Sasquatch Chronicles - SCEP:268 Strange chatter in the woods

Episode Date: November 5, 2016

Chris shares two encounters he had in Ohio. Chris writes "I'm Chris, from Ohio. Would first like to say I really enjoy your show. I've been listening for a good 6 months or more now. I look forward to it every week. I'v been considering writing in for a little while now. I have a couple of stories that may be interesting for your show. I will try to sum them up quickly so you can get an idea. The first is a short story that happened to me back in June of this year. I was up with a friend in Sleeping Bear Dunes Michigan. It is a national lakeshore along lake Michigan. We were up for a weekend camp trip. One morning we got up early to go check out this overlook. It was about 7am we were walking the trail to this overlook. There was rainy weather off and on so that morning it was really foggy. Everything was still and dead quiet. As we were on the trail, suddenly something large came crashing down through the tree tops about 20-25 yards from us. When the object hit the ground it had a deep thud signifying it was very heavy. A minute or two later I started to hear what sounded like (the closest comparison I can think of) small children basically chattering off in the distance, in the direction the heavy object seemed to have come from. Immediately I thought of everything I had heard on your show. It seemed to me to be an exact replay of things I've heard other guests talk about. I continued to hear the chatter as we walked on. We made it to the overlook, hung out for a while and then headed back to the car. As we passed the same area of the chattering, I could still hear it only much more faint this time and farther away. I never saw anything, never heard any other movement or anything else. That was it. I can't confirm anything but all of this reminded me of many other people's encounters on the show, even occurring in the same order as others..."

Black thing go from left to right, and I thought, I'm going to die out here and no one's ever going to know. I couldn't believe what my eyeballs was showing me. I'll never forget how evil the eyes were. It was horrible. I mean, I've never seen nothing that evil. It ran towards me at a rate that I can't even explain, turned and stared at me. And this look of, I just want to kill you. I want to say it was human, but it wasn't.

He was yelling out, he'd he grab a gun, grab a gun. I was like, for what? He said, just grab a gun. And there's footprints all the way to the door of my house that had went inside my garage all the way to the door. 911, what are you reporting? Jesus Christ, you better 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. He's put him now. You're listening to Sasquatch Chronicles. Check us out online at Sasquatch Chronicles.com. If you've had an encounter, email me. My email address is Wes at Sasquatch Chronicles.com. Welcome to the show, everyone. Thanks for being here tonight. Got a great show plan for you tonight. That was my new intro. Really hope you guys like it, trying to improve the overall listening experience to the show. I'm sure you've noticed the upgrade in mics and just the overall. I want the sound to sound better overall. I hope you guys really like the intro. I put some time into it.

Got a great show planned tonight. I'm going to be inviting Chris on the show. And Chris comes to us from Ohio. And Chris had two very, very interesting encounters. One when he was about 14 years old, he was harassed most of the night by something very large, breathing very heavy around his camper. And then I know a recent encounter Chris had, he talks about having large rock star on at him and hearing what sounded like children gibbering back and forth. He said it definitely wasn't kids, but that's what he had envisioned in his head when he was trying to figure out what the language was. So you'll want to stay tuned for that. Mitchell Taylor, who is a graduate student at Eastern Kentucky University, he sent me an email and said, first, let me say that I'm a huge fan of the show. I've only been listening for a few months, but I find it wildly entertaining and have been binge listening for a good number of episodes.

I do not have an encounter for you. I would like to call it more of an inquiry. And then he goes on in the letter. And basically what Mitchell's looking for, for you Bigfoot researchers out there listening, he's trying to put together a project for his final graduate project. It's kind of cool his professors allowing him to do this. but he's actually researching the people who actually look for Bigfoot. And he's trying to figure out the demographics of these people, how they got involved in it,

how much money and time they spend looking for the creature. And then Mitchell's going to compile everything and present his final project on the data he's collected. So if you're out there and you'd like to be a part of it, Mitchell's email is Mitchell, M-I-T-H-E-L-L-U-S-T-L-L-T-L-L-L-4-6. at mymail.ecu.edu. Again, it's Mitchell underscore Taylor 146 at mymail. com.E.U. So if you're out there and you want to be a part of it, definitely shoot Mitchell an email. Speaking of universities, I posted this to the blog on Sasquatch Chronicles.com.

It's taxpayers on the hook for University of New Mexico's Bigfoot expedition. I'm laughing because one of the guys in here, I swear he says leprechaun and unicorns several times. But take a listen to this. Did you know there was a search in the Sandia Mountains last year for Bigfoot? There sure was. Did it find any trace of that legendary beast? It sure didn't.

Did you know who paid for that well-funded expedition? Well, you probably don't. But News 13 investigative reporter Larry Barker does, and it is one tall tale. We do have cases where people have been attacked. We have cases where animals have been killed. Bigfoot, that's never been documented. Leprechauns haven't been documented either.

Is there any other university in the United States that is researching Bigfoot? I don't know, but I don't think so. There's only one way to describe what's happened at the University of New Mexico. bizarre. Dr. Bob Frank is U&M's president. I didn't know about this until you contacted us to bring it to our attention. At the center of this controversy is a legendary creature called Bigfoot. In the animal kingdom, Bigfoot is right up there with the Loch Ness monster, unicorns, and werewolves. According to folklore, it's a hairy, human-like beast that supposedly lives in the woods.

Even though there has never been any scientific evidence the creature actually exists, U&M's Gallup campus is front and center in the hunt for Bigfoot. And leading the charge is Dr. Christopher Dyer. I haven't seen it, but I've heard it. I've had a rock thrown at me by one at night, I think, and I've certainly smelled it because they have a very strong odor. From his office in western New Mexico, Dr. Dyer heads up U.N. M's Gallop Campus. I like this guy. And he's not presiding over students and faculty.

Dr. Dyer traips us through the outback investigating legendary creatures. Spend a few hours with Dr. Dyer and he'll tell you all about the bigfoot hairs he's collected, the suspicious footprints he's found, and the evidence he's collected. We're talking to Nikolias about a sighting and an encounter with one of the hairy people, as we call them up here in First Nation, who ran into a tree on. his way down, Akeel? Yes, sir. Dr. Dyer claims he pursues Bigfoot only on his own time. However, a News 13 investigation finds Dyer hit up taxpayers more than $7,000 in Bigfoot-related expenses.

Oh, no. How's he going to answer the charges of this felony? This is amazing, isn't it? They even brought the old senator down to give his two cents, like the senator has anything to say about spending money or, anyway, enough of my two cents. Here you go. Thomas is a scientist and lecturer at New Mexico Tech. When you're expending the resources of taxpaying citizens on what is completely pseudoscience, that's a betrayal of the public trust. That's a betrayal of the mission of the university.

In February, Dyer organized an on-campus Bigfoot conference. It was the largest and most well-attended event in the history of this campus. UNM showed out thousands of dollars in advertising airfare for the guest speakers, hotels, and per diem. Self-professed Bigfoot expert, Dr. Jeff Meldrum, was handed a $1,000 honorarium plus expenses. And just for the record, if you guys get a chance, check this out on Sasquatronicles.com, because it is, their auditorium is packed. It's standing room only in there, which was pretty cool to see that much interest in this subject. And I don't think Dr. Meldrum's ever called himself an expert. I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure he's never called himself an expert on Bigfoot.

These beams that have been suggested been for a long, long time, obviously. The conference had everything going for it. Everything but balance. The presentation in Gallup was not balanced. Ben Radford is a researcher, author, and managing editor of the scientific journal, The Skeptical Inquirer. Two people who have professed to be experts on the subject of Bigfoot giving this talk, this exciting talk. And yet, where were the skeptics?

There's many Bigfoot skeptics here in New Mexico they could have invited. Listen to this little baby. You know, let me tell you something. It's not hard to get into a Bigfoot conference. I'm pretty sure you don't need to show credentials to show up. Anyone's welcome to show up at those. I've never, ever seen anyone turn down from any of these conferences. And that's all this was is really just a conference.

He was doing lectures and listen to this guy. He acts like he should have been personally invited to this thing. Give me a break. Following the two-day conference, Dr. Dyer hit the road in search of the elusive beast. It may be the first taxpayer-supported Bigfoot expedition in history. Armed with binoculars and other paraphernalia, Dr. Dyer and some of his pals headed here to the Sandeas in search of the elusive Bigfoot. UNM paid for everything. Hotels in Santa Fe and Albuquerque,

meals, mileage, even seven pairs of snow shoes. No students or UNM faculty were invited. There was a field trip, and taxpayers paid for that. So if you went to the Sandias to look for Bigfoot, right? We took one day and we went up there, yeah, walked around. Did you see Bigfoot?

No, what we looked at Habitat. We didn't see it. This is like to catch your president. editor. That's what it feels like, right? Am I overreacting here? One member of the search party was Bigfoot believer, George Harvey. So why should taxpayers pay for George Harvey to look for Bigfoot in the Sandia's? Well, he's very poor, actually, and his whole family is poor. So, no, I don't think he could have paid for it himself. What are the odds, then, that Bigfoot exists here in the Sandia Mountains? I think the odds against would be billions to one.

It makes as much sense for U&M to have a Bigfoot hunt in Sandia as it would be for U&M to host a field trip to find the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Well, you know, if you want to spend the day, how can the Sandias go for it? I would just say don't use the public's money. The track record of success for Bigfoot searches is exactly zero. It's not 1%, it's not 10%, it's not 30%, it's exactly 0%. zero. So there has never been a successful Bigfoot search. I use discretionary funds for things that I think are of merit, and that could include field work of some kind or research of some time. People use monies from the taxpayers to do research or to go on expedition.

For Bigfoot? For Bigfoot or whatever. When you add it all up since February, taxpayers have shelled out $7,458 for Bigfoot. related activities. State Senator George Munoz, Liz and Gallup, and serves on the Legislative Finance Committee. Here's where a senator explains why, how this is so wrong to waste money. Let's hear what he has to say. Have you spoken to Dr. Dyer about his interest in Bigfoot? I don't know if I can keep a straight face and ask him why he's spending this amount of money on something that doesn't really exist. Well, how do you explain this situation to your colleagues in the State Senate? I can't.

How can I say we have a director that's hunting a mythical legend? They'll laugh me out of the room. It's not expanding the frontier of science. It's wasting time and resources on something that is as ephemeral as leprechauns. It's really a waste of... This guy in lepron. What's your advice to Dr. Dyer as it relates to his pursuit of Bigfoot at public expense? Pay back the money.

Dr. Dyer's Bigfoot expeditions at taxpayer expense may be coming to an end. What is your direction to Dr. Dyer as it relates to field trips in search of Bigfoot? Well, Dr. Dyer needs to be much more thoughtful about how we undertake these activities. the type of expedition that just took place was not appropriate and would occur in that manner again. Larry Barker. KRQE, News 13. Anyway, enough of that. I kind of like to take his class, to be honest with you.

I like that, Dr. Dyer. That guy is, I bet he's a cool professor to have. At least he's willing to kind of look at it. Let's see if I'm way off on this. This is from the website. Rory says, public taxpayers for Sasquatch studies. However, how many millions of dollars are wasted on other things that everyday citizens don't know a thing about and studies of things that prove to be endless

or with no evidence, i.e. Mars. Dr. Aaron says, why did they need to invite skeptics to their symposium? Get ready to see a lot more state-funded research in the next four years. Just don't look too close or ask too many questions. Oh, that's probably right there, Doc. Steve says the amount of money wasted by the government is staggering. And these guys are in the uproar, about $7,500. He says, was the professor wrong in using taxpayer money? Probably. But New Mexico has bigger problems than that to worry about.

Probably right there, too, Steve. Anyway, I thought it wasn't interesting news. You know, it's the guy intervening to. He's real snide on all his remarks. And then he brings the guy out who's talking about leprechauns, which is another, I think, professor at university, New Mexico Tech University, or I don't even know what school I brought him from. But anyway, it was just an interesting news story. Enough of that.

Let's jump into it tonight. I want to welcome Chris to the show. Chris, thanks for coming on, ma'am. Yeah, thanks for having me. It's good to be on. And I know you had two encounters, two very interesting encounters. if you would for the audience, kind of start from the beginning. Start with the very first one.

What were you out doing? And then if you would, just walk us into what happened. Kind of fill in a little bit of backstory. I think I was probably around 13, 14 years old. And back in those days, we used to go to my uncle's house down in south central, Ohio. And he owned some property down there, I think 12 or 13 acres out. that way, kind of around the old man's cave area, more or less. He, at the time, well, I shouldn't say at the time, at one time he had just a one room

cabin that he built in the woods there, that he built all by hand. And basically, the setting of Southern Ohio for those who may or may or may not be familiar with it is kind of like rolling hills, kind of starting to, get into what you could possibly call like the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, but not quite there yet. It's just more like rolling hills and really wooded, you know, thick woods everywhere, except for where, you know, major highways go through and everything. So his property has, as you pull off the road, it's a long gravel driveway,

probably almost a quarter mile long. It dips down immediately right off the road down and then goes back up, kind of curving up a ways up to like sort of the top of maybe a prairie sort of grassland area, but there's woods all through there. And then towards the top there, it's just grassland. Diveraging off of the road also is a small trail that we used to take through the woods, which was probably, I don't know, less than a quarter mile back there to that one-room cabin. But the encounter didn't happen at the cabin, but it happened.

And from what I think happened, I think it happened somewhere along that small trail, but I'll come back to that later. So fast forward up to where I'm about 13, 14 years old, I can't quite remember the exact year or anything. He had recently built a house up there on the top of where the prairie where the grass is. And when we would go down there, we would bring our camper that we had at the time, just the tow behind camper. and park it up on his driveway there, right along where the woods line starts up, right where his driveway is, up by his house. So one weekend we were, and I should say also we would go up there and we would go hunting and things like that and just go visit and, you know, that kind of thing.

So I believe it was, it wasn't quite early fall to the point where, you know, the leaves are starting to change colors or anything yet. It was really late summer, I think. We were up there one weekend and one night we were camping out there in the camper. And my dad and stepmom were back there in the bedroom portion of the camper. And then at the front of the camper there is the bench seating that can fold down into a bed. Right. So I was up there sleeping on the fold down up there in the front of the camper.

So about, I would say about 1.15 in the morning, 1.20 in the morning, I woke up to this horrendously just god-awful sound. And coming through the walls of the camper, it sounded basically what I would describe as like a, kind of what my first thought was there was somebody that was either like demonically possessed or like some crazy person that had escaped from, you know, a jail or a prison somewhere and was having some kind of psychotic episode in the middle of the night to where it sounded like whatever a hypothetical person here was actually walking around the outside of the camper with his mouth cupped up against the walls of the camper and breathing really, really heavily and loud as loud as he possibly could and heavily and as just evil sounding as he possibly could into the walls of the camper.

And the way it sounded like, it sounded like he was doing that as he was in walking around it slowly over and over around the camper. So as you can imagine being woken up, woken up by a sound like that, your, your hair just immediately stands up on end, you know, and I started freaking out a little bit. I guess I can shamelessly do a sort of an impression of what kind of sound like if you, if you really want. Yeah.

No, I'd love to, I'd love to hear it. it. Yeah, I mean, basically it sounded like just a really long, loud, obnoxious, like, sigh that had like a, I don't know, like an evil sort of like a tone to the end of it. It sort of sounded kind of like this, like just over and over. With that sound, you could hear like some other low, almost like kind of rolling roar in the background of that same sound going on at the same time, but you couldn't hear it. as well inside the camper. So if you can picture that sound only way louder, way worse, way deeper, you know, all that. And in the middle of the night, it's enough to make your hair stand up, especially when you're like a young teenager like that. So I listened to that for, I don't know, probably 25, 30 seconds.

It felt like minutes. And finally I'm like, I just yelled, Dad. Like, yeah, I said, Can you hear that? Like, yep. At this point, the dogs, they had small docks and dogs. They had it back there, too. They were barking up a storm at this point.

And I'm like, I'm like, you know what that is? And he said, no. And I heard him rustling around back there. And I could hear him get the shoes on and whatever. And then I heard him fiddle with the door. And I said, don't go out there. Don't go out there. And finally, I knew he was going to just go out there.

So I said, wait, wait, and I wanted to lean down and grab, at the time I had a, like a breakdown, single action 20-gauge shotgun that I had for kind of like a youth hunt sort of a sort of thing. So I had that next to me just, you know, just because I just said, let me get the shotgun first. And by the time I was getting, getting to that point, he was already out the door. And I looked out the window there. and I could see he was standing out in the porch of the camper, and he was looking around with the flashlight. But what really stood out to me was when he opened the door, how much the sound changed.

Clearly there was nobody near the outside of the camper. There's nothing near it. But the sound went from that long, demonic sighing noise to an all-out kind of scream, I guess, for lack of a better word. It was like, it was that same sort of sign sound, except it was way loud.

It sounded like somebody was on like a big bullhorn or megaphone or something, just blasting it from the woods. I mean, like really blasting it. And you could hear echoing through the valley of, you know, the area we were in for probably miles. I mean, it was just, it would just keep going and roll and echo just forever. And then when he opened the door,

also that lower, that lower roar pitch came through a lot more with the sound so if you can imagine that the low sighing sound

that's really loud plus another roar low pitch roar on top of it that those two tones were going on at the same time and it just kept going over and over

almost like it was on like you know on a loop like on an audio loop somewhere on just giant speakers but clearly there's nobody but us around it was private property and there's nobody around that could do anything like that.

So basically at the time, that whole episode went on for probably, I bet, 35, 40 minutes. And then eventually it sort of started to taper away to where it just sounded further away and further and more further away. And eventually just kind of just dissipated into nothing. and at the time we were just

we kind of dismissed it as a bobcat a bobcat throwing a fit or something like that or maybe even two raccoons fighting or something but you know kind of being in shock from the whole experience I sort of just left at a back I didn't really want to think further into it at the time

but it never felt right never seemed right to me I mean I mean I'm not the most avid outdoors ever but I do I do love to go on the outdoors, and I know a thing or two about some wildlife. So I think I, all that to say, I think I knew better that it wasn't a bobcat and it wasn't a raccoon because I've even listened to sound clips several times of bobcat recordings. And what I heard was absolutely nothing like that at all. I mean, not even close. How far up?

You know, when you sit in a camper, you're actually a lot higher off their ground on most campers. You have to step up into them. how high up did you hear that noise going around and around the camper? If I had to, yeah, if I had to guess, if you're standing up in a camper, like a normal-sized camper, it kind of sounded like the guy, the supposed guy's voice, like his mouth would have been maybe about chest heights on the wall, up against the wall. That's pretty high up in a camper. Yeah, yeah, which was kind of weird.

And now you mentioned that, I didn't really think of it like that. It was just weird that it sounded like that. But then as soon as my dad opened the door, it didn't sound like he was remotely close to it at all. It sounded like he was coming from down in the woods. So, you know, I don't know what to make of that, that part of it, I guess. What did your dad, did your dad, do you feel like your dad really thought it was a bobcat? I mean, I, you know, my dad's not really one to tell wild stories where he's actually not being serious unless you can literally tell. not being serious. You know, he's got like a grin or a smile or laughs about it afterwards,

and he wasn't laughing about it. So, you know, I don't know. Maybe he was just telling, saying that to calm me down at the time. I can't really be sure. Yeah, no, I hear you. And he's a good man if he was, just trying to blow it off as, you know, something that, you know, it's a cougar, or it's a bobcat, you know, just trying to let the situation go. How long did it walk around the camper, do you think? Well, if it did walk around, I have a feeling, before he walked out the door there, I have a feeling it must have walked around. Oh, geez, probably at least 10 minutes, 10 to 12 minutes. When he opened the door, I don't remember hearing or experiencing anything, any kind of, you know, I guess person or a creature or whatever, like running off, like, you know, like running off into the brush or the tree line or anything.

There was nothing moving that I could tell at the time. So that's another aspect of it. I can't explain, you know. Did your dad walk around the camper, or did he just open the door and step outside? He didn't walk around the camper, but he stepped outside to look in the woods and this kind of looked, you know,

about 90 degrees from coming out the door there, and he kind of walked basically to the end of the camper from what I can remember, basically to the end of the awning or the end of the actual camper itself and kind of looked down into the field. And that's about all I can remember. him doing at the time.

Yeah, and he came back in. Yeah, especially the noise you heard, too. I mean, that's not a normal. Some animals make strange noises. Foxes make really weird noises. Even, well, Bobcats make strange noises, too. But they generally don't walk around chest high. If you're walking around chest high to a camper, you know, when you step up, generally

speaking, into a camper, you're about two feet off the ground. And so if it's chest high, that's a pretty large animal. And if it would have been a bear, I think. think it would have stuck around. And I've had encounters. I've talked to people who've had encounters like this where they'll go around the camper. I had a gentleman one time on the show, and he's talking about going around and around the camper, breathing really, really heavy.

And then at the last moment, it, next to his head by the window, it actually shook the camper like it was going to push it over. And that's when he freaked out, grabbed a gun, ran outside, and whatever it was was gone. You know, makes you wonder what was going on there, especially to kind of startle you and your dad. I think of your dad thought it was just a bobcat. He would have been, not just go back to bed, you know. Right.

The camper, our camper didn't move at all or anything like that. But I guess basically the only experience I have outside of my own here is the stuff I've listened to on your show. And, you know, all the encounters I've heard of how fast, you know, those guys support can can apparently move. I guess thinking about that, maybe it is positive. that he that if if something was right outside that they could have it could have taken off and bolted so fast that we wouldn't even noticed or or anything because it was pitch black outside until he turned the porch light of the camper on even that's just lighting up to you know the little immediate area there so we had no light on anything it was just pitch black middle the night so we wouldn't have seen anything either um yeah i think it's interesting to use the term demonic uh that's kind of a demonic type sound. I hear that a lot. And when even people who aren't woodsmen or don't go out in the

woods all the time, when they talk about a sound that they heard and they use that term, that's not a normal term for people to use when you're describing natural wildlife, like when you hear a fox or when you hear cougars sometimes scream at night. You can kind of confuse them for women, you know, that high-pitched sound. But you don't, I don't, I've never heard a hunter stop and go, wow, that sounds really demonic. And I'm not beating you up for saying that. I'm saying a lot of witnesses say that.

I mean, I even said it after my own encounter. I mean, it sounded, the growl sounded very demonic because it sounded so evil. It just sounded so unnatural. Yeah, and that's exactly what this was like. It was like, you know, that sighing scream with a low roar tone with it, but then there's just this element to it that had this, that just, you know, it just made you.

your hair stand up like it didn't, it didn't feel remotely natural at all, like you say. And it's almost like you can't explain it unless you experience something like that yourself. And you kind of know where someone's coming from with that, you know. Yeah. No, and I definitely get it. I know on the show in the past I've talked to, I've brought a couple hunters on and even Bigfoot researchers. I've asked them, or I'll use the term Bigfoot investigators more than I hate the term researcher. But that's neither here nor there.

You know, a lot of times I've asked them about this hearing children chatter or hearing voices chattering off in the woods. And a lot of the people have on the show where it just doesn't make sense. I had a guy from Oregon on one time, and we still talk occasionally, but he was talking about being out cutting wood in the middle of freaking nowhere and hearing this chatter. And I asked him, I said, was it like a Russian guy talking? He goes, no, it was like kids. sounded like kids giggling and chattering. He goes, I couldn't make out what they were saying, but he goes, it just wasn't right. Something was off about it.

He was like, it's not an area. If there's little kids like that in that area, I would have seen them. And you had something similar happened to you. Would you mind telling us about that? When did this happen? When did this encounter take place? Yeah, definitely. Real quick, though, if you don't mind, I have actually one more element to add to that last story.

Yeah, absolutely. It's just a side point. Okay. So if you remember real quick, that small path that I described coming off the road that comes off of the main driveway of the property there, the reason I pointed that out before was because when you walk down that trail, you walk to that small one-room cabin we had. But about midway down, off to your, if you're walking down it from the road, off to your left, there's a tree there. There's like a distinctive tree that sits in a low-lying area. of the woods there. And it has a noticeable branch that comes off of it before it keeps going up into the rest of

the canopy of the tree. And so normally it looks like just a normal branch with the rest of the tree, like all the other trees around it. But after that night that we had that horrible sound encounter, we decided to walk down that trail towards the sound that we thought, towards the area of the area of the area. the sound we thought the sound was coming from. So when we walked down that trail, we got to where that tree is, and we look up in that tree branch that goes off there, like I was just describing, was completely skinned

of bark. I mean, it was like, it was almost like someone got up there with a giant whittling knife and just whittled that thing down to the bare, bright, white, you know, wood under the bark. And there was shreds of wood, or shreds of the bark laying. kind of down around it on the ground. But whatever that sound was, we are speculating that whatever the thing made that sound must have gotten up on that branch

or reached up to it and just shredded the crap out of it and anger and frustration or something. And again, we dismissed it as the bobcat thing, climbing up there and just throwing a fit and going nuts. But, you know, I don't know if bobcats do that. I kind of doubt it. but if it's something huge, long, or not huge, not long, but huge, like maybe a Sasquatch or something, it would be, it's not, the branch wasn't high enough to where he couldn't at least reach up,

maybe eye level or a little bit above his head and just, you know, go, go nuts on that branch if he was really ticked off about something. So that's another kind of interesting aspect to the story that kind of adds to it, you know. Yeah, that is interesting. How high up was that branch? I would guess that the branch was about eight to nine feet. Okay. I mean, when you're standing on the trail and you look over to the tree,

the branch looks lower to the ground than it actually is. But if you walk down to where the base of the tree is, it's actually at a lower elevation of the trail. So once you get down there, you look up, the branch is considerably higher up. So I would guess to be about eight or nine feet. And was it like that when you guys got that? there or did you guys see it prior to that night or was it just something you noticed because you were going out looking for the sound? We noticed it when we went out and looked for the sound,

but the thing about that tree is it had a nice hollowed out area underneath it that my uncle would store his wheelbarrel there all the time and he'd flip it upside down under that tree and leave it there until the next time it came up. And the branch was basically above right there where he put his wheelbarrel all the time and he would put it there for years. You know, leave it there, although it wasn't there at the time when this happened. So, no, we knew the tree well, you know, we knew that area of the trail well, and we've never seen anything like that before or since. I mean, I haven't been there in years, but it's been a long, long time. It most definitely was not like that before because the night before we had walked the trail just, you know, to go kick

around in the woods and do have something to do, and it was perfectly normal like it always was, And the next morning after that incident, it was completely shredded. I mean, it was like new wood that was shredded. You know, you could tell it was new. So it definitely happened that night. I wanted to throw that little snippet in there. No, I'm glad you did. I'm glad you did.

Yeah. Well, tell us about this other encounter. How many years later did this other thing happen to you? The thing happened actually back, I think, late March or early June of this year. I think it was more like late March. Me and a buddy of mine here, we went up to Sleeping Bear Dunes for basically a camp out just to get away for the weekend for a little bit. We were up there actually for, are you familiar with what Amateur Radio is?

Yeah, absolutely. Ham radio? Yeah. Okay. Yeah, him and I are Ham Radio operators, and we were actually going up to Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore there to do a park activation for this year long. event that's going on at Ham Radio called National Parks on the Air.

So we would go up there and basically activate sleeping bear dins as the National Lakeshore on the radio and people can contact us and get rewards for how many parks they work for the year and all that. But that was the main point. We went up there, but at the same time, we were sightseeing a little bit while we were there. So one morning, I guess it was Saturday morning when we went up, we decided to get up early and go sightsee. and we went out to this trail that leads to a really nice overlook onto Lake Michigan.

But the trail is probably about one and three quarters to maybe two miles long total, up and down hills and things and through the woods there. So it's kind of hard to judge the real distance. But we got to this trail. I believe, I can't remember the exact name of the trail, but I think it was like Imperial Point or Imperial Trail or something Imperial. Just one of those pull-offs you can park at, you know, and go walk in and whatever. So it was about 7 o'clock in the morning, and it was really foggy,

really dense fog in the woods. And we went walking through the trail there, and we were probably, I don't know, I would say 6 to 800 yards in the trail. trail in the woods there. Dead silent, no wind moving. The fog was thick. It was thick, you know, kind of above the trees, within the trees too, because we were in like high canopy, you know, proper forest. Nothing moving. Everything is silent. All of a sudden, something big and heavy comes crashing down through the top of the canopy, about probably 30 yards from me, over the trail, over me, and comes crashing straight down through the, to the

through the leaves and the branches and hits the ground with a really low-pitched thud. In my mind, there could be nothing, it couldn't have been anything else except like a rock, like a big rock, probably the size of, I'm speculating probably the size of maybe a really large grapefruit or even the size of like a basketball, maybe. And it came from, it definitely came from the top of the canopy because the trees were so tall that the leaves didn't start till, you know, way up there, probably, you know, 30, 30, or more. And it's just, boom, thud.

That's weird. That was definitely not a small branch. And then immediately after that, I heard exactly what you were just describing a couple minutes ago, the small, what sounded like small children chattering off the complete opposite direction of where it seemed like that rock must have come. It was off in the distance. Kind of hard to tell how far away it was, but if I had to guess, I would guess it was within, I would guess it was within 100 to 150 yards at the most.

But just like you described, it sounded like more or less small children chattering, but it had a, it had kind of a, almost a primitive tone to it, like it wasn't quite children, you know, it just didn't sound quite right. And they were just, you couldn't make out anything they were saying, although, you know, the kind of the, I guess, annunciation for lack of a better word of it. sounded like it was some kind of language, but they were moving really fast, and it was at least one.

Maybe it almost sounded like there could have been three individuals, to me, just chattering back and forth and just nod stop. And it was moderately loud. I mean, for being a dead quiet woods, it was moderately loud. And it was funny because as soon as all that happened, that all happened within, you know, probably four or five seconds. And then immediately I thought of your show. And I thought of the guests and other people that I've heard talk

on your show before about encounters. And that happened, what happened there was an exact image of what I would imagine people described on your show with the chattering and the rock throwing and all that. You know, I wasn't really, I wasn't in the state of mind where I'm like looking for something to happen.

You know, I wasn't thinking about anything like this at all. I was actually just tired because we didn't sleep, you know, very long the night before. And this all happened. happened and then I started thinking about the whole Satswash thing and then I just immediately got you know kind of on edge so I heard the chattering and I didn't see anything I didn't see any movement didn't hear any movement just the chattering so I basically just kind of wrote it off and tried

to forget about it for a while and we kept on when we got to the overlooks and looked for a while and then we turned around and came back came back the same way we came on that trail and when we got back to that same area where the rock must have been thrown, I could still hear the chattering, although it sounded considerably further away. I would say probably, if I had to guess, maybe 250 to 300 yards at that point, it sounded about the same, maybe one less individual chattering back and forth, but it sounded way further away. And that was pretty much it. We walked out after that, that was it. So you have this rock thrown at you. And how big was it? How big was it?

a rock? Well, I don't know because when that happened, when the rock fell and hit and then I start hearing the chattering, I kind of froze a little bit. So I didn't think to actually go over and try and find it. Oh, I got you. And see how big it was. But I'm just going off with the sound of it. And I think, like I said, I think if I had to have to speculate, it was at least a large grapefruit size, if not maybe a small basketball size. It had a low thud to it. And it went way over my head too, because it must have gone over the trees and then down, because I didn't hear it skipping through the trees. I heard it coming straight down through the leaves of the tops of the trees, you know? So whatever through that must have thrown it like, you know,

like Superman or something, just lob that thing and it just happened to come down right there. When you heard the chattering, what did you think it was? What was going through your mind when you were listening to this? Well, my first thought was, uh, either small kids or or or at best preteens but it sounded like small kids like really like I don't know five year old six year olds and and it just it was bizarre because it was seven o'clock in the morning and there was nobody around to be found but us there was nobody parked in the parking lot and and even still the sounds were coming way off trail like way far back from where the actual trail was to go to this place um I don't think there was any other trails in

area within at least a half a mile or maybe even more like a mile, a mile and a half that you could walk other than this one trail we were on. So it didn't make any sense. It came from deep in the woods, from what I could tell. Now, you mentioned the term primitive. What did you mean when you said primitive? I don't want to be disrespectful, but like, you know, if you watch like maybe a National Geographic show and you see like kind of like a more primitive or, you know, or whatever tribe from maybe, you know, Africa or some of the islands where they just talk really fast in their own language, you know. Oh, I got you. You can just make, you can just make out really fast, like, syllables and things, but you have no frame of reference of what they're saying at all.

It was like that, only was like little kids doing it. That's really interesting. Yeah. And it was just constant. It was almost like they were, I would almost picture, like, you know, a couple of kids coming, you know, coming out of grade school walking home, and then they're just all happy. It's, you know, Friday afternoon, weekend, or something, and they're just chattering away, and nobody cares who's saying what.

They're just happy and chattering at each other, you know, happy to be free, you know, for the week or something. That's kind of what it reminded me of. They were almost like, you know, joy riding through the woods or joy running through the woods or something like that. That's kind of what the tone of it reminded me of. Yeah, no, and I've heard that before, actually. I have definitely heard that before. I know one guy I interviewed on the show one time. He was talking about how it sounded like they were giggling and just having a great time.

And it made no sense what they were saying. And that's why I was curious about the permanent talk. It depends on how you talk to you. Sometimes I'll talk to witnesses and they'll hear that and they'll say, well, it sounds like a bunch of Russian kids talking really fast. And I don't know why people say Russian, but I assume it's a link which they don't understand. but a lot of people say that. They hear that and they can't make out what's being said and it throws people off.

Like your situation, what little kids are going to be out there at 7 o'clock in the morning, let alone be throwing rocks at you that are the size of grapefruits or small boulders throwing them up over the tree like it threw a catapult? And it just reminds me of other witnesses I've had on, like the guy in Florida was talking about this rock being thrown at him. And when it was thrown, it was above the trees and looked like in his mind he thought it had been launched by a catapult. I mean, it was just so big, like, and being thrown so far.

He's like, there's no man out there that could throw that thing. Exactly, and that's how I would describe this. I mean, I didn't see the rock, like you say, but, but man, whatever it was, it had to have been thrown from pretty far away, way further than any human could possibly lob something like that, that big and heavy. So, yeah, that's a good analogy, actually, from what I heard, too. And there's something enerving about having a rock coming. direction and you can't see it, but you can hear it coming through the air. You can hear it

hitting branches as it comes, but you can't see what threw it. There's just something really unnerving about that. Oh, absolutely. I mean, if something like that were to hit you like that, man, you'd be, you wouldn't make it, man. You'd be done. And, you know, the way it sounded like it came through the woods, you know, down out of the trees like that, I would guess that whatever through that had to have been like, I don't know, 50, 60 yards away, maybe, or something like and just kind of the angle, it seemed like it came down in. And these wood, there was entirely possible that there are rocks that side there because there are, there's big boulders there from, you know, like the glaciers, I guess,

or whatever, that are left over in the woods. So there's no reason there, a rock like that size couldn't have been found there. You know, I don't know if, assuming there was something back there that was watching us, I don't know if they even saw us or they just happened to hear us and then just lobbed it, you know, without actually seeing where they're throwing. or whatever. But regardless of they're throwing at the sight of us or throwing at the sound of us, it's pretty unnerving, you know, being on the receiving end of that.

And we weren't talking at all. We were just walking. So if they heard us, all they would have heard is our footsteps and, like, the rustling up or our clothes, you know, like we weren't talking or carrying on at all. Well, Chris, I appreciate you coming on, man, and sharing what happened to you, what happened with your encounter. Actually, both encounters, I think, are very interesting. And a lot of times when people have encounters,

there are a lot like yours to where it just doesn't make sense. People will, you'll come across, especially hunters that are out there, or hikers, they'll have strange things happen to them, and nothing really adds up. Any sort of animal they put it to or even a person messing with them. There's certain details they'll tell you where nothing else really adds up. but thank you so much for coming on and sharing it. Yeah, you're welcome.

I appreciate to having me on, and, you know, the subject really interests me, and I'm kind of on that fence where I really want to believe, but it's almost like one of those seeing as believing sort of things for me, but, you know, based on my two encounters, you know, it's kind of really pushing me over to the believing side. You know, I really have a hard time kind of denying it at this point. with anything else logical. And, yeah, it's definitely life-changing.

Maybe not to the point of some of your guests you've had on, but, I mean, it definitely, it's definitely going to be in back of my mind for forever until something's proven out one way or the other. You know what I mean? Absolutely, and I appreciate you coming on. Absolutely. Well, I appreciate you having me on. Thanks, Chris.

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. I will see you guys next time. Have a good night, everyone. Being across the country faster than the coronavirus and wagering week is your antidote. I'm Tom Barton, and I'm a veteran sports analyst and respected sports handicapper who will help build ESPN's brand. I've been recognized and awarded by Pro Football Weekly and Gaming Today magazine as the honest handicapper.

Let the other guys give you the same old boring sports talk with the same tired storylines. We'll give it to you straight here every Friday on Wagering Week. Don't gamble with other podcasts. Let SportsGarden Network's Wagering Week help your bottom line.