Sasquatch Chronicles - SC EP:487 I can still see it looking at me

Episode Date: November 5, 2018

A listener writes "Hi Wes, I'll admit I feel awkward sending this e-mail as the people I've told have mocked me. Anyway here goes. I grew up on a farm in southern Maryland and we had over a hundred of acres of mostly wooded land. Our property was adjacent to other large swaths of heavily wooded acreage. To cut to the chase, I was an avid hunter growing up. So much that during my teens I'd go squirrel hunting daily after getting home from school. One afternoon in October I went out alone. I was 16. However this time I decided to go further into the woods. As I hiked along my mind was somewhere else until I noticed I was in a part of the woods I'd never been to. I was surrounded by old growth trees and the terrain was rolling hills. I looked down into the bottom of this hollow and saw large grove of laurel. I slowly made my way down and suddenly was overcome with a heavy feeling of dread and that I was being watched. So much that I froze and began to look around expecting to see another person but didn't. This fear kept growing to the point that I felt terror for lack of a better word. Without notice I saw movement in the laurel. Footfalls and branch snapping. I called out that I wasn't alone hoping that whoever was in there would stop trying to scare me. The footfalls stopped but my fear was still high. I was armed with a Ruger 77/22 bolt action rifle. I leveled the rifle at the laurel and again called out for whoever was in there to know I wasn't alone. Then a chattering almost laughter came from the laurel bushes. It was so weird, it sounded like a cackle. Filled with fear I fired my rifle above the laurel. Then all hell broke lose. The laughter became a growl. And the laurel was crashing. I could see that from the top of the bushes that it was coming towards me. I again called out and again fired. It didn't stop. I turned and ran up the slope. Now I should mention that it was dusk, the light was going fast and by how far I'd gone I wouldn't get back to my house until after dark. When I crested the top of the hill I looked back and saw something hairy step out of the laurel and look up at me. Now as I write this I'm getting a chill up my spine. I can still see it looking at me. I cycled the bolt on the rifle and fired at it. I missed as it didn't respond, it stepped fully out and stood up. Whatever it was wasn't huge it was about five to six feet tall. I know, it doesn't sound like a Bigfoot but it had wide shoulders, long arms and covered in hair. I took off as fast as I could, I was in a panic, I kept falling down and tripping. I was getting shredded by branches hitting my face but I didn't care. I could hear whatever it was chasing me. It was barreling through the woods but not directing behind me. What's odd is it seemed to be running parallel to me. After 15 minutes I could see the lights of my house through the trees and this thing was still running near me. The issue I had was that if I turned right to head to the trail to go to my house I'd encounter this thing, so I passed the trail and headed around the trail and out into the field. When I was in the field, I was screaming for my family, I turned and cycled the bolt and fired into the woods again. It was dark now completely. I listened but heard nothing but I could sense it was still there. I ran to the house and went inside. When I encountered my mom I was crying and covered in blood from all the cuts and slashes in my face. My older brother grabbed a shotgun and went out, I followed him with a fully loaded rifle. And it should be said this was against my mother's wishes. We both fired into the woods, and yelled at whatever it was. I never encountered it again and I didn't go hunting by myself ever again. My mother didn't believe me, she thought it was probably a black bear and my other siblings made fun of me. However my grandmother who lived in a house on the farm for 55 years told me she'd seen stuff years before and even had seen lights above the forest years back. Even if I never talk to you, it feels good to get this off my chest."

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 was 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 at me to 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. You're listening to Sasquatch Chronicle. 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. I'm going to be talking to Jeff. And Jeff had a very close and personal face-to-face encounter with one of these creatures back when he was 16 years old. And so he'll be sharing that tonight. Then we'll be talking to Vincent. who's had a couple encounters.

He wants to discuss tonight. It should be a great show. Thank you so much for being here. You know, it's nice to be home. I was down in Texas, and I love Texas. I love the Texans, but there's something about sleeping in your own bed every night. You know what I mean? But it's pretty cool.

I was down there. We're actually working on developing an app. And the app will not only be a player for the show, it'll talk to the website. And it's going to do a lot of cool things. Like when you're driving around, it'll alert you, let you know an encounter happen in the area, Fiji that encounter. A lot of cool things coming. So be on the lookout for that.

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, please check out Sasquatch Chronicles.com. You can become a member and get additional shows. Let's jump into it tonight. I want to welcome Jeff to the show. Jeff, thanks for coming on. Thanks a lot. Thanks for having me.

Yeah, well, I appreciate you being here. And your encounter actually took place in Maryland, didn't it, Jeff? That's correct. Well, if you would, I'll give you the stage. Tell us what you were doing and just kind of walk us into it. What did you see? What did you experience? Well, you know, let me kind of give a kind of more of a background so people can kind of visualize what I'm talking about here. So I grew up in Southern Maryland, so it's kind of a very rural area.

and I grew up on, it was a farm I was living on at the time. I was 16, and our farm comprised of like where our house was, where my parents and where I lived, and then my grandparents lived close by, and then they made aunt and uncles kind of, it wasn't like a compound, but it was like if you put all the acreage together, it was well over 100 and some acres of land.

Most of it wooded. Then that land then just butted up against and was adjacent to other people's large swaths of land as well. there were hundreds and hundreds of, you know, just untouched acreage and just, you know, hardwood forced. And so I grew up there and I grew up hunting and shooting guns. And it was just kind of like, it's just what we did. And I was 16 at the time.

And pretty much every day after school, I'd come home in the fall and I'd go squirrel hunting. I'd grab my 22, had a nice bolt action, Winchester Model 7722. and I'd just take that out there and just blast squirrels. And I usually went with my cousin, but this particular day I had this encounter, I went by myself. And I never was really too scared of the woods. I'd spent a lot of time out there.

There would be, you know, some weird stuff we'd have now and then occur, but we just hear things. And then my grandma was always talking about, like, seeing lights over the forest and stuff many, many years before that. So this one, particular day. It was beautiful day. I got home from school. Next day on, I've got my rifle,

got my gear. I'm in the woods. It's probably around 4 o'clock. Of course, this is like in October. And so the sun sets, you know, fairly early. So, but I figured I got an hour and a half or whatever, a good daylight to go get some squirrels. And I'm just kind of, you know, hiking through the woods. And I just kind of get lost and thought. The next thing, you know, when I finally just kind of come to, I'm kind of in an area of the woods I've never been in. Like I walked deep. deep into the woods. And it was a really big old growth hardwood oaks, like really large trees. So in where I was, I'd kind of come off this hill and kind of, it was kind of rolling terrain, too, by the way. And so I was kind of going down into like a hollow. That's kind of the best way to

describe it. And there was at the bottom of this was a large grove of laurel. Laurel's like a thick kind of like bushes or something like that. Probably best way to describe it. And this laurel stood probably at the height of it. It was probably like 20, 20, 30 feet wide and then about 40 feet deep. And the height of all this laurel was probably around eight feet or more, high, eight, nine feet tall. And the funny thing is when I kind of snapped out of kind of just like just wandering and looking around the woods, I had this instant, like, dread, this, the sensation that something wasn't right.

Now, I hadn't seen anything. I just, everything was incredibly quiet, very eerily quiet. Like, I didn't see any scrolls in the trees. Typically, if you just pause for a moment, you'd see these little gray squirrels darting up in the, up in the, up in the, up in the branches of the oak trees and whatnot. But there was nothing. It was just very, very still, very quiet. But I had this real intense dread come over me, like fear. And I didn't know it's freaking me out.

And I just had this also this sensation like something or like somebody was watching me. That that makes any sense. Like my sixth sense was like on fire. Like something's not right here. Someone's looking at me. And I heard some rustling then, like like limbs snapping and branches cracking. in the middle of this laurel patch. And I was like, and it was, it was heavy enough,

footballs that I could tell it, it wasn't, it wasn't a squirrel for, you know, it wasn't any kind of small animal. And I was like, well, maybe it's a deer, I don't know, I just, but again, this dread, this fear was kind of in me that I was like, maybe somebody's probably in there. And they're, because I'm far enough in the woods, I don't know where am. I'm pop, but more than likely I'm on someone else's land. I was like, well, maybe it's, you know, one of our neighbors.

we didn't really, I didn't really know our neighbors either. I'm talking about the neighbors of the land that backed up to it. So maybe it's one of them. And so I called out to make believe people that were with me, kind of to like let them know whoever's in there or whatever's in there that I'm not alone. Smart. Because that's one thing that kind of over is like this kind of overcoming me is I was by myself. And so I was like, hey, Rick, hey, you know, someone, I think someone's in the world.

You know, again, I was just trying to make believe to try to intimidate who whoever was in there. And then it, when I called out it, the, the, this football stopped. I was like, okay. And then there was some kind of like chatter, this weird chatter. And it's, um, hard to describe. It was like a, almost like a cappling laughter or some of, of, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, it heightened this fear of dread. and I instantly had this self-preservation mood. Like, I think I need to get out of here. Like, something's not right.

And so what I did, so I yelled at whatever was in the laurel again, like, hey, just stop, blah, blah, blah. And like, I don't know what I was thinking. So I already had a round chambered. I took it off safety and I fired above the laurel. Like, I didn't fire into it. I fired above it. Just like, you know, whatever's in there. And now is making this incredibly scary, cackling kind of sound.

And I was like, that's, that's enough. And so I fired. And that's when like, all hell broke loose. So when I discharged that 22 caliber round, everything went crazy then. And then there was like just crashing and just, and I could see whatever was in there was coming toward me. Because I could see the top of the wall kind of just swaying back and forth. And you could see stuff moving. And it's coming in my direction.

And it was incredibly loud. Like whatever's in there is, it's significant in size. And so I was like, I'm out. I turned around and I just ran. I just ran up the, I ran up kind of up, up this hill. And when I,

when I, when I cress at the top of it, and this is, this is kind of like the crescendo of this moment. When I crested the top of it, I look down and I see something hairy and black. Now, this is a few hundred feet away now.

Step, like, step out of this stuff and then look up at me. And that, that was, I'm getting chills thinking about it right now, like telling you. And I,

I discharred I chambered around I cycled the bolt on the rifle I just I had a scope on I didn't even aim I just just shot at it and I don't know

what I was saying like a 22's going to do something I just felt like the most kind of I just felt like that was one way of like maybe I could scare

whatever this thing was it looked like an ape kind of a like some kind of a monkey but it was like on two legs And it was about, I would estimate around five to six feet tall. So it wasn't like impressively big, but it was black in color.

And all I did is, I fired that shot, and then I just took off running. And all I know is I was running my heart out. I kept falling down. I was getting my face cut up because it was just running through just like low-hanging branches and trees and just. And whatever that thing was was in pursuit. Oh, so it changed you. Oh, yeah. Oh, without a doubt.

But what's interesting is it wasn't like directly behind me. It was running parallel to me. I couldn't see it, but I could hear it. When I would fall down, I can't even count the number of times I fell down. And it was getting dark too. So it was like dusk. So outside there was enough light, but inside this kind of heavier, this kind of canopy of trees, It was, it was getting, it was getting dark.

And that was, and was heightening my fear even more. And I was just utterly terrified. And I was just running and just running and running and falling down. But when I'd fall down, I could hear it. But it was like parallel to me. And it, from what it sounded like, it was probably a hundred or so feet. Like, but it wasn't like coming. Here's the thing.

If it was in pursuit of me, when I've looked at it, it would have caught me. that that's for sure because it it managed to catch up and was running parallel to me and the the problem was is that when I was heading out it took me I was I was probably running 10 or 15 minutes I was that deep in the woods and this thing was it was like this long endless terror it was like I really think I was going to die I didn't I thought like and I knew the trailhead where the trail at like it exited out of the to our field next to my house. If I had taken that, this thing was going to, like, intersect with me right there. So I don't know if the thing knew that, but all I know is, like, I can't go that way.

So I just kind of rounded around this last hill and then kind of emptied out into another field that was behind my house. And as soon as I emptied into the field, I turned around, I cycled another round, and I fired again into the woods. I don't even know what I'm firing at. I'm just fired into the woods again. And then I just bolted for the house. I ran inside. My face is all cut up. My hands are all cut up.

I'm crying. I'm bawling. My mom's like, what is wrong? He's like, she's freaking out now because I'm like in a panic. And my middle brother gets all fired up. He's like, go out, get this thing. He grabs a shotgun. And he heads out.

He heads out to the field. And he just fires some rounds of doing it. I reload my, my, my, right, I do the same thing. But I never heard. So when I came out, I can't recall if I, I can't recall if it clearly stopped. It didn't come out into the field. It didn't, like, pursue me that far.

But I often wondered if it was just toying with me. But so anyway, my brother and I kind of shot into the woods. Now it was dark. And then we went back inside the house. And my mom called me down. She cleaned me up. She pretty much said it's probably just a black bear. I'm like, this was no black bear.

It looked like a black bear. This looked like a monkey, like an ape is what it looked like. And I said it was on two legs. It was running off. Well, here's the thing. I don't know if it ran on four legs, by the way. All I know is when it stepped out, it was standing on two legs. And it didn't have a muzzle like a bearer.

And the chatter before is what, I've never heard anything like it. Until I started listening to some of the stuff you've been playing with people and hearing some of these vocalizations. kind of some of this like chatter, it sounded like, but then there was also kind of this weird laughter, too, or tackling. That's the best way I can describe it. That's really terrifying. Was there any details that you remember? I realize you're at a distance and you're trying to leave with your life.

Was there any real details that you remember or beyond, it was kind of a tall monkey or gorilla? So that's a great question. You know, when I go back and I think about it, I'm like, I'm wondering if I'm interjecting like how good, I feel like I could see its face, like in my mind's eye, but I'm wondering if I just planted that in there because it was such a distance away. Like I can't, I don't recall, I think I, I think I know what it looked like, but at the distance I was, I think, but originally when I, when it stepped out, it kind of, it took, it took a step and it stepped out, and I could tell when it kind of lifted, it's like, it's kind of, when its spine became more of erect when it was coming out of this, this

Laurel, I could tell it was looking at me. But as far as, like, seeing its eyes, it was too far away for me to get any kind of real particular detail on any facial expressions or teeth or eyes or anything like that. It just, like, had, like, black, looked like long black hair. Yeah, that's interesting. And there's no monkeys. There's no apes in Maryland. They'd never survived the winter. And that's interesting. You heard the chatter, too. Was it, did it remind you of the Ron Moorhead, the Sierra sounds? Yeah. When I've heard that, that's kind of what it reminded me of. Kind of this, it was, it was like this cackling laster. And again, that's the only, that I have to say that because that's what instinctually comes to me when I hear it. But it's like anything that's not like anything I'd ever heard before. But it was scary. And I can tell once I fired that round over the laurel, it pissed it off. Yeah, it's odd behavior, isn't it? I mean, any other wild animals, that would have been a bear, for example.

and you fired off a shot, that bear would have been gone. It would have been gone in a flash. You see, that's my instinct was, I'll just discharge around over it. And thinking that whatever's in there will stop and reconsider what it's doing. If it was a person, I'm, because the thing is, I'm looking, looking back now, me even discharging around it, there was a human being in there. That was clearly irresponsible with me to do that, by the way. but there was this intense fear, this intense dread that I, it just was like this instinctual thing that I did thinking that was going to protect me, keep me safe.

And looking back now, I don't know. I mean, I don't know if had I done nothing, I just left, would it have ran after me or I have no idea now. I mean, that's, but at the time, it just felt like the right thing to do to discharge the round over it. But when that thing came out, it was instinctual, like, fire a shot at it. I don't blame you. I probably would have, too, to be honest with you. And, you know, and I realize it sounds reckless to the audience listening, but I probably would have done the same thing. I would have fired off around kind of in the air, and, you know, any normal wildlife is going to run. And that's why I was saying in the past on the show, I'm not so sure that rifles scare these things like people think they do.

You know, they say they know what a gun is. Well, who knows if they know what a gunners or not. But I don't think guns terrified them as much as people think. Because there's a lot of situations where guys will go out and start shooting and these things don't run off. They'll stay. They might hide or get down low, but they don't run off. It's a bizarre behavior. Yeah, I don't know.

All I know is me discharging a 22 caliber is, you know, that wasn't going to even do anything to it. I mean, I guess it depends if I took careful aim and tried to shoot it in the head and things like that. but I was like panicking and shaking. And when I just shot at it, I wasn't even aiming. I just shot in its direction. And then I just ran. What's curious is that like my, like I think I told you to my reservations about even talking about this is because instantly after that, I was like this must have been like this like a big foot or some kind of an ape or something related to that. But at the time, I'd only heard.

about, I thought everything, anything that's like that, it lives in like the Northwest. Like, there's nothing there. And so my mom constantly said it was a black bear. My dad just dismissed it, didn't think anything of it. Again, kind of went along with my mom thinking it was probably, I just, was a black bear. Because there's black bears that would come around now and then. They weren't, there wasn't a large population of them, but they were around. We knew that.

my brothers and sisters like, you know, soundly mocked me and as at everybody else. So I just stopped talking about it. My sister still today, I'll go back and say, so, tell us about the time, you know. And, of course, in a kind of a condescending tone, like making fun of me. And so I don't, you know, it's just something I experienced. But with the fascinating thing, it was my grandmother who had lived on the farm for like 50-some years, often said that there were other incidences that had happened over the years. Like she remembers one time behind her house where something blazed through the edge of the field

near the forest and just ripped down huge trees. And again, they go back and must have been a bear. And my grandma was like, I ain't no bear did that. And then she also, so she actually believed me that I saw something back there. She was the only person in the family actually believed that I saw something. Yeah, that's too bad. Like, that wasn't, like, what everybody thinks it is. And she often would tell us about, like, seeing lights over the woods, too.

Yeah, I wanted to ask you about that. Was she talking about UFOs or was she talking about balls of light? Or how did she tell you about these lights? Did she ever go into any details about them? Yeah, she said she woke up. I think this would have been probably like the 1960s or the 1970s. And she said she was awoken one night, looked out the back. toward the forest and saw like a disc or something hovering and illuminated the entire sky,

but specifically like the bottom of it was lighting, it was, you know, like casting light down over there. And it was a good distance away, but it was still over our woods. And she also talked about seeing like balls of light in the woods too. You know, again, I've always been curious about that. I don't know where I necessarily stand on UFOs. personally. So I always thought that was curious that she mentioned that stuff. And as the years have gone on and as there's more readily information concerning, you know, Sasquatch or whatever, these creatures that exist, that there seems, I can't have heard about correlations with them and

like balls of light and things like that. I don't know what to make of that, but my grandmother seemed to seem to see things in the woods and there's been, there were other instances where, you know, things had happened near the farm. So, like one time she mentioned something got into the chicken coop one time and just raised all hell and like killed a bunch of chickens, like ripped their bodies apart. And again, that was been, that would have been well, well before I was born. Yeah, I kind of agree with your grandmother. It is strange. You know, a lot of times with, and there's been a few people have had on the show where they have great encounters and they're like, I also need to tell you about these lights I saw right.

before I sell these creatures, but I don't want to say that on the air. And I, you know, I don't know if there's a correlation. It sure seems odd. Even some UFO sightings. People see UFOs and then they see these things. And so it's, you know, is there a correlation there? I don't know. You know, you'd be almost arrogant to say, yeah, no, there's no correlation between the two,

which I've done in the past. But, you know, now I'm not so sure. I really don't know. Same thing with the balls of light. I never gave them anyone that said that a second thought until I saw that. them, which is, you know, kind of an a-hole thing for me to do. But yeah, I've seen them. I don't know what to make of them. I don't know what they are. And it was in the area where I had my encounter, you know, right where we filmed it. And so are they related? I don't know. That's interesting,

though, about your grandmother. You know, the other thing, too, Jeff, with your encounter, and it's all fun in games, you know, it's all laughable until you run into one. And then all of a sudden it's not funny anymore. But, you know, with your encounter, the behavior is spot. on. They don't run you down. That's not how these things do it. Most of the time, they don't run you down. What they do is they pace you out off to the side, which is very odd. I don't know if that's meant to scare you out or I think you and I both know that thing could have run you down, no problem. It could have caught you and had its way with you if it really wanted to. Totally. Oh, no, without a doubt, because it caught me because it was out as parallel. And in like no time. It was like, I mean, I mean, I'm not laughing at this is a laughing matter. It's just I look back on it.

I'm thankful that I'm like I'm here because it was, I literally at that moment thought it was going to die. I was in such a pain. I thought my heart was going to explode. I was just like breathing of my heart was just racing. And it felt like I couldn't get out of those woods either. It was like I was so deep in there. And it took me forever to get out of there.

And I just, it felt like it went on forever. There's no doubt. out of my mind that I think that it was just taunting me or it, like I said, like I mentioned, it clearly could have caught me without a doubt easily all day long. But it, for some reason, it chose not to. You know, the thing is, nothing, there were no other encounters after that, though. Like, I've heard other people say, well, then once you kind of like engage these things sometimes, like, they like to come back and go to the house and taunch and things like that, it we never had anything.

I don't know if it was being territorial and I was kind of in its space. And, you know, I don't know if it, like, in that huge, thick grove of Laurel is where it bedded down. I don't know. Maybe I come up on it's like, you know, where it's shelter, where it lived. I have no idea. And I know one thing, I never went back there ever again, ever. And I never went hunting by myself ever again. Yeah, I don't blame you.

you know, the other thing, too, it does feel like it's toying with you a little bit, like a cat playing with a mouse, you know, where it doesn't kill a mouse right away, but it sits in toys with it. But in this situation, I think basically I was trying to make sure you left. And going out and blasting your guys' guns afterwards, you know, might have thought, well, that's a bad idea to go up to that house because there's a bunch of guys coming out with guns and firing off. So that might have prevented it from coming up to the house and screwing with you guys. It really is a fascinating account to me. You know, when I think about, you know, your 16-year-old kid.

And then that thing really wasn't that big. It was probably five, six feet is what you said. You know, it's, um, yeah, it was probably a younger one, kind of just screwing with you. Yeah. And what's fascinating is my, my oldest brother, he's seven years older than I am. And at the time, he worked for the Department of Natural Resources down there. And it was in law enforcement and, uh, as a park ranger. He told me, it was, when was it?

like, when was it like months later, there were, there were people calling in because he knew, he knew a lot of people that worked for the sheriff's department, and they had gotten calls that there were these, and it happened, there was, happened to like a batch, like, there's just window of time where people reporting sightings of something just like this. And it was a little further south than where we lived. And like this one woman was in her farmhouse, looked out the kitchen window. looked out where her cows were and saw something like what I just, like that, staining in amongst her, you know, cows.

But what's interesting about that, when I heard that, was like, why didn't the cows run away? They didn't feel fear. But there was another one where a deputy saw one run across the road. And there were several instances that followed, you know, kind of my encounter. And my brother then kind of told me, he's like, well, just let you know. It's like bullshit your case, blah, blah, blah. But, you know, he told me that.

So I don't know if they're related. I don't know. There's just more of them there. Yeah, it's fascinating. It's really fascinating. You know, the other thing, too, with people's encounters I haven't been able to figure out yet is when right before, you'll always hear people say this. Right before they see them, they have this over a sense of dread, fear, I'm being watched, I'm in danger, which is odd. Because I think with your normal wildlife, I don't know that we get that.

You know, maybe, I guess, if a cougar is stalking you, but not how people describe it. I know what you're talking about with that over a sense of fear, get out of, you know, it's like you're in a voice going, get out of here, get out of here, get out of here. And it's bizarre with these things because most people describe that right before they see it. I never heard other people describe this to a key how I felt. And I'd never in my life ever felt like that before, ever. and it was incredibly terrifying. Like my life was genuinely in danger.

And it is odd because I, you know, I did so much hunting before. I would go back in the woods by myself sometimes. And sometimes I'd get spooked by this or that, but nothing to that extent where it, like, and there's being scared and then there's being utterly terrified. And it's bizarre. And I couldn't account for what, and I couldn't account for what it was until you know, moments later, there's all this chatter, and that really elevated it. And then everything else. It just, it was the pinnacle of fear in my life. Yeah, and it's interesting

because a lot of people say that. You know, it's this overwhelming fear that, and there's no reason for you to fill that way. It's not like you've seen anything. You haven't really heard anything. But it's like her spidey senses kick on, and it's like, get out of here. It is. It's fascinating. In the encounter, I know it's a terrifying moment in your life, but there's a lot of behavior there to look at. You know, especially when you fire a shot at it, obviously you didn't hit it. I'm assuming you didn't hit it. But you think that'd be enough to get something to back off. And this thing didn't. No, no. No. And I heard the thing, I don't know if it didn't want to attack me because it did know I was armed. Or again, I've played it in my head over and over and

over again, all the kind of scenarios that could have been, or why things didn't go the way that I, I imagine I was going to get run down. I literally imagine I was going to get run down and just kill. And it knew I was terrified because I was crying and screaming and just like trying, just doing whatever I can to get out of there. And literally it was like right out of a horror movie where I'm tripping over everything, it seemed like, too. It was just, it was, it was bad. It was a very horrible. I wouldn't want this on it. I wouldn't want anyone to experience it.

It's terrifying. Yeah, it is terrifying to run into them. I was curious, so what your theory was on what these things are, you know, your own personal opinion. If someone were to ask you, well, what is Sasquatch? What would you say to them? You know, what's interesting is there was always this thing I thought before that, again, I think I was mentioning that, again, I think I was mentioning that, I thought this was something that only existed in like the Rocky Mountains or out west, that kind of thing. And that nothing like that existed anywhere in the East Coast.

And I always thought it was just some kind of mythical, mystical kind of creature, right? What's interesting is after my encounter, I had a, well, terrifying, I had this urge of trying to figure out what it was and what it possibly could be. And just after the research I've done over the years, just trying to also make sure, am I, am I, did I truly see something? Am I losing my mind or something? Like, did I make this? So am I making this up in my head? Like, what? Was it a bear?

Like, I saw it how about these questions. So I felt like this hunger for knowledge is like to validate that I didn't like seeing things or it wasn't going crazy. And through all that, I've just come to think that these are some kind of a primate or something. that exist out there. But then my logical side and pragmatic side says, if it is, how come we haven't captured one yet? Or how come one hasn't been brought in yet? And that's the thing I can't.

I know what I experienced. I know what I saw. And just like so many other people like you, you know what you experience, you know what you saw. But when you try to tell people, they think you're like, you're crazy. and if it is some kind of a primate, again, then the questions go, well, why hasn't anyone ever shot a video of it? Look, everyone's got a phone on them now.

It's like, all I know is I don't know. I can't answer that. I just think it's probably some kind of, again, some kind of a primate that exist out there. And they're highly, and I think they're highly intelligent. they have the ability to, because that's where they live, they left their domain and they know how to navigate the wilds and the woods and the forest and can hide really, really well. But, yeah, so I hope that answers. I think it's just some kind of a primate. Yeah, I mean, it's a good answer.

I mean, it's hard to say because no one has one, even though sometimes people act like they know exactly, you know, you hear some of these researchers be like, oh, it's this. or it's that, and they don't know. No one really knows. But, you know, and that's why it's, everyone thinks that's a loaded question, but there's not, it's not really a loaded question. There's no wrong answer to it because no one really knows. But it's nice to get people's opinion on what they've seen, you know what I mean? Yeah, what's interesting, Wes, is that I think that there are, again, just because of what I saw, and then I think there are different types.

I think what I saw isn't necessarily, you know, what that video that was shot a long time ago, you know, that shows that one. Oh, the Patterson Gimlin? Yeah, that thing. Yeah, yeah. And I think there are different, when I just, in my mind's eye, when I go back to that day and I look down at it, it seemed more like chimp-like. I guess. Again, if that makes sense, it seems, it reminded me more of like a, had the type of, kind of black hair.

Almost like people talked about like something called a skunk ape or something before. Yeah, down in Florida. I think they're down in Florida. Yeah. It just, it's just, it's reminding me more ape-like, more chimp-like,

that kind of black hair. Yeah, I think you're right. I mean, there's a lot of people in Texas to where, you know, they'll say it looked more like a chimpanzee. But then you hear weird descriptions like,

Todd Standing has a picture of one. And it's kind of got a, a beige face and it looks very odd. And I had a guy in Texas one time calling me. And he goes, that picture, that's exactly what I saw. And so in that, I don't even know what to make of that thing. Everyone calls it a Muppet, but this guy in Texas who was in law enforcement, he goes, that's identical to what I saw, which does not fit Patty at all, you know, the Patterson

Gimlin creature or sometimes other people's. And it is strange that there does seem to be different types of these things. I would agree with you. I'm just glad you got out of there with your life, you know, especially, you know, when you're terrified, you're going to fire at things. That's what, you know, the worst thing you can do is put a gun in someone's hand who's terrified because they're going to start shooting. And I don't blame me for starting to shoot. I would have done the exact same thing. I would have fired at it, too, you know, and I didn't realize you and I both know 22 is probably not going to take it down.

But it doesn't. I just, I know, I'm sure some of your listeners are probably like, what an idiot, he fired. All I can say is I'm not saying, I'm not advocating. to one way or the other, I'm just telling you what happened. What I did as a 16-year-old terrified kid. Yeah. You know, again, I'm advocating for one way or the other. I'm just telling you how it was and what happened, but that's just how I reacted.

I was just, I felt like it was the one thing I could use to defend myself. That was, you know, and that's what I did. I fired at it. And I get, again, had I had more bearing and more kind of courage, so I could, I guess, going to aim, like truly aimed at it and shot it.

But like, like, try to take it down. But I didn't. I just, the, the urge to get out of there was,

was, was, was, was overwhelming. And again, I think that, going back to, you know,

all the years I've done, like, hunting and knowing wildlife. And again, you fire it something. They, most wildlife typically does want anything to do with us. They want to stay away from us because they know we're

predators. We're the predator, you know? Yeah, even a black bear will scatter from you. I've never had a black bear stick around. Every time I've come across, and I haven't come across very many, but every time I've come across to Black Bear Man, they hear you, there was one time where I chambered around,

and I was pretty far away from this thing. And I wasn't going to shoot the thing, but I chambered around. It heard me chamber around and scattered the moment. I didn't even have to fire off a shot. It heard it and took off. So I think most creatures will. I'm just glad you got out of there with your life, man. That is, that's a terrifying encounter.

It really is. And I know it's been tough for you. I know people have laughed at you, but, you know, how the creature behaved and what it did is spot on with their behavior. That's exactly what they do. I'm just so happy it didn't run you down because being 16-year-old kid, you would have been easy pickings for this thing. And I really appreciate you coming on and sharing it.

I appreciate you having me on. I think I sent an email, like just, even if I hadn't been on the show, just like actually sending the email. initially sent it just felt good felt, you know, liberating in some ways. And I think your, your podcast is amazing because it gives people like us an outlet for, and in a safe place. I'll use that word, safe space. But I mean, but a place that we can like tell about our encounters and without being mocked or ridiculed. And so I think that's important. Because there's just too many, you know, like, I know what I saw and there's too many other people

out there that see these things, and you provide a great place for us to do that. So I thank you for having the podcast. Well, thank you for the kind words, Jeff. I really appreciate it. And while we take a break, I want to thank a few sponsors. I want to thank my bookie. Speaking

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I want to welcome Vincent. Vincent, welcome to the show. How are you, ma'am? How's it on? Things are good, brother. Thank you so much for coming on. Yeah, thank you very much, man. I appreciate it.

Yeah, I appreciate you coming on. And I know there's a couple encounters we need to get to. You're out there kind of on the Maryland-Pennsylvania border. And you've actually had a few encounters where rocks are being thrown at you. But prior to all of that, you started going out looking for these things. What made you go on and look for them? Yeah, I've always had a fascination with Sasquatch. I mean, I couldn't tell you from when it actually started, I guess, over the years it just, you know, just my fascination of, you know, thinking about, you know, Sasquatch and just the mystery of it.

I really, it just, I think it just sparked my curiosity, go out into the woods and, you know, kind of just, you know, search around. Definitely nothing around that. And I know you've gotten your answer on a few of these occasions. But if you would, would you, let's just kind of start from the very beginning, kind of the first incident that took place. And then we can move to what happened with you and your girlfriend. Yeah, I guess the first incident actually happened to start at the beginning,

when we used to go up to the woods a lot. You know, we would listen to some of these shows. it was more YouTube videos on, you know, just different things that were, you know, people were saying, like what they would experience in the woods. And I kind of noticed in the woods that there were tree breaks all around. And I thought that was so weird because, you know, I had no idea that on the East Coast or even in Maryland that, you know, that was a possibility that, you know, these animals might be, you know, in the woods. So, you know, we kind of, we go up there more frequently, you know, over the years. I think it was, it was started about three years ago going up into the woods. We noticed the tree structure, I mean, these tree structures were everywhere wet.

And, you know, we started going up there more and more. And the first time we actually had an encounter was, I'll say about three and a half years ago, we were up there and we were kind of driving real slow in the woods. And I'd be quite honest for you, I didn't really have Sasswatch, you know, on the mind at the time. And what was crazy was we had a deer that was running across our, across the path, and you're able to drive across his path. And the deer just like completely stopped, like maybe 50 feet in front of the car. It kind of, you know, from what I can tell, it was kind of listening up or something. And then its ears went back.

And then it darted backwards across the path. and I just thought that was kind of weird. I was thinking like, you know, why would the animals just stop, you know, when it was in direct route across the road and stop and kind of just, you know, go completely backwards. It just kind of, it was just kind of a strange thing that I thought. Like, you know, I think this thing, I really didn't know what to think about it, really, to be honest with you, but we were basically at the point of stop in the woods inside our car

and the windows were rolled down. you could actually hear something walking like right up to the side of the car but you couldn't see what was there because at a time of year it was it was about it was about spring summerish and uh there was like kind of like there was a little bit of bush like bushes overgrown like um i guess weeds or whatever it was but you could actually hear uh two two feet walking up and uh you could hear it shuffling a little bit You could hear it crouching down. I was like, man, this is so weird. And, you know, your heart starts raising.

You're like, man, there's something up here with us. And my girlfriend was in the passenger seat. And she was, she was, what's kind of funny was, because, you know, before I knew anything, I was, you know, doing yells and doing some weirdos, you know, doing calls and things like that. And she was looking at me. And she was, now's your time. I, like, I didn't want to say anything because I was kind of freaked out because you could hear that there was something. You could hear the was sitting there and looking at us for probably about 30 seconds,

and then you could hear, you know, get up and kind of walk off into the direction of the deer. It is a little terrifying when you hear them just kind of walk around and trying to make sense of it. You know what I mean? A poacher wouldn't make that sense that time of night because he's not going to be able to pick off a deer in the middle of the night. No, yeah, flashlight first off, you know, just to see your way through the woods. You're not really walking around in the woods by yourself without any kind of like light. you know what I mean. Yeah, I understand.

I'm curious. Tell me about the next incident that took place. Actually, the next incident, oh, oh, yeah, we were in Gettysburg. We were camping in Gettysburg at the K-O-A. It was for my girlfriend's brother's birthday, and we ended up getting a cabin. Like one of those, like, little, like, I don't know what to call them, like, just lean two cabins or whatever they, they rent out at the K-O-A. I was actually sleeping, and my girlfriend had to get up and use the bathroom. So she didn't feel like walking all over to where the restrooms were.

So she just kind of did it right outside of the cabin. And Wes, I guess, it was kind of the really weird night. It was a little bit foggy. And like all of a sudden, we heard like this howl. and I wasn't sure what it was. It was really weird. And it definitely, we go back and I was listening to a few of the different calls that, you know, are on the internet. And the one that sounded like it was the Ohio call.

And it was, it was seriously, Wes, it was so loud. And it went on for like three or four minutes, like just kept going. There's no fire stations within, like, a quarter mile of the area. It was just really weird. I mean, I don't know how to explain that to, like, elaborate on how it actually sounded to people. But, I mean, the closest thing that I could, I can relate it to was the Ohio Howl. Yeah, and for the audience listening, here's the Ohio Howl. It does sound like a siren, doesn't it?

It totally does, man. The pitch is off, but it definitely sounds like a siren. Yeah, it's bizarre. So what did you guys do next? Do you guys just leave after you heard that? No, we ended up sticking it out through the rest of the night. I tell you what, though, she, when she was done, because it started making that noise while she was used in the back and outside. And she came fulting inside the cabin.

I've never seen anywhere, like, I've never seen anywhere, like, 100 miles an hour. And I was like, what the heck is that? And she was like, I don't know, I don't know what it was. But it was like the whole night, it was like real creepy out, man. And it was like a blue, there was like a blue hue fog going on outside. It was like, it was like just getting ready to go on to like wintertime. I think it was in September. I'm pretty sure it was in September.

It was like kind of cold out. But there was like a weird fog in the night. And it was just a real creepy situation to be in. Because all I did was, you know, I didn't think about like getting my phone out and recording it or anything like that. We just kind of listening to it. And it was just real bizarre. Yeah, sounds like it. What did your girlfriend think? You know, she was just freaked out, to be honest with you.

It was so close, West, that I was sure that everybody else had to have heard it at the K-Away that was camping there that night. So I walked up to, no, what was crazy is because we had people come in from late at night to the, there was a cabin. We're in the front cabin, and there's a cabin behind us. These people came in so late at night. And then they left at like five or six in the morning. They were, there were like nowhere to be seen like the next day. And I thought it was loud enough that everybody had to pay away. I could have heard it.

So I walked out to like somebody like going back up into like the front office area. So do you hear that last night? And people were like, what are you talking about? I was like, nobody else here. Or maybe nobody was paying attention to what it was. You know what I mean? Yeah, it's hard to say. Sometimes people are more alert at night than others.

You know what I mean? Yeah, I'm definitely in that now. I know, guys, the moment the head hits a pillow, they're out. They're done for the night. They aren't going to wake up. I mean, God himself couldn't come down and wake some people up that I know. So, I mean, I get it. But, you know, you hear that, that Ohio howl?

And it's like, well, what is that? You know what I mean? It's like, well, and it's interesting because I've heard people describe the same thing on the East Coast where you're at in Texas, in California. They're like, that's exactly what I heard. And, you know, it's something for the skeptics. You know, if it's just some guy in Ohio that came up with this, well, why is everyone else hearing this? And I've had recordings from Texas that were very similar to that and recordings from Pennsylvania that were very similar to that.

Tell me about the time you and your girlfriend were in the car. Now, this happened across the border from Pennsylvania, correct? Right on the border of Maryland and Pennsylvania? Yeah, this is about three weeks ago. We were up driving. And State Park, I think it's called Towndale State Park. and we went up there because just recently we been getting harassed by the state police or the forest the forest rangers.

I don't really know what to call them, but just recently we've been kind of getting kicked out of the woods after dark, so we decided that, hey, maybe if we go somewhere else, that we won't be, you know, maybe they're not so strict in other places. So we ended up driving probably about an hour north of us into this area. And we got there probably about 7 o'clock at night. So we were just driving through the woods, checking it out. We were basically just exploring, honestly. We were just kind of looking for something to do.

And I definitely liked going into the woods. So we were driving this, I guess, these gravel roads going up into the mountain. And I noticed that there was stick structures and tree breaks, like, all over there, too. And I was kind of excited about it. Honestly, I was like, okay, we got something here as well. this is really interesting. So that night we were driving, and I guess there was another car, and maybe a quarter of a mile in front of us,

and it was kind of on a straight, and these people were slowing down while they were driving. They were driving pretty slow. And I could see, like, something crossing the path behind their car. They were, like, whatever was walking, you know, back and forth behind their car while they were slowing down. I was like, holy crap, did you see that? I was talking to my girlfriend, her name's Laura.

And I was just like, I was just kind of like amazed that there was like something like that noticeable. So later on in the night, we were driving a little further up in the mountains. And right outside of the view of the headlights, you could see something like standing way off in the distance. And it definitely looked like it was like a human figure. how tall, I couldn't tell you, but it was definitely a silhouette of some sort of hominid, you know, just standing there. So, you know, I tried to drive up a little faster by the time we got there, it was, you know, it had already like, I guess, scooted into the woods. So we just kind of went, you know, we were just kept driving through the woods, checking it out. It was around like

12 o'clock at night. We found this little area where you could pull up, you could pull a car in, and it's kind of tucked back a little bit off the road. So I guess if anybody was driving through there, they wouldn't be able to see you or like, you know, I was kind of thinking like, okay, if the state police or park rangers come through, you know, they won't be able to see us over here. So we were kind of tucked back a little ways.

And to be quite honestly, I was listening to your show earlier in the night before we were getting ready to go to sleep. And just having those incidents, I was getting kind of freaked out because I was like, man, you know, there's something up here with us. And I didn't, I wasn't like 100% sure about like, you know,

sleeping up there in the car or anything like that. And then, uh, it was probably about 1.30 in the morning. I was, um, I kept hearing something hit the car and I was like, I don't think it was big enough to actually like, it wasn't, it wasn't distinctful of like a big enough rock to be like, okay, that's, that's, you know, that's what's, you know, hit in the car. I thought it was like maybe egg horns. or like, you know, leaves him in the car. I kept looking in the rearview mirror of the car

because I thought I saw, like, something moving back and forth, you know, across the path or wherever, or behind the car. I thought I kept seeing, like, shadows or something like that. And I was trying to, like, relax and, like, all right, like, you know, maybe I'm, you know, maybe I'm overthinking this or, you know, I just needed to settle down, you know what I mean? I kept telling my girlfriend, listen, like,

if anything else is sewn at the car, like I don't care what it was because I kept looking like from the driver's seat over my right shoulder to the back of the car I I kept trying to look out the window to see anything but I couldn't see anything so I told her and she was like

halfway asleep at the time I told her hey listen if anything else hits the car we're out of here all right so meanwhile west I felt like there was something like had eyes on me over my left shoulder while I was in the driver's seat I lean the seat all the way back

and I was trying to relax. I was already like high alert as it was getting freaked out because I could totally feel something like right next to my like head or something like that. It was just a really weird feeling. No longer than like a minute later, a rock comes flying in and cracks my window. I don't know how big the rock was. But Wes, when that happened, man, I felt the blood drained from my body. Like I was starting to freak out at the time.

I was like, I don't know how. how to explain like exactly how I felt. The feeling felt like I was like moving in slow motion underwater because I started panicking so hard and I was like my heart was like through my chest beating and then I tried to start the car and the car wouldn't actually, it wasn't firing at the time because it was in the push start, you push your foot on the brake pedal and then push the button and at the time the car wasn't like I hit the button like two or three times and it wasn't starting. And so then, like, I really, really, really started panicking at the time.

I was like, oh, my God, we're about to die here in this situation. And I'm trying to, I'm actually trying to talk to my girlfriend and tell her, like, the car won't start. And, like, I guess she told me, because she was coming out of, like, her sleep that she was, she was, she said it sounds like, she wasn't sure if she was hearing me wrong or if she was, or if I was actually, like, sounding really. weird because I felt like I had like a bubble in my throat and like things were going in slow motion at the time and I was trying to tell it listen the car won't start right now I don't know it was just a really weird situation that we were in at that time because I was like because I already felt like there was something already looking at us and it only just legitimized what I had been feeling like I guess when we were pulled over in this this turnoff area

and so what did you guys do did you guys just leave at that point yeah we ended up Yeah, the car ended up start. It took like a minute for the car to start, but we ended up driving out of there. We ended up driving to the left. And I was kind of like, to be honestly, I didn't know how to feel. I was kind of like upset and pissed off and, like, scared at the same time. I really didn't know actually how to feel. It was such a weird feeling, like, because I was, like, angry because I was that scared.

Yeah, be careful out there, man. Be real careful out there. And, you know, it's like a bad horror feeling. You can't start your car. You're trying to, you just got a rock thrown at you and you can't start the car. You know, one thing I will tell you, though, you know, if you feel like you're being watched or if you get a sense that they're around, you're probably right. You know what I mean?

Yeah. Well, it's just you get hypersensitive. You know, I know what I live when they're in the area or they're like coming pretty close to the car or like, you know, wherever I'm at in the woods and they're there. you definitely get hypersensitive and your awareness goes up of like, you know, your surroundings and, you know, what's moving and you're on, like, high alert. Yeah. Yeah. I was thinking, I was thinking if it was somebody else out there throwing a rock, that's a good way to get shot.

You know what I mean? Like, you're throwing rocks in the middle of nowhere. It's a good way to get shot. It's a good way to get shot. You're absolutely right. What do you think? What do you think that these things are events? If someone were to ask you, what do you think Sasquatch is?

And I know you're out looking for them and please be careful while you do that. But if someone were to ask you, what do you think Sasquatch is? What would you say to them? To be honest with you, I want to see the face. To be quite honest with you, I really, I mean, they act like, you know, apex predators in the woods. I mean, I feel like they're an animal of some sort. They definitely display a lot of characteristics of, you know,

of some sort of predator in the animal kingdom. So I kind of think that they're an animal. I'd like to believe so. You know, I don't have, you know, I don't have that much, you know, information on them. Or, you know, I don't have a lot of experience, you know, par se with the few interactions that have had with them. But I'd like to think that there's some sort of animal. I mean, that's just how I feel. I don't know how anybody else feels.

No, you could be right. It could be 100% right on it. And they do act like animals, don't they? Yeah, yeah, absolutely. There's a lot of things that they do that are very similar to animals, I think. Yeah, I couldn't agree more. Well, be safe while you're out there, Vincent. I really appreciate you coming on and sharing your encounter.

Yeah, thank you very much for having me, Wes. And that's it for tonight, everyone. We're going to close out with a band from the UK. They're called Fabric, F-A-B-R-I-K, and the name of the song is Black Lake. If you get a chance to check them out on iTunes and Spotify. Until next time, everyone. Faster than the coronavirus and wagering week is your antidote.

I'm Tom Barton, and I'm a lot. a veteran sports analyst and respected sports handicapper who helped 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 podcasts. Let SportsGarden Network's Wagering Week help your bottom line.