Sasquatch Chronicles - SC EP:996 That Overwhelming Fear

Episode Date: October 14, 2023

Brian writes "I live in Washington, in 2009 I took a friend turkey hunting. We drove up to MT Adam's to a camp spot I selected while scouting we set up camp and went to sleep. Around 230 am I woke up in my sleeping bag with overwhelming fear I knew that something was looking through the side window of my canopy into the bed where I was sleeping. I pointed my pistol at the window and told myself if something touches that glass I'm shooting. After a few minutes the feeling left and it was quiet I didn't hear anything outside of my truck. I fell back to sleep when we both got up in the morning and were getting ready to head out to setup Wayne says I heard you get up last night and walking around I didn't say anything just thought this is strange we both started to walk out into this clear cut to glass for birds at sunrise as we were looking out into clear cut we heard a large branch break to our left. I looked over to see this large dark thing moving like nothing I have ever seen I asked Wayne what was that we both speculated maybe a bear but we could here the steps and clearly see the back of head and shoulders above the reprod that was easily 6 feet tall as I'm 6,1 we both watched this thing move away from us in a fluid motion down the hill. After chatting we decided to go to another blind about 1/4 of a mile from camp it took us about 30 minutes to get there I put out the Decoys and got into the blind I had constructed we botched leaned against a tree and listened after a few calls we heard two different turkeys gobbling. We sat and waited and waited calling every so often to keep the Tom interested. Thing got quite so quite it did not feel right a few seconds later it sounded like a cop car turned on it's siren but just the first part kinda high pitched but loud and long it sounded like it was right behind me standing on the logging road on the other side of the tree we had leaned against I got out of blind with my pistol in hand only to catch the same one or type of creature go over a ledge breaking trees like a heard of elk sounds. My friend looked at me and said wtf was that I said I don't know I grabbed the decoys and we left I have not been back to that spot since. This was in April. ……… now in September we are now hunting elk just on the edge of trout lake we go out in the morning and do our normal walk after moon Wayne calls me on the radio and tells me I need to make it to him to see something I look on my GPS and he is 2 miles from me we chat over the radio and he just keeps telling me I need to get to him so myself and another friend Vance walk and get to the river cross over in our boxers get our gear back on and walk to Wayne who is maybe 20 feet from where we came out of river he points down and we are all looking at a foot print in wet soft sand it was clear as day you could see the toes the bend of the foot as it pushed into the sand during its step all three of us where in disbelief we are all hunters and have spent our lives outdoors none of us have ever seen anything like this before. At this point I start telling Vance about the turkey event. We all still hunt and fish just not in that spot that track was in the middle of nowhere and in a nasty draw no one would walk barefoot down there especially with a foot that big. I missed some details about the camp and hunt trying to keep this kinda short. Thank you for your time Wes."

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 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. What are you reporting? Get somebody out here. What's going on now, sir? That's son of a bitch is about six. This is about six foot nine. I don't know. Do you see a bouncer? Yes, I'm looking right in.

Uh-uh. This is Tyler from Woodstock, Georgia, and you're listening to the best podcast on the planet, Sasquatch Chronicles. Right, time now for what's trending. A video of what looks like Bigfoot walking around Southern California, or Colorado, rather. My bad. Take a look and see what you think. A couple shared this video on social media saying they spotted Bigfoot while riding the Durango and Silverton narrow gauge.

railroad train. They told out there Colorado, most people on the train didn't notice anything. Over the years, there have been more than 100 reported Bigfoot sightings in Colorado. Wow. Wow. It totally blends in with the landscape there. Yeah. I mean, I don't know. Do you believe in Bigfoot? I really want to. I do too. The logical side of my brain, though, is thinking that in the wintertime, though, in Colorado, if the color stays brown, then they're going to stick out. out. Oh. So that makes sense. Right. Yeah. I wanted to just because I feel like it's fun to believe in it, right? Like, oh, I saw Bigfoot. But you know what? I mean, to each their own. Yeah, exactly. My email has been flooded over this video. I don't know if you guys have seen this or not. As far as my opinion goes, if anyone cares. I put it up on the blog because I was getting so many emails about this video. I don't think that's, I don't think that's, a Sasquatch. They don't move like that. The behavior is off, you know, and it didn't take a lot of time to really look at it, but just watching it real quick once or twice, they don't, these creatures don't move like this thing moves. This thing's more like a man moving, and they don't hide the

way this thing hides. You won't see, I've never heard of Sasquatch just sitting down on the rocks trying to blend in. If there's no major cover, a lot of times you'll see them. just kind of walk off, kind of like what Patty did. Think about Patty. Patty's not going to sit down in the middle of the creek and like next to a rock. Just everything about it screamed it wasn't real. And I don't think that the people who filmed it were a part of it. I think there's something going on there with the train.

They're trying to drum up business. I guess I should have said, welcome to the show. Welcome to the show, everyone. Thanks for being here tonight. We're going to be chatting with Brian. and Brian lives in Washington State. He's actually not far from where I'm at. And back in 2009, he had a very strange encounter,

and he actually found evidence of the creature being out there. But Brian being a hunter, you know, he kind of sat on the fence, didn't really buy into the whole Bigfoot thing, you know, didn't have one feeling one way or another. If you've had an encounter and he'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 Brian to the show. Brian, thanks for coming on. Thank you, Wes.

Yeah, and I can't wait to hear about this in Canada. This happened to you back in 2009, and I know you're kind of up around the Castle Rock area, but the areas that this happened to you, for me anyway, I'm sure the rest of you honest, it's irrelevant, but I know exactly where these areas are at. If you would take me back to 2009 and how all of this started. But we went on a turkey hunting trip. We left from the Kousel Rock area. We went up to Mount Adams out of the little town called Trout Lake.

It's kind of on the, I guess, would be the southwest side of Mount Adams. And we went up the night before opening day. I took a gentleman with me who had never been turkey hunting yet. It was kind of one of his things he'd want to do. And I worked with him at the job. So we went up to a place I'd scouted a couple weeks prior to that. And I got there in the evening, got out of the truck, a little crow call. I heard a turkey gobble in the distance.

So I knew the birds were still in the area. So we set up camp. I sat up the bed in the back of my Toyota pickup truck. He had a little pup town on the ground. ground, a little fire going. And I was sleeping in the bed of my truck. And for some reason, I don't know what woke me up. I don't know if the truck ever shook or could never verify any of that.

I just remember I woke up in my sleeping bag with an overwhelming amount of fear. I mean more fear than any of my deployments put under me overseas. I have never been this scared in my life where the hair in the back of my neck was standing up. And I just was frozen in my sleeping bag, looking at the side window of my leer canopy on my trucks, and if something touches that window, what are you going to do? So I have a pistol that I take with me in the forest and it's a 45. And I just basically cocked the hammer inside my sleeping bag and was pointing it, you know, I've got the window telling myself, if something touches that window, I'm going to fire

because there's nobody out here but me and this other gentleman who's with me. And unfortunately said, he's short enough that he wouldn't be able to look through that window of that camper or that truck. He's vertically challenged. So, you know, time goes on and I'm still terrified. I'm just waiting there, quiet, just laying in laying, I'm not hearing anything. I'm not seeing anything through the tinted plexiglass plastic type window, whatever that is. And as time goes on, you know, the fear starts to subside and I was able to fall back asleep. Well, now the next morning, my alarm goes off my phone and I get out of the,

truck and I'm getting my gear on and Wayne's getting out of the pup tent. And I was like, you're ready to go. And he's like, yeah. And he goes, how did you sleep last night? And I was like, well, I heard you get out and walk around camp. And I was like, hmm, I didn't say anything. I just kept it quiet. Well, right where we were camped at, there's a clear cut that drops off where they had logged and you're up here. So you've seen these before. It kind goes downhill heading towards the west. And they had reprodded that years ago, which was putting Christmas tree-sized plants, you know, replanting. And we're looking down this with our binoculars, trying to see if we see any birds move around. Sun's coming up. And we heard just really loud snap

right to our left. Big twig breaking. So we both looked to our left. And all we saw was this large, huge, black with a little bit of gray hint to it, object moving away from us and a downhill towards a draw going downhill and I could clearly make out shoulders back of the head maybe two feet down its back and the rest of it was covered by the Christmas trees that it was going through to go away from us now I've heard elk deer bears cougars all that stuff in the forest and they all make specific sounds the moment they're running or walking you can tell the difference between how big it is how small it is but you could

actually hear the thuds when this thing was stepping. It wasn't running. It wasn't hopping. It was just like a fluid motion of movement. Just, you know, just kind of going along like it's on a conveyor belt. But you could hear the boomf, boom. So the buddy I was with was like, well, what was that? I don't know.

What is that? You know, we start playing that back and forth thing. And he literally said, well, maybe it was a bear that stood up. It was just kind of sniffing the air. And I was like, okay, I'll go for that. but it moved too far to be a bear. So there was just no way I could think that was a bear. Not possible.

So when we watched it, it just got away from us. And that little bit of the encounter probably took 20 seconds, maybe, maybe 20 seconds. All we had with us was a 12-gauge shotgun, two inflatable decoys for turkey hunt, and my pistol. So we didn't have a, you know, like any type of arsenal or what anything. Most people go to the woods. They have guns all over them and knives and all this stuff. So anyway, we walked back to the camp. It was about maybe 15 feet from where we were standing at. And I said, well, let's go to the second spot. So we hike to that spot. And now that spot's maybe a quarter of a mile as a crow flies from where we're standing after you were to go on a straight line.

We zigzag to get there. And on this spot, we had to walk up a logging road at a certain little bit of an angle. And it makes a sharp left 90 degree turn. When it makes that sharp left turn right there, where the road had cut into the embankment on the side of the hill to side skirt, you know, you have a probably like a three to four foot embankment you have to go up onto to get off the road. Well, we went straight up over that to where our blind was, which is about five feet from the edge of the road.

And when her backs are against the tree and, you know, we're calling, we hear some turkeys gobble. It's been really quiet And you hear him gobble Been really quiet and hear him gobble So we're just taking our time It's all of a patience game when you're turkey hunting And

Maybe 15 minutes into the hunt I'm thinking about that Everything just got eerily quiet The birds stopped chirping You could hear like little things rustling around The leaf fishes on the ground as far as insects go And my buddy's, you know He's sitting there and the sun's hitting on him

And time's going on And he's starting to doze a little bit. And then out of nowhere, it sounded like a cop car had got right behind us somehow on that road where it makes that sharp turn. So it's four or five feet from me. But like I said, it's a four foot to three foot drop to the road. You would have thought a cop car had turned on its siren. Just the very first part of the siren. No other octaves, no other change, just this loud.

Not super high pitch, but a mid-pitched scream. And it was terrifying. I've rolled forward out of the turkey blind, grabbed my 45 from the holster, and I stood up, and I saw the same thing again going down away from us through a draw, but this was very heavily vegetated, and it sounded like a herd of elk going down through those trees. It was just smashing through there.

the gentleman that I was hunting with, he's a devout LDS, a Mormon. And he actually looked at me, and that was the first time I ever heard him swear. He said the F word and, you know, so what the F was that. I was like, I have no freaking clue. We grabbed the decoys, went to the Jeep, and we were gone. That was the instance of that part. Yeah, and I want to ask you about that,

Because I know there was another incident that happened in September. I'm curious, though, that noise that you heard, you describe it kind of like a siren. And there's a famous howl from Ohio that kind of sounds like an air raid siren. I know you said police siren, but did it sound anything like this? No. No, this was more like if you were to do the motion or the sound of a whoop like that, But just hold the woo, that part, that part right there. But it was just so loud.

Like you could feel it. And what freaked me out the most way is I don't know how this thing was able to get that close to me without me hearing it. You know, they said they smell. I didn't see it. I didn't smell an odor of any type. But that doesn't mean they don't. I mean, could have the wind blowing the opposite direction. But it just shocked me that this thing was able to get that close to both of us.

And then I had never heard anything like that in the forest. I've heard, you know, like I said, the elk bugle. I've heard the deer grunt and the turkeys gobble and the coyotes. I've heard all of that growing up up here in Washington State. But I've never heard that sound before. And interestingly enough, I was a mailman. That was my job when this was happening. and I delivered mail to the Washington State Fish and Game Office.

So when I went in there, I spoke to one of the people there, and I didn't tell him the whole story. I just said, hey, what in the forest makes us sound like this? And he's like, oh, it's a cougar. And I'm like, there's no way that was a cougar. I've heard plenty of mountain lions and cougars. They don't sound nothing like that. Yeah, I've heard that at the Browns property. I've only heard it one time, but that long, woo, you know, it goes on and on forever.

And it kind of sounds like a man when you first hear it. But the sound and the amplitude coming out, coming towards you, you know, it's not a man. The 22nd view you got of it going through the Christmas trees, what stood out to you the most? And was it on two legs the whole time? It never went like vertical horizontal, like a bear would go from the two to the four leg standing motion. Never saw that take place. So the whole time it was a vertical movement of this animal was straight up and down, you know, like as a human. and I'll say walking because that's the only obvious thing I could say that was as it just, you know, went down along the draw through the trees.

I didn't see arms moving the trees like out of the way. I just went right through them like they weren't there. It didn't look back at us because I would have loved to see like, you know, some type of facial detail of this thing. But it was all from the back. And, you know, I've heard people say, well, it doesn't have a neck. No, this does not have a neck. It looked like a silhouette that the military trains on when they shoot at the target range. It's a white back with a black, you know, like shoulder silhouette in the head.

There's no neck on it. This is what this looked like. Only, you know, five feet across at the spread. And those trees were easily, I'm six one. And they were as tall as me, if not taller. And where I saw go through some of these places, it was taller than the trees. That's what perplexed me so much was, you know, we both looked at. look at this thing and we're like, what is that?

And your brain, like I was talking to earlier, it just doesn't register. You can't understand what you're looking at because your whole life you didn't think it was real. And then all of a sudden, here it is. And it's a limited amount of window. It's not like a long, drawn out process with what happened with me anyway. It was just so fast. You know, so I couldn't have reacted to any of this stuff. Even with all the training that I have, the hunter training, everything that I've, you know,

done throughout my life, I could just speak for myself that I couldn't react to that situation otherwise I would have. When you know, you know, that's what I tell people. The people that I've talked to since my sightings have happened throughout the years, you know, I've heard people comment about theirs or whatever. I just look at them and I say, hey, if you've seen it, you know, you know, that's just, there's no other way around it. It changes your life, it changes everything about the forest and what you bleed on some

things and yeah. Yeah, it makes you wonder how close they were to you when you were in the tent. You know, and you handled that situation better than I would have. I know you're a Marine and I probably would have shot. And I'm not proud to say that, but I always say, you know, you want to get shot, put a gun in someone's hand who's terrified and you're probably going to get shot. And I want to come back and ask you a few questions about that. But going to this most recent incident. When you, so you see the saying, and it's kind of going downhill away from you guys, but then you guys hear the vocalization that's really close to you.

Do you think there was more than one? Or do you think it was that same one that you guys saw that was vocalizing at you? The direction it moved away from us, Wes, and then the direction that we took to the secondary blind location where we were hunting from that time, I would think it would have been the same one because he would have went downhill, as did we, but we were, you know, say a quarter of a mile north of the last sighted location of that, basically. But we both went downhill. So it could have very well turned to the north and walked up the same way, you know, and didn't realize we were there. And maybe it heard me calling.

I have no idea. It looked like the same one about size generations. So I can't say there was more than one. I've heard people say that they travel, you know, more than that. than one at a time type situation. But that's the only one that I saw. And it may have shook the truck to wake me up. But for some reason, I woke up from asleep, like I said, mortified is the way.

I guess that's the good word to use. Yeah, and I always find that odd in encounters. And I can relate to exactly what you're saying. It's a very different type of fear. You know, you come across like a cougar or a black bear. Our cougars out here in Washington State are probably the biggest in the United States. I'm assuming I've seen some big cougars. But there's always that fear when they're around.

But the fear that you're describing is a very dark. It's a very, I'm in mortal danger if I don't get out of here. Something's very wrong. But he hadn't seen anything at this point. It's very hard to explain that to people. Yeah, no, you're absolutely right, West. There's no, like I said, it's when I've been deployed overseas, the two times that I went over there away from my family and my wife and my daughter and all that and, you know,

did my job and all that stuff, it's scary. It's, you know, you don't know what tech's going on because you just don't have information. Nobody tells you enough information about anything in life is kind of how it goes. So when you run into one of these things, it's like all you've heard of those people's encounters, there's no, nobody said, hey, you should do this. or do that. But, you know, you run into a hunter. Well, if a bear comes at you, you should run uphill or play dead or, you know, there's never been a, so you don't expect anything like this to ever happen.

You know, you hear something or you see something or something happens and you're just blown away. And the level of fear that hits you is, yeah, it's just hard to describe to people. There would be no way to, I don't know how you could even produce that type of fear on someone to show them what it would feel like. did you guys ever go back to that exact same spot? We have not been back there. However, I just came back from an eastern Oregon deer hunt. And I'm trying to talk my little brother and go in there with me to go check it out again.

Just to see what looks like, because I haven't been there since 2009. I'm sure everything's grown up. But the areas where I turkey hunted at had been like old growth burned area. So there wouldn't be too much stuff there right now. It was pretty clear with some acorn trees, but I would love to go back there. I would love to, you know, get a better view of it face to face. Even though it's terrifying, I just want to make sure it's real, I guess. Yeah.

Hopefully it won't do anything bad to anybody. You know, because nobody really knows. Like I said, I heard stories. Living here in Castle Rock, there's a lot of loggers and a lot of punters that have been around a while. I've heard stories of old man feed some fruit loops. You know, there's a family that comes down every once in a while from Mount St. Helens up by Merrill Lake. So I've heard from, you know, local legends, as I like to call them, the older guys, they tell me their stories and stuff when you're just talking to them. Yeah, a lot of stories come out of that area.

And I know you're basically next door to where I'm at, but there's a lot. A lot of hunters go to these areas. where you're going like near Mount Adams. I mean, that place is notorious for sightings. And as you get up to Rainier, and, you know, all these places are where we go to hunt. And there's a lot of encounters. I mean, you could probably stop 10 people in Castle Rock and ask them if they either know someone or if they've seen the creature themselves.

And probably nine out of 10 people will say they have. And I think even Castle Rock, you know, recently Mark Mercell, he found the mine that Fred Beck and all those miners were using. And I didn't think he'd ever find the thing, but he actually found it. And that story from Ape Canyon up towards Mount St. Helens, I'm assuming everyone knows this story, but it's the Ape Canyon attack up there happened back in the 20s. If my memory's right, it wasn't Fred Beck, but I want to say it was either his brother or his brother-in-law came down to Castle Rock, got drunk in a bar, and was telling everyone what

he just came from, and what happened up there at the mountain. I think a guy from the Columbia newspaper was in there. I think that's how the story actually got out if my memory's right. So there's a lot going on in this area. Tell me about what happened in September. All right. Well, so that was in April for Turkey season. And then September, we were Eltree, archery elk hunting up there the same area out of Trout Lake.

Now, this time we were about two and a half miles from where we turkey hunt. So when you come into Trout Lake, there's a Chevron gas station and there have a Y there at that road. And if you go straight, you basically go in towards the mountain and the snow camps and all that. Well, behind that gas station is a trout lake. Now it's an animal habitory thing, I think is what they're calling it. So you can't actually hunt inside of it anymore. You can hunt the

outsides of it, but we were hunting the inside of it when this took place because it hadn't changed the law yet. We're out there bow hunting. I'm walking with a buddy who's hunting with me. And the same guy who was in the tent, Wayne, was roughly three miles away from we were.

You know, that's just a ballpark figure. We carry those little rhino GPS 650, so you, it's like a GPS radio when you key the handset, it updates your friends locations on the radio when we're hunting. So if we have to find each other or we get lost, you know, it's easy to locate one another. It gives you a better advantage anyway. So we're up there hunting along Trout Creek, Trout Lake Creek. I'm up on the hills with my other friend and Wayne's down below us. He calls me on the radio and he's like,

you got to get over here and see this. I was like, see what? He's like, oh, you just, you really need to come over here, it's worth it. You really need to see this. And I was like, well, where are you at? And I look at the radio and I'm like, you're like, two miles away from us, Wayne. What do you, you know, what's going on? And he's like, oh, you wouldn't believe me. You just got to come see it. So we in Vance were talking a little bit and we're like, well, let's just go see what the heck's going on. We'll hunt that direction. So we hunted that direction. It took a slow out of get there. Then we had to cross the trout lake creek, the actual river that comes down. So we crossed that to get to him. We come walking around this corner where this little

oak tree shrub stuff is right on the bank. It's kind of sandy. And I walk up. I'm like, what's going on? He's like, look down. And I looked down and there was a footprint. First one I've ever seen. Like, away from touristic activity areas or, you know, a Bigfoot Museum or

whatever, because there's a lot of stuff like you said up here in the local area. You'll go walk into a store and see a Bigfoot cast or something. But where we were at was in the bottom of this nasty draw. And nobody is going to walk down there barefooted.

That's just not going to happen. In the size of it, it was bigger than ours, our feet. We didn't take pictures. We didn't carry cell phones back then. Our rhinos don't have a photographic ability, unfortunately. So we put our boots next to it for just size comparison. We're like, wow, this thing is freaking huge. And so if I was to guess the size of it, I would say it was every bit of 14 and a half to 15 inches in length, probably five to six inches and width.

but you could clearly make out the footprint in the sand. You could definitely tell it we'd been there within recently a couple days because it was so pretty crisp in the sand. The sand gets wet. It just kind of goes away pretty quick. So we saw that one in front of it. There may have been of a heel part before it was stepping on the trees and all the down pine needles as it was going back along the higher portion to go up up the mountain. So that's what happened there on that morning. Now, where we were hunting, we're overlooking that elk animal habitory thing I was mentioning in the beginning of this part.

And we're sitting on the ridge up there. And every once in a while, you'd hear a whooping sound down out of that swamp area. But it was not really like a, you didn't think it came from something very big. It sounded like it came from something small, would be my guess. So we just started having these weird things happen there. Some of our other friends would be like, what was that noise? I'm going on. We don't know.

I've never heard that before. So we just started hearing noises that we can't explain because we'd never heard them before. You know, it's just one of those. Well, we don't know. That was all in the same year. It was all in 2009. It wasn't like a 2010 Elkhont and a 2009 turkey hunt. It was all in the same year.

Yeah, and I might have missed it earlier. You might have already said it. But how far away is where you were hearing these noises and finding the footprints as opposed to just a few months earlier, you guys had seen the creature when you were turkey hunting. These two spots, you know, as the crow flies, how far away are they from each other? As a straight line as the crow flies, I'm two and a half, three miles at the most. Yeah, I know the area from hunting. I know trout lake.

And, I mean, you guys are basically right there on top of where the last incident happened. Yeah. So if you've been up to trout, you've been to trout lake, I'm sure, where that Chevron is. If you go straight, you know, like a, I don't know, half of a mile, that's where the road to the left goes to the animal sanctuary. That's what we'll call it. It's not a sanctuary, but it's easier to say it that way. Or you can go right out to what is known as like Hussum and Beezy Corner and all this. And so I go right to go turkey hunting because it's a little drier.

Then I go left to go elk and deer hunting because it's more of a, you know, this typical Washington rainforest in that area. The habitat's better for the elk over there than the drier part. It's kind of right on the border where the east-west line is. Yeah, it's been many years since I've been up there. And, you know, even in the last couple months, I've had people who've had encounters up there. One guy run out of Trout Lake. He's from, if my remember is right, he was from Laurel, which is east of Trout Lake. So it would be different than the way you and I would go in.

But, I mean, there's a lot that goes on up there. I want to go back and ask you about this fear that you had that first night. You know, I think a lot of their behavior is meant to terrify you. It's meant to make you go away. And I'm not so sure they're looking for a fight, but they will act like it to make you leave. But, you know, in this situation, you hadn't heard anything yet. I know the guy you were with, he said he thought you were out walking around the campsite. but you're sitting there and you have this overwhelming sense of fear and dread like your life is in serious danger.

And to me, that just seems very unnatural. That seems very not normal. What's your take on that? Well, it would be hard to explain. As far as like a Bigfoot going or Sasquatch, you know, all the different names for it. Um, I'm, I just think it's in the underlaw. I, I could be wrong, but mankind could have came from that. Um, that could have been us, you know, a thousand years ago.

That could have been what we looked like. No, there's no one to really say that isn't. Um, but I would definitely say that it was curious from what, you know, how I explained to you what happened and the reactions I was getting from it was, yeah, it was curious. It came there in the dark checking out what we were doing. It watched us get out of the truck. It didn't expect us to come to right where we did.

And then it was maybe like, oh, crap, there they are. I need to move. And then when it moved, it made the noise. And then, you know, it realized we saw it type situation. And then it accidentally and vertically just happened to walk by where we actually ended up going to maybe. So it came in to see what that was. Maybe it realized, hey, that's not a turkey. It sounds kind of weird.

But, you know, I'm not exactly sure what brought it to that location. but I would definitely say it was curious because of the size of it like you said, Wes, if it wanted to hurt us, it would have done it. There would be nothing that would have stopped it. I had a pistol and a shotgun with us. That was it. I honestly think those would have just made it mad.

Yeah, I think that there is some situations where they do hurt people. And I used to think it was random. I don't think it's random anymore. I think a lot of that goes on when you engage with them, whether that be shoot at them, throw rocks back at them. And I always tell people, just get up and leave.

They might pace you out, but a lot of times if you just leave, they'll leave you alone. I know you've been a hunter your whole life, but prior to this happening to you, what was your feelings about Sasquatch? I was never a non-believer, but I wasn't a believer. I was on the fence. I was always like, well, if I see something, then I'll believe in it. Because growing up, I'd meet guys all the time. You know, I saw a Bigfoot or a Sasquatch.

I'd seen, you know, in search of it, Leonard Nimoy, I've seen the Bigfoot stuff. And then, you know, there are towns around here in Washington State where they have Bigfoot parties and protect the hairy beast. It's illegal to shoot at them. So throughout the years I'd heard of it, but I'd never had actually seen one or, you know, growing up, I'd hear noises in the forest, but I didn't put two and two together thinking, oh, well, that was a wood knocker. That was a whoop or that was a rock hit in the water because you would hear things and be like, oh, a ground slide or a rock slide. You wouldn't ever put that kind of stuff together or think about any of it or, you know, driving down a logging road and out of the corner of your eye, you catch what appears to be a silhouette of a person, you know, and then you stop your car and you back up and it's gone. You're like, well, I know there was something that was just there, but then it's not there anymore. So, yeah, my whole thing with them before was if I run into it and see it, then I'll definitely, you know, stand on the side of the guys that have because there's no other way around that.

Once you see it, you see it. And I think in order to see it is you have to put in the time. It's not a, you're lucky you go out on, I'm going to go camping on Friday and you see it on Saturday. You know, I really think if the people that see it spend a lot of time in the woods, they're hunters, they're hikers, they're people at photography. And there are the occasional, whoops, there it is, you know, crossing the road thing. I hear a lot of those. But like my sighting, it took years.

I'm 50 years old. I've seen two bears in the wild in the woods hunting. One cougar. Actually, you know, that face-to-face type situation now. but I've seen them through the binoculars and all that at a distance. Not as much. So I'm just saying when it comes to these, nobody knows the numbers of them or anything really about them.

So I'm just saying, you know, there could be one every 20 square miles or whatever type situation. There's apparently a couple of grizzlies in Washington, but nobody sees them. You know what I mean? Yeah, and I understand where you were coming from. I mean, most hunters, especially in Washington State, because we hear about Sasquatch so much, I think most hunters are kind of on the fence until they see something or maybe hear something that throws them off, you know, because they're out there all the time. And to your point with Cougars, I mean, you're right. Here in Washington State, you think we'd be tripping over them, but you rarely ever see one.

You know, I like to ask everyone on the show, what do they think Sasquatch is? And you kind of alluded to it earlier with it being a Neanderthal. I'm curious, and not that it's a wrong answer, because like I said, no one knows. But what makes you think Neanderthal? To me, it's just after seeing it and then, you know, actually seeing a print on the ground with your own eyes, not something on television or secondhand knowledge. It's like, you're looking at it. You know, and after you see how this thing moves and the sounds of the sticks break in, you know, you're like, man, that sounds just like a real heavy. person taking steps because we could hear the thumb,

fum, fum, it wasn't like a loud thumb thumb, but you could, I mean, you could, you could tell there was something about it that you, wow, I can hear it walking. Something about that made you do that. So that's what I'm saying, to me, it's, you know, half man, half ape. It's in theander's fall. That's a, that's the bad boy caveman. It's, that's made it like our diet, like our, you know, our all the alligators and stuff or these things that all the prehistoric times, well, maybe this is what this is. The way its shoulders look, the back of its head, from what I can see with my own eyes, it's so human slash ape, you know, has the hair of the ape, but the body of a yoked out human, you know, I mean, muscle bound, just big, big, big person.

So that's what I'm going with. I've never seen anything to give me any different thought of that. Yeah, I think that's a fair answer for sure. And, you know, a lot of their behavior, and I've said this many times on the show, a lot of their behavior is very animalistic. But having said that, a lot of their behavior is very human-like. Sometimes witnesses will describe what their creature was doing or, you know, there's times where I'll sit back and go, God, that sounds like something a human would do.

And, you know, one time I was many years ago, I had all these different Bigfoot casts sprawled out across my desk. You can buy, you know, these were all famous casts. And I think I gave away most of them to kids at conferences. But when I was sitting at my desk and I was looking at all of the footprints, I remember thinking like, this looks like human feet, just on a larger scale. I mean, there's really nothing non-human primate about their feet. which is weird. I just find it very strange that we can't catch up with them. You know,

and you know this from being a hunter, Brian. I mean, if you gave me the option of, hey, go find this cougar. It's in this general location. It might take me a while. If you tell me,

hey, there's a human and he's kind of in this general area, I'll find a human all day long. And what's weird is these things are more like cougars. I mean, it's hard, it's like chasing a ghost at times. And it's frustrating that we can't catch up with them. But I kind of look at it in the perspective of how people always look, well, how come you haven't found a dead body or how come there's not clear evidence of all this?

And I just, I tell them the same thing. I said, look, man, after 50 years of hunting in the forest pretty much every year that I could when I wasn't on active duty military, I never found a dead bear. I never found a dead cougar. I found plenty of dead deer elk coyotes, but those hardcore predators I would never find their skeletons, their bones, their hides, just tracks and scat. That's all you would ever find unless you actually saw them or heard them. So when I look at it as in that, I'm like, hmm, well, maybe, you know, the bigfoot's like the bear and they eat their own or they bury them, you know, because I've heard from hunters that that's what they do. I have never physically seen that happen.

but that's just what I've been told over the years. But I've only, like I said, I've only ran into two bears on foot in front of me on the ground where it's like, okay, this thing can get me right now. And that's in 50 years of, you know, hunting over the years. So, yeah, I just, I think they're, they made it, they made it past the extinction, if that's what they wanted to call it when everything was dying off. But they do look very human-like from the back, from what I saw. in the footprint that definitely had me on that one. Yeah, you know, when people ask, especially skeptics, they'll ask me, you know, why don't we have a dead body? Why don't we have better pictures on game cams?

And to me, those are very fair questions. And I don't have a great answer. Those are great questions. I don't have a great answer. And to your point, you know, all the years I've been hunting, you're right, I've never come across a predator that just died. and was out there. You know, even prey, I would say most of the prey that I found that was dead. It was usually poached.

But, you know, being in the rainforest, our forest eat that stuff up. Not much it's going to last out there. So that whole argument actually makes sense when you're talking about the Pacific Northwest. It's an argument that's hard to argue with. I mean, but then you run into other problems. You know, what about down south? What about on these military bases? What about Nevada, Arizona?

Even when I was down with the Border Patrol, you know, down there, those guys would run into Sasquatch. And they're pretty open about it. You know, you're talking to California-Mexican border. They're pretty open about the fact that they've run into them. And when I was down there, my first thought was, there's nowhere to go. There's nowhere to hide. There's no trees. It's all rolling hills.

But yet they're running into Sasquatch. It's like some of those stuff is just hard to make sense of. You know what I mean? I wouldn't know about that one either, Wes, because me being stationed down there, and I've been along the border several times. I could not see that being habitat for them, but I could be wrong. Like you said, there's nowhere for them to hide down there. It's just stagebrush.

There's nothing really to hide. They only have those canyons. They have canyons and, you know, wadis and washedouts and stuff like that. But it's not forested. up here like Washington you know it's a national range force it's very dark you go off the logging roads up in this place and you'll get lost if you don't know where you're going in certain areas but haven't been logged or sprayed for vegetation um i just think they're a ninja at the forest you know they they grew up out there they've lived out there if you can snap your finger and

throw one in downtown in the city it wouldn't know what to do with itself it would you know it would be a culture shock just like it is kind of us for us going out there but at the end of the the day what I lays the most proof to me that these things are 100% real is we have on this planet multiple tribes for hundreds of years that have drawn these things on totem poles drew them on the walls talked about them and their legends made them as mythical beasts or gods or whatever and we have to think is the the Native Americans here in Washington the tribes here in Washington, like the Calish tribes and some of the other ones. They, they were very simple.

They weren't, it's like, like the kids today, we have weird imaginations of space travel and all this stuff. They didn't know what spaceships were back then. They didn't have anything to put that in their brain. So from the people that I have talked to that study this stuff is like they were literally drawing what they saw. Their statues were made of replications of what they saw of things that somebody had seen because it's like, you know,

look at what they had to look at all the time versus what a person today has to look at. You know, so our minds are, we see different colors, different objects, different things, what they saw. So you're talking about simple life. They throw it on a totem pole or on a wall on a painting. Well, if you look at it as the way these gentlemen that I was talking to, then they would be right because they were drawing what they saw. There's tribes in Russia that say it exists. There's some in Southeast Asia, Vietnam. Now, you're You have the United States and then you have Canada. So if all these different tribes all around this planet were saying these things were there,

then I'm like, okay, they were here. Because they're the ones that tell us about a lot of things that we base things off today. He'll, you'll bring it up with the Mayans or the Inkins or the, you know, that's the way they did it. So I just, once I started thinking about it after my siding, I decided to delve into a little bit of it here and there. I wanted to really know what it was. I really wanted to know what I was looking at. And that's why I can say I would love to have it happen again under a controlled circumstance, though, obviously. I don't intentionally want to harm one.

I've never, never wanted to do that. But I've heard people say, well, we need to get one to protect it. And I agree. If it went in and proven 100% when the government says, yeah, they're real, you know, which eventually I think they will because they're doing. with the aliens right now, right? I would just think that the reason why they're not telling us right now is how many hunters would want to go out in the woods and mount one of these things on their wall,

you know, because that's a lot of hunters are trophy hunters. They're not, they don't do it to fulfill a pastime or some, you know, I like to hunt. I mean, it's a male thing. I want to provide for my family, whatever. That's what I was born-bred to do. Some of these guys just want to go out and kill stuff and throw it on their wall and be like, oh, look what I got.

So I've always told myself, well, if the government were to come out and say, okay, Bigfoot's really, you can't shoot it anymore. How many of these hunters, these multimillion-dollar hunters, are going to pay millions of dollars to put one on their wall? You make it a felony, and that problem goes away. I would 100% agree with you, but using a weapon in a crime as a felony, but it doesn't stop people from doing it. You know what I mean?

It's a good point, man. It's a really good point. And you know, with the whole alien thing, there's something coming down the road. And they have to prepare people, but you can't just come out and show all your hand. You have to slowly spoon feed the mob, you know, as far as what's going on so that people, by the time you get to showing everything, no one cares because they've, you've kind of prep the valve, so to speak, as far as information coming down the pipeline. And I don't believe for two seconds the government is covering it up because, you know, they're worried about people shooting them or they're worried about us wiping out on other species or I just don't buy it. I don't buy any of that stuff. The only time the government gets involved, the United States government anyway, and after I say this, I'll be waiting for my IRS tax audit.

But the only time the government really cares about subjects like this, like with the UFO thing, is if they can take advantage of it, somehow weaponize it, somehow use it to their advantage. Otherwise, I don't think they really care one way or another. And that's what makes me really wonder about Sasquatch. No, I would agree with you on that, looking at it from that side, 100%. But that was, you know, I just wonder. and that was kind of the only logical thing I would come up with was to keep people from, you know, overflowing into the forest.

And maybe there's stuff out there that they're really not wanting people to find that, you know, so they keep us kind of in a closed environment, you know, don't go out. Don't go too far. You might find something. So we want to keep you like on a leash, keep you, you know, where people are only going so many miles away from society, basically. Yeah, it's a mystery for sure. And I think most people don't need the government. to come out and tell them what's true and what's not, especially over the last couple of years.

What's that old saying? Believe half of what you see and none of what you hear. I feel like that a lot of the times when the government comes on. You know, anyone from the government tells you anything, and not aliens. I'm just saying anything in general. It's kind of like, I don't know, you smell a lot of BS coming from these talking heads. and it would be nice, though, I mean, for the people who are on the fence or maybe don't believe for them to come out and say they're real, and, you know, maybe say, hey, if you're in this situation, do this. You brought up the Black Bear.

And Black Bear, you know, there's, I don't know that there's much you can do. Running uphill, they're going to outrun you. I think that's a tale that hunters say, you know, run uphill. They have troubles running uphill. I don't know, man. I've seen a lot of black bears on videos and they have no trouble running uphill. And you can't play dead. I guess with a grizzly you can, but not a black bear.

I mean, you're not going to out run it. You're not going to out climb it. And you're not going to out swim it. But I think when it comes to Sasquatch, I think it's like I tell people, and I was telling you earlier, I really believe if you're in a situation and you turn around and leave, 99% of the time, I think they're going to leave you alone. that's my opinion of course and I do too

Wes because like I said it had me in the truck I was in a box there was no way for me to get away from it so if it came there with the intent to hurt a human I was easy it would have been like putting a mouse in a paper bag and stepping on it I don't know man

you got a Marine with a 45 on the other end you know what I mean well if it would have touched the window I would be showing you pictures or something you know there wouldn't be a phone call report, but I was able to just, yeah, I was, I hope I don't ever feel that fear again. I'll just put it that way. That level of fear is, it's unbelievable what it does, how it makes you feel.

So I was pretty shocked, pretty, really shocked at what happened that day. And since then, now when I go out, like I said, we were just on a hunting trip. And, you know, now I'm just, I keep my eyes constantly going around, and especially behind me when I'm walking, just to see if anything changes. I just kind of watch stuff now. Pay a little more attention than I used to. Your gut tells you something's watching you. It's weird.

It's like there's something there. You know it's there, but you can't see it. It's like you're standing in a dark room, and you're the only one in the light, and if you stick your hand out of that light, you're going to touch something to summarize it. Yeah, that's exactly what it's like. I think it's a great summary.

You know, the last, question I want to ask you. I know that you were a Marine and thank you so much for serving our country. And I like to ask guys who served, you know, what was kind of your best memory of serving the country? Coming home. Coming home. That's what I would say. That's like the best memory. That's the most joyful memory was coming home every time, you know. And then just visiting other countries, West, Just seeing other, you know, how people live, their traditions. And like I was saying earlier, when we first started talking, how so much stuff is taken for granted here in the United States,

stoplights, just simplest stuff is unreal. I mean, yeah, yeah, over there you walk around with a bag with ice and soda in it and a straw. We hear you walk around with a cup. I mean, it's just so different in some of those places. And that's my greatest memory. I got to see some things that, most people don't get to see ever in their life, regardless of wealth or status or anything.

So I was fortunate in that, and that would be my fun memory, I guess, you know, coming home in the memories of seeing other countries. And then you find out, you know, your government's lied to you and used you for their riches. And then it's, you have a little animosity about it. So, yeah. Yeah, I can imagine, you know, either way, the civilian population, and respects and admires what you do as far as serving the country. And thank you for your service. And, you know, thank you for taking the time to come on and share it.

I always love hearing from hunters, especially local hunters, because I know the areas where a lot of these guys go and where they encounter these things. And I really enjoyed chatting with you, Brian. Thank you so much for taking the time to come on. Yeah, thank you, Wes. It was good talking to you. Thanks again, Brian.

And that's it for tonight, everybody. 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, check out Sasquatch Chronicles.com, you can become a member and get additional shows. Until next time, everyone.