Sasquatch Chronicles - SC EP:887 Heroes Are Remembered But Legends Never Die

Episode Date: September 16, 2022

Until we meet again my friend    

And we are live. Good evening, everyone. Welcome to Bigfoot Odyssey. Friday night. This is the late show. They say that heroes are remembered. But legends never die. I flew back from Phnomicon and got word that Carrie Arnold from the Bigfoot Odyssey show had passed away. Carrie was kind to all. And despite what he believed, he would always hear the eyewitness out. He never made a fool out of anyone. I can honestly say I can't recall a time that Carrie spoke poorly of anyone. I'm broken-hearted to lose a good friend. Carrier was very kind and giving. He also had a great sense of humor.

I don't take myself too serious. And I think that's why we were brothers. Because you didn't either. As hard as it is, I want to play Carrie's encounter for you one last time. I've said this, and I'll always say this, I don't believe that we are emotionally equipped to handle being in front of them face to face. I just don't, I don't think that we're equipped, like I said, emotionally. And he was angry at me, but I think most of what scared me was not knowing.

You know, when I had, when I saw this thing, you know, one of the things that I was thinking was, man, people see this thing all the time. They just don't live to tell about it. You know, this has to have happened before. You know, I can't be the only one that this has. I've never heard of anything like this happening anybody because, of course, I didn't look into it. And not knowing anything about them, I mean, anything that acts like they want to kill you, I'm going to assume it wants to kill me. Like I said, not knowing all these strange things that had happened to me out there that come pouring back things that I had suppressed, really, it really affects you.

Yeah. And I want to come back to your encounter if you don't want to. mind telling you again. I know you've told it to me three times now. But I love your encounter because you know, what's, what really fascinates me is you'll hear a lot of people. And I hear this in the South a lot, like in Texas and some of these other places. And they'll say, well, an African-Americans coming in and peeking on my window at night. And it's like, what are you talking about? And, but I think a lot of times people try to make sense of, and obviously they're saying African American because sometimes Sasquatch has kind of that black. And man, sometimes they look human-like. And so I can understand,

hopefully all that came out right. You know, the day and age we live on, wherever one gets offended. I didn't mean to offend anyone with that. But I'm saying a lot of times people will say that. And I think they're trying to make sense of it instead of looking at this going, that makes no sense at all. Why would a black guy come look in your windows? You live in the freaking middle of nowhere. And just like your encounter, you know, it was an African-American family. You guys were all buddies. And they said, yeah, you know, go out and hunt this land.

And then, and I want you to go more into the encounter. But I could see I would have that same opinion if I was in your position to where I'd go, oh, that's one of the family members. That's until it doesn't add up. And I want to talk more about Bigfoot, but for the audience, because they love encounters. And I love your encounter. would you mind telling it? Yeah, not at all.

I'll give the summarize. I won't go through all the beginning stuff as much. But, you know, essentially I had leased this property from this family for seven years, and I was on it day and night. I mean, at least 300 days a year I was out there doing something, developing it, camping out, whatever. And I had actually found where some terms. turkeys were, which I had never found before out there during deer season.

And so I went, I found a place I was going to turkey hunt the next turkey season. So I did. I found a nice little clear spot, got it all prepared and burned it off about a week or so before I'd actually gone out there to hunt. Because turkeys like that. And I think they had actually been in there before I'd come to hunt because I burned it. But I got that particular morning, I got in there early, parked my four, we were in the front, walked all the way, back in there is 800 yards right at half a mile back to where I was hunting. And I got to set up and I'm all camoed out because you got to hide from turkeys.

You know, don't even blink because if they see you, it's over, you know. So I get sat up and I'm like I had Galberry bushes that I had cut and moved out into this clearing where I'm sitting on this clearing and I always explain it like it's a football field. You know, just to give people a better visual. If you look at this little square like it's a football field, east to west or end zones, north to south would be sidelines. The south side line drops off straight off into a creek bottom. It's like a two-tier creek bottom. It drops off into the first level and then it goes for a little while and drops off into the creek bed.

And that kind of wraps all the way around the south and then up. It gradually grades up to the east end zone there, around the southeast corner. And I'm sitting in the northwest corner where I can see out all the way out across. I can see down the north side line really well. And I stepped in off to the edge. It was 72 feet from where I was because I needed to know, you know, how far my shot was going to be. So I'm sitting there and I start to call and probably call for the better part of two hours. And I can't.

It was a beautiful day when the sun finally did come up. It was a bright sunny day, March of 07, early spring. And I actually got, I'm hitting this locator, which is something, you know, you shake. it sounds like a young turkey gobbling and it usually will get beer gobblers to answer back it's called a locator for that reason some box called and I got to chirp in my mouth and I'm trying to sound all sexy and and I finally get you know a call back and it's it's another Jake or two I can tell because jakes don't finish it they just kind of halfway gobble and then you know they don't finish it on out so at least I'm getting some action

right. And then I finally get where I can see turkeys coming. And I can see them. They're coming all up this wide game trail that's just off the northwest corner. I can see all the way down it until it just fades off down the hill. They're coming up the game trail and they're coming all through the woods there coming up that little shallow grade. And it's a bunch. I can't tell how many it is at this point, but it's a lot of turkeys, a bunch of hens and young jakes. So I'm excited. I actually get my gun up and ready for they're getting close to coming into this little clear spot I've got. Well, when they get probably 30, 40 feet from coming into the clearing, they stop. And then the ones right there in the front that I could see, they perk their head up and then just gone.

They all just exploded out of there to the north, to my left. And I mean, I can see it's about 30 turkeys at this point. And I'm upset, you know, obviously I couldn't believe they had seen me. You know, I was being pretty still. And about the time that I couldn't hear them anymore, I could hear what sounded like somebody, like footsteps, out across from me in that creek bed, that first tier down there. Because there's, it's full of deciduous trees. There's dead leaves all over the ground, you know. Anything walks through there, you're going to hear it.

but it sounded slow and like two legs. So I stood up and I looked and I didn't really see. When I first stood up, I couldn't see. And I remember grabbing them net, the mesh that I had over my face and I pulled it down over my chin. And I'm looking and then I realized that the turkeys had a direct line of sight to whoever that is or whatever that is down there. And that's what scared the turkeys off. So now I'm kind of aggravated. And then finally I get to see who it is.

and it's a black guy. And I can see just about from the top of his shoulders up. I'm looking through thicket, and he's looking at me, and I didn't really dawn on me that he knew where I was, but he was looking in my direction anyway, and it's probably 130 feet away through the thicket there, because he's down, you know, on that second tier. And he looks like he's walking really slow, like he's tired,

you know, like he's lumbering. And what he would do is come up. He would come up close to the edge and he would snap his head and look at me and then look back where he's going. And he'd snap his head and look and look back where he's going. So I'll wave my hand at him. Like I'm right here. You know, don't shoot at me. I won't shoot at you.

And then I think I lost him for a minute there. And he had to have walked away from me at some point. While he was doing that, while I was still hearing him out there, there's this huge pine tree behind me. and I plop my back up against it. I put my right foot up on it like I was cool, you know, like Fonzie. And I had my shot gun. I put it, I had a Benelli, three and a half inch, 12 gauge automatic, and I had the plug in it, which was abnormal for me.

I didn't usually, you know, I was a bit of an outlaw. And I probably just because the gun came with the plug and I never took it out. But I had three shots, highbrass number four, turkey shot. And I put it down to my left, hand around the grip, and I put my right hand up over the butt. wrapped around just like a boat paddle that way. And, you know, a non-aggressive, I'm not going to shoot at you position. And I can still hear him. And I couldn't tell if he was getting farther away or not, but he had to have.

He had to have gone away from me and gone around that point and back up. The next time I can really see him, I see him coming up towards me. And I'm looking at him, and he doesn't look quite right. I still didn't attribute it, you know, to me as still a guy. He's about to be up close. And I'm about to know exactly what's going on with this guy. and I'm looking, and it looks like he's wearing camouflage. That's what I thought at the time.

I was like he was wearing camouflage. His arms were dark, but his body looked like he had on some kind of camouflage. He looked like a really fat black dude wearing a bunch of clothes. Like he had on a thick coveralls and maybe like a camouflage vest or something. I mean, I'm thinking amateur. You know, this guy's out here hunting. I'm really upset now because if he's wearing camouflage, he's hunting. This amateur out here doesn't know what he's doing. Probably got lost.

These are the things that I'm working out, what I'm not going to say to him because he's coming my way. So I kind of paying attention to him, you know, looking around and waiting. Like I said, he's like he was lumbering, like he's slumped over and tired is the impression that I got. Well, about eight feet down that southeast corner, there were two pine trees. 10 inch pine trees, 25 feet tall, half grown, maybe three feet apart from each other. And the one on the inside, closest to the west, he gets about 10 feet maybe away from it. And he reaches his hand out to grab it. And that was the first real moment that I noticed something was not right.

Because I could see, I didn't know what I was looking at, but I could see the skin, the dark gray skin on the inside of his arm. the hair was not as thick on the inside of his bicep, but his forearm was huge, like an NFL football, was massive. Still, didn't register that this is anything other than a person, but it looks funky. It looks weird. So he reaches out and he grabs that tree and he pulled himself right up to it. And then as soon as he did, he put that tree right in his shoulder, and he stood up and squared up. And when he stood up, he looked a whole lot bigger than he did when he was walking up.

I mean, still, he looked like he was a big dude. This was something different. And there was kind of a few seconds there. It's this moment of transition because immediately he opens his mouth and starts making the most unnerving sound I'd ever heard in my life. It sounded like multiple sets of vocal boards. And he was, I could tell he was angry. He was really upset. Well, at this point, I know exactly what it is. This is a Sasquatch. This is what everybody's been seeing in the woods and calling a Sasquatch. Well, I'm completely and totally freaked out now. I mean, I can feel the blood rush from my face, and I can feel, I describe it as a true sinking feeling like dread, like somebody who's just poured a bucket of cold water over

your head and you're just, oh, you know, like, oh, it's this. Well, he's making this noise and it sounds like language because it's got form and syntax. It's like syllables, but it's not anything I can understand. And he would get really loud. He would get, I mean, and then mumbled. And then get loud again. Well, I'm completely, like I said, petrified. And I'm still in this position.

And what I thought was camouflaged. looks like mud. He had mud. It didn't have it on his arms or his face, but it was all over his right side and a little bit across his chest. And he had leaves and twigs and his hair. I mean, his hair was matted up.

I could see his dark gray skin, which was lighter than his face. His face was just black. And I could see all that. And I mean, I just, I knew that this had to be what this is. And he wasn't all muscled up,

you know, like Schwarzeneggered up. He was barrel shaped. Like Paul White, Big Show, the wrestler. Built just like that, except his head is not sitting up. His head is sitting down in front of his shoulders. And he's maybe six, six, nine, six, ten, could be seven foot. I don't think he was over that because I'm six four.

And he was just about as tall as me standing down that grade. And he's 80 feet away. I know it's 72 feet to the edge. He's another eight, ten feet down there. So I see everything clearly. You know, there's sage grass, about two foot tall sage grass in front of him. So I can't see a lot of his legs. I can see a little.

I don't really notice genitals or anything like that. But he's got his, he's holding on to this tree and he's bitching at me. You know, that's what it feels like. I just, I don't know. I didn't, I knew I wasn't going to run. I knew better, I guess, than to do that. And I don't even know if I could have moved at that point. But I think I just, I got the nerve to just want to get my hand down on the grip.

And all this is happening in just a few seconds. So I start to ease my hand down to get it on the grip of the gun. And when he saw that, he didn't like it. He got really upset. He started rocking back and forth. I mean, really fast rocking back and forth. And he blew at me like it wasn't a yell. It was just like, oh, like, no.

You know, you're not putting your hand. on that gun. He saw what I was doing. Well, I think just about the time I got my hand on the grip is when I felt it because it shook me. It shook my spine. It shook my liver. And it startled me. And I guess that was enough for me to move. And I took about three or four quick steps off into that clearing, still looking at him. And I got ready. My gun still pointed at the ground. I didn't point it at him. But I'm there. If he's coming at me, I'm going to be able to shoot him, hopefully hurt him. and then reload while I'm running. This is one of the things that went through my mouth. How am I going to kill this thing? I'm going to have to fight this thing all the way out of here if I'm going to make it out. Because he's that upset with me. Well, now that I'm out from under the limbs, the tree that I was leaning against,

now I can see the top of the tree that he's holding on to, and it's whipping back and forth. I mean, three people couldn't have done what he was doing to this tree, and he wasn't shaking it. He was just rocking back and forth and still holding on to it. So it was inadvertent. He wasn't just trying to shake this tree, I don't think. I think he could have pulled it up and threw it at me.

But that really scared me, I think. That was one of the more terrifying parts, was moments of this, of all this, was seeing him do that and seeing just how powerful this thing is. And the size of his forearm was so much bigger than his bicep. He was just really, really misproportioned, barrel-shaped. body. He was as wide at his hips as he was at his shoulders. He was just straight up and down. So I thought it was a fat person, essentially. I thought this was just a big 400 pound, you know, probably six foot three, six foot four black dude, you know, that was out here lost.

But seeing what it is now, I'm mortified completely. So I'm still standing there. And he stops rocking back and forth. He rolls his lips back and showed all of his teeth and stuck his tongue straight out through his teeth, just at a point, straight out, not at me, but just out. And I got a good look at his teeth then. He had long canines on top and bottom, not really long, but still longer than his other teeth. And he had a gap right in his two front teeth, like Michael Strahan gap. So that happened. He went back.

He stopped the rocking. He did that. He did that little mumble growl maybe for a couple more seconds. and then he stopped. He took his hand off the tree and he turned his body to the right. I don't even, to me, it didn't seem like he had moved his feet at all.

He just turned his body and he cocked his head to the side, like a dog, like he didn't turn his head. He cocked it to the side while he was quartered to me. Never took his eyes off me. He was looking across his shoulder and down his nose at me. And he took probably, three or four steps toward that game trail. I could still see him really clearly, but it was still still thicket there, but I could still see him very clearly. And then he turned

and walked dead away from me through the thickest stuff out there where I couldn't see him. And I could still hear him very intently walking away. He wasn't like he was trying to sneak off. He was taking big steps and walking away. And I'm watching. I'm trying to get, you know, I'm still trying to look and I keep looking to my left because it feels like there's something, something's telling me to look to my left because there's still some pretty thick stuff right, pretty close to me where I was. So he gets, I'd say he gets probably 50, 60 feet down into the bottom. I think he's probably all the way down in that bottom.

And that's when he yelled. And when he yelled, it sounded like, I described it as a whip because it was very abrupt. it was a build-up and then stop just wow and but it was so loud and powerful I mean once that happened there was not another sound in the woods and then once he did that the why he did that maybe it's because I was still standing there I don't know but I still stood there for quite a while at least a couple of minutes maybe maybe not quite that long but it seemed like a long time because I didn't want to turn my back on him I didn't want to because I had to leave going to in the other direction.

So, finally, I can, I start to feel myself breathing. You can take a long, deep breath. I start to feel my heartbeat. And I'm starting to get this like tunnel vision, like heat on the periphery, which my wife, Linda, told me later. Adrenaline will do that to you. It'll give you that kind of, that kind of tunnel vision. So I'm pretty sure that's what was happening.

But that was the point where I decided, okay, I'm, I turned, around and I grabbed my backpack. I walked over and grabbed my backpack and I left everything else laying there. And I took a few steps and I stopped and I was going to take the plug out and put two more in it. But I decided no, I don't want to get caught in that position. So I took three shells out of my pocket and put them in my left hand and walked out. I would take really short, quick steps and stop and listen to see if I heard anything following me. We did this the whole way out. And I never, I don't remember a ton of the way out. I remember doing a lot of praying.

Made a lot of promises to the good Lord that I've kept to this day. Promise I'd never kill another animal for any reason, not intentionally. I've kept that one. If he would get me out of here, you know, false soul praying, obviously. But there was still this one place that I was worried about getting by because I always got creeped out there. And as I'm walking out, all these things are coming back to me, you know, that had happened. I'm like, these things have been out here around me the whole time. That's what this has been, you know, that I'm thinking the voices that I've heard was that, which I thought were people coming down the road talking that I'm yelling at.

This was them, you know. And nothing else made any sense until you add them to the equation. But I get past this part and I'm good. And it turns and goes up a hill and about 200 feet, there's my four-wheeler. Well, I get to the crest of this hill and it started to open up. I can see my four-wheeler. I can see the road, and I'm starting to feel a lot better about making it out. So I stopped, and I stopped, and I turned around to look.

And the second I stopped, as soon as I got turned around, I heard that very distinctive tree break. It was either a tree or a tree limb, but it was fresh because it was that crackle pop because I heard that. I could, it's kind of like a rifle going off. And that's the point where I ran. I ran. I got on my four-wheeler, and another very terrifying moment was not being able to go forward. I remember this so vividly getting on my full-wheeler and putting my shotgun across in front of my legs. But the way I parked, I couldn't go forward.

I had to back up toward where this tree break was to get out, and I just knew, you know, this was. I made it this far, and now he's got me. But I did. I made it, and I drove down the road. You turn left to go to the house. I pushed my folder up next to the house where I would normally load my four-wheeler up. I pushed it up. I got to my truck.

Grab my 7mm magneton rifle out of the back. I made sure it was loaded, as it usually was. And I sat there for 15, 20 minutes at least watching that tree line because I couldn't, I couldn't feel like I could drive. I think even when I did drive away, finally, I might have done 40 down in. state. And I do remember breaking down a few times. But just remembering all of these strange things that I had gone through out there over the years and running into these things, just not knowing what it was, you know, always attributing it to something else. Yeah, it's fascinating. And you hear a lot of hunters do that. I mean, I've talked to a lot of them where you look back and you go, oh,

that's what that was, especially after you see one. And, you know, I honestly carry it. I honestly, And I've heard your encounter several times, and I love it every time because, you know, for the audience listening, if you haven't had a chance, go check out Bigfoot Odyssey on YouTube. But Kerry is actually a pretty big guy. Not a guy that I don't think would get too terrified in most situations. And I'm right there with you, man. I mean, I know exactly what you're talking. The tunnel vision, it definitely, you become like hyper-focused on everything. And it's almost on the edge of not being focused on anything.

But you're right on the edge of where you're hyper focused on everything. That would definitely terrify me. Now, when he came up, I know, and you and I can talk about this later, but we talked about what we think Sasquatch is. And obviously, everyone has their own opinion and no one's wrong and no one's right. Someone might be right, but no one's wrong because we don't know. Did he look human in the face? I know you're talking.

Absolutely. And for the audience, this was 2007 in Mississippi. And the family that owned this area, that owned this land, was an African-American family. But when you're looking at him, what kind of stood out in his facial features? Was there anything? Can you describe the face as far as what you saw? Oh, yeah. He had, his head was shaped like a football.

He had a very pronounced crest and a really long face. very large round ball like cheeks. His nose was kind of wide, but it was pointed, but it was pointed down like Scotty Pippin. I always said, if you want to look at what his nose looks like, it looks like Scottie Pippin's nose.

And really, really wide mouth, no forehead. And I don't know if it was because he was angry at me, but his had like diamond-shaped brow. Like really high on the outside and, you know, to a point. But I don't know if it's like I said because he was just acting like he was mad at me or whatever. But he had no forehead. His hairline started right there above his really pronounced brow.

I couldn't see his eyes that I can remember. I don't remember seeing his eyes because it was just dark. You know, that deep set eyes. Really, really white teeth. At least they were white in contrast to the rest of him because his face was so good. dark black like it was grease paint shiny shiny black leather looking face and yeah just looked like a person essentially that means ugly obviously he wasn't the prettiest guy in the world but you know when you don't have a frame of reference for anything else this is what my brain

is telling me this is it's a person until obviously all the rest of the signs added up but I wish I would have had somebody directing me or even forcing me to look closer at the world around me because I thought I knew everything, man. There's not one thing that you could have told me about the woods that I wouldn't have just loud or just kind of scoffed and said, okay, whatever. I was just that arrogant. I was arrogant enough to get myself lost a few times. But all the things that I heard, the truck I heard coming through the woods that and then stopped suddenly was a pissed off buck, you know. The sticks and half pine cones dropping all around me. When I walked through the pines, you know, was a red squirrel, you know, with a bad grip.

The very distinct sound of biopial steps was some animal that I was about to see at any moment, but never did. And then the owl that I heard sounded like a guy trying to sound like an owl was just an owl with like a sore throat or whatever. But that knocking, that rhythmic knocking I heard all around me, even off in the distance I would hear it. And I actually rationalize this way. This is a buck. And he's hitting some bamboo. That went through my head. Yeah.

Or somebody hammering on something up at the house. But they were doing it all the time. As soon as I would get off my folder, I would hear this knocking for years. I heard it. And I think they were just warning, you know, everybody else that I was on my way in. I think you almost have to, I think if you're saying you try and rationalize it, you try and look back, you know, you try and say, well, someone's knocking on something or I hear a kid. One thing you'll hear from a lot of loggers and hunters is, oh, we heard kids laughing.

We heard kids talking. But it makes no sense when you look at the area they're in. I mean, they're in the middle of nowhere. Does it bother you more, your encounter bother you more? Or does it bother you more looking back at all those incidences and realizing they were there the whole time watching you? I think what bothers me as much as anything was how I felt for a long time that I was putting my life in danger and didn't even know it. I mean, still, how could this have been that these manlike beings were around me all this time and I never knew it? You know, it's easy when you tell yourself it's something else.

You know, then these preachers certainly don't make it easy in any sense. But, I mean, and they clearly don't want anything to do with us. us other than maybe to observe us. But yeah, what bothered me for a long time was feeling with all the times that I felt like I had put my life in danger. I mean, until I learned something about them, obviously. But, and then to me, it's as important as telling what, you know, the encounter is to me telling the things that I got wrong, you know, because at the time, and this has bothered

some people when I've said this, that at the time, if I'd have my rifle, I would have a shot it. I do believe I was shot him right between the eyes just because of the way he was acting. And people say, well, you're going to shoot big, but I'm like, no, you're not thinking in context here. I mean, at the time, because I knew nothing. I didn't know anything about these creatures. And all I thought was, this is a monster, you know, so the boogeyman and he wants to kill me, I'm going to kill him first. That was my mindset then. Obviously, I don't feel that way now. And I don't think anyone can give your crap for that, Kerry. I mean, you didn't shoot because, you know, you're an outdoorsman and, you know, full well, that bird shot probably

would have pissed him off more than kill him. Yeah, he's going to get real close. Unless you get close, right. Yeah. And I don't blame me for filling that way. I mean, I felt that way for the longest time. I mean, even after my encounter, it was my opinion of them, uh, was kill them all and let God figure it out.

You know, I could care less if someone shot one. I'd be cheering them on on the sidelines. But you're right after a while of, of kind of looking into this. You realize they're not all like that. I still hinder those feelings, though. I still feel that way. Deep down, I try not to, but deep down, I still, you know, if someone told me they shot one, cut its head off, and brought it in,

it'd probably be the best day of my life. But you know what I mean? And that's just the way I feel about it. A lot of people don't like to hear that. And I understand why they don't like to hear it, but that's the way I feel about it. Yeah, I wouldn't shoot one now unless I absolutely had to. that I knew for sure that he was going to get me or whatever. But, you know, there were so many times out there that I should have known.

If I've actually been paying attention and thinking critically, the thing that we ask everyone else to do now, if I'd have been doing that, I think I would have noticed or recognized what it was. But, you know, being a hunter, and I'm looking on the ground, I'm always looking for tracks. I never saw a footprint. I never saw a tree structure that I would have called anything other than deadfall. Not that we know for sure they make tree structures, but I mean, some of these things are hard to deny. And being out there so much, I think they knew who I was.

They knew me well enough. I think we had had enough interaction that maybe they thought I knew they were there anyway. And I had done something different. You know, I usually only deer hunted. So now I'm hunting past deer season. and I'm hunting in a different spot. I'm hunting for a different animal. And I don't think he liked it.

Or maybe they all didn't like it. And he just decided to let me know it. That's kind of what I get from the whole thing is I had all these turkeys coming to me. And maybe he thought I was going to take them all and wasn't going to have it. He scared them all. Yeah, you know what I find curious. And I thought about your encounter last time you and I talked. And it made me think maybe he was coming in for a turkey and didn't even realize

you were there. And at the last moment, he realized it was you calling in the turkey. So he was going to give you a piece of his mind. It wasn't necessarily it was coming for you. He was cut, you know, you're doing the turkey call. They're all coming in. He probably was there for lunch and and didn't even realize you were there at the last moment. What's your take on that? I think they knew, man. I don't think there was any time I could step foot in that place and them not know it. I think that knocking was them. reminding or letting everybody else know I was coming in because that place I would always get creeped out at, you could see through there for a long way. You can see for 100 yards in one

direction and probably 40 in the other direction. So what I think is I would part my folder and get off and I would hear this knocking and it sounded close, but I'm thinking, ah, there's somebody hammering on something up at the house. They're always hammering on it though, like they were always doing it. And, but it's that rhythmic knocking, you know, which was probably realistically coming from maybe 200 yards away. And then I get to the spot and I think they all just got collected up in there so they could watch me walk through there. And then maybe that's why I felt creeped out right there.

That's just a theory. I don't know if that's true or not. But I do remember camping. One night specifically, I was camped out because I live 30 minutes away. And if it was deer season, I wasn't going to go home at dark and then come back in daylight. You know, I was just sleep in my truck or I'd build a fire. and sit around and, you know, sleep, wake up and hunt at daylight. And I heard an owl.

What sounded like it, but it sounded like a guy. And the only person that knew where I was was my friend that had hooked me up with his grandfather that I knew would even come out there to see me. It's him. I just knew it was him because I said something to him. I don't remember exactly what I said, but it was something to the effect of, hey, okay, I hear you. You might as well come on out, you know, but he never did. And it wasn't long after the.

that I heard a thought ship, which didn't quite sound right either, about maybe 50 yards behind me. And then I don't, maybe I got my gun and got in my truck at that point. I don't know, but it was very distinctive. There's no, an owl has like a little trill to it, like a, you know, when they, especially a barred owl anyway. And that's what it was, but it was more like, ooh, who, who, you know, I mean, come on. You fool it. You're not fooling me. But I was, I was very, I was very arrogant about that place.

And like I said, I got lost in there one night. I think I walked up in the middle of them. Tell us about it. Yeah, a pretty scary moment. I had hunted off, back down in the bottoms. And it was February late in the deer season. It wasn't really cold, but it was chilly. It got dark and I got down.

I probably missed my trail by 10 feet. But I did. And worst time to get lost, missed in room. rain, so there's no stars, no moon, there's no road nearby where I can hear traffic. And in the woods, any woods, when it's dark, I don't care who you are. If you don't have a compass, you don't know what direction you're going. You just get turned around that easily. But I knew there was a grade there, so I was like, okay, if I can find the creek bottom,

I know how to get out of here because the creek comes out pretty close to behind the house. So that's what I did. I found where the creek bed was. So I was following it, and I'm tromping through, and I've got a really bright light. This is before LEDs, or before LEDs were good. I had the big black mag flashlight, you know, the 440 mag light, and I had my rifle over my shoulder. And I'm tromping through. And at the time, when this happened, the story that I told was that I had walked up in the middle of a bunch of hubs.

Because I got probably maybe 10 or 15 feet, and I must have shine my light on them because they were up either side of that creek bed for me. And all of a sudden, it was just commotion. I mean, leaves and big heavy bodies and breathy grunting, you know, which didn't really sound like hogs, I don't guess. But that's the first thing I'm thinking I'm looking for a tree to get up. You know, I'm not trying to shine and look for any hogs. But they didn't run away. They went straight back behind me about 30 feet and stopped. And I remember them stopping because I thought they were coming back.

So I'm looking for a tree to get up. But once they stopped, that was it. You know, and you would think that I would have heard them just fade away into the distance, but I didn't. They stopped right there and that was it. That's why I think it was them. I think it was the family. Because, you know, by the time I, when I looking back and realizing where I was at that point was only about a hundred yards from where I had the encounter.

But I think I stood there for maybe a few minutes or so, and this was like two seasons before. This was like 05. And four hours later, you know, I come out almost where my campsite is. I found the trail where my camp had connected to this little pond that was back there. So I found that. And then I got up to actually where my camp was. Still had to walk all the way back to where I was hunting and get my four. because I remember I remember having it down there.

But yeah, I do believe that was them. And I lost, I lost deer. I lost a really nice eight point that I just, I know they got him. I know they got him. I was shooting seven mags. The only thing I'd ever taken in there to hunt aside from the day I went turkey hunting. And I shot this buck. I'd seen him on camera.

He was a good eight point, you know, 120 inch plus deer, big body. and I shot him right through the vitals, but he was close, so he passed through and he ran. But I heard him crash. I heard him go down, but it was early. And I was greedy, so I was like, okay, he's down. Let's get another one, you know. So I sat there for a while, and then finally around maybe 10 o'clock,

I get down, and I'm trailing, and I know about where he went down. I can hear where he went down. And I can find there's lung blood, you know, all over, and I get down where he crashed. I can see where he went down, but he's not there. And in these bottoms, there's just enough leaf litter to where, you know, there's enough animals to go through there and, you know, stir up the leaves. You wouldn't be able to see footprints or anything like that.

Even if you were looking for him, you wouldn't find any. But I looked for that deer for two days and never looked for buzzards and never found him. You know, dead bodies don't bleed. So I think he laid there dead. so I didn't find any more blood leading away from there. I think they picked him up and walked off with him. Yeah, I was going to ask you if you ever had any deer come missing. Several.

Yeah, and I want to get into your channel in this upcoming expedition. One question I want to ask you, though, and I don't think I ever asked you this about your encounter, when he was vocalizing to you, and he did you a great impression of how they sound, do you think he was vocalizing at you, or do you think it was meant for another one that was around? and it just seemed like he would. I realize you can't, you don't know. But what I'm saying is your impression at the time, do you think he was actually talking to you?

Yeah. Seemed like he was talking to me. He was looking at me, at least in my direction, what I could tell. Like I said, only 80 feet away. And it was words. There's no doubt. It was words.

And it's like he was talking slow, where I would understand him. You know, that's kind of how it felt. Like, you know, looking back on it, Because it wasn't, I've heard a lot of gibberish on recordings. And it's never, what I heard was so much slower. So I think he might have been like, you need to get out of here, you know, where I, you taught someone that doesn't read, doesn't understand your language and, uh, and says something,

you know, slower where you'll understand it. But even though you still don't, that's kind of how it felt. It was slow and he would get really loud and then mumble like he was mumbling to himself. And then loud again. That's what I, that's a distinct. things I remember. My thoughts and prayers are with Carrie's family and his beautiful wife Linda. Carrie touched so many lives more than I think he even realized.

I have so many stories I want to share with you. Funny moments with Carrie. His death was so abrupt. My soul is on fire. I did a show about Billy the Kid and I played this at the end. Carrie called me and told me how much he loved the song. because you're never really gone. To my friend Carrie,

heroes are remembered, but legends never die. I was a highway man. Along the coach roads I did ride with sword and pistol by my side. Many a young maid lost her bibles to my trade. Many a soldier shed his life blood on my blade. Bastards hung me in the spring of 20,

I am still alive. I was a dam building dealing water. I slipped and fell into the wet concrete below. Great tune that knows no sound. But I am still around. Always be. Starship.

Cross the universe divide. And when I reach the other side, rest my spirit if I can. I may become a highway man again. Or I may go from wreck again.