talking about. The show is terrible. They're like, yeah, we found the money pit. 63 people have died since they tried to climb into this money pit. I'm going to send my deadbeat brother down there. He's going to see what he can find. And when we come back from commercial, we're bringing up gold. And then they bring him up, he's like, yeah, it wasn't the money pit. And they're like, well, to be sure to tune in next week, because we'll be sure to find the money pit next week.

It's like, come on. Come on. Okay. You didn't buy this season, right? Tell me you're watching on Netflix. You didn't actually buy a season. No, I'm watching on Hulu, man. Yeah, exactly.

Exactly. Listen, I'm a big fan of the show to the point that I'm now friends with the Deadby Brother, okay, that you want to call Debbie Brother. Are you really? Him and I are friends on Facebook, but we're still friends. I call that friends, okay? I have like 5,000 friends if you want to go off that. True, sure.

But no, I actually plan on maybe contacting him having a more show. You know what I'm saying, though, right? Like, you can tell just by watching it, you know I'm a fan because I've watched it. One of the brothers actually has money and he's funding everything. The other brother doesn't have a pot to piss in. And you always find him in the holes. They drop him in the holes. They're like, get in the hole, buddy.

See what you find. Tell us what you find. He's willing. He wants to do that. do it. This was his dream. Well, you don't see anyone signing up the rich guy to get him in the hole. He's right. God forbid, the guy signing the checks gets in the hole.

I mean, you got a point there, but he's, he's funding his older brother's dream, and his older brother isn't a deadbeat. Come on, man. He's a retired postal worker. That's not deadbeat. He's a retired postal worker, man. He's a career. That's just like two steps up from a podcaster. Oh, my God. Well, you know, I'm right. they found nothing on Oak Island

they found wood they'll bring up wood and be like this is from the 1500s it's a piece of wood and they're like wow good good thing we lost three lives finding that piece of wood thanks fellas are you telling me that all the stuff that they did

you're telling me that there's nothing to find on that island no secret volts there's no hidden holes or anything like that you're goddamn right there ain't nothing on it you're absolutely wrong listen Listen, I'm at the point in the show where they found the secret hatch, and they're going to get permits to excavate this hatch.

And I'm telling you, man, I haven't seen it. Don't ruin it for me. But it's going to be amazing. They're going to dig down there. They're going to find more wood. And it's going to be amazing. Anyway, Tony Merkel from the confessionals. You should do an Oak Island episode.

I'm planning on it. I just said that. I'm going to try reaching out to him and have the deadbeat brother on my show. Yeah. It'd be awesome. Will you listen? I listen every week, ma'am. Okay.

All right. Home run, no home run. Home run, foul ball. I listen every week. I listen every week. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Speaking of that, go to the confessionals.com.

Go to iTunes. The confessionalspodcast.com. Yeah, whatever. The confessionalspodcast. At iTunes, go to wherever. It's on there. Trust me, it's on there. It's like the rash that won't go away.

If you, but I'm going to leave you with an interview with Travis Walton. Expect him at the end of the week, at the end of next month, at the international bigfoot conference.com. I'll be interviewing him. Tony, thanks for coming on. Thanks to let me break your balls, man. Absolutely, man. Anytime.

All right. Here's Travis Walton talking about his experience. This is how it looked to me when I got up close to it. and it was incredible on an incredible sight and John Glett here on the Today Show that just aired remarked about how

to him it looked so perfect he said it was like a new Corvette I was just standing there in awe of this thing looking up at it it was metallic in some areas and glowing in other areas what you see on the bottom of it here

looking up at this angle there are reflections of the trees and everything thing. But it was smooth like glass, but this light kind of lit up everything with kind of a strange sort of a glow. It gave a kind of a strange feeling. The sound it was making was really very difficult to describe because there was a sort of a rumble, a real deep rumble that you could almost feel more than here. And the same thing with the higher notes, they were like off the range of human hearing.

So, you know, those kind of sounds, when you turn your head, it doesn't change that much, which gives a kind of a, where's this coming from kind of a strange feeling? But when I got up close, the guys were really getting very anxious and swearing at me and telling me to get away from there. And it suddenly got louder and it started to move.

It was kind of with a little rocking motion as it rose up, and that scared me more than I was already scared. But there was this pile of logging debris. That was the reason I had stopped. I got about as close as I could looking up at it without running over this big pile of logs. And so when it started to move, I jumped down behind a lot. log there. And they were saying, run, get out here, let's go, let's go. And I didn't need to be told. I was trying to figure out, you know, how to get to safety and leave the relative safety of the cover behind the log. But I was down in a crouch, and I raised up to sprint back to the

truck. And at that moment, bam, it was just like I'd been hit and didn't see it coming. know, it was really a kind of a stunning blow sort of a feeling. Just like numbness really quickly spread through me and I blacked out. But the crew said that it was like this beam came out of the bottom of this craft and hit me, but it was like I'd stepped on a landmine or like a grenade had gone off. off and the explosion threw me back through the air. I've been saying it threw me back 10 feet, but you know, Steve, when he called me up, he was saying, no, it was 20 feet, but whatever it was, they said that it looked to them

the way, you know, I didn't protect myself when I hit that, and the way my body was limp that they thought it had killed me. and they, you know, were yelling as much back and forth to each other and screaming at Mike to get them out of there. And so they took off. And, you know, a lot of talks I've run into people who have, you know, sort of disparaged the crew for not standing their ground there. But I always want to add that, you know, I find no first. fault with these guys for having taken off like that because, you know, they thought I was dead and they thought I was next. They were next. And so, you know, what good would it do them to get

themselves killed, rescuing somebody who's already dead? So it's perfectly understandable. They took off, dang near wrecked the truck several times, getting away from there. And they, once they got close to the rim road. They'd stopped briefly, but they said that they caught sight of some hunters and went trying to catch the truck and see if they could get some people with some guns

to help them. I guess even then they knew that they were going to have to go back and see what they could do. They were unable to catch the deer hunters, so they did return to the site. And they

had a lot of fear, you know, approaching it. Somebody said they saw, they thought they saw it, the object leaving, but it was only when they actually got there that they, you know, confirmed that it didn't seem to be there anymore, but then neither was I, and they said they made a search. at one point Mike you know really fell to his knees and broke down crying

and Ken helped him up and they kind of they stayed in a real tight bunch trying to make a search they only had one flashlight and they were all just huddled together trying to do what they had to do

trying to see if they could rescue me and I give those guys a lot of credit for that but they were unable to find me So they went back to town and they argued about what to do. And Alan didn't want to go to the authorities right away. He figured that they ought to just go get some friends with some guns and come back, make a search. And then if they couldn't find anything, report it. But Mike and Ken said, no, we got to, you know, what if Travis has never found?

you know how that look if we don't go report it right away. So they called the local deputy and he came down and he called the sheriff in. The sheriff said that he was immediately struck that these guys had been through something really traumatic. But apparently all the lawmen, being lawmen, suspected that there had been some foul play and that this was just a cover story for why no one was going to see me again. So unlike in the movie, they did go back with half the crew to make a search that night. And again, I give those guys credit for that. But the real manhunt began the next morning.

The sheriff got together, you know, over 50 volunteers. and the sheriff's posse and deputies and Forest Service people, search and rescue teams. They had a very organized search in which they combed the entire area on foot. They had men on horseback. There was four-wheel drives. The tracking dogs were brought in at one point. They had airplanes and helicopters.

criss-crossing the area. And during this time, in my recent conversation with John, he was saying that what the lawmen did is they separated the crew up and as the crew were helping with the search, one deputy or officer with each of the men and they were basically all pushing the men to confess to the murder. John said, he says, come on, just tell us what really happened. can all go home, you know, get this over with. But so the men got in really tired of the accusations,

and they said, we'll take any test you want. Give us sodium pentothal light detector tests. We're telling the truth. We did not kill him. We saw what we saw. And so the sheriff heard about that and set up a light detector test with this state police. Department of Public Safety, a polygraph examiner, came up and tested all the men there at the jail, at the courthouse.

And so when they passed, it was new theories. And people were desperate to explain this a way anyway they could. Theories that all the men were hallucinating on drugs, that I'd had a transitory psychosis, that the hypnotist that I saw later had implanted memories, but I kind of getting ahead of myself here. The first thing I recall after being hit by the bean was waking up real slowly. I was in a lot of pain. I was in and out of consciousness for quite a while.

I don't know how long, but I didn't know what. where I was at first. And then, you know, I remembered approaching the object. And I thought that maybe I'd been hurt somehow and that the crew had brought me to the hospital. So I assumed that I was in a hospital. I could feel they had this something across my chest. And I was on some kind of a raised surface, you know, a bed or a gurney or something, operating table. And I, and I, And I hurt so bad, and I was having trouble breathing. You know, I couldn't get enough air. I felt like I was suffocating.

But there was a light above me. And I didn't want to move too much because of the pain. I thought maybe I'd make things worse if I moved. But I could hear the sounds of movement around me, and I thought that these were just doctors. And I was having trouble focusing my eyes. eyes this light above me was wasn't all that bright but it kind of hurt

to look at it because you know the pain in my head and chest was pretty intense and but I looked to my right and I saw this face and then I

could focus on it and this was not a doctor you know I was looking into the face of this creature and I just I just flip it out, you know. The surge of fear gave me enough strength to move, but it was still very hard to move. I lifted my arm up to knock it away from me, but it was more of a push than anything,

and he fell back into the other one, and it was lighter and softer than I expected, but I was still just so terrified. And a lot of people don't understand the degree of fear that I was experiencing, but all these things combined to make me react negatively in a way far more uncontrollably than I probably would have had it not happen that way. See, I'm in all this pain. I'm struggling to breathe. It's dimly lit. And it's in a very small, cramped room. It's humid. And, you know, if you can't catch your breath,

that's probably the most panic-inducing thing that there is. And that's why, you know, waterboarding is so effective at getting information out of terrorists, you know, because nothing, nothing will make you more afraid than that. It's on a very basic, instinctive level. But when I rolled off, the table and staggered back away from them, they came around the table towards me. And I fell back against the, there was kind of a workbench or a shelf, low shelf there,

against the back wall. And they were coming towards me. So I just grabbed something off of that, and I struck out at them. They weren't close enough to hit, but I was just screaming threats, and it must have worked because they stopped. They sort of extended their hands towards me. And the thing that really stands out in my mind, the thing that was the main feature of my nightmares for so long after that was those eyes.

the way they looked at me. And these were not black obsidian eyes like you hear reported so often. They had pupils and irises and eyelids because I saw them blink. But their gaze for some reason, it seemed like they were looking right into me in a really disturbing kind of way. It wasn't like the expression. There wasn't much expression to their face. It wasn't frozen like a mask, but it still was a kind of a detached sort of look that, you know, I just felt, it's really hard to describe the emotion that that caused in me. It was just very disturbing.

You know, when you're around somebody that you feel doesn't care about you one way or the other, they don't have to be hostile. style. We still kind of interpret that as negative, you know, as unfriendly. But I was thinking about there was only one door and it was beyond them. So I was thinking how I could fight my way past him and escape. But before I could move, they turned and went out the door. And there was this little passageway that went to the right. So, you know, I was afraid they'd come back, so I went to the door and went to the left

just looking for a way out. You know, I wasn't thinking clearly. I was in a total just blind panic that there was no clear thought to it. I was thinking, open a door and get out. Maybe in the back of my mind, I was thinking this thing was still in the woods and I could

jump to the ground really easily, but it's probably a good thing I wasn't able to open a door. That probably wasn't the best thing to do right at that time. But I went down this passageway and I was really kind of in this weird sort of a panic because I couldn't see very far ahead. It curved to the right so far.

I couldn't see very much in front of me or behind me. So I was kind of torn between. sprinting away from these creatures that I woke up to and whatever freedom I might find a head. But I came to a door and there was a room and I could see what I took to be doors, the outlines of doors on the other side. And piecing together the floor plan of what I saw later, I figured out that those probably doors wouldn't have been close to the outside of this craft. But at that point, I didn't really know where I was very disoriented,

and I was hoping those would be a door out of this craft. And the curious thing about this room is that when I entered it, the closer I got to the middle, the darker it became, and I could see points of light. on the walls, floor, ceiling, everything. It was either like you could see through these surfaces or it was projected onto there, some kind of a map or a planetarium type situation.

But the chair in the middle had controls on it. And so my main interest was to try to, to find a way to open a door, and I was hoping that some of these buttons would open one of these doors. But most of them didn't seem to do anything, nothing that I could detect, but moving the lever caused the star pattern to all shift at once. You know, the stars stayed in the same pattern, but the whole thing moved, and that was, I was already unsteady on my feet, and that really gave me vertigo. So I was thinking of pushing

another one of these buttons and then something caught my attention from the door that I had come through. And I saw this man standing there. Now from the door, looking over this guy's shoulder, you normally would not see the

star pattern because you could really only see that from near the chair. At least that's what I was thinking, but it's possible that it just was activated by being near the chair. Anyway, I turned around, I saw him, and I thought, you know, right off, I thought it was somebody from NASA or Air Force or something, somebody to rescue me from this situation. And so I took him to be a human rescuer, and I run up to him and started babbling all these questions. But he wasn't responding.

And I thought, well, maybe it's the helmet. you know, he can't hear me or can't talk with that on. So I went with him. And he seemed to be in a hurry, and I was pretty weak and unsteady on my feet. But he took me out of this craft. And at this point, it was parked inside of this large room, a hangar-like room, because there were these glowing panels that curved from one wall up into the ceiling. So it shaped kind of like a quarter of a cylinder.

But the biggest relief was getting outside of this thing. The air was fresher and easier to breathe. I tried to look around, but he seemed to be in a hurry and was pulling me along. And I really had to think about my walking because I was still hurting a lot and unsteady on my feet. but there were other craft in there at least two, I know for sure, that were disc-shaped but shinier and more rounded. So I don't know whether this was a building or part of a larger craft or how long the craft that I was in had been inside of this area.

But he hurried me out of this big room down a hallway to a room where he left me with some some people who were dressed like him. And it was just a sort of a blue cover-all without any kind of insignia. No flags or rank markings or anything like that. But the fact that these other people

didn't have any helmets on made me think that, well, maybe finally somebody can answer my questions. I'm kind of exaggerating the thinking part because I was so in total panic and my head was so foggy that I wasn't thinking real clear. I was basically hysterical. But I did try to talk to these people, and they didn't say a word, not to me or not to each other.

They started leading me over and trying to get me to lay down on this table, and I had had enough of these table things, you know. But I was so weak, and they were so strong. They didn't have too much trouble getting me onto that table. But one of them, appeared to be female, had what looked like an oxygen mask that she put over my face. And I was struggling not too successfully. And I did manage to jerk my arm, a hand away, and get it under the edge of the mask. But before I could pull it away, I blacked out.

Next thing I know, I came to cold air, lying face down. My hand was laying on my arm. I wasn't in the road, but I was enough on the pavement where I wasn't off in the brush. But I saw a light above, and I looked to see where the light was coming from. but it went off before I could see what was actually lit. So it might have been some kind of a light or

hatch closing or something. But I just saw this silvery, rounded surface hovering above me there. So it wasn't exactly in the middle of the road, kind of partially off to one side. And then it just shot straight.

up right past the trees. It sort of stirred the leaves around and moved the limbs. But it was silent. It shot up and it was tiny before in seconds. Just amazing that something could move that fast without, you know, breaking the sound area or something, you know. But I was just relieved that I was back in familiar surroundings. A lot of people wouldn't feel too comfortable being, standing alone in the dark in the middle of the woods, but it was a big improvement for me. I looked down and I saw these lights and I figured out, I recognized the lights of Heber, and that's not where I live.

This is the town nearest where it happened, but 15 miles from where the incident occurred. so I don't know where I got the strength I was a little wobbly when I stood up but I you know ran down into the town looking to get help first building I came to with lights on there was smoke coming out of the chimney

I pounded on the door and nobody came so I went on down there was probably a closer phone than where I went but I didn't want to go back into the side streets that were, you know, darker. So I ran on down across the second bridge and I came to a row of telephone booths and I managed to call my family. The first phone booth I came into, though, was out of order. And I, you know, I was at the end of my rope strength-wise. But

I went into the next phone booth and called my brother-in-law. He thought it was a prank call and started to hang up on me. Oh, I think you got the wrong number, you know, wise guy. So I screamed and made him understand that, you know, it was me. And he seemed kind of stunned, but he says, okay, okay, I'll get your brother and come and get you. And so to me it seemed like hardly any time at all. until the lights of the truck were shining into there, and they came and got me out of the bottom of that phone booth where I'd collapsed.

But it had to have been at least 30 or 40 minutes, so I was probably an unconscious part of that time. But I found out later, you know, the skeptics were doubtful of everything. They were claiming really someplace else, but the sheriff, actually the phone operator, listened in on the phone call because, you know, you didn't have to have coins to talk to the operator in that part of the country at that time.

And so the operator listened in on the call and called the sheriff and reported it. And so the sheriff sent a man out there. But my brother had already taken me away. And I got in the truck and I said something. And he's, uh, because I see, I thought this was still the same night. And, uh, he said, Travis, feel your face. It's been five days.

See, I, I, I was trying to tell him what happened. I was talking. I just broke down. I just couldn't get it out. He said, it's okay. It's okay. He put his arm around me. It's gone.

It's kind of extra emotional now because, uh, this brother, uh, passed away recently. His funeral was one day. And, uh, for those of you that don't, of the story. That's the story, the Travis Walton encounter, Fire in the Sky. I wanted to bring everyone up to speed. If you haven't heard the encounter, now you've heard it. I'll be talking to him in about a month, and I'll be having him on the show. That way, it gives you kind of a background on what actually happened. I want to thank Tony Merkel for coming on with theconfessionalspodcast.com. Theconfessionalspodcast.com. Check him out. I want to thank Rob for coming on too and sharing his

encounters. Until next time, everyone. Across the country, faster than the coronavirus and wagering week is your antidote. I'm Tom Barton, 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 every Friday on Wagering Week. Don't gamble with other pilots. Let Sports Garden Network's Wagering Week help your bottom line.