Sasquatch Chronicles - SC EP:793 Law Enforcement Officer Encounters Sasquatch

Episode Date: September 19, 2021

Tonight we will be speaking to Dan. Dan is a former law enforcement officer and back in 1995 he had an encounter with a creature while camping on the Oregon Coast.

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 moved like that in my life. They were screaming at each other in gibberish. It sounded like a language and they were chuntering away back and forwards, back and forwards, back and forwards, back and forwards.

I know what a bear looks like and there is no way on this planet but what I saw were bears. What's going on? What do you report? Get somebody out here. What's going on now, sir? That son of a bitch is about six foot nine, I don't know. Do you see him now? Yes, I'm looking right here. This is Drew Plisket, and you're listening to Sasquatch Chronicles.

Welcome to the show, everyone. Thanks for being here tonight. Got a great show plan for you. Tonight we're going to be chatting with Dan. And Dan was actually a law enforcement officer most of his life. And back in 1995, he had an encounter on the Oregon Coast. And it's kind of a fascinating area of the Oregon Coast, because as you head out there, you wouldn't think you'd run into Bigfoot on the beach.

But out at the Oregon coast, it's very, very dense forest, rugged country, and then it opens up to the beach. So right up to the beach, there's a ton of areas to hide, and a lot of encounters come out of that area. And so Dan will be going into that tonight. 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 to check out Sasquatch Chronicles.com, you can become a member. get additional shows. On YouTube, I've been putting up all this last week. I've been putting up the, I call them SACC watch Chronicles, it's Saskwatch Chronicles, kind of a short version of people

talking about their encounters. And I created a playlist on the YouTube channel on Saskatch Chronicles. If you get a chance to check it out, it's kind of fun to put up just short versions of the encounters. So I hope you guys get a chance to check it out and I hope you enjoy it. let's jump into it tonight. I want to welcome Dan to the show. Dan, thanks for coming on. Hey, thanks for having me, Wes. Yeah, Dan, thank you again for being here.

And I know your encounter happened back in 1995 on the Oregon coast. Before we jump into the encounter, if you would give us a little bit about your background. Well, at the time, it was 1995, I believe, that year, August 14th. I'll have to chuck my notes. It was in the summer of August of 95, I believe. And at that time, I was working for the U.S. Forest Service. I was a law enforcement person for that ranger. Actually, the position was called, they don't have it anymore, but it's called Level 2,

law enforcement officer. There was like a level 4. Anybody who knows was in that back in those days would know about the level 2. And then it later became, I think they call now Forestry, protection officers for the Department of Agriculture, U.S. Forest Service. But I, you know, I started in that, gosh, I guess in early 90s, several years before the siding. And subsequently after that siding, run around on time, I also started to, I went to training

for a state commission. So I was a police officer, later as sheriff's deputy. So you may hear, you know, police officer, ranger. actually both I did pull jobs at the same time. And I kept, I was in law enforcement all the way up to, I guess, around 2003 around there. And then switched to careers. I was then, you know, the job that I have with the forest service was fantastic. It was a, I patrolled on a dirt bike, basically, in the national forest and area in Colorado,

rampart range it was called and it had a lot of trails and I basically you know enforced the national forest laws on a dirt bike had a motorcycle that was provided by me as my vehicle and then that was a great job I loved it it was a seasonal job was full time didn't have the benefits like a lot of the people that worked for the Forest Service but it was a fantastic job and that was part of the reason why I got into other parts of law enforcement is trying as a career but Anyway, around 2003, I started to start doing motorcycle touring as a guide, and that's what I've been doing here abroad, other countries and we'll see in Alaska since 2003. So that's kind of what I do now. Well, if you would take us back to 1995, kind of what were you doing and what happened?

I was on a vacation. We were doing a one-way trip. I was with at the time, my girlfriend. And we were traveling from, I think, with San Francisco we flew into and did a one-way trip, North Island on the Pacific Coast, ending up in Seattle. That was the endpoint and flew back home. But basically, we rented a car and we're just camping and I think staying in some hotels along the way. just enjoying the Pacific coast.

We were traveling up north, and then there was an area that, you know, presented itself where we possibly could camp on a beach, which I had never done, we had not done on that trip. And we're at this lookout, and I saw it like, oh, it looks like some where he's down there, down that way, there must be a road. So we went further north, went down this road, and there was this, basically this Christian camp, and public. camp to and you could camp through an RV or whatever. So we went past that, I didn't have an RV, and then went down south of that, you know, not too far, more secluded, and went over through these little trails, basically ended on a bluff, walked over the bluff to the beach and had this fantastic view of the Pacific Ocean.

And that's where placed a tent and, you know, decided to camp. And that's really, you know, how it started. So, you know, not anywhere in my mind did it come across that what was going to happen was going to happen there on a beach. You know, maybe it might kind of get the willies being in a campground somewhere. You can think of a bear or whatever. But it was this really beautiful place to camp. And so we had a, the tent was up, had made a fire that someone had had a fire there before, kind of found a makeshift camp area on the beach. And, you know, just, I think actually probably were even roasting marshmallows there and sitting on a log.

And I noticed, and this is probably around west, I guess, 9, 9.30. It was after sunset, so it was getting kind of dark or being pretty darn dark. The moon was out, so it was pretty well illuminated at night with the moon with the ocean and the beach. but I noticed to the south, so you know, you're looking directly to the, you know, to the west, to the south would be my left, north to be to my right as a beach would go left right. And I'll notice down to my left, quite a ways down, there was a person standing there. And I thought, well, this first, I thought it was odd how a person got by us down there and I didn't see them go down. knowing the direction we came up from the south, there was really nothing.

It's this wilderness, this really rugged coast along the Pacific coast, at least in that area at the time. So I thought it was kind of odd that the person was there and then kind of looked like they were looking down to, maybe, I thought, well, maybe look for sand dollars, I don't know. But then I thought, well, maybe someone's trying to, you know, check us out, do us, do us some harm, you know, being paranoid cop at the time. person took off, you know, walked back down out of sight, out of mind. And then sometime later, I noticed a person coming back and it was walking towards us.

So then we both were alerted to that and we're just watching. And then this person was wearing all black, which I thought was odd. And it's, you know, that distance seemed black, didn't see any colors or didn't see like garbage or anything like that, just all kind of one uniform black figure walking. towards us on the beach. We're a little raised up, probably, oh, I don't know, six, seven feet up, kind of on a bluff looking down on the beach as it goes to the sea level, to the ocean. And the person, so I'll say a person at the time, I was walking northbound, coming left or right, and stopped at a certain point, and then just kind of stared in our direction, then turned around and went back down. I thought,

well, that's kind of weird behavior. Then again, sometime later, came back again, but this time didn't stop. It was kind of like it was, I guess I would lack of a better term, was kind of just checking, kind of creeping in and back, testing the water, so to speak. So then this time the person came by and came directly in front of us, didn't ever stop and look at us, this kind of was mining its own business.

And from that point about it and then turned around my pack. What I thought was odd about that was, one is the person seemed taller as tall as this as we were sitting there on the beach and was huge and all black and I think I just thought myself what in the heck is this and went back down so then I'm being a little bit more kind of alert I grabbed a maglight I had a little maglight that one of those mini maglites the bombs in the back of the little maglite and had that on the ready I wasn't armed or anything So the next time, and, you know, from the beginning to this time, probably spent, gosh, a half hour or more, you know, from the very first I noticed to this point, came back again, went further than that point, and then went past us, and they went further to the north. And it was looking down, kind of mostly just looking down, like looking for something like you would look if you're looking for something on the beach. And what I noticed was odd about this. two two one thing one is you know all black to the pace it was walking i mean it would be as if the distance it covered as it walked would be if maybe a person were jogging not running sprinting but

jogging pretty quickly but this person a mechanics it was was walking just casually i would say and also the head because you could see the head you know clearly and the whole body um it didn't bounce up and down. If you were kind of walking, especially in sand, you might bounce a little bit up and down head bob. It literally disclided across the beach.

And it was like just, just the most perfect motion, just fluid. Went past us, was looking down. There was a bit of some water, a, I don't know what you call it,

a little tide pool from when the tide was up, probably looking for features or whatever, and then came back down and went back down. And I think we joked said, well, that must be Bigfoot. But not seriously thinking it, that it was, but thinking, what the heck is that? You know? So I think at that point, she stayed up, the girlfriend at the time, sat up at the camp,

and I said, I'm going to go down the beach of the flat, the maglite. And when I get to where it walked last, could you yell out and I'll just start looking for the footprints or whatever down there? So I kind of ran down by light. And then when I think she about yelled out, one of the two, I literally tripped and fell. I think I dropped my flashlight. And a print was like a divot in the sand. It was deep. And it, you know, basically I tripped on it.

And so then I'm looking and I'm like, wow, what the, what the heck is this? You know, this is huge. So I called her down and she came down and she looked and we're just amazed looking at these Prince and you know flashed ideas to work here at that point I believe and then we're looking and just kind of just milling around there in front of the camp down towards the beach and the ocean there in that direction to the west and so I'm facing to the south and she's facing I guess to the north so she's in front of me we're kind of mirroring each other and uh or actually I'm sorry reverse that I'm looking north she's looking south

she says here it's coming back and then um i turned around and i'm like holy crap you know uh i probably said something else but here this person's coming back walking that same direction the same gates towards us uh and she was getting pretty nervous to come on come on come on and start pulling me and she goes come on come on and what was weird is is the distance something would be that far away someone walking shouldn't cover that much ground that quickly just walking it just that was the airy part of it it's like it's there and it's now it's like wow it shouldn't be there that quick so she runs up towards the tent top of the bluff I don't know 100 feet or so and I I stay there and I'm just going to stay there and wait and see what this is or who this is

with us and yeah I think around that time the you know maybe before that The flashlight had gone up, of course. I was looking for the ball in the back, and then I couldn't really deal with that. That's when I noticed it coming back. And then as the Bigfoot came closer, a person I thought at the time, she ran up and I just was staring and looking.

And what I noticed Westwood was really crazy about it was not so much, when you look at somebody or a person that's, I don't know, how far away it was, how many yards at the forage point. Further down, field from you, it shouldn't be bigger than you,

much bigger, but it was huge, towering that distance, and that didn't add up, right? The gate that's walking doesn't add up. What else it doesn't add up is the shoulders were immense. They were,

they were probably as wide as I probably was tall, and I was still not quite, but it was just, I mean, four foot plus shoulders on this thing, no neck, a head on top of it. and as I got closer, she ran up again.

I'm kind of repeating myself, but I stared and I think I yelled out. Stop, I'm going to shoot. I didn't have a gun. I was armed. And then it just kept coming, kept walking. It almost didn't even really look at me. It just was kind of minding its own business looking down, still coming. I'm sure looking up, kind of looking down, cratching down a little bit as it walked.

And it could care less that I was there. And it could care less that we were up at the beach. It's almost like if you were a seagull on a beach and you go for a walk on a beach, you can carolask the seagull's no threat to you, but you don't even mind it. I guess I'm going to have correlation, but it came closer, closer, and then there is a point where this is fight or this is flight, okay? And there's no way I'm fighting this thing. I'm certainly going to be fighting, you know. I thought I was going to kind of fight and maybe scared off when you say something, but it kept coming, didn't stop, didn't hesitate. It wasn't aggressive.

It just was walking. There was no snarling. There was no raising its hands up or screaming. It just kept walking like it's just like, you know, you're in my way. You're a little nothing. Get out of my way. I'm coming up the beach. And I just kept staring.

And then as the Bigfoot, well, say that now, got closer, I could start to see hair. And I could see hair under the arms like dripping down a little bit. As the arms swing, the arms were. You know, our arms, I guess, as we walk, I'm going to guess they're just above our knees or our thighs. These arms were down below its knees, maybe near the upper calf, I guess, that I, lack of me better. I would say they're much longer than they should be. And it was just, you know, penchaling as it was a walk towards that. The arm swing was pretty pronounced.

And it just kept coming. And then when I noticed hair, and I noticed this is not probably a person in the suit who, that's crazy. enough as it is, I think what would freak me out was I'd never been that scared ever in my life. And I'm not saying I'm a super brave person, but being in law enforcement, there's a lot of things I have come across that were pretty, you know, scary and life-threatening. But this was something that, you know, training does not prepare you for or anything anyone would prepare you for. This thing that doesn't exist in front of you.

and then when I noticed the hair, everything kind of hit me. I just basically froze. And I'd never been so scared of my life that I never felt like passing out, which I wasn't going to pass out, but I froze. And I never froze before ever, where I couldn't even move. I think shock kind of hit me at that second. And that's what scared me the most. I couldn't even move, which I needed to go.

And then I just kind of like went from kind of tunnel. vision. I could hear her screaming, run, run. So then I snapped out of it, and I ran as fast as I could possibly run towards the top where she was. And all I can think of in back of my mind is this thing's running after me, which it could have caught me in just a millisecond. I mean, I'm sure it could have. And I ran to the top of the bluff and, you know, out of breath, panicking, she's panicking. And we started to go towards the carpet and we stopped. I, we turned around, got maybe part of the way before we got on the other side of the bluff to where the car was and looked and what I had done as it kept walking and she said that you know later that as it was

as I was running up towards her it never stopped it never turned it just kept its cadence going as I ran for my life feeling it to the top of the bluff and it basically went by us down there went down to the end of this little tight pool it turned around and went right back down to the south again, never even cared. So that was the entirety of the sighting at that point. And then some other events happened after that. I'll just kind of go into that, if that's okay.

So we run over the bluff. We get to the car. It's locked. I'm going to give me the keys. This is like one of them horror stories, right? You have the keys. No, you have the keys. Well, the keys are in the tent on the beach,

on the other side of the bluff down where the big foot is. So can't get in the car. can't leave. The keys are down there. So we're like, what are we going to do? You know, all my luggage and stuff's in there and apparently the keys of the car. So we remembered the RV park, just a little further up, the quarter mile, whatever. So we can't drive up there. So we have no flashlight.

You know, we went, basically went for help. So we walked up to where the RV little camp was at this Christian camp. And there's people out there with dogs and kids and, you know, they're sitting in their chairs, their fires next to their RVs. And here we come out of the darkness. And we're like, help. There's a, I think I said something like there's a large person, huge person walking on the beach. It almost looked like it was covered in hair down by our tent. And can somebody help us?

And this is the bizarre thing. Well, first of all, people would either laugh at you or think you're nuts, you know. these people that were in Oregon camping, I don't know if they're locals, maybe they were. They all literally grab their kids, grab their pets, grab their chairs, all of them went into their RVs,

shut their doors, and we're just sitting there like, you know, I can't believe this is happening. And one of them took a flashlight and threw it out the window and shut the window. No one said a word to us, but we got a flashlight.

And that happened. So they obviously didn't think we're nuts or they'd be scared enough. So now we have a flashlight. So then we go back, we go over, scan around, get into the tent, grab the keys of the car, leave everything in the tent down there. And we get in the car, and then we just decide to start taking off. But we really don't go anywhere.

We're like, well, where are we going to go? We don't have anything. We don't, you know, it's dark out. So I think at that point, my girlfriend had decided, well, listen, if it didn't hurt us, what's the point of us leaving? You know, why don't we just sleep in the car? thinking, well, you know, at this point, why don't we just do that? So we just basically missed the seats back and stayed in that area by the sighting on the side of the bluff in the car,

locked door. And I'm thinking, well, wait a minute, you know, what the hell was that? You know, we're trying to, you know, is it a Bigfoot? And, you know, and then I realized, I got a camcorder in this car. And it's one of them cancorders back in 95, at least the one I had was probably kind of old. It was one of those that would have had a VHS full-size, tape you put in it. I don't know if you remember them. Big suckers, you put the tape in. Batteries never say charged really well. So I grabbed that. I had a fairly decent charge. I think it was charging up for a little bit. And then I took that their flashlight. And I went back down. I stoked up the fire. And I stayed out there all night waiting for it to come back,

the Bigfoot down by the camp. And she stayed in the car. And I literally stayed out almost all night, waited, nothing came back. I couldn't get in. I wish I would have thought of, you know, at the time that during the sighting, then I had a camcorder. I would have grabbed the damn camcorder, but I didn't even dawn on me during the whole siding. It didn't even dawn on me that I had it. I would have had it probably right next to me and never would have thought of grabbing it probably. So, I don't know. That was kind of weird, but I regret that.

So, you know, the daylight came. I think at that point I, before dusk, I ended up just sleeping for maybe a little. bit in the car, got upstanding it's light enough, and I grabbed, not the camcorder, because I don't want to lug that thing down the beach. I figured I'm going to grab my camera. And at the time, the camera that I had was this little, well, these cameras that you buy, they're disposable. You can buy them. And then you basically, once you shoot on the 24 pictures or whatever's in them, and you mail it, you know, you get them processed if you remember those, little cameras. So there was those little square Kodak thing.

So that's what I had. And then I went down and then I could start to see the, thank God the footprints were still there. Even though the tie to come in a little bit near us and then it was windy, there was still remarkable footprints up and down the beach from where once it came. So I noticed that there were several footprints. I was like, wow, these are huge and it's daylight. So I grabbed her, got her out of the car and had her help me take pictures so I could lay next to some of them. or, you know, I could take pictures of, you know, her walking next time for comparison, because you could take a picture of something on a beach, you have nothing to compare it with

that's not really any good. So that's what I did. We walked down as far as we could go, and as we got further down the beach, you know, further than what we saw that night, it seemed like there was more than one footprint. When I mean more of one footprint, different size was big, but it wasn't that one that came kind of pulsing in and out from south of the beach. It seemed like there was maybe others, I'm just assuming, from some of the pictures I took. It looked like there was smaller ones and medium-sized ones, and this big one had gone up and down several times.

So what I did notice is they all funneled at some point to the left into the forest, and they all kind of funneled into this trail that went towards the forest. Well, if you've been to Oregon, the forest is really thick. At least it is on the initial edge of it. You know, maybe in the inside, it may not be as much. But I got to where it went in through brush where you literally would have to push against it to get in. And I didn't go past that. I didn't go into that curtain.

And so I took these pictures. And we left and then did the rest of the tour, what a trip up to San Francisco, flew out, talked about it, didn't talk about it, you know, thinking, God, is this real Bigfoot? You know, you see these statues along the way, these wood carvings, like, and maybe there's something to us, you know? So that was the entirety.

I may have missed something of the sighting, and I had the camera with me, and then when I got home, you know, further on where I contacted some investigators and had sent the film in to get it developed. Yeah, the pictures are pretty amazing of the footprint, and I'll post them if I have your permission. Sure.

They're pretty, they're actually really, really cool. What did you think of the whole topic of Sasquatch prior to this happening to you and, and your, was it your girlfriend or your wife? It was at the time, my girlfriend, yeah. I mean, I think me personally, I was aware of it. You know, the age I am, you know, the shows that I saw were like in search of and I don't know, maybe it was on Unsolved Mystery, something like that. So I was aware of it.

I thought it was a possibility. Did I put a lot of stock in it or did I, like, research or study it? No, but I was aware of it. You know, certainly aware of, like, you know, Bigfoot tires and the common lore, Bigfoot, you know, Harry and Hennersens and all that later on. But I'm not sure if that was before 95. But, you know, I mean, it was plausible, but I didn't let go out for nuts. I just thought, well, it's possible. Yeah, I understand all that.

Let me ask you, when this thing is walking past you guys, I realize it's dark, but when it's walking past you guys, how far away from you was it? Well, I think at the closest point, West was probably, I'm going to guess, 100 feet. You know, when I say like 90 degrees, so basically, you know, to my left would be the plane, you know, left north-south, that's the plane. And then, you know, degrees would be straight ahead would be 90, 45 would be more to the left. that angle. So I would say when it was at 90 degrees, straight up, it was probably close to 100 feet, which would be probably about right, maybe a little bit more, maybe a little bit less,

but about that. Really close, really. I mean, the thing's right there. And, you know, I was saying there in the intro, Dan, that when you think of the beach, you don't think of Sasquatch. You don't think you'd ever run into some weird cryptid on the beach. But, you know, the Oregon coast is very, very, it's thick wood lines and then, I mean, very, very thick forest, and then bam, you come out and it's the beaches right there, you know what I mean? Yeah, totally. Yeah. It's, you know, very rugged, at least in that area at the time, there was not really any, there

wasn't really any homes. There was just all wilderness. And the wilderness certainly on the, I guess, the right side of the highway there, Highway 1 101 into I'm not sure which National Forest top of my head but there was a lot of just wilderness there. Yeah, I think you're probably near the Tillamac Forest, but you know, when I think of Claire's encounter, you know, from in San Diego when she, in California when she had that encounter, I always wondered, you know, why would these creatures go down to the beach?

And if you really think about it, there's a lot of food down there on the beach. What do you think it was doing? Yeah, I think it was just doing that. I kind of got the impression that it's done this before. This wasn't just like, oh, my gosh, here's an ocean here. It looked like it had done this before. Obviously, it calculated to wait to do it at night, you know, this past sunset for cover. But it was comfortable enough to come out.

And then, you know, the odd thing, you know, here it clearly has to know we're up there. I mean, there's a fire going and, you know, stand out like that sort of a thumb. You know, you're in a fire top of a kind of a little hill there. So it obviously knew we were there, and it just didn't seem to care. And that's kind of what's his demeanor, not so much. Maybe it was just checking to see if we were a threat. Maybe I was super hungry. Wanted something, I don't know.

But it just didn't, once it kind of penetrated, kind of, you know, came in and out, got closer, we got more confidence, I guess. It just didn't care. You know, it probably was cautious, but. I'm not saying it was just doing whatever. But it came out and it just, you know, we were no threat to it. Even when I was, you know, on the ground in front of it, clearly I was no threat to it. You know, I was wondering what would have happened if I never would have left.

What if I stood my ground? I mean, would I be alive? Would I, be able to have the word for all to, you know, stay conscious, I guess, let this thing walk right behind me. What would it do? And I always wonder. But, you know, I guess if nine times out of ten that were ever happened, I would have probably ran every time, I'm sure. Yeah, what I find fascinating is the reaction of the creature, you know, it didn't really react to you.

You know, if it was a human and you're saying, hey, I have a gun and I'm armed, the normal human reaction is to stop and take a pause for a second. And any other normal natural animal isn't going to cross past with you, the way. weird part is it was almost like you guys were invisible to this saying. It almost was, you know, yeah, I mean, obviously it saw us, you know, and I think it is odd. I mean, if I were to hear a setting, well, gosh, you're on a beach and then it just walks out and get care of last year there. That does seem kind of peculiar behavior. Maybe there's more like that you would know more than me.

But, you know, the fact that the length of the time, you know, that we saw it wasn't just a glimpse. This was several times it kind of came back and forth and then we had the really close setting at the end there. I'm going to guess, geez, it was less than 50 yards. I'm sure it was probably maybe 100 feet. I don't know. Less than that, really, because it was 100 feet from up where we were. It was maybe 50, 60 feet away, and that's pretty darn close on a beach. And I guess you can give it for me staying there that long, but I mean, that thing was towering over me. And, you know, any distance. And this was just as wide, which I thought was just, it's just mind-numbing, really. Let me ask you, if you could go back in time, would you have stood your ground?

I mean, I would like to think that I could, but I'm sure. No, probably not. Even if I was armed, if I was armed with something, you know, of course, I'm not going to shoot somebody in a suit or something, I mean, unless I'm threatened, but is being afraid threatened? I mean, is it really? You know, it's not having any aggressive behavior towards me. It could care less on there. You know, it never growled, you know, no, no paranormal type of, you know, glowing eyes or any of the stuff I, you know, have heard of subsequently looking into this. It didn't have that. I didn't have a smell. I mean, maybe it did smell, but the wind was going in a different

direction. I didn't smell anything. But it just, yeah, I just, I doubt it. I doubt it, West. I doubt I would probably would have the courage to stay. right there. I wonder what would happen if it would, maybe at that point, could have harmed me. And I probably could have easily. Yeah, I'm sitting here looking at the pictures, and I'll post them, Dan, up on the, for the audience listening on Sasquatch Chronicles.com. Underneath this episode, I'll throw the pictures that Dan took. And Dan, those footprints in that sand, those things are huge, man. Yeah, they're heavy. Well, you know, there's a little bit more of the story. I know, I'm kind of long, winded here. I want to type of the sighting, but there's really a story afterwards. There's actually more information I'd like to give you a few of mine.

So let me continue on a little bit. So I get home, working for the Forest Service, and I get the pictures developed, and then I get them back, and then I kind of forgot, I really forgot about it, but I kind of put it aside until I got the pictures back developed, which for those who don't know, this old world, if you actually had to get your film developed. back of the day and have a cell phone back then. And I just was shocked at the pitch was like, what the heck was this? You know? So I don't think, I don't know if there was internet in 1995. I didn't have a computer to go on the internet. So I went to the library.

And I looked up Bigfoot and got a book from the local library. and it just happened to be this guy that was from the UK. I think he was living in Arizona at the time. His name was, gosh, what was his name? Richard Greenwell. I think that was his name. And he wrote a book.

I couldn't tell you the name of the book, but I just remembered grabbing one and had an address. So I wrote him a letter. And I think I sent him some of those pictures that I sent to you. I must have sent him some pictures. and I put my card in there to show credibility by, you know, working for the Forest Service. I'm sure they wouldn't appreciate me doing that, but I did. And I had, you know, my number out there to call me, not at work, but at home.

Make sure to call, you know, call me at home, don't call me at work. And I got a call from him, I don't know, the day he got the pitchers. And he said, you know, there is, these are amazing pictures. This is a, you know, he asked me some questions about the sighting of the SNET. But he says, there's a fellow that. he knows that is in the Pacific Northwest that is running a Bigfoot research program. His name is Peter Byrne. And he wanted me to contact him.

So I said, okay, fine. So I called Peter Byrne. And, you know, he had some got pictures through him or maybe it was the recommendation, whatever. I was a legit nut and not a nut. So we started talking. And he asked me straight up, he said, hey, I'd like to have you fell in a questionnaire thing. I'm going to send it to you.

You know, can I get your address? So I give him my address, you know, tell him not to give it to anybody. So he mails me a packet, but unfortunately he mails it to work at the Forest Service. So here on my desk is, you know, from the whatever it was, the Bigfoot research something, was center or something important. And people are kind of looking at me. So I was like, hey, what do you got there? You know?

And I'm like, oh, it's a nothing, you know. thank God I has hit that but I don't know why he did that but he did but I filled it out we both filled it out and then he had somebody from the International Society of Cryptozoology and there was a fellow I have to think of his name Jay Tishendorf I don't know who he is really but he was in Colorado and he interviewed us and he took at time a girlfriend and I separately and interviewed us And one of the things, a couple of things that he told me, which I actually thought was really interesting, I want to tell you. Well, one is, you know, after he interviews both, he thought we were credible. Our stories matched up.

And one of the things he did is he took us to a certain point to a building away from a building. It was a lot, big huge long cabin building. And where I lived. And he stood at the same point. He had a blazer pointer. And he says, okay, I want you to take the laser pointer. And I want you to point, you know, you're about this is how far you were. he saw it together,

by the beach or whatever, I said yes. And he said, okay, point up to do on that building where you saw the top of its head. So I said, okay, yeah, I know exactly where in my mind. Right there, bam. Well, both of our laser pointers matched up on us exactly within an inch or the same. And I forgot what he said it was,

but it was well over eight foot, I think eight foot six or something like that. It's what he had measured. So that's what he, That was kind of eye-opening. The other thing that I learned, and I'm kind of sidestepping a little bit because we're talking about the depth on the beach, something I learned. I don't know if you know this west, you know, you're certainly more experienced than I am and all this stuff, but apparently if, you know, human being just makes a step. You just, you know, you're just standing up right now and you're just to just take a casual just one step forward, you know, so your left foot's in front of your right or whatever.

And then you were to kind of twist on your heels and then have your feet, you know, pointed forward as your normal. standing, but your legs are apart from that distance. And if you measure that distance from center point to center point in your feet, that is the width of your shoulders, which I didn't know that. And actually it is. So the distance between these footprints were over four feet on average. So that kind of, if that is a human being, let's say it is a person that did that, not a big foot. They had a four foot plus wide shoulders. So that's a big person in a lucky suit doing that. Yeah, that's kind of interesting. I didn't know that you could measure shoulders that way.

And for the audience, I forgot to mention this. Dr. Meldrum actually put your encounter in his book, Sasquatch Legend Meets Science, along with the pictures that I'm going to post underneath this episode are actually in his book. But I didn't know that about the shoulders. And even in my own encounter, Dana, and I generally try and make the show about the eyewitness and not myself. but, you know, I said the same thing. I said, you know, this thing's shoulders were as wide as I am tall, kind of like what you were saying. It's hard to articulate that.

And I think when you hear yourself say that, it just sounds so outrageous. You know what I mean? Yeah, it does. And, you know, I think some of the things of the credibility from, you know, well, at least Peter Byrne, you know, taking, you know, that you filter out people. And, you know, there's things that you look for that may not be quite right. but, you know, me, you know, saying that it was not aggressive or didn't have teeth and it was fangs and all that stuff. It did just literally just could care less about us. It was just didn't care.

But the one thing that he mentioned to me was, you know, when I talked about it gliding on the beach when I walked, it just, that was so peculiar how that hung with me this night. You know, it just almost was ghostlike, you know. And he said, well, he had done a sighting research with somebody. I think, gosh, it was probably 50s or 60s. I don't know when he started. But it was near Mount St. Hill on whatever lake that was in Spirit Lake or whatever lake was there. And there was somebody who had seen a Bigfoot walk on the beach on the lake that had a cabin. And he said that it looked like it was floating, like it was, you know, floating as it went across the beach.

And he said, well, you've never met this person. You know, he didn't know this person. And why is the people are stating the same thing that don't even know each other through time. So it's kind of interesting. And that which really brought me to you was at the beginning of your show, you have the lady who talks about it gliding across the beach. I'm thinking like, that's exactly what happened. So that's really kind of sport my interest to contact and reach out to you.

Yeah, Claire, Claire from episode 515. She's there in the intro. And it's an amazing encounter. But, you know, they really do move like that. I did a show recently. It's on to YouTube, and I threw it up as a podcast too as well. I interviewed a preacher from Texas, and he filmed this thing running across his farm. And when you watch it, it looks like, you know, like when you go to the airport and you can get on those little conveyor belts and you can, I don't know why they're there, but you can get on them and you can walk, get to your wherever you're going quicker. It's kind of like that. You know, it's almost like these things

are on a compare belt running or walking when you see them, and they don't have the bounce that, you know, we as humans, when we walk or run, we have a bounce to us. These things don't, man. That's really how they move. It's almost like a gliding motion. Yeah, that's a great analogy. And I never thought about that at the airport when you're even just walking on one of those escalators, walking escalators. And that would really be what I saw, the other peculiar part, was it was walking, but walking faster and it should. So like it was on an escalator walking. So yeah, I mean, that's basically what I saw. We saw, I say I, but we both saw. So. Yeah. And I really think just between, well, between you and I in the audience, I think that they have that gliding motion because

everyone talks about their feet. I really think it's their knee placement. Because if you ever get, if you ever notice their knees aren't where our knees are at, they're more like where our shins would be at. And I kind of think that's what causes the, the, the, the, the, motion, the gliding motion that a lot of people describe. Let me ask you, Dan, how did this change your life? Well, certainly initially, you know, there was positive and negative from it. You know, I came forward and I could get into that whole story, which, you know, I regret doing at the time now, but I did do it. And it had some implications at work being in law enforcement. But, you know, I did it. I was younger.

I'm in my 50s now, but back then I was not. If far as personally, you know, it's not the same for me. I literally have a very difficult time camping. I love camping. I always look it over my shoulder when I'm hiking. Having the knowledge of actually knowing that this exists, you know, this exists and you're out there, it's airy. I'll be honest with you.

And there's people that I have met subsequently like, oh, I want to see one or I can't wait to go find one. And we're going to run out at night and call for it. I'm thinking, are you crazy? You're nuts. I mean, in my opinion, no offense to anyone, I wouldn't want to attract one or, you know, necessarily see one again. I certainly wouldn't want to go see one out in the woods somewhere where I, you know, I guess on the beach is scary enough. But it certainly changed my life, you know, professionally too. When I was working, I was a ranger in the Pike National Forest.

And apparently I found out through one of the investigators that he's like, hey, how do you feel about, you know, having Bigfoot in the forest you work? I'm like, what? There's a Bigfoot in my forest. And he's like, oh, yeah, there's sightings. They're not great. And I've got to worry about that, you know. So certainly it had changed my perspective on where I am in the world.

But it's also good, too. You know, this shows you that we don't know everything. And to think that we do is pretty arrogant. Yeah, I would agree with you on that. Was that Pike's Peak in Colorado? Yeah, it would have been the South Pet Ranger District, which is going to be more towards, I don't know, to the north. There's the Pikes District, which is near Pikes, which is Pikes Peak. So it'd be north of Pikes Peak, Colorado Springs.

There's an area to the north of that. It's a huge forest. And that's where I worked. And really the whole whole forest was, you know, I mean, it worked in every national forest, really. I mean, with the authority, but where I was stationed is, and worked was in that forest in that district. Yeah, kind of like what you were just saying, Dan. I mean, Pikes Peak, Colorado is notorious for sightings. Yeah, I found that out later.

Yeah. So, you know, a couple of things I wanted to add. I started rambling about this whole siding with you and everybody. first time on a podcast, everybody, sorry. So, you know, back to this Richard Greenland, anyway, this Peter Bernard and all that. So he reaches out and says, hey, would you like to, you know, talk to USA Today. He wants to do a story. And it's a USA Today, I don't even know if it's still, it was a newspaper, I think, back then.

And so I'm like, oh, yeah, how long as it's all confidential? So I talked to this lady. And it was about him mostly in his organization. or his research, a little bit about mine. And then that's sparked through the AP and got out and other publications to citing. And then ABC contacted him what they wanted me to be on TV with him. And I said, there's this no way in hell I'm going to do that when he asked me. There's no way I'm going to do that.

He said, well, you know, this would really help my research. I understand. But, you know, we could do it. You would be incognito, blah, blah, blah. I would know anything. And, well, if you ever watch the video and you're welcome to share that, too, that link from the Good Morning America episode that I did post on YouTube. It clearly shows me and gives more of my name than I wanted.

But that kind of changed my life a little bit too in that regards. It definitely did have some credibility issues. When you see something like that, you're in law enforcement. People kind of look at you differently. So luckily, it's acute, you know, it went away after a while. People kind of forget, people move on, you know, and then, you know, Some people are very interested. People, you know, professionally and the Forest Service especially, would set me aside and they would talk about it.

They would be interested as, hey, I had this, this is what happened to me or this was odd or whatever, and they kind of are open-minded about it. But publicly, most people, if they're in a group of people, will just poo-poo it or kind of make fun of you, you know. And that's why a lot of these people, I'm sure you've talked to, and certainly somebody in law enforcement will not come forward. and, you know, I did. And that's not the reason why I'm not in law enforcement anymore. I didn't get, you know, run out because I saw a big foot, but they had nothing to do with it later on. But, you know, I can see why a lot of people just don't want to come forward. Yeah, and I get what you mean, Dan.

And I don't think that police officers are any more credible than anyone else in any other profession. By having said that, you know, being a cop, your credibility is everything. So I can see coming forward and saying, I saw this, you know, a Sasquatch, you know, would cause problems in your career. And I always admire police officers, you know, when they do come forward because there is that risk that they have. You know, if you work in a warehouse or something like that, it's probably not going to affect your job. But being a cop, it might. But I think, you know, times are changing. And I think more and more people are open to the idea of these things being out there, especially with eyewitnesses coming forward.

forward. Yeah, and I think the culture has certainly changed now, certainly from 1995. It's a lot of meters, Bigfoot shows everywhere. You know, it's more common. So it's more accepting, I think, now with all the research, I think, too, and the findings of things, which I don't know, all of the insinences as you do up to date. But, you know, meeting, you know, the positive thing would be meeting people like Peter Byrne and some of the other people in the Bigfoot world, you know, as you would call it,

I guess. And that was kind of a plus. And, and, you know, one of the thing I wanted to mention to you back a little bit, sorry, I know I'm going along with it here, Wes, but after that sighting, the following year, that was August and that 96th June, that's when the, I think that's when the filming for the Good Morning America show was and it was on scene. And I met Peter Byrne for the first time. And we had gone. to the siding. I showed him everything. He, you know, was taking notes, taking pictures. And then I wanted to talk a little bit about what was amazing was, is we went down to beach. I said, this is right here. This is where they went in or it went in. And he says, okay, let's go. And I'm like, are you crazy? This is during the day, you know, three o'clock in the afternoon. But I'm like, I'm not going in there. He's like, oh, that's okay, you know. So I got the courage. And we went in through and then we kind of bushwhack for gosh, maybe eight, 10 feet. And then

once we got in, there was like this honed out trail that went up this hillside and kind of hooked to the right over this pond area and then went up, you know, towards the highway. And it was just amazing. It looked like something somebody had grabbed these branches and just ripped

them off the trees and it was just like, you know, honed out trail. You could walk on it and not hit a branch, a huge something. So that was odd. And then when we got to the top at that time, Earth Movers had just started moving, and I think they have a subdivision up there now, but at the time there was not. And that's unfortunate for that area. But, you know, we did catch the trail again, past Earthmovers at that time, and then went down and followed

the trail all the way to the highway. And it looks like it may have been using a culvert, a giant culvert to cross underneath the highway, and then went on from there. Of course, I didn't do any of that research he did. But I thought that was cool. You know, and I think I have some pictures of that somewhere I have to find them. But that kind of like, well, okay, they kind of put it more in place for me that this wasn't a person.

This was an animal. Yeah, please send that along. I'll post those with the other picture, other pictures that you have. Let me ask you, Dan, you know, and there's no wrong answer to this.

And I ask everyone, what do you think Sasquatch is? Yeah, I think, know, initially what I had thought, and certainly to this day still, with my experience, it was a flesh and blood animal. I don't think it was human. I don't, well, I think it could be a hybrid human. I don't know. Some type of undeveloped advanced human as we are, humanoid. It's an animal, whether it is a ape or from that lineage or from one of us,

humans had gone on the other branch. It seemed more like that, to me, more of a uranthal type of, well, that would be maybe more advanced, you know, further on more towards humans. Somewhere in between there. Definitely flesh and blood. I didn't have any paranormal, spiritual, you know, you know, experience. It didn't appear and disappear. It walked.

It made footprints on the beach. It just could care less who I was. It knew we were there. was looking for food so it has to eat. So looking back at the pictures and thinking about it again, I could just say it's an animal. Yeah, and you could be right, Dan. You could definitely be right.

What I think is so fascinating about your account is the creature's behavior was still making its way towards you and could care less that you were there. I really appreciate the fact that you would take the time to come on and share it, Dan. and I really enjoyed chatting with you. Thank you so much for coming on. Oh, I appreciate it.

I hope I did okay. I was a little nervous, but I think I got through it. Yeah, he did fine, Dan. He did great. Thank you again. And that's it for tonight. Everyone, remember if you've had an encounter,

shoot me an email. My email address is Wes at Sasquatch Chronicles.com. And if you get a chance, check out Sasquatch Chronicles. You can become a member and get additional shows. Until next time, everyone.