Sasquatch Chronicles - SC EP:910 A Pissed Off Monkey With A Grudge

Episode Date: December 10, 2022

Lee writes "I'm reaching out because this past September my son and I had a run in with what we believe were multiple Sasquatch while kayaking the Lower Buffalo River, wilderness section. We were on day 2 of our trip and we were specifically there to fish for smallmouth bass. It was around 4pm when we went through a narrow section and around an obstruction and all hell broke loose. This thing was at the rivers edge when it bolted through the woods like a bulldozer. The crazy thing about it is that it sounded like a pissed off monkey as it ran tearing through the woods. We went a little over 2 River miles and made camp on a narrow gravel bar. While we were setting up camp we heard a tree knock across the River from us. We joked about it being Bigfoot and just kept on with setting up camp. After camp was established I broke out my weather radio to check our regional forecast for the next day due to a high percentage of rain in our area. After about 20 minutes of listening to several regional forecasts I cut the radio off. Right after that we heard a yell come off the ridge from us close to the tree knock location. Well from that point until 4am all hell broke loose. We experienced rocks being thrown off the bluff into the river, more tree knocks, the pissed off monkey sounds multiple times, deep chatter, a log being snapped into, and a freaky sound that was like something singing. We had to set up a lighted perimeter and we pulled a cot out of one of the tents and set it up by the fire. We set up a 2 hour fire watch shift where someone would be awake the entire time. When the log snapped just inside the tree line behind us it was around 3:30 am. We were both awake and we decided to break down camp to show that we had intentions of leaving. Everything ended at that point and we were in our kayaks at first light. As soon as we were getting into our kayaks the last rock came flying of the ridge clipping trees on the way down and hit the river. We were done and got off the river that day. The worst thing about it all was we were on a section of the river we've never been on so we weren't able to run it in the middle of the night. We were stuck between the river and the woods on a narrow gravel bar. We literally had no where to go. I truly believe if we would have done one thing wrong we wouldn't be here today. There was nothing friendly about that night and it seemed the pissed off monkey was extremely upset that we surprised him and held a grudge. After returning home I contacted a Ranger friend of mine that put me in contact with a Ranger stationed on the Buffalo River. That was an extremely interesting conversation. I want to let people know there is definitely something on that river and my whole purpose reaching out to the Ranger was for safety reasons. I didn't want to read about a family getting hurt on that section of the river and me not say anything."

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. What a whale would you go on? They were screaming at each other in gibberish.

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

Yes, I'm looking right here. Uh-uh. Hi, I'm James Wafel from Liverpool, UK, and I'm listening to Real Life Diabolical accounts on Sanskrit Chronicles. Welcome to the show, everyone. Thanks for being here tonight. Got a great show plan for you. I'm going to tell you, a couple years back,

I'm hanging out with Lus Stroud, and we're drinking some of that Canadian whiskey. Canadians make a fine whiskey, by the way. and Les is telling me about this bright idea he has. We're going to do surviving with Sasquatch Chronicles. And he goes through, tells me the whole, you know, the whole idea for the project. And, you know, I just kind of looked at him and I said, Les, you know, I don't want to do like a kind of a fake survival situation. You know, where we can actually leave.

I don't want to be in the woods in the fetal position crying, and you're standing over the top of me with a camera explaining to me how it's okay for me to drink my own pee. I'd rather be in a warm bed, you know what I mean? But I'll tell you one thing. If I was in a real survival situation, not another man on this planet I'd want. Not another person I'd want with me, but less drought.

And tonight I'll be speaking with Lee. And the first time I spoke to Lee, I thought to myself, I think this guy is either former military or his former law enforcement. They all, after a while of talking to so many of those guys, you kind of get a sense for who you're speaking with. And he was telling me about this terrifying encounter on the Buffalo River in Arkansas back in September with his son. And I remember sitting there as I was listening to Lee tell me about this.

I remember thinking, Lee's exactly the same. the guy I'd want with me in a situation like this. I can't think of anyone else I'd want in a situation where things are escalating and it seems like things are going to turn bad really, really quick. And Lee, you know, Lee told me he broke out his phone, started marking down times and writing down what was happening because he thought he was going to die. He thought, you know, at least he'll find his cell phone and there'll be an explanation for what happened to him and his son. I'll kind of let him go into it. If you've had an example, he's a 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 Lee to the show. Lee, thanks for coming on. Yeah, thanks, man. I appreciate it and I appreciate the opportunity. Yeah, and you and your son had a pretty terrifying night on the Buffalo River. This is up in Arkansas back in September. If you would, just start from the very beginning. What were you guys doing? And what happened? We used to go to the Buffalo River all the time and canoe it. So my son has gotten older, and I was wanting for him to go and experience, the buffalo, but we were going to fish for a small mouth specifically.

So we were going to put in at the, and do the lower buffalo. And we planned it for about a year and made sure we had everything locked down, made sure we had a float plan and, you know, all that good stuff. So on September the 8th, we headed to the Buffalo River and we put in at Rush for a three-day fishing trip. Now understand you can probably canoe the lower wilderness section in one day if you're just straight paddling. But we were going to be fishing and fly fishing. So we were going to be taking our time and just kind of moving with the current in some spots. In some spots we would have to paddling and do what we had to do to make sure we got to our camp location that we were looking at camping at.

You know, day one went off without a hitch. we got on the river. It's probably around 11 p.m. It's six-hour drive for us. And, you know, we were pumped and excited and ready to hit it. And we did. And, you know, we were fishing hard. And I think we only went like four river miles that afternoon.

So that kind of shows you, you know, that we were really taking our time doing this and just enjoying it. So I think what the problem is is we were camping in locations where people don't count usually. But the first night went off without a hitch. Everything was good to go, and we had two tents, a whole nine yards, but it was a second day, man. It was September of the night, the ninth. And we were going to try to camp around a big creek.

And that's kind of like, I think it's kind of like a halfway point maybe for that lower wilderness. And so we were approaching that section where Big Creek comes in and meets the buffalo. And it was a small shoot of water on the left kind of. And we put a fishing pose down because we had to paddle and maneuver a little bit. So we kind of paddled through it and there were some obstruction on the left that kind of blocked our view from the bank. And man, we were like 20 yards, maybe not in that far from where this thing was. And the only thing I can tell is, like I told you on the phone, sounded like a pissed off monkey.

And, man, it was like a chimpanzee on a bulldozer. That's about the best way I can explain it because it was making that pissed off monkey sound, you know, that hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo. And as it was tearing through the woods, So, you know, I looked over with my son. I'm like, what in the heck was that? And, you know, he's like, I sound like a pissed off monkey.

And I was like, well, that's exactly what it sounded like. And we kind of laughed about it. And then we started talking, you know, where we're at, we don't have bears. I've had a bear come through my camp before when I was at another location camping. But I've never heard one sound like that. And he was like, you know, I think maybe, you know, a bear might sound something like. that if it gets startled and I'm like yeah but I mean it's not going to be breaking down trees we're talking about you know Arkansas black bear so they're not like it's not like a grizzly

running through the woods but we just kind of just shoved it back in the back of our mind and kept on paddling and talking and it was getting to a point where we were trying to find a location of camp now the first night that we camped we burned up you know we set up camp around five the sun would beaming on us. We had no shade. And we were looking for a spot specifically that had shade. That was a major objection, you know, to find that location. So we probably went about, I don't know, it's 2.7, I think, river miles is how far we went

until we found a spot. It was on the river left. And it was like a real narrow gravel bar. It wasn't on a bend. A lot of people camp on the bins, and that's good, but you have no shade on the bins. Because the gravel goes out for a long ways. So we had like a 20-yard gravel bed with overhanging trees. And, you know, so we had good shades.

So we're like, hey, man, let's just pull in right here. The river's been dropping the entire time we're there. We had no rain coming in anywhere that day or that night. So we were good on the river. You know, it wasn't going to be rising on us. So we camped it right there on that river left on that gravel bar. So we pull up on the gravel bar and we just started unloading the kayak and talking. And I can't remember if we were actually sitting up.

I think we were unloading. And that's when it was like a tree knock. I mean, it was like, really, it sounded like somebody. he hit a tree with a Louisville slugger baseball band. I mean, it was that loud, crisp crack. And I kind of looked at my son. We walked up to the river, and we were looking up on the ridge, and it was up to the ridge and to the left,

about like a 45-degree angle from where we were. And I went like, man, was that a tree knock? He was like, no, it's got to be something else. So, you know, that's what it sounded like. And, you know, we kind of joked around, like, I know what it would knock. And we walked to the river, and we were looking up that way. way and we just kind of blew it off, you know, and went on about our business and sitting up

town. Forgive me for interrupting, because I know the night gets much worse than this, but when you guys first heard that monkey, that pissed off monkey sound, was it knocking over trees? It wasn't actually pushing them over, but, you know, if it had something in its way, It wasn't stopping, man. It was either bouncing off of them and pushing them over. It was, you could see everything moving on its path. And it was, I mean, from where it started, it's a thousand wonders we didn't see it.

Because when we came around that section and right there where it was, we startled it. I mean, I think, you know, we came up on it. We startled it. It got pissed off and it was running through the woods. But, yeah, it was like pushing stuff over. It wasn't like uprooting trees or nothing like that. You know, we didn't see tree tops falling or nothing. Yeah, and one other question I wanted to ask you.

So you hear this pissed off monkey. You guys are floating down the river and you eventually decide to set up camp. How far back was that monkey sound that you guys were hearing before you actually set up camp? Yeah, it wasn't that far. You know, it wasn't that far. And again, you know, we didn't know really, I mean, what chimpanzee's going to be run around in the woods because to me that's what it sounded like.

So it just, you know, we just couldn't really wrap our mind around the possibility of it being something that we pissed off that's going to follow us to where we camped. It was, you know, we've all seen weird stuff in the woods. and we just kind of keep on rocking with it, you know, until something drastic happens. And then, you know, then the pucker factor gets like a real eye. Yeah, I'm with you, man. I'm definitely with you, Lee. So you guys find this little tiny sandbar.

You guys set up camp. And what happens next? So whenever we got everything set up, we decided to jump into the river and knock the grime off. After we did that, we got changed. changed and, you know, some fresh clothes for the night. And we grabbed our, my son was using a baitcaster, and I grabbed my fly rod. And we were just kind of walking right in front of the campsite, just kind of fishing for just a little bit. We did that, not long, maybe 10 minutes, just to see if we could catch anything.

Then we put that stuff up. And then we, you know, we started gathering firewood and, you know, really getting the camp locked in. And we were good. Everything was good. We sat around and talked. We talked about the Pissed Off Monkey, talked about the woodnock. But when it got real,

was around the 8 p.m. mark. That's when things went just nuts. So at, it was around 8, I got up and went in my tent and got my weather radio. We had rain coming in that next day. I think it was on the Saturday. Yeah, I think. So we had rain coming in that next day from forecast that we've been watching prior to getting there.

So I wanted to make sure that we weren't going to get a large amount. I didn't want the river to rush up on us. I wanted to make sure that we were good to go tomorrow on our float plan. So I broke it out, and we were just sitting around. And, of course, the sun's gone down. It's gotten dark and we had a fire going. And I had the radio with the radio on, and it was on the NOAA, you know, that guy that speaks monotone.

So we listened to our region, our regional forecast, and then I listened to a couple of other regional forecasts to make sure that there wasn't nothing that we didn't know about coming in. So probably like 15, 20 minutes on that. And man, it was like as soon as I cut that off, as soon as I cut the radio off, it was a yell that came off that ridge from the same location where the Trinock was. And, you know, it was kind of like I told you, it was deep and it was very vocal and it sounded pissed. But it wasn't that I felt the vibration in my chest or none of that.

And it was just a, whoa, just a scream at us. We, of course, immediately jump up. We walk on the other side of the fire because the fire is between us and the river where we could see. So we walk up and we're shining lights in that area. And, you know, we just, we couldn't say anything. And we sat there for a little while and talked about it and couldn't really, you know, I mean, of course we thought maybe there's somebody up there phoning with us. I mean, maybe, you know, just maybe somebody.

And then we're like, no, there's no way because that's, I mean, that's a ridge. We're in the wilderness. That's a ridge that nobody is going to be on in the middle of the night. because, I mean, you know, you make one false move out there and you're done. On top of that, there are cave systems all up and down that section of the river. I didn't realize that until I actually looked at one of the pamphlets whenever we got back about the cave systems that were in that area. So it doesn't make any sense to me that somebody would be up there, you know, just there's no way. No way somebody could be up there without any light walking around.

But again, you know, we've had a tree knock. We've had a yell. We've got the pissed off monkey. You know, I'm really not starting to feel good about this. And I told my son, I was like, well, you know, let's just see what else happened. Let's just go back to the fire and we'll sit down and we'll see what happened. So we walk back to the fire. I sat down.

He's still standing up and we're talking about it. And then the damnedest thing that I've ever heard was, it was singing. It was a melody. Now, we couldn't tell, there were no words in it that we could understand, but it was like a melody. That it was, something was making a melody like it was singing from behind us. Now, it was like 50 yards, 75 yards in the tree line right in front of us, up the ridge. And my son, which I'm an older guy, you know, but my son heard it better than I did. I could tell it was a melody, but it really freaked him out.

And I asked him, you know, I'm like, what was that? He's like, you know, I don't even want to talk about it. I'm like, no, I mean, what, it sounded like a melody. He's like, Dad, that sounded like a woman singing. There's no woman out here in the middle of Appalachian Mountain singing, you know, at 8 o'clock at night. That just doesn't even make any sense. The river bend is not even in that direction. So there's nobody else, you know, it's not like it was on the side of the river or anything like this.

This was up a ridge immediately, you know, to our ridge. So at that point, we got a little bit concerned because I didn't know what was going on. I couldn't rationalize anything. It just wasn't making any sense. So at that point, we started getting, I mean, I hate to say it like this, but we started sitting up a defensive type position. So after that, we didn't have anything else that we could do because, look, we're on the river. It's dark now.

We're on a river we've never been on. There's no way that we could safely get in two kayaks and run a river at night that we don't, I mean, we literally don't know what's around the bend. we had the water was right there at us with the ridge and then behind us we had a tree line and another ridge going up now we didn't have a field of view along the river bank we did that and it was a full moon night you know I mean it was not a cloud in sky pretty much it was it was a good full moon night but we went into straight up defensive mode. We armed ourselves. I ended up pulling out every LED light that we had. I brought extra just in case something got wet, something got ruined. It was a little pop-up LEDs.

So I had like three of those, and I had a canopy LED light section, brought that, and my son had an LED light. So we literally set up an LED perimeter around our campsite. Now, it was not a wide perimeter. It was basically right on top of us type perimeter. I figured the closer we could get the lights, the less possibility we could have something try to run through. Maybe the lights would deter. They couldn't be able to see us that good. And the bad side about that is, you know,

we may not be able to see them that good either. But anyway, so that's what we did. I ended up getting a couple of Kim lights and tying them to our ride and reels that we had on the kayaks in the ride holders. That way, if something really bad happened and we did actually get on the water, we could at least track one another with the LED light, I mean with Kim lights on the kayak.

Because the plan was it saw really bad happen. We were either going to try to handle it there or we were going to try to get, you know, on the water and get out. but you know later on that I don't think either one of those options would have been available to be honest with you so that that's that's what happened there then we kind of got calmed down and then about nine it was between nine and nine 30 I'm not sure in the exact timeframe of this but a but a rock came flying off the ridge and it was like the size of a canada based on the when it hit the water it was a it was a good rock and it came from the same

location that the yell and the woodnought came from so it come flying off of that section same location hit the water and so we jumped up walked up to the river again you know with flashlights looking trying to see if we could see anything we did this all night we never saw anything and again you know wasn't nothing there so We really started discussing our options on what we needed to do. And, you know, it's like I said, you know, we were pretty much trapped in that location. We couldn't leave. We didn't have nothing really with a good field of view except from our left and right.

Our rear was at the wood line, and you couldn't see anything in that. So we just decided that the best thing to do was to just, you know, hunker down and just straight up defensive month. you know, if we're going to keep our pistols with us the whole time, we're going to keep a flashlight with us the whole time. We had to get some more firewood because we knew if this kept on, it was going to be a long night. So, I mean, I hate to say this, but my son gathered firewood while I ran security for him with flashlight and pistol. I know it sounds crazy, but that's what happened. And, you know, here I am. I've got my son off in the middle of this place that I've enjoyed all my life,

been talking it up, and now I've got him out here, and all hell's breaking loose. So I'm responsible for what happened. You know, if it goes south, it's going to be on me. And so it was stress. It was a very, very stressful event. even at the early stages of it. So we got some more firewood and we got that all done. And we started talking about sleeping arrangements.

I told them straight up on like, look, we're not sleeping by ourselves in our separate tents. That's not going to happen. We're going to pull a tent out. I mean, pull a cot out. We're going to put it beside the fire in between the fire and one of the LED lights. And we're going to run two-hour fire watches. So we're going to have one person.

up for two hours regardless of what happens. And the other person's got to try to get some sleep because we don't know what's going to happen. We don't know what the night's going to entail. We don't know, you know, we don't know anything. So we got to get our rest. You know, the first day, we left out like three something in the morning driving up there.

You know, we did we fish? And then, you know, we stayed up talking all night. We had little no sleep to this point. We were really just dead dog tired. So at 10.30, I told my son to go ahead and rack out and try to sleep. And I'm just going to sit and just watch over everything. And that's what we did. So about 1045, I heard a tree knock.

Now, it was close to the other tree knock, but it was more down the ridge. I sent you a photograph of where we count. I'm not sure if you had a chance to look at it, but directly across the river from us was a ridge, and then to the north, that ridge ran down and met with the river. It was like a finger coming down, and it actually meets with the river. Well, when I heard the tree knock, immediately after that, there goes that piss off monkey running that ridge.

line traveling towards the water just north of us. In other words, he's heading in a direction where he can get down to the river and actually cross the river and come up either on our flank or to our rear.

And I didn't like that, man. I'm going to be honest with it scared the hell out of me. Because now, you know, here comes this pissed off monkey. And to me, it sounded exactly like what we heard at the first initial contact. And, you know, at that point, this is the second time we've heard it now.

Now in my mind, I know, okay, that's what we ran into. It followed us over here. It has crossed the river from us, from where we're at, from where it was. It actually crossed over the river, got on the ridge across from us, I guess to have a spot where they can watch. I mean, that's the only thing I could think of. Because you, I mean, if you're up there on that huge ridge, you're looking right at our camp and see everything. We can't see nothing, but, you know, they can see whatever they want to see.

But now here's this pissed off monkey that's got a grudge. And because I guess we startled it maybe. We scared it. We kind of snuck up on it. He didn't like it. and in my mind, I'm thinking, this dude's coming for blood. I mean, he's pissed and he's not liking none of it. So, you know, it was a bad place to be at the time.

So I just, you know, I kept a watch. I'd get up, make sure the fire was going, you know, I did all I could do that try to keep safe, you know. Now, would these things attack us? I don't know. Did they sound like that they would? Oh, you dang right. You know, that guy was pissed.

I've been in bars before in my younger days. You know, you can look at a dude, and we know he's about to break bad just by his body language and by his tone and everything else. So this, there was no doubt in my mind. If I was standing toe to toe with whatever that was, that it would probably try to tear my head off. what did you think was going on at this point Lee? Well, at this point, I didn't really know. I knew that it was something up there messing with us. I knew that there was something that was singing behind us.

But, you know, it's kind of like it's all right there, you know, it's just one thing. you know, because I'm associating, okay, the tree knock and the rock throwing and now a pissed off monkey. It's got to be the same dude. You know, he's up there. He's pissed off. You know, of course, at this point, you know, I'm thinking, that's got to be a Sasquatch.

It's got to be something of that nature. Because what else is going to run around in the woods and sound like a pissed off monkey? And, you know, it sounds crazy saying that. But that's the only thing that I can call it because that to me. is what it was because that's what it sounded like. If it was a big cat roaring, I would say mountain lion.

If it was a bear, you know, doing his thing, I'd say bear, but, you know, that was just pissed off monkey, you know,

and I was concerned. I was really concerned, but it's going to get worse. You know, it's going to get, it's going to get to a point where, where I am like, you know,

I'm preparing. for something bad to happen. But it wasn't at this point when I hit that feeling. Right now I'm thinking I still got this. I'm still in control. You know, I've got everything.

You know, we're secured. We're good. He's sleeping. It's getting some rest. And we're just going to try to make it through the night. Now, that was just my idea. You know, okay, let's make it to the next firewatch. And let's make it to the next.

So I was looking at small. increments for victory instead of looking for the total night if that makes any sense. Yeah, it makes a lot of sense and I admire your tenacity to look at the situation that way. So what kind of happens next? So it was around 10.50. And I've got these time because later on in the night, I actually went back and did note. But it was just like straight across the river from where I was sitting, from where the camp was. And then that's when I heard the mumbling and the chatter and whatever these things are talking back and forth.

I mean, they were actually carrying on a conversation. And the chatter was the first time I heard it, I went, that's cool. You know, my mind's going, that's cool, that's all that is, that's just, you know, a coon chatter. But when it went deep and the actual vocalization of it started happening and you could tell that two things are carrying on the conversation, that's when, that's when I, that's when I actually got very concerned because now I know it's not just one. you know, I've got two of these things over there talking. The last time I heard the pissed off monkey, he was headed to the river. So now I possibly have two of these things across the river from me,

and I've got one coming up on my flank or to my rear. So in my mind, now I'm thinking, we're putting this together. These two cats are over there discussing exactly what they want to do while little pissed off monkey is working his way up to our flanker to our rear. It was at that point where my stomach turned, hair went up, I went into the fight or flight mode, actually got a little dizzy from it all, and I got really, really afraid that something bad was going to happen. And I think it was just the fact of it's not just one. I've got one possibly across the river on our side, and now I've got these two directly across from us at the very top of the ridge.

So, yeah, so I got actually afraid. You know, I started thinking about last stand location. This was going to go over bad. It was at that point where I went in my tent and I got every bit of the ammunition I had. I put it close to me and put some in my pocket. I picked up my cold steel, a hawk set it in my left hand. So I'm sitting there like an idiot with a hawk in my left hand and my pistol in my right hand and trying to shove as much ammo in my pocket.

You know, this is going to be bad because they're going to be coming in close range and we're just going to have to fight to the end. That's the only thing I can think of. I've never dealt with anything like this, not to this degree. And, you know, so my survival instinct was to fight. That's what caused me to go there. So at that point, I actually picked up my phone, and I started putting notes in my phone. And that's where all these times are coming from, because I'm putting all that as it's fresh in my memory.

I'm plugging all this in, what's going on, where it's going on at. You know, the whole nine yards, I'm just plugging it all into my phone. And I know this sounds crazy, but I knew if something happened to us, my cell phone would probably be found on the river's bank at the camp. And at least somebody would be able to look on there and see that something happened that was not normal that night. And that was a, you know, that was a dude, man, you know, I mean, you've got a child, right? I mean, that's crazy that you got your child there, and you're actually getting to a point where you're thinking, well, you know, I say child. I mean, he's 22, but, you know, you're sitting there. You're responsible for him.

And, you know, of course, look, I've been around tactics. I've been in military. I've been in upper echelons of police operations and been an operator. I understand tactics. That's one thing I understand. And what I saw right there was a flank of maneuver with two of them sitting across trying to figure out what they're going to do when he gets over here and sit up. In my mind, that's what, that's my mind set up, I guess.

So in my mind, I'm thinking, tactically, this is what they're doing. I couldn't see it any other way. So after I did the notes and got that all caught up, I actually did a video of the campsite. I sent that to you also. But just to show where our tents were located, where my son was located, where the cop was located, where the lights were located, where the kayaks were located. You know, so that's where I was. And you got to understand, you know, there's no cell phone service there.

There's none. I had zero cell phone service. I had one battery pack. My phone was dead from me. day taking pictures of fish and stupid pictures of, you know, whatever and videos and everything else I did. So, you know, I had my phone plugged in to my battery pack charging it. I did try to capture a couple of times on video, just cutting video on and off.

But, you know, it's one of those things you hear it and it's done. So, okay, am I going to run my video on my phone or the recorder on my phone for 30 minutes and burn the battery that I may need if we have to get on the kayaks if something happens, if we have to start trekking across this wilderness section, you know, you're running through all these things. So I made a point to just put the cell phone down. You know, the only thing I wanted to do was do the notes

and just document everything. That way, I didn't want to sit there and burn up my battery because I didn't know at this point. And this is, you know, this is, you know, I mean, it's pretty early in the night. I've still got a half a night together. So I didn't know what was going to happen, you know. So after that, I guess it was about 1145, I heard the talking, the chattering, whatever you want to call it.

But it was, man, it was deep and it was loud. And it was all the way down to where, remember why I told you the pissed off Monday? monkey, did the tree knock a little further down the ridge? Well, this deep chatter was further down the ridge where the pissed off monkey was going. So in my mind, I'm thinking, well, what is he doing? You know, why is he going down there? You know, now is he coming over here? You know, so I'm trying to figure out exactly what, you know, he was right in front of him,

but now he's all the way over here to the left. And when I mean deep chatter, I mean like, It was just deep. So he finally shut up. It didn't take him long. You know, that lasted maybe, I don't know, maybe 10 seconds, and he was done. At 12.30, I woke my son up. It was his turn to watch.

And so I woke him up, told him everything that happened. You know, of course, he's like, well, that's just freaking wonderful. He was out. He slept through every bit of it. And so I tried to get some rest. And he set up. Now, he woke me up at 2.45 in the morning. Now, he told me that he heard the pissed off monkey still on the river, but it was like straight

across the river from us. And it was up, but it wasn't all the way up on the ridge. But it was straight across from us. He heard them just right there. just raise him hell, kind of like he did on our first encounter. He said, and immediately after that happened, a rock came flying off and hit in the middle of the river. And it happened all at one time, and then nothing else happened.

He was good, you know, for the rest of his watch. So he filled me in. He racked out, tried to get some sleep. And it was about 317, and I'm saying that precisely. but it was at 317 the pissed off monkey sound happened on me and it was immediately across the river

it wasn't from the very top of the ridge but it was down but this time he's like he's tearing stuff up he's really really getting agitated and I'm thinking you know what what happened to even cause that I mean nothing has changed we're swapping out I don't know if it was me

personally because I was actually the closest one to him, I guess, at the time of the initial contact. I was the first one through the sheet, the first one right there close to him, maybe. I don't know if it was just me or not, but he was, man, he was, he scared the hell out of me right then. He started just going off and he threw a rock, rock hit right in the middle of the river, right in front of our tent. I mean, our camp area. All right. So at 326, that's when I heard the real deep chatter, but it wasn't loud.

And I know this sounds kind of stupid, but it was kind of like it was trying not to speak as loud. It was kind of muffled sounding. But it was the deepest of all the chatters that I heard that night. But the bad thing about it, it was immediately across the river from us. It had came down the ridge. Now, I've got this thing next to the river's edge immediately across the river from me. We never saw, the only thing we saw with the rocks, never saw anything, but this, and we're shining lights. I mean, we've got, we've got some pretty good flashlight so we're, we're

kicking out, you know, some good power. And couldn't see him. I could hear them talking, but that's, it's real thick. You've got rocks, you've got a rock ledge, and you've got all this thick stuff. So it wasn't really surprising that I couldn't see it. In my mind, I'm thinking, you know, it's not surprising because it's so thick. I just can't see it. But he's, you know, he's down the river, he's down closer to the river on us.

And in my mind, I'm like, okay, something's about to kick off. And I actually think I even stood up and kind of went into like a 360 mode whenever I stood up. So, yeah, that scared me to death. He's working his way down. He's getting closer to me. Now, that's at 326. At 332, at 332, immediately behind. our tents just like 20 yards into the woods, a log snapped.

And I don't mean like a twig or, you know, something the size of your leg. I mean, actually, a log. It was a log that you could hear the cracking noise as it was putting stress on it, and then it just snapped. That's when we, you know, something, I think if it was going to happen, going to happen right then. I got one that's moved closer to the river's edge on the river. What good would have been done?

You know, what good could we have done before you try to get in the kayaks? What was he going to do at that point? You know, now I've got one on my side of the river that just broke a log into 20 yards behind our camp. So I ran over there and grabbed my son. We jumped up. Of course, we were armed. And we backed up to the fire with our pistols up in that general direction.

And we just sat there for a second and listened. And he slept through the log break, man. So, you know, I had to fill him in on what was going on. To his defense, he took some type of sleep of medication right before he, before everything kicked off because he's like, well, you know, that's great, dad. I just took my sleeping medication. And now everything's kicking off. And this is not going to be good.

But yeah, so he slept through it, so I had to fill him in real quick. And, you know, and I scared him death because when he opened his eyes, I'm standing there in a defensive posture with my pistol up and a flashlight up and telling him to arm himself. And so we kind of backed up. And it was at that point, I think we did the best move that we could possibly do. I told him, okay, so it's obvious they're wanting us off this river. They're wanting us away from here. So we're going to pack up right now, and we're going to show them that we have intent on leaving.

And that's what we did. Even with the log snapped and all that, man, we started jerking down tents. That thing could have been 30 yards in the woods from us. But I guess my thinking was if he really wanted to come through here and knock our heads off, he would have already done it. He had ample time with him asleep and me awake to do what he wanted to do. do, but you still, it's just the unknown, are they trying to push us to the river where the one across the river can come in and get us? I don't know. But we broke camp and we packed up everything but our chairs and our weapons and ammunition and water bottles.

We got everything packed in the kayaks and it got all quiet. It got all quiet And I was like This is nuts And we sat down And immediately when we sat down My son looked at me And he went

Did you hear that? I said, Here what? And before he could say anything, I heard a freaking laugh. Now, it wasn't like a ha ha ha ha ha laugh But it was a

hooh-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h. It had that laugh to it. And I said, what was that? And my son's like, that was a dang laugh. And I was like, what did you hear? And he said, there was a whistle that came from over here. And he pointed to the left. And then he pointed to the right.

And he said, the laugh came from over there. He said, so that one whistled. And now that one's laughing at us. Explan that one to me. Yeah, I've heard that before. I interviewed a guy one time off the air. and he was a hunter, and these things were just tormenting this guy. And he ended up basically in the fetal position crying.

And he said one of them started laughing at him. And, you know, if you listen to the Sierra sounds, I'm convinced that that young one, I hear laughter in those tapes. And if you really go back and listen to it, you'll hear where a young one sounds like it's laughing at Ron as he's trying to mimic him. You know, and the sing-song that you describe, I've done several shows on that. Rye witnesses will say it sounded like a female singing. It was like a sing-song.

Couldn't make out any words, but I definitely heard singing. You know, you guys are in this situation, and I get why you're not leaving. I mean, it's the middle of the night. What are you going to do? Get in your kayak and go down the river? I mean, your odds aren't great in that situation. at night going down a river, especially a river really haven't been down in a long time. But you guys hear this laughing, and what do you guys end up doing?

That really freaked me out because in my mind, I'm thinking, you know, they just got their rocks off on us, and we're doing exactly what they want us to do. but the laugh it just didn't make any sense and I told my son I'm like nobody absolutely nobody is going believe this

this is one of those that it's like I tell them all life you know if my son would not have been there I would tell you right now this was a nightmare I had a dream

it doesn't even seem real and that's weird I've been through a lot of crazy crap and is reality, but this right here, this night by itself was, it was just crazy, man. How do you tell that story? You know?

And here's the crazy thing. So that's 4 o'clock, and we're just sitting there throwing wood on this fire, you know, thinking, let's just get the daytime. So we're sitting there really not talking. We're just listening. I look over there and he's dozed off in the chair again. and the coons come out. Look, that river is notorious about coons. They will come still everything that you have, you know.

But this whole time, we have seen no cones, you know, on this night. Absolutely none. And then all of a sudden, you know, I'm looking around and I'm shining my flashlight, of course, and I've seen these coons. You know, they're coming out, and I'm seeing them for the first time at, you know, 4.30, 5 o'clock in the morning. I'm like, it's kind of crazy. That's the first time of wildlife that we've seen since we got there.

So we sat around, we waited, tunes went on about their business, they disappeared. And when daylight hit, we started getting everything ready. I'm going to be honest with you, we were both smoked. So I was really wanting to be on the water, you know, at the first chance that we could see daylight. But I was just so tired. and he was resting and I knew somebody was going to have to drive because we're coming off the river. We're coming off the Buffalo River. So I know that we've got a 12 mile paddle from our location where we were at.

And I knew that some of those locations were probably going to have to get out and pull the kayaks because the water was low. It was it was floatable, but it was low water. We got the kayak. and push them in the water. As soon as we pushed them in the water, we kind of stood up and we're trying to get everything ready to get on them. And then you can hear this rock clipping trees coming off the ridge. And we're looking up and we're seeing this rock coming,

hitting the trees coming off the ridge, and it hits the water. And it was like them saying, get your ass out of here right now. So that's what we did. So we jumped in our kayaks. I looked up at the ridge, told them we were leaving. I've had enough. I'm ready to go. And then we left out.

But yeah, so we have one rock come off that ridge. So they were still there. They were still up on top, or at least one of them was. It's a terrifying night, Lee. I mean, you aren't even really seeing the creatures at this point. There's no doubt in my mind you had to run in with more than one of these things. And the behavior I've heard many times. And, you know, they're sitting there just torrenting.

it's just tormenting you guys. And I know that you don't know and I don't know, but I always like to ask the guest, kind of what is your impression? Why do you think that they didn't kill you? I don't know. You know, we had pistols. But, I mean, what's that going to do with something that that's like that? I don't know.

You know, I don't know. In my mind and in my gut, I knew that we were in. bad situation. They wanted us gone. They didn't like us stopping there. We stopped there. They didn't want us nowhere in that area. And the whole time, I think they were trying to push us out.

But maybe they were waiting for us to see what we were going to do. You know, what would have happened when the log snap and I stood up and I fired blindly, you know, two or three rounds immediately into that area? what would happen then? You know, what if? And, you know, it's always the what if is the things that make you think. But I'm going to tell you something from a tactical mindset. Man, these guys were spot on.

They were spot on on on their movement and how they were doing things. And they had pinched us into a position where we literally had nowhere to go. there wasn't no running. There wasn't no tracking through the wilderness trying to get out of there. There was no getting in the kayaks getting out there. We were pinched in. And, you know, and the thing about it is that's the ones that we knew where they were at that were making a noise is, okay, we're the other ones at that were there that weren't making any noises. You know, were they on our left and right flank?

Yeah, they move around like special forces. I would say they move around better than special forces the way they're, the way they're, encircle people and pinch them in to where they have nowhere to go. You hear it time and time again. The weird part is they don't really, most of the time they don't end up killing anyone. And you're rightly, it might have been, you know, it's kind of a Mexican standoff. It's who's going to make the first mistake. And you didn't, you didn't bite on the provoking that was going on in this situation.

How did this affect you after having this encounter or did it? Well, you know, I live at the edge of a national forest. So where I hunt at, I used to hunt with 308. I went to a 3030 of my childhood rifle. And now I carry an AR-10. So, yeah, it's changed me. You know, I haven't hunted, man, I haven't hunted in like, I don't know, four, four years maybe. You know, my dad, I remember him, he just kind of fell out of it.

And I'm like, what's wrong with you? You know, I don't, aren't you hunt? I think the older you get, some people just kind of fall out of it. So I had to kind of fall out with it. I enjoyed watching my son shoot a deer more than me, shoot a deer. And then he got older and, you know, college and all that stuff. he's doing his own thing now. But this year I went back in the woods, man. So, you know, I'm sitting out there. I'm making myself sit out there at a night time, you know, and I'm kind of

rocking and rolling with that. But, yeah, I hear you. And I'm glad to hear that you're getting back out there. A lot of times when people are in these situations, they don't go out in the forest anymore. So, you know, I admire the fact that you you're willing to go back out there. And I know you don't hunt, but it's not like you're not going to step foot in the woods again. You know, I ask everyone on the show, and there's no wrong answer because no one knows. But what do you think, Sasquatch is, Lee? What's kind of your opinion?

Man, you know, I don't know. You know, for, and I've looked into this, you know, just you can't help not look into it. It's all over the place now. If you would have asked me on September the 7th or 8th, what I thought, I would have told you straight up 100% Nephlam. You know, I'm in the South. I'm a Christian. You know, that's the only sense that I could make out of it is, you know, you got to buy a Bible for everything. So that was the only sense.

It says in there that Didn't get all of them with the flood So what happens to the other ones? You know? And just for their their buildup and stuff That's what I would have told you But after this man

I don't know I know they're flesh and blood I think they're flesh and blood The only thing I can tell you Is that it sounded like a pissed off chimpanzee in the woods. So I'm not going to say it's a primate.

I'm not going to say anything about it because they actually carried on a conversation. And I can't make sense out of that. So I'm still on the Nifflam side because to me it's a possibility that the communication and the mind that they have to actually do what they do, it could be part of that. and then, you know, part of the hate. But I don't know. I really don't know.

I'm kind of, I'm lost right now because I thought I had it understood, but, man, I don't have a clue, bro. Yeah, I think like most people, you kind of go in your head, you know, you have an idea of what it could be. And, you know, I thought Nephilim, too, for the longest time. I think the Nephilim, though, were more of gods and kings than, you know, you have an idea of. than they were running through the forest and acting more like animals like these things. But I think a lot of times when people say the Nephlam, what they mean is, and I could be wrong with what you're saying, but a lot of times people use the term Nephilim for an

abomination, you know, some sort of weird hybrid running around out there. And a lot of the ancient writings, I mean, outside of the Bible, you go to a lot of these ancient writings, and they talk about these weird, they don't use. is the term abomination, obviously, that's more of a biblical term, but it sounds like hybrids running around, you know, and it's weird that we're seeing them, seeing them today. You know, I'm not saying that's what these things are, but people see a lot of weird stuff out there. And it's a terrifying night that you guys went through. And I admire the way you handled it because, I mean, you handled it like a general, man. I mean, most people would have freaked out at that point,

especially when they're cornered and they have nowhere to go. I think some people might have made the mistake of getting in the kayak and just trying the river, trying to play the odds, trying to get down the river at night. And like I said, man, it's an amazing account, and I really appreciate you taking the time to come on and share it with us. Yeah, look, I had to actually make the drink before I sat down and told you this one because it's like I told you on the phone.

I've told one other person besides my wife about this because, well, I take that back. I told the Ranger about it too. But, I mean, to just sit down and talk to someone about this is just crazy. It was a nightmare. It really was. But I appreciate it, man. Yeah, it definitely sounded like a nightmare. Thanks again, Lee.

And that's it for tonight, everyone. Remember, if you've had the 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. Happy holidays, everyone. You better watch out. You better not cry.

Better not pout. I'm telling you why. Santa Claus is coming. Town is making a list. Checking it twice. find out who's naughty and nice Santa Claus is coming to town He sees you when you're sleeping He knows when you're awake

He knows if you've been bad or good So be good for goodness sake Oh you better watch out Better not cry, better not pout I'm telling you why Santa Claus is coming to time He knows when you're awake He knows if you've been bad or good

So be good be good for good You better watch out You better not cry You better not pow I'm telling you what Santa Claus is coming to town Yes he's on his way He's got toys all over the sleeve

Santa is coming to town