Sasquatch Chronicles - SC EP:533 Chanting In The Woods

Episode Date: April 14, 2019

A listener writes "I have an encounter that happened many years ago in Washington State. Index to be more precise. My encounter isn't terrifying (at least not now. It was when it happened.) It's a bit puzzling and all these years later I can't explain it. But I did hear some things which culminated in seeing something cross the trail. I've never gone public with this and have been met with skepticism by the few people I've told. But I know what happened over the course of a few weeks in 1989." Spoke to the witness and she has agreed to come on the show. It is a very interesting encounter because so many strange things happened beyond the sighting. One thing the witness brought up was hearing chanting in the woods or what sounded like chanting. I heard this before by two separate hunters   My uncle is a big fan of your podcast and he encouraged me to email you about my supernatural experience with a wendigo (possible Sasquatch). I grew up in small town in an incredibly rural region of southern Ontario. My house was situated in a forested environment with the Niagara escarpment snaking up my front yard. It is a land of unspoiled beauty that has the capability of hiding many secrets in its depths. My family always told me stories about the beasts that lurk in the woods, real and supernatural, but it wasn't until I had my own experience that I became a believer in the old legends. It was mid-autumn of 2012. At this time of year the sun slinks away early in the evening, the only light being the crescent of the moon. My sister and I have always enjoyed exploring the woods that surrounded our house, and on the night of my experience we were out galavanting in the early hours of the moonlight. My uncle (the same one who has convinced me to write this) had walked from his home a few kilometres away from ours and we had excused ourselves from the adult conversations. Our whole lives we had been warned about not venturing too far away from our home, especially in the darkness, so we mostly stayed around the perimeter of the unforsted part our house-land. Despite the events occurring seven years ago, my recollection is still shockingly vivid when I take myself back to that night. The air was slightly cool, but warm enough that I only needed a raincoat (sometimes it's cold enough to snow at this time of year). It was a good evening all together, my sister and I were getting along as we laughed and played in our yard. We were completely unbothered and unaware of what was about to happen. In what I then thought was a brilliant idea I encouraged my sister to come with me and enter the thin strip of woods (about 25 feet apart) that separated our property and an unused driveway on the adjoining land. It was covered in young trees and surprisingly sturdy grasses, that in the fall got so dry and brittle that they could hold you up when falling on them. We spent the next few minutes matting the grasses down enough so we could walk into the centre of the woods. Standing there we were about 5 feet from our property. I started to feel strange, I decided that it was about time to get back to the house as my stomach was turning. Taking one last opportunity before going home I shoved my sister hard intending for her to be kept from falling by the grass. Unfortunately, this wasn't the case and she fell hard on her back, shocked by the tumble. It took her a few moments before she reacted, as she was in a state dumbfounded shock. This had never happened before. I stood there worried that she would take off back home and tell my mom. I got on my hands and knees eye-level with her, before she could even bat and eyelash or say a word I was there trying to convince her that she was okay and that there was no reason to say anything to mom. If she did we would never be allowed outside together. Due to my age and stubbornness, I was reluctant to apologize. I did help her up and brush off the dirt on her backside. We stood there for a few moments, in the darkness I could see her big blue eyes, she was chattering,endlessly as only she can. I debated with myself, what I should do. If we go home like I had wanted to moments before, she would get me in a trouble, but if we stayed out against my better judgment, I knew something bad could happen. I was her older sibling, I needed to keep her safe. Before I could reach my final judgment, the sense of unwaryness exploded,tingles traveled from my neck down my spine. Both of us stilled, the flow of words from her mouth was abruptly silenced as I smacked my hand over it. I didn't expect that out of her quietness would grow a fear in me so deep, I rarely visited the forest again. It started out quieter, the slosh of heavy footsteps on a the unpaved laneway. The gravelled stones tinkling across each other as if they had been slightly kicked. This sound quickly grew louder. It almost sounded as if the small rocks were being cracked under each footstep. My sister and I stood there. Neither of us cowered, we were frozen in fear. The sound of the footsteps was soon deadened by that of heavy breathing, grunting. Disgustingly inhuman. We were held in an unmoving trance as the beast came into view. A mass of tangled, slightly curly fur. A body so big it would have dwarfed my burly grandpa (who was 6'4). It's body was illuminated by the dim light our house cast upon the yard. I was the first to break, I yelped, terrified. Despite its size the thing was surprising quick, its large head wiped to the side. Although I couldn't make out it's eyes, my sister and I could both feel the its gaze rapt on our unmoving forms. It was at this moment I found control over my limbs. Selfishly, I pushed my sister behind me, closer to the creature. And I ran, screaming for my mother, someone to come and save us. I barrelled away from my sister to the front stairs. She wasn't far behind me. The shock from me pushing her must of helped her move. As we mounted the stairs our hands fumbled at the front door handle as we trembled in fear. Finally, we got inside still on edge. Our family was abviously shocked by the state we were in. They weren't exactly receptive when we tried to explain what we had seen. They tried to tell us it could have been a bear (far too short, our little black bears could never stand that tall) or maybe it was a person (still too small, not burly enough and wouldn't most people say something instead of scaring two people?) My sister and I remained steadfast, we knew what we saw. We went so far as to beg our uncle not to walk home that night, we didn't want what was out there to get him. Over time the shock of what we saw has worn off, but both myself and my sister still maintain unquestionably that, that was the most terrifying moment of our lives. Even after we experienced a break and enter while we were alone together. I've racked my brain for what it could have been. At first I was convinced it was a Sasquatch, but years later I'm now not too sure. At this point in my life I'm nearly convinced it was a wendigo. Purely on the fact that it still gives me the shakes when thinking about, as I've always been told they inspire fear in their victims. I have a feeling I will always remain somehow marked by this experience. Even though it was years ago, it is often a point of conversation with my family. At first I'm certain they thought we were trying to joke with them, but seven years later they now realize our moments with the beast were very much real. It made believers out of the two of us and has opened our eyes to other strange happenings we have witnessed.   Steven writes "Hey Wes. I've been listening to your podcast for about a month now and really appreciate your effort in getting people's stories out there. I had a pretty bizarre experience about 12 years ago and figured you may like to hear about it. There's some backstory that I didn't discover until recently and will share that as well if you're interested. This happened in Barnstead, NH. One night me and my girlfriend at the time were walking to another friend's house. This was in a small, private community built around a man made lake. It's a pretty wooded area with a lot of summer houses scattered about with a few street lights here and there. So there are spots sometimes for a half a mile that are shrouded in complete darkness. We were approaching a T in the road with one of those few streetlights across the way. Had it not been there I wouldn't have seen anything. Anyway, as we stepped into the light and started to make a right there was a loud cracking in a tree above me. At first I thought it was a branch breaking so I jumped backwards out of the way. Then this thing hit the ground and I just froze. The best way I can explain this is that it stood up and shook itself off kind of like it was startled. When this thing stood it was about seven feet tall. Then it kind of went on all fours and took off into the woods across the street. I've never in my life seen anything move so fast. I don't know if it was trying to land on me on purpose or what the deal was. I've grown up in rural areas most of my life and have heard or seen all kinds of animals at night and this was obviously not normal. I wondered for years what this could have been but finally I've drawn a conclusion. This coupled with another experience I had a couple miles away from that same spot AND sightings conveyed to me by others have led me to believe this was definitely a Sasquatch. I've done some research and I think there is a strange breed of this animal exclusive to the NH area roaming around."

Black thing go from left to right, and I thought, I'm going to die out here, 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 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. Get a great show playing for you tonight. We're going to start off in New Hampshire and talk to Stephen. Stephen had an encounter back when he was younger. One of these things actually fell out of a tree. He was walking towards. and the description is a little bit different than your average Sasquatch.

And then we'll be talking to Cassidy. Cassidy had an encounter in Canada in Ontario on her property. And she'll be sharing that with us tonight. Her and her sister had one. And then we'll wrap up with Volta who had an encounter from Index, Washington, my home state. She was out. They were panning for gold, her and her ex-husband. And they had a lot of strange things happened that night.

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 for the fans out there, you know, in the intro of the show, you hear the guy go, the eyes are real, real evil. You know, the look it was giving me was real evil. And that's Mike Woolley talking. Mike's recently passed away. So we're going to close out the show tonight, listening to his encounter one last time.

and a little tribute to our friend Mike Woolley. Let's jump into it tonight. I want to welcome Stephen to the show. Stephen, thanks for coming on. No problem, man. Yeah, I appreciate you being here. I know your encounter took place in New Hampshire. If you would, just kind of start from the beginning.

Tell us what you were doing and walk us into what happened. All right, man. Well, it was just pretty random. What happened was, as I said in the blog, This is a small community around a man-made lake there in New Hampshire. It's pretty dark for most of the parts. So there's, you know, the street lights are pretty spread out. It's about 10 and 11 o'clock at night.

Me and my girlfriend at the time, we're walking to a friend's house. And we're approaching where the highway, there's a road that connects from the highway, all the way down to Lock Lake there, that man-made lake. And we're approaching that road, like a T-in-N-M-Maw. the road coming up this hill. And just as we started to turn right, now there's a street light across the street. I wouldn't have been able to see it otherwise. But just as we're turning right, I hear like a snap or a cracking noise above me in a tree. And at first I thought it was a limb falling. So, you know, I jumped back, took a few steps back and then just this, this thing lands

there. And I froze. I didn't know what to think. I mean, I was just in an awe of like, you know, what is this? And it happened so fast. but, you know, it stood up and kind of recovered, like shook itself off a little bit. It almost landed on its haunches, like it caught itself really well. But still you could tell it was off kilter, but when this thing stood up, I'm about 5'8. So if I stand and I raise my hand as high as I can, it'd be about to the top of my hand. So I guess that's right about seven feet. And for this thing now, now I'll tell you a little bit more about what it looked like,

But what happened was after it stood up is it hit all fours again and just kind of bounded into the woods across the street. And it was so fast, like the way it moved was just animated. I can't really describe it any other way. I've never seen anything move like that. I've been in rural areas all my life. And I've seen all kinds of animals and heard all kinds of things. And this was obviously not regular. You know, this was not normal.

but it took off into the woods and I'm going to estimate it went about 20 feet into the woods and at first I was thinking I scared something I startled something or what I didn't know what to think but then it hit me you know when I've scared things in the past they take off running into the woods and they keep on going well when this stopped I knew that it had stopped and it must be looking at me I could just feel it and it was just a very disturbing unsettling feeling and and I'm walking back and backwards back down the hill as far as I can. And my girlfriend at the time, she's yelling, you know, what the F was that? And she's freaking out. And I'm like, come on, actually just, come on, just go. And I called my buddy up whose house I was going to. And I said, hey, man,

you got to come get me. I saw that thing that you saw. So he had seen it before and I didn't believe him, but he come and picked me up. And that was the end of it. Yeah, I want to come back to your buddy. But for the audience, how far away from you was it? when it dropped out of the tree? And can you describe what it looked like? Oh, less than 10 feet, man. Like I said, you know, imagine something's falling, you know, up above you. And you take a few steps to get back out of the way. You know, it wasn't very far at all. Now, what for, for the longest time, okay, let me go back. When it stood up, the face, it wasn't like the face of a ape or a human. quite, but it was slightly snouted.

And I said for years, you know, I don't know if it was a monkey mixed with a dog, mixed with a cat because of the way it moved. I just didn't know. But it had that slightly snouted face. It wasn't big as far as width goes. It wasn't like a gorilla. It was pretty athletic in build. Say like a basketball player, you know, a pro NBA player that swole up a

about another foot or two. Yeah, and a lot of those reports of, you know, what the snouted, like a baboon, it's kind of, is what you're describing? Yeah, it's like a baboon. And really, that didn't occur to me until years later when I started trying to find other people who saw this thing and I actually came across some descriptions. And I actually saw a drawing on the internet. And I said, yeah, that's it.

It's got a baboon-like face. Yeah, it's strange. A lot of, and you and I were talking off the air and I was Tony, a lot of, most of those encounters are pretty aggressive. I think this one, you just caught it off guard. Maybe it sounds like it fell out of the tree. It wasn't on purpose. Right. You know, I don't know for sure because I'm not it, you know, but I wasn't quite sure, but I do feel as though it was shocked, you know. And definitely after it had got up and took off and when it got into the woods, it had regrouped and it was back to scoping us out. So, um, I, um, I did.

definitely didn't get a friendly feeling from it. That's for sure. Did the creature ever make a sound? No, no vocal sound whatsoever. I mean, I would have never known it was there had it not fell in out of the tree. Yeah, it's a little unnerving when they're run off and you realize they're still there watching you. You know, it didn't take off. God, I can imagine that would have been a long, long walk to your buddy's house. Yeah, had he not come to pick me up. Yeah. You know, and I actually had to talk him into it. He said he was low on gas. I said, well, you know, I'm about to be grass if you don't come and get me because I didn't know what was next.

I didn't know anything about what this was or how it behaved or what its intentions were. So it's pretty scary. Yeah, especially when it lands on two feet and then takes off on all four. You know, such a bizarre. And I know what you mean when you say animated, like in my own encounter. I said they move like, it looks fake when they move. move. It doesn't look real. It looks like CGI or... Yes, like it didn't belong there. I mean, so weird.

What did your buddy see? You'd mentioned he had seen it. You had called him and said, hey, I saw what you saw. What did he tell you he saw? Well, several months before, he had said he was standing on his bag porch at night and just suddenly this thing came, running from the small wood line of one side of his backyard to the other side. And I said, man, you know, you're just, I thought he was just pulling my chain, you know. But actually before that, this other kid, he was a freshman there in a high school that I was going to. And he had said he saw something run across his yard. Now, what's funny about this is there was a house across the street that we were approaching with that street light I had mentioned.

Now, that kid lived in that house. So this thing was right around, I mean, literally across the street from where he had seen it, unless in a mile from where my buddy lived, where he had saw it. So, you know, it's out there. Yeah, definitely. You know, and it's, I know you're not from New Hampshire, but like I've seen you before, off the air. People from New Hampshire are funny, man. I get a lot of reports off the air.

Rarely does anyone ever come on the air from New Hampshire. And I don't know why. I really don't know why. Well, you know, my take on it, because I'm not native to that area, but the community is very small. and everyone knows each other and people depend on each other a lot and so to cast some sort of judgment or doubt upon your credibility or sanity

could affect your life pretty significantly so that would be my reasoning as far as why they're a little hesitant to speak up what do you think Sasquatch is Stephen I have not a clue I don't know I've thought I've known before. At one point I thought it was maybe some sort of primate that was just like a crypto, you know, whatever.

But as far as having a definite answer, I'm not even sure if the different things that we see are actually one thing. I'm not sure if they all are Sasquatch. I don't know. I wish I did. Yeah, it's so bizarre, man. You know, it makes me wonder what it was doing hanging around in that neighborhood, you know, in that general area. area. And Stephen, you saw a UFO out there too as well. Would you mind telling us about that? Oh, yeah, sure. That was in a different part of New Hampshire. What's going on is I was hitchhiking around

Lake Winipasaki. I was doing some trail walking and just some nomadding around at the time. And I got there, the Guilford-Lakonia area there. And there's a bay there off of Lake Winipasaki. And I set my tent up there. And this was 2014. It was, there were several boats out on the lake and they were partying and everything and everything started to die down. And I was outside my tent. I had a little fire going, it's crazy. There's just suddenly this big orange ball in the sky.

And, you know, it's hard to gauge how big something is. But, you know, it was about a third to a half the diameter of the moon. And the moon's pretty big when you're up in those mountains there. But this thing is moving from, and then it's slowly in a straight line, and it stops, and it's just not moving at all. And I'm looking at it, and it's hovering there for maybe 20 seconds or so. And then the only way I can describe it is it's like someone just hit the light switch. It was gone. I actually reported that to the National UFo reporting center that Peter Davenport runs,

and he shot me an email, and I discovered that someone saw the exact same thing in Vermont that night. So something was traveling around. Now, the interesting thing about this is when I got to the other side of the lake, I come across this gas station that had a giant mural on the wall. This was like in the Lincoln Woodstock area, but there's a mural on this gas station wall with a gray alien, and the UFO in the background. And I go inside and there's all these copies of, you know, government documents and all this stuff posted on the wall.

So I asked the guy, what's up with all the ET stuff? Man, he said, well, this is where the abduction happened, Betty and Barney Hill abduction. Now. Oh, really? I didn't know that. Yes. Okay. So that's what was crazy.

When they were coming back from Niagara Falls, a vacation, they're coming back through that area. And they saw a big orange ball in the sky. And that's where they experienced that lost time. and whatnot. So very interesting because whatever was there, 50 years ago, is still happening today. No doubt. And the thing that you saw, was it just light or did it have a shape to it besides a ball of light? A big orange ball. I mean, just like a giant basketball. You know what I mean? It didn't pulse. It didn't glow. It was almost seemed two-dimensional. Yeah, it was strange. It obviously was just its own.

It didn't have a glow around it, like, you know, a street light or whatever in the dark. It was just, I mean, pretty solid. Interesting. That's almost more terrifying than the thing that fell out of the tree. You know what I mean? New Hampshire is a weird place, my friend. Yeah, it sounds like it. Sounds like it.

Well, I appreciate you sharing it, man. Thank you again. Absolutely. No problem. Well, I want to welcome Cassidy to the show. Cassidy, thanks for coming on. Oh, thank you for having me. Yeah, I appreciate you being here.

And I know your encounter took place in Canada, Ontario, to be more specific. But if you would, would you just kind of start from the beginning? Tell us what you were doing. And walk us into what happened. What did you see? Oh, right. It was mid-October, I would say. and it was a really great night that night.

It was not too cold. It sometimes gets super freezing at that time of year, so my sister and I took advantage of that, and we were outside. I was 12 at that point, and my sister was 8, and we were just out on their property. We have a pretty large one. It's not too far from a town,

but it's covered and surrounded by woods. And then my uncle had walked over that night, from his house a few kilometers away and we had just gone outside while he stayed inside and we kind of walked around we played around it was quite dark outside that night

there was no full moon our house was providing most of our light so that we could see and play we were always warned not to go into the woods at that time of night or without parental accompaniment because it just there is wild animals out there you can get lost

It's just not the place where we should be. So we were staying mostly around our property where it's unforested. And then I was over on one section of our property with my sister. And I started feeling like I was being watched. I started getting super uncomfortable. And I just started to steer us away from that area. And we actually walked over to the other side of our property. And we were just playing around.

And I had the brilliant idea. that we should go into the woods a little bit. I regret that now, I guess, but we just slightly, we have a property beside us that is just a driveway, and so that's open on that side. And between our properties at that point, there was only a few trees, only small ones. And there's also, it was really super hard the grass,

and someone, especially someone who was smaller, like my sister was at that point, you would stay up. and so I went in there and we were kind of playing around and I started feeling comfortable again. It was like this tingles were running

up my spine and I just and I don't know I didn't know why it was happening and I just figured oh maybe there's the foxes out there maybe there's the best idea to get home and it was probably around 930 so it was pretty late

and I was going to go home and I was going to take my sister inside and in one last moment, I decided to push my sister because she really wanted to fall against the grasses. And unfortunately, the grasses weren't hard enough at that point. And she fell on her bum. And I started getting really nervous because I thought she was going to go home and tell my mom I pushed her and my mom was going to freak out at us. So I didn't take her directly inside. We stayed out there for a few more minutes.

She was obviously squawking. She was really upset that she had fallen, and I was just trying to convince her, I don't tell mom. So we stayed outside before that we should start getting inside. And then she was talking and talking and talking and talking. And then I just shoved my hand over her mouth to stop her from talking. And then I heard this like,

it was like a cracking of rocks against a, other and it was like the slosh of footsteps started getting heavier and heavier against the driveway on the other side of our property and I just stilled I couldn't move I remember I could see her eyes and they're like they were massive like saucers and then from those footsteps from the gravel being crinked across each other you could start hearing It was almost grunting. It was so heavy. It sounded like my dog.

It was just, it was crazy. And then in the darkness, this shape emerged. And it was walking parallel to us. And it didn't really stop and look at us until I yelped. I don't know what it was, but I just broke out of the trance I was in. to us and you could see even though it was just gently illuminated from our house light, you could still make out how massive this thing was. It was just the biggest thing I've ever seen walking in my life.

It, there is like, it was terrifying and you could see its head turn. I never saw its eyes or its face, but you could see its whole head whipped towards us. And it was so quick for how massive this thing was. And then it was like at that moment, as soon as I could feel its eyes on us, that is when I could control my legs. I couldn't be for it. I couldn't even move. And I just shoved her closer to this.

I feel really bad about that now. And up her front stairs. And my sister, I guess, got control over her legs at that point when I pushed her and she took off on our door. and I remember slamming, shaking so that I could actually open our front door. And then I ran inside and we were flipping out. No one believed us. They thought that we were just pulling a prank.

We were trying to make them scared. And my uncle, he had walked over. And I was just, we were on the floor begging him. Please don't go home because whatever this thing was, even though our experience with it so much that we were terrified. Ever it was, my uncle walked home, maybe he wouldn't be so lucky. Yeah, no, I understand. I understand what you're saying.

Was there any details that you remember? I realize it's dark. You guys are out playing in the yard. But was there any details that you remember? How big do you think it was? I would say it was probably upwards of seven and a half feet. I remember that there used to be. trees there and they've grown a lot since then but they it was like taller than the the ones that

were there at that point so seven and a half feet I would put it and I remember it really stood up how it wasn't just tall it was massive and burly and bulky and I can it was in like the my house the lights were on the house and it cast a glow upon the yard and you could make out the little, like not little, you could make out the hair on it, the way the hair stood out. And it was just, it was almost slightly curled. You could, and there wasn't much else that you could see. I couldn't see its eyes. I couldn't see its face.

You could see its shape the way the hair was, the way its head humongous. Yeah, I understand. Do you and your sister still talk about that night? Have you guys discussed it since? Something that we had a, I think that once we kept talking about it, my family started being like, oh, maybe, it's something that we usually share is our most terrifying experience. And we're always wondering, like, exactly was it? Where did it go? And we tried to rationalize it, I guess, in the fact, oh, maybe it was a person.

Maybe it was a bear. and that's something we did for quite a few years. But now we both are like, I think what we saw is probably not as simple as. Yeah, it doesn't sound like it. You know, a lot of times these things come in, they're curious, especially two little girls playing. I mean, your threat level is zero at that point to sit there and watch them. It sounds like it was curious.

Did anything else ever happen around that property, Cassidy, when you were growing up, anything strange? Yeah, there's always been strange things. that happen here. My mom claims that she saw a werewolf here. Sounds ridiculous, but there's one on New Year's Day, a few years ago,

these two humongous wolves walked across our property, one with the limp, and it was a full moon. She claims it was a werewolf or two werewolves. And the woods around here, when you go into them,

there is always the feeling of no matter where you go, it's always like there's other things near you and something's watching you. You're always on edge. Yeah, I can understand. You know, and like I said, I mean, it doesn't sound ridiculous at all. I get reports like that all the time. And people call them werewolves, dog man.

Were they up on two legs walking? Is that why she said, werewolf? Yeah. We have wolves here. Yeah, we don't have wolves here. Like, we have a lot of coyotes most, but they were just the biggest dogs I've ever seen in my life, and I have a great day. Yeah, is there still stuff going on on that property to this day? Is it still odd when you go out there?

Do you still live there, Cassidy? Yeah, I still live here. You don't go in the bush. I don't, like, after my experience with my sister, there's definitely, I was definitely a lot more in. trepid to go out there by myself. I used to wonder around. And obviously, I always felt something. There's always a feeling that, oh, there's something out here.

It's always a little strange. But then after that experience, it became a lot more real that there is a, it just feels like there's things out there. And it's scary. Yeah. Yeah, it is scary. It is scary enough when you come across these things when you're out hunting or you're out hiking, but to be, have it on your property.

He's even more terrifying. You know, I had a guy on, I think it was a member only show. He was living off the grid. And, you know, he's like, I felt like a prisoner. I can't. And he said one thing that you actually said, Cassidy, he goes, I don't go in the bush. I don't go out in the woods. I stay clear from going out there.

And I don't blame them with some of the stuff going on. What do you think Sasquatch is, Cassidy? What's your opinion? A few people about this. My uncle has a huge exposed me to a different few different theories. I guess one is that has never been documented enough, a bit more paranormal in existence, and maybe they can shift, they can take on different shapes, so maybe a human form. And that's why we've never found one or documented one enough. Yeah, I understand where you're coming from.

from on that. I think that's a fair assessment. You know, it's, you can only answer so many times, why don't we find dead bodies? Why don't we find bones? Why don't we find this? Why don't we have this? And after a while, the same old answer doesn't really hold water anymore. You know, it gets old after a while, being, well, well, I don't find any bears. Why don't we find, you know? And after a while, it's like, well, there's so many encounters happening, you would think we'd find something. And maybe they have and just kind of covered it up. But, you know, I understand why you go with the paranormal because it's hard to answer some of the questions. You know what I mean? But it's a terrifying account. It really is. It's especially when you're a little kid,

you know, it's bizarre. And the way it paste you out, you know, it's like following you out. It's surprising how, even though that was quite a few years ago, it's still so, vivid. Still, when I go back to it, during it, many times I every single time. I understand what you mean. It's and if you come across one,

take care of your sister next time, will you? Don't leave her as a sacrifice. Yeah. But I appreciate coming on, Cassie. It was a great in Gounder, you know, be safe on that property.

Let me know, too, if anything else new happens out there, will you? I will definitely. All right. Thank you again. I want to welcome Vulta to the show. Volta, thanks for coming on. Hey, Wes. Thanks for having me here.

Yeah, I appreciate you being here. And I know your encounter took place in my home state of Washington. And I know it was in Index. If you would, Vulta, would you kind of start from the beginning? Tell us what you were doing. Walk us into this encounter because there's a lot of things to this encounter I want to talk to you about. But if you would just kind of start from the beginning and... Okay. I guess to give just a little bit of background.

I did grow up in Washington. I grew up in Darrington, way up in the North Cascades. And so, you know, I lived my life. And, you know, I grew up in the woods. My dad was a logger. he would take us out into the woods, taught me how, you know, if I should ever get lost or anything, how to find my way back, you know, to civilization, and, you know, would take us on job sites to show us what he was doing and everything. And through all of those years that I lived in Darrington and being around all of those loggers, it's kind of. of funny, I never, I never once heard anyone mentioned Sasquatch.

Now, and I think I mentioned to you, I don't know if that was because they actually had not seen anything, or if it was one of those things that, if they had seen something and said anything, you know, they get the people making fun of them because they're, you know, they're kind of tough, stoic guys and um and through all of that time and all of my wandering around in the woods and hiking and and you know i never saw anything and as far as i know i never heard anything you know it was just a completely normal uh upbringing and everything so along with that i also I had no fear of the woods. You know, I knew that if I came upon animals, a bear or a mountain lion or whatever, if they could, they're going to get away from me, you know, as fast as I'm trying to get away from them.

So, you know, I kind of understood how the wildlife worked. And so I always, I felt safe and I never had any fear. So going forward in 1989, I was 19 years old and had just gotten married. And my husband at the time was a prospector. He was into mining gold and everything, and he had dredges and just, you know, all of that equipment that you use to go out onto the rivers and look for gold. And the first place that we really started looking was just outside of Index. It was on the Index Scalina Road going along the north fork of the Sky Comish River.

and that's kind of important because there are many, many documented sightings of Sasquatch there. In fact, one little piece of trivia, if anybody's up there on Highway 2 going across to Stevens Pass, on the side of the road where you turn left to go to Index, there's a Kwanza Hut there, and that Kwanza Hut was put up for the move Harry and the Henderson's. It was the Sasquatch Museum. And the last time I was around there,

it was still sitting there. Now, I don't know if it's still there or not, but it's, you know, little piece of Sasquatch trivia. Yeah. So, anyway, we had been up at the camp

for a while. Now, this camp, just to give you a bit of a description, It wasn't like a campground. It really was just a place on the side of the road where someone had cleared off trees. There was places to park, you know, trailers, fifth wheels, motorhomes, whatever, you know, you wanted to park there.

And up at this area of the Index Galena Road, there's not even telephone poles up there. There's no electricity. It is very, very primitive. So we had a lot of people who would come up on the weekends. They'd go dredging on the weekends and then go home Sunday night. So Monday, it went from, you know, this little campground that was full of people to just us because we were there all week long.

So this Monday came around. and it was a spring day, and I can't remember what month it was. But I know it was a spring day because it was unusually warm that day. You know how Washington is. If you get a warm day in the spring, you take advantage of it. Sure, yeah. And so I had, like I said, I was taking advantage of that. I washed my hair and I was sitting in a lawn chair brushing my hair out in the sun letting it dry.

Now, we had a 24-foot airstream trailer and my chair was sitting at the tongue of the trailer sort of on the side, just like out in the middle to where I could get the sunlight on me. and my little dogs, I had three little dogs, they were sitting at my feet, and, I mean, they were always my shadow. They were with me constantly. And as I said, I am the only person in this campground at this time. And as I'm sitting there in my lawn chair, brushing out my air, I heard a splash. and a really loud thump. And I immediately recognized it as a rock going into the water. But what occurred to me almost immediately is it's not just that I heard the splash.

This rock was so big that it created a concussion to the ground that I felt in my feet. but the splash I could tell was coming from a little ways down downstream. And, you know, I was a little puzzled because I thought, you know, well, there's nobody here. There's nobody in the campground. And to get to the trails and everything downstream, you really had to go through the campground because, you know, the woods were so thick and the underbrush was so thick.

And so, you know, I'm just sitting there puzzled about this. I wasn't scared. Like I said, I had no fear of, you know, the woods and everything. And at 19 years old, we're invincible, so we're not afraid of things. And next thing I knew, I heard the exact same sound again. And it sounded like the splash was a little bit closer, you know, coming up toward me. But it did exactly the same thing, that concussion through the ground, telling me that whatever's being thrown into the water. and I heard that sound when it hit, it was rock on rock.

And I recognized that because I had been there during floods where that river floods so bad, boulders rolled down the river and it was making a sound similar to that. And, you know, the concussion, and it told me, that's got to be a big rock to make that kind of a concussion through the ground that I would feel in my feet and my legs, that's got to be a big rock. And the way that that part of the river was, there was no, there was no, you know, like, decline that went from like a little hill down into the water. It was flat with river rocks and went from the woods to the river rocks directly to the river. so because I'm thinking well maybe it rolled down you know maybe it rolled down like a hill but then I I had been down at that part of the river a million times and I realized there's no hill there for

a rock to roll down so everything that I was trying to you know make any kind of sense out of nothing was making any sense and then I started hearing I started hearing wood cracking out in the woods. Now, the way that everything was set up, where our trailer was sitting, we were parked back against the woods, and right next to our trailer was the opening of a trail that went down into the woods. And if you went down far enough, there was old railroad tracks down there, because they used to have a mining operation up there.

They were mining gold and Galena up there. And the railroad, the wooden part, what was that called the ties? Anyway, the wooden part was still out there. And you could see where there had been railroad tracks. And a trail just went, you know, quite a ways down there. Now, this is where things get kind of weird. And you know this from living in Washington. When you're in the woods, especially, you know, the woods that haven't been logged or anything like that,

you've got the trees and you've got all of the, you know, the undergrowth, the vegetation. And in broad daylight, if you go into the canopy of those trees and everything, it's dark back there. and you're lucky if you look into the woods you're lucky if you can see two or three feet in there because it really is it's so dark because it's so dense. So I'm hearing this sound of wood cracking and at that point I couldn't tell if it was something stepping on, you know, old dead branches or. or if it was something breaking saplings or whatever. And to tell you the truth, it didn't occur to me that it could be saplings that are getting broken

because I didn't know. I mean, I grew up. I had seen Patty on the Patterson Gimlin film. I had seen, of course, the Legend of Boggy Creek. you know, I grew up with the monster movies, a creature of black, like, you know, just, but I didn't really understand exactly what those were. To me, they were just kind of like monster movies, you know.

And at 19, I didn't really know, you know, behavior of Sasquatch. And, you know, this was before the Internet, So it's not like you could look things up. There was a limited amount of books. You could get the library. So anything that I heard out in the woods, it wasn't like my first idea is, oh, my God, that Sasquatch. You know, it's like my first idea is, oh, there might be a bear out there.

Right. Or a person. That might a person that was about to say, even scarier. might be a person. And so I'm hearing this wood breaking sounds. And I hear, you know, it coming through the, through the woods behind the trailer. And it's, at that point, there's not a whole lot of other noise.

All I'm hearing is the woodbreaking. As I'm sitting in my lawn chair, I happen to look down, and my three little dogs, all three of them are now staring out into the woods down the trail. And that's telling me, there's something out there. They're seeing something. And I turned my head, and I turned my head just in time. to see something cross the trail. Now, I have never once in my life said to anyone I saw a Sasquatch because honestly, I don't know what I saw.

I didn't. It was too dark into those woods to make out any features. It looked, if I had to describe it, it looked like a very large shadow just crossed the trail. But when it crossed the trail, it crossed it in a split second. I mean, like one step, and it was across the trail. And then I heard footsteps. And I heard, you know, step, step, step, but it was more of like thumb.

Thump, thump, and again, those footsteps were vibrating the ground. I could feel it in my feet. And I looked at a tree that was just inside the trailhead, and there was a limb that was sticking out on this tree, and that was right about where I saw the top of this thing cross. And I marked it just, you know, because at this point now, now I can say I was scared. You know, I was sitting there by myself. I was worried about me. I was worried about my little dogs.

I didn't know what I was seeing. I didn't know what I was hearing. I just knew there was something back there that was bigger than me. And, you know, finally I guess. had sense enough to realize I'm not at the top of the food chain here. So the only thing that I could think to do, I picked up all three of my little dogs. I put them in the trailer, and we had a padlock and a hasp on the outside of the door, and I locked it hoping that they would be safe in there.

Because, I mean, you know, I didn't, again, I didn't know anything. about Sasquatch, you know, hurting dogs and things like that. So, but I was just trying to keep them safe from whatever. And the only, the only way I had of leaving the campground, we had a little, it was a Honda 70, just this little monstrous dirt bike. And it was parked right at the back of the trailer. Of course it would, I mean, it was almost going into the trail. You know, it was that close.

But that was the only way out of the campground and away from there. And this little motorbike had a really bad habit. It was very cold-blooded. It was the old kickstart type. And it usually took four or five, you know, kicks on it. to get it started. And I'm just thinking, I've got to get out of here because at this point, I'm really, I was really feeling fear.

It was like, you know, the adrenaline was going. My heart was racing. And I just felt like there was something back in those woods. And this part is kind of funny. And this is probably pure imagination, but. I got on that little Honda 70. I kicked it once and it started. And I hit the throttle.

And at that point, I'm imagining. And even though I'm not thinking of Bigfoot, I'm imagining a big hand just reaching out from those dark woods from that trail and grabbing me by my neck and pulling me off of that motorbike. Now, that didn't happen, you know, obviously I'm here. I went down to where my husband at the time was dredging. And it was about from where the campground was to where the dredge was. It was probably about three-quarters of a mile.

And I went down and I got his attention. He came up from under the water. and he could tell something was going on with me because I was pale, I was shaking, I was breathing really fast, I mean, just the whole, I was almost in a panic. And, you know, he asked me, what is wrong with you? And I told him, you know, I saw something. Something happened, and I went through the whole thing that had happened. So we went on back to the camp.

The little dogs were fine, just because I know everyone's going to be wondering, what about the dogs? What? The little dogs were fine. And now that I was there with him, and he was always pack, and he always had a 44 or 357, he always had firearms, rifles, sidearms, whatever. So I showed him on that tree where that thing, you know, where the top of that was, had crossed, and he measured it, and the top of it was just over eight feet. And he said, well, that sure wasn't a bear. And I was like, no, I said, you know, I don't know what it was. I honestly don't know what it was, but he, and I told him about the sounds that I was hearing, the wood cracking and everything, and he went out further down the trail, and as he was walking, there were saplings out in the woods that were broken about seven feet up, but they were twisted.

I mean, you know how you can tell that something's been twisted? Yeah, like a matchstick. Yeah, exactly. And they were all twisted like that. And none of them were, you know, old trees or anything. So you can't say it was through age or anything like that. These were new trees. They were actually sap running from them.

And there were broken. there were broken limb and things on the ground and one of the things I forgot to tell you the other day when we were talking I had told my husband how all of

you know the entire encounter had started with the sound of rocks splashing into the water so he walked down to the edge of the river and he actually found where there was a couple of really big rocks missing.

You know how if you dig a rock out of the side of a river, it'll leave a hole. Yeah, kind of a crater. And all around there. Yeah, you know, there's like a little crater. And all of the rocks around there had moss on them and everything. And there were two fresh craters there that, there was a good I think

if I remember correctly the size of the the rocks that were missing they were something like 24 inches like the crater that was left was like 24 inches in circumference

and there were two of them missing so that sort of accounted for the two rock splashes that I heard you know, and I had forgotten to tell you about that the other day because as I start talking about this, I start remembering more because you got to look at this. This was 30 years ago. Yeah, no, I understand. And I'm getting old now.

Aren't we all? Yeah, no, I understand. Oh, you know, hey, as I always say, as long as I continue getting older, I'm good. Yeah, no kidding. No kidding. So he finds these craters and then what happens next, Volta? Okay. Well, he's still not sure what I saw. And honestly, I wasn't sure what I saw. But I was, at that point, I was a little more creeped out being there and becoming a little more cautious because actually this wasn't the first odd thing that happened. there.

The first odd thing that happened there, and I didn't attribute this, I didn't know what this was. Okay, I'll explain to you and the listeners what we heard, and altogether there were five of us who heard this, because when I was talking to you the other day, I had forgotten. about a couple of our other friends who would come up to visit and also heard this from inside their cars. When you were either in, we started out camping up there in a van, and then we switched to the trailer. We had a friend who was in a Ford Bronco. and there was a couple of times at first we'd be in the van and you would start hearing all I can describe it as was the sound of chanting

and it sounded to me like Gregorian chanting the odd thing was as soon as you would open the door of either the van or the airstream, you wouldn't hear it anymore. Close the door again, you'd hear it again. And it would do this off and on all night long. The friend that we had camped there with us, I guess we were up there a couple of weeks, and he finally mentioned it. He said, you know, I'm hearing this thing at night. You could tell he was a little worried about mentioning it,

that we were going to, you know, make fun of him or something, and he starts describing exactly what we had been hearing. And then we had two friends. They were, my ex had been in the Navy, and when we had some friends that were still in the Navy, and they would come and visit us outside of Index from Woodby Island, and they would come for the weekend, but just sleep in their cars.

And the first night they stayed, they got up the next morning and mentioned who is playing music throughout the night out here. We're in the middle of nowhere. And I told them, you know, we hear this.

We hear it, you know, probably three or four, times a week. And I said the only thing that I could think was that maybe the river was picking up sounds coming from upstream. Maybe there were people up there playing music and it was picking up the sounds and carrying it because I had read somewhere that moving water will do that. It wasn't until the other day when you and I were talking that I didn't know that that had been attributed to, like you said, that you had talked to two hunters who had experienced that out in the woods that they heard this chanting sound. Yeah, it was a couple.

It was a couple years back, Volta, I had a, for the audience listening, I had a hunter contact me from, first of all, I was in Ohio, and he said, do you ever heard of anyone talk about chanting? And I said, what do you mean chanting? And he said, well, he goes, I was in my, in my deer stand. And he goes, it sounds like monks chanting. And he's like, and I asked him at the time, and I'd never heard of that before. And I asked him at the time, I said, well, what direction was it coming from? And he said, every direction. And I thought, hmm, that's strange.

But I didn't think much of it. And then a couple years later, a guy in Pennsylvania told me the same thing. He goes, anyone ever tell you about chanting in the woods? And I immediately thought of that guy. I said, what kind of chanting? He said, it sounds like monks chanting. It's that real weird. And then when you brought it up, I thought, oh, here we go again.

I don't know what that is. You know, it's so funny. And I don't know why it is. But when you hear about the, like the samurai gibberish, that they do or mimicking human voices or the chanting, it is somehow creepier. I guess almost because they're trying to act like us. Maybe, you know. Yeah, it's way creeper.

I agree with you. It's creepy. And that was creepy, you know, just on its own, because we're out literally in the middle of nowhere and you're here in chanting. And I'm thinking, wow, you know, maybe there's a cult up here, because this was the end of the 80s, and, you know, everything was a cult at that time. And, you know, I didn't have any idea what that was, and until you told me that, I had never connected that because I didn't know anything about it. And I told you the other kind of odd thing that I would see, well, it wasn't just me, it was, it was everyone who was camped up there with us.

we would see the little lights up in the trees. And they were these tiny little lights way up at the top of the branches and the limbs of the trees. And they were in different colors. I remember seeing sort of a pink and a blue. I ended up calling them the fairy lights because I don't know what it was. You know, someone said, oh, it's probably fireflies. I'm like, not in Washington, not there. We didn't have fireflies there.

Yeah, we don't. We still don't. Yeah. I'm curious, how big were they full titanium kia off? How big was the lights? I mean, are they the size of quarters? At arm's length, now since they were so far up in the trees, at arm's length, I want to say they were maybe two centimeters wide, but now they may have been bigger than that because they were so far up. the trees, you know, they were so far away from me. And you would sit there and you would just

see them just sort of, just sort of dancing, just dancing around in the limbs of the trees. And, you know, there was no certain night that they would come up. Of course, we only saw them on clear nights because that's when we would be sitting around a campfire. It wasn't embers from the campfire because we kept our campfire low, you know. You know, they weren't real big, but they were big enough to see. And that I have no explanation for. I don't know if it was possibly like a swamp gas or what they used to call St. Elmo's Fire, you know, something like that.

I don't know. I never had a, you know, I never had a explanation for that. The next thing that happened in the campground, this was probably when I developed a healthy fear of the area. This happened probably, I want to say, about maybe two weeks after my experience with seeing this thing cross on the trail. It was late at night, I don't know, maybe 10, 11 o'clock at night. And my husband and I were in the trailer. We were in bed, you know, just. And we were talking.

and now to give an explanation of why this happened the way that it did we had one of the windows on the left side of the trailer it was the kind that had the lever that you would you you would turn and it would close the window down well that lever was broken so that window as we were moving the trailer down the road, it would bounce. And my husband was afraid that the window was going to break, so he sort of engineered this this thing. And it worked. He took a piece of four by four.

And it was probably maybe about a foot long. He tied a piece of wire around the middle of it and then tied the wire. through the metal spine of the window, so that the weight of the 4x4 would hold the window closed as we're moving the trailer. And we just left it on there as, you know, when we would park the trailer, it made a certain noise when the window would open,

like if it slipped out of your hand, because I could still open that window and kind of prop it open. Well, okay, as we were lying there that night, again, there was nobody in the campground. It was just us. Suddenly, that window opens, and it opens to the point that the four-by-four catches, and whoever or whatever realized that that window, wasn't going to open anymore, let it go. And the window slammed shut.

It bounced a few times, and then the four by four hit against the wall on the inside of the airstream. Now, I froze. I just like, because I had been spooked since the whole thing had happened with seeing that thing cross. the trail, and you have to realize the trailer still in the same spot, and where these windows were, they were about maybe seven feet from the trailhead. My husband jumped up, and he grabbed the 44, and he went out the door. He did have a flashlight, and I sat up, and I was sitting there,

and I was looking out the window, but there were little curtains on the window next to me where our bed was. And he went out the door, he turned left, and he went around the side of the trailer, just basically following around the trailer to try to catch whoever it was trying to break into the trailer. The little dogs, again, they're smart. sitting still and quiet, right in bed with me. And at some point, I heard that thump, thump, thump outside. And I was looking out the window, but I was too scared to pull the curtain back. And I probably should have, but I wasn't sure I wanted to see what was out there.

I, like I said, I had finally developed a fear of that place. So, Volta, can I ask you a quick at NMEKF? So you heard it runoff? Is that what you're describing? Yeah. Yeah. As he went around, as he went around one side of the trailer, I heard footsteps from coming from somewhere else around the trailer. Now, I'm not sure where that came from because the acoustics were weird in the trailer,

but I heard the thump, thump, thump. I didn't feel it, you know, the concussion, but I heard it that time. And it sounded just like the thump, thump, thump that I heard when whatever that was crossed the trail. So, I mean, I don't know if it was the same thing, but to me, It sounded the same. So, you know, I could only put together the evidence that I had. Now, what was strange about this whole thing, my ex ends up going all the way around the trailer. And he comes up around the back of the trailer because I could see the shine of the flashlight through the windows.

So I knew where he was outside. And as he went around the back of the trailer, something was running or walking. I mean, because at that time, I didn't hear the footsteps anymore. But something walked past the trailer and ran over the trailer. And it hit the trailer hard enough that it shook it. on its wheels. And, of course, that startled me because I didn't know if somebody had hit the trailer or someone

was trying to get in. You know, I just, I didn't know what was happening. But to me, it felt like somebody just ran over it. My ex came back in the door. He said, I didn't see anything. And I asked him, did you hear? did you hear footsteps out there? And he said, no.

He said, all I was hearing was my own heartbeat because his adrenaline was going and you know how your own heartbeat can drown out things. So I imagine that's what had happened to him. And the next day, and I told him, I said, well, did you see or feel something run over the trailer? And he said, I saw the trailer move but he said, I thought you stood up and were walking.

I said, no. I said, I was still in bed. I didn't move. And he said, well, he said, tomorrow we'll look around a little bit closer because, you know, it's just, it's so dark out there. There's, you know, that kind of, we always call it country dark. You don't have street lights or anything like that. You can't see your hand in front of your face. and when we got up the next day, on the side of the trailer up front,

like right where I was laying down, where the curve of the trailer was, there was a big dent that had not been there. And it was probably about, well, it was probably about a little over seven feet up on that trailer because he had the you know the trailer was still on the wheels and everything and it whatever

ran over the trailer hit it hard enough that it bent curved aluminum and you know air streams are pretty they're pretty sturdy and you know I know that that that Dent had not been there because I had washed the whole trailer myself.

So I knew every little, you know, Nick and ding and everything that that trailer had. And that big old dent had not been there before. And so that was one of the other things that we never were able to really explain because we didn't actually see anything. It was what we heard. It was, you know, whatever this was that was tall enough and big enough to run over the side of the trailer to put a dent in it, you know, I don't know of any animal that is up in that part of Washington that could do that. Yeah, I agree. I agree. So what did you guys do?

Did you stay, Volta? Or did you guys, had he had enough at that point? We actually stayed for quite a while in that little campground because it was convenient to get up to the dredges. But honestly, I began hating that place because it became that even during the day, you know, you can understand being spooked at night because you can't see what's out in the woods. it's, you know, even a squirrel can make noise that'll scare you. But it became such a thing that even during the day, I was afraid. I was afraid to look out into the woods. I got to where I wouldn't even walk out into the woods anymore.

And I used to, I used to, you know, go for walks, take the little dogs for walks. and I got to where I wouldn't go anywhere by myself. And, you know, it was just living, it was living with this fear. And there were a couple of campsites that we would go to, but they were all within about maybe a quarter of a mile of each other. So, you know, if you were going a quarter of a mile, down the road, whatever was happening to you at one campground, was going to continue at the other. And now there was that one last thing that I had no idea about this until years and years later.

There was a bridge that we had to cross when we were going up to the dredge. And we worked the dredge like you would a job. We'd get up at about, you know, six in the morning by about 6.30, we're either driving up to where the dredge is or we're walking up there. And every day, I would, when we would walk, like when we would walk, we'd walk across the bridge, I would look over the side of the bridge into the water to see if I could see any fish because I like to go fishing. And I would do exactly the same thing when we would come back from dredging in the evening. And usually we came back with maybe a half an hour of daylight to spare. So it was business as usual this one day.

We had come back from dredging. I did my whole, you know, looking over the side of the bridge. And this happened to be on the left side of the bridge. And it was, I want to say it was right around, I don't know, maybe, maybe about seven in the evening. You know, the sun was starting to go down and it was going to be dark pretty soon. And I looked over the side of the bridge and just looked around and no fish, nothing, you know, nothing remarkable. We went on down to the camp and got up the next morning to go back up to the dredge, and as we're crossing the bridge, I do my thing where I get on the side to look over,

and on the side of the river where all of the rocks are, there were stacks of rocks. They were, and I counted them. Don't ask me why I counted them, but if I remember correctly, there were 42 or 43 stacks of these rocks, and they were probably about a foot high each one, started at the bottom with like a big flat rock and then one a little bit smaller, a little bit smaller, and they just sort of graduated. and most of the stacks were like that. And I was looking at these rocks, and it occurred to me, and I said to my husband, I said, who would come out here and do this in the dark? He said, well, what do you mean? I said, these weren't here last night when we walked by.

It was dark a half an hour later. They're here now. So whoever put these here had to come up and put these here in the dark. Who does that? You know, it just didn't make any sense at all to me. We ended up calling them the stone soldiers. Now, at that time, I had no idea that Sasquatch were known to do things like that. I didn't have a clue.

But there were a couple of times when we were looking at. it around for different places to go dredging. We went to that side of the river just to look around and we went over there hiking a couple of times. And there was a couple of times that I was sitting on the rocks reading a book and my little dogs are right around me. All three of them, they were, like I said, they were my shadows. They were with me constantly. And I happen to look down and all three of them are facing. away from me and facing the woods behind me. And in tandem, their little heads are going back and forth, I mean, completely in sync with each other.

They were watching something. And, you know, I'm looking at them and I'm talking to them, what are you guys looking at? And I look up there thinking, you know, are we looking at a deer? looking at a bear? Are we, you know? And I didn't see a thing. And I didn't hear anything, but they saw something. You know, they saw something. And that was on that same side of the river where the stone soldiers were. And that was, that was, the things that happened to, to me personally, that was about it. I knew an old guy up there.

He was as, if you, if you ever saw a picture of the 49ers of the Gold Rush, this guy could have posed for one of those pictures. His name was Jesse. And at that time, he was

about 80 years old. And somehow or another, and he would come up, He was also a prospector. And Jesse was really interesting guy. He had, you know, really cool stories and everything. And I got to talk to him one day. And I don't know, I don't remember how we ended up talking about Sasquatch.

But he looked at me straight in the eyes and he said, if you want to see them, I can take you and show you. I mean, completely serious. And you know, you can tell when someone's messing with you. And he, I would bet $100 that he was completely serious and that it was a really good possibility that he knew where they were. But I did not take him up on the offer because I'm afraid of them. And I was like, you know, I'll leave that mystery, you know.

but, you know, he told me, he said, I know where they live. And I, uh, that was, that was kind of scary because it sort of just confirmed some of the things. Because I had started putting things together at that point. Nothing was making sense, you know, you know, it wasn't any other kind of animal that could be doing this stuff. Yeah, I agree. You know, and it's... And most likely not a person. No, a person doesn't make any sense.

I mean, anyone from this area knows Index, and it's one of those places if you blink, you'll miss it. But it's a creepy little town. I mean, there's a lot of encounters from Index. Darrington, that whole area is notorious for sightings, you know. And you know, the thing is also where the thing that happened where something or someone tried to open that window, everyone knows up there that everyone's packing. You don't, unless you just have no value of your own life, not a good idea to try to do things like that

because you're most likely going to get shot. You know, that's just kind of how it is. Yeah. And whoever or whatever did that didn't care, you know. And you're right, you know, those little towns, they, some, you know, sometimes little towns just have those, those creepy vibes. And it's almost like, it's like the townspeople know something that they're not telling the rest of us. Yeah, it's true. It reminds me of, and it's been for ever since I've been to index,

but like Fork, Washington, it's another little creepy town. And what's weird now is when you drive through it, you'll see signs of Bigfoot. You know, people have them up on gas stations or you'll see it throughout the town. It's a terrifying account. I mean, it really is. I mean, you know, because there's nowhere to go. You're not going to call 911 out there. Your 911 was your ex-husband, you know.

I think all the time that we were up there. And, I mean, this was over the course, this was over the course of several years. We spent part of spring all of summer and part of fall up there dredging. And I think over the course of about three years, we saw one forest surface person, one, and the whole time we were there. And it's not like, oh, you know, something has gotten after me.

I can run across the street to the neighbors and get some help. There were no neighbors. There was no one out there, you know, And like I said, when it was all happening, I was 19 years old, and we're all invincible at that age. You know, at 19, half the time we don't have sense not to be afraid of things. It wasn't until later that things started happening, that the fear started building. And it got to the point to where I told my husband at the time, I said, I'm done with index. I said, because some other pretty bad things have happened up there.

They actually, for a while, had a serial killer that was up there. And you can find stores about it online. The fear built to the point that I just, I was just done with it. Yeah. I don't blame you. I really was. The thing that I resent most is that I'm afraid of the woods now. you will not catch me going out to the woods by myself.

You won't catch me wandering around in the dark. And it used to be that that didn't bother me at all. You know, I could go anywhere in the woods, but when all of that happened altogether, it created that fear in me, and I've never gotten over it, and I'm 49 years old now. Yeah, I hear you. I hear you.

It seems to affect people different ways, but that seems to be a very common feeling amongst most people who have encounters. What do you think, Sasquatchez, Valta? Wow, you know, I've done a lot of reading about it because it really is a fascinating subject to me. just the idea that we may have this species, you know, in our country that, you know, as far as what they're telling us is undiscovered, I don't believe that, but at any rate, I've done a lot of reading about it. And with everything that I've read, with everything I've heard and experienced, I think they are an animal. I think they are a dangerous animal simply because you can't predict what they're going to do. But that's true for any wild animal. You know, I've heard you say, you know, would you take your kid up to, you know, go pet a grizzly?

Would you take your kid to go pet a wolf or a mountain lion? And it's like, well, no, well, why would you do that with this, you know, species of animal that we don't really know a whole lot about. And that makes sense to me. And I think they're really, really smart. I don't buy the paranormal aspect that a lot of people kind of a tribute do them. I think one of the things that I think is interesting, and I kind of experienced that when I saw whatever that was crossed that trail so fast, I mean, had I blinked right

at that second, I wouldn't have seen it. But it really was almost a gliding action. And I've heard a lot of people say it looked like they were gliding. But I think what it is, I think it's an optical illusion. I think they move so fast that it makes us think that they're gliding, almost like not to be silly, but almost like moonwalking. You know, it's like from a distance it really does look like, the feet aren't touching the ground.

And that thing moved so fast that I'm sure, had I blinked, I would have completely missed it. I think people need to be really careful when they go out to the woods because there's things out there that we really don't understand. When you leave your house and go out to the woods, you're not at the top of the food chain anymore, you know. I think, and I really do think from what I've read, that goes back to some of the folklore that went with the First Nation people where they believed that Sasquatch were cannibals and that, you know, there were stories of them kidnapping people and they suspected that they were eating them, I think it was opportunistic. you know, if you have a bear or a mountain lion in some sort of a position where they're really hungry and they're starving,

if there's an easy meal, they're going to go after it. Yeah, they're going to take... If Sasquard... Yeah. Yeah, they're going to take advantage of every... If sex squash is an animal, they're going to take what's easy. Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

And me, I don't run fast enough anymore. So it's like, I... I don't want to be on the buffet that day, you know. In a lot of ways, I'm glad I didn't see, I'm glad I didn't see the face because I think that would have messed with my head. That was sort of a fear. And even what I did see and what I experienced, it has given me. nightmares since then. I have very vivid nightmares of

Sasquatch coming after me or I'll just be in some in the dream or the nightmare. I'll just be in some, you know, a normal situation and look up and look across and see what I know is a Sasquatch.

You know, it, And I think just the little bit that I saw, I messed with my head enough that even this 30 years later, I still, every once in a while, and it's the kind of nightmare that you wake up from, you sit up on the side of your bed, you get up and you go and turn the TV on, you know, you're not going back to bed that night. You're not going back to bed. Yeah. I don't think anyone could blame you, Volta. I mean, it's a terrifying night, you know, especially being out there in the middle of nowhere. You're kind of at its mercy. And then it coming up, you know, and pushing the window open.

And like he said, that for a person to do that, makes no sense. Not out there. Like he said, it's a great way to get your head blown off, especially in Index Washington. You know, it's, uh... Exactly. You know, they... You always hear about... Well, I mean, like, I always make references to the movie Deliverance.

You're out in the middle of nowhere, and you take a left with a little banjo playing boy. But the South doesn't hold the monopoly on people like that. They're everywhere. And Washington has, you know, some of those people who have no tolerance of, you know, anyone messing around. and but you know I guess when it when it comes right down to it if that was Sasquatch that I saw or experienced

it had every opportunity to take me and hurt me you know I just would have disappeared nobody would have ever you know nobody would have ever known what happened you know the thing where it opened the window

it may have just been a sheer curiosity or, you know, maybe it smelled the dogs or maybe it's looking at that air stream is a can of sardines and there's something in there it wants to eat. I don't know.

You know, but that probably scared me worse than everything else because at that point it was trying to get into I mean, that was our house at that time, you know, our little trailer, that was our house. It would be like,

something coming up to your house where you live and, you know, trying the door or trying a window. No, I understand. Yeah, I mean, kind of changes. And then seeing out there in the middle of nowhere. Yeah, it changes it when it comes up and it's, you know, where you're sleeping at night. And, you know, the whole account itself is, it's terrifying. You know, I get so many reports from guys out doing, you know, looking for gold, a lot of miners, a lot of prospectors. those guys seem to really run into them because they're out there, you know, just like you guys were.

But, yeah, it's a terrifying, the whole encounter is terrifying, really, Volta. I mean, you know, and I really appreciate you taking the time to come on and share it with us and talk about what you experienced. You know, this was, I've told a handful of people what happened because, you know, you get the you get you get the eye roll and you get to oh sure you know and you get to the point that it was like you know I'm just I'm not telling anyone about this I never went public with it because well you know until I listen to a lot of the shows on YouTube and some I subscribe to some I almost immediately unsubscribe to I'm not going to mention who but um You know, I started listening to your show, and you're so kind to the people who have had experiences.

And, you know, you never make the people feel like, you know, you're some kind of crazy person or that you're lying or something like that. Because, you know, the one thing I have always, always been very careful with. and the people that I've told, I never said, I saw a Sasquatch because honestly, I don't know what it was that I did see. You know, it was too dark. I didn't see, I didn't see features. I didn't see characteristics. But I saw the way it moved. I saw how tall it was.

And I know nothing, and having lived in Washington, my whole life. life I had seen pretty much all the wild animals you're going to see out there. I don't know anything that would be that tall, you know. And just as I started kind of, like I said earlier, you know, putting pieces of the puzzle together, it's like, well, when you're left with no other alternative, this is what it must be. I'm very fortunate that I didn't have, you know, the kind of experience where, you know, where one rushed at me or, you know, chased me or hurt one of my little dogs or something like that. It was, if you had to have an experience that was kind of the sort to have, you know, during the whole thing, I didn't feel like I was in danger. It was afterward.

Afterward, I started feeling like, you know, that thing could hurt me. I think it could hurt me. And, you know, I guess at the ripe old age of 19, I realized I have a life expectancy. Yeah, no, I understand. But, yeah, I really appreciate you listening to me and giving me the opportunity to, you know, share it. And it's not the most terrifying story. Like some of the stories, you know, encounters I've heard from, you know, the people that you've interviewed is like, oh, my God. You know, I would, you know, I can understand why the person's like, I'm never going into the woods again.

I understand, you know. I understand. And I appreciate all the kind words. And thank you again for coming on. Well, thank you, Wes. and you have a good day, and thank you again so much. My name is Mike Woolley. I'm from Keechai, Louisiana.

I had an encounter back in December of 1981 while deer hunting. I got to my deer stand that evening, about 3 o'clock, got on it. This little young doe deer come running from the east out of some briars, some brush, that there's no way a human could walk through that. She'd come up to my deer stand And what was so amusing Come up to my deer stand and lay down Up and actually touching the deer stand

She was ringing wet Was sweat she had been run Something had been running her When I raised my head back up I was turning my head And out of my peripheral vision I seen something And it was tall

About 7, 8 foot tall It was black Real hairy Like a gorilla You know I remember the first time I interviewed Mike I was so excited to have them on the show and this is before I was numbering the episodes.

That tells you how long ago it was. And I was so excited to have Mike on the show. He was so friendly, humble, nice guy. And to me, Mike was a big star. I'd watch his interview on YouTube several times. And I was really became good friends with him. And I was so heartbroken to hear him. They hear that he had passed away.

And everyone knows Mike. You guys hear him. in the intro of the show where he's like, the eyes are real, real evil. That's Mike telling his encounter. And a funny story, when I put that in the intro, I asked Mike, is it okay if I put you in the intro? And I remember he said, well, yeah, that's fine. Do you think people will be able to understand me through my southern accent?

And it made me smile, made me laugh. And when I got the news, he had passed away. That was the last memory that came up of him saying that to me. So tonight I thought we'd do a tribute to Mike and play's encounter one last time. Rest in peace, my friend. My name is Mike Woolley. I'm from Keachau, Louisiana. I had an encounter back in December of 1981 with a big foot while deer hunting.

It was a beautiful December day, perfect weather for a hunt. temperature was about 30 degrees. I got to my deer stand that evening, about 3 o'clock, got on it. And I was sitting there and I was facing to the north. And my deer stand was located about a mile and a half down an old logging road. And off the main highway, secondary highway. And what I would do, I would park my truck halfway down the logging road. and I would walk in the rest of the way

because I didn't want to drive my truck down and spook the deer. Well, it must have been, I hadn't been there more than 30 minutes and this little young doe deer come running from the east out of some briars, some brush that there's no way a human could walk through that.

She'd come up to my deer stand and what was so amusing come up to my deer stand and lay down up and actually touching the deer stand. She was ringing with. was sweat. She had been run. Something had been running her. And the first thing hit my mind, it was a big buck. And I said, I'm going to kill me a big buck. So when I raised my head back up, I was turning in my head and out of my peripheral vision, I'd seen something hop to a tree.

And it was tall, about seven, eight foot tall, and it was black, real hairy, like a gorilla. And I knew it wasn't a gorilla because there was no circus in town. And I knew it hadn't escaped. And I knew we didn't I know guerrillas running loose. So the first thing hit my mind, it was somebody dressed up in a suit trying to scare me off my good deer hunting spot. Well, immediately I go to talking to this thing, telling me, you know, take the head off, get out of here, you know, don't come back. You know, this ain't no joke. I don't find it funny, you know, just leave. Well, this thing was just eyeballing me, you know, looking at me and really giving me some sense.

sinister looks. And I knew right then, I said, you know, something ain't right. Well, this went on for a few minutes, and he must have been about 20 yards from me, 15, 20 yards. So I take my rifle. I've got a high-powered rifle with a high-powered scope on a rifle, and I look through the scope at the creature. And I knew that after looking at it, I was in a situation because it was cold. You know, the moisture was coming out of its mouth, its nostrils. It looked really really. It looked really, really, really human. The face was human. The eyelashes, I could see the eyelashes, you know, the eyes, the teeth, the teeth were big, big teeth, flat teeth like our teeth. So anyway, I'm sitting there and I'm looking at it, and it just, it's really peoed at me. And it lets out a roar like a line.

Well, about 100 yards to the northeast, there's this really, really loud whistle comes back, you know, a signal to the growl. Well, this creature looks over that way and whistles back in the same tone of whistle, and in turns, it looks at me. Well, I'm kind of like, hey, you know, what's going on here? You know, something's up. I'm in trouble. Big trouble. Well, all of a sudden I hear movement coming from that direction, and I knew whatever he signaled was coming to meet up with him.

And I knew that I was probably going to be the one and going to be on the losing end of the stick, you know. Well, I thought it was a feral human because I'd heard about them, you know, done some reading about them. But so far as a Bigfoot, I thought that was something existed out in California. I just thought that was something somebody made up to make money off of. Well, I jumped down off my stand and I'm running to the west to get to my truck.

And I look over my left shoulder and this creature is running through the woods and it is just moving brush. It's running through the brush and it's bulldozing the brush down. And I knew, man, this thing is going to get me. It is mad. It is p-oed. It's going to get me. Well, I'm coming up on my truck and I'm thinking, well, I got to stop to unlock my truck. And when I was get ready to unlock the truck. He's going to make his move. He's going to have me. Well, something crossed my mind to fire a warning shot. Well, when I got to the tailgay of the truck,

I threw my rifle to the left, pull the trigger, and the shot fired, and the bullet hit about seven foot up in a tree and blew bark in front of his face. The bark actually hit him in the face because he was about three foot from the tree. If the creature would have been another two seconds, the bullet would hit him dead in the head. Well, I got in a truck. I'm driving off.

I look in my rearview mirror. And lo and behold, his buddy that he'd signal had been tailing me coming up the logging road. I didn't have a one chase of me. I had two. Well, they kind of stood there and looked at each other as I was driving off. But my recommendation to anybody, if you ever have an encounter in the woods, is don't fool with them. Don't make eye contact.

don't point, and surely don't point a gun. Do not engage this creature because if you do, you will lose. The reason I didn't shoot it is it was just too human. The face, it was a bipedal. You know, it walked two legs on two legs, just like we did. But it was just too human.

The face was too human. the eyelashes, the teeth, the jaw structure, the forehead. It was light brown. The face was light brown, like it had a dark sun tan. But I couldn't pull the trigger because something told me this ain't right. It's not the right thing to do. I hurt myself today to see if I still. feel. I focus on the pain the only thing that's real. The needle tears the hole, the old familiar sting.

Try to kill it all away, but I remember everything. What have I become? My sweetest friend Everyone I know Goes away In the year And you could have it all This crown of thorns

Upon my liar's chair Full of broken thoughts I can not repair. Beneath the stains of time disappear. You are someone else. I am still right here. What have I become my sweetest friend? Everyone I know goes away. 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 podcasts. Let SportsGarten Network's Wagering Week. Help your bottom line.