SC EP:1218 Three Strange Days

It looked like somebody was bent over and had their head in the window of the deer blind and it either heard me or smelled me and he pulled his head out of the tent and stood straight up and that shocked me. They don't make people that big. The way it moved, almost as if it was gliding across the beach. I've never seen anything moves like that in my life. They were screaming at each other in gibberish. It sounded like a language and they were chuntering away back and forth, back and forth, and I know what a bear looks like and there is no way on this planet for what I saw with bears. Lisa from Knessah, Georgia and you're listening to the best podcast on the planet, Sasquatch Chronicles. Happy New Year and welcome to the show. Tonight we'll be speaking with Preston. In 2017, Preston and his friend went out on a three day fishing trip into the Anorondacks and it turned into a very strange and unforgettable three days. I'll let Preston go into it. If you've had an encounter and you'd like to be on the show, shoot me an email. My email address is west at Sasquatch Chronicles.com and if you get a chance to check out Sasquatch Chronicles.com, you can become a member and get additional shows. Let's jump into it tonight. I want to welcome Preston to the show. Preston, thanks for coming on. No problem, thanks for having me. Yeah, I appreciate you being here and I know back in 2017, your friend had a very scary and strange three days out there in the Anorondacks. I want to ask you prior to this happening to you, what was kind of your take on Sasquatch? Well, I mean, it was always interesting, I suppose, watching monster quests and things like that after school. Besides that, I didn't really give it any thought. I've always been in the woods since literally I was in diapers. I have a picture of me with my grandfather and my first cousin holding a brook trout. I was in diapers and an alfatt. Those are some of my first memories. I know everything that's in the Anorondacks. I've been familiar with it my whole life. I just never thought something like this could be there. It's kind of mind-boggling. I don't understand how something that large could be in an area. I mean, the Anorondack Park is a giant park. But it's not as isolated as everybody thinks. There's very isolated pockets around the park. It is heavily forested. A lot of people think the Anorondacks was clear cut and it's just not what it was. But a lot of that old growth has grown back. It's a second cut, but it's still old growth. These are very thick forests. It's very unforgiving terrain. The bugs are incredibly vicious. The special spot, it's a special place. It's old. It just feels old. It feels like it has just a memory to the land. It's just home. I love it. I don't live in the Anorondacks anymore, but I'm very, very close to the park. So I'm there as much as I possibly can be. I hear you. Well, if you would, would you start from the very beginning? I want to take me back to 2017. What were you doing and what happened? Okay. So my fishing partner, we love brook trout fishing. That was kind of our whole thing. We have our carbon fiber, our high-bred canoes. There's just backpack and canoes. You put them on your back and pike is firing into the woods as you can. The fire they're away from the road, you get the better the fishing is. And the DEC stocks, a fair amount of ponds. I don't know what the current brook trout pond population is. I think it's over 300 now, but anyway, we were just doing our ritual, you know. I used to work all winter and I'd take off spring to fall just to fish, just to fish for brook trout. And my buddy did the same thing. So we get our stuff, you have to cross a large body of water, eight miles or so. To get to the trailhead, you get to the trailhead. Get all your stuff unpacked, get it on your shoulders, start hiking it. The first leg of the hike is about 1.2 miles until you hit a lake. And you can either paddle this lake or you can hike around the lake. We chose to paddle it. It's just, it's easier. It's a lot less taxing and you can throw the rod out the back and fish on your way across the lake. So when you get to the other end of that, that lake trail picks back up. Then it's another mile or so to another lake. And then the trail turns north and this is where the trail turns into a bushwack. Now when we used to go there, it was, it was a bushwack trail. You know, it was very, very rarely used. We've only seen a few people there ever. One was just a through hiker and older gentleman. And the other was a group of younger guys that were basically following us. You know, we walked past those lakes and they just decided, well, those guys must know where they're going. So about seven hours later, they ended up on that lake that we were intending to be. We hit the bushwack section of the trail and it's always pretty muddy and uphill most of the way. It's not a crazy uphill play, but it's, it's high country on both sides. And on the right side, if you're facing north, the right side has the outlet of the lake. So there's always like a little creek running. The feeds back into some of the other lakes. On the way up, there's mud bits. There's all kinds of little obstacles. We got around to access known for its slippery mud and roots. And it's just a little bit of a battle getting back there. It's nothing crazy. I mean, maybe I'm making it sound worse than it is. It's not, it's not terrible. It's not great. And it can be taxing, but it sits rewarding. So especially when you get to the pond, you get to the pond. And there's a nice campsite. Now the campsite, the original campsite, is on the south end of the pond. For some reason, just the way the mountains around the pond are configured. It swirls the wind in a way that pushes all the old peat in. Everything just, just formed like a tiny little island at that end of the pond. So it's just all, it's just peat. So everything is like a drum. Like it's spongy, but it's hard. And it's just ruped laden with pine roots. And you can feel anything. You can feel pine cone drop. Feels like someone threw a baseball at the ground, under your feet. So. But we get our stuff settled in. It tends to put up. You know, usually we would just want to get out and fish immediately. So we'd never stack wood or do any of that cut wood right off the bat. We'd get right out there and we'd get fishing. So we get out there where we're trolling. We know exactly where to go. We've picked this lake apart. We've been here many times. Go right to the hot spots. Immediately start pounding fish. It's just one after one after the other. Nice 18 20 inch brookies, you know, in between 14, 15s. Really healthy fish. And as I said to you in the email, we're all catching or at least. So we release everything unless something's mortally wounded. That day that night, the first night we got there, nothing we didn't mortally wound anything. So we went back into camp. We have these, you know, those mountain house MREs. We got those. Not cooking, but we boil in the water and. Let them sit in the bag and get them all ready to go. Go off into the woods, get a little bit of a, get a little bit of firewood going. And then sit down, eat our food. And I always do a big, loud big foot call in smack a tree. Just one time get a log smack a tree. I've always done it. It was always a joke. I never did it for any other reason than to actually screw with other campers. You know, in less, less backwards areas, you know, some places like Cernac Lake or on fish ponds or any of that poss mess. There's people that they swear to God bigfoot's there, but. You were there in probably 2010 to 2014. It was probably just me screaming in the woods and smack and trees. Well, we just did it as a joke, you know, just a couple of guys out in the woods just acting like fools. So I did one of those, you know, we get a little chuckle out of it. It's kind of it's just time to go to bed. So we hit the sack. I'd say somewhere probably around one or two maybe. Big tree comes down just a. A large tree. And it wasn't very far from camp and just at a nowhere, you know, boom comes down. Chicks the shit out of the ground. We pop up out of our tents. I yell the case. I said, Casey, you hear that? Yeah, what was that? What was that? It was a tree, Bob. He's like, holy shit, what are we going to do? I said, I don't know. It wasn't windy. There was nothing going on. It was a calm night. You know, there was no reason for that tree to fall. Not that I could articulate. I thought maybe, maybe a beaver. They're nocturnal. It was close to the edge of the pond. You know, logically that would that would make sense, but it was an awfully large tree. And it seemed to be a healthy tree when I went and looked at it. I didn't see any beaver chewing on it or anything like that. So I don't really know how to explain that. So we just go back to bed. Snow big deal. And I snore pretty loudly. So our tents are quite far apart. And I'm more on that kind of that peat mound where you can feel everything and anything. And morning comes and we're both awakened by what sounds like something smack in a tree. And it's just rhythmically doing it. It's just every three seconds. Boom. Boom. Boom. And it does it for 45, 50 minutes straight. I mean, it's from when it's dark out until sunrise. As soon as the sun rose or it was just regular sunrise, it would stop. We sit there and we were looking at each other like, what the hell is that? What could it be? And then you know, we sat and we talked about it. What the hell could it be? What could it be? I don't know. Woodpecker. Maybe it's a woodpecker. But I just, it didn't sound like that hollow log woodpecker. And it was just, it was consistent. It made no sense. It was just consistent every time. And it was, it was, I don't know, it was deliberate. You could just tell by how it was happening. It was just deliberate. It was forced. It wanted, it wanted you to know that it was being done. I don't know the reasoning behind it, but it wanted you to know that. I don't know. I don't know how to explain it. The noise that you guys were hearing was it like someone hitting a tree with a bat? Yeah, in a way, you know, it sounded more like maybe not like a sluggish or something, but like an aluminum bat kind of. It sounded, it sounded like fiber on fiber. Don't get me wrong. It sounded like wood on wood, but it sounded like, it sounded like the smaller log was the hollow log and it was hitting a solid tree. I don't know why I think that is just what pops into my mind when I hear it. You know, if I revisit it in my mind, that's what it sounded like to me, which doesn't make much sense because something of that, that strength or that, you know, that stature was swinging something like that. You'd think a hollow log would snap against a tree, but this just kept on echoing out. You know, and it was for, it was 45, 50 minutes, at least every morning. I remember for three mornings, four mornings. So it was strange, but sun came up. It was time to do other things. So we got back on the pond, ate the granola bars or whatever we had. Got back out there was another good day of session, no big deal. My buddy actually caught a nice 18 inch male brookie and it was mortally wounded. So we brought it back to camp, ended up cutting it up, cooking it up. And it was, it was good. It was delicious fish, but we decided to go back out after that. And on the way out, we go all the way to the other end of the pond. Now this pond is, well, it's not a pond, it's a lake. This lake is about two miles long and it's about a mile wide. So from paddling to the campsite all the way to the other end of the pond is, it takes a while. It takes a while to get back. And for whatever reason, the best fishions at that other end of the pond. So we stay there right until dark, like right till twilight. And then you paddle back essentially in the dark. And when you get halfway down the pond, on the left side of the pond, if you're looking north, there's like a little peninsula that comes out. And on that little rock laden peninsula, there's a couple of big old growth pines. One leans out, maybe a 45. Not maybe not quite a 45, but it's a big tree. It's probably got a five to six foot diameter. And it's definitely old growth. And when I'm paddling back, my buddy is more in the center of the pond. And his canoe is a little smaller, a little lighter. So he was probably a good 20, 30 feet ahead of me, but to the left. And it's unpaddling, drifting by this thing. You know, it's dark in the woods, but there's something darker in the woods. I look over at it. I just catch a glimpse of it. I can't really make heads or tails of it. It's just kind of moving. It looks like it's kind of looks like it's swaying. It's trying to get a better vantage point to see where we are or what we're doing. It's also so dark that I just, I truly can't tell, but it is darker than the woods. The surrounding area. It's darker. I mean, there's no way it wasn't something. But I didn't think much of it. I said, I thought maybe my mind was playing tricks on me. Maybe I thought it was a bear. I don't know. And I know it's dark now, but was it like a figure looking around a tree? Yeah, yeah, in a way, but I mean, you can see what looked to be shoulders and ahead. Although it was blurry, but it was definitive movement. Like in a way that, you know, go outside on a half moon lit night and have an intruder on your property, trying to hide behind a tree. You're not going to be able to see exactly what it is, but you're going to, you know, you can see the intent of the motion of the movement, you know, that just the way it was moving was, was enough to convince me that something was there. It wasn't just a trick of the eye or trick of the light. If something was there, I believe something was there, but I convinced myself that it was just a trick of my mind, you know, because of where you are or where we were. And you don't want to put yourself in the headspace right before bedtime, especially when there's, I mean, it is a, it's not heavily populated with bear in there, but there are bear in there. You know, we've seen bear in that area and there are a lot of people there and that, that lake itself, not including through hikers, probably only sees maybe 20 people a year fishing, maybe. We've never, besides the ones that followed us in, I've never seen anybody fishing there. I know a few people that do fish there, but they don't stay for the durations we used to stay or anything like that. So I don't know, you know, we knew it wasn't a person at any rate. I knew it wasn't a person. In case you had no idea, I didn't tell them about it. So I just, you know, that held that one close to my chest. So we get back, we do our thing. You're ready for bed. And there's a giant thumping. Like I said, we were we slept, we slept on this big giant peat mound that's been pushed up for thousands of years, as I don't know, since the last glaciation, you just been pushing in there. So what you're sleeping on is just a giant mat of peat and then root balls from pine trees and spruces and things of that nature. So it's like a drum. You're like sleeping on a drum and you've just felt something and it just kept getting closer and closer and closer. And I've since I saw that thing, I immediately thought, bear. So I yell to my buddy, get my head lamp on. I'm like, get up, but get up. Something's out here. Something's out here. He on his his tent and he sticks his head out. He's got his head lamp on. I got my head lamp on and right beside my little bitty tent, there's just a giant snow shoe hair. And it's it's the biggest snow shoe hair I've ever seen. It's a it's a big hair. It's just huge. And at first, are we so far back this thing has no concept of human predation or or that we could potentially predate on this thing. Like it has what it didn't seem like that. It I got out when I started walking around and it started following me. And then it's sat right next to my foot. Then I walked to the fire and it walked right to the fire with me. Casey got up and this thing sat like between him and I. For no real rhyme or reason. I even made a joke to Casey. I was like, you want to have rabbit for dinner tomorrow night? I could cock this thing out. And I'm not that kind of guy. It's just a bad joke. You know, I've never killed anything in my life. I don't intentionally kill anything besides, you know, the odd fish. I don't kill stuff. So anyway, that was a bad joke. And I think this thing just felt safe with us. You know, I've every every one of my stories that I've had that's been otter kind of paranormal in a way happens around the water. And I fly fish. I'm an avid fly fisherman. I've had numerous times I've had fans just run up to me while I'm fishing and just kind of sitting next to me. I got videos. I got a video I can send you of a fun just next to me. It doesn't care. Just sit in there. I'm telling it to go with his mother. Won't go. Just sit in there watching me fly fish. It doesn't care. I just think this thing felt safe. Like it was getting away from something. I don't know. It just made me think why would that? Why would that animal put itself in the position to potentially be killed and consumed by something that could easily do it? And it just it doesn't make sense to me. So we go to bed, leave the rabbit out there. Another tree came down that night. And it was very close to the place where the tree came down the first night we were there. So at this point, they know the trees coming down. It's kind of like old hat kind of thing. Whatever, whatever. Wake up. Same exact thing. Beating on the tree. Boom. Boom. Boom. Same exact thing. 45 to 50 minutes. Same exact rhythm. Same exact cadence. It's just. Boom. Boom. Boom. You know, it's just getting all at this point. We don't know what it is. It doesn't seem to be harming us in any way, shape or form. So. Go on about our day. Get back on the pond. Go to the other end. The other end facing north. On the left side facing north is a giant dome shape mountain. I mean, that whole end of the pond itself. It's kind of like a high ground starts halfway through the lake on both sides. And it's kind of like a horseshoe. But on the left side, more towards the middle, but that end is a giant dome-shaped mountain. And I think it's around 3200 feet, maybe a little less than that. But it's it's it's shaped like a giant dome. And on the backside of that mountain, there's a cliff that overlooks the entirety of the wilderness area. And other ponds over that way. And you can get cell phones reception there. So. My buddy wanted to to get up there, make contact with his girlfriend. Just let her know how everything was going and to give a bit of a weather update because the next day we were leaving. So he starts hiking up there and. The first three or 400 feet of the climb is your all your on your hands and knees. You're literally climbing on your hands and knees and clutch into roots just to. Stay glued to the side of this thing because it's so steep. And then you can take a tape or so off and then you can gradually walk and then when you start getting into the dome portion of it's it's it's decent walking up on top of there. But the initial the set is is a kind of terrible. So he's up there doing what he's doing. I'm parallel directly parallel across the lake to where he is. And you know, I said if I see a little little tree shake and just think it's case he coming down. He yelled to him yelled his nickname which I'm not going to say on here and. Something just went just went ballistic just went crazy. I've never heard screaming like this in my entire life. It was so loud in piercing and it was. It's it's hard to explain that it had like two different vocal ranges like. How your piercing it was sounded like a woman who was. Was just getting canus acts committed on it was it was it was wild. I mean it was so loud in piercing but then there was like an undertone of something thick. It was it was like a resonative thickness to the sound of that screen that. And like I said the that whole area is surrounded by mountains. It's like a natural amphitheater and it felt like it was directed right at me. You know what I mean? I felt like it was hitting you right in the chest or you just feel it. Or hit I don't know how to explain it but it felt like it was hitting. And yeah, I didn't know what to think and as this is screaming it's running. It's running on the hill parallel on the hill to where we have to climb up on our hands and feet. This thing is just cranking out it's it's going. I don't know how to judge it. This is cruising. It's absolutely cruising. And there's there would be no way. I don't know a human on the planet that could run that quickly that fast. Hit and trees. I mean you're I'm not talking you know 12 inch diameter. I'm not talking you know five six inch diameter trees. You know still 15 16 feet taller just shaking going crazy. While this thing's running through a sideways on a hill that's over 45 degrees. It's it was insane to me. And I didn't know what to think. I thought case he was getting killed. I thought he was dying. I thought he was actively dying. I didn't know if there was a predator. I didn't know what was going on. I didn't know if he was going crazy. I had no idea it was going on. So I started paddling over there. I get over to the shoreline, which is steep. The shoreline itself is steep. And I start screaming up the hill. And as you know I'm screaming up the hill for a good two three minutes. Finally I find a little spot to get my canoe in. Because these these kevlar's in these carbon fibers. You got to find the perfect spot. Otherwise you can snap them and it's not just for lack and not want to get the out and get Casey immediately. It's just finding spot to get up. So I finally find the spot to get up. I started getting out of my canoe. And as I'm getting out of my canoe, Casey starts coming down the hill. He starts making noise. That's a meal into him. He just come back. You know, a nonchalant like nothing happened. Nothing happened. Casey and I'm like, dude, you can't be doing that. You know, I'm using. Using some specific words. I said, you can't be doing that kind of stuff. And he's like, what do you mean? I'm using some specific words. I said, you can't be doing that kind of stuff. And he's like, what do you mean? I said, you can't scream like that. Man, I thought you were dying. He had no idea what I was talking about. He had absolutely no idea what I was talking about. I said, you couldn't hear that. He's like, no, it's on the backside of the mountain. I said, I heard something, but I just thought you got a nice fish. I said, dude, if you were here to hear that, what have been insane? And I don't know how he feels about it. I know he knows that I was serious that I heard it. He didn't get to witness that scream, but he saw some other stuff. So on the way back, you know, we going through that night. And I'm pretty much done at this point mentally and physically. So the next day, it's time to go anyway. So we start. Start going to better getting ready to go to better whatever. Loading the fire up. I mean, just load the fire up. I mean, I'm just going to be able to do that. Loading the fire up. I mean, just load the fire up. I wanted a big fire that night. I had a big old bonfire and kind of settled down into the tent. And all night long, all night long from that end of the lake, you could just, it just sounded like a group of people having a conversation. You just, you couldn't quite understand. It was there. You know, it was based to it. It was multiple, multiple people or things. I don't know. And you could hear something, but you just, it sounded like a language to me. But you just add a ear shot just enough for so you couldn't hear it. And then every once in a while, you just hear just a little scream. Like a baby version of what I heard just a, a quick. The one I heard lasted probably a good six to seven seconds. And I know people don't say that sounds like a long time. But if you hear a wild banshee scream for seven seconds straight, I mean, it's a lot longer than you think it would. So these little screams were just coming in little short. Like a little burst, like little second screams, like yips almost. And that's just odd. It's just a non-counter all the other. I was ready to go. I was ready to leave. So 535, 545 that morning, we're getting our stuff together. We're ready to go. Six mile hike out. We gotta get out of there. About halfway down the trail. The trail is high, high country on both sides of it. Like there's on the left side as you're exiting. There's a little hill. And on the left side of that, there's a stream. Then it drops down and you get this little wet area, a little wet hole. And the wet hole is about 20 feet long. Maybe about 12 feet wide. And then it goes back up another slight mountainside. We'll say it starts going uphill pretty aggressively. And right in the middle, well, the DEC likes to line those things with, with old dead fall. They'll cut the fallen trees and they'll plank them out. And they'll put them in there so people can have something to step on as they step through the mud holes. Now, when we came in there, there wasn't even a shoe print in there. Wasn't a boot print. Wasn't a single thing in that mud hole. The only boot prints that were in that mud hole when we got there, were ours coming in. So when we were coming out, it says something. It says if something had walked off that hill, directly stepped in the middle of it, and then just walk right up the other hill. And I don't know what the span would be, but you're talking one hell of a span. And it was just one singular footprint. And I sent you the footprint, I don't know if you saw it. And I don't know how to judge. I would say my best recollection was that it was probably around. It wasn't outside the realm of human possibility. Besides, I would say the width of the foot. But there's probably 12 to 13 inches if, if I'm right in remembering. But the width seemed off to me. And then I kind of sat there and I examined it. I took a video of it. And I got right into it. I was taking the video of it, trying to figure it out. I'm looking to see if it's a double step bear print. But even if it were, which I just don't see how it, there would be no way for that bear to only step there. And that one spot and not have left any other prints beside it. In any, any way shape or form, I just don't know how it would have accomplished that. So that was probably our best. And that's probably my best piece of evidence when it came to what happened that weekend, that trip. Yeah, I'm looking at the picture you sent me. And I'll post it underneath this episode on the website. You know, I just don't see anyone going out there and taking their shoes off and landing in mud with their foot, especially on the middle of nowhere. And it does look like one of their prints. It has a very human-like appearance. What kind of the dead giveaway is how wide it is. It's like a real boxy footprint. Yeah, I put it through some programs, trying to like detail it and look at it and stuff. And just, you know, you can see five distinct toes in my opinion. And the other thing, that piece of wood that's right next to the foot itself, that kind of splintered piece of wood, that's throughout the entire mud pit from where the DEC lays these things down. So if you're walking out there barefoot, you have bigger balls than I do. I'm not going to be doing that. Yeah, I hear you. What was your buddy's thoughts? I mean, what was kind of the conversation afterwards after you guys found this print? What did he think? Kind of the same as mine. You know, we tried to logically explain these things away. And his old lady is from Montana. And I believe she is of Crow descent. I want to say Crow. She's a Crow native. So, you know, we talked about it, because we had another experience in the same wilderness area farther back, that was strange, that I got a picture of something. I can't find the picture, but she called it the little people. And that's a place I'll never go again. I've never felt such dread in my entire life. It's like as soon as we walk out of that swamp into that, because that's all the virgin timber. Never been touched. It's like the Pacific Northwest. I mean, these trees are towering. There's nothing. There's no undergrowth. It's just all canopy. And as soon as you walk in there, you just feel like you're not allowed, or you're not supposed to be there. That's another story. But, I case, he consulted with her about it. And, you know, the same thing my buddies have told me, some of my native buddies, they're just spirits. Blah, blah, blah. Okay. Let me ask you before you go into that, back when you were in the boat and the same kind of streamed at you, and had that banshee scream, you mentioned how fast it was moving. Were you basing that on the fact that you were seeing these trees be smacked as it went by, or did you actually see it up on the hillside? I never got a proper look at anything. But, so that the morning we left, I said I got sick of it. The morning we left, it was still smacked in the trees. So, I ran into the woods trying to find where this thing was coming from. And, it was on the left side of the creek up on another little start of a hill. And, you could see the tree it was hitting. It was a giant spruce tree. And, it was, because of the tree itself, only that tree was moving. And, when I got there, it immediately stopped. I didn't see anything. I've never seen one. I've never seen one. I hear ya. Well, I wanted to ask you, in your email, did you mention seeing strange lights? Was that during this trip? Yeah, yeah. I forgot about that. Yeah. So, this area is fairly close to a military base as well. So, I mean, anyone, anybody who resides around the Adirondacks or Heights, or you're going to hear jets there everywhere. You're going to hear in sonic booms everywhere. They're annoying. You know, it's not very peaceful, but it's just a part of the park. It's just going to happen. That was the night I saw the black shadow thing. It was one singular. It just came down. It like descended over almost exactly the middle of the lake. And then it kind of, it just started to dim. You know, it looked like an old, like an old light bulb from the 50s. That kind of glow. Kind of orangeish. Kind of, I don't know, it's like a dull sun. I would have started to dim, started to dim, and then it would disappear. And as it would disappear, two would come out of it. They were smaller. They were brighter. They would do their thing. It was the exact little bit around the, I mean, we're talking right over the tree tops at this point. It's not very far away from me. And I'm absolutely petrified aliens. I mean, anybody knows me. That's my biggest fear. I don't have any fears other than that. That's my phobia. I'm afraid. Like if I got caught by a gray alien, I'd snap my own neck kind of thing. I'm not with that stuff. So I'm looking at this stuff. And I actually have a recording of that somewhere. I just, you know, it's on an older phone. I think it's on an old S5 or something. But, probably five light, five of these little balls of light come out of this one main light, and then just eventually kind of peter off. And then it's just gone. And that was it. And that's not the first time my buddy and I have seen that. We've seen it on a different pond over a more populated area. And that was very strange. The strangest thing about that, the one that I just spoke about was probably five to ten minutes after those lights, those jets were right over the pond. Just going all over all over the pond, middle of the night. And it was wildly annoying. So that doesn't really give you a good warm and fuzzy feeling. You know, in the middle of nowhere, you see some lights and all of a sudden you got F-16 to whatever they are flying over your head, you know. I didn't like it. How big was this light? And he said it was kind of an orange color? Yeah, I was like, the main light was like an orange color. I wouldn't say it was any larger than a beach ball. And then the ones coming off it were probably five. I don't know, volleyball to softball size. It wasn't far away. It was just over the middle of the pond. I mean, it was just hovering there. How many lights actually came off of the main light? About five. About five off the main one. But it's odd the way it came. So the main one came down. It started to kind of dim out. And one would come out one side, one would come out the other side. And one would get dimmer. And as those two were fluttering and flicking away, two more would come out. The exact opposite side of where those ones came out. I mean, it's kind of what it looked like to me anyway. And then that main one itself just kind of looked like a dematerialized. And I don't know if that turned into the fifth one. Because I believe it was five. I would have to think it was five. And it was four on size. And white. And that kind of looked like just an LED light floating around. And these lights that you were seeing, did they vanish before the planes actually showed up? Oh, yeah. Yeah, they were good and gone for about five to ten minutes. And you had mentioned that you and your buddy had actually seen the lights before. Was this similar to what you guys had seen before? It was similar in the way that. So the first time it happened to us as the crow flies. We were probably on a pond that was. Maybe 35, 45 miles away from this pond. It that was odd. That was like a string of lights. It not like not like starlink string of lights. It was like one light. And then it would grow into another light. And then it would grow into another light. And then it would grow into like a hand shape. Not like the shape of an actual hand. Just like the light. The balls of light had tendrils off them. And they'd those tendrils would. Develop another ball on it. And it just kind of reminded me of fingers and knuckles. And it was strange. The light just kept growing. But it was staying stationary over the pond. The light was growing and undulating. And it was, I think that was 2011, 2012 maybe. You know, I've seen the lights and I'm not sure what they are. But based on your email and based on your description, you're not seeing like a flying saucer. It's a ball of light. What do you think that they are? I really don't know. I mean, there's so much going on on this planet. I just, I don't really know. It's paranormal of some sort in my opinion. Maybe not. Maybe it's a technology. I'm not sure. But it seems awfully paranormal the way it. It seems to know like when you're watching. I mean, I guess, I guess that's no different to technology. No, I know exactly what you mean. It's almost like it's watching you as much as you're watching it. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. And the ones that I've seen, they're about the size of a softball, maybe a little bit bigger. But I've heard them as big as cars. I really don't know what, what the heck these lights are. Tell me about this little people incident you mentioned earlier. I say that was July of that same year. And it's in the same general area. So this, this hike is 11.2 miles in one way. And we go to this lake to fish. And that this lake is 8.3 miles in. And I've heard from a DEC officer, he's like, oh, man, there's four pounders everywhere back there. He goes four pound broke trout as far as the eye can see. I said, yeah, right. I believe it when I see it. So Casey and I decide to go. And we, I think we bought a couple of the cheapest cars we'd ever got from Walmart, like Sundolph and kayaks. And they were relatively, relatively light. I think there were 23 pounds or something like that. So we dragged these things all the way back in the woods. And fish and fish and fish and fish and fish. And man, I've never caught so many brook trout in my entire life. But there wasn't a single fish. That was over the 15 inches. So it wasn't really worth it to us. But it's a nice area. It is a beautiful area. So we knew of this other pond that was beyond it. And it ends up being 11 points, something miles. And I remember reading some literature about when in the 50s, the DEC was going through and stocking ponds by helicopter and plane and some of these ponds themselves never actually died from acidification. So I really didn't need to be stocked with anything. And some of those fish persisted. Regardless of the inferior genetics at the state stocked over cattle. And I had an ongoing authority that there was still some big fish being caught on this specific pond or this lake, right? And there was this dragonfly flying around. And my dad died when I was a very young man. And for some reason the dragonfly was just reminded me of my dad. And I was like, Dad's a yo, I'm a little bit of a kid. I was a little bit of a kid. I was a little bit of a kid. I was a little bit of a kid. I was a little bit of a kid. And I was reminded me of my dad. And I was like, Dad's a yo, and it would land on me. And I'd be like, Hey man, what should we do? Should we stay here or should we go to this other pond and catch giant brook trout? And the thing flooded around and it landed on the tip of my hat. And I said, good enough for me. So we pack up and we go. I'm thinking maybe the devil sent that dragonfly. That was the weirdest place I've ever stated my entire life. I mean, uncomfortably, uncomfortably strange. I'll never ever go back there. We left our kayaks back there, which I don't litter. I don't litter. It's a rule I don't litter. But my buddy and I left two giant hunks of plastic kayak back there. And I don't know whatever it became of them. Hopefully the BEC got them out. But as you leave this first pond, you come. It's a decent little walk. And there's a lot of fresh moves sign and stuff like that. So we come across some fresh moves tracks. And then all of a sudden, you know, something explodes in the woods and you just see a big black thing running through the woods. It's just the back end of a moose. So that's what we assumed. And maybe to this day it is. Maybe it wasn't. I have no idea. But it was loud and it was moving trees and it was going through the woods fast. And you come up to a swamp. And this is a giant swamp. You look at the swamp and you're like, yeah, that's not that big. That's easy to get through. As soon as you start getting in there, it's like a patchwork of puzzles. It's like a maze because you got to walk on these logs at the DC of laid out. It's like a jigsaw puzzle that you got to walk on. And you don't really have any concept of the other side. The other side was never the logging companies were never able to get past this swamp. So this whole track is all virgin timber. It's the largest track of virgin timber left in the Adirondacks. So you don't really have any concept of how big these trees are. Because it just looks like normal sized trees. But you're so far away, you don't really know. As soon as you get close to these trees, I mean, these things are towering. You got gigantic hemlocks. You got giant white pines that are five foot six foot in diameter. You can't put your arms around them. There's absolutely no undergirl. You can just walk wherever you want because everything is closed off from the canopy. There's no life there. As soon as we walked up on that bank, just got that feeling. That weird right down the back of your neck, hair prickly, just that feeling. That weird, weird feeling. We push through it, whatever. We're here to fish. So we get our stuff in there. Get on the pond. Worst fish I've ever had my entire life. There's clearly no trout left in that pond. I'm kind of pissed off that I expanded all this energy and time. I just make up camp. Now there's a lean tube back there. In the 90s, we had what we call a microburst. And it blew down a lot of these old growth trees. It's like a cascading cold air mass. They're liking it to a tornado. It's just a wall of air that just blows trees down. So there's a bunch of these old trees that are still laid up. It's an obstacle course, but a lot of them are cut. When they're table size trees, they're just chunks of stump that are just the size of tables. Just laying around everywhere. And it's all moss. It's covered. It's very Pacific Northwest-like, I suppose, in a way. If you walked into there, someone just dropped you in. Told you it was a Pacific Northwest. You'd believe it. So we get ready for bed. The lights just starting to wane. It's not even dark yet. I'm just tired from all the hiking. As it gets darker, it just gets creepier and more quiet. Like the frogs that you heard before were gone. There was no birds. I mean, it was. It was a silence. Like you've never heard silence before. It was the. The ear piercing silence. It was almost inferior. It's just got on your nerves, you know, maybe the появious in my ears, I don't know, just the ringing. It's so quiet, you can just hear your own heartbeat in your ears. It felt cold, and it wasn't it wasn't cold. It was. Early July, I think it's either late June or early July, but it was not cold out. It wasn't, we're not in, like, the high peaks here in the Adirondacks. It's not crazy. crazy high elevation where we were. But if it just felt cold, just completely felt cold. And then we're sitting around, we have a little fire and we're talking and here some moves back. So I look over there, I said, Casey, there's probably some coyotes over there. He's like, you think so? So, I don't know, let's see. So I let out a coyote just seeing if they'd answer back. Nothing answered back, but there was a hell of a lot of movement coming out of that swamp. And it was very clear that things were flanking us and my buddy was getting visibly upset. He's like, don't do that dude. Stop. Come on, stop. I said, just coyotes. What are they going to do? They're not going to do anything to you. And just a proof of point, I took my headlamp, put it on my head, walked off into the dark, turned my headlamp off and just kept on walking, looking for things. When I turned that headlamp off, I got about five, six steps. And I just, I felt like I stepped into a paleo liquid nitrogen. I mean, I never got so cold. I've never been that cold in my life. I just got cold and frozen. I was just there. And it was just like something was there. It was just, something there. And it didn't want us there. You know, that feeling, I don't know if you ever had that feeling of dread. Like you ever had sleep paralysis where you're laying there and something's coming undulating and you can't do anything with that kind of fear. I don't know, you ever had that? Yeah, I have. Yeah, that is that kind of fear. But you're awake and you're alive and you're hard to meet. And it was, it wasn't it. I ended up running out of there, obviously. Back to the back of my campsite. And I just told Casey, going to sleep as soon as I wake up, I'm out of here. I don't care what I have. What's if what I'm leaving, what I'm doing, I'm out of here. He's like, okay, okay. And then all day long, these weird, like lucid dreams of these little things. There was no, there was no difference. I say it's a lucid dream. Almost like you were sedated. And everything was just the way it was. But you were just sedated. And there's these little short, little white, grayish things just everywhere, just everywhere. But in the dream or the lucid dream or whatever it was when I, when I'd look at them, they'd look right back. I mean deeply in my eyes and then it just kind of dematerialized. And it was just weird. It was just weird. And I just never felt more uncomfortable in my entire life. I mean, to that point, I, this is one place I'll never, ever go again. Couldn't pay me any amount of money wouldn't go. Don't care. There's nothing you could do to get me there. And as we were packing up, I just take out my phone. I'm just taking pictures, you know, because there's, it's still a beautiful area. It's absolutely a beautiful area. The trees are huge and it's, it's kind of hard to capture on photo. Just how large these trees are. And you don't often see that around here. So I'm getting some pictures, blah, and some pictures of the old cuts and all that and on the way out. And I thought I saw something. And I didn't really know. I just flashed a picture. We're talking on all the cell phone. 2017. So it's not, you know, not a super amazing cell phone camera sensor, but it did the trick. And fine, we get back, we get back down the trail, we get back to the truck. And usually our first thing to do is stop into a gas station. Just get some greasy gas station pizza because we've been living off those mountain house MREs and maybe the odd fish or two. You just, you know, you lose like seven pounds on one of those trips. You're just tired. You need that grease to get you going. So we were sitting there slamming this greasy piece of pizza and I'm just flicking from my phone, fucking through the pictures and all of a sudden. It's a little spot. I said, I handed my phone to my buddy. So was that look like you? He's like, I don't know, dude, but I don't like it. He ended up sending the picker either I sent it to his, his girlfriend, or he sent it to his girlfriend. I can't remember. But she said it was the little people. And I don't know if I've never heard about the little people. Of course, I'm not from Montana. I don't know if that's more of a Western mythology that they they ascribe to out there. But I don't know if the the mohawk's do out here, the holding the shone here, whatever. Yeah, almost every Native American tribe has kind of a lore about the little people. And I've actually had a few people on the show that have run into them. It's odd, but I've heard I witnessed testimony of seeing these things out in the woods and the the dream that you had, you know, if you were thinking coyotes, you think you would have dreamed about coyotes, but dreaming about these little people's very strange. There was also one part that I can't I can't remember what it was, but Casey and I in the dream had an identical storyline in the dream and interacted in the dream, just like it was real life. So and we both he knew parts of it that I know I knew parts of the he knew the only difference was I felt like we were led to believe this was a dream and that was just what happened. We know we knew each other's dream because we both lived in that same space. You know what I mean? It was just happening. Yeah, that's really fascinating that you guys had the same dream. Little creepy too, but I mean, it's really fascinating that you guys knew each other's parts of the dream, which makes me think it probably wasn't a dream or it could have been. I know with a lot of the Native Americans, they'll describe these things as being very physical, but also being very spiritual. And the eyewitnesses I've talked to that have seen them, they kind of describe what you describe of these little things like dematerializing and just vanishing. It's very strange, but there is a lore with it. And if you ask most Native Americans, they'll tell you nothing good comes from these things and just stay away from them that they're very vicious and the history of the little people with the Native Americans goes back as far as Sasquatch. And you had three very strange days on this trip. I know you didn't see Sasquatch, but I think if you take that out of the equation, it's like, well, what else could it be? What else could you guys have been experiencing? I ask everyone on the show, what do you think Sasquatch is? What's your take? I don't know. I mean, through the years, you know, looking up some of the research saying that the mitochondrial DNA is human and then the the Y chromosome isn't is not in GenBank or something like that. One would think it would have to be fairly closely related to us to be able to hybridize if it was a hybrid. I just truthfully, I just think it's been explaining to me as a spirit and you know, that's pretty much a broad term for everything we don't understand, I suppose. It has to be somewhat physical. It's making prints, eating food, smacking trees. I think it's migratory because after this very trip that I spoke about with what I would assume was Bigfoot, we were on the Northfield Placetral at the very end, hiking up into it. And that's, you know, an eight mile hike to the pond we were going in there and we were here in screams all night there, too. And that was the same time of year. I almost think it's like a migratory thing or maybe they're that's their breeding season and they had a round back, so your hard would be hard living in the winter time. But, you know, if they had that baby and carried it through winter, it would pop out on the right side if their gestation period was just a little bit shorter than our gestation period, you know, they'd be coming out in May or June. And that's a perfect time. That would be the perfect time. The Adirondacks, the food everywhere, or at least it's it's common, but I don't know. I don't know. It seems physical and it seems to have characteristics of being paranormal as well. It seems to be a good mixture. And I don't like I don't like what that means. I don't like the implication of of of that at all. What do you make of the reaction of it just banging on that tree or just the overall behavior? What I kind of get from it is when you guys went over to that little island, I almost kind of think that's where they were at and that's why you got the reaction you got. What do you make of the behavior of what was going on there during this trip? I don't know. You know, I've heard some stories where it seems like it was a lot, a lot more, I don't know how to say it. It seems like it got under people's skin, skin a lot more than a got under my skin somehow. I mean, it rattled me, don't really shook me up, but I think it was initially because I thought my body was getting hurt. So I think that's why I was initially not not even scared, just more concerned. But then the aftermath of it is what you know, maybe sitting think like what and why would it? I mean, territory, yeah, territorial for sure, that makes sense. It could have been territorial display of some sort. I would have to assume it was a female. So then I would assume maybe a smaller individual was around with mom and maybe, you know, we're taking over the mountain over there or something, I don't know, but I would like to think that that thing could easily toss my buddy right off that hillside. No problem. You know, I mean, there's there's a 200 foot cliff not far from where he was talking on the phone. If you really wanted to run up and punt him in the back, I think it could have got it done. So it's, I don't know what it was. Maybe their whole their whole persona is just a scare tactic. Maybe they just want to scare you for entertainment. I don't know. Yeah, I think a lot of their behavior is meant to scare you. It's a lot of bravado and that's my opinion, of course. But it was three very strange days, very memorable and creepy and terrifying and I really appreciate you taking the time to come on and share it. I appreciate you letting me tell you. Thanks again, Preston. And that's it for tonight, everyone. Remember, if you've had an encounter, shoot me an email. My email address is west at saskwatchcronacles.com. And if you get a chance, check out saskwatchcronacles.com. You can become a member and get additional shows. Until next time, everyone.