Sasquatch Chronicles - SC EP:90 Interview with Bob Gimlin

Episode Date: March 28, 2015

The Patterson–Gimlin film is a famous short motion picture of an unidentified subject the film makers purported to be a "Bigfoot", that was supposedly filmed on October 20, 1967, by Roger Patterson and Robert "Bob" Gimlin on Bluff Creek, a tributary of the Klamath River about 25 road miles north-west of Orleans, California. The film has been subjected to many attempts both to debunk and authenticate it. Both Patterson and Gimlin have always insisted they encountered and filmed a real Bigfoot, not a man in a costume. Patterson died of cancer in 1972. Patterson's friend, Gimlin, has always denied being involved in any part of a hoax with Patterson. Gimlin mostly avoided publicly discussing the subject from at least the early 1970s until about 2003. Tonight we will discuss the events around the film and what lead up to the famous encounter.

The creature first made national news in 1958 when construction worker Jerry crew found in cast footprints measuring 17 and a half inches long near Bluff Creek, California, located 86 miles from Eureka. Locals nicknamed the creature Bigfoot, and the name stuck. Over the next decade, national interest in the story mostly faded until October 20th, 1967, when Roger Patterson, An amateur filmmaker set out to Bluff Creek to do a documentary on a recent footprint discovery. But what Patterson found shot the world. He shot 953 frames of film that many believe is the best evidence of Bigfoot. Patterson passed away in 1972, never wavering from his story. But he was not alone on that fateful day.

A massive bicep in the arm was, you know, wide like that. And as it moved, you could see the muscles ripping in the thighs. And the arms, even underneath that hair, you could see the difference in the, you know, in the movement. Bob Gimlin was with Roger Patterson that day. 5.5, 4, 4, 3, 3, 2, 1.1. When I had come down this hill, I had seen this creature cross the road. They would have ripped my locked door from my truck, extracted me from my vehicle. And there wasn't a damn thing I could have done about.

about it. This thing I got to notice in its eyes. Its eyes was real, real evil, real sinister looking. You know, the look it was given. What are you putting? See them. It's about 60 foot nine, I don't know. Do you see him now, sir? Yes, I'm looking right at it. Sasquatch Chronicle, a place where people share their accounters.

Let's start the show. I wanted to tell you, you calling me this morning, meant the world to me. You calling me up this morning. I wanted to kind of tell you a funny story. And I might owe you some medical bills. I might owe you some medical bills. We met at Beachfoot. I know you meet a lot of people there and if you don't remember, it's okay. My brother and I had an encounter and we heard that you were coming to Beachfoot and I thought, oh man, I'd love to meet Bob Gimlin. I would love to meet this guy. When you had stepped out of your car, it was like the floodgates opened and everyone ran to you. And I remember thinking, My brother at the time, he was saying, you know, I would love to ask Bob to come on the show.

And I said to him, you know what, that's not a bad idea. And then the moment I saw you start to get out of your car and like everyone just rushed towards you, I remember I looked over him and I said, yeah, I don't think I'm going to bother this man with that, just because he can't even get out of his car at this place. So I was kind of bummed out. and we're sitting there at Beachfoot, and we were kind of in that inside structure. You remember what I'm talking about? I don't know what you called.

Yes, yes, yeah. And I remember I was sitting there, and it was late one night, and me and Woody were talking, and I was kind of looking at the ground, and I don't remember if I, you know, we're drinking a soda, drinking a beer, or whatever we're drinking, and I was telling Woody, hey, you know what, I'm probably going to head off to bed. I'm pretty tired. And I hear this click, click, click of Cowboy. that's walking up.

And a hand comes out to me like someone wants me to shake their hand. So I put my hand out and I look up and at you. And I said, you know, hey, hey, Mr. Gilmline. He said, no, no, no, call me Bob. What's your name? And, you know, you went over to Woody and you were gracious. And I thought, man, this is the best time to ask him something about Sasquatch. This is the best time to.

And then I couldn't think of anything. ask you. And it's funny because you were, and I'll get to my point of the story here, you started telling the story about how you had broken your back, I believe it was. Woody and I were just sitting there listening to you tell the story about, I think a horse had kicked you in the chest, or had bucked you. I don't remember. I can't remember. There's been a few horse wrecks with me for the last few years, you know. I should have quit when I was younger, but I didn't. And so I'm paying a price for it a little bit. You know, but I heal pretty good, but I'm blessed.

The Lord looks after me, you know. You had told this story about how you got, I don't remember if it was kicked. Somehow you had, like, broken your back or, and you were crawling back to the house. You couldn't get vertical. And you were bleeding out of your mouth, and you'd end up laying on your side. You were trying to get in the front door and couldn't get him. And he decided he didn't want to just drown in your own blood. So you laid on your side.

Your wife finds you, brings you in the house. props you up in a chair and puts towels underneath your chin and basically feed you soup for three days. That was a long, drawn-out mess. What was unique about the story, though, is you said, well, I thought I was going to die. And after about three days, I figured I wasn't going to die. And so I decided to the hospital. And I think right after that, someone wished you away. And what he looks over at me and goes, wow, that's probably one of the toughest.

guys I think I've ever met my life. What was funny is the next day after this whole thing, Woody's still kind of getting at me to interview you and interview you. I never got a chance to apologize to you for this, but I'll give you Woody's, Woody's my brother. I'll give you his version of the story. Bob Stintz sitting there with the busted talking about how he broke his shoulder like a year ago and he's holding his glass of water up and he's talking about how he can't, a year ago he couldn't do this and he had broken his shoulder and he says, my knucklehead brother walks him, walks up to Bob, and slaps him across the shoulder and says, hey, Bob, how are you doing? And he says, he says, you can see that glass of water drop a little bit. And then he goes, and then my idiot

brother goes, yeah, Bob, you tough SOB. How you been? You look good. And slapped him across the shoulder again. And he says, poor Bob, you can see that glass of water dropping lower and lower and lower. and he says my brother's such an idiot he keeps you look good you look real good and slap him across the shoulder and he says poor Bob had to put the glass of water down

and he was kind of slumped over and he goes Bob's so tough the guy never says two words but he goes he knows he was hurting at that point he walked off and then my brother starts verbally it to me, you know, just undress me verbally.

And he's like, what were you doing? And he tells me the little story how you broke your shoulder. And then I was like, oh, no, I owe him. And I tried to find you to apologize. I felt so bad. Well, you know, a person can't always tell on, you know, and so, but it's fine now, Wes, so we're all right, everything's okay.

Yeah, well, I appreciate it. If there's any medical bills I need to pay you for it, let me know, and I'll be glad to take care of them. Oh, thank you very much about some of that stuff. You know, I mean, my wife keeps track of it. But she did tell me this last time, she said, A, you're getting too old to live the kind of life you've been living. She said, I think you better not be doing that anymore,

or you're going to have to find another address. I said, I can't like it here, so I've changed it. block west. Yeah, I don't blame you. Anyway, I'm just a blessed man. I mean, I've been blessed so much. And over the years, you know, the people that I've met through this thing, including you guys, you know.

Unfortunately, when I see you, I will remember. But, you know, I get west of a powerful lot of names and stuff. and I was pretty good with names when I was younger, but now then I just can't seem to hang on to the names, you know. I wanted to ask you, Baba, and I won't keep it too long, but I wanted to ask you, before we get to the whole film that you guys had done and your experiences with that, one thing I wanted to ask you, and it's something that's come up for me recently,

you had gone through this, even to the point where you guys filmed this thing, and it was something that happened to you guys. So many people have encounter stories, and then there's really no proof that the encounter took place. And you guys have it on film. How did you deal with the criticism, the blowback? Were you expecting that after all of this happened? Were you expecting the negativity?

No, no, I really wasn't. I didn't really give it that much thought, because I thought, well, you know, I know what happened. I know what is seen and all of that. See, I didn't, when I first saw the film two or three days after a couple days afterwards, I didn't think the film was that good. I thought, well, you know, I saw more and better than that film is. But anyway, as everybody else kept saying, you know, this looks this good, this, this.

So then I accepted it, and then when the ridiculing started, And I just, I thought, well, I, you know, I know, and I can, I don't like it, but I can handle it. And so I just kind of let it like water off a duck, you know. Not really. It bothered me a lot. Bothered me a lot about a lot of this stuff, you know, and it still does. But the thing is, there's been so many good people that I've met after all of the ridicule. at the conventions that I've gone to, and people that have actually had sightings and had, you know,

I had encounters with them and evidence. Then I'm just, I feel like every time I talk to somebody, it's just a little more of a weight lifted off me. Because, you know, when right up in this part of the country, when I, right away quick, everybody's oh well you know those guys are are faking things and they're doing this and that and then people say well i don't know bob's bob's not like that and i don't know roger and so you know you get all you get hit from every different angle from everybody's different view and so even at work you know i would get zapped a little bit and then of course judy gets zapped at her work and and and so that's That's why I was, of course, one time I was asked, Bob, would you do it again if you had an opportunity to go back down there?

And I said, no way, I wouldn't even think about going back down there again. But that was before 2003. And 2003, they had the Willowcwick there, the convention. And I and Dimitri Benoff from Russia and John Green and Chris Murphy and Tompsey and Tom Stingberg, we all went down. And so I met people with that convention that their interest was in it, and I never met one person that asked me about whether the foam was real or whether it was a man in a suit, an ape suit or whatever.

Never had one person addressed me with that. So I left there thinking, well, there is some decent people. yet around and they were from all over you know different parts of the country and so then when I left there because I was all through with given interviews I was all through with making any kind of appearance or anything and that's that's in between the time when Renee Hinden was working trying to get my one-third of supposed to me my one-third of interest of the film and so I was tired of dealing with that all told

with Al Diatley and Roger Patterson and Patty Patterson, Roger's widow. I was just fed up with all of that because I didn't have time to be going to court and I didn't want to court. I'm not a kind of person that sues people for things or goes. I don't believe in that. And so Renee wanted to do that. So I said, okay, well, you get the attorneys and you get it back. And that's the reason why when that was all through and they granted me,

back my one third interest of that film that I signed it over to Renee Du Hennon for $1. And that's people say, well, why did you do that? I was totally tired of it after 30-some years of ridicule and just happened to go through it. So I thought, I'm getting three square meals a day and Judy and I are happy to be together still now and she stayed with me after all of that. and so that's why Renee ended up with that

and I never did regret that I did that and still don't and you know Wes there's there's time when and I have my

faith you know my true faith and so I just I let things going to roll off me because I've been protected and I've been

blessed most of my life and I was blessed all through this at one time I was a bitter bitter person to Roger Patterson

and Al DiAatley for what they did to me about you know doing the different things that they did you know traveling and having a guy

if I will go with them and say he was me and these things and they made a bunch of money and here I was working every day trying to make a living or I was making a living

and when I got over I got through that bitterness I just thought you know why I was the only one that paid for it deatlin Paterson did he's dead now but I figured

you know I'm a happy man I don't have nothing to hide or my conscience is clear and I just I just wrote it off and I met incredible people since then

you know I had invitations to go worldwide and do things with people that I just couldn't do, of course, but I've had the invitations to go and met some wonderful people. You know, Wes, and I figure that I'm probably, of all the money that Roger and Al made, you can't buy the friends that I have acquired over this over the years. So I figure that I'm much richer than they are, and it isn't with money. You know, I admire you even more saying that because I don't think a lot of people realize this film would have never happened if it wasn't for you.

And a lot of people don't realize, I don't think a lot of people know the backstory on what happened after the film. You know, and I don't think people realize the ridicule that you took and you were really put through the ringer. And so when you say, hey, would you go back and do it again, you know, your answer is no. I completely understand that. I completely get that. I wanted to kind of take you back to the 50s. When you met Roger, you guys were, you guys met through rodeo. You guys met through doing rodeo.

Yes. Yeah. Amateur rodeo. Yeah. Well, amateur. I don't think there's anything amateur about rodeo period. But when you met him, you really didn't. and correct me if I'm wrong on this, Bob,

you didn't really know anything about Sasquatch. You really didn't know anything about, this was Roger kind of coming to you and saying, hey, look at, is that kind of how the whole subject started between you guys? Yes, very much so, Wes, because I'd never even heard the word Sasquatch before, you know. And I hadn't even, I hadn't heard anything about Bigfoot either. And, you know, and I'd been in the mountains a lot,

and hunted and did a lot of things. The first time that I really, well, the Sasquatch name, I think that I'd heard of Roger talk about the Bigfoot prior to the time of the Sasquatch. But I'd never, it was only because of the plaster, the cast that I think that Roger had showed me and said they're Bigfoot cast.

Well, Judy and I got annoyed in 64 and we went to Harrison Hot Springs for our honeymoon and up there at Harrison Hot Springs there was a big painting of a big piece of

plywood on a tree or on a big stump or whatever it was on I can't remember now and said Sasquatch and Judy said Sasquatch what is and what's that? And I said

I don't know it must be a tribe of native Canadians and then found out that Sasquatch Bigfoot was the same creature, see. Did Roger come to you with more and more evidence? Did you think this guy was crazy at first? Were you like, what are you talking about? Well, yeah, definitely did. And, of course, I was riding quite a few young horses, and then Roger lived back up in the mountains of ways. or on his way.

He lived back there quite a little ways, and he was on his, he was in, lived in the way where I went up to ride these young horses in the mountains, so I'd stop by him. By then, I wasn't around rodeo anymore, and I don't even know if Roger was or not, because I wasn't in touch with him. But anyway, I'd stop by when I'd go by there,

if Roger was there, say hello to him, and he'd say, let me put my horse in the truck with you, and we'll go up and I'll ride with you. And I said, well, sure, come on. So, you know, around campfires at night, he'd play these little cassettes, you know, and he's a recorder is a battery-powered recorder about different testimonials that people would talk to him about. And then he'd show me a plaster cast.

I call it plaster. He'd show me a cast and say, you know, this is a big foot, this big foot. And then got to the point where he was calling it Bigfoot, Sass. Well, by then, I had found out what Sasquatch was, so put the two of them together, so it was Bigfoot in the U.S. and Sasquatch in Canada. And so Roger talked to me about it, and I said, well, Roger, you know, I'm kind of like old Harry Truman. I have to see things to believe it. And so he'd laugh about that and talk some more about it, about the different people he'd

talked to him, the different places that he'd gone to, that people had called him at something strange had happened there and he'd go investigate and he talked to me about that. And this all kind of happened around campfires at night when we were on a weekend camp out. And then he kept coming to me about this. And so then I can't remember whether it was in the spring of 65 or 66 or even maybe been in the spring of 67. He come to me and said, Bob, he said, I've got a guy that one is going to film us and would you do some tracking for me and some riding for me in the mountains?

I want to generate enough money with a little documentary, I say a short documentary film to mount an expedition in California, northern California, where these down in Bluff Creek area and in that area. And I said, well, sure, Roger, I'll help you on weekends when I can. So I'd go up there with him, and that's when he had all these guys riding up there with me. And that's when I did the – and I was showing Appalusa horses at that time. So I had a semi-costum, like the one in front of Arkansas Magazine. And so that was actually filmed for that documentary that Roger was going to generate.

to, I mean, it was going to get together, put together to generate money to go for an expedition down in Northern California. And he'd already asked me if I was interested. And I said, oh, no, no, I got a good job. You know, I was riding horses and had a good paying job. And I had everything going for me. And so I just said, you know, Bigfoot's okay. There's probably there's got to be something out there, or these people wouldn't be

talking about it and there wouldn't be so much interest in it. But I said, you know, I really don't have time and I'm kind of a skeptic. I'm still a Harry Truman type fellow. I have to see it to believe it. I haven't seen it. I said, I haven't even seen a footprint in the soil that you could cast and make what you've been showing me. And so, you know, I mean, he didn't say too much about that. And I kept writing on weekends for him, you know, on track and doing

and tracking bear and cougar and whatever in the mountains. And then he said, well, could you take me over to Mount St. Helens on Labor Day weekend? Well, yeah, I'm riding some young horses anyway. So we'll just haul over there and I'll ride over in there and we can look around over in Mount St. Helens area because he was telling me what an active area that was. you know, for Bigfoot prints and sightings and so forth.

So we went over there and we rode around the mountains, but it was a lot of downfall or a lot of, they blogged a lot over in there, and there was lots of garbage and stuff still around. So you couldn't get around very good. It started raining really, really hard, like on Sunday night. And everything got wet. So Monday, Labor Day.

Monday, I said, you know, I'm heading back to Yakima. And Roger said, well, yeah, it's raining so hard. There ain't nothing much we can do over here. So we come on back here to Yakman. Of course, I went back to work on Tuesday. And I don't remember exactly what day it was that Roger come in my driveway, big eyes wide open. Bob, he said, we got to go to Northern California.

I said they found three different size of footprints around a piece of equipment that they'd put in there on a Friday evening before the Labor Day weekend. And then they come back on Tuesday to go to work, and these footprints are all around this piece of equipment, three different sizes. And I said, well, Roger, I can't just go. I was hot ruffing at the time with the company here in Yakima. and I said, I can't just quit my job and take you down to Northern California. So I went and talked to the boss, and it was Paul, you know, the last part of September. And by then it was the last part of September. And so he said, oh, yeah, he said, it's getting late.

And I was not senior man on the cruise. So if somebody was going to be laid off for the fall, I would be. the first one laid off anyway. So that's why this all kind of happened, the way it happened, you know, when I went ahead and took him down there, and I still don't remember whether it was the last day of September, the first day of October. It either had to be one of the two or the last two days of September, because I had a lot of things I had to get lined up here before I could leave here, you know. And my wife worked. I had horses and animals and cows to take care of,

so I had to get somebody to look after them because my wife wasn't going to be able to feed all them craters, you know. And so anyway, I got all that lined up, and we went down there. Well, road, road, road, miles and miles and miles. And it was one of them falls were, was warm, you know, warm, sunshiney days, almost. every day. But my intent was to be able to see footprints in the soil when I went down there.

That's what I really wanted to see was footprints evidence. Well, it had rained all the way down, up and down the west coast. And I guess it must have just poured down there like it did over Mount St. Helms. So when we got there, you could see where there was, there was things in the dirt but they weren't what you'd call identifiable footprints that you could put

a product in there and come out with a plaster good plaster cast so I was pretty disappointed about the whole trip right from the get-go and so then we just rode road, road, road.

We covered miles and miles and miles every day, every day and nothing. had no footprints and they up above us where we were camped there a mile up above us they were grading

bulldoze and grading new logging roads so I'd go up there at night after they get the equipment off the mountains and hoping that maybe something would cross the road and leave a footprint well I found every kind of footprint

up there but a big one footprint, you know. And so I just was not that all happy about the whole thing because start with, it was my truck, my expense, and Roger's brother and all was supposed

to reimburse me for all of the expense going down there because you know, of whatever, because I guess he believed in Roger actually more than I did. I don't really know. Anyway, he had a company up here and was supposed to have money, and so he said, I said,

well, this rig I've got to have a one-ton Chevrolet, six-cylinder engine, and it was not easy on gas. It was a gas engine, and I knew it was going to be pretty spendy. Well, I absorbed the cost of going down and back and was supposed to get reimbursed about it, which you never did. But that's beside the point, too, you know. But anyway, to go on with a story, well, going down there, you know, I didn't know where to go, but Roger had been down there in previous years to talk to some of the Forest Service people down there and Al Hodson there at the variety store. He knew Al quite well, and he told me where to go.

I'd never been down there, you know, and didn't know where to go. Well, this little truck was a four-speed manual transmission, so I could go in pretty steep hills with it and low gears with the horses in it, you know, if it was dry ground. I couldn't, you know, it wasn't nothing like having a four-wheel drive rig or anything. And then where we camped, I'm jumping a gun here a little bit west, where we camped, I never knew that it had a name. And people kept calling it the Laos camp.

Well, I didn't know it was called the Laos camp. It was just to cross the creek on the east side of the creek, because we drove across the creek. Cric was only about 15 inches deep, which was easy to cross, you know. And it had been crossed before with equipment loading logs, I guess, or something, because it wasn't just a straight-off. of banking down and straight up another bank it was agile you know kind of a grade like in so i got on we camped on the east side of the creek which would have been bluff creek and rode out of there

every day and then at nighttime sometimes we'd take the rig back across and go up and drive we could cover a lot more miles on them dirt roads that they were where they were blatant um there's deep soil but I'd just go in low gear with the lights on, and so we could see if anything crossed the road. But, you know, we didn't have, it wasn't that four. And then just go on back and the next day ride again, and this all happened and kept on going until October 20th. On a Saturday, we left out of there deciding that we would go about 25 miles further back

than we'd gone before and stay all night and hope that maybe something happened back further. Well, we were only about three and a half and four miles away from where we'd camped and we'd come around up the creek bed but come around this big downfall tree and that's when the creature was standing by the creek. Before you go into the famous footage that you had brought back,

I wanted to ask you, so you go down there if this is none of my business, say, none of your business, West, but I can't imagine the conversation you had with your lovely wife. You know, you say you're going down to California from Yakima because Roger, you know, I'm sure you're explaining to her that Roger found these casts. And did she look at you and just go, are you crazy? Well, she kind of did. But even when we first got married, I rode a lot in the mountains by myself.

No one wanted to ride in the rough country that I was riding in. And so I rode hundreds of miles on weekends, long weekends by myself because my wife wasn't a horseback person. And well, nobody else wanted to go with me either. They just said, hey, I'm not going to ride with that guy. He rides where the crow flies. And so I rode alone a lot, and I was out a lot. So she was kind of accustomed to me being, and I love being out in the woods, you know, and

being actually being by myself because I didn't have to answer to anybody and and they didn't want to go where I wanted to go and so I didn't I really didn't want people with me because I could survive out there all by myself perfectly comfortable and live off the land and do what I wanted to do when I wanted to do it and go where I wanted to go as long as I wasn't endangered my horses and I knew what they could do so in fact some guys go with me later on and said well yeah the story was told you do go where the crow flies anyway that's another story you know I mean well and I can't even imagine a little bit most people start going with me a little bit I didn't go quite as rough countries as I did before when I went alone

anyway yes my wife didn't really understand you know quite a bit younger than me and I figured, hey, that old man's about half crazy anyway because he's out there by himself in the woods all the time anyway. You know, you're telling your wife, hey, I'm heading down to Bluff Creek. You get down there. You spent all this money to get you guys down there. And then there's nothing. There's no tracks. I think I'd be devastated at that time.

I think I'd be like, what am I doing here? You know, I realize. Yeah, and I did. And I said, you know, I'm going to head back here. pretty soon because I got a job to go to or maybe have a job, you know, I mean, I left a job and if they're still working it because it was an open fall, a better fall and we'd expected what was good down there, so I assumed it was good up here, which it was, you know, I mean, it was good because, you know, I went back to work right after that

when Roger and Al wanted to travel with the film and I said, well, let's just stay here in Yakima. Well, I did go with them to California and they messed around though. Then I went with them to New York and I said, hey, I'm going to go back to work while I still got a job because you know, this is not my cup of tea. I'm not

used to traveling all over and Diatli was supposed to be paying for the expenses. We'll come to find out some of the places he never did pay for the rooms and stuff we were at. I understand. I don't I was told that he didn't. So

you know he was notorious for skipping out on paying for things that's what i understood but you know i mean that's a long time ago so i don't know why i never tried to prove any of it and they never came after me for the bill so i never bothered you guys are now coming around this bend and rogers actually ahead of you and you're on your horse and then you had a pack horse yes yes i was leading the pack horse. The moment Roger saw the creature, what did he say to you? I don't think he said anything to me. I

particular split second because he was having trouble with his horse. Of course, I was having some trouble with I just turned the pack horse. It was because he was jerking and pulling on me. And I wanted to handle

the horse I was setting on him because Roger was probably 20 feet in front of me. and he was having a hard time with his horse, and he was getting off and grabbing his camera on the saddlebag, you know. And I used to say, well, these little horse blew up. Well, then I had to quit saying that because somebody said, well, what do you mean blow up?

How many pieces was there, you know? So, you know, you have to really be careful how you say cowboy stuff and people don't understand it, you know. So I got to the ball where I said, well, Roger is having problems with his horse to hold him and control him. And as quick as he got off, then he started to cross the creek. Well, I was just there sitting on a horse trying to control my horse or was controlling my horse, watching him. And when he got up to relocate, then he said to me, Bob, can you cover me?

Because he was trying to get closer. He got up and ran at a kind of at an angle or the creature was going up through the opening there and he was trying to get a little closer. So that's when I rode across the creek and got off. But that's, I think, that's the only conversation that we really had until after it was almost all over with. When Roger said, hey Bob, cover me,

what was going through your mind and then what was going through your mind when he saw the creature? Well, I thought, God, they really do exist. They really do exist. When he said, cover me. Well, I knew that he was a little apprehensive,

you know, because we talked about it before. And of course, I didn't know what I was supposed to see. And here was this great huge muscle creature, you know. And so when I went across the creature, and got off the horse, I knew if it came back that I could not get a shot at it, sitting on the horse,

and it jumping around. So that's why I got off the horse and just stood there. Of course, I knew, you know, what he meant, be able to do something if it attacked him if it came back

because he was trying to get pretty close to it at that time. So he was kind of running around up in another way When he got up, he stabilized himself down on the log with his arms and elbows. And then when he hollered at that to me and started to move around, and that's when I rode across the creek kind of behind it, got down off the horse, you know, and it probably was at that time, oh, 200 feet from me, maybe a little bit more than that.

But it was close enough that I knew if it's turned around and come after me that I could get a good thing. shot. What kind of happened next? Did you guys just watch it like in the film you see it just kind of walk off? Did you guys just watch it walk off and then what was your guys this conversation like afterwards? Well no I did. I don't know what Roger was doing because he was over he was quite little away from me when he said that about I said well I'm going to follow it I'm you know or he said no no no no no no don't leave me there he said because later he told me he I thought maybe there was two more. Some were there close because of the tracks of three different sizes.

And so he said, let's catch my horse and get more film in the camera. Then we'll follow where it went. And that's what we did then. Was this the next day you guys went back and tracked it? No, no, that same time, right? That same time, that afternoon. There was no next day of anything except pouring down rain and trying to get out of there with the horses in the trailer.

That was a nightmare. I mean, that was a whole different story. Didn't think we've ever going to make it out of there. When you guys went back to track it, how far did you track it? Well, there was really, there was no tracks. It was just scuffs in the gravel. It was just gravel alongside the creek. It went right on and up alongside the creek.

And then we went up there probably a quarter of a mile or 400 yards or so. And there was a half of a wood-wet footprint on a rock, and it headed right straight up through the cliffs and the rocks, steep, steep. And I wanted to follow on up. I wanted to go on up through there. But Roger said, no, we got to get back because it was getting in the afternoon, later in the afternoon. And down there, you know, the sun goes down about,

and October 20th is about four or so. So every time we could get back down there and get the material to cast the tracks and take that film footage, you know, it was getting light. And the time we got back down to the truck, it was dark. So he wanted to get in to Willowcric and call.

He had also talked to some people in Canada about track dogs, if he ever could call and get them to come if you ever seen something and track it. Well, he called up there, and then he, I don't know who all he called, but anyway, he called different ones. And then we had to take the film into Wyrhika or Eureka, which I always get those two towns mixed up.

But anyway, to airmail it into his brother-in-law is what I understood he was going to do. So I just took him there, and I just set out in the truck, and took a nap or, you know, kind of fell asleep while he was inside. And then we drove back to our campground that night, full moon, brightest day. And then we talked a lot about what we both seen and, of course, and the smell and different things. Of course, Roger didn't see the same things I did exactly in. And then it started raining the next morning early. I hear it hitting on top of the camp.

us on top and I tried to wake Roger up and say it's going to rain. I need to get up there and cover them tracks because I'd picked up cardboard boxes from out of the Atleys' variety store to go cover the tracks until somebody could get there to look at them and the track dogs could get

down there to start tracking them. But anyway, it was raining so hard, the cardboard boxes were just soggy messes. So I knew they weren't going to do me any good to try and carry them up on the horse. So I just went up there and looked around

and there was dead trees with the bark still hanging on them and I started pulling bark off them dead trees and covering the tracks I'm glad I did at that time because I covered enough tracks that people witnessed them later on that went down and I

think John Green Renee and Bob Titnes I can't I don't remember who all went down because when we left the next morning It was a nightmare for me getting out of there with that truck and didn't know if I was going to make it or not. And just a lot of things went into that deal getting out of there.

It was really something. And then, of course, I just drove straight on. It took me a little day to get out of there, that 35 miles from where we camped into Willow Creek and get started on the highway to head north. So I drove all that day and all that night to get back to Yakima. And they kind of probably beat me about not wanting to be in there to see the film at the first showing the next day or the day after. Because I was still so tired and beat, I was still trying to get rested up from that. And then when I did go see it, I was not impressed at all with it. And so I kind of just said, oh, yeah, you know, you don't want to have much there.

So they right away quick started talking about traveling with it and trying to prove it was authentic. And I said, why are you doing that? So we went to Canada. I went with them up to BC Canada to a conference up there. And different ones got together there and talked. But anyway, it just went on and on and kind of wild and crazy from there on until finally, you know, I just decided, hey, I got to get back to work and make some money. and of course that was in November or December by then. And so I went back to work, you know,

and then it was a short period of time then that winter did hit here, and there was no more hot roofing until spring. And then I can't remember whether I went back to hot roofing in the spring or went to another job. I probably went to another job, you know, because I was one of them kind of guys. If I didn't have a check coming in, I was looking for another job quick, and I never had a problem getting a job.

The whole story after the film is fascinating to me, but I wanted to ask you a quick question. I wanted to ask you, what did the creature smell like? Well, I thought it had a musky, skunky smell, musky-like, but it also had that rancid skunk smell. And Roger said, no, no, I didn't smell like that to him. But, you know, Roger said different things. And he said, I don't know if you remember what he said, you know, if you ever even heard what he said. No, I've never heard.

He said it smelled like an old wet dog that had been rolling a cow shit. So he might have said cowmen or no, he didn't. He said cow shit. I appreciate you being on Bob. The only last thing I wanted to ask you about, gosh, I wish I had more time. with you. I know that you've had an encounter after that. You had an encounter in 2010. Can you real briefly talk about that encounter? Okay. The three of us setting by a campfire up there at a place called what we call the frog pond. Because they had all in places named it. We used to

camp out. And there was three of us sitting there at the campfire. It's about 9.30 at night. And I was getting ready to leave because I had to get back down. We were having a yard sale, that country horse yard sale. There was one guy that's sitting closest to the road, about eight feet from the road, with his German Shepherd dog. We all sat in there visiting. And the next guy over another short distance, four or five feet, was Colonel Kevin Jones.

And then another few feet was me sitting in the chair. We were all kind of looking around the campfire there. We had a great big campfire thing, five foot across with the rocks and everything. And we heard something walking across on the other side of the road, about probably 60 feet over into the trees, didn't think too much about it. And all at once it let out a yell, a holler that just would lift. you plumb up out of the chair. And I thought, oh, my God, what volume. And so then everything broke loose there again, too.

The guy with the dog, it scared him really bad. He ran for his rig. He said, I'm getting, he didn't say nothing at that time. But then Kevin Jones, Colonel Jones, ran to his tent to get his recorder. Well, the only thing I could think of was, you know, is tried to. to let out another hoop and see if we could get another one. Well, before I could even get out, I ran out into the road, and before I could even get ready to holler again,

it let out another yell. It was already quite a little ways away, probably three or four hundred feet. And anyway, of course, then I went ahead and let my little measly yell out, and then I decided that, hey, it's coming through, it came through here, I'm going to stay all night and maybe it'll come back. So I just put my tent up and I stayed there all night. We had nothing else happened that night. In the same area about five miles away and I was asleep in my rig and didn't hear any of this until it was so much commotion that I finally woke up and found out what happened.

I was about 200 feet from the campfire in my rig asleep, and I guess there was a young lady and her mother sitting by the campfire. One walked through the camp, and some of the guys heard it, they just thought it was somebody getting up to go to the bathroom. Well, the young lady, it walked right up behind them, about 20 feet behind them, and it was just standing there. When she turned around and saw it, she just went into screaming hysterics.

And that's when a little commotion woke me up, and I didn't know what was going on. They was getting her ready. They was taking her into the hospital. And that's what they told me. Now, I never saw anything, or there was no footprints or nothing there because the soil was packed down solid

from people walking, you know. But anyway, that's the close ones. that I would be in the last few years. Well, Bob, I know that you don't do interviews. I know I had you for a limited amount of time. I know you got horses for the sun goes down. I know it's getting to that point. But I wanted to thank you for, like I said,

call me this morning, I meant the world to me. Coming on means a world to me more than you'll probably ever know. And it's been an honor. Well, I hope I get to see you guys again. And take care now. I hope I'll help you all a little bit there. Oh, you help me out more than you know, and I want to thank you. Being across the country faster than the coronavirus and wagering week is your antidote.

I'm Tom Barton, and I'm a veteran sports analyst and respected sports handicapper who will help build ESPN's brand. I've been recognized and awarded by Pro Football Weekly and Gaming Today magazine as the honest handicapper. Let the other guys give you the same old boring sports talk with the same tired storylines. We'll give it to you straight here. every Friday on Wagering Week. Don't gamble with other podcasts. Let SportsGarten Network's Wagering Week help your bottom line.