Sasquatch Chronicles - SC EP:737 I Quit Hunting After That Day

Episode Date: March 1, 2021

Ted who comes to us from Idaho, he had several strange incidents happen to him over the years. In 2003 Ted and his hunting partner were in between this creature who was in the valley below them. As the two hunters were communicating via two way radios, the creature was heading Ted's way. Ted said "I never hunted again. I gave it up. I thought it was some guy at first but this was no man."

It looked like somebody was bent over and had their head in the window of the deer blind. It either heard me or smelled 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 mouth. life. What will you go on?

They were screaming at each other in gibberish. It sounded like a language and they were chuntering away back and forwards, back and forward, back and forward, back and forward. I know what a bear looks like and there is no way on this planet, but what I saw were bears. What are you reporting? What's going on now, sir? That son of a bitch is about 60 foot nine. I don't know.

Looking right here. Uh-uh. This is FBI agent Frank Williams. agent Frank Williams. We have reason to believe that Tony Merkel from the Confessionals podcast is D.B. Cooper. Call me. Welcome to the show, everyone. Thanks for being here tonight. Got a great show planned for you tonight. We're going to be chatting with Ted. And Ted comes to us from Idaho. And he spent most of his life hunting. I mean, even from a very young age. And a couple strange things happened to Ted when he was out there hunting that have kind of stuck with them. But there's one

encounter when he was out, one of his good friends, they encountered this creature. And after that day, Ted kind of gave up hunting. If you've had an encounter and you'd like to be on the show, shoot me an email. My email address is Wes at Sasquatch Chronicles.com. And if you get a chance, check out Sasquatch Chronicles.com, you can become a member and get additional shows. At the end of next week, I'll be heading out for a short vacation, a one-week vacation. So there'll be shows. on Friday and shows on Sunday of next week, but the following week there won't be, gosh, I can't remember the last time I took a vacation. I want to say it was back in 2010, 2011. So I'm pretty excited for that and I'll update you on the blog and probably next week's show.

In honor of a little time off, let's have a little fun before we bring Ted on. Let's play a little 20 weird facts you probably don't know. Here we go. The country of Russia is bigger than Pluto. I actually look this one up. It's actually correct. Russia's bigger than Pluto. The average person will spend six months of their life waiting for red lights to turn green. The Bible is the world's most shoplifted book.

This is actually true too. It's bizarre, right? The Bible being the most stolen book in the world, the most shoplifted book in the world. I wonder how those people feel when they get to the part where it talks about Thou Should Not Steal. You fart on average 14 times a day, and each fart travels from your body at 7 miles per hour. I could have probably gone through life without knowing that one. Cans of diet soda will float in water, but regular soda cans will sink. I'm going to have to check this one out.

I'm going to make sure that this story checks out. I wonder why a diet canned soda would float and a non-diet can soda would sink. Maybe I'm just the dummy in the group that doesn't know. People spend on average 22 years of their life asleep. I gotta be honest with you. That sounds pretty amazing. It is physically impossible for you to lick your elbow. Impossible, huh? We'll see about that. Almost everyone who listen to the last fact will try to lick their elbow.

Most of the dust particles in your house are dead skin. Gross. That makes me want to go clean. Abraham Lincoln's dog was also a dog. was also assassinated. I actually looked this one up. That's actually true. Poor dog. Surgeons who play video games at least three hours a week perform 27% faster and make 37% fewer errors.

I guess so much for video games rotting your brain out. Pros can remember the faces of individual humans. They can also hold a grudge. That's crazy that a crow can remember your face and actually hold a grudge. a grudge. In America, it is a federal crime to use your roommate or friends' Netflix account. I actually look this one up. That's actually true. Man, I could be brought up on charges. Astronauts actually get taller when in space.

That's kind of a weird fact. I wonder why. I wonder why humans get taller in space. Humans cannot walk in a straight line without a visual point. When blindfolded, we will gradually walk in a circle. Pope Francis used to be a nightclub bouncer. That's odd, I didn't know that. It's kind of weird going from a bouncer to the pope. Kind of a weird change in profession. I guess look who's talking pot kettle. Orange juice tastes bad after you've brushed your teeth

because the tooth face blocks the sweetness receptors on your tongue. In space, astronauts cannot cry because there is no gravity and tears can't flow. I never thought about that. that. Even like an astronaut getting bad news in space, I guess they can't cry. It takes an average person seven minutes to fall asleep. Seven minutes? Sometimes I lay there for hours and I can't fall asleep. What do you mean average? Pezcandy was invented to help smokers quit. They need to create something to help people get off Pezcandy. How many more we got? Three more? All right, let's go. It's impossible to tickle yourself. I think

that one's kind of common knowledge. Did you guys know that one? An average of 100 people choke to death on ballpoint pens every year. Geez, time to outlaw ballpoint pens. 100 people. The average person spends only 10 minutes a day speaking. That was the last one. Hope you guys enjoyed 20 of the weirdest facts out there.

Thanks so much for playing along. I wonder how many that you knew out there. There was a lot of them I didn't know. Gosh, I can't believe Russia is bigger than Pluto. Let's jump into it tonight. I want to welcome Ted to the show. Ted, thanks for coming on. You bet, man.

Thanks for having me. Yeah, of course. And I'm fascinated by your encounter that you had with your friend kind of later in life. And I know you've been a hunter, your whole life out there in Idaho. And there's a lot of weird things that you came across tracks and other things. And we'll kind of get into that tonight. I want to ask you before we talk about your encounters.

What was kind of your impression or your feelings towards the subject of Sasquatch? You know, I didn't have much of an opinion. I grew up in a small town of about 1,200 people. And my first recollection of even knowing about the creature was probably somewhere in 1979 or 80. I had come across a book in our elementary school library, actually, that was called On the Track of Bigfoot. And I read it and was certainly, you know, interested and enthralled with that. But being the time, you know, in the early 80s and in a small town, I didn't have other resources to look up anything current or anything, you know,

that was happening at the time. So not really having any research mechanisms. I just kind of put it to the back of my mind. I thought, huh, that's really interesting. That's kind of cool. And that was, you know, after that, that's all that. really thought about it. Yeah, I mean, I can completely understand that kind of growing up, especially in a small

town. There's probably, like you said, not a lot of resources. I think a lot of people, though, watch it in search of and go, oh, that's cool. Then, you know, they don't really give it another thought. I know there's a couple strange things that happen to you when you're out hunting. If you would, would you kind of just start from the very beginning and we'll kind of go down the list. When did it happen?

And kind of what were you doing and walk us into it? Okay. The first one was in 1982. I was, you know, 13, 14 years old, was just old enough to hunt, basically. I kind of grew up in a family that really wasn't a hunting family, but I was really interested in it. And I happened to have a friend in school that his family was hardcore hunters. They came to invite me on my first hunting trip, and it was my friend and his dad, and then his dad had a friend that he invited along.

and we just went to about two hours out of town in the middle of the forest. I'm in north-central Idaho and camped out for two nights. And my friends and dad kind of paired me up with his buddy. And, you know, I was kind of intimidated by the guy's knowledge, and it was my first Elkhatt. We were hunting, walking through the woods. We'd come down to hidden old logging road that was really dusty. It was one of those roads that had like two inches of dust on it. And we started walking down this road and came around a corner and I could see some

tracks in the dust. And I, you know, it's far enough way I didn't know whether they were elk, human, you know, anything. So I walked over and looked at them and they were what appeared to be bare human foot tracks. And I asked this guy that we was with, he said, hey, what's these? and I don't remember exactly what he said because it's been so long ago, but I know that he was really quick and really sharp about just missing them.

Just like, oh, that's nothing. You know, let's walk over here or whatever. And I just remember having the feeling that he didn't want to address them at that time or any time in the future. So to be honest with you, other than standing by them for that 10 seconds, we didn't really pay that much attention to him, and I never brought him up again. I was just, you know,

he'd just give me the feeling that bringing them up again wasn't the thing to do. And that was basically the first time I came across Danny. It's kind of strange when you find human-like tracks out there. It makes you wonder if the guy you were hunting with, he knew what they were, or just to kind of pass them off.

You know what I mean? When you're out there hunting and you come across human-like tracks, and they apparently don't have shoes on, it's weird. You know, after I got older and kind of thought about it and put two and shoe together, that's the impression that I got is that he knew more about him but didn't want to address them. And he wasn't from our town, so I never, as far as I know, I never saw him again. But I also know that I never mentioned those tracks to my friend or his dad or anything. They just weren't, I don't know, it just didn't see me.

like the thing to do at the time, then I guess being young and stuff, I forgot about it or didn't register in my mind or whatever. Yeah, being new and being kind of young, I could see you doing that. Yeah. Tell me about the next incident. That happened, what, 1998? Yeah, somewhere around 1998. You know, growing up a lot, I'd move towns, moved to a different town, and I'd kind of find a friend in the apartments that I rented. He owned them and we became hunting buddies and stuff and we're kind of trying to find our, we always called it our ritual hunt.

We wanted to find one thing that we did every year at the same time and stuff. So one of the ideas was to take a horseback trip into the Black Mountain Wilderness area above the Dwar Shack Reservoir in central Idaho. He had horses and everything and I had a little bit of the Black Mountain Wilderness area above the Dwarfax Reservoir in central Idaho. He had horses and everything. I had a little bit of experience of horses, so we loaded up and did our first and only pack trip on horses, and we rode up into the wilderness area. Oh, probably two days' ride.

We were from the road, and we set up like a camp and was hunting from that camp. And on the second day of hunting, we split up, and we left the horses at camp. We just went on foot. and he had went kind of around the ridge and I decided to go straight up the ridge to see what was up on the top and when I got to the top I don't know the elevation or anything but it was a fairly high ridge top and at the top there was like a wind-swept snowdrifts that was left right on the top of it it was about oh I don't know 10 15 feet wide and probably 100 feet long the snowdrift. drift and probably two or three inches thick.

And I was walking along that snowdrift trying to see where my best viewpoint was off the left or the right of the canyon. And about in the middle of it, I come across some tracks that were, you know, there was five definite barefoot tracks right along the edge of the snowdrift. and I was looking at them and, you know, wondering, oh, what's that? And it just all kind of dawned on me at once that what they were. And then two, that I was standing on top of the snow. And, you know, at the time I probably weighed 225 pounds.

And I was standing clear up on top of the snow, and these tracks had pushed all the way through the snow to the ground, which, like I said, was about three inches. I just had a feeling come over me, you know, a couple of things that added together. And I thought, well, we haven't seen a person or anything for three days now. And there's nobody out here. And this is not any kind of a joke or anything. Something real left these tracks here.

So I hastily went back down to our camp and told my friend. And we ended up taking the horses back up there. and looking at him. And I don't know if he ever had any experience with him before or not, but it was clear to me that he was pretty nervous. And I can't say I was real comfortable. I wasn't like ready to run or anything. But he made it clear that he was done hunting.

He did not want to sit on the mountain anymore. So we packed up camp and come off the, mountain. We did look around to see if we could see any other tracks, but the ground was so wind swept and hard packed at the top there that in those in the snow is the only place you could possibly see them. And you couldn't tell where it went after it left the snow or anything. So we packed up and made the ride all the way back to the vehicles. Didn't stop that night. We rode all through the night to the vehicles and that was the end of our horsebacking, horseback hunting.

Let me ask you, what was it about the tracks that threw you off? I mean, did they look human like? Oh, yeah, they were definitely. They were, I put my foot right beside them. My, you know, I have a nine and a half shoe, which is about, what, 12, 13 inches. So they were a good four inches longer than my shoe print and easily twice as wide. Definitely barefoot human tracks is what they were, is what they look. like to me. And like I said, when it dawned on me that this thing had to weigh two to three

times what I did to punch through all that snow. I mean, I didn't try to jump up or down or anything. It didn't dawn on me to try to, you know, see how hard it would take to punch through the snow. But at 225 pounds, I was walking on top of it and every foot that this thing put down, it went right to the bottom of the snow. a lot of weight behind it for sure. Yeah. The other question I want to ask you, because it takes a lot to spook a hunter out, and you know that. You've been a hunter your whole life.

I used to be a hunter, and I know a lot of hunters, and you'd be hard pressed to get them out of an area. Was it just a tracks, or, you know, sometimes people talk about that feeling of being watched. Was there anything like that, or was it just these tracks that he thought we should probably go? Yeah, you know, I never really had any feeling of being watched or anything. I just, I was excited to see his reaction to it. We'd spent a little bit of time at this point in the woods together and really never broached the subject. We had had a couple of things happen that were out of the ordinary, but we never, you know, and when I say out of the ordinary, just a couple of sounds and things like that.

nothing, you know, big, no lights or anything like that just sounds. And we never looked at each other and said, oh, that must be Bigfoot. We just never brought the subject up. It was never on our minds. But there was something about that area or that time and those tracks that made him, I just knew, by the way he was acting and being around him quite a bit hunting that he was not comfortable. And he was ready to leave. and I didn't

I didn't question that feeling like I said I wasn't like you know all gung whole let's stand up here and see what we can find or anything I was kind of you know this is kind of freaky I don't know if we should go or we should stay

but his actions definitely made up my mind that we should I should go ahead and just go because that's definitely what he wanted yeah I hear you I hear it literally like I said it's when you're out there hunting and you come across these tracks, man, it's unnerving whether you see the creature or not. The next incident, was that the actual sighting? Yeah, that was the actual siding for both of us, yeah.

If you would kind of walk us into this, because this is, what, 2003 now? Yeah, this is the up at the end last time that I've had any encounter or anything and basically due to lack of exposure nowadays. but yeah, we had, you know, same friend and I, we'd become real good friends at this point, you know, been friends for a long time, and we'd found our routine, the one hunt that we did every year together, and it was about 30 miles outside of the small town that we lived in, and we would take our camper up a week before hunting season, park it at a force service gate. You know, you went down a little road about three or four miles, then there was a gate.

And we would park our camper there a week before hunting season and kind of establish or stake our claim to the area. And then the first week of hunting season, we would go up and stay in the camper and have a boys hunting trip that involved a lot of cribbage and a lot of hunting, a lot of hunting, a lot of drinking, a lot of campfires. but kind of the area that we hunted was once we parked at this Forest Service Gate, you walked down a Forest Service Road, an old, probably 30, 40-year-old walked off road for about a mile, mile and a half. And then you came into a Bull Canyon that had, well, kind of more of a horseshoe canyon. It had a road three-quarters of the way around it. And at that point, we would split up.

one of us would stay on the road to the right, and the other one would drop down through the short part of the canyon and go up to the road on the other side. And then we would walk that road until we met approximately halfway around that road. And this canyon was, it had been clear cut probably 30 years prior, and the brush in it and the new trees and stuff were growing up. They were about chest high all the way through this canyon. And at its widest point from road to road was probably somewhere in the neighborhood of 600, 700 yards.

And at its narrowest point was about 200 yards. And it was a good, you know, if we left camp about an hour before daylight, got split up and got set up. It was a good three-hour hunt through this clear cut. And we'd had, we did this hunt for the seven previous years. and six of those years we were successful at either taken one or two elk out of this canyon so we kind of had a good thing going but this particular day

my friend had decided to go to the other side of the canyon so when you know it takes about 15, 20 minutes to cut across to the other road so the person that's staying on this side just kind of hangs out, drags their feet wait until they get set up over there and 80% of the time you could see the other person across the canyon

even though they were, you know, 6 to 800 yards away, you could see them because the roads were cut really high and there was no trees or anything in the way. But we also had a set of walkie-talkies that we talked to each other. They had a little earpiece with a headset on them and you could, you know, whisper to each other without making a big scene out in the woods.

So it was kind of nice. We thought we were high-tech in the day. But so this day he got over to the other side of the canyon, got set up. We were doing our walk, and we jumped a couple of deer that had run down to the end of the canyon. And the brush in the canyon was, you know, like I said, it was about test high, but it was big enough in areas where if you jump something, even elk, you could lose them for a while. but more than likely if you were persistent, they were going to come back out into the open

and you'd have a fair chance of, you know, maybe taking a shot on one. But we had walked a ways and I was monitoring where he was on the other side of the canyon. And when you got to the other end, where we liked to do our exit point at, the person in my position on the canyon that day, had to wait for the other guy to walk around the end of the canyon

back to you. So we had this little spot that in the side of the road wall that was cut going to the upper part, there's a little slide that had happened and it kind of made an alcove in the bank there. And we'd been in there and after where we'd put a piece of wood in there to sit on and stuff. And when you sit down in this area waiting for the guy to finish his walk, you kind to if you're sitting there just right and kind of lean back, you couldn't be seen from the road or anything, but you could still see the other side of the canyon where your partner was, so we can monitor their progress and can monitor their progress and how they were, if they were seeing anything or whatever.

And this particular day, I was sitting in that alcove and just, you know, watching the other side of the canyon, both behind and in front of my buddy, that was over there just taking his time walking the rest of his hunt. And at one point I saw him looking at something in my direction, on my side of the canyon, with his binoculars, which we did off. It was no big deal. You know, we were always thinking we saw a stump elk or something, and we were looking at it, examining it.

And then right after that, I saw him. look through his scope towards, you know, not at me, but towards me. And that was something that we didn't do very often because you were, you know, pointing a gun towards your friend. And you only did that when you were trying to make a final identification on something, not if it was, you know, a deer or an elk, but how, what its antlers were like. You were taking a final look because we just didn't make a habit of pointing guns across can in each other, you know.

And so I got on my walkie-talkie and I was like, hey, do you see something? And he says, yeah, I don't know what it is. And where I was sitting, I guess I should throw this in there. Where I was sitting, there was a trail that cut from the top of the ridge behind me. And it was an animal trail, you know, a deer trail. And it came at a 45 degree angle down that ridge. and behind where I was sitting, and it hit the road about 30 yards to my right, and it cut across the road, and then went back down into the canyon to a water source that was down there.

So that trail had been the source of some excitement in the time we spent in that canyon. We had had deer walked down off there while we were sitting in that. Alcove, but two years before that, I had had a black bear. I was sitting there and this time my friend wasn't on the other side. I don't know where he was, to be honest with you, but I was sitting there and I heard something popping in the brush behind me and I waited and was getting a little excited and when it come down off there, it was a pretty big black bear. But when they come down off that trail, unless they were going to use the road as a way to travel, and I was a way to travel, they just crossed the road going away from you and then dropped down over the other side.

They would never, unless they winded you, they would never know you were there. And that was the case with this bear. He'd come down off of there, hit the road, walked across the road, and went, took the trail back down into the canyon. He had no clue I was sitting there. And I was just, you know, 90 feet away or so. But on this picture of the day, he's looking across. and he says, yeah, I see something, but I'm not sure what it is.

And the brush up there was about the same depth. It was about chest high. I said, well, is it a deer or an elk? He said, no, it's darker than that. It's got to be a moose or bear or something. And I thought, well, a moose, you'd know right away because they're way taller than the brush is. So it's got to be a bear. You know, being that color, it's got to be a bear.

And he's still looking at it. He's on his rifle. By this time, I'm looking at it. him through my binoculars because that's the only indication I got of what's going on. I see him look and he kind of takes a stance and throws his rifle back up. And in kind of a quick motion and I'm like, what do you see? And he says, I don't know what it is. It just stood up.

And I'm like, what do you mean? It just stood up. And he says, and I'm cleaning this up. I'm taking out the colorful language, believe me. It was a, at least we'd be just beep straight through, if this conversation was to be spoke out, it was spoke that day. I'm like, what do you mean?

It just stood up. And he says, it just stood straight up. And it's moving your way. And I said, well, what should I do? And, you know, I didn't know if I should get up and look up there or what. And he says, just stay there. Don't move. Just stay there.

And I said, okay. And shortly after that, I hear. hear the brush, you know, it's not like real loud, it's just something rustling through the brush behind me. And from my back straight up the hill, it's probably 20 yards from me, maybe, that trail. And then as it goes past me, it gains a little bit of distance of about 30 yards before it hits the road. And when he said, just stay still, I could hear something up there. And as it moved, I could hear it moving from my left to my right coming down the trail, so I knew exactly where it was going to come out on the road. And I still didn't know what it was.

And, you know, I'm thinking, well, it's got to be a bear. I don't know when. And he's like, I said, so is it still standing up? And he says, it's walking like a guy. And I said, well, is it a guy? And he says, no, it's not a guy. And that's just in that tone of voice. and my mind is just real, and I don't know what he's talking about,

but I have a feeling I should get ready to shoot. So I looked down, and of course I'm sitting there with my rifle across my lap, and the barrel was pointed the opposite direction of what I want it pointed, and being right-handed sitting in that alcove, I'm just in an awkward position. I just thought, geez, how are you going to get this swung around to that side, and everything. And then I thought, well, if I move my gun,

my sling screws might squeak or something. You know how your screws squeak sometimes when you tip your gun over. Oh, yeah. Make about anything in the area run when you do that. Yeah. So I decided I wasn't going to move. I'm just going to see what this is first,

and then we'll go from there. And, you know, I can hear it moving closer to the road, and I knew it was going to be soon that I saw it. And I took one... one more look over at Bob through my binoculars and he's kneeled down

like he's hiding and I thought what's he doing he's 600 yards away why is he hiding and that was kind of the thought that went through my mind and about that time

this thing took the road and I'm sitting down at about ground level looking down the road and up you know and when it came off the bank

I knew exactly why he was having a hard time realizing in his head what it was, because all the same thoughts went through my head. It's how to get, what can you be a guy? It's not a bear. And I had, it was quartered away from me at about, it was sharper than a 45 degree angle, probably more like 60 degrees. and I had the visual point of about three seconds. It took three steps and disappeared over the other side of the road. And it was just all real quick and dead silent. As far as when it hit the road, I didn't. I don't know if it's just me or if it wasn't making any noise,

but as soon as I saw the first leg hit the road, it's like you were in a car crash. Everything just goes silent. There's no noise. And when it disappeared, I sat there for probably, you know, you think two or three seconds, but it was probably like a minute.

And I decided, I don't know what it was, but I better see how Bob's doing. So I look across the canyon, and he's still in his cross. position and I said I pushed the button on my radio and I said what is that Bob? And he says I think it's a big foot and I said what and he said I think it's a big foot. And we just went silent again for a second. I said can you still see it?

Because he could see the opposite edge of the canyon and he's like I can see its head moving through the canyon, but it's moving fast. He said it's gaining more ground than you would think. And I said, well, it's coming towards you. You better get out of there. So he says, yeah, I'm going to walk. I'm going to stay on the road, but I'm going to walk over to you. So he started his walk.

It's about 10 minutes or so until just walking the normal road until he would get to me. And real shortly, he disappeared in the, to the trees at the head of the canyon. So there's like 10 minutes of walk there that you can't actually see the canyon. You're just walking through trees on a road essentially. I was fighting with myself to get up and walk over to the edge of the canyon or stay where I was at.

And I wanted so bad to go see if I could see anything, but not knowing in my head, you know, if I could have said, well, that was a bear. Let's go see what this bear's doing. But not being able in my head to put a label on it, I didn't feel comfortable going over to the edge and looking over when, in fact, it could have been just right there. You know, I didn't know how far it traveled or anything. So I sat in this right where I had been sitting for the five or ten minutes. And I radioed Bob and I said, have you seen or heard anything?

And he said, no, nothing else. I'm just about two of you. And I said, okay, well, I'm still sitting right here. And I don't, you know, I'm paraphrasing probably what was said. I don't remember the whole conversation with every single one through our heads with us 10 minutes. So I was still trying to think, you know, what was that? I didn't really, you know, is he right? Is it evict of it, really?

And then I got to thinking, well, you didn't pay enough attention if it was, big foot, you didn't look at all the right spots and everything and how disappointed was that. And I said, but it was so fast and it was so strange. I'm sitting there trying to recollect all this in my mind. And I read it a Bob again and I said, are you about here? And he said, yeah, I'm just around the corner. So I told him, I'm still sitting here. I'm not going to stand up until you get here.

And then we'll talk. And there was nothing traumatizing to me. while I was sitting there trying to decipher what this thing was or whatever, until Bob walked around that corner. And then sitting in the same position that I had watched this thing. Sorry, I'm getting a little bit. Excuse me for a second. No, you're good, man. It's...

No, it's all right, man. And, you know, after my encounter, me and my brother went back up to the area where we had our encounter. And I did the same thing. I was like, well, not exactly the same thing, but I was sitting in the same area. And I told him to go across the road where we saw a step down and cross the road. And it was very, very fresh in my mind at that time. And I remember thinking, God, he looks tiny, you know. And my brother, you know, he's kind of a.

a midget or a little person, I guess is what you're supposed to say now. But I say that, but he's like five, he's really not. He's like five eight. I just give him a hard time. And I remember thinking when he was walking across the road, God, he looks tiny. He looks like a little person going across that road compared to what I saw. And I remember just a shock of thinking that when we were trying to, not necessarily recreate it, but you know here's kind of where the car was parked here's where you saw go across the road and i

remember thinking god uh he that thing was way bigger than i thought it was so i kind of get where you're coming from yeah it was when he walked around that corner and coming to the same frame which hadn't changed for me i hadn't got up i hadn't moved and when he walked into that same frame that this thing had walked away from me at that angle he was miniature I mean, it just, it all hit me at that point. And I mean, you know, my friend wasn't a large guy either, 5-9, 5-10, 170 pounds, you know. But just the heights and the girth of the frame that I was looking at,

what he took up of that, what I had to saw stand in there or walking there, was incredibly tiny, compared to what I had seen go through there. And that's when, I wouldn't say panic, but that's when I put in my head, I'm like, he's right. That's what it was. And he was kind of an excitable guy.

And as I told you, but nobody else knows yet. He's passed away now, and that's really the only reason that I'm able to tell about our encounter, because he swore me the secrecy, but he was funny and excitable at the same time, and he's like, I don't know what you think, but let's get the hell out of here. Let's go. I said, well, let's look and see if it's – he's – where have time to mess around?

Let's get out of here. I'm not sticking around. And I was like, okay, okay, let's just go. And from where I was, you know, it was probably a mile and a half back to our camp. and on the way back, we didn't really say, you know, a whole lot. Of course, we talked about it. And I asked him, I said, well, how long did you watch it before you said something to me? And he's like, no, I just noticed it right before you radioed.

Excuse me, before you had radioed me. And I said, well, was it doing something? And he said, well, it was like down on its knees when I first saw it move. and I said, well, we should go to the top up there where you first saw it and see if it was, you know, if there's anything up there, any tracks or anything like that. And he's like, I'm not going back out there. There's no way. We're going home.

And we were like on our third day of the week and we spent nine entire days up there every time we went. We were only, you know, maybe 40 minutes from home, but that was our yearly getaway, you know. I was still kind of mixed feelings about leaving. I hadn't really had anything that had, you know, really shook me up other than seeing him in the same light that I had saw this thing walk across the street. So we got back to camp and we sat there for a little bit. He was like, we gotta pick this stuff up, we're going home.

And, you know, we have a camper, two pickups, two four-wheelers. I mean, this isn't something you just pick up and you leave in five minutes. And I said, well, let's have a drink, you know. So I broke out a bottle and we took a couple of sips off of that and stuff. And we were just straining up the camp like we were going to leave. And I said, let's go back out there. Let's take the four-wheelers and just go back out to where I was sitting and see, you know. And I said, do you have any idea how tall it was?

and he says, well, I know there's a tree right behind you on one of you're sitting there right behind you that he passed underneath the branch. And he said he didn't have to duck to go underneath that branch, but he was pretty close to it. I said, come on, let's go back out there and see if we can, you know, I wanted to see if we could find anything else. It was the one time in my life that I had, you know, a camera for taking pictures of anything that we might have killed or, you know, and if there was track. or something. I'd never had a camera before, so I was always upset that I never got pictures of the

pictures of the things I'd saw before. So, but again, just like that day on the ridge top, I wasn't feeling, you know, I can't say that I was just like, yeah, let's go hunt this thing or anything, but I wasn't feeling threatened. I mean, as long as I was on a motorized piece of equipment, I would go out there and look around for a minute, you know. So after quite a few swings off of the bottle. Yeah. I talked him in to going back out there. So we loaded up our four-wheelers with, geez, you know, we had our hunting rifles,

and I had a 44, and he had a 357 that we had strapped on us. We were like we were going into war, basically. Plus, you know, having a few swings off the bottle, piling on our four-wheelers probably wasn't the best idea, I suppose. But it's not like we were out of it. but we had just got enough liquid courage up to go back out there. Nothing wrong with a little liquid courage. I get it.

Yeah. So we drove back out to the spot where I was sitting. And we looked at that tree and we went up there and kind of judged and stuff. And she said, and, you know, I never really saw it against a backdrop other than him being in the same frame. And my opinion was that it was twice as tall as Bob was. So that would be, you know, 11 feet or something. and he had a better idea of a branch that it passed under behind me, which the branch was 10 foot, 4 inches off the ground.

And he said that he could barely see daylight when it passed underneath it. So we just agreed to say 10 feet. That's a, you know, a foot, give or take six inches either way, we felt comfortable with saying that's about what it was. So after we got done measuring that branch, and stuff where we're just kind of standing there. And I'm like, you know, we're starting to recall other things that have happened to us. Why him and I, the 15 years, him and I have spent in the woods together.

Because, you know, we never really talked about the subject. I knew that I'd had a few little things happened. And when they did come back into my mind, I was, I guess, an unverified believer. but him and I had never really talked about it before. And he was just like, I can't believe we did this. And by this time, we'd become, I mean, he was quite a bit older than me, but we had become like brothers. I mean, he was, his opinion and his, you know,

and what he thought meant a lot to me. And he was like, I can't believe we did this. And we're sitting there standing leaning against the four-wheelers, looking into the canyon. and I look across the canyon and it's standing on the other road across the canyon from us. Oh, we're still there? Yeah. Oh, wow.

And this was like two and a half, three hours later. But it's standing and, I mean, we're 600 yards apart. And it's the thing that put in it, it sounds ridiculous, and I've replayed it in my mind 100 times. But just the way it was standing terrified me. And it's hard to explain. If it was standing there just kind of looking at us, you know, but its body language, it was kind of quartered away from us, looking over its shoulder, like it was ready to take off,

but it wanted to make sure that we saw it before it took off. and just the way I know nobody's I wish I could put this picture in people's heads because but there's a way it's something or somebody can stand and look at you that even 600 yards away can convey a feeling and this feeling was I want you to see me and if I was any closer to you you would be in trouble and it seconds, just two seconds after we, and we didn't say a word to each other, we both just happened to lock on it and went silent. And we weren't being quiet. I mean, we were, you know, we were probably whispering, but we weren't, you know, we weren't being dead silent.

But we both looked up and went silent. And as soon as it recognized that we saw it, it took four steps and disappeared into the trees. but just the stance that it was holding while it waited for us to recognize that it was there that's when that's the first time that I felt like well we're not saying here we're leaving and that was the last day I've been hunting in my life I don't blame me I want to ask you so many questions about this encounter I kind of get what you mean and I can only relate it to my hillbilly experience but you know like being a bouncer i remember one time and this is it'll make sense in a moment but we walked in we were going to throw this we were going to throw this guy out of the

this bar and um just the way he stood and his presence and the way he looked at us when we walked in i i remember telling the guys this man can't be bluffed this man cannot be threatened let me go try and talk to him and he hadn't said anything yet just the way his presence and the way he stood, for whatever reason, I thought of that as you were telling that. I know it's not the same thing, but there is a way you kind of pull, you know, like these things are very intimidating. They have a way of intimidating you, even not vocalizing, you know?

Yeah, it was, I mean, you can tell by the fire in somebody's eyes when you're squaring up to fight them if it was a good idea or not. But, and there's a way that they hold their body that if you can't see their eyes, even you know that you might have bitten off more than you can chew yeah and that's exactly i mean you know from 600 yards away it just ran down my spine that it was not happy with me at the moment and and once it made its point it took up and that's the last i saw of it we We went right back to camp, packed up, and left, and I've never been back to that spot since. Now I've moved a little further away and things, and my friend Bob and I kind of lost a little bit of touch there before he passed away just because I moved 80 miles away.

But we never even talked about going hunting again. we had went hunting together an opening day with each other for I don't know 17 years probably and that day when we got back and shortly after that

work took me to a different town we of course saw each other and talked and he would come to town and we'd do things but the next time hunting season come around you know we would start preparing a lot of times a month before

and it was just never brought up between us ever again. Yeah, and I know this is what 17, 18 years in the making, and Bob asked you not to say anything publicly until he was gone, and you're a good man, Ted, for doing that. I mean, there's very few people that would do that, but God, that experience really would stay with me. Do you think the creature knew that you were there when it was making its way up around where you were at?

I don't think it knew I was sitting there when it first crossed. the road. And I don't know if it got, you know, I've thought about this in a hundred different ways. I think if we would have just let it cross the road and then we got together,

went out to our camp and left, I think we probably, it wouldn't have known anything about us. That's my opinion. But I think when we rode the four-wheelers back out there, it was still close enough that it wanted to It was either coming back or it wanted to see what was going on.

So, I mean, that's the only thing since I've ever been able to make of it was, I honestly don't think that it knew. It might have known Bob was on the other side at some point, but it didn't know that I was sitting in that alcove. I'm sure it didn't. Can I ask you, Ted, as you saw it, I realize it's a quick glimpse and you're catching it kind of at an angle. Was there anything that stood out to you beyond it being very tall and very big?

Was there any details for someone who's never seen one that really stick with you from that day? It was black, completely black. And the skin underneath it was a little bit lighter colored because you could kind of see, I would even call it a little bit darker Caucasian-type skin because you could see it underneath the, I guess, hair. but I was at a perfect angle, I think, to have saw the palms of its hands or the base, you know, the bottom of its feet, but I don't remember seeing either one. I don't know. It's something that I've kicked myself over for a long time because I had the perfect opportunity, you know, being basically, you know, it was 30 yards, maybe. so 90 feet away, and I don't remember the arm lengths.

If I even did register it, I don't remember it. I just remember the color, and then once I saw Bob walk into that frame, I remember how big it was, just compared to him. If he wouldn't have walked into that frame, I'm not sure I'd even realize how girthy it was. if I would have got up and walked away and met him down the road a little ways or something, I don't think it would have dawned on me even how massive it was. Yeah.

I saw him walk into the exact same picture that I was looking at. Yeah, and that's okay. I understand that. I understand completely where you're coming from. You know, the fact that Bob did kind of walk into that same area, there was kind of like the light bulb moment that went off. Like, holy crap, this thing's huge. one thing I want to ask you

you know it's kind of a shame when people have encounters and I've gone through it Ted so I can relate where you give up hunting you give up even to the stay I'm not super comfortable camping in a tent like in a primitive camp area or out in the middle of nowhere

you probably won't find me out in the middle of nowhere in a tent or as a sheet as I like to call it but you know it's a shame that it kind of robs us of that a lot of hunters go through that. You know, hunting is something that's very, there's a, it's good on the soul. And for people who aren't hunters, they don't get that. It sounds like monsters out there killing animals, but it's not quite that. Hunters are actually way more ethical than I think most people realize. And it's a shame when it takes that from us. But if you had the opportunity

again, would you want to see one? You know, like more than what you got a glimpse of? You know, I thought about that a lot. And I guess the only way I can answer that is yes, but only on my terms. I don't want to be surprised. Yeah. I want you to have one caged up somewhere and I can come and look at it. Yeah, unfortunately, it never works out that way.

It's always when you kind of least expect it. you know yeah well with everything that's went on this year and being able to tell my story and and uh i mean i kept it i told my wife this story for the first time less than a month ago and we've been married for 13 years um she never had a clue but uh with what we've been able to do and everything i don't know to what extent but we've decided that her and i are going to hunt this next coming year. I don't think it'll be a camping thing. I think we'll think baby steps and go out and do a couple of day hunts.

At some point, I hope that I can get back to parking a camper and reliving that experience like we used to. Yeah, good for you, man. I'm glad to hear that. That would be our ultimate goal, but I think getting out there for the first time. And I mean, it's not even, you know, I spent most of my life in the woods. My dad owned and drove a logging truck. Bought it the same year I was born. I was basically raised in that logging truck.

And until this year, we didn't even go for drives or anything in the mountains to where it used to be a huge part of my life. And I don't know. we just decided this year we're going to try it. I don't know. Maybe I'll get out there and get 600 yards from the vehicle and become terrified and not be able to do it. I don't know. But at least I'm going to try. Yeah, good for you. I'm really glad to hear that. You know, and it's, I always have the joke on the show that the, the encounter I want is a

roadside crossing where I'm in a car and it's sitting on the side of the road. And I don't think people really get that joke. I'm sure you do, you know, being in that position. That's the encounter. would want. Well, I always think the most terrified I was, it was probably 600 yards from me, so I'm not sure. Yeah, and that's a weird part is, you know, most animals, they will scatter the minute,

you know, Black Bear, you know that, Ted, you're hungry. Yeah, they don't look back. No. I don't sure what you do, they just know they're getting away. Yeah, Black Bears, Cougars, I mean, some of your biggest, baddest predators, they get a sense you're in the area and they're out of there. These things are weird, man. They will kind of hang around.

And I know you're just speculating, but do you think it was hunting or what do you think the creature was doing? Well, at first, when, I mean, that trail basically exists, that one that comes off the ridge shop and goes into the cannon. It just basically exists to go to the water source in that canyon. And that's anything that I ever saw on that trail. I always thought of either going to or coming from water. you know like three little finger canyons along there and that's the only one that really has a spring in it so they got to travel to that canyon

you know so that's the first thing that went into my mind but then I don't know if it got a drink and then went up on the other side because to go to the other side then you're going into a whole different you know the next ridge over from the side that we last saw it on, you're getting close to, you know, a pretty main roadway through the high, it's not like a highway, but it's a road through the wilderness that a lot of people travel where the direction that it came from, you've got basically open range all the way into Montana. I mean,

I don't know how many miles of nothing there is from the way it came from. So I don't know. I just always thought everything on that trail was after water. And, you know, maybe, you know, maybe, you was just, and then too, maybe if he saw Bob or smelt Bob or something while he was finishing that little bit of his walk, maybe he deviated from his main objective to see what we were up to or what was going on. I don't know. And I say he, I don't have a clue if it was a he or not. I don't.

And, you know, we kind of calculated that Bob, the closest that he saw it was at probably 500 yards through a rifle scope, which makes you think you should get a pretty good view. but he wore some pretty thick glasses that coupled with a rifle scope could get you a general outline better, but his eyesight wasn't the best. It wasn't the best by any means. So he didn't really have an opinion on anything other than it was black and had lighter colored skin. Yeah, one thing I want to ask you about, Ted, I know you're a member of the site, and I really appreciate you being a member of the site,

and I know you've listened to a lot of the shows. And I'm really curious on your opinion on this. You know, with regard to fishermen, I kind of think the experience when people are out fishing is way more aggressive than someone hunting, which I never really understood. You know, a lot of hunters, they'll come around and they'll kind of give you the stink eye.

But they generally don't start throwing things, and they aren't quite at, It's almost like they're more skittish when around hunters. And with regard to fishermen, I know you've heard the show, you know, they'll throw stuff, they'll bluff charge you, they'll, they seem to go after fishermen way more than hunters. What's kind of your opinion as far as if someone were to come across one of these things out in the woods and they're hunting, what advice would you give them? I don't know if they can distinguish the difference between, I mean, on the fishing things,

It's either they can distinguish the difference between a gun and a fishing pole and they're more brazen, or I guess more my opinion would be is that if they're near the water where a fisherman's at, they're most likely they're fishing themselves, and I think that upsets them. As far as hunting, I think you encounter one, you just have to take it on a case-by-case basis. I got lucky and didn't know I was there. I don't know what would have happened if we would have came to that same crossing at the same time. I don't know. I don't think I have enough experience.

There's one story, and I don't know if it was on your channel or not West, but there's one story about a guy on the Locksaw River here in Idaho that was fishing and had encountered one across the river from him. And he reported it, and shortly after all these black vehicles showed up and everything, and he was forbidden from going into the area. I didn't know that gentleman personally, but I did have a chance to talk to him a couple of times, a few years back. And he wanted to focus on why all the black vehicles and everything showed up every time you talk to him. He wouldn't talk about why it was screaming at him or throwing eyes.

or anything. But I don't know. Either they can tell the difference between the equipment that you're holding or just that they're more, you know, near a river, they're more aggressive because you're doing, if you weren't there, they would be doing what you're doing, I guess. I don't know. Yeah, and I was just kind of curious on your opinion.

That's just a weird observation I picked up after talking to a lot of eyewitnesses to where it seems like for whatever reason, and fishermen, man, they really get the brunt of it. And it always makes me wonder, is it because the hunters are carrying a gun, that they're a little bit more, they're not quite as ballsy as they normally would be? I'm glad to hear you're getting back out there. When you and your wife go, are you going to go back to this area? Actually, we've talked about that and it'd be an easy day thing.

Yeah, I think that's going to be one of the first things we do this summer. we're going to go up there and walk into there. It's only a mile and a half walk or so. And, you know, if it's still hanging out after 17 years, then I guess that was just meant to be. But I would like to show her the area and kind of give somebody, it's really hard for me not to have somebody that, you know, sees the area and I can explain, stand and in the area.

It's so hard to explain the situation until somebody can actually see the area you're in. and I'm sure that the trees have got taller over the last 17 years, and that always caused a little bit of a problem, but I would at least to be able to explain the story to somebody standing in the same area. So I'm fairly confident we can walk in and out of there without any problems. Yeah, and I think your chances of seeing it again are pretty slim, but, you know, northern kind of central Idaho is rough country, but it's beautiful country. and I've had many, many, many encounters from Idaho.

I'm kind of curious, what do you think that they are, Ted? What's your opinion as far as what Sasquatch is? I so much want to believe it's just an animal running around out here that is way elusive and way smarter than we are and can stay away from us. But the more and more you hear, and especially the more and more encounters that you have talked about on your show,

that seems like it's getting further from the logical mind being able to make a valid argument on that. I don't know. I want to, you know, I want to believe that there are no different than a mountain lion or a cougar, I mean, a bear or something running around out there, but I don't know. And I don't think I'll ever know in my lifetime. Yeah, that's kind of what I would like it to be. I'd like it to be some non-human primate we haven't caught up with. But there's so many weird things that go on with these creatures.

A lot of times when people have encounters like what you had, Ted, and I get where they're coming from. I completely understand their perspective. They'll go, well, I ran into a wild animal. And then when you hear their encounter, you're like, yeah, it sounds like you ran into a wild, you know, you ran into some weird wild animal or wild creature, a man-like creature, but it,

beyond that, nothing else strange happened, but there's a lot of weird things that go on. It's a very cool account. I mean, it's not cool for you. It's cool to listen to it. And it's different when you're retelling an encounter

as opposed to listening to an encounter. And I know, I know it was like 17 years in the making and God rest, Bob's soul. I'm sure he's I'm sure he's looking down on you and I just can't thank you enough for coming on and sharing it.

I'm sorry to be, man. Appreciate it. Thanks again, Ted. And that's it for tonight. Everyone, remember if you've had an encounter, shoot me an email. My email address is Wes at Sasquatch Chronicles.com.

Until next time, everyone.