Sasquatch Chronicles - SC EP:768 Father's Day Reloaded

Episode Date: June 20, 2021

Jessie had an encounter with two creatures while hiking with his dog. He said one of the creatures appeared to be female while the other one looked very much like a male. The story doesn't end there.

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. They were screaming at each other in gibberish.

It sounded like a language, and they were chuntering away back and forward, back and forward, back and forward. I know what a bear looks like, and there is no way on this planet of what I saw were bears. What's going on, what are you reporting? Somebody out here. What's going on now, sir? That son of a bitch is about six foot nine, I don't know. Do you see him now, sir?

Yes, I'm looking right here. Uh-uh. My name is Maximus Decimus Merides. Commander of the Armors of the North General of the Felix Legions, and you are listening to Sasquatch Chronicles. Happy Father's Day, everyone. Thanks so much for being here tonight. I got a great show planned for you.

You know, Father's Day is probably the only holiday that I think is directed towards men. So I'm going to take it. I'm going to enjoy this Father's Day. And by the time you guys hear the show, I'm probably sunburnt, probably swam too much. but I'm going to go off and have me a good time. Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there. I hope you get to spend time with family and friends and your kids and just enjoy the day. I will be back tomorrow.

I have a, well, I won't even go into it. Got a really cool show planned for tomorrow. But tonight, what I thought I'd do, being that it's Father's Day, and we all kind of want to take a little time off and relax. I thought I'd play for you guys one of my very favorite interviews. And this was Jesse. and Jesse came to us from California, and he had probably one of the more intense encounters I've heard in a while.

I don't know, I'll play the interview. I know most of the members have heard this show, but I'll play it for everyone. Again, it's probably one of my favorite interviews. Jesse was, I mean, the details he gave, the descriptions, I really enjoyed talking with him. 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. And let's start the interview with Jesse. Again, this took place in California. Happy Father's Day, everyone. I had just gotten some kind of upsetting news for my doctor a few days before. You know, they found a mass on one of my kidneys and the doctor got done explaining to that, you know, there is the possibility it was cancer. And at the time, I'm 30, you know, 33 years old. So a little scary of a thought.

So the following Saturday, I let my wife know that I'm going to just get out of the house and try to get my mind off things and just go clear my head. So, you know, I packed a bag as if I was just going to go hiking for the day. you know, just one of those backpacks that has the water container in it, a couple of apples and an orange, a couple of dog treats. I decided to take my dog with me, get her out of the house. If I'm going to go to the mountains, you know, I usually will take my pistol with me. You know, just you never know. There's mountain lions, there's bears.

You never know what you're going to run into. More for just to scare something away than to actually defend myself. Me and my dog, we drove up and I would say about halfway up the mountain, you know, you know, we pulled over, I let her go to the restroom, stuff like that, kept driving. Right before the town of Shaver, there is a road called Old Bretts Mill Road. And if you turn onto that, it's a pretty windy road. It takes you up about three or four miles, and you'll start to start. seeing some logging roads off shooting off the off this road so I decided you know what

let's go off the beaten path you know so I decided to go down with the logging roads you know meanwhile I'm in a two-wheel drive Nissan so it finally got to the point where I was like you know what I'm going to stop driving because I think I might get stuck really big dips in the road and you know trees laying over over it. So I pulled off to the side as much as I could, got the dog out. My dog's not great off leash, but she knows she knows not to wander off too far. So we started hiking up this single lane dirt road and it started getting real thick and trees were laying over the road. And, you know, my first thought is rattlesnakes, you know, checked before we crossed any trees and, you know,

no snakes. So we hiked up for, I don't know, I'd probably say two hours or so. I don't know exactly how far I can walk in two hours, but I would say a couple of miles up. And it started getting

really thick. And my dog started acting funny. And that was the first indicator. She just stopped dead in her tracks. And I noticed that She got the little ridge line of hair running across her back started raising, and her tail immediately went between her legs.

And, you know, she's a 40-pound pit bull. They're not aggressive dogs. They will protect you, but they are not aggressive dogs. And it was very out of character for her. Never seen her act like this. About 15 feet in front of us is a big old manzanita Bush. and I'm thinking there's something in the bush. You know, it's probably a bear or a wild pig.

You know, the last thing I want to do is startle it, so I'm going to holler out. So I yelled out, you know, as loud as I could muster, hey, bear, just to draw its attention, in case it's asleep, you know, I don't want to startle it awake or anything. And that's when this thing stands up from behind the bush. And

I'm staring at it. It's staring at me. And the second it stands up, my dog pees itself. I don't know if you're around dogs much at all, but that's not normal. You know, dogs typically don't pee themselves. I didn't know what to do. I didn't move. I was literally frozen in fear.

At first, going through my head is it's a bear. But I had never seen a bear this kind of. color and it didn't look like a bear. You know, I'm not far from it, so I should have been able to see a snout, something like that. You know, definitely a female torso. I can only see it from about the solar plexes up. And, you know, I can see breasts. And like, this isn't a bear.

It has to be a bear. There's nothing else up here. and sorry, shaking a little bit, that's when I heard a deep growl off to my left up the hill. I didn't want to take my eyes off what was in front of me, but somehow I knew I needed to. And when I looked up the hill, about 200 yards up the hill,

there was this big towering black mass. it just made a B-line towards us. And it's started at a walking pace coming down the hill. And then it starts picking up speed. So the first thing I can think to do is grab my dog and I curled into almost the fetal position on top of my dog. You know, I don't know what its intentions are. If it's a bear, you know, it might eat my dog. I don't want that to happen.

So I laid on top of her and she's whimpering and whining at this point. And I have my firearm on my side, but I'm like, look, a 45 is not going to do anything to a bear. Not until it's right on top of us. There's no point in pulling this. So I just, every muscle in my body tightened up as tight as it possibly would go. I clenched my eyes shut and I could hear every footfall thud, thud, and picking up speed, thud, thud, and the last thud that hit. my eyes are still closed i'm waiting to just be snatched up or grabbed or or bitten um the last thud sounded like it was right next to me i didn't i didn't move um i was just expecting to be attacked and then i hear

footsteps as it starts to walk away i continued to lay there for about 30 30 seconds before I built up enough courage to kind of open my eyes and I looked to my left and there's nothing over there. So I look, pick my head up and it's standing kind of next to but partially behind the female, it is just mad dogging me for, you know, just giving me the most dirtiest look, just staring at me. and I didn't know what to do. I didn't know what I was seeing. At this point, I was like, okay, do I go for my gun?

Well, if it wanted to kill me, it would have killed me. So I'm not going to go for my gun. I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to, you know, making something more angry than it already is. So my next thought is, hey, you have an apple in your backpack. Try to grab the apple. So I start reaching back towards the side pocket of my backpack. And second my hand gets close to my gun, this thing starts to growl.

And it is deep, guttural growl. I freeze in that position for a second. And I slowly reach back a little further. And I grab a golden delicious apple out of my bag. And I bring it forward. And the second he sees what's in my hand, no more grow. Just it starts to soften. And I took the apple out and I kind of flung it towards them.

I didn't throw it, didn't quite roll it. It was kind of like a combination toss thing towards them. I'm like, hey, you know, here's food. I'm a friend. Don't hurt me. And it rolled about two feet in front of him. He never took his eyes off me. He never stopped looking at me. And I noticed that the female squatted down behind this Manzanita bush and out pops this arm from the bush. and she grabs this apple, pulls it back, she raises back up and puts this entire golden delicious apple in her mouth and closes her mouth around it.

You know, these apples are huge. Oh, yeah, it's like a softball. Yeah. No person's going to put that in their mouth. Just it's not possible. I at the time thought it was a laugh. I thought he laughed at me when I tossed it towards him. But thinking back on it and replaying the sound of my head,

it sounds like a chuff. Like a, and they turn and they walk away. Now, at this point, I'm shaking. I've already peed myself. literally. My dog's run away. The second I went for my apple that my dog took off. I don't know where she's at. She's down the hill somewhere. And I'm afraid to move. You know, I don't know where they're at. I don't know how far they've gone. If I get up right now, I don't know if I can. I'm literally shaking. It feels like a panic attack, but worse.

And so I laid there. I laid there in the fetal position for about five minutes before I decided to get up. Finally, I built up enough courage and I calmed down. You're okay. You know, nothing happened to you. You're safe. It's okay. You can get up.

I talked myself into getting up. And I looked back and I couldn't see my dog anywhere. It's like, okay, she probably went back to the car. You know, she'll go back there and she'll wait. Look back towards the bush that they're not there. Thinking, okay, well, what did I just see? Trying to rationalize it. Hey, you know, there's some crazy hillbillies that live up in the mountains and they're wandering around here in costumes.

They're trying to scare you. Trying to rationalize what I just saw. Yeah. And I couldn't. So I decided, you know what, let's go towards the bush. And I walk around the other side of the Manzanita bush where they were at. That's when I realized just how big the bush was. You know, I'm 5'8 and the bush was probably at least six inches taller than I am.

It was at least four feet wide. I could have sat behind that bush and you never would have seen me. But the interesting thing was on the ground behind the bush where this female was squatting, there was a small puddle. And at first I thought, you know, hey, it's urine until I kind of looked at it and it had a reddish tint to it. It was blood on the ground behind this bush. and you know at that point i'm kind of freaking out as to what i'm saying you know oh these bears just killed something you know that's why they were aggressive and i start to hear something you know off off to one side in the bushes and i'm like oh crap they're coming back to kill me

out pops my dog and she's happy go lucky tail wagon like nothing ever happened so i decided to uh at that point end my trip and we jogged the rest of the way back to the car. I jumped in and I flew down the mountain. And when I got home, went straight into the bathroom, locked the door, and I sat in the shower and just sat there for an hour. I didn't know what to do. What did you, when you first saw, or when you saw both of them, what was kind of going through your mind?

because you had mentioned, you knew it wasn't a bear, and there's a weird thing when you have an encounter. It's like your brain tries to tell you what you're seeing, but what did you actually think you were looking at? It looked like the movie, Harry and the Hendersons. It looked like what you traditionally think of as a Bigfoot, just way more exaggerated proportions. I didn't know what it exactly was.

I was like, okay, you know, someone, someone's playing a joke on me. Someone's in a costume. These things aren't real. They just can't be. I want to ask you about the blood, the blood that you found, because when I was reading your email, I kind of had a theory on the blood, and I think you and I are in the same agreement. And I think when people hear the encounter, they'll think, well, it killed something, and it was

eating something behind the bush. But as I read your email, there was really no, you know, you didn't describe, yeah, there was a half-eaten rabbit or anything like that. It was just kind of a puddle of blood. What's your take on that blood? So when I went out there, it was middle of March, you know, early springtime. So I think she was in heat, like menstruating. Yeah, and that really fascinated me because I was thinking the same thing as I was reading your email. And you know, what an encounter to be that close to them for the audience who's never seen the face. I mean, you're looking at a female and then a male. Can you kind of describe for the audience what you actually saw as far as the face and everything?

So I would say the faces are similar. differ in in size and characteristics so like the female she was her hair or fur i don't know what it is was this beautiful like strawberry blondeish kind of reddish hue to it um her face um her skin was very much like a like someone who you know plays beach volleyball too much and has been in the sun a lot very tan thick

leathery skin the hair on her face stopped about her chin area and and just right after her ears so her face wasn't covered in hair

you know she had a extremely large mouth If I were to venture to guess, I would say, you know, her mouth was probably five inches from side to side, you know, five inches apart. And her nose was probably half the size of her mouth as far as widthwise goes. So she had this big flat, big flat nose, you know, don't want to sound politically incorrect here. But, you know, when you watch, you know, Marco Polo on Netflix and you see like a traditional. people from Mongolia and they have this big flat, broad nose. That's what it was like.

It was very, but much larger, much thicker, you know, very, very big nose. Not pointed, just very thick and wide. And unlike our nose that, you know, is wider at the bottom than it is at the top, it narrows out, thick all the way up. her eyes were much further apart than what I would typically think a human's eyes would be. I would probably say almost two inches apart from, you know, in between her nose. There's a two inch gap there between her eyes. Eyes are really sunken in. So you could really define, you know, brow line.

The hair on the, on the head came down lower than, a human scalp line would be, but the head is oddly shaped. So it would almost be like if you took an egg and you put the pointy part facing up, that's what her head look like. So the head was more pointed at the top and more wide and flat at the bottom.

Yeah, very conical. Yeah. And the male, he same same similar features as her mouth was much wider than hers eyes were further apart still sunken in she had very i don't want to say human-like eyes but you know brown eyes of very large pupils whereas he had his eyes looked jet black i i couldn't distinguish a color in them from the pupil whereas he had hair on his face. He had hair around his mouth, almost like a goatee would be, but shorter.

No hair on his nose, but he was almost jet black would be the color of his hair and his skin color was dark. I would say almost like an ash color, but not shiny, very, very muted. color. Kind of dull. Yeah. Yeah.

And he he never what kept throwing me off is how tall they were and how much taller he was to her and and he never stood like a humid would stand.

So even though he was on two legs when he was just standing there, his knees never fully locked. So his knees remained somewhat bent, which I thought was interesting because humans don't stand like that. We tend to lock our knees when we're standing upright. Yeah. And, you know, his hands and arms were extremely long, almost down to his knees.

The hair on their arms were longer than on the rest of their body, except for her. She had longer hair on her head than she did on on on the rest of her body. He had shorter hair on the head, but still somewhat long on his arms. I would say only like probably four or five inches long. But the hair stopped. I would say a little bit past their wrist, almost to the thumb is where the hair stops on their hands. He had very dark fingernails. It almost looked like they were like when you get hitting by a hammer on your nail where it's almost like purple-sh color.

Yeah. That's what it looked like. You know, his lips were almost purple in color. And he was very large. Like I said, you know, I, she, I'm 5-8, you know, and she was, I could. see from her, you know, solar plexes up. So, you know, I would put her in the six and a half, seven foot range. And she only came up to about his solar plexes. You know, who knows how tall he is. I mean, I was thinking, you know, he's probably 10 plus, probably somewhere around 11

feet. If they wanted to, they could have, I could have disappeared and never been seen again. A 45 wouldn't have done anything to him. He would have been on me before I could have had a chance to do anything. Yeah, that's what I find really fascinating about the account, especially you describe the mouth. I've heard that many times were from a lot of eyewitnesses, they'll say, you know, this thing could have put a softball in its mouth and, you know, no problem. that's how big the mouth is. And if you really think about it, I mean, that mouth is huge for her to eat the apple the way she did. I'm kind of curious, did her expression change at all when, from the point that you saw her to when the encounter ended, did her expression change at all? Yeah, so when she first, I guess, realized I was there and popped up.

she had a look on her face almost of like shock like like I startled her I surprised her kind of like a nervous surprise like I don't know what to do next um do I run do I do I stay on my ground like what do I do I do I do I do I do I do I do I do I do I do I do I do it what do I do I do I do it when the male came, her whole demeanor changed. She became very timid. She no longer really would look directly at me. She kind of looked more down towards the ground, not really at me. I don't want to say she was afraid as well, but

you know, I think she might have been a little bit afraid of him as well. Yeah, that's fascinating. And his facial expression, would you describe it human-like? I mean, I know you talk about the stink eye he was given you, but can you kind of describe that? I mean, was it, I'm going to kill you type of look? Or, I mean, what was kind of your impression when he was staring at you the whole time? you know I never got the

the impression from him like you know now that I think of I've thought about it and stuff I never got the impression that I was in immediate like he's going to kill me

you know that's not the look he had on he was upset that I was there and you could see it in his expression he you know the eyes were almost squinting and and his chest was real puffed out and and you know big big barrel broad chest was you know huffing and and breathing heavy and and honestly i i i think he was

scared at the same time not so much at my tiny little you know five eight frame that i mean a do anything um but i think when he first saw me and he and he saw my dog you know he didn't really know what to make of of of us at first um you know we're not being loud we're being very quiet um or we didn't pose any threat to them whatsoever you know i didn't ever try to go for my gun I just didn't behave like a typical human would behave. I think a lot of people when they're afraid of a creature or a bear or something, the first thing they do would probably be go for their gun. And that wasn't my first instinct.

My first instinct was to curl into a ball and be submissive. And I think that really kind of threw him for a loop because I'm sure that whatever its species is when they typically encounter people, people shoot at them or point guns at them. And that wasn't what happened. And it kind of, I think, confused him. He was upset that I was there, but he was confused because I wasn't behaving like a normal person would behave. Fascinating part about your encounter, though, is you get the impression he knew what that gun was. because when you're reaching for the apples, how you went around your gun, he immediately went into growling, almost like he knew what that gun was.

Was that your impression? Yeah, so, you know, I figured that he, you know, Shaver Lake and that area is a pretty big recreational area and not too far from that area is a big deer hunting hot spot and four-wheel drive area. So a lot of people go up there shooting guns and he, I think he knew what it was. I don't think if you laid a gun down in front of him, he'd be able to work it. But he knows that that's one of those things that when they pointed at something, I hear a loud noise and something dies. Yeah, and I think you did the, you were very smart on what you did. kind of getting down into the fetal position. You know, and I think you're right, it probably threw him off.

He probably thought, what's the point in killing this guy, you know? That's my human brain kind of looking at it. How close do you think he was when he walked up on you before he stopped and went back? And I realize you have your eyes closed, your heart's probably going a million miles an hour, and you're in the fetal position. But how close do you think he actually got to you? I would say five feet. It's too close.

Yeah, I would say that he was within distance. He could have bent down and snatched me up if he wanted to. Did you see where they went off to? I mean, did you ever get a, I know you were sitting there and just hoping for all this to kind of go away. Is there a direction that they went from that trail? They went. So I would say southeastern. So they went up the hill on the right side

Because the trail kind of is on both sides There's hills and they headed up the right side of the way But not on the trail itself They were belining towards the ridge The ridge line And the only thing up on that ridge line is Deeper, thicker, forest. I don't even think there's a four-wheel drive trail

that goes up there. I'm kind of curious. You talk about this huff or this grunt that it did. What was your impression of that? I mean, I know you don't know what it meant, but I'm just kind of curious. You were in that moment. What do you, that, and it is kind of a form of communication. I mean, different primates will do that. But I was just kind of curious on what your impression of that chuff or what you thought was a laugh at first or, um, What was your impression of him doing? Why do you think he did that? So, you know, when I first heard it, I thought he was laughing at me.

Like, I'm trying to, this guy's really trying to feed me. But I think it was a almost like a, like a sigh mixed with just a grunt. Like a, like the emotion had finally just dropped because at first he thought I was going for my gun. So I think he tightened up. tensed up and was ready to fight. And when he realized he didn't have to fight, it was kind of like a grunting sigh of relief that, you know, it just went all the stress went away for him. Yeah. Yeah. And I was curious why, you know, what your impression was, because there's a lot of encounters, and I've listened to a lot of them, and a lot, and this is my impression, and it could

have been completely different in your situation, but I think in a lot of situations when they grunt or they kind of do that, you know, type of communication. I almost wonder if it's like acknowledgement, a way of acknowledging that you're there or, because your encounter reminds me of one I heard many years ago. Very similar. I ran into a female and a male. And the female did that grunting sound, that kind of that release of error. And he ended up shooting it in that situation because he took it as aggressive. But I don't think it was meant to be aggressive. You know, I don't think it was meant as to terrify him in his situation. I almost kind of think she was acknowledging he was there. But that's just my opinion. You know, I mean, it's not worth

much. No, I, you know, I agree that, you know, in some situations, yeah, it's probably, an acknowledgement. I also, you know, like I said, I think in some situations, it's almost like what we do when we do that,

almost like, when all the stress just kind of melts away type of thing, you know, I thought for a second about, you know,

pulling my gun, but let's be honest, I may get a clip into one of them, but the other one going to be on top of me before I can reload and I'm going to disappear. Yeah, I think you... I'm going to be beat to death. Yeah, and I think you did the right thing.

I really do. And I'm all for, and everyone hates me saying it, but I'm all for killing one. Not just to kill one to kill one, but in certain situations, I think it's the worst thing you can do is pull a gun out and start shooting. Because like you said, the other one's going to be on top of you in two seconds. And I know it's a 45, but when you see the size of these things, 45 feels like a BB gun. I mean, it really feels.

It really does. I knew in my scared little brain, I knew that the only way that this is going to do any damage is if he grabs a hold of me and I can put the barrel to his actual head. Because if I hit him center mass, I don't think I'm going to penetrate it. He's just too big. Yeah, they're huge. They're huge. And I said that on the last show. And that's one of the reasons why I struggle with what these things are because, you know, if we were searching for a one-foot-tall primate, I could go with the argument, well, there's a lot of places to hide.

But after seeing the size of these things, there's not a ton of places to hide. I mean, I realize California, I'm in Washington. There's lots of places to hide. But these things are just so big, you think we'd be, you know, running into them. them nonstop with how big they are. The other question I wanted to ask you was, and you may not be able to answer this, Jesse, and I'm just curious on your opinion, but what do you think she was doing behind the bush? Do you think it was like an ambush, or do you think it was the whole menstrual cycle thing going on? I mean, what do you think she was doing there on the trail or next to the

trail behind this bush? Honestly, I think she was eating. And I don't think she was eating. And I don't think, you know, she was eating like meat or anything like that. But manzanita bushes, the flowers are edible. There's usually a lot of ticks and things and bugs that are on the ground around them. So she was, in my opinion, she was probably either eating the leaves and the flowers off the manzanita bush. Or she stopped to use the restroom. Yeah. And she was probably following behind him at a distance because, you know, I think they travel oftentimes, you know, if there's, if you could hear or see one, there's probably another one in the general vicinity that you don't see. Yeah, absolutely. I agree with you 100%. I think if you see one, there's probably two or three more around that you haven't seen. And he saw how quickly he moved, you know, from point eight to.

point B to get to you. It kind of feels like a blink of an eye and he's on top of you. I would have imagined being in your shoes. Absolutely. I mean, he was 200 yards away. And, you know, I ran the 100 meter in high school. You know, I wasn't fast by, you know, Olympic standards. But I would say that he coming down a hill, which is even harder,

ran down that hill and got to me so fast that even on a flat surface, he'd outrun a deer. You know, he could probably run just because, you know, of his size, you know, probably, you know, 35, 40 miles an hour. Yeah, it's raw power, you know, coming your way. Did you notice any sort of smell or anything when they're around? No. and that's you know I've I've listened to your show and I've heard other people talk about this foul horrible odor

and I didn't smell anything like that you know so the only thing I can think of is that that's not something that is always occurring I don't think they always stink you know I think that might be a like when they're scared or they're startled they may you know poop themselves or something to try to make what they deem as a predator like a skunk does. Yeah, it's a really good point because most people don't describe a smell. Even being as close as you were, I would say most eyewitnesses I asked, did you smell anything? Most of them will say no, didn't smell anything. Either that or it's some sort of like, you know, musk that they produce. when they're trying to attract females or males of their species. Could be.

Definitely could be. I don't know. How did you deal with this? You know, you go home, you sit in the shower. I mean, how did you kind of deal with this whole situation? Because I would try and put myself in your shoes. I don't think I would have dealt with it very well. I didn't.

So I called in sick from work probably three days in a row. my wife, you know, I didn't tell her immediately what happened. I didn't know how to talk about it, but she knew something was bothering me. And, you know, she suggested, you know, that maybe I should go talk to a counselor or, you know, a psychiatrist about the whole doctor thing. And she thought it was just that, you know, and I reluctantly went. and, you know, I thought I would be in a safe space to, where I could talk to someone about it. And I literally got laughed out of the office.

And I went home and I explained to her what happened. And she goes, well, what would you say? You know, what did you talk about? And I told her what happened in the mountains. And, you know, she begged me to take her up there. She wanted to go exactly where I was. went. I had no, I'm sorry, I'm not going back. I have no interest in running into these things again. In fact, we didn't go back into the mountains for about a year. And, you know, she finally convinced me to go rent a cabin up and shaver in the following January.

we had some odd things happen at that cabin that scared her half to death and I haven't spent the night in the woods since. Yeah, and I'm kind of curious, would you talk about it? First of all, shame on that therapist. You know, do your job. And, you know, because there is, they're very real, you know, people do run into them, but for them to laugh you out of the office is pretty shameful. Do you mind talking about what happened?

the cabin? Yeah, I can tell you the story. So we rented a cabin up and it's off a Brett's Mill Road. You know, we rented this little cabin for, you know, four days, three nights. And the first night we got up there, you know, we went into town, got some stuff to grill on the barbecue on the back deck. that's, you know, one of those elevated decks. And I'm out there cooking and she's bringing me stuff to throw on. And second time she comes out, I said, do you hear that?

And she said, do I hear what? And I said, just be quiet for a second. And it sounded like two people were having a conversation down the hill. But it definitely wasn't in English. We could not understand what they were saying. It was kind of like a chatter back and forth. And she's like, it's probably some people camping. I said, okay, go grab my flashlight.

And I have a high-powered flashlight. I started shining towards where I'm hearing it. And when I get to where I'm hearing it, the chatter stops. And the woods fall dead silent. I was like, well, I don't see anyone. So I put my flashlight away and continued to cook. and chatter picks up again. So, you know, we finish cooking, go inside, start eating dinner.

I would say about five minutes into eating, it sounds like hail is hitting the cabin and the back deck. I'm like, you know, I can understand snow, but hail, I mean, that's odd, you know. So we got onto the back deck and there's no hail. There's a bunch of rocks about, I don't know, I'd say about the size of a silver dollar, glittered all over the back deck and, you know, up on the roof. And I just thought that was absolutely strange. And I was like, you know what, whoever I shined with the flashlight decided, you know, how dare you and threw some rocks at us.

Okay. So we decided to go inside. We watched the movie, ate dinner, I went to bed. Next morning we get up about seven. And I'm like, you know, before breakfast, why don't we go for a little hike? And she's like, yeah, yeah, that sounds good. And it's like, well, let's go down the hill rather than up. You know, I'm hoping to run into a campground and find out whoever's staying down there and give them an earful about throwing rocks.

And that's when. And we don't find a campground, but the second we hit the snow line, we see two sets of tracks in the snow. It's a human-like footprint, but extremely large. And when I say extremely large, I wear a size nine, not a big shoe. But if I put my foot in the center of the track, there's probably two inches of heel behind my foot. and two to three inches of toes in front of my foot and an inch on either side. Yeah, it's a big foot. It's a big foot.

And they're walking side by side. I'm curious, but at the same time, I'm terrified. I'm not sure what to do. She's like, well, let's follow it. Let's follow it. We followed them for about 100 yards, and we noticed that they split off from each other. One went around the backside of this hill, and the other one kept going. And then when we got to the other side of the hill, we found deer tracks,

and it looked like where a deer had been running and slid, and the tracks followed the deer, and then you saw tracks coming down from the hill towards those tracks. Like whatever they were chasing, they tried to ambush. I immediately was like, nope, we're out of here. went back to the cabin. I was throwing stuff in my suitcase as fast as I could. And she's like, what's wrong?

What's wrong? I said, look, man, whatever I saw up here is still here. We need to leave. And she's like, look, we spent a lot of money on this cabin. Let's not waste our money. We're fine as long as we're inside. You know, let's just stay. You know, after about an hour of talking about it,

I was like, all right, you know, I'm being foolish, you know, we're safe inside the cabin. We just won't go out after dark. That's fine. So we went into town, you know, did a little shopping, came back about 4 o'clock before sunset because I wasn't dare going to be outside that cabin after dark. We put our stuff down and the cabin front door is right off the kitchen. There's only one door that you can come and go from to get into the cabin. You know, I shut the door. We make dinner.

We put on a movie and we're sitting there watching something on Netflix, no idea what. And all of a sudden, my wife's talking about how she feels cold. And I was like, I built a fire. It's hot in here. What do you mean you're cold? And she's like, it's. it's cold over here. I said,

okay, let me come over and I went set next door and yeah, there was, it felt like air was coming in like a draft. I was like, that's weird, you know? Did we leave the kitchen window open? You know, so we go towards the kitchen and that's when we notice that the kitchen door is wide open.

Oh, ma'am. Time to know. Yeah, I'm terrified at this point. And I'm like, well, it's nighttime. I'm not there going to my car at nighttime. It's 50 yards to my car. I'm not going to make that in the dark. It's not going to happen. So I slammed the door shut.

I was like, how'd the door open? And she goes, maybe the wind blew it open. So I tug on the door and the door won't open. Like, the door won't open. If I can't pull it open, then wind did, blow it open. So I was like, all right, locked it all up. I'm like, I'm going to bed. And I said, I'm not sleeping on the lower level tonight in the master bedroom. We're going upstairs to the guest bedroom to the loft, high off the ground. Went up there, went to sleep. Nothing

happened. The last night we were there, went out into town, went to the lake, played, had good time, eight in town, came back, went to bed, and I was still scared. So, I mean, I carried my gun in the car with us when we were hiking with us at the lake with us. I even put it on the nightstand next to me at that point. I was scared. And about four o'clock in the morning, I wake up to her nudging me and she goes, babe, I think there's someone outside. And I said, you know, I cursed. I said, I'm not effing going out there. They can stay out there.

I'm not going. So I grabbed my gun and I grab my flashlight. And she follows me room to room and we start looking out the window with the flashlight. I'm not seeing anything. And out of any of the windows. And she describes hearing what she sounded like something slapped the side. the house. And I was like, maybe it's a tree branch. I'm trying to rationalize it because I'm terrified at this point. But I'm trying to rationalize it so that way I don't get more scared than I

need to be. She's like, well, did we lock all the doors? I said, yeah, I locked all the doors. She goes, can we double check? I said, yeah, that's fine. So I turn on lights. We start going downstairs. We get to the kitchen. And she goes, what's that sound? And it's a squeak sound and I'm like I don't know maybe it's a squirrel you know like we're in the mountains who knows what it is and she goes look and she gets behind me and grabs me and the door handle is turning left to right at this point I'm terrified so I scream I'm gonna shoot and that's when we hear thud thud thud as something runs away we didn't sleep the rest of the night we packed up and left at first light. And I haven't gone into the mountains after dark since.

Who could blame you? I mean, Jesus, all those things are very classic behavior. You know, the rock throwing, the slapping of the home. And mainly on a lot of Native American reservations, the eyewitnesses will talk about them turning the door handle, which always seemed bizarre to me because they could just, you know, rip the door off if they wanted to. But mainly in a lot of Native Americans I've heard, they'll talk about them grabbing the door handle and going from left to right, like they're trying to figure out how to open the door. And you've seen the size of them. I mean, it makes no sense why they would do that. I think they don't understand the concept. You know, they know it turns, but they don't understand they got to push as well. You know, they may see us turn the hand. handle and the door opens, but they don't realize that we're turning and pushing at the same time. Yeah, that's a good point. It's a good point. I never thought of that. Let me ask you, how are you dealing with it today after all these years?

So I love all the documentaries. I watch all the big foot movies, even the stupid ones that make them out to be this either big scary monster that's going to come eat you or, you know, this big friendly giant that you're is going to adopt your kid if they're lost in the woods. Watch them all. Even the cartoon ones. Listen to a lot of different podcasts and joined a couple of Facebook groups

for Bigfoot. I do a lot of internet research, but I don't do a lot of going up and looking anymore because I already know what's up there and I don't want to run into it again. what's kind of what what does your wife think of the whole thing i mean what's kind of her take on it so she's never actually seen one you know she she she believes me and believes what i saw um because she

knows the type of person i am i just i don't lie um it's my biggest pet peeve i hate liars so she believes me um but she's very well educated you know she's a veteran So she's like, you know, they're not out of the realm of possibility to exist. It just seems odd that we don't have one in a zoo or science doesn't recognize it because we don't have a body. And me being the skeptic, I am I go, maybe we do have a body. Maybe the Smithsonian has it in one of their vaults and doesn't come out. with it because it would rewrite history books and science books and maybe the Forestry Service and Gabe Warren's know about it, but they don't tell anyone because it's going to scare people

away from camping. And that's how they make their money. Yeah, definitely could be. What do you think that they are, Jesse? What's your opinion? I've gone back and forth on it a lot. For a long time, I thought, you know, something with the Nephilim, being a Christian myself, that's what I went to first. You know, he talked about David and Goliath, and, you know, he was nine feet tall. Now you take Goliath and he mates with a gigantic Apithicus, and there you go, you got a big fight. But I think there's something all their own. you know a chimpanzee shares about 95% of our DNA but isn't a human so i think they like other apes share a lot of our DNA traits but is something all their own like maybe they're some sort of

hominid that never fully developed or developed in its own way or you know my last theory is maybe a during the last ice age when all the cavemen were hiding in caves because it was cold well these giant giganapithecuses were hiding in caves too because it was cold and either some males took some females or some you know cavemen took a couple female giganticuses as mates and you get some sort of strange combination but they're definitely in my opinion a flesh and blood creature

you know I don't go into the whole they're interdimensional and can travel through portals and yeah come from stars I think they're an actual creature Yeah, it is fascinating, especially when you look at them because they don't really, they don't look human and they don't really look like a non-human primate. It's kind of like this weird mix between the two. You know, it's so hard to, you know, when eyewitnesses really go into describing them. And some of them do look more human-like.

Some people will say what I saw was like a caveman or a Neanderthal or, you know, what we imagine a Neanderthal would look like. I don't think anyone actually knows what a Neanderthal looks like. But, you know, that kind of image of it being kind of human-like. But most people say, you know, it was a cross between a human and, you know, a non-human primate. There was features that reminded me of human. And, you know, a lot of times with most wild animals, if you get down the way you got down even with your dog, if they're pissed off enough, they'll just come kill you. It doesn't really matter if you're fighting or not.

So it kind of shows a lot of intelligence for it to stop and go. I think they're very hyper-intelligent. They're incredibly smart and are able to think and communicate and reason and reason and understand, okay, this area, we don't go. Otherwise, they would trade through people's backyards more often. you know, they know to avoid us. They know what we're capable of. And I'm sure they have a language and share their stories with the other ones. Hey, we don't go into this town. That's just not a place we go. Yeah, no doubt. I'm convinced that they have a language. And I've heard time and time again,

kind of like what you and your wife experienced, you know, where it sounds like they're talking, but you can't quite make out what they're saying, almost like two Russian, talking or two, it seems like two people talking, but nothing, there's no words that really make sense, but you can tell there's a form of communication going on. Absolutely, absolutely. I mean, like I said, I could only think of, they're speaking a language that I don't understand. You know, maybe they're Hmong or maybe, you know, maybe it's a, some, you know, people came up here to, for the winter and decided to camp out. and, you know, because, you know, we're not far from Yosemite National Park.

So that's a big tourist attraction. Yeah, no doubt. Let me ask you, after all these years, would you want to see another one now, now that some time has passed? Um, I would love to see another one, just not 15 feet away from me. Yeah. I wouldn't mind seeing one alongside the road as I drive by. From a helicopter. Yeah, a couple hundred yards away if we're hiking and I see one down the hill in a clearing, that's fine.

But I never want to see one that close again, which really shocks me because part of my brain says, you know what? Jesse, go up there and you've had a couple of run-ins. You know, they're there. Why don't you, you know, pull a Jane Goodall and live amongst them and become, you know, part of their troop. and the other rational part of my brain goes, you're not Jane Goodall and you'll die. Yeah, and plus two, you know, they seem to have different personalities,

especially when you listen to a lot of different eyewitness reports. And the next one you run into may not be so even tempered as far as how they deal with you. You know, I'm not, this notion that every one of them is going to, do I think every one of them is going to kill you when you run into them, no. Can you run into ones that seem to have very ill tempers? Absolutely.

And it makes me wonder about people who have disappeared, you know, who were out hiking and just seemed to vanish, you know. If you ask the people, you know, that run Yosemite National Park, they've gone on record and said that there are wild men that live in the park. and Yosemite has 233 missing people, unsolved missing people cases.

So, if there were homeless people, you'd say it's homeless people or hobos, you wouldn't say wild men. Wild men, yeah. Yeah, I do think that in certain situations, people do disappear. But again, do I think every one of these

things is going to kill you when you come across them? No. And I think what you did in the situation you were in, I can't think of a better way to react. I don't even know that I were to react it as well as you did. And I think everything that you did was almost perfect. Because at that point, you're not a threat. There's no, if they're as smart as we think they are on a human level, there's no sense in killing you. I mean, what's the point?

You know what I mean? And I think they can reason enough to know that I think there are groups of them that are very opportunistic and will kill a person and eat them and they won't care or think twice about it. And other groups understand that by doing this, it's going to bring more people. Oh, without a doubt. I think so too. It reminds me, I don't know. Did you ever hear? her, Claire's encounter. She's the English lady in episode 515. You hear her in the intro. She talks about them chattering back and forth with each other. And what's fascinating about her encounter is if you ask Claire, why didn't the male kill you? Because, I mean, it seemed like he was going to kill her. And it's weird because the female almost was kind of in an argument with the male. This is Claire's

perception. And when you listen to the encounter, I don't know how she would take it, but it was almost like the female was talking him out of killing her. And so you know that there's a form of intelligence, especially if there's a weird language that they have. Man, it is a fascinating account, Jesse. I can't, I don't think I would trade places with you, especially on that first encounter. And even the second encounter, you know, especially when you're in a cabin, you almost kind of feel like you're a mouse in a box. You know what I mean? There's really nowhere to go.

And the fact that it was trying to get in makes me wonder why they were trying to get in. You know, throw on the rocks at the cabin, slapping the cabin. A lot of that behavior, I think, in my opinion, is to get you to go away. It's intimidation to make you want to leave. But on top of that, them trying to get you. inside the cabin really makes me wonder what the intent was. You know, I thought about it. And honestly, I think if I would have stayed one or two more nights,

there would have been, it would have escalated. I think, you know, the throwing of the rocks was, hey, get out of here. And when we didn't listen to that, you know, opening our doors, showing that they're intelligent was a, hey, I'm serious, you need to leave. And when we still didn't leave, the slapping the walls and shaking the cabin and trying to open the doors when they're locked from two different sides, showing, hey, we're surrounding you, get the hell out of here. you know, it was very much escalating. And I wasn't going to stay and find out what their next thing was. Yeah, I think you're right. I think a lot of times when they are intimidating you to leave and you don't leave, it definitely does ramp up. I've heard that from many eyewitnesses. And it seems to be the narrative. You know, it's, I know an encounter is a very private thing. and I know that you went to a therapist and you were laughed at. And I would love to verbally

I would love to chat with that therapist. But, you know, I know it's very private, but a lot of times when you're laughed at, you never talk about it again. And there's so much to unwrap from your first encounter to your second encounter and just everything that happened to you. I know it's like I said it's very private and a lot of times people shut up after they've had an encounter and I can't thank you enough for taking the time to come on and and share it with us. Thank you so much. You know, I appreciate your show and I just hope that if someone else has an encounter and they don't know who to turn to, I hope they can hear and know that there are others out there that have had a encounter. experiences and you're not allowed. You're not quite crazy. Yeah, without a doubt.

Without a doubt. Thank you again. You're much welcome. And that's it for tonight, everyone. Remember, if you've had an encounter, shoot me an email. My email address is west at saskwatch chronicles.com. Until next time, everyone.