Sasquatch Chronicles - SC EP:987 Who Would Be Dressed In A Gorilla Suit?

Episode Date: September 10, 2023

Chad writes "In 2003, a friend, my 12 yr old son and I seen a Sasquatch at Fish lake, Beaver Swamp area. It was during the month of July, during Graffiti weekend. The whole point of this trip was to avoid the noise and people of the graffiti cruse. I'm a disabled vet and don't much care for crowds of people anyway. This Fish lake is east of Canyonville, OR. We camped at the trailhead and decided to pack for a day trip the following day. We were both armed, my friend had a pistol and I packed a rifle amongst other equipment. Beaver swamp trail is ridiculously steep, going in 30 min, coming out easily an hour and a half all up hill. As we descended the trail it was a warm sunny day, we got to the bottom of the trail and preceded along the lakes edge we were met by a family on their way out. We made some small talk about the weather and fishing success. I noticed they had two big Rottweiler dogs both on a leash. They had a few kids also and between the dogs and the kids it was a very noisy exit. I believe the families exit covered our entrance. After we talked with the family we proceeded along the same trail and came to our spot at the north end of the lake and sat down in some tall grass in a bare spot to start fishing. After some time, the fishing was spotty, we had to chase away some ducks being bothersome. Everything seemed to get real quiet no nothing. My son was standing in the water in the tall grass and he related that someone had walked out of forest as was standing in the tree line wearing fur. My friend and I both stopped what we were doing to take a look as it was the month of July, very hot out, what would someone be doing in a very remote are dressed in a gorilla suit. As we layer our eyes on this individual we got a strange feeling, we all froze in place and were very confused. The Sasquatch stood there looking around as if trying to spot the previous people and those two dogs. Once the it figured the coast was clear it proceeded to the waters edge. It walked up right with big strides Ann's you could clearly see daylight between its legs as it moved. It probably was twenty five feet from the waters edge and it seemed like the number of strides was greatly reduced to get to it destination. We were about 50 to 75 feet away and still concealed in the tall grass. I had a scope on my rifle and my son urged me lay my sights on the figure to get a better look, I refused to do that, my military experience had taught me not to point a weapon at someone unless your ready to use it. I told I would not scope out what it was, still in disbelief and confused. The figure was at the waters edge, you could see it turn it conical head, looking around on guard. It then dropped to its knees and put its arms in a posture like doing a push up, leaning down to the water and drinking. It did this about 4 times, it then stood back up again it looked around and walked back into the forest and disappeared with in seconds. After that we sat and tried to figure out what we had just seen, after about 30 minutes we decided to shoot up a few snags and logs to make a lot of noise. We thought maybe if they knew we were in there they would stay away and we could make our way out quickly." We will also be speaking to Derek. Derek writes "Hi Wes, I did not think I would be emailing you! I was traveling from Gresham Oregon to Gardnerville NV. I exited Hwy- 5 to Hwy 89 south of the town Shasta CA heading east on Hwy 89. I passed the little towns of McCloud CA and Bartell. About 15 minutes after passing the town of Bartel at a speed of 70 MPH I saw what I originally thought was a backpacker with hiking poles and a large black backpack on the right shoulder of the road at about 300 to 400 yard ahead of me. it seemed to pause for a second and then proceeded to cross the highway. When it started to cross I still thought it was a backpacker until it was about half way across the road and I saw the way it moved. Its upper body and head rose with each step. It took 4 strides to cross the highway. Just as it was almost off the road it moved so that I could see the width of its shoulder and see that there was no backpack. Where it crossed the road it was darkened by the shadows of the trees and when it got to the other side of the road the sun shone down on its back and it looked like charcoal gray to me. That is when I knew it was not a person!! I had slowed down a little and thought I could get a good look at it but when I got to where I thought it crossed I could not see anything! This was approximately 10:30 am. The closest road I came across shortly after was Dina MacArthur. Wes I make this drive a lot and I have seen a black bear cross the highway near this location and I was able to see the bear run through the woods for a few hundred yards. This thing seems to just have vanished. Wes I would just like to know if anyone else has had sightings in this area. Please feel free to contact me

It looked like somebody was bent over and had their head in the window of the deer blind and it either heard me or smelt me and he pulled his head out of the tent and stood straight up and 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 moves like that in my life. They were screaming at each other in gibberish. It sounded like a language and they were chuntering away back and forwards, back and forwards, back and forward.

I know what a bear looks like and there is no way on this planet that what I saw were bears. Jesus Christ, you better... Kat, see him. Get somebody out here. What's going on now, sir? That son of a bitch is about six foot nine, I don't know. Do you see him now, sir? Yes, I'm looking right at him. Hi, this is Jules, Lily, and Pearl from San Diego, and you're listening to

The Best Podcasts in the Galaxy, Saskatch Chronicles. Welcome to the show, everyone. Thanks for being here tonight. Got a great show plan for you. Tonight, Chad shares an encounter he had 20 years ago. near Canyonville, Oregon. What the creature was doing, I've only heard a handful of times. We'll also be speaking to Derek, who had a sighting about two weeks ago.

And Derek describes a very large man walking down the highway with a backpack. As he got closer, he realized it wasn't a man and it didn't have a backpack on. Join me tomorrow night as I speak with Quinn. In the 70s, Quinn and his father were driving out on this backcountry road, in Pennsylvania to check on the many acres his father just purchased and to look at their new home. Quinn describes seeing this large wolf run across right in front of their vehicle and stand up on two legs. Quinn said, I've never seen a wolf get up on two legs and stand like a man. The look in my father's eyes was nothing more than terror.

This would not be the last incident with this wolf. If you've had an encounter and you'd like to be on the show, shoot me an email. My email address is Wes at Sasquatch Chronicles.com. And if you get a chance, check out Sasquatch Chronicles.com, you can become a member and get additional shows. Let's jump into it tonight. I want to welcome Chad to the show. Chad, thanks for coming on. Hey, you're welcome.

Yeah, and I know we're going back over 20 years ago, or about 20 years ago. prior to 2003 and this whole incident happening to you guys, what was kind of your feelings about the whole subject of Sasquatch? You know, I spent a lot of time in the forest as a kid with my dad and my brother, hunting and fishing and stuff. And you hear stories of people telling you this and that, another thing about Sasquatch. I never really gave it much thought.

Dad used to set us out on, you know, trees, stumps and say, hey, you know, we're going to drive the deer towards you. And you would hear things in the woods and stuff while you're sitting on those tree stumps and stuff, you know, and you would see things, but signs that you didn't recognize and stuff. But prior to that, you know, I didn't know too much about it. You know, I read a few books while I was in the Army and stuff, you know, because books get passed around and stuff. But, you know, you just thought there were books, you know, and stuff.

And, of course, the Internet wasn't around then. And so you got quite a bit of more information on the internet, but you know, you never thought that you would see one. Yeah, I think that's how a lot of people feel, Chad. And I know in 2003, a lot changed for you. If you would kind of take me back to 2003, what were you doing? Where were you at? And what happened? What did you guys end up seeing?

Okay, so, yeah, it was 2003. And I was with a friend of mine named Tom and my son. son, my 12-year-old son. Well, the time frame was around the first part of July. It was graffiti weekend in Roseburg where everybody migrates into Roseburg with their cars and stuff, and it's pretty noisy and loud. And I'm a veteran, disabled veteran. And my friend Tom was a veteran also.

We just don't like the whole noisy crowd scene. And we worked at a business that was busy all the time. through the week and the weekend with people anyway. So we just didn't want to be around a whole noisy mess with people and stuff. So we planned to go up to a weekend camping trip to Fish Lake, which we took the route east of Canyonville and drove up there. And we decided to just do an overnight. We didn't, not in the lake area, but we camped at the trailhead overnight.

We just took enough supplies for an overnight camping trip. And my friend Tom was a reserve policeman besides his job. We're armed. He had a pistol and I had a rifle. And we camped at the trailhead just overnight. And the trailhead is just above the lake there. And nothing really significant at the trailhead. just maybe a car or two overnight and stuff that drove through there and stuff.

He camped across the street, across the road. And once daylight came, we got up, got things ready. And we probably started in the Beaver Swamp Trail, which is a kind of a rough trail. It's got a probably, I would say, 7% grade going downhill. It's really kind of rough. Most people don't do that trail. So we started in probably about, I'd say it takes you about a half hour to get down it because it's so steep. So we started in probably about 1030, 1045, got to the bottom around 11 o'clock, maybe 1130 or so.

It took us a little bit. We got to the bottom of the trail and I believe we went off to the left. We were walking for about another half hour. We came to a family, had a couple of kids, and they had two big Rottweiler dogs, and the dogs weren't on a leash. They were just walking freely. And we talked with them for about a half hour, and just about how things were going in the area, how the fishing was, that kind of thing, if there was anybody else in there. And they related to us that they were the only one in there.

They had been in there for a couple of hours. They got in there earlier in the day. And the interesting thing at this point was, is I believe that they're coming out, masks are coming in with the noise they were making because the dogs were barking. They were running around. The kids were making noise and stuff. And I think that the wildlife in the area didn't realize that we were coming in as they were coming out. So we talked with them for a little while longer, and then we proceeded in to where we were going to make our place. This was the first time I'd ever been in Fish Lake.

My friend Tom had been in here many, many times, so he knew where to go. And so we followed the trail up to the front of the lake, which I believe was on the north side. And there was a clearing with a bunch of tall grass. And the clearing kind of had some gravel to it, sandy kind of gravel area. We perched there and we're setting up to go fishing. once we set up and stuff there were some ducks in the area that were swimming around and they were

kind of being a menace so we're kind of to have to shoe them away and stuff and we finally got set to fish and cast our line and we're waiting for something to bite and my son was fishing also but he had very good eyesight and he was looking around the water and he was finding

kind of like some fishing loovers that were left over there and was kind of waiting around the water and going to pick him up stuff that was caught in some of the tall grass. and stuff. And it was about 45 minutes after we started fishing, and he looked up. And he says, hey, dad, there's a man standing in the tree line, and he's wearing a fur suit. And I was fishing, you know, kind of not paying attention.

But once I heard that, I kind of looked over and I was like, what are you talking about? Me and my friend Tom both did because it was interesting that there would be somebody standing in the tree line wearing a fur suit in such a remote area. and that kind of heat. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, seeing someone out there in a first suit would be weird. Even a gilly suit in the heat, you know, is like having a blanket over you. Yeah, I could definitely see how that would be strange.

It would get my attention anyway. Yeah, it just seemed really odd because here we are in such a remote area. I mean, what would somebody be doing walking around like that? it would just seem like a weird sensation to be doing that, you know, a weird way to be. So I took notice and I looked over and it seemed the distance was about, I would say, about 50 to 75 feet away. Looking over the water around the trail over the water as much through the tall grass as we could. There was a few breaks in the tall grass that we could see. It was standing there looking around, kind of getting a view.

I think it was coming out after it figured that the family with the two big dogs were gone. And I don't think it wanted to mess with, you know, maybe one dog, but not two of them. Those Rottweilers were pretty good-sized dogs. So it stood there, and it seemed to be, to me, it seemed to be between seven to eight feet tall. the fur was like a chestnut or kind of a rust colored fur. It had really broad shoulders. You could see the muscle structure a bit on it. I couldn't see the feet or anything because it was standing in a little bit of brush,

but you could see the thigh, about the thigh up. You could see it stood very upright. There was no mistaking that it was a bear or anything like that because I've seen plenty of black bear, and I know what a black bear is. There's no mistaking that. So it stood there looking around, and it was a fair distance from the shoreline of the lake. It proceeded to the shoreline of the lake and just, it was seemed like a blink of an eye. Very large strides, and it was there in just a split second.

I couldn't even tell you what the strides were like, how many. how many there were because I was just it was almost like somebody hit you in the head with a hammer you were just awestruck and I I do know at that time that there wasn't a bird in the sky

there wasn't a noise in the forest those ducks that were swimming around were completely gone they had just beat feet and were gone there wasn't any noise in the forest nothing everything was just dead quiet like you like

you know every animal knew that the biggest, baddest thing in the forest was there, and they were going to be completely quiet. The creature got to the edge of the water, and it kind of just knelt down on its knees, and its arms went out to the side like it was going to do a push-up in a push-up position. Palms down. It went down to take a drink, came back up, and it looked around again. It was very on guard, and it did that about. about three or four times and then it stood completely back up, looked around, and you can see its conical head, you know, very conical head look around. And then it turned around and like I said,

it strode and was to the tree line in a split second. And there, and there it kind of stopped, looked around again, and then it faded into the tree line and it was gone. It was gone. And we sat there probably in our position and we didn't move probably for about 30 minutes trying to figure out what we just seen and what what was going on. And it was almost like we were just, we were just dumbfounded, struck with just belief kind of. And we sat there and we talked for a little bit. We were pretty unnerved, tell you the truth. We were a bit scared. So we decided to kind of make a little noise. So there was some snags and some stumps in the distance, some down trees.

So we started shooting up the area a bit, making some noise. And we decided that we would do that to kind of cover our exit as soon as possible. So we didn't stay in there another hour or so. We decided to cut our trip short and get out of there as soon as possible because we figure this is their area and where there's one, there's more. And we didn't want to hang around and find out what their next move was. So we decided to kind of get out of there. So there was a couple of, like I said, there was a couple of snags, some logs and stuff out in the distance.

And I had about three magazines of ammo. I had a Chinese SKS on me. And my friend had a 357 magnum. And I just started lighting up one of those snags and stuff and kind of kicking off some rounds. is making it real loud. And then we decided to get out of there very hastily. Yeah, when you're not expecting it, I mean, I could see why you lit up the area before you left.

I wanted to ask you, and you might have said it there in the beginning, but how far away from you is this creature? And were you able to get a look at the face? we were about 50 to 75 feet away the face I couldn't really make out very well I did mention to you that my son wanted me to put my scope on it had a scope on my SKS he wanted me to put the scope on it but I didn't you know with my training in the military as you generally don't point your weapon at somebody you're not going to shoot and I didn't do that and it's kind of regrettable today that I didn't scope it out but I refused to scope it out because I just didn't figure, what if I'm pointing my weapon at somebody? What if it's a person dressed up? I just, I ran through a bunch of different conclusions about what could happen if I pointed my scope at a person, which I was very confused and kind of befuddled at the time when I was viewing this creature.

So the face I didn't get a good look at, but it was a very, very hairy creature. there was tuffs of hair on the facial area. I could see that around the face. I could see that. I did see some kind of skin on the face, though. It was kind of a grayish brown, kind of a grayish, I think. There was some brown areas, I think, but mostly that was the hair. But I do remember the conical head, though.

I do remember that. Very stocky shoulders. I would say the shoulders probably were about three to four feet across or so. Very stocky, very muscular build. Yeah, and you mentioned it, drinking water. I've heard it describe two different ways. One, the way you described it, almost like a push-up and it's drinking the water. The other way I've heard it is where they cup their hands and they'll stand there and kind of look around as they're drinking water.

Either way, it's very cautious. Do you think that's the main purpose? It was just coming out to get water waiting for the coast to be clear? I think that the purpose was to drink water. I think it was just waiting for those people with the dogs to leave. I don't think it wanted to, I don't think it wanted to take on that many individuals. I don't think it wanted to take on two dogs plus the adults and mess with that. I think it was too hot.

I think it was too many people. I think it wanted just to have to come out into peaceful, peacefulness, come get some water and then go back to where it was going to go. It lowered its hand. It lowered its, it was like it was almost like, you know, doing a push-up, lowering its mouth down to the water as far as I could tell. What an amazing account. You know, I've interviewed, out of all the people have interviewed Chad, and, you know, it's in the thousands at this point.

But out of all those interviews, I've only heard of them, people seeing or witnessing these creatures drinking water maybe a half a dozen times. And most of the time they describe it the same way you just did. When you first see it, I mean, I realize this is. is 2003, but, and for a moment, you're thinking, okay, is this a guy in a gorilla suit? You know, what, what's going on here? And I think a lot of people go through that. But when you are watching it, what's going through your mind?

What do you think it is? The thing that popped into my mind right away was the Patterson Gimlin film. That's what, that's what I thought right away. I thought, am I really seeing this? Is this what I'm seeing? You know, I mean, is this real? Is this what, I mean, oh my God, what's, I can't believe it. That's what my mind, I was very, very bewildered at the time.

But that's the first thing that popped into my mind is, was that footage. Like, this can't be happening. It was the exact model of that creature right there. Although I think this one was a male, though, because it seemed like it, it seemed like it had the definition of being a male compared to, I think, that one being a female. You know, it's one thing for people to kind of believe in Bigfoot or believe that it's out there. It's a whole different ballgame when you actually see one. Did this affect you at all as far as wanting to go back out in the woods? Yes.

I haven't been back to that area ever since. And now when I go to the forest, even if I'm just driving a road, even if I'm going down I-5 and I'm looking off to the, looking off to the side, of the road into the forest, I'm looking. I'm looking for something standing there. I'm looking for any kind of sign, trees, in a weird position, anything like

that, I'm looking. It's really weird how that affects you like that, but once you see what I've seen like that and other people I've seen what they've seen, you're constantly, you're constantly looking for other signs or another maybe another sighting.

You know, God forbid people that have had encounters with them. I can't imagine that. I just had a sighting and I'm like this now. Yeah, I think most eyewitnesses feel the exact same way as you do, Chad. You're constantly looking. It's a

very shell-shocking event to see one. I wanted to ask you, you know, when you saw it come out, the way it moved and on its way down to get a drink, did that motion remind you more of a man? or did it remind you more of an animal? It reminded me more of an animal.

It was very fluid when it walked. It's not like a man that I consider a man to be a little bit more mechanical when they walk. This was very fluid, very natural, very, it flowed when it walked. And it was like more of a glide. It was like it was just very smooth and it moved very quickly. Like I was astonished about how fast it quickly. that distance where a man would be more mechanical when it walked and it would it just would have took more time. Yeah, their movement will get you for sure. It's very odd to see how fast

they can get from point A to point B and do it in such a smooth fashion. I would imagine for your 12-year-old boy at the time, this was probably the greatest thing ever. But you know, you being there, being the dad and your buddy being there. Did you and your friend ever talk about this afterwards? Yeah, we talked about it quite a bit. He's deceased now, but we talked about it quite a bit. And we even talked about it with some people that after about the first couple of times, we talked about it with other people.

They thought we were really out there. We kept it to ourselves. My son is 30 years old now. He was about 12 then. and he is unshakable with what he's seen. Yeah, I believe it. And who could blame them, you know, after what you guys saw that day? You know, I wanted to ask you, I know you're a hunter.

And your average black bear is, what, about three, 400 pounds, you know, at least here in the Pacific Northwest. They're not as big as I think most people think. They'll still throw you a beating, trust me. But they're not huge. When you saw this thing, you know, this thing. is about seven, eight feet tall. How much do you think it weighed? I know we're just kind of guessing here.

I would say anywhere from 800 pounds up. It was very muscular, very defined. I mean, it, this thing had, yeah, it was just super muscles on it. The other thing I wanted to ask you was, you know, after an encounter, people are very delirious about going back. I know that you're lorry about going back in the woods, but you have. And it's just uncomfortable. You're constantly on high alert, and I get all of that. But let me ask you, if you had the chance, would you want to see another one? It would have to be in imperfect conditions, yes. But not walking through the forest and just happen along it, no.

because I just don't want to come along one and surprise one. That's their world out there. It's not ours. I get it. And, you know, even people who have terrifying encounters most of the time, not always, but most of the time, if you ask them, would you want to see it again? The answer is usually yes, you know, but it's kind of like your answer. It'd be nice to be in a tank or something like that.

You know what I mean? I was a tank driver, and I think I drove track vehicles and stuff, and I think that would be about right. But, I mean, I mean, not even, I don't even know then. I just, when you see something that's not in your everyday purview of knowledge of the world, it's not what you feel, it's what your mind does when you see something like that. and your mind doesn't know how to process when you see a creature like that. It doesn't know how to process. It doesn't know how to deliver for you, you know. It just goes all different ways in your head.

So it's really a, the experience is really a one in a million when you see something like that, you know. Yeah, your brain kind of crashed. is like a computer, you know, just trying to figure out what you're seeing. And it is a lot of confusion for sure. You know, 20 years later, after this encounter, I ask everyone on the show, what do you think Sasquatch is? And I'm curious, what do you think this thing is? It's a wild animal.

It's a flesh and blood creature. There's no mysticism about it. It doesn't beam up to a spaceship. It doesn't have any kind of magical power. it's a flesh and blood creature and if you you know if if you have to defend yourself you better have a big enough caliber that's all I'm saying and you if you have to defend yourself you better have a way out because they're in numbers and they're not going to forgive you they're not approachable they're not a friendly forest creature that you can approach I think that they have a weird attraction to

us and I think we're a food source. And I think they're better left alone. And if you see one in the area that you're in, you should leave immediately. Why do you think that we haven't been able to catch up with this creature? I think that they're a forest master. They know how to manipulate the forest in ways that we don't. They know they move quickly. They're stealthy.

They know how to be quiet in a forest, which is that's one thing that men don't know how to do is be quiet in a forest. How many times do you, are you walking through a forest and you come upon a bear? You just don't do that. The bears come upon you. You don't really catch up with a lot of animals in the forest because they know their element. We're just, you know, forest really isn't our element unless you're in it all the time. We live in towns and cities and we come to the forest for recreation. I think that they're just in their element and they know how to manipulate it.

And they know that that's how we are too. So I think that that's one of the reasons. And there's not a lot of them. If you look at the population that's estimated for North America of what Sasquatch is, and it's just an estimation, but the knowledge has got to come from somewhere. So I don't think that there's just a whole lot of them out there. I think that the populations are sparse and they're in certain areas. Where are you getting the statistics on the population?

Well, I looked it up on the Internet, and it's just an estimate, like I said, but there's got to be some kind of hard facts behind the estimate even. So I can't remember the exact numbers that there were, but it wasn't a lot in North America and Canada for the size of our country. I think that their population does matter. And if there's certain areas that are, you know, really like the Pacific Northwest, with the size of our forests and stuff and the density of our forests and stuff, they could stay well hidden.

Could be. Could be. I think it's weird. They're seeing all over the world. And yet no one seems to be able to catch up with them. What fascinates me is there's different types. Yeah, the different types is really a theory. And it's a crazy theory I came up with many years ago. And then all of a sudden it became canon. And you'll hear people go, oh, well, you ran into a type one. You ran into a type two. And it's all nonsense. I mean, it's just some crazy theory that I had based on eyewitness testimony when it came to appearance and their behavior. It felt like there was different types out there. But I can assure you no one really knows. So I would take some of that with a grain of salt when you read that online, that we know for sure there's

different types or we know for sure how many are in North America. These guys don't know any more than you or me or anyone else. You know, you had mentioned you served our country, and I admire people who serve our country. And, you know, I wanted to ask you, looking back on your military service, what was kind of your best memory? Well, I, um, I, um, I, I was serving in Germany. I was stationed in a bomb holder. They called the Rock. And of the last nine months of my service, I was a peacekeeper in the former Yugoslavia when they started the operation joint endeavor.

I think we went there in January of 96 when they first started the whole peacekeeping mission. We had to cross the floating bridge across the Sava River. in the middle of winter. And I was a tank operator, but I wasn't an Abrams tank operator. I was an old M60 tank operator. It was an engineer vehicle that was converted. And so I was in a combat engineer battalion. And so we did a lot of mine removal and a lot of engineer work and stuff.

And we moved a lot of obstructions of roads and stuff like that. but that was my fondest memory was nine months I spent the former Yugoslavia. Yeah, I always regret not serving the country, you know, back when I was young. I think I would have had a great time serving, probably made a career out of it. But, you know, I say that. I've never served. That's like people saying, I really want to see Bigfoot, but it's a whole different ballgame after we see one, you know what I mean?

You really don't know if you, you know, you know, you don't. don't know if you wanted that experience or not. You know, it's kind of a take it or leave it thing. You could have, you could have just been fine going about your life without it, but you can't take back what you saw. Yeah, 100% for sure. And I'm so happy you decided to come on and share it. You know, most of the time people get a glimpse of this creature.

And, you know, you guys sat there for quite a while, didn't you? Yeah, it was about, I would say. say it was about, probably about 10 minutes through the whole thing about it. It's observing it, coming out of the tree line, standing there, walking to the water's edge, drinking, and then returning to the tree line and disappearing. It probably was about 10 minutes because the thing was really cautious. I was just amazed about how intelligent it was to check the AO, the area of operation there before it went down to the water's edge and about how cautious it was, you know, I mean, it was totally aware of its surroundings.

Yeah, a lot of eyewitnesses described that sort of behavior, very cautious, you know, when they approach or when they're doing something. And even at night, which is kind of weird, you'll get a lot of reports of people seeing them on thermal cameras, and they'll still run and hide behind trees, which is, weird. I've always wondered, maybe they think we can see at night when we can't. But their behavior is very cautious. I will agree with you on that. I think in this situation, if you guys would have made a bunch of noise, I probably would have screamed at you and ran back into the forest. I could be wrong, but I don't get the sense that it was looking for a fight. Yeah, we were just,

we were kind of frozen. We were, I don't know if it was a, if us being frozen was fear-based or if it was just us just being so surprised and just be-fuddled, I guess, confused at the moment. We were just kind of like, I don't know. Because, you know, some people say that they have that power that it's kind of where the force goes quiet and they get people freeze with kind of bewilderment or something, you know. I don't believe in that personally, but I don't know. Maybe the evidence is there that they have this kind of, kind of like dragon fear or something, you know. But I don't know. Yeah, I think a lot of it is fear and a lot of it is shock, you know,

and seeing something that really shouldn't exist. But I know this happened to you over 20 years ago, and I really appreciate you taking the time to come on and share it. I really enjoyed chatting with you, Chad. Oh, thank you. I appreciate it. And thank you for your service to our country, sir. Oh, thank you.

I appreciate that too. Next up on the show, I want to welcome Derek. Derek, thanks for coming on. Oh, you're welcome. Yeah, and as I was reading your email, I was pretty fascinated with your account, and I wanted to have you come on and share it. Prior to seeing this creature,

what was kind of your take on the whole subject of Sasquo? I was interested by it, but, you know, more for maybe amusement value of it, you know. And, you know, I have a friend that, you know, he's shown me some pictures of, like, footprints that he took up in this high Sierra's down by the Lake Tahoe area. So I don't know. I've been interested in it. Yeah, I was very curious on what your answer would be because this encounter, or happened less than two weeks ago.

If you would, just kind of start from the beginning. What were you doing? And what did you end up seeing? Well, I had just, you know, come off of Highway 5. I was traveling from Oregon to Nevada. And I was turned off by Lake Mount Shasta and took Highway 89. And I just passed through some of the, small towns out there.

McLeod was the bigger of the two, and then Bartel is the next little town up. It was about, I don't know, 10.30-ish in the morning, and I was doing about 70 miles an hour. There was a lot of deer out earlier in the day, so I was sort of making sure that I could see that I was going to, you know, running Danny Deere. So I was looking sort of off to the side of the road. And I saw somebody did some, to me, in the beginning, it looked like it was a backpacker with a large full pack on when I saw it. And it looked like he had, the closer I got, it looked like he had poles because of the way that he was standing. As I was getting closer, it had paused for a second on the side of the road. And then it stepped out into the road and I'm like, wow.

And so I started to slow down. It took a couple strides out into the road. But the thing that really sort of caught my attention was is that the shoulders in the head sort of bobbed as it moved. And it didn't seem to be in a hurry to get across the road, but it had crossed the road quite quickly. And at the fourth head bob, it sort of moved to where I could see it. And then where it was crossing the road, it was shaded. until it got to the other side of the highway. And at that point, the sun shone down on it, and it moves slightly so that I could see the back of it.

And that's when I was like, wow, that's a big foot. I was like, all right, I'm going to get up on this and see it really good here in a second. The next thing you know, it was not there. I couldn't see it. It was quite large. I couldn't tell you how tall it was, but the width of the shoulders was impressive, and the trap muscles on the back of it were gigantic.

I mean, you know, people say it doesn't have a neck. This one didn't have a neck. So. When you say it disappeared, did it disappear by stepping off the road and kind of going off into the brush? It stepped off in the, section there, they'd done a lot of work on the forest there because there was a lot of fires in the area last year. And so they cut a bunch of timber behind the big trees that were right next to the road.

And a few months before, I'd seen a big bear cross in front of me there. And I watched it run probably a few hundred yards through the woods. So I thought for sure I was going to see it. But when I got up to where I thought it crossed at, it was, I couldn't see it. I don't know where it went. I don't know if it jumped down the ground or was hiding behind a tree. It just was not there. It was not like the bear that I had saw a few months earlier.

From the first point that you see it and you're like, wow, it's a big guy with a backpack on, up until the point to where you're like, okay, that's not a man and that's not a backpack, How close were you? When I first saw it, I was probably no more than about, I would say, 400 yards from it. And when it started crossing the road, I was a lot closer. But it was in the shadow of the trees. And like I said, but when I first, the stride that it had was very odd. And I just thought it was still the polls until about the fourth one.

And I'm like, that's not a person. It seemed to like just move effortlessly across the road. And then the head moved. Like it crossed a road in like four strides. And the road was pretty wide there. It had probably about a three foot apron on either side. And it was pretty wide in that section right there. You know, you keep mentioning the polls that you thought it had.

And I'm assuming because of its movement, it was, you were thinking cross-country skier, is that kind of the movement you're describing? Exactly. And when it moved at the end, that's when I noticed that the one arm when the sun was down on it was very long. And that's what made me think that it was a pole. Because it just, it was the way that the arm was sort of hanging down. You know, I guess that's the whole thing. It was all one color.

And so, you know, it was dark. It was in the shadows until it got into the sunlight there. And that's when I had the, wow, that's not a person. You know, my truck is, that's the other thing. My truck is like a dark gray, like a charcoal. And to me, over the years, I've hidden a lot of birds because I'm wondering if they don't really see my truck very good because it sort of bleds in with the road. and I'm wondering if it didn't, like it looked like it was looking the other way,

like maybe it thought I was coming from the other way. And then it just stepped out. And when it stepped out and started walking across the road, it was, it did not look like it was in a hurry, but it was across the road in a very short amount of time in seconds. I mean, like I said, there was like four movements and it was on the other side. And I'm like, wow. And then I was like, okay, I'm going to be right on top of this. And I'm going to get a good view of it.

able to see it really well. And it was gone. It's too bad that it didn't turn your direction so you could see the face of it. But as you approach the creature, how tall do you think it was? You know, Wes, I really couldn't say. I just, you know, the width of the shoulders is what got me. It was big. I thought it was a large person with a backpack on.

I could say that much. It was big. And I mean, to get across that road there, I haven't been back that way, but when I do go back, I'm going to take a better look at it right there. Yeah, I could understand that. And I realize all of this is happening very quickly. You know, in those moments, you'll focus on one thing or two things. It's like your brain trying to figure out what's going on and what you're seeing. Compared to a normal size man, when you finally got to.

up on this saying, how much bigger do you think those shoulders were than an average man? Double or triple. I mean, it made my hair on my arm stand up, and I'm not one to have something like that happened. When I saw it, it was the trap muscles, the muscles that went into the back of the neck, you know, in the head there, that the sun shone right down on. And I had a really good look at that. And that's what I was like, that's no person.

when it was crossing the road, I did notice the width of it, you know, from the chest to the back. But, you know, I just thought I assumed, like I told you, it had a backpack on. So imagine a large person with a backpack on, but bigger. And I don't know how I didn't see it when I passed it because, I mean, I was on top of it quickly because I'd only slowed down to maybe like 60. I mean, because I didn't think it was going to come out in front of me at first. Yeah, that's a weird thing with these creatures. I mean, they'll cross right in front of cars, and I'm always surprised they don't get hit more. You know, we talk about how intelligent they are, but they seem to wait till last minute,

crossed right in front of someone driving by, and makes me wonder why it crossed right there. I know you had mentioned you had seen a bear earlier that year or a year before. in that same spot. I wonder if there's like a game trail right there. You know, now that I have time to think about it, there was a lot of forest fires in that area, too, the year before. So, you know, I wonder if it's out of its normal range. I've probably driven that stretch of road in the last three years, probably 40 times.

So I've been through there quite a bit. And like I said, I've only seen a bear once. I've seen a whole bunch of deer through there. And that's the main reason why I was sort of paying attention to the sides of the road. Yeah, and I know that it is a road that you travel often. I know that you visit family. And it is kind of a remote area right there where you saw this creature. I'd love to know in the future, if anything else happens as you go down that highway.

You know, Derek, I ask everyone on the show, what do you think sounds? And there's no wrong answer because no one knows. But what are your thoughts? What do you think that these creatures are? Some unknown species. I mean, it's a real deal now as far as I'm concerned. It's definitely bipedal and large. A lot of people say a lot of different things about it, but I couldn't really,

I don't really have a thought on it other than it. It's a living creature. Yeah, I respect your answer, Derek. I mean, no one really knows what this thing is. And again, there's no wrong answer, but it's really hard to pinpoint what it is. I know it was a very brief siding, and this is a road that you travel often. And seeing the bear in that same spot really makes me wonder if there's like a game trail nearby. And I really appreciate you taking the time to come on.

Wes, thank you. No, I appreciate it. And that's it for tonight, everyone. Remember, if you've had an encounter, shoot me an email. My email address is Wes at Sasquatch Chronicles.com. And if you get a chance to check out Sasquatch Chronicles.com, you can become a member and get additional shows. Until next time, everyone.