Sasquatch Chronicles - SC EP:861 What Did I Just See?

Episode Date: June 11, 2022

Justin writes "In 1991 and we moved back to Ohio. It was a your typical warm night in August sometime. The corn was fully grown. Me, my cousin and her friend were out riding in my 66 Chevelle. We started down the hill on county road 1281. The road dips into a shallow valley where Buck Creek runs through it. And crosses and set of railroad tracks before heading up the other side. I crossed the tracks and started up the other side. As I crested the top I noticed eye shine. Not yellow like racoon or like deer. This was different and had my attention. As I got closer I noticed a dark shape in the bushes. This is a gravel road. And I was only doing around 15 mph. These eyes where a lime green in the headlights.

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 chumtering away back and forwards, back and forwards, back and forwards.

I know what a bear looks like and there is no way on this planet of what I saw were bears. What are you reporting? Jesus, 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 a mouse, sir? Yes, I'm looking right here.

Uh-uh. Hey, this is Luke Griggs, and you are listening to Sasquatch Chronicles. Welcome to the show, everyone. Thanks for being here tonight. Got a great show plan for you. We're going to be chatting with Justin. And Justin is originally from Ohio, and he's going to be sharing with us in an encounter he had back in 1991 with his cousins. His family had moved around a little bit.

when he was younger. And he was telling me, he said, you know, 10 years prior to that encounter, I was in Utah and had a very strange experience. Didn't really know what it was. And so I asked him to share that with us 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 and get additional shows. Let's jump into it tonight.

I want to welcome Justin to the show. Justin, thanks for coming on. Thanks for having me, Wes. Yeah, I'm happy to have you on. And I know we're going to talk about this 1991 encounter in Ohio. Before we get to that encounter, tell me about this incident that happened 10 years prior in Utah. Kind of what were you doing and what happened? Well, my family moved out there from Ohio.

I got into scouting there, probably my parents trying to give me some guidance in life, which is good for me. They actually have what they call the Klondike Derby, and it's held, I would think, in February of the year. So it's a little colder out. This took place at a park called Bacon Park, just south of the U.N. A mountain range. I got up early one morning. It wasn't even daylight yet. and I thought, well, I'll start the fire, you know, and dry out my socks from the day before and everything.

And so I started working on the fire. And I got this uneasy feeling like I was being watched, you know, and I looked around. I thought, well, maybe there's other scouts. You know, they're up and moving around. Nobody was up yet. It was that part of morning where there's just a little bit of ambient light. You really don't have daylight, but it's not dark. and I remember looking up on this ridge next to where our campsite was, I noticed something sitting on a tree branch. And I'm looking at it. And, you know, as a kid, my brain's thinking, that's probably a coon or a raccoon or something.

And, you know, I went about trying to get the fire started and it was hard to do because there was snow and everything. I remember keep looking up there. And then I noticed it looked like, the best way I could describe it would be seeing someone sitting on a branch and they're hanging onto the trunk with their arm to keep their balance. That's what I saw. And I didn't know anything about Bigfoot at this time of my life.

I just got that uneasy feeling. And I was like, you know what? I'm just going to climb back in my tent, crawl back in my sleeping bag, and I'll wait for the other scouts to get up. And that was just a brief thing that happened, you know, when I was young and I didn't really think about it to later on in life when I ran into another guy with a story in that same area. Yeah, I know at that time of day, you know, right as a sun's coming up, sometimes your eyes can play tricks on you. But even with that, you know, when your eyes are playing tricks on you, you don't have that feeling of being watched. That's something very specific. and the fact that we're talking about it 40 years later,

it sounds like you absolutely saw something. How far away from you was this thing up in the tree? I can tell you that it would have had to been probably 20 to 30 yards. If I, you know, we're talking, I was only 14, so it was about 40 some years ago. Yeah, probably probably about 40 yards, you know, because it was really hard to make it out, but you could still see the outline of something sitting.

on a branch and hanging onto that tree. And it was dark. I was like, it could see it's just like the silhouette and the outline of it. Yeah, I mean, that's relatively close. Did you tell anyone about what you had seen? No. I didn't even give it any thought until later on in life when I moved back out to Utah

to work in the oil field with my brothers and I ran into a guy telling stories out there. Yeah, and I know you've talked to a lot of people in the area. had encounters, and I really admire you for that. You know, you're trying to find answers and investigating what's going on. If you would, tell me about this encounter in 1991 in Ohio. I know this last incident happened to you about 10 years prior in Utah, but take me back to this encounter in Ohio when you were with your cousins. Kind of what were you guys doing and what happened? So the oil field was on the decline, and we decided to move back to Ohio, and we did that three days right after I graduated.

So I graduated in an 89, and we moved back here to Ohio, pretty much where I grew up, same little town. I had a 66 Chevelle, and on those warm summer nights, there was nothing better to do than just cruise around. It just so happened that my cousin and her friend wanted to cruise around with me. We started cruising backroads, because that's just what you did. you know, real slow and just talk and joke and, you know, just enjoying the night and having fun. There's a county road, 1281, and as you head south on it, it drops down a nice incline, a decline. You cross over Buck Creek, you cross over the railroad tracks, and you come back up the other side of it. Well, we're just cruising.

We drop down into the bottom, cross the creek, cross the route, cross the track. And as I came up the other side, I noticed eyes shine on the left side of the road. Growing up hunting and being out in the woods, you know, I said, well, that's, that's weird looking. Something's not right. I was like, it's not Coons, because Coons' eyes are yellow. You know, I said, it's not a deer. It's just, it's not acting right. and when I got probably, I'd say within 50 yards of it, somewhere in there, I realize that there's this big black shape crouched down in these bushes. You know, as I'm creeping up and we're only doing maybe 10, 15 miles an hour,

it's on a gravel road. I'm slowly getting closer to this thing and all of a sudden it stands up. And when it stands up, your world goes into slow motion, dream state. You're not sure what you're looking at. And it was, you know, black hair and it had a silvery V of hair going down its chest, salt and pepper color. And I'm watching it in my headlights, and it starts walking down the edge of the corn. So I'm creeping towards it. It's creeping towards me.

It gets within maybe 15, 20 yards of me. And it decides it's going to go into the corn. And what I found odd was in the movies you always see, you know, big animals just part the trees and the grass to show how big and bad they are. Well, he didn't do that. he had an opening in this corn, and he literally got to it, and he sidestepped into the corn. Now, when he did this, he turned his head just enough to where I could see his eyes. And he gave me that look of, why did you bother me? or don't bother me or leave me alone, that kind of look.

And it's funny because if you're familiar with King Kong that has Jack Black in it, there's a scene where Jack Black sees Kong for the first time. And as Kong grabs the girl, he looks at Jack Black's character and he gives it that look. And when I was in the theater and that was on the screen, I physically made a sound because it took me back now. I was right back to when this Bigfoot looked at me. And he gives me that look and he, once he's inside the corn, he turns. And this is when I realized just how tall he is.

The corn is six foot and he stands above it a good foot and a half to two feet. so he would have had to been seven and a half eight foot tall. And his shoulders were every bit three and a half to four feet wide. I'm a pretty broad-shouldered guy and he was two of me easy. What I remember most is as he stepped into the corn, he turned. And when he turned his foot that he pulls into the corn last, he actually raises it up and I can see the pads on his feet and they're almost ashy gray color and I remember seeing his calf muscles

I mean his calf muscle and it was as big as my thigh if not bigger this male was alpha he was you could tell he was toned and he was it his hair was probably two to three inches long I know we talked earlier and I said, you know what I'm talking about when I ask, you know about animals molting and how they get a thinner coat during the summer. And that's what it looked like to me. You know, the hair was thinner and you could see his skin underneath, but it wasn't a light gray. It wasn't a black, but it was darker. his eye when he turned to look at me

his eye was I wouldn't say jet black but a very dark brown and you know with the black pupil in it and I remember him just giving me that look as he went into the corn he stepped into the corn and once he got in the corn he turned and I'm assuming he walked down between the rows

and then he just disappeared into the blackness there you know I didn't didn't realize at the time, but I actually turned my car headlights to follow him, come down the edge of the corn at that time. And once he disappeared, I kind of snapped out of my trance, if it was. I remember looking over at my cousin and her friend. And I said, you saw that, right? Tell me you saw that. And they had tears streaming down their face and they're crying. And they just looked at me and my cousin's like, take us home, take us home now. So I turned around and

I took them home. What a night you guys had. Man, I'll post this. I know you did a drawing of what you saw and you're a really good artist. I'll actually post that drawing along with the tracks that you found. And I want to talk a little bit about that. You know, this is 1991 and you're now seeing this thing. What's kind of going through your mind at this point? Are you thinking, oh, that's a Bigfoot? Or are you thinking, you know, what the hell is that thing? Well, my dad always, you know, he talked about the Patty film.

And I watched it a few times whenever it would come on TV because we didn't have the internet back then. So you saw whatever came across the two. You know, I heard about Bigfoot growing up and that. And my brain was just, your brain is saying. this isn't real, but all of a sudden it is real. You know, the myth has come to life. From that point on, I didn't go into the woods at night.

I couldn't stand going in before the light, and I couldn't stand being in there after it got dark. I used to love going hunting. You know, I quit doing a lot of hunting because of it. I got into small games and stuff like that, where I'm not required to be out in the woods a lot. I still love the woods, but I like being in the woods with other people. It definitely changes your life.

Yeah, it does change your life. It's very eye-opening. It's like a gut punch, seeing one. After this incident, did you ever talk to your cousins about that night? Actually, I would bring it up every now and then when I would see her, and she would act like it never happened. She wouldn't talk about it. I'd be like, hey, do you remember that one summer night?

we're driving and she's like, I don't know what you're talking about. You know, and I would just look at every like, okay, I get it. You don't even want to talk about it. It's okay. You know, I knew it happened. She knew it happened, you know, and her friend did too. But, yeah, they won't talk about it to this day. Yeah, and I kind of understand that.

It's a very common human behavior afterwards. There's a lot of, you know, everyone from hunters to hikers to, I think it's sometimes it's easier to go. I didn't see that or, you know, I was seeing things rather than, you know, and deal with, you know, what I saw was real. But I understand it. You know, I understand that sort of mentality. I want to ask you, when the creature was walking away and it turned and it looked at you,

and you had that feeling of like it was portraying, don't follow me unless you want to get hurt. Was it more of like a physical stance or was it something more of a facial expression that kind of gave you that feeling? It was more in the eyes. The eyes said it all. And, you know, I hear hunters on your shows talk about how they look at them through the scope and they can't pull the trigger because they realize they're intelligent. You know, and when he looked at me, there was no doubt he was giving me that look of, leave me alone.

You know, don't mess with me, that sort of look. And, you know, there was, there's just no getting around it. That's what he meant by that look, you know. Yeah, I understand what you mean. And, you know, I'm sitting here looking at this drawing and I'll post it up on Sasquatch Chronicles.com underneath this episode, if people want to check it out. You're actually a really good artist. And, you know, as I'm looking at this and I'm listening to you talk about what happened, you know, with regard to what you saw, would you say it was more human or would you say,

say it was more animal? Definitely more manlike, more intelligent, I think, than a lot of people give them credit for. I think that they are masters in their universe. You know, I think they have, in a sense, evolved. And when they evolve, they become the best in their environment, because that's what evolution is, right? You evolved your environment. And I think they're just another branch in the tree. to be honest.

Yeah, they definitely could be. I mean, they do appear to look like us a lot in a lot of different situations. So, I mean, you could be on to something, and you're right. It's hard to argue how intelligent they seem to be anyway. When you first saw this creature and you're pulling up, did it cross in front of your car, or was it already on the side of the road where it was headed? When it stood up, it was already on that side of the road. I went back out there the next day.

I laugh about it now because I parked the car in the middle of the road, left my door wide open. And I didn't go in the corn. No way. Wasn't doing it. And I wanted to see where it was squatting at. As you come from the north, it was squatting down. And what I know now was a large Blackberry.

patch, you know, several bushes. And it was loaded with blackberries. So I would assume that's what it was eating. And I probably interrupted its dessert, so to say. And if you came from the south on that road, there was a huge, some sort of bush behind it that was probably six, seven feet tall. So if you came from the south, you never would have seen him. Not a chance. But coming from the north, I saw the eye shine and then noticed him squatting there and then he stood up. You know, and to this day, I don't know why he let me get so close because I know he could see the headlights. And I'm sure he could hear the gravel popping underneath the tires, you know, coming up over the ridge. Yeah, I was going to ask you what you thought he was doing.

I mean, obviously, it was eating. And, you know, it's strange. You would think, like he said, you're coming down a gravel road. he had to have heard you coming. When you first saw the eyeshine and that glow, was it like a deer's eye shine? No. What caught me off guard is the color of it

was almost like a lime green. A little brighter than a lime green, I would guess. And it was just an unusual color. And it caught me off guard, you know, because my brain's like, well, that's not a deer. That's not what their eyes look like. You know, it's not a, or Coon because they're yellow.

So I'm going through all this in my head, like, what am I looking at? Then I realize that there's this big black shape behind that eye shine. My brain's like, what is that? And then it stood up. And the world changed instantly. You know, what's weird, Wes, is, you know, I talked to you about how men are between the age of 35 and 50, you know, we still got it going on. You know, we're still pretty strong and everything.

to me he looked like he was you know towards the end of his prowess you know he was he was still strong and ripped in everything but yet he was an older male and he was definitely an alpha male I just the size of him is just amazing you know you think about bodybuilders and that and nothing to this nothing to this male at all they couldn't even stand close to him Yeah, and I think that's what makes them so intimidating. Just the sheer size of them is enough to terrify anyone.

We were talking off the air, and you'd mentioned you'd talk to a gentleman kind of in this area, and he was talking to you about what he had seen, and I kind of think you guys saw the same creature. If you would for the audience, would you just kind of start from the beginning and this whole conversation that you had with this gentleman? Yeah. So I was doing a little research, you know, and I was going through old police reports, looking for Sasquatch reports or anything like that.

And at the time, I owned a feed store. I came across a police report. I'm going to tell you, 1971, I could be off on that year. It stated Bigfoot siding and where it was at, and it had a name. And I was like, well, huh, there's a guy that comes into my store with that same last name. And my store was actually in the area of where the report came from. So I'm like, should I ask him? Should I not ask you?

Well, it just so happened that his son came into the store one day. And I said, hey, I said, I came across a police report. And I said, it has your last name on it. And he's like, well, that's my dad. Ask him. And I was like, okay. So when he came in, you know, him and his wife came in and I said, I said, I need to ask you a question. He says, okay.

I said, I came across a report where you ran into a Bigfoot. And the funny part was, is he looked at me and he's like, yeah. And his wife says, oh, here we go with the Bigfoot story again. And, you know, she went on to shop with other aisles. And he started telling me his story. He said that him and his friend were. running coon dogs one night. And he said his friend is about six, four, big man, just a big, big, big burly guy. They were running their dogs, no guns, they were just running their dogs,

I guess. And they had homemade flashlights that they made with a regular light bulb and the big giant square batteries that they used to put in flashlights. And for some reason, I believe he called them 110 lights. I don't know why. That's, I think that's, I think that's, That's the name he called them. And the dogs started making a weird bark. Well, if you know anything about Coon Hunters, they know their dogs and what the barks meet. And they couldn't pinpoint what this bark meant. So they approached their dogs, and their dogs were standing on one side of a fence.

And he told me that there's a bunch of brush and briars and everything down this fence, and there was corn behind it in the next field. What he told me was, he said, we're sitting there, and the dogs are going crazy. all of a sudden, you know, he said this thing, you know, he said Bigfoot now, he said this Bigfoot stands up. He said, me and my buddy, we shine our lights at it. And he says, I vividly remember it putting its hand up over its face to block the light from our Koon lights. Now, this is the part that everybody wants validation to what they seen or they saw. He says Justin, he's like, this thing's standing there with his hand in front of its face, blocking the light.

And he said, it had a silver V down its chest. And I physically had a reaction to that. My eyes started watering. My hair stood up on end. And I'm just looking at him. And he says, you've seen one too. And I said, Rudy, finish your story? and I will tell you mine.

So he goes on to tell me, him and his friend started backing away from it. And he said, about that time the dogs took off, they just scattered, I guess. And he said, as they backed away, he said, I turned around, I shine my light at it one more time. And he said, Justin, this thing crossed over the fence without even trying. They put one hand on the post, stepped over it, and it literally was walking towards us. He said, my friend says, what do we do? And he said, let's just keep walking. Don't run.

Just keep walking towards the truck. He goes on to tell me that as they're walking through the woods, they could hear it walking behind them. He said, and every now and then I would turn around and turn on my light. And it would be behind a tree watching us or standing in an opening watching. us, but it never came after them. It paced them out, so to send, say, like in some of your other interviews, he talked about how they had to cross a stream to get to the next set of fields to get to their truck where it was parked. And he told me that the scariest part of the about the whole thing is, is that he had to cross through two corn fields and then another field

to get to his truck. And he said, Justin, as we were going through the fields, you could hear it walking behind us in the corn. And he said, sometimes I would shine my light and I'd be able to make out a silhouette of him in the corn behind us.

Sometimes I wouldn't see him at all, but we knew he was there. He told me they made it through both fields of corn. And the next field was either a plowed field and not planted or had something else in it. and he said they went out into this field, they turned around, they turned on their lights again,

and it was standing on the edge of the corn, watching them. And he said, it just turned and walked back into the corn the way it came. And he said, we went to the truck. His friend was in the truck, telling him,

let's get the blank out of here. You know, we got to go, we got to leave. I don't know what that was. The dogs weren't over to be found. He told me he threw an old. coat down so the dogs would come back to the scent of his coat and he'd be able to pick them up later.

I guess it's a coon hunting trick. So they took off and the next day he came back. And sure enough, the dogs were there. And he loaded up his dogs and he got a hold of his buddy that was a sheriff at the time. He explained everything to the sheriff and the sheriff said, hey, I'll come out and I'll bring my dogs with me and we'll take a look. Well, they went back to where they crossed the creek. And he told me that there was some distinct footprints in the creek, mud, and like a hamprint where it slid down the bank maybe to stabilize itself. And he said, that's about the time that the sheriff let loose his bloodhound dogs.

He had a couple of them. And he said, they took off down around the bend. you know, he told me, I think, 300 yards down the bend. And all of a sudden they quit barking or bellowing, and they came back and cowered at his feet. And Rudy's like, well, we're going to go look? And he's like, if my dogs won't go near it, I'm not getting near it. So, you know, they loaded all that up.

The dogs, the sheriff, they left. And Rudy went on to tell me that his friend never went koon hunting again in his life, moved out of state, and Rudy said that he grew up with him, Coon Hunt. This was his buddy, and he would never do it again at night,

never Coon Hunt at all. You know, and that's the story. But it was validation for me when he told me that what he saw had a gray chest V down its chest, and that hit home like a brick. Yeah, I bet.

I bet. It kind of sounds like you guys, might have seen the same creature. And I'm looking at these footprints that you got in this area. If you would, kind of tell me about that because I know there was, you guys heard that weird samurai chatter as well. And I'll post these the pictures of the footprints up on the website. But tell me about how, going about how you collected these footprints and what happened.

Yeah. This property actually sits about two miles north. from where I had my encounter. And I'm guessing, West, this is probably like 2011. Me and my brother, we got permission to go back in the woods

at this property. It's his friend that owns it now. And we were mushroom hunting. And we're just, you know, hunting for mushrooms. And there's a small muddy spot in the leaves. Just happened to look down and I was like,

holy crap. there's a footprint there. And of course, your brain looks around like, who would have somebody out here in their bare feet? My brother was not too far from you. I said, hey, I said, you need to come over and look at this. And he's like, what did you find? You know, and he walks over and he's like, holy crap,

I've been wanting to see something like this in real life. I find it, you know, and he got all excited. As you saw in the picture, I actually put down a dollar bill to give us some reference at the time. And I think they're about seven inches long. I actually have a picture I didn't send you. It's not real good quality, but there's a stick in the mud,

and you can see where it stepped on the stick and almost buried its toes into the mud to push off. We didn't even think about taking cast at the time. We were just excited. We took a bunch of pictures, and we went about it. So I'm not sure what the date was. but his friend was having a bonfire on the same property.

And this property actually has, I would guess, about an acre pond on it. It's a pretty big pond, and the woods is all behind it, and it wraps around it with some swampy land to the north pond. He had company over, and they're all standing around a bonfire, you know, drinking their beer, having a good time. And all of a sudden they heard, he said, it almost sounded foreign, you know, oriental, that sort of sound to it. and they heard it over the bonfire. And they said his friends looked around, and they're like, what was that? And they're like, I don't know.

It did it again. And then he said that behind the pond, it got a response with some more samurai chatter. And they went back and forth a little bit. And then he told me that to the south, even farther in the woods, was a third response. That's about the time his friend, like, nope, we're out of here.

And they all left and everything. And he stood out by the bonfire for a little bit longer and didn't hear a thing. You know, and Ty, my brother, actually explained that, you know, what you heard was what we call samurai chatter. And I don't know if he played him a, you know, a bit of it or not to listen to. But we knew what he heard. And like I said, this is just north of where I had my encounter. Yeah, that samurai chatter is creepy when you hear it. You know, I know earlier you had said, you know, you didn't go into the woods anytime when it's dark.

But has it ever crossed your mind? Have you ever thought, I'm never coming out here again? It took 15 years for me to go back to that spot at night. And my brother, he, you know, he kept pushing me and pushing me. And I think he finally pushed me to the point where I got angry with him. And no, it wasn't the answer he was going to listen to. And so we went out there one night. At this time, the field was plowed.

There's nothing in it. So it was just fielding in the woods. You know, we walk over to the edge of the woods, and he walked in a few feet. And he turned around, and he looked at me. He's like, well, and I said, I can't go in the woods. And he's like, what do you mean you can't go in the woods? I said, I physically can't get myself to go in the woods. It just, it's not happening.

you know, and he says, you're not scared of anything. Just step in the woods. And I said, I can't. I don't know how to explain it to you, brother. I just can't do this. And he, you know, and he just looked at me and, you know, I was physically shaking. And, you know, after a little bit, he's like, just, just step in here with me. You know, there's nothing to be scared of. Just do it for me. And I think I literally clenched my fist and was like, you know, and took a big breath and built myself up to do it. I walked into the woods, I don't know, three or four feet. And this is the weird part, Wes, is once I did it, it's like I left all the fear on the edge of the woods.

Once I went into the woods with him, I was relaxed. I was comfortable. And I think you just have to get over that initial fear that it's out there. You know, if it wants you, it's going to get you in there. You're nothing you can do about it. So you might as well just enjoy. your life. And if you enjoy the woods, be out in the woods. You know, but it was, it was very trying for me to take that first step into the,

back out into the woods at night. And thanks to my brother, being persistent, you know, he helped me get over that. Yeah, that was really cool of your brother. I guess that's what brothers are for. And I admire the fact that you went back out there, you know, overcame that, that fear, um, because it, you know, it does linger. You know, even to this day, I don't like going out in the woods. And, you know, after you have an encounter, I don't think you're super comfortable being out there. But the fact that you're going out there, you're talking to people, you're getting prints, I'm impressed with what you're doing. You know, after your encounter and after finding evidence, and if someone asked you, Justin, what do you think Sasquatch is?

What would you say? I don't believe they're the Nuffulam. I'm not sure if there are anything, you know, spiritual or any of that. I think they're flesh and blood. I think they've evolved and adapted. They are the kings of the environment they've adapted to. And I think they're somewhere down our line, you know, somewhere in the ape line. and it's they're all over the world.

Definitely flesh and blood. That's just my feeling about it. And I know there's probably some aggressive ones out there. I have never been terrified to the point where I shouldn't be in an area. You know, I never felt that. Even going down there nowadays, you know, just walking the tracks or, you know, going out in the fields and that, I've never felt a threatening presence down in that area. Yeah, they seem to be flesh and blood. I'll say 90% of encounters people are running into an animal, you know, or an archaic human, that sort of thing. They seem to be very flesh and blood. You know, this whole incident and all the time you've spent looking into it, having your encounters, you know, one thing that's really crossed my mind over the years, and you kind of brought it up there for a moment, we're talking about.

about how they're all over the world. I often think for something so large, you know, it can only hide in the corn for so long and only for a certain period of time. It's weird to me that no one can seem to really catch these things. You know, we have encounters, but no one, most people can't explain where do they go, you know, the finer details that no one can really explain. And it's so weird to me that we haven't made only catch up with this thing, especially being as big as it is. I'm curious on your thoughts on that.

You know, I think, of course, giving where they're living, I honestly feel like they migrate with the seasons a little bit. You know, if your food source moves south for the winter, along with crops, it would just make common sense to move south to where the food is. instead of stay up north where it's nice and cold. We've noticed that activity seems to pick up around March and all the way into August, September. You know, of course, you got deer season comes into play then. You know, the crops are probably getting ready to come off in some fields, you know, and that's my, you know, it's my opinion on it.

I don't know if I'm right. I don't think there's any experts out there. If there was, we'd know exactly where they're at and what they do. That's my opinion on it. I think they move with the food. Yeah, they seem to. It's just weird to me that, you know, we can catch your food, but we can't catch them. You know what I mean? I mean, it's bizarre to me. And I used to think that their movements were based on the weather. You know, it's hot. They go up to higher elevation. And I think all that's nonsense. I think if you look at the pattern of the food that they're reported to eat, it matches more than with the weather. I guess it kind of correlates with the weather, but I think it has more to do with food.

Are you still out there actively looking for this thing in this area? Whenever my brothers, you know, they'll get a hold of me and they'll be like, hey, you want to go out squatching tonight? As long as nothing's going on, I'm like, sure, let's go. And we go back out to the same area. There's more and more people building out in this area and that. And I'm not sure if they've moved on or found.

greener pasture, so to say. But, you know, I've not heard of any stories, you know, from anybody around there lately. And it's funny because once people find out that you know they exist and you go out and you look for them, they kind of come out of the woodwork a little bit and they say, hey, I was out doing this or I was out riding my dirt bike or, you know, and they tell you a little bit of something. You know, they're not sure, but they're, I think they're looking for validation too, that they might have seen something. Yeah, we've had a few interesting encounters down in there. Yeah, tell me about it.

I mean, what are some of the things you guys have experienced in that area? We went down there one night and we parked the truck. You got to cross Buck Creek to get up into this field and that's where we were going to go. And they're milling around the truck. and just as I step in the creek to cross over, they say, did you hear that? And I was like, did I hear what? And they're like, you didn't hear that?

And I said, no, I didn't hear anything. They told me that they heard a big, deep, whoop come out, you know, up in this canyon area. It's really not a canyon. It's more of a draw area where the creek runs through. And it must have happened just as I stepped into the water because I didn't hear it. You know, I said, I didn't hear that.

And you could see it in their eyes. they heard something. You know, there's, you can't fake an expression in people's eyes when they, when they know something. So we moved through the creek and we went out into this field. Nothing really happened, you know, the crickets were doing their thing. You know, the woods was alive. There was some deer moving around in the field.

And we decided to call it a night. We're headed back towards the creek where we're going to cross it. I stopped dead in my tracks. so fast my brother's piled up behind me because they were following me and they're like what? I was like listen they're like what are you hearing? And I said it's a guttural growl sound somewhere up in the creek it was my best way I can do it is like

you know that sound and they're just standing there they're like I hear it in my youngest brother, he's going to kill me for this saying this. But he says, that's it. I'm going to the tracks. I'm walking the tracks down to the truck. I'm getting in the truck and leaving. And we stood there and listened to it for a while. And then we backed up away from it. You know, we just stood out there for a little bit. And I said, okay, I said, we gave it some room, whatever it was. And, you know, it could have been a black bear. We don't know. There are some around here. But you just don't know.

I'm always open to what it could be. And we walked back towards the Oregon across the creek, and there's nothing there. We didn't get growled at in a sense or huffed at or anything. And we got in our trucks and left. I can tell you another quick thing that happened to my father and my younger brother. They were hunting to the west, same valley, same ravine area, down on the tracks. and they were deer hunting. And I think my brother was young, so he was hunting with my dad at the time.

They were waiting for daylight to come, and all of a sudden something screamed on the hillside. I don't know how close it was. But my father, who grew up in the hills of Kentucky and hunted his whole life and everything, he still goes out in the woods by himself, you know, and ginseng hunts and all this and deer hunts. and my brother and my dad laughs at him,

he turned to my dad and said, what was that? And my dad said, I don't know, but it's time to leave. And so he took it as threatening, whatever the scream was that came from the other side of the tracks on the hill.

And, you know, they packed up and left. You know, there's just little things like that that have happened down in that area. Before I even had my sighting, me and my cousin would squirrel hunt on family property down there on the west side of this area. We would split up, work the edges of the property, and meet back at this ditch with a old piece of fencing there.

There was a couple times where we would make our way to this fence and not see a single squirrel. I would look at him and I'd be like, do you feel like you're being watched? And if you know my cousin, he's not scared of anything, especially with a gun in his hand. And he's like, yeah. And he'll tell you, he's like, I usually can find the deer staring at me through the trees or something. And there's been a couple times where we've stopped our hunting and left the area. And that was before I had my encounter. So that uneasy feeling has been there a couple times in my life.

You know, just something's watching you. you know, let's just get out of here. Can't figure it out. Yeah, I think after you have an encounter, there's a lot of moments in time you'll look back and go, God, I wonder if that's what that was. And, you know, in this area, I would be very careful. I know it's fun and your brothers are going out,

spending time with each other, and that's very cool. But please keep in mind, you know, Bob Garrett told me one time I was getting wrapped up with curiosity and let's do this, let's do that, you know. and really a little overboard. And I remember Bob looked at me and he said, Wes, these aren't toys to play with. And that really put everything in perspective. And he's right.

You know, we don't know anything really about them. We know very, very little. And we don't even really know what they are. So I would caution you to please be careful in this area when you guys go down there. I think you have the right attitude. You know, if it doesn't feel right, just leave. Go with your gut every time because you're, probably right.

But I really enjoyed chatting with you, Justin, and I really enjoyed having me on. I mean, it's so cool to have you share these accounts and then this is an area where you grew up and even before you're encounter, you know, where you saw the creature, you had all these weird things happen to you. Please be safe and thank you so much for taking the time to come on. Nope, thank you, Wes. It's been awesome to talk with you. I've been listening to your podcast since I found them.

I don't know when I found them, but I know I've been a member of your page since 2019. So it's been a while, and I've listened to them all, and my whole family listens to them now. Thanks so much for the kind words. And hello to the family. Thank you so much for listening. And that's it for tonight, everyone. 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.com you can become a member and get additional shows. Until next time, everyone.