Sasquatch Chronicles - SC EP:740 Hide And Seek Champion

Episode Date: March 19, 2021

Darvill said "18 years ago, I was in the Uinta Mountains. We were hunting and having fun. I remember seeing this big guy dressed in all brown. I thought he had on a brown sweatshirt and sweatpants. I watched him more and thought someone was dressed in a bigfoot suit. While hunting you yell at each other in a whoop or woo sound just to say I am over here. I made that sound and this thing jumped behind a tree. It happen so fast. I did not think at the time how impossible it was. Confused I sat there waiting for him to come out. I finally decided I was going to walk towards the tree. As soon as I did this thing took off. It was not a man, it was something I had never seen before." I will also be speaking to Jeff. Jeff had an encounter with a white creature when he was young. Jeff said it was strange I didn't know anything about Bigfoot. I had no idea it was in the Ozark Mountains.

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. my life. What?

What? Where would you go on? They were screaming at each other in gibberish. Number one? It sounded like a language, and they were chuntering away 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?

Jesus, good buddy out here. What's going on now, sir? That son of a bitch is about 60 foot nine, I don't know. Do you see him now, sir? Yes, I'm looking right here. Uh-uh. My name is Maximus Decimus Merides, commander of the armies of the North General of the Felix Legions, and you are listening to Sasquatch Chronicles. Welcome to the show, everyone. Thanks for being here tonight. Got a great show planned for you. We're going to be chatting with Darville. And Darville comes to us from Utah. He had an encounter back 18 years ago in the Uintas when he was out with family and friends. And what he ran into, he thought at first it was his dad in San Francisco.

some sort of weird brown jumpsuit. And then he thought it was a guy in a big foot suit. And it wasn't until he went after this, what he thought was a person, turned out to be a creature. And Darville's accounts really fascinating, especially when you stop and think about the patience this creature showed. We're also going to be chatting with Jeff.

And Jeff is originally from Arkansas. He saw a white creature when he was young, but he's had a lot of weird things happened to him throughout his life. He moved to Washington about 10 years ago or so and even had a strange encounter here in Washington kind of near the coastal range. And for those of you from the Pacific Northwest,

you know how dark and dense that area of the Olympics can be. 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. Let's jump into it tonight. I want to welcome Darville to the show. Darville, thanks for coming on. My pleasure. Yeah, Darville, I appreciate you being here. And I know that your encounter took place 18 years ago.

I know you were just a teenager when this happened to you. If you would, would you just start from the very beginning? I know it was in Utah. Kind of tell us what you were doing and walk us into what happened. Yeah, well, we were just doing kind of an annual family. family backpacking trip where we take my uncles and cousins and we just backpack into the Uinta Mountains. Usually we go pretty far in.

And on this occasion, we were, it was pretty warm. I think it was late spring, really nice outside conditions. And we go out there and we hunt, we're all hunters and fishermen. And so we bring our fishing gear and we bring our fishing gear and we bring some. slingshots. And we all can hunt with guns too, but it's just a, it's just kind of a backpacking challenge. You bring a slingshot and we eat what we can shoot and what we can fish. And it's just like a really kind of a great survivally backpacking trip that we're always excited to go on. Anyways, you know, we do a lot of slingshot hunting and we get in lines and we tree squirrels and stuff

like that and we'll surround a tree and whoever can shoot the squirrel gets to eat it. And one of the, like a real prize, I've never, I've never got one with my slingshot, but there's grouse up there and they're just great big old prairie chickens. And if you were to get one of those, it would be a real prize. So anyways, I actually have shot one with my slingshot out there and just bounce off of it. You really, if you're going to take one down with the slingshot, it's got to be a headshot. And, yeah. And we could hear every now and then, you know, we could hear the grouse calling off in the distance.

And I really wanted one. So on this occasion, I was stalking a grouse and it was getting, it was in the afternoon. I was stalking this grouse. And so I could just hear it and they'd have this kind of loud call. And I could hear it off in the distance and I would just hike in that direction and maybe like 15 or 20 minutes later, I'd hear it again. and I just keep going that direction, hoping that I could sneak up on this grouse and maybe get a shot off on it. And I was probably about two miles or so from our camp, a good half-hour hike.

And, you know, no trails, just following the sound of the grouse. I leaned up against this big pine tree just with my back to it sitting down and just waiting to hear the next call. And it's really relaxing and enjoyable. And this day was just perfect. There was no breeze, no wind. So it was just silent. You could hear everything.

I heard this walking sound. Just this crunch, crunch, crunch. It was just a biped sound. And I thought, and I could hear before I could ever see, ever see who it was or what it was. and I just thought that it must be one of my uncles or cousins out because there was nobody else as far as I was aware anywhere around us and this was really out in the middle of the mountains

and so I'm looking in the direction of the sounds coming from and then finally I can see this figure walking through the trees he was all brown just solid just a solid brown color the same kind of like a tinge of reddish like that's just exactly the same as the pine trees almost and and i and i didn't think bigfoot i just thought that it was probably my dad because i could tell it was a really big guy as my dad or like maybe my uncle mike or big guys and uh they were just wearing like a brown hoodie and like brown sweatpants and i thought i just thought that was kind of a weird outfit to be wearing and uh so i'm sitting there and

this this guy is walking uh like his path is going to pass in front of me maybe about uh a hundred yards in front of me and so he's at like a 45 degree angle to me so he's angling closer to me and then i just started to have this weird feeling like that and then bigfoot did come to my mind because he's getting a little closer and he's real big and kind of lumbering and and and I was just thinking, it looks like a big foot. And then in my head, I'm going, no, it's just a guy in sweats or like maybe it's even a guy in a bigfoot costume. And then we have this kind of, we call it a McBride hoot. And we hoot out our, just a call.

And when we're out spread out throughout the hills, you can let this hoot out. It's just a, whew! And it echoes and it's easily heard from far away. and that just means like where are you at you know if you do do it repeatedly it means like get over here you know so you won't have to yell and communicate with loud words when we're all spread around so i i did a hoot thinking that it was just going to be someone that i knew you know and as soon as i hooted it jumped behind a tree that was just it was just a very narrow tree it was i would say it was scarcely the thickness of his body when he turned sideways like he just jumped behind it just in

in a split second and disappeared behind this tree i was like just had my eyes glued to this tree that i knew it was behind and uh it was at this point it was right in front of me in a straight in front of me i'd say 100 yards it was it just i really i've had lots of experiences and with wildlife and with big animals, with sharks and water, with bears. And I've never experienced any kind of feeling than the one that I had at that moment. I just had like a really, really bad feeling. And I had in my, in my pocket, I had, usually I was just shooting rocks, you know, squirrels and stuff that I would pick up, but I had a couple.

really big steel marbles that were about an inch diameter steel. Those were just my special ones that I was saving for in case I saw a grouse or something that, you know, was a really valuable target because I only had a couple of these. And I pulled that out right away and put it in my, in my slingshot and I held it at the ready. And I had all these scenarios going through my mind as I'm watching this tree and I'm just thinking like, like, first of all, I kept, I kept, couldn't believe that it was able to hide behind the tree. It was like, I was waiting for it's, you know, a butt to stick out or like a head to peek around the corner or some like elbow to poke out because it was just so narrow. And I just knew he was just standing perfectly straight

and rigid behind the tree. I'm like waiting for him to peek and nothing, nothing. And I just didn't move. I didn't move. And, you know, my, my adrenaline was kind of pumping and my, my, I'm not really sure how much time went by, but I was there for a really long time. I think I was there for around half an hour to 45 minutes just watching the tree. And I never took my eyes off the tree, you know, except for when I was blinking. And I started to feel really uncomfortable and sitting there for so long. And I started to wonder if, you know, where did it go? I was thinking, is there, I was thinking like, is it somehow managed to sneak straight backwards behind the tree without letting me see them?

Did it do that somehow? Or did it somehow manage to climb the tree from the back? And I didn't think it was possible. And so I decided that I was going to stand up and start to navigate kind of towards the tree and around the side of the tree to see what would happen. and I had the, I remember going over snares in my head, like if something was to come at me, I had my slingshot and I was going to force myself to, I don't know if I don't like it would do anything, but I was going to force myself to not shoot till the very last second where I knew I would be able to have a solid shot like in the face or in the head, you know, not freak out, shoot too early

is what I was bracing myself for. because a slingshot is not a good weapon. I would wanted one of my guns with me. I would have felt a lot better, I think. But so I stood up and as soon as I took, and I was trying to be as quiet as I could, but I took one little step. And as soon as I took that step,

it just took off straight away, just straight away from me, full sprint, two legs. And I didn't really have time to think about it, but I just took it. off sprinting after him as fast as I could. And I knew I was a really fast sprinter. And I was thinking in my head, if this is a guy in a Bigfoot costume, I'm going to be able to run them down for sure. Because I was in like shorts and a t-shirt. And he wasn't going to, he wasn't going to

outrun me. There was no way. But he just just left me in the dust. And I remember sprinting. after him just thinking that I was just running so fast and he was just getting further and further away until I couldn't see him anymore but I could still hear him and then he stopped he stopped and so I slowed down because I knew he wasn't running anymore because the noise he was making from running had stopped and so I kept sneaking up you know slingshot at the ready stupid 17 year old I don't think I would have done this again now. I'm sneaking up on him and in the direction that he ran. I knew he was over there and I came to a cliff.

And he might have just hopped off the cliff. I don't know, but it was about maybe a, it was a pretty big. It was probably a 40 foot cliff, you know. And I remember thinking that if he didn't, he didn't go over the cliff, I just, I looked around and I just kind of had a scary thought that there were a lot of trees around me. And the way he was able to hide behind that tree, I just had a feeling like, you know, he probably didn't go off this cliff. He's probably just right behind one of these trees and, you know, knows I'm not going to be able to see him. Then I just, then I got the heck out of there.

I just had this really, oh, this really bad feeling that he was over there still. And so I turned around, walked straight back, slingshot at the ready. And that was it. That was it. Yeah, I think that we do a lot of dumb things when we're young. You know, 17, the thought of dying, you know, falls very low on the list. And I think as we get older, that that becomes higher and higher up on the list. I'm kind of curious, though, as you were, you know, you saw this saying, it went behind a tree.

it's very, it's not acting like an animal. It's kind of acting like a really patient person. But at what moment did you realize, oh, that's not a family member in a jumpsuit and that's not a guy in a Bigfoot suit? What was the moment where that kind of crossed your mind like, holy crap, this is real? Yeah. You know what? That's a good question. You know, I think the moment that I knew it was Bigfoot was after I was chasing after him and how fast it could run I mean there was just no other explanation

I mean he ran like like just so crazy fast and he was all brown and I kind of accepted I was just like holy crap you know like I I saw Bigfoot and I this was in the early thousand I was probably it was probably like

2002 or something like that. And I mean, I didn't know anything about Bigfoot. Nothing. And, you know, I had never heard of another encounter. I've just heard it, you know, jokes about Bigfoot is basically it. And so it was kind of, it was just kind of this surreal feeling like, holy cow, there's really no explanation for this. That was not a human. The way that he jumped behind that tree in that split second was like it was super human. If I would have hooted at anybody, they would have looked at me, you know. They would have looked at me and been like, what was that?

Or even an animal, if I would have hooted at a bear or cougar, they would have looked at me. this thing was just so instinctively hid the moment that I made that sound he clearly instinctively did not want to be seen and like the patience that he had behind that tree I just knew the whole time I was watching that tree I just knew that it was going to peek around the corner and I would see his little part of his head poke around the corner

and he didn't he never poked his head unless like his eye can really bulge out of his head and he can like peek around the corner pretty well that way or something, but it was just crazy that his patience and silence and how fast he hid. And yeah, walking back, I just realized like there's just no way that was a person. Definitely wasn't an animal. Yeah, it doesn't really surprise me. You know, one of the things about your encounter, and I take that back, it does surprise

me a little bit. It would show that much patience to sit there and wait and wait and wait. But in a lot of encounters, you know, they seem to have more patience than I think your average human being would have in different situations. The one thing you really pick up on in your encounter, and I find beyond fascinating, is it's hyper awareness. It'll sit there and wait and wait and wait, and wait. And the minute you take a step towards a tree, it's gone. I mean, that's beyond human. I mean, the hyper awareness is something that really,

surprises me. Oh, yeah. And that blew my mind, too, because I was watching this tree, and unless he had some real clever way to keep an eye on me, I couldn't see him poking around the tree. And my step was just so quiet. Like, there's no way a human could have possibly heard those little pine needles crunch under my feet at 100 yards away.

It was just too quiet and too slow. And as soon as he realized, oh, here he comes. I'm out of here. He just took off. Yeah, that's, you know, and I understand you talk about the whooping or the woo that you do when you're out there. And a lot of hunters do that because it's unnatural. It's not a sound you can get confused with, you know, any other animal. I think you even hear guys in warehouses do that where they'll go whoop, you know, to get everyone's attention.

And, you know, what an amazing count. How big do you think he was compared to you? I realize you're 17, but what was the size difference between you two? I think he was around seven foot. Initially, I was thinking that he looked too tall to be any of us, but I just thought this could be an illusion, you know. He just looked too tall. But going back and looking around at the trees and the tree that he jumped behind,

I think he was around seven feet tall. In 17, you know, I could see my 17-year-old younger self chasing after one of these things, thinking it was a guy in a suit or what is this weirdo doing. You know, it's fascinating. You talk to a lot of eyewitnesses and they'll talk about, they'll go, well, I thought it was a guy in a fur coat or, you know, I thought it was. And I think our brain tries to rationalize. a situation. It must be a guy with, you know, a hoodie on or, you know, and matching sweatpants.

Yeah. Did it, did you ever go back out after this whole situation or how did it kind of affect you being 17? No, I did go back out and explored the area, but it was just, I feel like it was, I feel like that, that creature was definitely in transit. and he wasn't on a on a trail or a path he was just moving he as he was walking you know look he was he had a good pace just for walking across the the hills there but but uh he he i didn't stumble into him you know he came stumbling onto me unexpected and luckily didn't smell me or hear me or anything like that like i when i hooted at him that gave away my position and it really took him off guard Yeah, and watch them bounce behind a tree.

Like you said, it seems very unnatural. Even the movement seems unnatural. Yeah. Would you want to see another one? Oh, yeah. I would love to. I've imagined going up there and trying to find them, you know, going on long backpacking trips and setting out good lookout locations that are down breeze.

You know, and just trying to hope that one stumbles upon you. But it's like, I've spent so much time out there and never had an encounter like this. I feel like I've watched some of these big foot hunting shows, and they were just kind of a big turnoff to me because of the way that they go out looking for them. And like, based off of my experience, it's like, if this big, if this creature doesn't want to be seen, you're not going to see it. You know? It just, it's just a, they're just a masterful hiders and almost supernatural.

And I think that they, they're, they're, not only are they way faster and stronger than us by the way this thing could move, but they're not, they're patient and they're going to hide somewhere where you'll never see them. I feel like a group of people could go out looking for them and then everybody could just walk past them if they wanted to, you know, or they'll know that this group is coming and they're just going to take off and go wherever else they please. They're really incredible, really, really incredible to me. The more that I think about it, the more mind-boggling it is. It is mind-boggling for something to move the way they do, be able to hide the way they do. And I think you're right. I think they will stumble across you. I think the chances

of someone going out there with a gun and tracking one down, maybe an old-school track. probably could. But, you know, I think today we make too much noise. We stink. You know, I have been out with hunters at Clemdb master hunters, and I'm sure every animal heard us coming three miles away, you know. Yeah. And these things are very different.

What do you think that they are, Darval? What's kind of your personal opinion as far as what Sasquatch is? And there's no, there's no wrong answer, of course. Yeah, you know, I'm still struggling to come up with my own theories, you know. all my my my I I think they're incredibly intelligent like a lot more intelligent than than than than most people think I think I think most you know the average person just kind of thinks that they're like some kind of prime ape or like you know some undiscovered species that's just very solitary but I I think that they are I think they purposefully avoid detection and

avoid discovery and I think they know I think they've observed us through through who knows how many generations you know but I think they they know the kind of stuff that we look for and and what kind of what our abilities are and I think they set up their camps and their hiding spots in places where they know we're not going to notice them you know whether they're moving a boulders in certain spots or up in certain places that we can't reach that aren't good vantage points. And I don't know. I wish I had a good theory, but I think I need to listen to a bunch more of your podcast before I could come up with something better.

I respect that. I mean, it's one of those things it's hard because they do act very much animalistic. And then other times they seem to be very human-like in their behavior. Like the whole hiding behind a tree. No animal's going to sit there in hiding until you make a move. An animal's going to either fight or they're going to run off. 99% of the time, they're going to run off. The moment you would have whooped, you're right, a bear or something,

they would have looked your direction and then they would have scattered. They're not going to sit there and wait. It's kind of weird, isn't it? Weird behavior to go hide behind a tree for that long. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I do falcons. I'm a falconer. And what's really amazing about falcons and other fast-moving birds is the way that they can process

information at such a faster rate than we can. Like, we can actually have big, long calculations that we can solve in our mind. But our frames per second, if we see 20 or 30 frames per second, I can't remember exactly how many frames per second our brains comprehend. but a falcon brain comprehends about 200 frames per second or 300 frames per second. It's just like dwarfs what we do. And so like if you, when we flush ducks off a pond and our falcon comes diving down at 200 miles an hour, actually I'll use homing pigeons.

We train them by throwing homing pigeons because they're very fast and hard to catch. And they're great training for the falcons. So we'll throw a homing pigeon. the falcon will come down and all you'll be able to see is the falcons zip past this bird and a little tough of feathers move or something like that little tough feathers goes flying off and you can't see what happened because our brains aren't capable of interpreting that fast movement at the the low frames per segment that we can visualize whereas if you were to record it with a slow like a slow motion camera that was able to reduce those frames we can visualize we're you would see the falcon coming in on the pigeon, the pigeon looking at the falcon, jukeing left and then rolling right, and then the falcon reaching out his talons with one arm and then trying to turn but just narrowly missing them. And so, like, they have all these all these interactions that we can't even process or comprehend.

They're able to see them and live them and react to them at such a faster rate. And I just think that whatever these bigfits are, Sasquatches, I think that they have that kind of, they have like a massive intelligence, but I think they have that ability to process information around them very quickly because it would explain how it was able to jump behind the tree so quickly without really thinking and their ability to hide so fast and to have these fast reactions. And I just think they have a very kind of predatory natural ability to process that information, similar to a falcon and other fast-moving predators.

Yeah, it's kind of scary for something that big to be able to, like you said, process things that way. And there's a lot we don't know about this world. You know, I was doing 20 facts that no one else, you probably don't know. And even like you talk about crows, I mean, they have the intelligence of a three-year-old child, and they also hold grudges. If you've wronged them, they have a memory. And it's like, what? And, you know, so I guess some of the things that Bigfoot seems to do feels very unnatural. Maybe it's natural in their world, but I think for us, even primates,

like you talk about with the Falcons, you're right. Sasquatch seems very hyper-aware of what's going on around, you know, to react instead of process anything, just react for a moment like it did running behind the, or popping behind the tree. It's amazing stuff, man. It's amazing stuff. I can't thank you enough for coming on and sharing what happened to you. You're welcome. My pleasure. Thanks for the podcast you do. I can't wait to listen to some more and see what else I can figure out. It's been, I can't, I don't think I've ever gone a week in my life since this happened without thinking about it. It's just one of those moments that, and it's one of those things that I don't like to share with other people, you know,

because they just are going to think, you know, you were just seeing things or whatever, and it's one of those things I mostly keep to myself. And this is just kind of pretty exciting for me, so I appreciate you as well. Next up on the show, I want to welcome Jeff. Jeff, thanks for coming on. Yeah, I appreciate you having me, man. Yeah, I appreciate you being here, Jeff. And I know you live in Washington now.

You used to live in Arkansas. And you had an encounter when you were a little boy. If you would, can we start there? Because I know there's a few things I want to talk to you about. But this encounter when you were a child, can you take us back to that moment? Kind of tell us what you were doing and walk us into what you saw. Yeah, yeah. I was living in North Arkansas, Ozark Mountains, outside of a town called Mountain Home.

We just kind of lived on the edge of town at the time and on some land, so there was really nothing behind us for hundreds and hundreds of acres, just wildland. One afternoon, me and a buddy, we had an above-the-ground swimming pool out there. We're swimming around, and I got the willies. And, you know, my hair on my neck stands up, and I said, I'm being watched. so I, you know, focus my eyes and start looking around. And we had a clear cut between our fence line and the wood line, probably at least 10 feet, 15 feet wide.

And straight down that clear cut at the bottom where it hit the brush line again, probably looking at about 100 yards or less, there was this white face staring at me. I could see shoulders and up. and that brush was at least six feet tall. So, you know, it's going to be a little taller for the critter out there. But, yeah, I locked in on it and had my buddy, was swimming with me, and I kept my eyes locked.

And I said, hey, bud, I said, do you see this? And he looked down and he saw it. And we both had that moment, you know, probably a solid five or six seconds. And then we looked at each other, you know, just to check. You like, is this real? And we look back and it's gone. Yeah, it's kind of shocking how hyper aware they are of their situation. I was just talking to Darville about that, you know, how hyper aware they seem to be.

There's a lot of encounters where you, you know, you bump your buddy next to you and go, hey, look at this and you both look over and it's gone. I've heard that many times. I'm kind of curious for the audience. Can you describe what you saw that day? And then I didn't catch it. How far away did you say this white creature was? Yeah, I mean, like I say, 100 yards or less. And this was probably like 12 years old.

So it's been a few moons ago. And all I saw was just a white, I couldn't even call it like conical, just a head and shoulders above the brush, above the green brush. So, yeah, there's a little bit of distance there a long time ago. But on that same piece of property, maybe just a couple of months after that, I remember the trees were turning. So that was summer. And then we're coming into autumn. And I had a huge oak tree out in the front of our property that I climbed every day.

I just climbed way up, you know, 50, 60 feet up. And I could see through the whole forest next to us. And I got up there one day and just kind of hanging out like I always did. And there was a scream let loose from the woodline next to us. And now I couldn't say how far it was because it rattled my bones. I literally, I might have touched two or three branches on the way out of a 60-foot tree. I jumped out and ran home. And through time, I always thought, you know, that was a cougar because we got cougars and panthers.

They don't want to admit that in the Ozarks, but they're everywhere. But over time, I've heard more cougars and I've listened on the internet. That was no cougar. That was a hell-lacious scream. It rattled me. Yeah, their screams will definitely shake you up. I mean, they'll definitely rattle you. You know, I was at a, it's a refuge for cats, and they have lions, and they have tigers,

and you don't realize how big those creatures are and how much of a predator they are until you see them up close and you realize, holy crap, this thing is a killing machine. You know, a lion, you cannot outrun it. You're not going to out climb it. And you're definitely not going to go toe to toe with it. that and even hearing those lions vocalize not the same as as hearing a Sasquatch even growl at you.

It's not even the same league. I want to ask you real quick, Jeff, after you saw this white creature, did you ever tell anyone about it? Did you ever go to your folks and tell them what you saw that day? Yeah, yeah, but at the time, I didn't even really know what I was seeing,

so it never really registered. I spent all my time in the forest. All my time was spent in the woods. I was one of those kids that, you know, opened the door on the morning and I'm in the forest until dark. Just running and playing. So I never had an instance that made me fear anything. And that one moment was really quick.

Years go by, probably just a few years ago, when I got back into actually listening to your show, got me back into thinking about so many things, I looked on a, I can't remember who does the report, Bigfoot report, something or other, online. And it turns out there was another siding of a white Sasquatch on Mallard Point Road, which as the crow flies would have been a mile and a half. I used to ride my bike down there to go swimming at the lake. That, you know, that kind of like bonafide what I said. I was like, oh, wow, I really did see it.

Someone else has seen it, too. As far as my family goes, they don't, they're not wilderness bound, I guess. When they look at the woods, they see just trees and a few critters here and there. Like I say, I've spent most of my life in the forests. And I tend to, like my spidey senses, as they say, you know, I can feel when something's watching me. And I can usually tell what it is by the vibration I get. Cougars, you feel a certain. energy from a cougar and then I always sit down and just look back and I can usually find

them hiding because I just kind of like project where that energy is coming from. Yeah, I think it goes back to that, that feeling of being watched, you know, and a cougar will definitely watch you and you have to be aware of your surroundings. I know in Arkansas, you actually, you know, the rock throwing incidents is really fascinate me. My impression when I hear them. There's different reasons for rock throwing. And I think in your situation, what was fascinating is the reason why it stopped throwing rocks at you guys. I know this happened in Arkansas too as well, and it's kind of hard to pass off as a human. But if you would, would you start from the very beginning and tell us what happened? Yeah, actually, spent a lot of time floating the

Buffalo River almost every week. And I was floating either solo or dragging the kids. along with me. So I was on a trip with a buddy, and there was four of us. So we were in the lower stretch of the Buffalo Wilderness. I think elephant head wilderness would probably be the closest road access, but like we were floating in, so a multi-day float. So we set up camp that night, and I don't tend to, I like to camp quietly and away from things and my friends of course like to have the radio on and having a good time and I don't blame them.

So I was set up probably about 200 feet away from them down river and they're rocking and rolling and doing their thing over there and I start hearing rocks or you know what I assume are rocks being thrown into the river and so that really catches my attention. So I went out and squatted on the edge of the river now it's dark, it's night time, it's not a big clear sky. I couldn't see anything over there. There's no way. I don't even have a light. A light strong enough to shine that

far across the river. We're probably talking every bit of 50 to 80 yards across to the next bank. It was a pretty wide section. But these rocks kept landing in the water and closer and closer. And I went over to my friends and I said, hey, turn off the music for a minute. Y'all got to hear this.

And when they turned off the music, everything stopped. And then, you know, Of course, they're like, yeah, whatever, dude. It's like, no, I'm hearing something. So they jammed out again, and I walked away back to my camp, and the rocks started landing on the bank near, but it was in between me and them. And that's, I was just like, there's no way. Like somebody would have to be standing on the bank of this river on my side

to even throw these rocks. They're landing over here. They're of good size. And once again, go tell my friends, hey, shut that off. These rocks are landing on the bank. And once they shut it off, the rock stopped coming. So, you know, of course, I get the whole whatever, man. So I go back to camp, they party on, everybody crashes.

And through the night, the rock stopped after they turned off the music. There was no more rock throwing. So I'm keyed in on that bank over there the best I can all night with my ears, with all my senses, just trying to figure out what in the world was over there. And so as the middle of the night comes on, I start hearing splashing. And then it becomes really reminding me of a couple of kids playing, you know, push and shove and splash in a water. And it was really loud and it just kept going and going. And I couldn't, you know, of course, I don't have a light.

I can't see over there. But then I'm thinking, what animal? I've been out there hundreds or thousands of nights even. I couldn't even tell you how many nights I've spent on that Buffalo River. but I've never in my life heard sounds like that in the evening like no animals play like that I've heard deer come and go and I've heard them swim across and you know all kinds of things but that was really awkward but like I said I couldn't see anything Jeff did you ever have a flashback for a moment and think about that that white creature you saw when you were a kid or was it more

or less enough time had passed by, you just thought, oh, this is weird. It's always been in my head. I remember seeing it. Like I said, because I spent every extra moment of my time in the woods down where I saw it out, actually. You know, that's where I ran to play. I crossed the fence there and go play in the creek. And, you know, there's a little sort of waterfalls, about a quarter mile up that creek. And I just ran a muck out there. So, you know, it never, I guess, dawned on me as a kid about being Sasquatch or too odd or you know I didn't have I didn't really even know about

you know the Patty film I didn't know about anything Sasquatch back then so you know as time went on I've always remembered the moment but one like I said once I saw that that report that somebody else on the other road had seen one a white one I said well that you know that solidifies everything right there yeah it really does

I think when other people have seen what you've seen, it makes you feel maybe I'm not so crazy. Other people are seeing this exact same thing. And there is a long history of the white creature, you know, in like Alabama. I know you're in Arkansas, but like the Alabama white thing. And where you're at there in Arkansas, you know, the Ozarks have a long history of these creatures. The locals, they'll have a different name for it. and it's kind of fascinating, especially when you talk to an old-timer in some of these areas, they won't call it Bigfoot or Sasquatch.

They'll call it something to the region, local to the region. Before we get on to Washington, where you actually had the bluff charge, was there anything else that kind of happened to you in Arkansas? Okay, yeah, well, speaking of locals, I guess going back to the first encounter, seeing the white one, years go by. gosh, probably 10 years or so. And I'm back there. I just visit my parents and I'm back there walking the woods,

you know, seeing the old stomping grounds. And I bumped into what I could only call an old-timer. I mean, the fella's like probably late 70s, 80s, who knows. But he lives on the back side of the ridge back there. He's on the other side. Well, he had just sold it to a development.

They're coming in to build a neighborhood. So he was walking the same thing I was doing. We were just memory lane. And as we're walking along, I said, hey, man, I got to ask you a question. I said, have you ever seen a? And I couldn't finish my words before he said a white one? And I said, yeah. He says, yeah, he's been around here as long as I have.

And he lives, you know, he's probably got a couple hundred acres on the other side of the ridge. So no telling what he got into. But yeah, traveling through the Buffalo. River there did a camp one night. This was a really awkward occasion. Took my family down, my daughter and mom, and pitching on the edge of the Buffalo River. It's a, it's a road that runs in, and it turns into a trail, which turns in like four by four, like off road, climbing rocks and creek. So it's nobody's ever in there, but it's one of the places I like to go play around. So we set up camp down there. Now, we got two dogs at the time, a

boxed her and then kind of a mixed shepherd. And now that shepherd is the smartest dog I've ever met in my life. His whole goal in life was to protect our daughter. No matter what, if she started to cry or whimper or wanted something, he just nuzzled up and made sure she was safe. And so we're sitting at the campfire. And he gets down and he starts pushing on my knees. And I'm like, well, what do you need? We're in the woods, buddy. Like, there's food. There's water, what do you need? And he just kept nudging me. And I'm not paying enough attention to him. And then he goes over and starts pushing my daughter's chair, like trying to push her out of the chair. And then he keeps looking back up the road that we came in on. And he's staring at it hard,

but he's using his body to push her out of the chair. And he eventually does, literally knocks her chair over. And I said, okay, buddy, I'm paying attention now. Like, what do you see it? You know, it's not a cougar. It's not. No bears coming in with two dogs. Coors, not coming in with two dogs. Big fire like that. But anyway, that dog insisted that we all round up. And he pointed us into the, I had a suburban at the time. And he pointed us in and he wanted his girl in that truck.

And he kept nose on that road. He wouldn't take his eyes off the road, but he kept, you know, you can tell about his body and his, he's demanding we get in that vehicle. And so once we kind of piled in, I'm like, okay, buddy, I trust you. And he jumps in and I had to leave the door. Crack, so I could see what's going on, but he wouldn't take his nose out of that crack. He stared out there all night. And now that dog, he never backs down from anything. He's, like I said, just the smartest whip. And when it comes, even like not he's a fighter, but when another dog comes and messes with him, it's over instantly. Like he just doesn't have a problem. He doesn't fear anything. When we camp, which is also awkward, he always goes on a perimeter and he'll sleep. He's like on a hill or hidden away in the bushes to watch our camp until I wake up and then he comes into camp and sleeps for the morning. This night he would not leave the campfire. He did not do

his whole thing where he finds a place and digs in. So that was a really interesting evening. Nothing happened, no sounds, no nothing. We all knocked out. But yeah, that was one. Yeah, I always say you keep your dog with you. They'll definitely They let you know when these things are around, and they just have a different awareness when these things are around. And you'll know when they're around because of the way your dog acts. It's fasting. You know, like you said, a cougar and a bear, even a person doesn't really make sense in that situation. Tell me about Washington.

When did you move to Washington? I was stationed up here in the Air Force in the late 90s at McCord Air Base. I moved up here then, and then I went back, of course, raised my kids in Arkansas, then came back up here. I've been up here about seven or eight years this run. I just love the mountains up here. You can't beat the Olympics and the Cascades. Yeah, it's very different from Arkansas.

You go from what people call hills, they call them mountains, to where you come out here and there's real mountains. I want to ask you before we actually get into your encounter. You know, growing up in Arkansas, having those different things happen, even having a sighting when you were a small boy, and now you're moving to Washington, which is kind of the mecca, the Bigfoot capital of the world. Did any of that kind of go through your mind when you moved here? Yeah, absolutely. when I got to duty station up here, I actually went to the library and checked out a bunch of books on different people and their encounters and started reading up on it because I thought, yeah, I'm in the hometown for this to happen big time because, like I said, my favorite thing to do is wander in the wilderness. And tell me about it. So you're in the Olympics and then you had an encounter. I'm very curious. How long ago did this happen?

Well, my first encounter was while I was stationed here, so that was the late 90s. There's a Mount Walker you can drive up to a viewpoint, and it's just a tremendous viewpoint up there. But we were running up. I had my uncle and another friend with me at the time, and so we're driving, of course, slowly because the fog's out. But we're going up this road. and a huge, huge dark mass moved across the road in front of us. Probably 50, 60 feet ahead, but now it is super foggy, like the soup of the Olympic Mountains. So I've just stopped the truck, and we all looked at each of that, like, what was that?

There's no way. So we got out and went to look for tracks. Like, that couldn't have been a bearer. That was huge. And where we are on the road, it came like a little. I guess the uphill side was slightly inclined at 40 degrees or so. But the low side where this mass left the road and went downhill had to be a 100-foot drop-off. But soupy mix, huge dark mass, we couldn't say what we saw.

But I've been around enough bears that there's no way. That was huge. So that was the first, and that was back in the 90s. the fall of 17, I did an Olympic coast hike. It's about 40, 50 miles up the coast, and it's primitive for all. There's nothing out there. I'm a couple days into the trip, and I'm coming around. When you're hiking the coast and the tides in and out, you've got to kind of pick and choose your way, whether you round rocks or you go over, you know, points, depending on where the water is.

So I'm having to make this kind of wide loop around this point. And as soon as I get to like the edge, like the tip of this point, I get a whoop. Just one whoop. Very, you know, distinct and right in front of me. Probably couldn't have been 50 feet in front of me. So I know in my head that's no animal out here makes that sound. And if it was a bird, there would be a rescind. Another bird would respond or it would respond again.

trying to get, you know, how birds do. So me, I don't really have a, I guess when you say fighter flight, I don't have a flight. I analyze situations and I'm just going to figure it out. So what I did was sit down and I stared into that tree clump where that whoop came from. And I must have sat there solid five plus minutes just waiting, trying to wait for a sound, a movement, anything, just eyeballing it. And nothing. So I said, okay, so stood up, threw my pack back on. As soon as I made that point that I got the whoop at,

as soon as I made around that point, you could see into the entire, there's a huge, maybe a mile and a half long beach that was secluded around that point. As soon as I made around that point, from back in the middle of that beach section, whoop, one whoop, nothing else. once again I sat down

I'm waiting for movement I'm waiting to see something I got nothing you know it's just dense for us if anybody's been in the Olympic coastal range it's just so thick yeah so thick

so you know I knew what I heard I knew it was squatches so I kept rolling on I probably had like maybe two more days on this trail effort later on that afternoon the high tide came in and I was still wanting to advance

I still had plenty of daylight, so I just kept wanting to hike, move forward. And I couldn't make this specific point because the tide was way too high. I had to bend chest deep in the ocean to get around it, and I wasn't doing it. So I just backtracked along that ridge until I found where bears, you know, they claw their own trails up these hillsides. And so I found this bear tracks, you know, bear trail. Literally, as I'm putting my hands and feet down, they're in bear prints. So, you know, I'm going to walk into a bear. I'm already set.

My mind frames there. There's going to be a bear. Just be ready. And I am. I don't ever freak out. I've been face-to-face with moms and cubs. It just happens. So I make my way up this thing, and the sun starts to set,

and I can't really find a definitive trail, so I'm just pushing through the brush. And the upland and those coastal forests, they've never been logs, so there's trees, on trees, on trees, on trees. So sometimes you'll step in and it'll be waist deep. You just fall through debris. So you just kind of hopping your way through.

And I found what looked like maybe it had been used by something because I could see where the bark on top of the trees that you hop from tree to tree, they're worn. So I'm thinking, of course, bear. I'm in bear country. I just followed a bear trail. And so it's dark. It's coming on the point where I'm getting antsy

and I need to find a way off this side so I can find camp. And there's out of the darkness this creature on four. So as it came at me, I'm thinking bear because it's dark and coming right at me. And so I always, you know, sweet talk of bear. Just, hey, mama, it's okay. I'm no harm, you know, and I don't look at them. I just divert my eyes and, you know, try to talk real nice. And it always works.

Well, this thing got probably within, well, probably 10 feet or so. And then I looked up at it because it stopped. So now I need to judge its behavior. And when I looked up at it, it backed away from me at a quartering angle without never, it never took its eyes off of me. So it went backwards at like a 45 directional and went around each tree and on top of all those trees that I had to hop. without looking. And when it did that, and it's dark, now it's dark. I'm seeing shadows on shadows.

But when it backed away and never turned, bears don't do that. Bears run. They turn around and charge away. They crash and they're going to wreck brush and make all kinds of noise. This thing was silent and it knew exactly where to step. Each step was perfectly placed. And it backed away probably, oh, maybe like 50 feet or so and just kind of hunkered down and I said okay well this is your place

I'm going to go find mine and I walked away you know there's you know I'm not hanging out whatever that was but there was no way it was a bear like I've had hundreds of bear encounters like I said face-to-faces um that was no bear that's no reaction from a bear yeah I would agree with you I mean it's odd if it was a bear I've never heard of a bear reacting that way you're right either they'll run you down or they'll run. And if they run you down, it's because it's usually a mother with cubs or, or something's wrong with it.

But the normal reaction is to run for it to quarter away and kind of go around you. Right. Have you ever gone back to that area? I haven't been back there since, but when that happened, like I said, I kept trudging.

And my only way off of this, this, you know, it's coastal embankment. So I'm like 100 feet up on. cliffs. And so I need to get out of these woods to try to find camp. I see it's getting dark. So I dropped into a creek and creeks go downhill.

So I just, you know, weighted through this creek all the way down until it hit the ocean. And I found a little nook. Luckily, it landed on a little beach. And it actually, I actually made it around the point that I was trying to make. It just took me to it forever. So I set up camp.

And like I say, I always try to set up in the bush where there's, you know, I'm not right out in the open. I like to be secluded because I love to watch the animals react in their natural inhabitants. I don't want to sit there and spook them. And so I pitched my camp. And now it's sunset.

I got a beautiful sunset looking at the ocean. And I just got back into my tent. I'm about to curl up there. And I hear footsteps. And this is completely bipedal. Absolutely. No doubt about it. And it's coming right down through.

that creek I just came down. But it's a little, you know, it's in the brush, not the creek. I'm hearing brush breaking. I'd say it got within maybe 100 feet or so, and I just let out a cough. Because I thought it was another human or something. So I just kind of coughed. Well, it stopped. The footsteps stopped completely.

And about one minute later, went right back up the way it came. Literally within a quarter mile where I got charged at. And there's another. section the next morning on that same trail that I had to go overland there was a bunch of a bull kelp that washed up and you just can't walk through it it's too slippery and so I just grabbed another trail went up overland and boy was I weirded out all I could feel was get out of here I could feel the woods telling me to get out of this section get back to the water and I don't like I said I don't get too willied but that one got me

Yeah, I would have given me the willies too. I think in those situations, it's best to listen to our gut, our gut instincts telling us to leave. I would have left too as well. I'm kind of curious after all of these years, Jeff, of having these weird things happen to you and then having a sighting. I'm sure you've given it some thought as far as what Sasquatch is. And again, there's no wrong answer because no one really knows. I'm just curious, what do you think Sasquatch is? I'm just curious, what do you think Sasquatch is? Yeah, I couldn't say who I read or what the book was, but many years ago, maybe like 10 years ago, reading about humans possibly being created from, you know, mixed race, alien plus biological DNA from this planet. And it was mentioned in there that the Sasquatch might have been the attempt to make us before we were created. But that attempt failed because they were too intelligent and they could not be coerced like humans can. So it was kind of a botched attempt at making a human-like creature for this planet. it. I don't know. I can think way out of the box, and to me, that's the closest thing I can come to. Are you talking about the Ananaki? Is that weird? Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.

Yeah, it is an interesting take. I've often thought about that. It is odd. I mean, they are some sort of, in my opinion, of course, some weird cross between mankind and some animal. Because there's not another animal on this planet, you would go, well, there's a lot of of human-like features. And with these things, even their behavior, a lot of times does seem very calculated, does seem very strategic when they make their decisions. And usually animals aren't that way. It's just a quick, like we mentioned with bears. You know, what does a bear? Bear just runs. Yeah, split second reactions. Yeah, split second reaction. It's not really going to sit and contemplate, you know, what's going on. It is fascinating. Do you have any plans on going back to the Olympics?

Oh, yeah. I live just down the road, so that's kind of my playground. Probably do that coastal trip again. I didn't succeed. I got choked out by the tides to finish the last few miles, so I'll probably go back and chip away at it. I got kind of a lifelong goal of I'd like to hike every mile of the Olympic wilderness. It's a beautiful area. I definitely don't blame me for having that goal. As you know, be careful. that area because there is a ton of sightings there all the way through the Olympics, especially the coastal range. You know, it's a rainforest. It's pretty tempered most of the time of the year.

Perfect place, I think, for whatever Sasquatch is. But I can't thank you enough, Jeff, for coming on and sharing what happened to you. Yeah, thanks for having me, man. Really appreciate it. And thanks for your show. It's the most entertainment we get as a family. I appreciate it. Thanks again, Jeff.

And that's it for tonight, everyone to remember if you've had an encounter, shoot me an email. My email address is Wes at Sasquatch Chronicles.com. You get a chance to check out Sasquatchronicles.com. You can meet you remember and get additional shows. Until next time, everyone.