Sasquatch Chronicles - SC EP:630 Camping In A Boneyard

Episode Date: March 1, 2020

Johnathon writes "I would like to tell you my experiences. I grew up in a small town or village (depends on how you define Either or ) Slana, Alaska. Growing up me and my family didn't have power or running water. My first experience was when I was 7 so to get water for the house we would have to load buckets in to the old station wagon drive down to the river. My job was to sit in the back and hold the jugs so they don't tip over not like hold them on my lap but just hold them still. I remember pulling out of the pullout at the river and looking out the back window and seeing a (as I put it to my parents) big hairy dude stand up out of the ditch on the other side of the ditch. He had vary thick brown and dirty wight hair on his chest and on what we would consider his beard. Of course my parents didn't believe me said I was just imagining things. The scary experience is what I'm really hear to tell you about to say nothing ever tried to interact with us would be a misrepresentation of the reality of living out there. From small things like sitting in the outhouse and having acorns thrown at you to coming home to find something has ripped your door off the hinges taken all your food and trashed your cabin (normally blamed on bears) witch is rare but does happen. One day my friend mat came to visit me and my family from the city so me and my sister decided to take him camping up in the mountains. Me and my sister packed up with a shotgun an SKS with her dog Lucius food and couple tents set off. to get to the trail it was a 2 hour drive plus a 3 hour walk to get to where we wanted to camp. When we got to the clearing we noticed moose bones but we thought it was just a hunter's camp but now looking back Hunter's wouldn't have left the antlers. We set up the camp and it was an uneventful day the dog was happy running around it wasn't tell we all laid down for the night it was me and mat in one tent my sister and her dog in the other tent. It was about midnight when I woke up to branches breaking outside of my tent I called over to my sister did you hear that she called back that I was just hearing things then it sounded like something ripped a tree down. We jumped out of the tent we could hear things circling the clearing we were in running around. We could tell that they were on two lags it's a varey distinct sound but at the time we were thinking wolves trying to get the dog so we built up the fire and shot off a couple rounds from the SKS cuz we had bear slugs in the shotgun. It dies down for about 15 minutes then it starts up again just running around the camp then we realized that they were not making any noise no barking or growling bears and wolves make lots of noise when they are hunting.so we fired off a bunch more rounds but they didn't leave this time mat came running over saying something was touching the tent he was in we ran over and we found the dog in the tent he had peed on himself and refused to come out he is a big boy to pit bull American bulldog cross about 90 pounds was still young at the time. He has been around bears wolves and links nothing has scared him but now he won't move. So we decided it was time to leave we packed up the camp we went to the tree we put are food in then we could see shadows in the fire we never heard them walk up on us it was like the running was just a destruction. I had to carry the dog so my sister had the shotgun mat had the pots and pans and the SKS my sister was up front with the flashlight and mat was in the back with a flashlight so me and the dog were in the middle so nothing could try and grab him.we could hear them following us all the way down the mountain but half way down we had to take a break when mat put the pack down it made a loud clang then we heard something Sprint off it was standing only about three feet away from mat and we had no clue it was there. The dog never stopped crying but they seemed more interested in mat we made it back to the car and drove away very fast. We never got a good look at what they were and we shot at the noise but I don't think we hit any thing. I think we accidentally walked in to where they were staying for the night. There is more experiences but this email is already long winded so thank you for your time."  Fox is my second guest. He comes to us from Florida and will be sharing an encounter he had camping with friends, and some strange things that happened to him while hunting.   Visit www.sasquatchchronicles.com for additional weekly shows and exclusive content.

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

I know what a bear looks like and there is no way on this planet of what I saw were bears. What's going on, what are you reporting? 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 in. Uh-uh.

This is John Pellegrino, and you're listening to Sasquatch Chronicles. Welcome to the show, everyone. Thanks for being here tonight. Got a great show planned for you tonight. We're going to be talking to Jonathan. And Jonathan is originally from Alaska. And him and his sister and a friend of his went out camping. And it's a fascinating account because they thought they were camping in an old hunter's camp.

And it was kind of a bone yard. And if you've listened to the show for a while, there's accounts of people coming. across these bone yards out in the middle of nowhere. And it was a very terrifying night. They were chased off the mountain. And then we're going to be talking to Fox. And Fox comes to us from Florida. And Fox actually had a very strange encounter when he was a young man out parting with

his friends in the woods. And he has a cool company, wild wild pests. If you're in Florida, check it out. He does animal control. We'll come out and get rid of different, you know, pest animals. and so if you're out there in Florida, definitely check it out. 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 saskwatch Chronicles.com.

And if you get a chance to check out Sasquatch Chronicles.com, you can become a member and get additional shows. Let's actually jump into it tonight. I want to welcome Jonathan to the show. Jonathan, thanks for coming on. Oh, thank you for having me, on Wes. Yeah, I really appreciate you being here. and I was fascinated when you sent me your email with the encounters there in Alaska.

If you would, I'll let you kind of take it away. Kind of tell us what you were doing and walk us into that very first encounter. So my very first encounter, I was around seven years old. And we were living out in this town in the middle of nowhere in Alaska. So it's equal distance from Anchorage and from Fairbanks. It's 400 miles from Anchorage, 400 miles from Fairbanks, pretty much. So we're in this little village, town, whatever you want to call it. And so we didn't have any power or running water.

So to get water, we would have to load jugs into the car and drive down to the river, load up the jugs, load up the everything full of water, and then haul it back to the house. and we were pulling down into this little pole off so you drive down onto the pole off and then you get out and you can lean down into the river that flows under the road. So we got down under there and we filled up the jugs and we put them in the back seat and I was just small

so I was sitting in the back, the car making sure they didn't tip over. And as we were pulling out on the other side of the road, you know the river still flows through the road so on the other side I was looking out the back window and I saw a big hairy brown and gray dude pretty much as that's what I told my parents stand up out of the ditch and he was just kind of watching us but he he was only about 20 feet away from us the entire time and we had no idea he was there can you describe what you saw so well I can't really of height because I was a kid. I'm not you know, I couldn't, I wouldn't be able to tell. But he was, you know, he was very big. He was, he looked like the size of a standard bear because I had seen bears when I was at age. So, yeah, standard bear size to probably, you know,

eight feet tall, a couple hundred pounds. And he was brown and very gray in gray in spots. like he was kind of looked like he was dirty snow color. You know what I mean by that? Yeah. Yes. Yeah. So he looked like he was dirty snow color and he had very long, shaky hair.

One question I want to ask you is, did his expression change? I mean, I'm assuming he's looking right at you because he said he stands up out of the ditch as you guys are driving by. Yeah. So when he stood up out of the ditch, the expression on his. His face was kind of, it looked kind of angry. He had a more human face. It wasn't like recognizably human, but it was more human than like you would see it on a gorilla or a chimpanzee.

It was like part way in between, and you could definitely tell he had facial expressions. At that moment, do you start telling you're banging on the window for your parents, or do you wait till the car stops? And what was the conversation with your parents like? So I just pretty much was like, hey, mom, dad, and there's a big hairy dude. And they're like, okay, yeah, whatever. And never talked about it again. Yeah, it's terrifying.

As you and I were talking before when on an air, I was telling you about Brenda Harris. I remember she came on. She's from the tribe down there in, I believe, New Mexico. And she was telling them the story one time about one of these creatures trying to grab a kid out of the back of a truck as they were going down the road. You know, it's interesting behavior, too, if you really think about it, you know, any other animal on the planet probably would have taken off. You've lived in Alaska, you know animals.

Probably would have taken off just hearing you guys go by or whatever. Well, so I think the behavior is kind of more like a bear because a bear won't leave. Bears, the big grizzly bears down there aren't scared of you, really. Yeah, you might be right. We just have black bears. I can only speak to early black bears here in the Washington State. Well, so if a grizzly bear thinks that he can get some easy food, he's going to try. And so, yeah, we have a school down there, and sometimes we'll have grizzly bears just kind of like sit and watch the kids on the playground.

That's crazy, man. That is crazy when you think about it. Yeah. Do people get attacked down in Alaska? I almost said down there. I mean, up there in Alaska? Is there a lot of people who are attacked by him? I mean, if they're coming in and watching kids like that.

Oh, yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah, if you're in the wrong spot, the wrong time, it's going to happen. Yeah, bears are not cuddly. They will eat you. Yeah. No doubt. Well, tell me about your second encounter.

Now, the second encounter, did it still happen in Alaska? Yeah, so we were actually, so the little village town I live in, there's about maybe 100 people. And then so the place we went to was another, you know, 50 miles in the wrong direction. So down this like pretty much dirt road, down 40 miles. Then you'll find a little pull off. And then you just climb up this mountain for another three, four hours. So you get up on top of this mountain, you can look around and there's nobody for like hundreds of miles. There's nothing. It's really pretty, it's really cool, but you're also, there's nothing there. So me and my sister decided to take him, our friend Matt.

He's, you know, a kid from the city. And we were like, all right, well, let's just take him camping. So me and my sister take her dog, a couple guns and, you know, food, pots, pans, all that, you know, just normal camping stuff. and so we just head out there. It's the middle of nowhere. There's nobody around for hundreds of miles. There's nothing. And so we were getting up and we're going.

And so we find this little like, I don't know what you guys would call it anywhere else, but like a little hunters camp. There's like moose bones and antlers and all sorts of just skeletons. So we figured it was a hunter's camp. So we just kind of said, all right, well, we'll just sleep here for the night. And then so we lit a fire, put up our tents, and just sat there.

And it was very uneventful until we went to bed. And it was me and Matt in one tent and my sister and her dog on another tent. And we were laying down and all of a sudden I hear a branch crate break just snap. And I'm like, hey, Aaron, did you hear that? And she's like, no, you're just hearing things go back to sleep. And then all of a sudden we heard snap, snap, snap, snap. And she got out of her tent and I got out of my tent. And she was like, okay, I heard that.

So we deal with animals all the time, you know, bears, wolves, pretty much everything. Like the occasional mountain lion. Sometimes they'll come down from Canada or come over from Canada. And so we just built the fire. And they were like, okay, whatever. it's going to go away. And then it starts circling the camp. And we're like, okay, it's not going away.

That's weird. So my sister, she's like, all right, well, fire off a couple rounds in the SKS. So I fire off a couple rounds, boom, boom, that normally, no matter what it is, it's going to run. It's gone. Everything runs. And so it dies down for about good five minutes. And then we go back to go to bed. bed and then it starts up again.

We start hearing things circling the camp. But now instead of one, there's multiple different ones. And you can hear them and it's very distinct when something runs on two feet. At first, we weren't really paying attention for that.

But when it was more than one, you know, you can't help but notice. So they're circling the camp and you can hear them breaking sticks and stuff like that, but they're not making any vocalizations. So when a wolf is hunting something,

it'll howl to the other wolves to let it know what it's doing. And where bears are very distinct because they can't, they always have this like really heavy breathing. And so we weren't hearing anything at all. And it sounded like it was running on two legs.

So we're like, okay, that's really weird. So my sister's like, all right, pop off a couple more rounds in the general direction of everything circling. the camp so I'm like all right so pop off like 10 rounds bam bam bam bam and it doesn't stop this time nothing stops instead of stopping uh you can hear it when one comes into the camp camp and gets real close and circles and so we can't see anything outside of the firelight because it's it's pitch black there's if you don't have a flashlight or a fire you're not seeing anything so it's you can hear them

coming into the camp so i'm thinking that they're coming in for the dog or for Matt. And so we go into Aaron's tent, and Lucius, he's a big old American bulldog red-nosed pit. And he's pretty much just peed all over himself, whimpering, crying, he won't come out of the tent. And then Matt gets out and says something touched his tent. He said something had ran its hand along the tank and run off. So we're like, all right, guys, get out of the tent.

let's go sit by the fire, and we go over to get our food out of the tree, because we always hang our food at least 100 feet away from the camp, and always up in a tree. We go to get our food out of the tree, and then we look back, and you can see shadows running in the fire. Really big shadows. So we're like, oh, okay, well, I know that if an animal wants you gone, you should probably just leave instead of trying to stand your ground. So we were like, okay, no, we're done. And we gather up all of our stuff, pack up all our tent. The dog still refuses to walk. He will not move.

He just isn't a little ball whimpering. So I take him up, and I'm carrying him down the mountain. My sister has a flashlight and a gun. And Matt has, I think he has the SKS and the backpack with Potts Pan. and food in it. And so we're going down the mountain, and it's my sister. She's up front. I'm in the middle with the dog because we're still thinking, you know,

this is an animal that wants the dog. And then Matt's in the back with a bag in the gun. And so we decided we started to start walking down the mountain. And we can still hear them circling. Like, so the trail is a dirt trail. So you can hear when it's like a slat, sound when kind of a, it's like a, if you run through the dirt trail with bare feet, do you know that sound?

Kind of like running on pavement that, that slap, slap. Yeah, I know what you mean. Yeah, yeah. So you could hear it when things would run across the trail. So we get about far away down and then Matt goes, I can't go anymore. And he sets his pack down on the ground real hard. So this trail is only about four feet wide. so he sets his backpack on the edge of the trail and it makes a loud clink

and then something about three feet away from him in the woods just takes off running and so everything else was making noise but this thing was sneaking up and we had no clue it was there and so we make it all the way back down the mountain and we can still hear him circling us all the way down and we get to the trailhead and we get out on this little pullout where the car is and we all jump in the car and you can see them kind of running back and forth in the tree line. And then we just took off. Yeah, that's a crazy encounter, man.

That's terrifying, especially trying to carry a pit, you know, what's that pit, 80 and 90 pounds, trying to carry that thing down the mountain. And they're big babies. I know they have a bad rap, but they really are big babies. But, you know, to react that way, you always hear of dogs reacting a lot like that. when these things are around. They want nothing to do with these creatures. That's the weird thing, though, is because he's been around bears, he's been around wolves, he chase his moose, you know, he does chase his caribou,

caribou, the stupidest animal on the planet. But he'll chase anything. But for some reason, he was just terrified being all over himself. That's insane. Did you know what it was? I mean, did you kind of have an idea of what it was, or was it just confusion all the way down? So I think I know what it was. I think I know, I think I know it was a big foot. Just by the, because when animals run, they don't make that sound. They don't, you know, like you were talking about the bare feet on pavement.

Animals aren't going to make that sound. That's a bare foot. I meant at the time, did you know what was going on or was it just kind of confusion? I know looking back, it's very common. behavior to what they tend to do, stay out of the firelight, circle you, kind of harass you to get you to leave. I would imagine, though, at the time, it was confusion. It had to have been. Yeah, no, I had no idea what it was at the time. This hunting camp that you went into, do you think it was a hunting camp or do you think these things were eating there?

You'd mention there was bones everywhere. Yeah, so now looking back, hunters don't leave antlers. So it was definitely not a hunting camp. I think it was a kill camp. camp. That's terrifying, man. I laugh, but it's terrifying because, you know, I can see why you would look around and go, oh, this is a hunting cap. When you first said that, I thought, oh, that's weird. A lot of times hunters won't leave bones and things in their camp because it's bad for business. You'll have predators come in, you know, so a lot of times hunters won't do that. That does make me wonder if you were like in a little, because, you know, I've talked to a lot of people who've come across

these bone piles and they'll walk in to enclosed area or whatever and they'll see just piles and piles of bones where something's been sitting and eating and that's kind of what it sounds like you guys set up camping yeah yeah yeah i think it definitely was we've been out there all our lives we've had weird experiences but nothing on that magnitude i think we i think you did the right thing by leaving and i would have done the same thing you did i would have fired a fire off a couple rounds, you know, in the air, because you're right, most animals will run off. It is fascinating, though. The second time you did it, it wasn't one, it was several of them.

And they never stopped with the harassment type behavior. You know what I mean? The territorial type behavior. Yeah, I think the first one ran off and pretty much was like told him there was somebody in the camp. I think they're noturnal. And so they had woken up. He had gone out probably to look around, saw that we were in the camp.

went back and got everybody. Could have been. Could have been. Because it was a good 10 minutes that it was silent. Do you and your sister still talk about it or your buddy? You guys still talk about that night? So the second we got off the hill or the mountain, I'd never talked to Matt again.

He completely left. Gone, never came back. It scared the shit out of him. He never came back. But me and my sister talked about it a lot. We argue about her a lot. What do you guys argue about? So she doesn't want to believe what it was,

but we kind of debate about it. She doesn't want to believe it was a Bigfoot, but she kind of knows that there was really not much else it could have been. And I understand that. I understand when people are like that, you know, a lot of hunters are like that. They don't want to acknowledge, even though they've had experiences, they'll tell you, it was a funny-looking bear or, you know, other things that just make no sense.

Yeah, exactly. I think it's a way people have protecting themselves. So I get where your sister's coming from. Yeah. What do you think that these things are? What's your opinion, Jonathan, as far as what this creature is? I would have to say that there probably more than, there has to be more than one, different species. because there's so many different reports.

You get so many different types that there has to be more than one. And then you got the whole entire woo side of it, which there has to be, there's probably something to that. I think there is something to that. So, you know, I have no idea. I keep my mind open to everything.

Yeah, it's kind of a tough question to answer, you know, because they display a lot of human-like behavior. And you're right, there is different descriptions. Some people say it looked like a chimp. Some people say it looked very human-like. And between the different appearances, you'll find different behaviors. Well, plus you've got like the white ones, which most of the time are described as, like, not earthly entities. And then you got the really ugly ones that people describe as monsters.

it's tough to pinpoint what this thing is, and I tend to agree with you. I think some of the weird stuff does go on, and what's going on with all that, I don't know. Well, so in Solano, sometimes we will have things kind of like, it's kind of like playing games with us, if you know what I mean? So we would go down to the river, and there's this little island across the way, like the river circles it and goes on. and we would throw skip rocks over to the island through the river, just, you know, throw them over. And sometimes we would have rocks come back at us from the island. Yeah, I mean, there is playful behavior sometimes with these things. I think most of the time they don't really want to interact with you.

They don't really, they'd rather just kind of watch and observe. And then the minute they realize they've been seen a lot of times they'll leave. most of the time they'll leave if they think they've been seen. But your encounter that night, I'm telling you, man, I think that is more of a dangerous type situation. It's very similar. I don't know if you've ever read Theodore Roosevelt's encounter. Yes, I have. It's very similar, you know, and those guys, and the other guy started shooting at it.

You know, he was going to kill it and it ended up killing him. Well, so one thing I wanted to tell you about was, so me and my buddy went, we were out exploring because we you know sometimes we just like to go out and find new lakes and we found this like abandoned camp like it was in old houses and you can tell they were old because they were built in the old style so uh in alaska we have this layer of permafrost under the ground and uh if you build on top of it in the summer and winter it'll shift and it'll shift your house so a lot of the times they would dig under it. And then that's where they would put their frame and stuff.

So that's how you can tell it's an older house. And there was like four or five of them circling this camp. And we're like, okay, this is weird because, you know, the camps had everything in it. It was just they were completely abandoned. Like we don't, you can't tell what happened to these people. And then a year later, we were cutting a road. And this road's probably six. miles away from this camp. And we found a couple guns, muzzleloader 50 cows, leaning up against

this tree, like somebody had taken a break to go to the bathroom or something and then never came back to get his gun. And we find weird things like that throughout the woods all the time. And people go missing a lot out there. The camp you're talking about. I think I read about that. That was a Native American camp, wasn't it? And like everyone vanished and they don't know why everyone vanished. Like they just up and left one day and no one knows why. Yeah, I thought about doing a show on that. It's a fascinating account. I can't remember that. What's the name? Do you remember the name of the camp up there? Oh, I have no idea. There's so many. Yeah, there's one in particular. And it's a Native American.

It was like a village. And I'm talking modern times. And they left, like everyone got up and just left. And they can't figure out why everyone just left. And, Within the Native American culture, there's a story about these creatures coming in and harming people and killing people. And so that's why they left. I'd love to see Alaska someday, ma'am. Yeah. Hey, if you ever want to go up there, just let me know. Yeah. I would love to be able to go back. I would love to be able to go back. But I cannot find anybody who is willing to actually go out, take the time out and go up there because it's not just like a little, you know, not just going to go up on a two-day trip. It's going to be a while. It's hard woods. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I mean, you're in a real country out there. Yeah, I might take you up on that, man. I'd love to see Alaska someday, and you'll have to let me know if you decide to go back and, you know, if you ever experience anything else, I did the two encounters that you had, I really enjoyed hearing.

Thanks so much for coming on, Jonathan. I really do appreciate it, ma'am. Yeah, thank you for having me on. Well, next up, I want to welcome Fox to the show. Fox, thanks for coming on. Absolutely, Wes. I'm so honored to be on your show. I've been a listener for years now. And if you don't mind, I'd like to share a little testimony at the beginning before I share my encounters. Sure, sure.

So I happen to be, you know, a Christian. I accepted Lord Jesus Christ when I was a little boy. And although I'm full of flaws, I've tried to, you know, live the life. That being said, I was in a very major accident back in 2016. And a woman hit my work truck going over 80 miles an hour is what they told me. And I had to be taken out with the jaws of life and everything. And I fared pretty well, but I did break some, you know, some vertebrates and things like that. And so a few months later, I actually had a brain aneurysm as a result to that accident because I'd hit my head so hard.

and I was literally a vegetable. The neurologist told me later, after I got well, thank the Lord, he told me that I had the worst brain aneurysm that you can have. He said that only 7% of people live through it. And most people will end up not being able to talk or walk or have their most people. motor skills again. So for quite some time, I was literally a vegetable when I'm laying up in a hospital bed. And because of my faith and my hard work ethic, I was able to come back and, you know, be able to do things again.

I'm in pain a lot, but, you know, I just try to every day do the best I can. I'm not on a bunch of medication or anything. I just try to stay busy and avoid the pain and whatnot. But anyways, a lot of the people that I went through rehabilitation with, and I went through rehabilitation at a center and also I'm on for years now, I'm constantly trying to get better and stronger. Anyway, so a lot of them, they can't talk. They can't walk.

They can't do a lot of things. And I feel really bad for those folks. So I'm just so grateful that I was one of the few that overcame a lot of that. And even though it's hard to talk about, I really, it's one of those things where I literally had to learn to talk again. I had to learn to walk again, use my motor skills again, and just be able to have, you know, life again, you know, to be able to have my life back again. And so when you go through those things a lot of times, it makes you really reflect back on your life. And it makes you so grateful for what you have.

And so with that being said, Wes, I started listening to your show when I was laid up and I couldn't really do anything. And I can't even tell you how much it helped me. It really helped me so much to hear all the different encounters. and all the heartfelt emotions from people. And it touched me just as much hearing how much you cared about each and every one of them. I mean, the sincerity in your voice and the way you care about people, I mean, you're touching so many lives.

And you certainly touch mine. And I'm so grateful for that. And I thank you. Yeah, man, I appreciate you saying that. That's very kind words and probably more not deserve, you know, than what I actually deserve. But I appreciate you saying that. That's very, very kind of you. And thank God you got through what, you know, with your aneurysm and everything else.

Thank God you got through that. You know what I mean? Doctors right. Not a lot of people get through that. So it's all you as far as getting through that. But thank you again for the kind of words. Absolutely. So I'll go back to when I was a little boy, I grew up in the country here in Florida.

And we raised horses and cattle and crops. And, you know, we had a farm where we did that, plus we raised other livestock. But our farm butted up to thousands of acres. And it was really unenhaned. I mean, there were literally thousands of acres that no one lived on or anything. Some of it had cattle on it, but for the most part, it was just all wilderness. Since we raised horses, my grandfather from Spain back in the 60s and early 70s, he could bring horses from Spain. you can't do it anymore.

But he could bring like the Indolusians from Spain, which is the oldest horse. And he could bring them and we would raise them and we would sell them and whatnot. And we also had other types of horses too that he would bring in. So one time I was probably about seven years old. we had one of our main horses that went missing. So we went looking for it, of course, you know, and we rode our other horses looking everywhere for it and searched for it. And finally, we were able to find it.

And when we did, this horse had been attacked by something with, it was like the only way I know to describe it, looked like a giant hand with claws had just attacked this horse from like the top of the ears all the way down to the, you know, all the way down the neck to the Gaskins, which is, you know, this center part of the leg corner. And so it really just terrified us, you know. And so they were saying that it, you know, might have been a Florida panther or something, but there's no way that any big cat, even probably a lion or a tiger, could have done this kind of damage. I mean, this horse was just ripped open. And it was spread out.

I mean, you could clearly see where a giant hand with claws just ripped down this. down this, you know, down this horse. And so we did everything we could to save it. And we had a veterinarian working on them and everything. And finally, to our amazement, the horse ended up surviving. So that was the beginning for me of really starting to research and look into, you know, all the wildlife. in Florida and really getting arrested in animals.

And while I was doing that, I started learning about Sasquatch. You know, they call them the skunkake down here, but I've always referred to them as Sasquatch. And I will tell you, and this is all, you know, document. I'm sure people could look it up and find out for themselves. But I will tell you, I remember many times around that air when I was a boy hearing on the local news in our area of Florida where people would cite, they would call it Bigfoot, of course. They usually didn't even say the skunk gate, but they would say Bigfoot, where it would be on the radio that somebody cited Bigfoot, you know, at such and such place. And I remember one time my friends and I were camping, and we literally heard that come over the radio.

And where they cited them was only like maybe 10 miles from where we were. So, you know, we were, of course, pretty terrified that night. We slept with our shotguns. Yeah, I would imagine. I would imagine. And, you know, the horse incident, you know, we can't say it was Sasquatch because we can see it do it. But I've heard a lot of kills that way, you know, where hunters will come up to deers and there, they appear to be something with five fingers and fingernails, cut this thing

open and ate the guts, you know, or slashed a throat of a goat. And it looks like something with five fingers did it. So, I mean, that would draw my attention to, thank God the horse survived, but that would draw my attention because, you know, a feline-making. no sense and coyote makes no sense all your normal predators really make no sense a bear makes no sense so I would see why you know you would you would kind of look into it but you had your own encounter a very strange terrifying night when you were out with your friends if you wouldn't mind tell us kind of what happened that night absolutely and the horse encounter quick. To be honestly,

Wes, all I could think about was some monster. Even my grandfather who was very familiar with the wilderness, he really taught me a lot about the wilderness and animals and things. He was even mystified by

it. He couldn't believe it, you know. But anyway, so yeah, you're absolutely right. That was terrifying. And all I could remember is I would lay in bed at night thinking about monsters. So anyway, to my encounter, we were in high school, and back then we would always, you know,

camp along the rivers and camp along, you know, the places that were more desolate, you know, were way out of the way, you know, back in the wilderness. And a buddy of mine, they owned a big ranch. And so we had designated campsites on different land. And one of our good campsites was on his ranch in the back of his ranch. So I estimated about there were anywhere between 14 to 18 of us all together that night. And we were doing like a weekend camp out. And so, you know, we would, the guys and the girls would get together and we would camp back there.

And, you know, everybody knew everybody. And it was just a fun time for us, you know. So we had this one designated campsite that was way back in the back of this ranch. And I would say it was probably about 400 yards from the main home on the ranch. So we were back there and back behind our campsite, there was like an old railroad trestle. And then there was like a creek back in there. And then it butted up to a bunch more land that was really thick. Well, just beyond our campsite was a clear-cut hayfield.

And on that hayfield, there was like one of those flatbed trucks with the Texas style of hay on it and there were probably about four or five rolls of it on there that were left. So anyways, we were camping and it was in November and we were all, you know, around the campfire and we had like cooked some, you know, some good food. We used to always like take, you know, some really good food out there with us and stuff. And I won't lie to you. You know, we were drinking beer and stuff. And so we were all around the campfire.

And we were just having a good time and telling jokes and laughing and whatnot. And it started drizzling. So when it started drizzling, some of the girls and some of the guys are like, oh, you know, I'm going to go get back in the tent. So they went and got in their tents. some of us stayed out there. And because it wasn't, you know, it wasn't raining like where you were soaked. It was just drizzling.

So it was kind of like a cold drizzle. And so we're out there and, you know, we're just waiting to see if it's going to get heavier or whatnot. And all of a sudden, Wes, just beyond the hayfield where there was this oak hammock behind it that was probably about a 20, 25 acre oak hammock that was on this ranch. All of a sudden, we heard a roar that just reverberated through your body. That's the only way I know how to describe it. I mean, it reminded me of that roar that you hear in the King Kong movie, the old King Kong movie where he fights the snake kills it.

Yeah. Yeah. It was that kind of roar. I know that sounds silly, but that's the only way I know to describe it. I mean, I didn't know of any animal that could make a sound like that, let alone that powerful of a sound. So when that happened, I mean, we literally just froze. We all just froze and looked at each other. And the guys and girls that were in the tents, they started coming out of the tents and they're, oh, my God, what was that?

you know well me and two of my buddies um we were kind of like the i guess the spear as far as like the wilderness guys and stuff so uh i had i had the only gun that we had on us in the whole campsite i had a rifle and it was a 30 30 and um so me and two of my buddies we decided we were going to investigate. So there was this old cattle trail that kind of went alongside our campsite and kind of bearded around and went around the clear-cut hayfield and then went back to that hammock in the back. So we started walking down this cattle trail and we had one of those old flashlights that you put like eight batteries in, the D batteries. And you always had to knock them around. because they would go out on you and you kind of bang them on your leg and then they'd come on again.

Yeah, I remember. So my buddy was holding it and he was shaking so bad. I mean, Wes, we were like huddled up, like, you know, kind of like you are in football in a huddle, but there are only three of us. We're kind of huddled up and they're kind of like walking, literally touching me in my back. And so I got the weapon and my buddy's trying to shine the flashlight, but he's shaking so bad. The beam is going everywhere. And I'm like, man, I'm like, shine that thing right.

Or I said, you're going to get us killed because I'm not going to lie to you west. I was scared. So, long story short, you know, finally, I just got the flashlight from them. And I was shining it real slow, like scanning it across the property. And I had my rifle in my other hand facing down. And as I was scanning across the property, you'll laugh about this. But the truck that was the flatbed that had the haybells on it, it had those big chrome mirrors, you know, that stick way out. Well, I hit the chrome mirror with the flashlight, and it reflected back, and it scared the, you know what, out of us.

So then once I mean, once I got over being scared for a few seconds there, I realized what it was, and we kind of chuckled a little bit, you know, one of those nervous laughs. And so we started approaching the area, and the truck was over in that quadrant of the clear-cut hay field. And when we got over towards the truck, we noticed this big, huge Texas roll of hay that was, you know, just laying there. And it was what was crazy about was probably, you know, I'm going to guess I made about 15 feet from the actual flatbed truck. But as I was looking around, because they were on the truck that day before it got dark, they were on the truck. And we were making quite a bit of noise around the camp. So I asked if, you know, later on after the incident, I asked if anybody, you know, if they'd heard anything other than the roar and they all said no. Anyway, so the hay bell come to find out when we were shining, well, I was shining the flashlight around it, it had like a bunch of mud splashed on one of the corners, one of the sides of it.

And so I started investigating and you could see where something through this haymbell and it bounced. You could see like a big indentation like maybe 10 feet away from it or maybe 7 feet away from it between the truck and the haybell where it literally bounced off of the ground. And because it was little wet, you could see like this big indentation. I guess the mud splashed upon it or whatever. And I'm thinking, my God, what could do that? You know? So, of course, we're pretty terrified, you know? And then we look around and you could see where it kind of just, I don't think it really threw the other handbells off, but it kind of just rolled them off because they were all like around the truck kind of.

So anyway, that creeped us out. So we went back to the camp. And on the way, I told my buddies, I was like, just they're going to all ask us what, you know, what we found or whatever. Just say that we, you know, we didn't see anything. We didn't hear anything. And that way nobody panicked. So that's exactly what we did. We followed through with that plan.

And we got back in the campsite. And everybody, of course, is asking us all these questions. and I was trying to calm everybody down, you know. So we all end up standing camp that night. And in the morning, I had, I forgot to tell you one thing I left out, West, what I think caused the roar, and this is very important. And I'm just speculating. You know more about this than I do.

But what I think caused the roar is, remember I told you it was drizzling real bad? And when it stopped while it was drizzling, it started putting out the fire, you know. So it finally stopped drizzling. And when it did, the fire was still barely going. So I got some gasoline and I threw it on the fire. You know, I did it safely, but I poured it like in a big, like a slurpy cup or something. and then I threw it on the fire. And then it just went like a fire does.

It probably went about 15 feet in the air. And so when it did that is when that thing roared. That's something I left out, and I think that's important. So I don't know if that startled it, made it mad. I'm not sure what happened. But when that fire blazed up is when we heard that roar. and I thought that was important to make sure I add in there. Yeah, and I appreciate you adding that.

And you know, before we get back to when you went back to camp, the bales of hay that you're talking about, you're not talking about a bail of hay. You're talking about the big circular ones that they dig up. And those things are like 800 pounds, 1,000 pounds. Yeah. For it to be pushed off that truck or more. They probably could weigh more than that.

But for that to be pushed off the truck. I mean, normally it takes the equipment to get those things off. trucks. You know, you don't just push them off trucks. Yeah, I mean, and that's what I was thinking, Wes. You're exactly right. I was like, what could get in that one was, you could tell it had been literally thrown off of that truck. I mean, I was thinking to myself, like, what could possibly do that? And you try to reason, you try to, you know, think of something, but there, there was nothing, no explanation in my mind. I just couldn't think of anything.

All I could think of is, again, that, you know, flashback that it had to have been some kind of monster or something, you know. But anyway, getting back to the camp. So we all get in camp and I kind of stayed out by the fire all night after that. It was a real chilly crisp November night. It was probably, I'm going to say it was in. the mid-40s that night, if I had to guess. So anyway, it was pretty chilly, and I kind of had like a blanket,

and there were a few of us. We were kind of all huddled around the fire with that blanket and stuff, you know, because some people just couldn't go back to sleep, you know. So the ones that couldn't go back to sleep, we just kind of hung out by the fire. And I was clutched to my rifle. I mean, I was in a ready position, you know what I mean? So the next morning, we kind of had this makeshift outhouse by her camp. And one of the girls, she had gotten up to go to the bathroom.

And she, I had actually gotten up from the fire, and I was kind of just walk around the camp and picking stuff up, you know, like cans and stuff like that and trying to keep it nice and clean. And so when I was doing that, she came up to me and she's like, hey, Fox. I'm like, yeah. And she's like, her name's Ramona. And she said, I got to show you something. And she was kind of whispering to me, you know. So I'm thinking, man, she must have saw something or heard something. So I go with her and we go over by this makeshift outhouse that we had.

and there was an impression by it. Now, no, I don't want to make it sound like it was some great impression, you know, like a giant footprint. You could just tell where something big had actually stepped there. And because I knew a little bit about tracking,

I knew it wasn't like some local animal. I mean, this thing was huge. I'd say it was probably anywhere between 16 and 17 inches long, if I had to guess. So, and maybe about five to six inches wide, maybe about six inches wide. So anyways, so I started looking at it and I got down on my hands and knees and I was just like crawling around and seeing if I could find any others.

And she was looking around too. And we literally found those same tracks all the way around our campsite. So either it did it before we got there or it did it that night that we were there. But this creature had walked all the way around our campsite. And it was a pretty good size like circle campsite, you know, where we cleared it out. We cleared all the brush and made it real smooth and everything. So it was a pretty good size campsite. And this thing had walked all the way around us.

So my question to you, because you're a lot more experienced than me, me, do you think possibly that this creature, which I believe was a Sasquatch, do you think that it may have actually later on that night, like, you know, came around our camp and was watching us? Yeah, that's hard to say. I mean, I'd be speculating on my end if I said yes or no. You know, my opinion of it is generally their behavior, they do that. they'll come and they'll circle around a campsite.

Sometimes they won't make their presence known. Most of the time they will because they want you to leave. But sometimes they won't make their presence known. I remember when I was in Texas and we were camping out in this area. And it's pretty well known for activity and everything like that, but we didn't hear anything that night. And the next morning we got up and kind of walked around the campsite, kind of walked around the outer boundary of the campsite and you could tell where something walked up, sat down, and it was a perfect spot to sit there and watch us. I mean, if I sat there and there's people camping there, they would

never know I was there. And I could sit there and watch them all night. And so it does fit their as far as kind of walking around a campsite or checking things out. You may have thrown it off by throwing gasoline on the fire and it's set, you know, it might have been closer than you realize. and it, you know, probably shocked it. So it roared or screamed at you guys. I guess long, long answer is it probably walked around that night without you guys realizing it. But again, that's me speculating. You know what I mean?

Yeah, but I mean, it sounds like a very good explanation and one that is very logical. Do you, I mean, this is probably a dumb question, but I mean, are they really that stealth? Like, can they get something that huge get that close to you and you not even know it? Yeah, I mean, you hear that all the time with eyewitnesses that they never heard it come in. Most of the eyewitnesses, if you hear encounters with hunters or hikers or anything else, they never hear it come in. You know, and they'll have some sort of face-to-face encounter with it, and then they part ways. Well, when it leaves, it makes quite the noise when it leaves. It'll knock branches off.

it'll tear things up as it leaves. But I've heard a lot of encounters where people say I never even knew it was there. It was just there. And I don't know how it strolled into camp without anyone noticing. And a lot of times in those camping areas, too, there's a lot of foliage on the ground. There's a lot of branches on the ground, you know, around a campsite. And so if you walk into a campsite, everyone's going to hear you, you know, within 500 yards. Everyone's going to know you're there.

And these things do kind of stroll in without being heard. So, yeah, it doesn't shock me one bit. I mean, I'm sure that, you know, just my observation, I'm sure that they're a lot more adapted to not being seen than, say, your very best Native American that's out in the wilderness or your mountain man that's trying to be, you know, quiet or whatnot. you know, when you're stocking or something. I mean, I'm sure they're a whole lot better at than us, you know. Could be, could be. I don't know. I've met some Native American trackers, man, and you would never know they were there.

They're like ghosts. They come in and they leave, and you'd never know they were there. But these things tend to do that, too, as well. After this encounter, kind of looking at this over the years, what do you think that Sasquatch is, Fox? What's kind of your opinion? I mean, personally, I think that, you know, like, if you really, like, you know, studying, you know, the Bible, like the King James Bible, you'll see, you know, because that's probably the closest thing we have to the Dead Sea Scrolls. But you'll see that, you know, God, well, let's just keep it simple.

He's the great creator. So I think it's very small-minded for us to think that he stopped creating with us. You know, I've always believed that. And you look at the billions of planets in the galaxies beyond. And to think that we're the only life forms, I mean, I just think that's very arrogant for us to believe that. And we also know that there were parts of the original scrolls that were taken from the So, you know, there's, I'm sure, a lot of things that we don't know about. And I would have to say that there's some kind of descendant, you know.

And I think that some of them are related more in the animal kingdom. But I believe some of them are of higher intelligence and perhaps some kind of distant relative, you know, to us. and I believe there's also different species, just like in humans, you have a lot of differences in, you know, in human race as far as looks and even in the animal kingdom, you know, with similar species that also can vary in their looks and their, you know, different qualities. So that's just my belief. Now, you were talking about the Native Americans. One of the coolest things I ever saw. I actually saw a fully dressed Native American when I was bow hunting one year. And he had his younger son with them and they were fully dressed.

And they were stalking through the woods. He was literally teaching his son how to stalk. And I didn't even hear him. I mean, they came right up under my stand before I started. saw them. I never heard them the whole time. So you're absolutely right about that. I mean, they're probably the very best there is when it comes to that. Do you mind if I tell my other encounters? Sure. Go ahead. Okay. So in that same area where I saw the Native Americans, I had been hunting and there was this big laid over pine tree.

It was probably about maybe 10 feet off the ground. And I had gotten up on it and I was using it as a deer stand. And I was hunting in a lower bottom near the Swanee River. There was a swamp in there. So I was hunting down there and I was waiting. for a deer to come down this trail and, you know, get some water or whatnot. And all of a sudden, these two hogs came in. And, you know, hogs, they make a lot of noise, of course.

So I'm watching and I'm waiting. And the first one that came in, and it's the first one that I've ever encountered my whole life here in Florida, was a white pinewood root or boar. So it was a male, and he probably weighed well. over 300 pounds, maybe closer to 350, had huge tusk out to the side. And he was in front. And then there was a black one that was smaller behind him. So I had my 30 out six.

And I was only literally about maybe 45 yards away. And I didn't have a scope or anything, but I put one right through the white one right through the front shoulder. And when I hit him, he squealed. and he just dropped like a rock. And he wasn't moving or anything. So then the second one just kind of like was stunned, I guess. And so I popped the second one.

Well, when I popped the second one, it ran into the swamp. So I started going after it because I was going to, you know, go ahead and put it down. So I spent probably only literally about maybe 15 minutes. And then I got where it started getting deeper and I couldn't do it. I couldn't go any further. So, okay, well, I hate to, you know, wound that hard, but I can come back to there and try to track it. So long story short, I went back to the first one I shot and it was gone.

350 pound bore gone. I mean, it just was gone. And so I started looking all over. I started looking for blood and everything. I didn't see but a couple of drops of blood. And so my party that was with me, which was one of my best friends and his father, they came up like maybe about 20 minutes in,

and they said, we heard a shot. And so I told them, you know, and I said, yeah, I shot two hogs. And I said, but one of them went into the swamp wounded. I couldn't go any further. I said, but I came back to get the first one I shot that wasn't moving. I mean, it was down. And I even looked at it.

I looked at it for a couple of seconds right before I chased that one in the swamp. Like, as I was kind of run by, I looked at it real good. And I could see that I put a good hit on it. So I told him, I said, it's gone. And his dad said, well, what do you mean gone? And I said, I don't know. I said, this thing wasn't moving. I put a good hit on it.

And now it's gone. So, Wes, we looked. probably for about four or five hours into the night looking for that hog looking for any sign and i'm telling you we couldn't find any trace of that hog so and there were no footprints around or anything but i mean this 350 pound hog was just gone yeah so how do you explain that yeah very strange and i mean i've shot different animals and you know you know when you put a good hit on an animal. And when he goes down right away and doesn't move,

it's usually, you know, it's usually dead or dying. But this thing was just gone. And there was, you know, if it would have gotten up itself or something, there would have been a lot of disturbance right there because this was a game trail that these hogs came down. So there would have been a lot of disturbance there.

There was no disturbance at all, Wes. It's like something. Something just picked it up and it just vanished. We ended up finding the other hog the next day. And it was still actually a little bit alive so we had to put it down. But we never found that white boar. I mean, it's a white boar. You would think, you know, it would be easy to find it.

You know what I mean? But we couldn't find it. Yeah, very strange. You hear a lot of hunters talk about that where they'll shoot elk, you know, and the elk here in Washington State are, you know, this size of horses and or bigger. And they'll shoot them and they'll, they go to get the animal and the animal's gone. It's like it just vanished. And no one really has an answer for it.

You know, so yeah, that is bizarre. Was that the only time something like that ever happened to you? Honestly, that's the only time anything bizarre like that ever happened. Usually when I would shoot something, I would always shoot it, you know, with a good shot and kill it. And I never had anything get back up on me and take off. I mean, that one hog did, but we got it the next day. I never, you know, shot something where I wounded it and wasn't able to retrieve it or find it. So that was very bizarre.

Now, I don't know what happened so I can only speculate. But I'm just saying in my mind as someone that's been a lot of time hunting all my life, I don't understand. I can't explain it. You know what I mean? There's no logical explanation for it, in my opinion. So, anyway, I just wanted to tell you about that because that was very bizarre. And then lastly, I just wanted to share my cousins encounter with you. to give you a little bit of the backstory, and I won't use his name because he is very, I mean, he doesn't talk about it to anyone.

And it spooked him so bad that he quit hunting and everything because of it. But anyways, so my cousin and I, you know, we're like brothers. and he's the same way he's been hunting and fishing and, you know, camping and hiking in the wilderness all his life. And so we both are at, well, he was an avid bowhunter and I bow hunt. So, you know, I kept asking to go bow hunting and he kept coming up with different excuses and stuff. And this went on for years, right? So I'm thinking, what is going on here? I mean, why is he being this way?

There's something more to it. So I didn't want to be a jerk and pressure him or anything. You know, you don't want to try to force somebody to do something. So I would just kindly ask them every now and then, hey, you're ready to go bow hunting this year. And I got a good lease. I said, you know, we should do real well out there. but he just almost like he he just did not want to go no matter what so one Thanksgiving I said hey you're going to go bow hunting with me this year so much for for being gentle right so I said you're going to go bow hunting with me this year and he's like no I really can't I'm busy I got a lot of I'm like you've got to go he's like listening to I got rid of my bow. I don't even have a bow. And I said, well, you do now. So I gave him one of my old

bows, which was actually a really nice bow. And I finally convinced him to go. So we had to drive a pretty good ways to where I had this lease. And long story short, on the way there, I'm like, can you tell me what's going on, man? I'm like, that's not like you not to want to go hunting. And he's like, he goes, I really don't want to talk about it. I'm like, you got to talk about it, man. You can't just keep that in you. You got to tell me at least. And so he said, I'll tell you what he said, I'll tell you later on at camp.

So we got there. It was still daylight. We set up camp and everything. I got a fire going, you know, and we were sitting around there. and we were grilling some steaks and drinking a beer. And I said, okay, I said, you ready to tell me? So he was scared of the death telling me this story. His voice was shaking the whole time.

He was shaking visibly. I mean, I never saw him like that ever. And he proceeded to tell me this story. So he and three of his. buddies decided they were going to go bow hunting and Steena Hatchie. So Stena Hatchie, in case you're not familiar with it, is a lot of wilderness area. And it's also well known for a lot of the Vietnam veterans, I say a lot, but a few of the Vietnam veterans that actually, you know, after the war, they actually went out there. and lived.

So you hear a lot of strange stories involving this land. So he and his buddies were out there and they were bow hunting. And they had a plan, you know, where each one of them were going to go and whatnot. So my cousin, he uses a tree climber like I do. and he had climbed about 20 feet up of this pine tree. And he was hunting an off game trail, you know, not one of the major game trails, but one that was one of the offshoots. So he knew that there were some good sign.

You know, he'd found some scrapes and rubs and stuff. So he was just pretty sure that he was going to get him a nice buck. So he got out there. late. He got out there around 11.30 that morning, he told me. Because for some reason, they didn't get up early like they had planned. So he ended up doing a day hunt, you know, where you get in the woods and you end up staying all day in your stand. I'm sure you've done that, Wes. He was in his stand and he was facing the off game trail. And as he, as he, as he, As he was looking down the off game trail, he said it was probably about, I think he told me it was in February, February or something. No, I'm sorry, it was September because it was both seasons. I messed up. So it was like in September and he's got his bow, you know, and he's looking down this off game trail.

Well, he said he saw something kind of like peeking out. from the trail, but towards the back, like it was more shady. He's watching it because he's thinking it's a buck or something, you know? And you know how the bucks will, they'll just like slowly peek out off of a trail? And then they'll just tiptoe out and just go across real quietly. Well, that's what he thought he was seeing. He thought he was seeing a buck that was being just real skittish and just easing out slowly.

Well, he said that it was about probably, you know, maybe four, four and a half feet off the ground. So he's thinking, you know, that it's a buck that he's sticking his head out. And he's watching this thing. And then he realizes that it's not a buck. And he starts thinking, well, is that a bear? So he's looking at it and he's kind of straining to see it and everything. and he said that all of a sudden this thing starts raising up.

And he said that it stood all the way up. And it was sideways to him. And he said this thing was massive. Now he says that it was probably around eight and a half to nine feet tall. But he said you can't be sure. But that's what he estimated. Because he never went back there later to measure or anything. I mean, when you hear the rest of the story, you'll understand.

I mean, it just spooked him so bad. He didn't even want to go in the woods ever again after that. So he said this thing stood all the way up. And I want to say something real quick. I've never known my cousin the lie. The whole time I've known him. I've known to BS like we all do, but he'll let you know that he's BSing later. or during that time,

but I've never known them outright lie about anything. So he said this thing stood up and he's thinking, man, that is a huge bear. So then

it ends up turning towards him and starts walking down the path. And he said he didn't hear a sound. This thing's walking down the path. And when he first saw it,

I forgot, got to mention, he said it was probably about 45 yards away. That's what he told me. He said it was probably about 45 yards away when he first saw it. So this thing starts walking down the path. And where he is, it opens up from this pathway, it opens up, or path rather, it opens up. And then he's facing towards this path. So he's in a pine hammock.

So anyways, it walks up to the edge of the edge of. of the open up, you know, where it opens up, and it is literally facing him. And he said, till this day, he doesn't know how, because he was 20 feet up in the air, this thing all of a sudden slowly looks right up at him. It literally knew he was up there, and it looked right out. And he said he wasn't making any noise. He was so scared that he was just scared to death. He was trying to be so quiet because he was hoping to God that this thing didn't see him.

And it looked right up at him. And then he said he didn't know how much time went by, but he said that all of a sudden this thing just started swaying back and forth real slow. Just swaying back and forth, looking up at them. And just, you know, staring them dead. the eyes. Like it it wasn't no mistaken that it was looking right at him. And then he

said that it kind of like lifted its head and sniffed real loud, like a snorting sound. And then he said that it stared at them and kind of opened its mouth a little bit because he remembers the teeth were not like fangs.

They were like human teeth. And he said it had a huge mouth. He said, didn't like roar any of that. It just, it just made like a snorting sound like it was sniffing them or something and then he said it kind of opened its mouth

and looked a little bit angry. He said it didn't look like it was you know going to kill him or anything but he said it looked like it was upset or something all of a sudden and it just stared at him for maybe another minute or two

and he was just frozen he couldn't even move he said and he peed his pants and everything. And he said, finally, this thing just slowly turned around. Like, he said the upper body turned first, and it was still looking at them. And as it slowly turned around, it slowly, like, his head in, its upper body just turned. And then he said he remembers it was so weird because it was almost like it was double-joining.

Like, the whole upper body turned and started facing the... path and then the lower body just followed with it and it walked all the way down back in the path to where he couldn't see it anymore and it scared him so bad west that he could not physically even come down from the tree he could not even physically bring himself to come down from the tree So his buddies, because they knew the general area that he was going to be in, they were searching for him in the night. And they finally found him up in that tree. And he was terrified. They literally had to go up in the tree and bring him down.

They had to go up there and actually bring my cousin down. And even just telling this story, you could see the fear in him. And I can't even imagine. I mean, I know you and Woody can because Jaws'all's encounter was just off the rails. But I can't even imagine how incredibly, you know, scary that had to have been for him. Oh, yeah, absolutely. And, I mean, he won't even talk about it. He doesn't want to go hunting.

I mean, to make it worse, when we went, and this I thought was strange. too. When we went hunting, we were coming back and it was it was already starting to get dark. This was the next evening rather. So when we were coming back West, either it was poachers or something very strange. We were coming back. We were about a mile from camp and we're coming through the wilderness and we're going back to the truck. And as we're coming out of the wilderness, we were probably about 200 yards from. the truck. Some some poachers or something surrounded us and they were making all kind of weird animal noises around us. Like

one would be a bird, another one would be an owl. It was all the way around us and it lasted until we got about probably 50 yards from the truck and then it stopped. You could tell they had us around them whatever it was.

And so so he was he was okay all through the hunt and everything i'm not going to say he wasn't scared i'm sure he was but he was okay to come on this hunt but when that happened to us west he doesn't go in the woods at all anymore that that freaked him out so bad and i and i said i said i won't say his name but i said man i'm pretty sure it was poachers man because they have a bad uh that that area is bad for poachers where we were. So I'm like, I'm pretty sure it was poachers. He goes, man, that wasn't poachers. He goes, man, that wasn't poachers. You know it and I know it. I said, honestly, I don't know that it wasn't, but I tell you something, I've never had that happen to me ever

in the wilderness. So I thought that was real freaking myself. I wouldn't think it would be poachers, though. You know, poachers try and stay on the down low. And when you come across to other hunters, a lot of poachers will avoid you at all costs. Yeah. But, you know, maybe you were saying it to make him feel better. It is bizarre. It's a very bizarre encounter. And you hear these things making animal noises.

It's too bad that he won't go back out there. I hate to hear because I know what it feels like, you know, the woods are supposed to be some place where you go to clear your mind, some place of peace, some place of, you know, And when that gets taken away from you, it sucks. I'm sorry to hear your cousins went through it. And his encounter is terrifying, man. I've had so many people up in tree stands. And they'll say very similar things to what your cousin said,

to where they're like a statue. They're not moving. And these creatures will automatically pinpoint where they're at and look right at them. But thank God it. It, you know, it walked off. and but I appreciate you sharing that, Fox, and I appreciate you sharing all of your encounters. Tell us a little, before we close out,

tell us a little bit about your business. I know it's called Wild Wild Pest in Florida. Kind of tell us what you do and tell us a little bit about it for anyone in Florida. Okay, sure. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to do that. And thank you for the compliments. I want to return them back to you. And I really meant what I said, Wes.

I mean, I'm not blowing smoke. I'm telling you from my heart, not only did you help me to have the desire and to want to get back out in the outdoors again and really help with my healing, you know, to just, it was so therapeutic, you know. And I want to thank you for that most of all. And, you know, I really meant it when I said, you touch so many lives. And I know the Bigfoot community can be very critical and bash, you know, the people that are really trying to do some good. But I believe with all my heart, you're one of the good ones. I really believe that not only is yours and Woody's account encountered true, because I was in law enforcement. I'm interrogated hundreds of people.

I pretty much know when somebody's lying. And not only do I believe you all about that, but I just know that, um, I just know that, um, You know, you're just a really good, good-hearted guy, and, you know, you really help so many people, including myself. And, you know, I know it's hard sometimes to take compliments. I know you're humble, but I really hope you take that to heart because I really believe that's why you do what you do. So for all those critics out there that, you know, give you a hard time and whatnot, they need to find something else better to do. do. You know what I mean?

Because if you're not helping, if you're not part of the solution, then you're part of the problem. And, you know, we need to come together as a community and support one another. So for me, you know, I've been trapping since I was a kid because we had a lot of livestock and we had a lot of predators that would try to get them. And so I started trapping when I was very, very. young, my grandfather, and he taught me, you know, about trapping and whatnot. So anyways, I enjoyed it, you know, and I'm not, I never have been one to consider myself as an expert or anything, but I have a real passion for it.

I love helping the animals. And so I started a company once I finally got better from my accident, and I recovered. and I recovered, you know, from my brain trauma and everything. I started a company called Wild Wild Pests here in Florida, and I'm in Pinellas and Hillsborough County mainly. It's just a family-owned small wildlife company. And what I do is I manage wildlife for people, any kind of wildlife problems they might have.

And also I do captures, live captures. And I work a lot with the, FWC and they help promote me and stuff, you know, but I don't really advertise. I've tried it before and I just really can't afford to do much of it, so I appreciate the opportunity for you to let me tell folks about it. And I handle, you know, everything from snakes to squirrels, raccoons, possums, any kind of wildlife coyotes and even cats and whatnot. So it's something I really enjoy and it's really, you know, help me to be able to save a lot of animals.

And then I have a GoFundMe page, which is wild, wild pests, wild animals need saving too. and so if any listeners want to go there and read my story and my cause, I would very much appreciate it. I'm not begging for money. I don't believe in that. But if you, you know, have the amount for a cup of coffee or something, you want to give a donation, that'd be great. But, Wes, I just want to say, again, it's been a great honor to be on your show. I mean that from the bottom of my heart.

My son Bear is a big fan as well, and he's the one that encouraged me to tell my encounters because I never really talked about them but to maybe two people before. So I really appreciate it, Wes, and I really appreciate you and all that you do for everybody. Yeah, well, thank you for the kind of words. The honor is mine having you on. Do you have a website for Wild Web Pess? Well, you're going to laugh. I had a website, and I'm getting ready to put up another one, but it got hacked, and so it was all in, like, Chinese.

So I couldn't even go on there and fix it or anything. But I do have a Facebook. You'll see that. And my phone number, if you don't mind me giving it out real quick. Well, go ahead. is area code 727 483-2126. 727-483-2126. And I'm very reasonable.

My prices are lower than anybody else's, and I pride myself on taking care of the people. You know, I really do care. So thank you so much, Wes. I really mean that. And I hope that we can stay in touch. And I just thank you so much for being the inspiration that you are. Yeah, well, thank you for the kind of words.

Tell your son, hello for me. If you're out there in Florida, definitely look up wild, wild pest with flocks, with Fox. And I wish you were out here in Washington State, man. There's a raccoon. Every time I take the trash out, he's always out there. And I swear to God, he's the size of a Sasquatch. and he just, he doesn't really give me any trouble, but he gives me the stink eye, and I just look at him and kind of nod and put the trash away, and then I go inside, you know,

that's a battle I don't want. You know, I outweigh him, I'll size him, but I have this sneaky suspicion. He'd probably mop the floor with me if we got into it. You and I are both past bouncers, too, which is pretty cool. And, you know, I can tell you right now, uh, sometimes he's easy. animals get the best of me too. I was doing an otter job. I was doing an otter job.

And I do a lot of my stuff at nighttime, you know, and do it in the stealth of the night. And so I was doing an otter job around the lake not too long ago. And I got too close to the bank, and it caved in on me. And I fell right in the water. And I had an otter swimming around me. And, you know, otters can be very vicious. And if he knew that I was trying to trap him, he might have really tried to have a go at me, you know? Yeah.

That's all, you know, it sounds silly, but that's what I was thinking. I'm like, this outer nose that I've been trying to trap it. And now he's going to get me, you know. Yeah. No, I get it. Like I said, raccoons really aren't that big. You shouldn't be afraid of them. But I got this weird feeling if him and I got into it, he'd mop the floor with me.

And he eats everything. He's like this grossly obese. raccoon that just seems to kind of run the neighborhood. You know, most dogs won't mess with them. Cats won't mess with them. He runs a show out here. But I appreciate all of the kind words, Fox. And thank you again for coming on.

Absolutely, Wes. Thank you very much, sir. Thanks, Fox. And that's it for tonight. Everyone, remember, if you've had an encounter, shoot me an email. My email address is Wes at Sasquatchferrinicles.com. If you get a chance, check out Sasquatchwage.

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