The Confessionals - 85: Lost In The Smoky Mountains

Episode Date: August 28, 2018

Dan comes on to share about the night he had to spend lost in the Smoky Mountains! He describes the environment he found himself in and then the things he saw has changed his life forever!

This was all circulating around the base that a giant had been killed, but no one was supposed to talk about it. I saw three long, bony fingers, reach up underneath the door, curl up to grab it, and then disappear. When he came over to me, dude, he slithered over to me. And this giant comes out of the cave, and they're all frozen. And he starts running and firing up this giant. With a giant move, he's got a spear in one hand, and he's running really fast. And spears, Dan, holds him up like this. Somebody else, shoot him in the face, shoot him in the face.

They basically decapitated. Purson got splicing, got spurson when he got about... Something pulling at my leg. And I look over, and there are two small gray entities pulling it. And they're literally, I'm getting pulled off the bed. I reached my hand into this bush and I touched air. Couldn't breathe and I couldn't move because I know I'm seeing a monster. Yep.

Welcome to the show, everybody. You're listening to The Confessionals. I am your host, Tony Merkel. Thank you for being here. If you've had an encounter or a story you'd like to share with me on the show, go ahead and shoot me an email. My email address is The Confessionalspodcast at gmail.com. That's The Confessionalspodcast at gmail.com. Or you can go to the website, The Confessionalspodcast.com.

hit the connection section and you can reach me that way as well. Either way it works for me, just get a hold of me. Now, we're doing an extra episode here on Tuesday, a little bit of a bonus episode. And we actually have another one coming on Thursday. Why? Because we're celebrating the move to Revolver podcast. I am so excited that we're going to be on Revolver. I'm putting out two extra episodes for you this week because I'm on vacation.

So today we have Dan coming on and Dan got lost into Smoky Mountains. That's right. He got lost into Smoky Mountains. and the night that he got lost, he experienced some crazy stuff, including lights in the sky to a creature that he saw that smiled at him. We're going to get into it right after this. Okay, tonight I have a good guest coming on. Dan, Dan contacted me through the Facebook page, and he shared with me that he had some different encounters that he wanted to share with me tonight. Dan, how are you?

I'm good, Tony. How are you? I'm doing great, man. We were just doing some chatting beforehand. and you started sharing some details, and I was like, started to get at the edge of my seat because I wanted to hear what was next, but I thought, you know what, let's just get this interview going and start letting you share with the audience what you've experienced. Now, you're a paranormal investigator, and you visited different areas, you know, land between the lakes,

and you actually said that you went out there with Bear one time with the Bigfoot outlaws, right? Yes. Okay. Yeah. There was a Bigfoot convention. Gotcha. And we got to spend a little time with them. That's cool.

They're quite the group. Absolutely. So let's start off. Now, I know you had an experience in the LBL, if I'm correct. And, but what I'd like to start off with is that night you got lost in the Smoky Mountains. Some crazy things happened that night. So why don't you start us off there and share what you experienced? Okay.

It was May of last year, and my girlfriend at the time and I decided that we wanted to go hiking down in the Smoky Mountains, specifically Cades Cove area. We went through, we kind of were driving around and just goofing around and enjoying ourselves and got down to where there was an opening. at Abrams Falls. And it's supposed to be a nice, just a nice, easy little hike. And everyone had said, oh, don't forget to bring your map. And so that was a point one that I kind of made a mistake on. So we got down to the opening of the trailhead there. And as we got out, it was, it, we.

had been seeing wildlife all during the day. And it was just really cool because we got to watch this coyote playing. Well, I don't know whether it was his meal or whether he was just goofing off with it. I think it was a rabbit or something. But he was hopping around and chasing this thing and just having a good time. So we sat there and watched him for a little bit. And we decided we'd go ahead and start our hike into, back into the Smokies into Abram Falls.

Well, we crossed over from the trailhead. The sign on the trailhead had said Abrams Falls Loop. Now, to me, not being a very, I guess, a very experienced, long, you know, longer trail hiker. I thought that when they said it was a loop trail, that it looped around, actually looped around and brought you back to the same point where they had dropped you off at. This turned out not to be the case.

So as we, you know, as we started just entered into the woods itself, we got we both us got the distinct feeling that we were being watched now part of that you know I was telling you I'm a very scientific type-minded guy

I tend not to try and let my emotions or nerves or whatever it may be getting in the way of of actually thinking rationally. And anytime you go into woods where Sasquatch or anything else have been cited, it's always kind of in the back of your mind, whether you want it there or not,

whether it's actually happening or not. And so as we walked in, you know, we were actually kind of joking about it. and we said hi, you know, we just kind of, I always like to talk about my daughter a lot. And one of the things she used to do is all of her, all the animals that she saw, she would say, hey, there's my friend the bird or there's my friend the chipmunk. And so when we were walking in, we just, I just kind of started talking out loud. and more tongue-in-cheek, you know, kind of than anything else. But I was just saying, hey, Mr. Sasquatch, you know, thank you for letting us come into your forest.

And, you know, if we could just see you, that'd be really cool. That would, you know, that'd be awesome. And again, you know, I very much tongue-in-cheek because we never expected to have any kind of encounter in that way at all. So we kept on hiking. And we, about halfway down to the falls, we ended up running into some people that were coming back the other way. And they said, hey, you guys might want to watch out.

There's a mother bear up ahead, a couple hundred feet. And she's got a couple of cubs with. her. And so this, you know, being a time here in May, when there's tons of animals out in the smokies, it, you know, we kind of kept our eyes open, but, you know, we didn't think there was anything abnormal about it, so to speak. So we kind of just rolled on and, you know, we're just talking, having fun, and it's probably getting to be about six the clock in the evening at this time. And so we walk on ahead, and the whole thing of the bear just kind of goes into the back of our

head. We ended up not seeing anything. There was no bear, no, you know, mother with her cubs or anything. which, you know, we didn't really think too much of that. We just figured they got scared away, so they're up doing their own thing. Well, we hike on up. We hike to a big spot where it had this jutting outcrop of a rock and ended up sitting there for quite a while just talking and enjoying the beautiful view.

of the Smoky Mountains and just the peace and tranquility of it. The night was quiet. I mean, quiet to the point where you don't even realize that it's quiet, if that makes any sense whatsoever. Yeah, absolutely. And a lot of these things that, you know, I mentioned earlier, for me, it's, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, things that kind of fall together. And I can still be a coincidence, but there's not as much of a chance. Um, three things happen.

And then something's going on. And at that point, we didn't really even put two and two together. We kind of sat there and we were laughing about how, you know, we thought it was kind of weird that we hadn't seen any animals yet. But we just figured it was just one of those things. And we were just kind of, you know, enjoying hanging out and enjoying the beautiful night. So we decided to go ahead and hike on further. And by this time it had gotten dark. And I only had two small lights with me.

But the trail was pretty well marked. And so it kind of added to the excitement and kind of the survival aspect, so to to speak. Not really survival, but just the whole feeling of the evening. And so we hiked on. And the further we got

back into the Smokies, the more we started hearing things that just didn't quite seem to make any sense. There were several times that as we

walked along, we could hear footstep behind us. But every time we would stop, it would stop. Or whatever, you know, whether it was a raccoon or squirrel or, you know, I can't stay for sure because I didn't see anything. And then when we'd start up again, we'd start hiking again, we would end up hearing it, hearing the footballs.

And it, to me, and again, you know, I try not to allow my, excuse me, I try not to allow my imagination to just run rampant. And to me, it sounded definitely bipedal.

But it, the way, you know, a lot of times, When you're in the woods, in the dark, you're in a known area where sightings have occurred and whatnot. Your mind just has a tendency to play tricks on you. And the imagination just goes kind of wild sometimes. So we didn't pay a whole lot of attention to that. a little bit further in

I had stopped and I mentioned to my girlfriend and I said is it just me or did you hear somebody talking and it was it was crazy it was like it was just out of

earshot you could hear it sounded like women talking and I mean it was it was definitely there it's just you couldn't understand what they were saying

so it was just barely barely kind of audible and we just kind of brushed it off we figured oh that's just some other hikers along the trail that are further back than we are and they're just you know having a discussion

and whatnot. So this leads us up to approximately 11, 130 at night, and it's gotten dark by now, really dark. And we stopped and went out to get some water. There was a stream, a big stream that was flowing. down by the side of the creek and happened to see a little

toad out there. So we went out and we're kind of playing around with the toad. And as we came back, we saw this tuning little field mouse. And

he was just scurrying. He was scurrying kind of back in there. We just kind of watched And, well, seeing him and the mouse made us think and kind of realized that, hey, we haven't come upon any other animals in the six hours or so that we've been out in these, you know, in these woods. Now, the smokies are well known for being a habitat for, you know, raccoons and possums and bears and just all sorts of creatures and whatnot. And so it was pretty odd that we ended not in anything at all, except for these little tiny, little tiny creatures.

creatures. And it was right about then that we hit a point where, man, it started to spook me out. We hit what I can only describe as a wall of smell. It had the, as we were coming out from the creek, we started to hit it. And it just smelled like raw sewage and just bad garbage.

I don't know quite how else to describe it. I mean, it stunk. It was bad. But the thing that kind of threw us was that as we walked or as we stepped out,

the smell didn't get any stronger based on our location. You know, generally, if there's something creating a stench, you can usually kind of track it down, you know, where the smell is stronger when you get closer to whatever's doing it. Right. And so we were sitting there and smelling this just a horrendous binge. And I took a couple steps forward and all of a sudden I couldn't smell anything. And I just, you know, the investigator part of me went, whoa, hey, wait a second, that's not normal.

So I took a step back, took a couple steps back, and bam, I'm right in the smell again, took a step forward, and there's no smell. And so I kind of had it isolated down to, for lack of a better term, a wall there, where you know, you could step, in and out of this bench. So that was just really,

I never encountered that before. So that was quite, it was quite intriguing. And like I said before, you know, when you have one or two coincidences, they can be just that. But when things start adding up, it kind of gets,

it kind of, you know, makes you wonder. So after we, we pull out of this, you know, or walk on further, we were talking about, you know, different, just different, like, Sasquatch sightings and, and everything. And at this point, it was probably around midnight to 1230 or so. and we're thinking, man, you know, we should have been back to the parking lot by now.

Something's not right here. Well, we just kept soldiering on because, you know, I figured, well, it's better loop. So it's got to come back to the parking lot at some point. And so we just kept on moving on. Well, then the terrain started getting quite a bit different. There were a lot of single track ways. The trails weren't as well marked. It went up through a lot of just places that you could tell people hadn't been in quite a while.

well we kept on going and kept on going and kept on going and kept on going and it's getting to be you know one o'clock one-thirty and at this point we still hadn't seen any animals whatsoever we're still hearing these voices that seem just out of range and we're just kind of we're starting to get a little bit spooked but I just you know I just told my girlfriend then I said well

you know the only thing we can do is just keep going you know they say the worst thing to do if you get lost is to go off trail we just figured that the people we were staying with when we didn't show up at like

11 or 1130 or so back at the cabin that they would figure out that something was wrong and since we were parked in a main parking lot there at Cades Cove, we figured they would have searchers out for us.

Well, we kept on going and now another thing I forgot to mention this is also, it's rattlesnake time in the smokies. And still, even with it being, you know, just rattlesnake season and whatnot, we still didn't see any animals whatsoever. And at this point, we had been out since roughly about 5.30 in the afternoon.

Well, we go on and we start to talk about, you know, different things and just because all the coincidences are kind of adding up. And, you know, I don't want to jump to conclusions and say, you know, oh, yeah, there's a, there's a Sasquatch following us. because there's really no evidence to that. So far, you know, we've encountered several things that were pretty weird, but, you know, it wasn't definitive. So we're going on and we end up, it starts getting really cold. It drops down to about 45 or 50. And luckily I had in my pack, I had a couple of the emergency blanket and things like that that I just have a tendency to carry with me just in case. And so we ended up making ponchos, little stuff with just kind of to keep our heat together.

and we're still hiking and hiking and hiking. At this point, we're roughly about 12 miles into the Smoky Mountains. And we're getting tired because neither one of us has eaten since about 4 o'clock the day before. All we had with us were a Pop-Tart. and beef jerky. And that's not exactly the best survival food. No. So we ended up getting to this creek, and it was a nice free-flowing creek, and it was

running over a bunch of moss. And so I figured, hey, that'll be pretty safe to drink from. So we filled up our canteens and whatnot. And as I was stepping, I kind of missed. mis stepped and fell pretty hard and twisted by knee pretty good. So we, and that, you know, of course, got her all worried and whatnot. And I just kind of, you know, just shook it off. And we decided to motor on.

Well, we made it roughly another maybe, mile or so. And both of us just we were exhausted. At this point it's probably about roughly about

330 in the morning. 3.30 to 3.45 and we're both just completely exhausted. The terrain was exceptionally roughly rough. As I said, there was

a lot of places that looked like they hadn't had any human visitors in quite some time. So, we decided, well, what we'll do is just, you know, I'll find a good place

and we'll put down a tarp, you know, and we'll kind of set up a little bit of a little camping place right there off the off the edge of the main trail. So that we're still on the main trail, that way if, you know,

whenever the search and rescue does come find us, will be very visible. And so I picked out this humongous tree. The tree had to be, man, it was one of these old growth trees, and it was kind of hollowed out towards the base. not hollowed out inside, but just kind of a depression there. And so we put down our emergency blankets and, you know,

kind of made a little, a little camp there. And my girlfriend decided to, she was going to, you know, she was going to crash that she was just kind of done for the night. And so I'm laying there. and I had gotten these throwing knives for my birthday. We had gone and visited Smoky Mountain Knifeworks, and I ended up getting that was my birthday present from there. So I took one of the throwing knives,

and I had this big, long walking stick, and I took and lashed two of the throwing knives, going in opposite directions on the top of this walking stick lashed it there with paracord. Because I figured that, you know, if we're laying there and bears come along or whatever, we'd, you know, have some kind of longer reach defense option than, you know, having to keep them right, you know, or have them right on us. So we're laying there And

we The place we were laying at It looked directly out Over this trail The trail that we were on And there was a little gap of trees Right there And you could see right into

The night Ealing into the full night sky. And I try to be an optimist about, you know, pretty much everything. Because I feel like, you know, when you keep a positive attitude about things, no matter what the situation is, it's easier to handle. And so I'm laying there, and it's by this time about 4 o'clock in the morning. and my senses are just, you know, on fire, because I'm just thinking, man, you know,

there's going to be a bear coming up here at any point and we're going to get jumped. And, you know, so I'm laying there, and I look out and I started watching these stars. Well, there was a line of three stars, kind of like one on top of each other. And it was right in the area that was the clearing that shone right down into where we were laying.

And so I'm just laying there and watching these stars and thinking about, you know, what a beautiful night it is and, you know, it's just gorgeous out. Well, then, and, you know, Real quickly, let me just preface this by saying, I'm not claiming to have ever seen any little green men or anything of that nature. And when I speak of this, I mean it in, you know, in the definite basis of terms. But I saw this.

at first it was it was about the size of the other stars that were in the little line but it was a little dot and Tony the way it was moving man it just it was impossible for it to have been you know a helicopter or a plane even really a drone. It would go up and then it kind of cut down almost like at an angle

and then it'd go across and then go back up and then kind of loop around and just it was the most erratic flight pattern I think that I've ever seen. And so as I'm watching this, I'm thinking, all right, if it's a plane, it's got to have, you know, the little lights on it, the beacons that flash and whatnot.

And there were no beacon. And so this thing is just kind of doing its little aerial acrobatics. Well, then the three stars that were lined up beside it started in unistening. moving just all around. And I'm laying there and I'm thinking, okay, am I getting delusional because I'm just, I'm overtired or am I just imagining this? And so I woke my girlfriend up and I said,

hey, I said, look up there and tell me what you see. well, she got woke up and she looked up and she goes, holy crap, that's a UFO. I said, okay, I just wanted to make sure that I wasn't seeing things. And she watched it for a while and I, you know, I did two.

And eventually they just, the three that were doing, their kind of odd patterns and whatnot went back into their order, like into the place where they had been prior to this. And the one that had been flying around all weird and stuff got, it just maneuvered itself so that it, I got, I got, I got the feeling. And this is where I, you know, I feel like almost that, you know, I feel like this is going to sound just crazy. But I got the distinct feeling that it was watching us. And I couldn't shake it. And I'm thinking, man, this is just, this is totally irrational.

There's no way that from the distance that they're at right now, Now, there's no way they could see it, even with the big gap that's there, there's no way they could pinpoint us sitting there on this blanket next to this huge tree. And we're sitting there, and then all of a sudden, it kind of does this little kind of a dip down. and almost like in a a uh almost like a V pattern and it dips down

and then just shoot off the right and I mean when I say shoot I mean like it was there one second and a half second later it was gone

um and I'm laying there and going cool man that was uh That was quite wild. So we lay there. And at this point, I'm starting to get just a little more, I guess, just a little bit more spooked, I guess, you could say.

And after about, I guess it was about 10, 15 minutes, I happened to look up, I was doing, other stuff and just kind of I tried to shut my eyes for a minute and that wasn't working and so I looked back up and this thing is back

and it's closer and dude it was so close you could see the outline of the ship and it

It shaped kind of like a, I mean, it was definitely a saucer, almost like a football. And around the bottom of it, it had these different colored light that would come on, like one would fade out and then the other would fade in. and so it was going through this sequence of like blue and purple and orange and green and little yellow and, you know, just, it just randomly flashing off and fading into these different colors. Well, then it spun up. Well, not that I say spun. It flew up. Kind of went around again and then moved in even close. closer. And at this point, that, you know, the hair on my arms is standing up. I'm bald,

but every hair follicle on my head was just, either it was screaming. My, uh, my sixth sense or or intuition or gut or whatever you want to call it, it is just screaming. Dude, they're watching you. And again, I'm thinking there's no way that they can be watching us, not from this distance. And so they spit there for a while. And the longer that they spit there, the more just, you know, I'm just getting to the point where, you know, I'm starting to get really, you know, very much on the edge of my seat. And I wake up my girlfriend again, and I said, hey, I said, look up there. Because I wanted verification.

I didn't want to just, you know, think that I was hallucinating something. And she looked up and she's like, wow, that thing is close. she goes she goes this is going to sound really weird she goes do you feel like they're watching us

and that kind of validated it for me I was like yeah I've been sitting here

thinking this the whole time and well it stays there for another five minutes or so and then just bolts off

again and it's just gone well at this point we think oh man it's probably you know the search and rescue should be out looking for us

and we're just hoping beyond all hope that that you know they're going to find us soon and we're thinking you know there's we stayed right on the trail we did everything that we should they should be coming to find us well on the ridge

over one ridge over from where we were laying at, we started seeing these little points of light, look like flashlight, like light from a flashlight. And we could hear dogs barking. And we're sitting there, and I'm thinking, oh, man, that's great.

That must be the search and rescue team. Well, then it's, It started, the pinpoint light faded out. They kind of went away. And all of a sudden, like, I don't know if you've ever seen, I'm trying to think of the best way to describe it. I think in most, like a lot of the horror flicks, where you see

they'll have a whole bunch of trees and from behind the trees they have all of a sudden they'll use like a floodlight or a light car lamps or something like that and it filters through the trees and the forest

and it's kind of decimated not decimated but decalated by the the trees and the lights get dispersed and whatnot. And it gives off this really kind of eerie look. And the night was at this point, we're getting into probably around 4.30 or so in the morning. And it gives kind of an eerie look.

Well, this light starts on it, starts slow. And then gradually just get really, really, really bright. And it's shining out from behind the trees on the next ridge. And it starts sweeping from right to left. Just real slowly. And you're sitting there watching this. And I'm thinking again, oh, man, am I having, am I just seeing things?

or maybe I'm just too tired and my imagination is just running wild with me and so again I woke up my poor she can't get any sleep that night apparently really either so I figured I just wanted validation and I said do you see what's going on over there and she looked up and she goes

Those are searchlights. I said, yeah. I think search and rescue is coming for us. Well, the first satellite died off. And it was, they only went on for maybe three minutes or so, three to five minutes. So not very long. And then it kind of moved over, not very far, but it moved along. but it moved along the ridge

and we saw the pinpoint light looked like from a from a flashlight or numerous flashlights and we could hear the dogs barking again and we thought

we heard voices and so you know I'm kind of getting a little bit excited I'm like oh man this is going to be great searching rescue is going to find us. You know, we're going to end this and we're going to get back to where we need to be.

And, well, it starts kind of all with that process again. The flashlights fade out and this big, for lack of a better term, the searchlight comes on. And it's filtering through the trees and it goes from right to left. and you just get the distinct impression that they're looking for something. Well, I had this little tactical light with me, and so I figured I'll, you know, I'll flash S-O-S-S on it over to where they were, and hopefully they'll be able to, you know, to see it. and sorry that was my German Shepherd being a watchdog so I figured that I figured that I would flash

flash the light and hopefully they would see us and come over and rescue us well I started a flashlight you know with the SOS, Morse code for SOS. And as I did, something

in my head just went and I mean, dude, it was so distinctive that it scared me to death. But I just, my gut was just

telling me, it said, don't flash those guys. You don't want them to know where you are. And, you know, I, I, I, I, I, I'm a pretty big, like West says, I'm a, I'm a, I'm a big guy. Um, you know, I'm 5.11, 2.30. And, you know, I've been a paranormal investigator and, and, um, I've, you know, taken all this martial arts stuff and tactical training and, and, and all this other stuff. And so I've gotten to the point where things, don't really scare me anymore.

It might startle me, but the actual fear response is not there. But when I was sitting there on the edge of this trail, and my gut is just screaming at me, you know, don't let these guys know where you are. You don't want them to find you. and so I automatically pulled my flashlight back, stuck it in my pocket. And luckily, I had my sidearm on me, so I've got a 40-cal-glock in one hand, and I've got my improvised beer thing in the other hand.

And I don't think I've quite, I didn't get to the point. where a lot of people say they do, where, you know, they end up relieving themselves. But I think if they'd gone much further, I probably would have. I've never been this scared in my life. At this point, you could hear things coming along the trail. And again, you couldn't see. see what it was. But, you know, in the distance, you could hear the dogs barking and whatnot.

And so I can hear like things that, you know, they would like run and then stop. And then it would just like run and stop a little bit. And I kept looking down. And I, every once in a while, I'd shine my light down the trail just expecting to see a bear or something come charging down that trail. And every bone in my body was, you know, it was a fight or flight. And my knee is pretty much jacked. And we have no idea how far we are from actual civilization at this point.

and all I had left in me was the fight. And I'm sitting there and I'm like, man, I've got to get back to my daughter. I've got to get back to, you know, my family. I don't know what this thing is, but, you know, I'm going to do my best to take it down. I can't, like I said, man, I have never been that. scared in my life. Even just telling you about it now, just every hair on my head is just

standing up and I can just feel that fear kind of creeping in. And so I kind of sat back down and I had my I had my spear right beside my side and and I had my gun right on my chest and I was ready.

I figured if I'm going to go out, I'm going to go out shooting. I might not kill it, but at least it's going to remember my name. And so it just, this is where it got weird. As if up to this point, you know, it's not weird enough. Well, I'm laying there and I look over to my left side and there.

And there was this thing. I can't say it was a big foot. I don't know. I didn't have as clear of a vision of it as I'd like. And there's other parts that makes it even weirder. But I was standing there looking, and at first it didn't register because the thing was just too big.

the place where it was standing was it was kind of a drop-off. And it was probably, I'm guessing, where it would be standing was about, and this was after like looking in the morning before we left. And there was about, it was about a two and a half, three-foot drop-off. And I could see clearly

the outline of a head and it came down into some of the most massive traps I've ever seen in my life I don't think dude had a neck it was just straight up muscle

just humongous and then it came down to again, this is what threw me because I'm used to, you know, I'm used to being around bodybuilders and gyms in the whole nine yards

and you see some really big dude. But you, like it doesn't click on how massive an actual 12 foot creature is

or 12 foot whatever it was that I saw. after it went down from the traps, it then went into a shoulder that Friggin' Ronnie Coleman would have been proud to own, Mr. Olympia guy. The deltoids or shoulder caps on it

looked like almost like little cannonballs. I mean, it was humongous. I think of like, I don't know if you know that the wrestler Batista. Yeah. Yeah, he does like the Guardian of the Galaxy. That's what his shoulders look like, except probably five times more than that. And it was definite, man. I mean, it was just like this humongous shoulder tap.

deltoid and then this arm that that had to be at least 20 to 30 inches around. I mean, just massive. And from the edge of his or where like his neck would be if he didn't have the traps in there, from there to the edge of his shoulder had to be at least. two and a half to three foot wide. And I'm looking at this thing, and I'm thinking, God, there's just no way that this can be real.

There's no way. It's just way too big to be real. And so I'm looking at it, and it's just standing there. And I look up to the face, and it's freaking smiling at me. Like, it's just looking, just looking right down at me, just smiling. My daughter had this game called Singing Monsters. And one of the monsters on there looked just like,

It was kind of, I don't know what the maker or whatever called, but it had this, that's kind of what my mind related because, again, it was really dark. I couldn't really see features as far as, you know, exact facial features or hair or, you know, to be able to tell like what color it was or anything like that. but it just, it was smiling at me. And so I turn on, I'm just incredulous at this point. And I'm thinking there's no way. There's no way in God's green earth that that's a Sasquatch or whatever it is. And so I turned on my light. I had this, our lights were dying out, but it had just a little bit extra.

And so I turned it on. And this is where it gets freaky, dude. Because when I turned it on, the thing disappeared. Like, it was just leaves there. But the structure wasn't his thing. Like, if that makes any sense whatsoever. where I saw definite deltoids and traps and, you know, everything else there, it was back to the shape of, you know, just a leaf there or, you know, a foliage or whatever.

And so I turn off my light and I'm thinking, all right, man, you're just, you're losing. in it. You know, you've been, you've been eating way too much beef jerky and pop tart

or, uh, uh, sweet tart. And all that sugar is gone to your head and you're just, you're losing it.

And so I look at it again. And I woke my girlfriend up. And I said, do you see anything abnormal? And she goes, what's that standing there? And I said, I don't know. And I'm trying to keep a good, you know, a positive attitude about this because, you know, at that point, at least from whatever it was right there, I didn't feel any malice or like anger or any issues coming from that experience like I did from.

you know, when whatever it was was, you know, coming down the trail. And I looked at it and looked at it and looked at it. She fell back to sleep and I'm looking at it and looked at it. And I'm trying really hard to distinguish characteristics. Well, around the eyes, there was, there are these two white patches. kind of looked like a raccoon almost, for lack of a better description. But it had these, and they were definite rings,

just these perfect little white rings around these big, just dark eyes. And then, again, the biggest mouth that I have ever seen in my life. But it wasn't showing teeth. It wasn't being hostile or anything. It was grinning at me. And just standing there and grinning.

And so I'm thinking, okay, there's no way that this thing is a Sasquatch because it's got these reins around the eyes. I said, that's number one. Number two, you know, his mouth can't be that big. and number three you know there's just no I mean his arms are just way too massive and when I turn on the light

he just seems to disappear I think I'm just you know I don't know maybe maybe the night has just been too much for me and my mind's just gone or something

but so we're sitting there and I'm watching this thing and gradually like as over like the longest longer that I see it it eventually kind of gradually just fades like the distinct image or shape of the body kind of just fades into the foliage and it's just gone the shape's not there the face isn't there

the arms nothing and this whole time never heard a never heard a sound come as far as footstep anything else and I honestly got

And this is, I got the impression that it was watching over us. You know, I know I've, I've heard you speak before about, you know, being a believer, you know, a Christian. And man, I'm not a, I'm not an overly religious guy. And I'm not one of these, you know, somebody that just thinks that. everything is angels or, you know, everything is God trying to protect us. But I just got a feeling that it was there to watch over us and that it had stopped. Why didn't see it before was because it had stopped whatever was coming down that trail to do us harm. and so it starts getting a little bit,

a little bit lighter out. And like I said, it just kind of, it just kind of disappeared into the background, into the foliage. And we're sitting there. It's kind of, you know,

my, my girlfriend's starting to wake up. And the first animal that we see, is this snow white owl and it flies in and sits on a branch kind of opposite of of you know like

the whatever it was I saw was on the left hand side the owl was on the right and it just flew up there and sat there kind of like a century does almost

like he's just watching us keep in guard. Well, I kind of laid back, for some reason, I just got this. I got a really peaceful feeling, man. And I kind of just laid back and just tried to close my eyes. Well, right about this time, I hear the snow white owl kind of go, just it was definitely in order. I don't know what he said, but you know, I don't really speak

owl, but something, and there came another big owl. Just out of nowhere. Dude came swooping down, flew right over top of our heads and landed

about three foot behind this huge tree where we were grabbed something in his pounds and flew off. Now again you know I can't say

for sure and I I'm sure you'll unfortunately probably get a lot of hate mail about this because you know trying to assign actions or uh

what not to things that can't actually be described as as actions or motives or anything like that. So I don't know if this one bird was telling the other bird to go

like I said, I just kind of got the feeling that he was watching over us and I thought back about it and remember that it was rattlesnake time, you know, season. And I had nothing to back this up, you know, no kind of evidence. I got the feeling that he spent his buddy flying on there and grab a rattlesnake that was coming up behind us. and took off with it. Again, like I said, I have no proof of that.

But up to this point, we hadn't seen any other animals in the woods at all. Just these now two owls. And so we get ready to go. And it's about, it's approximately about 530, 545 sticks somewhere around. in there and the sun has come up and you know we can see everything and um i looked back at the the spot where i thought i saw whatever it was standing and you know had it been shrubs there um it still would have given off and i understand that lighting plays a big part of lighting and your situation plays a big part in what goes on in your psyche.

And I, you know, I get that, you know, our mind tries to correlate what we're seeing and associate it to something that is known to us. you know hence why why people see faces in in cinnamon buns and things like that

and so I I'm looking and dude there is nothing there that could be even halfway

mistaken for a form it's just some sparse like limbs coming off. The ground where it went over the dip and where if it really was something there where it would have been standing, that was kind of messed up. You know, it looked like something had been

kind of scuttling around. But there weren't any kind of footprint. or anything of that nature. And so as we're getting ready to go, I just, again, kind of emulated my daughter. And I said, Mr. Al, I said, thank you so much for watching over us. Dude, I realize it kind of sounds corny now, but, you know, I think whether they understand us or not,

you know, I think animals can kind of, to get the gist of what you know as far as your your attitude and you know they can sense fear and all the other emotions so why not gratuity um and so i just i was just kind of like i was like thank you man for for watching over us um i really appreciate that i said we're we're trying to get out of here you know as fast as we can So we start hiking again and we finally get up to this. We're coming down a ridge, and I was singing as loud as I could. Just because I figured, man, you know, obviously nobody's come for us yet.

So maybe if we can just hear, you know, somebody can hear us or we can hear somebody. maybe we can get, you know, some help. At this point, my knee is all swollen up and I'm having issues walking with it. And we end up coming down this hill and we find we run into this other hiker. and do oh we were I don't even really honestly remember much of what he looked like but we couldn't have been happier

to see this man so he gave us some some cookies and water and and directed us back to where this campsite was well I go back we go back we finally get down

and hike on down to where this campsite is. And come to find out, we're, I guess, as the crow flies, we're about 14 miles from where we started out. On the regular road, it's like, I think they said 30 miles. It takes about 30 to 40 minutes to get there. So my girlfriend decides she's going to go, She's going to try and find a phone.

Neither one of our phones worked. And so I laid down on this picnic table, and she went off to find, you know, find some way, you know, she could contact either the Rangers or, you know, somebody to get us some help out there. Well, she gets down there to this, apparently it's an old race. station that they used for research. And she picked up the phone and tried it a couple times.

And finally, it went through, the line went through, and she spoke with one of the Rangers at the head of Cade's Code. And they said, oh, yeah, we'll send out a Ranger. You know, that's, you know, that's no problem. can you just tell us where you're calling from? And she said, well, I really don't know. She's like there's a research station. And anyway, so they figured out where we were.

So the Ranger gets there and we start talking to her. and we actually back up just a tiny bit talked to the guy who he came back just to make sure we had made it back or made it, you know, to get some help safely and kind of a check on us. Really great guy. But I said, man, I said,

I don't want to sound kind of crazy, but have you ever run into anything weird around here? He's like, man, he said, you have no idea. He said, there are some freaky weird things that go on in these hills. I said, yeah, you're telling me about it. So the female ranger gets there, and she says, okay, well, we get to talking about it. She said, well, where did you call from? And my girlfriend said, well, there's a little phone right outside the research facility down here around this corner.

And the ranger says, no, you've got to be mistaken. There's no way that you could have called from that phone. And she said, well, I swear I did. that I that's how I I talk to you guys she said the ranger look she said that's just not possible she said that phone hasn't worked for the last six months or more and so we're we're sitting there kind of like you know it did did do do do dear it it was just crazy so we we get to talking on the way back and

I was talking to her about she was for being a park ranger sometimes they're very open with you and other times they're just you know they kind of blow you off but she was just

awesome if I could remember her name I would definitely give her you know a shout out for just being a at what she did. But as we were coming back, I said, now, you know, I told us, man, we've been, you know, we've been kind of talking here a little bit.

And I think you got the feeling that, you know, mentally I'm all pretty much all there. And, you know, I'm not nuts or anything, but this is what happened. And so I told her about seeing the saucer come in with the different lights and feeling like it was watching us. And then about the whole searchlight thing and everything else. And I told her, I said, I'm really not sure. I said, but I think I saw something standing there watching us. And she goes, oh, yeah. And it just, it was very nonchalant.

She was kind of like, yeah, that wouldn't surprise me at all. She said, we get reports of that kind of stuff through here all the time. She goes, in fact, part of the one of the documentaries from the missing 411 series was shot close. to where she was and she said she was there the day that they were actually filming and so she introduced me I'd never heard of David Pilates

or a missing 4-1-1 series or anything of that nature or not his work with the Bigfoot stuff and had no clue who he was so

she said oh yeah you need to check out the missing 4-1-1 series. She said there was actually an occurrence, you know, right down here in Cades Cove and, you know, all this other stuff. So basically we finally, you know, we get back to the car,

which, oddly enough, they, apparently what happened was they, instead of going through like they normally do and checking out cars that are sitting, there, somebody dropped the ball and didn't realize that we were out there. And so the whole time we thought that we were being looked for, nobody even knew we were gone. There was nobody out to look for us. Nothing.

That's scary. Which, yeah. that'll uh it kind of brings some of the other stuff into perspective um

so we get back to the place where we're staying and I figured well I'll just I'll look up some stuff on YouTube about this

David Pilates guy and um so I look it up and uh he's doing this one talk about Sasquatch. And up to this point, you know, I had been like

Monster Quest and occasionally finding Bigfoot, but you know, just, that was more just kind of a, you know, entertainment than anything, you know, actual, you know, getting any kind of actual information from it. but so I you know I'm listening to this and he's talking about getting the Bigfoot DNA and

and all this other stuff well he he starts to talk about apparently he did some research with Gott Carpenter who does research in the the Smoky Mountains and the Cades Cove and everything the area that we were in I had no clue who, you know, either one of these dudes were. And so I'm listening to it, and he says, he got asked something about along the lines of, you know, why are the sightings so diverse as far as characteristics of a Sasquatch? and he says, well, he said, now he's kind of, he's given to the belief that there are a race of people. I can't say that I really subscribe to that theory.

But then again, man, I don't know what it is because there was some stuff that happened that night that just don't fall into logical context. and again, not saying that I'm part of the Wu camp of it. They're transdimensional portals or anything like that. But I just know that one minute that dude was standing there, grinning like a Cheshire cat at me, and the next minute it was gone. And so David's going into this. He says, well, he says, you know, Bigfoot's or Sasquatch, being a race of people, you know, according to them, he said they have different characteristics, just like normal people have different characteristics.

He says, you've got some fat ones, some skinny ones, you know, some that are really built, some that look like they haven't exercised the day in their life. He said, you got some that are really hairy, some that are balding. He said, you know, old young, he said, and this is the part where, whoa, I tell you, my creep factor went just like through the roof. But he goes, quite specifically, he said, the tribe or breed that are in the Smoky Mountains, have sorry man this makes me get a lump in my throat

but it quite specifically they're known to have white rings around their eyes kind of like a raccoon and I went holy

mm-mm-mm-mm-mm and I was freaked out, man. I mean, because there are some things that if you put a trait or a characteristic to, and it ends up being a trait or characteristic that is actually present in whatever species that you're discussing, You know, I mean, that can fall into a lot of categories. That can fall into, yeah, I've heard this before, and I just didn't realize it. And so subconsciously, you know, I'm adding that trait.

You know, it could. And the white rings around the eyes was one of the main reasons why I thought, There's no way this could be a Sasquatch because Sasquatch, you know, in my broad, infinite mind and knowledge of Sasquatch since I've got one in the shed and I, you know, research it every day. But in my, you know, in my mind, I'm thinking there's no way that that could be a Sasquatch because it's got freaking white rings around its eyes. And when he said that, you know, quite notably the ones in the smoky, smoky mountains have a, have the white ring, kind of like a raccoon around their eyes. Man, that was a, that was a kind of come to Jesus moment. And so, you know, listening through all this stuff. And I still, I mean, at this point, and actually afterwards, I was listening to or looking through some pictures on the web, just out of curiosity to see if I could find something that resembled the face that I saw.

And I found this one, and I can send it to you over. I'm not sure whether I sent to you on Messenger or not, but there's this this photo of this fast watch just, again, got that Cheshire cat grin, man, except he's showing all his teeth. And I'm like, holy crap, that's what I saw.

And, except mine had the white rings around its eyes. And I tell you, that was, that was, in a lot of ways, man, it made me, it made me question everything I thought I knew. And it definitely scared me worse than anything I've ever had happened to me in my life. but yeah that was that was that night that we got to spend in the smoking mountains and quite frankly man i i'm not sure that i'll ever go back camping our hiking there again hey this is darren marler from the weird darkness podcast and you're listening to the confessionals it sounds like something you should write a book on or somebody should produce a short film out of because i mean you had a little bit

of everything going on there. And I wanted to ask you, do you think that a lot of that was related? Do you think that the lights in the sky, what looked like search lights, but you kind of had that innate feeling inside that it wasn't? And then the, what you now probably believe to be a big foot, do you think all that was tied together and related somehow? Or do you think it was just these individual instances that just kind of all lined up in one night? Well, like I said before, you know, I'm pretty particular when it comes to, with having a background as a paranormal researcher and whatnot. I've come to find out not only to trust my gut when, you know, I feel like I'm getting something or my gut just screams at me, especially when it's that strong. I tend to listen to it because nine times out of ten it's right.

And like I said, you know, if it was one or two things, yeah, I could write that off to total coincidence. When it gets to be three, four, five, six, seven things that are all lining up to characteristics that quite honestly I had no knowledge of. It ends up kind of, I just think in my head, man, there's got to be something to it. And then, you know, looking or listening and stuff to actually to a lot of West's shows, the Spasquatch Chronicles and listening to your podcast and others, I hear people that, you know, I don't know them from Adam. And yet they're describing the same type of things in the same situations that I encountered.

And so I kind of go back to the theory if, you know, if it walks like a duck, clacks like a duck and looks like a duck and lays duck eggs, then chances are it's a duck. And just thinking back, there were just way too many coincidences for it to not be something. And since then, you know, I've, like I said, through listening to y'all's podcast and whatnot, I've heard a countless other people that have had the same, I mean, even right down to the appearing of the owls, like the white owl. And I don't know if that goes into symbolism or what it does. but I've heard several different people talk about, you know,

having an encounter with an unidentified blind object. And then the whole thing with the dogmen, the light coming, or possible dogmen, I can't say that, you know, because I didn't actually see them. So let me correct myself. but like I said man there were just way too many coincidences for it to not be something

right yeah I totally get that and I wanted to ask you when you said you saw it smiling at you I mean when you run that back through your head and you seem like somebody who tries to find logical explanations does that smile when you run it back through your head and I don't want to, I hate to put you through that, but does it, does it seem like possibly

maybe panting? Does that, does that, is that even a possibility that maybe it was panting? It was just straight up grinning at me. It, um, it was just, and that was the weirdest thing, man, because I, it, he was just straight up grinning. I mean, just this, the corners of his mouth. went like right right up to his cheekbones I mean it was the biggest

mouth I have ever seen in my life and it was closed he wasn't he wasn't showing his teeth he wasn't um

he didn't I didn't get the impression at all that it was a any kind of malice or evil intent. I honestly got the feeling that it was

that it was a protector. And I forgot to tell you this, but when we were going out, I kind of, before we left that area, I just said, thank you, Mr. Sasquatch, for protecting us and taking care of us.

You know, I feel like that's what you do or did. And I just wanted to thank you. We're trying to get out of here. And, you know, we're not trying to harm your environment or do anything, you know, mischievous or, you know, evil. We're just, we're trying to get home to our families. and that's where it kind of my mom um i just adding this little brief addendum one on my mom's thought on this um my mom is an amazing lady um probably about as close to stinthood is as you can come while still being human um she's uh she's one of these you know she's uh she's uh she's almost 80

now. Fiery is all get out. But she loves the Lord with all our heart, man. And when it comes to, you know, her praying, man, man, it seems like God listens. And for some reason, she told me, she told me like one of the next times that we got there, or went to visit her, I should say, she said, you know, she said, I didn't want to say anything, but along about 430, 3.30 or 4.30 in the morning, she said, I got woke up and I felt like I needed to pray for you guys. She said for whatever reason, whether it's mom's intuition or

whatever. She said, I just, I really felt like, you know, I needed to pray for you guys. And so she said, I stopped, you know, she said, I got down on my knees right then and started praying that God would send you a guardian angel and that he would protect you in whatever situation that you were in and that you would come out of it, you know, help. healthy and unscathed. And I said, well, Mom, I said, you know, I really appreciate that. I don't think a big foot is an angel, though. And she said, yeah, but, you know, the Bible talks about how angels can take, you know,

different forms. And so many times, angels get sent in the most least threatening form or a form that we would more greatly realize or that would fit in better with whatever situation we're in. And so she said, I think it was an angel there that stopped whatever it was from coming down the trail and that watched over you for the rest of the night. So again, you know, I can't prove that one way or the other. But I thought that was just kind of a pretty interesting little aside, you know, the whole events of the evening.

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, that whole evening was just like, you know, well, you referenced it earlier. It seemed like something straight out like the twilight zone, you know. There's like one thing after another. And on top of it all, you were all banged up yourself. And it's not like you could just run away. And it wasn't like you felt like you were prepared to defend yourself if you needed to. It's all just kind of like, I don't know, like a perfect storm, you know.

when you saw the lights in the sky and then the lights looking like it was searching for something, did you hear anything or was it like just completely silent? When they were, now when it was the U.S.O, and I used that in a very broad term, you know, just as being unidentified object that's flying. I didn't hear anything then. But when the lights were coming, when they were up on the other ridge and you saw the pinpoints of light, first you heard dogs barking. And I mean, it was a lot of dogs.

There seemed to be, which, you know, I thought, well, it's the searching rescue. And they brought dogs out. And so we just heard all these dogs baying, and they were just barking and causing a ruckus. And you could hear voices again talking, but you couldn't really delineate what they were saying. Like there was nothing, it's like when you're standing in a crowded room and you hear just kind of an ambient mumble. which you can hear conversations going on but if you wanted to actually pinpoint it and say yeah

this is what they were talking about that's just next to impossible and that's kind of like what that's what we heard when it went you know we heard the the dogs were just barking and then you know you see the lights go out there were people talking and everything that actually that you would it would align with like a search and rescue group which was why at first I didn't think anything really about it and then when the light came on and filtered like the floodlights came on then there was no sound and then it just went quiet and then about how

I guess it was about five, ten minutes later. I'm not exactly sure when the second set started, but the second occurrence, when you started seeing the lights and everything go back on, and the dog started bayon, and I think there was, I'm trying to think back as to whether we heard any actual howls. And I don't believe it was,

all, from my recollection, it was all just, uh, just regular barking. Um, you know, like when a coon hound gets on the, the scent trail or something and they're just, you know, bong, go, pw, whu, that kind of stuff. Um, that's what it sounded like. Okay. So, I mean, from everything that you're describing, what's your gut? I mean, what's your gut tell you when it comes to the, uh, the dogs barking and then the, um,

what, what, what else that happened that night? The, um, it was the dogs barking and you just, you were just talking about something else. I can't remember now.

Yeah, the, the, the voices. Yes, the voices. So the, so the dogs barking and the smells and the lack of animals and.

Yeah. So, so the dog's barking and the voices. You're hearing these. things, what's your gut tell you? Does your gut tell you that they were actually dogs there barking and people talking, or do you think

that there was something else going on? Something was there. I don't know, man, I honestly don't know what it was. But something was there

and it didn't have good intentions for us. the way I you know and this has been after months and months and months of thinking about it and going over

the whole scenario in my head um kind of putting two and two together uh hearing other people's uh encounters and and things that happen with theirs I think, and again, this is pure conjecture.

From the things that happened to us, all the coincidences, you know, the smell, the sounds of people following us, the discussions or the nut chatter, but sounding like people were having conversations, we couldn't understand them. the sighting of the UFO, feeling like it was watching us, being scared, man, like I said, there's not much that actually scares me. But I can understand why some people, you know, relieve themselves when they get that scared. I was even retelling it. When I was retelling you earlier, I could just feel that lump in my throat come up and just utter and complete, pure and unadulterated fear. And so through all those things, I think,

and again, this is pure conjecture. I think that whatever it was, whether it was an angel, whether it was Bigfoot, whatever it happened to be, I got the feeling that it had been the feeling that it had been the one following us. pretty much ever since, you know, we walked into the trail head there. And I felt like he had been the one, or I say he, but it had been the one that had been following us and making sure that we were okay. that's why there were no animals around. That would explain the wall of stench, the footfalls, the chatter that we heard,

or the voices without any, without the ability to be able to actually understand them. The, just like I said, the whole wall of stings, mention no animals and footballs and everything else that happened.

I feel like he was watching over us and keeping, for whatever reason, you know, whether he you know, whether he was guided or led by something or

whether he realized that our intentions weren't to harm or You know, we weren't there to kill or hurt anything or destroy anything. You know, we just wanted to go home to our families. So I think it just honestly, man, I feel like it was watching out for us. I just got the, and that, you know, after we saw the light and heard whatever it was coming down the

because dude honestly I was standing there in the middle of that trail I had an extra clip all ready for a tactical reload I had one in the chamber I had you know my arms crossed over I had flashlight in one hand my Glock in the other

and while I was actually holding the spear with the flashlight like right now to it. It's one of those little teeny tiny tactical flashlight. So, you know, makes it easy to hold on to. But so I'm holding there and I've got one in the chamber and I've, I've just got it pointed down that thing. And I'm just waiting, man. I knew something was that in any second, man, something was going to come around that corner and be on top of us. And I didn't know what it was or anything else, but I knew there's something that was that was to do us harm. And I fully expected it to be there, like right around the next corner.

and thankfully, you know, for whatever reason, man. And like I said, I kind of get the feeling that it was acting, if it was a Bigfoot, if it was an angel, or whatever it was, I feel like it acted as a guardian that night. And I feel like it watched out for us and kept us from having something really bad happened. Yeah, I can understand how you feel that way. I mean, there's a lot of things that were going on that night.

And, you know, to try making sense of everything, you have to start drawing conclusions somewhere so that you keep your sanity. And it may not be, you know, the most popular thing to say or even to think, you know, on your end. But I can understand where you're coming from with that kind of thing. You know, I guess one of my questions that I would ask you is with this light that you saw, the UFO, you said that it almost seemed like it knew that you knew it was there. Like it saw you.

Now, you said at first, when you first said that, you said, I know this is going to sound crazy. I want to let you know that that doesn't sound crazy because I hear a lot of people say the same exact thing when it comes. the UFO encounters, that they feel like the thing knew they were there and that it knew that they knew that it was there. And so it's like this trippy feeling that like all of a sudden you're looking at something in the sky and you feel a connection to it where you know it's there and you're pretty sure it knows you're there and you're pretty sure that it knows that you know it's in the sky. And so there's this like weird feeling going on. And I wanted to ask you, when you saw it in the sky, you started getting that feeling.

How long after you got that feeling did it jet off and fly away? It was, it probably the whole, the whole thing didn't last that long, the actual sighting, the UFO. It was maybe, when it got to the point where it just, like I said, like you said, you know, I had that feeling that it was watching us and that it knew exactly where we were and that it could sense

that we're watching it back and it wasn't but maybe I'm thinking maybe about 30 seconds and it just looked like it because it was sitting there and it's changing all these different colors, man And it would go from like a red and then it glow real bright and then into a yellow and then green and orange and purple.

And you could see it was going around in a kind of cylindrical shape. And it was just like when I figured out or kind of got the feeling that it was just like, man, you know, hey, we both know. that each other are present. And then it just, bam, it was gone. And right after that, not five minutes after that, we heard the dogs up on the ridge, heard the dogs start bay in and heard what we thought were search and rescue members

and saw the light from the flashlight or what I thought were flashlight and then the floodlight coming through the trees. It was maybe a total of five minutes after the UFO just kind of jetted off, man. Again, this is going to even sound weirder. It was almost like they pinpointed our location and was telling

like the people over or telling whoever was operating the light, I don't know. But whoever was doing whoever or whatever was doing the the light anomaly thing,

it was like they had radioed in like hey, you know, we have their position. You know, they are blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And this, you know, a little clearing. And that just kind of like, I don't know. It was just one of those things. Again, it was just, there's so many coincidences that they end up just falling together so perfectly that, you know, you just, you have to wonder.

but yeah I mean they after you know you got the whole you see you see me the whole deal they were gone

in maybe 30 seconds and it was just a straight bam you know kind of horizontal flight and

within the blink of an eye they were gone I mean they were just gone they were out of there. I got you. Okay. Well, you know what, Dan, I really appreciate it coming on and it's a fascinating story that you have and I really do mean it. You should really consider even just writing it down in a blog post somewhere and putting it online for people to read because it's fascinating

how one thing happened after another. And, you know, a lot of people I think are going to want to suggest that there's a lot of correlation going on here. And, you know, not just one phenomenon after another that has nothing to do with the other. I don't know if that makes sense, but I definitely think that you were stuck in a twilight zone, man. Like, that's, it was, it's crazy. So I really appreciate you coming on and sharing your encounter with us because this is something that people got to hear because, you know, the woods are a mysterious thing. The mountains are mysterious. And a lot of crazy stuff happens out there, man. And I really appreciate you coming forward and sharing that with us.

Oh, man, I really appreciate it, man. And I love your podcast and, you know, I really, I'm very hesitant about, like I said, I've said before, I'm very much grounded in reality.

And so for me to be able to let loose kind of and just be honest with you and tell you, all the crazy weird stuff that happened that night, it's honestly a bit freeing. No, I absolutely, I totally get that.

I mean, I absolutely understand the freeing feeling. And I hope that's the case because I want other people to feel the same way. So, you know, that's what the show is all about. That's why I called the show what I called it, you know, the confessionals. Just get it off your chest. that sounds like you did that today, and I really appreciate you coming on. So I'll talk to you soon, though, okay? All right.

Sounds good. Thanks again, Tony. All right, man. Take care. All right. Bye-bye. Well, that's the show, everybody. I really hope you enjoyed it.

And if you did enjoy it, there are three things you can do to help support the show. One, you can go to iTunes and leave a five-star rating and review. Two, go to patreon.com forward slash the confessions and sign up to become a patron. Or three, go on social media and share the link to this show that you're listening to right now. that would help me out a great deal as well. And until Thursday, take care, stay safe, and remember, the truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off. Bye. We'll be shining past the light or slide

Just like, oh, just like, oh, just like, oh, oh. And even we can spark the break of fun, we can find a power to be strong. Just like, oh, just like oh. But we're running from the darkness of God mine. Just the bright as life Just let go