SC EP:1170 Bears Don't Throw Rocks
72 min
•Jul 12, 20259 months agoSummary
Episode 1170 of Sasquatch Chronicles features three separate Bigfoot encounter accounts: Seth's 2019 mushroom hunting incident in Washington where objects were thrown, Sean's mysterious encounters in Alabama, and his 13-year-old son Bennett's recent scout camp experience in Mississippi where he observed a large creature following him and his friend.
Insights
- Skeptics who experience unexplained phenomena often struggle to reconcile their disbelief with physical evidence, leading to cognitive dissonance rather than immediate acceptance of Sasquatch existence
- Consistent behavioral patterns across geographically diverse encounters (rock/log throwing, pacing behavior, intentional stalking) suggest either a real species with documented hunting tactics or a widespread cultural narrative
- Young witnesses (age 13) provide detailed, measured accounts without sensationalism, suggesting either genuine experiences or effective social influence from podcast consumption
- Environmental factors like mushroom hunting success and fishing activities create conditions where witnesses are distracted and vulnerable to undetected approach by large creatures
- Absence of physical evidence (bodies, clear photographs, DNA samples) remains the primary barrier preventing skeptics from accepting Sasquatch as real despite compelling behavioral accounts
Trends
Podcast-driven belief formation: Young people consuming Sasquatch Chronicles develop frameworks to interpret ambiguous wilderness experiencesSkeptic-to-believer conversion narratives: Episodes increasingly feature formerly disbelieving witnesses whose encounters force epistemological shiftsBehavioral pattern documentation: Community-sourced encounter reports reveal consistent creature tactics (pacing, object throwing, intentional stalking)Geographic distribution claims: Reports from unexpected regions (deserts, semi-arid areas) challenge habitat assumptions and suggest wider species rangeGenerational witness diversity: Inclusion of child witnesses (age 6-13) expands demographic range and raises questions about parental influence vs. genuine observationComparative cryptozoology: Global creature parallels (Yeti, Olmas, Yawies) presented as evidence of single species with worldwide distributionEvidence hierarchy debate: Witnesses distinguish between TV entertainment (Mountain Monsters, Finding Bigfoot) and serious investigative contentInstitutional skepticism: References to Dr. Meldrum, North American Bigfoot Center, and track cast analysis suggest emerging academic/museum legitimacy
Topics
Sasquatch encounter documentation and verificationCryptozoology and undiscovered speciesBehavioral patterns of unidentified large primatesObject throwing and tool use in non-human animalsSkepticism vs. belief in paranormal phenomenaWitness testimony reliability and biasEnvironmental factors in creature encountersGeographic distribution of cryptid sightingsFootprint casting and forensic analysisVocal communication and audio evidenceBoy Scout camp safety and wildlife encountersMushroom hunting and wilderness vulnerabilityMedia representation of cryptozoologyNative American folklore and creature legendsConservation implications of species discovery
Companies
Sasquatch Chronicles
Podcast platform hosting encounter testimonies; referenced as primary source for witness education and belief formation
North American Bigfoot Center
Museum operated by Cliff Brockman featuring footprint casts and forensic analysis of track evidence
Idaho State University
Institution affiliated with Dr. Meldrum's research on Sasquatch footprint analysis and anthropological evidence
Mountain Monsters
Television show criticized by witnesses as entertainment-focused rather than serious investigative cryptozoology
Finding Bigfoot
Television series mentioned as example of entertainment-driven cryptozoology programming
Expedition Bigfoot
Television show referenced as entertainment-based cryptozoology content
People
Wes
Podcast host conducting interviews with Bigfoot encounter witnesses and analyzing their accounts
Seth
Washington State resident who experienced 2019 mushroom hunting incident involving rock and log throwing
Sean
Father of Bennett; experienced multiple unexplained encounters in Alabama and Mississippi areas
Bennett
13-year-old Boy Scout who encountered large creature at Mississippi scout camp that followed him and friend
Dr. Meldrum
Academic researcher studying Sasquatch footprint casts and forensic evidence of creature existence
Cliff Brockman
Operator of museum featuring footprint casts and forensic analysis; expert on distinguishing real vs. fake tracks
Bob Gimlin
Creator of Patterson-Gimlin film (1967); referenced as credible source on Sasquatch evidence
Matt Moneymaker
Captured Ohio Howl audio evidence in 1994; referenced as source of notable Sasquatch vocalization
Renee Holland
Referenced as fellow skeptic who questions ambiguous audio and evidence presented in cryptozoology media
Quotes
"Bears don't throw rocks. They don't throw a five foot log or treeline, whatever you want to call it."
Wes•Mid-episode discussion
"I know what a bear looks like and there is no way on this planet to what I saw with bears."
Caller (911 recording excerpt)•Opening segment
"I still don't believe in Sasquatch. But I cannot explain that."
Seth•Conclusion of Washington encounter account
"There's no way that was any four-legged animal that could do anything like that."
Seth•Analysis of encounter evidence
"I think it's more, like, it's probably like 50-50, like right in between animal and human."
Bennett•Discussion of creature classification
Full Transcript
It looked like somebody was bent over and had their head in the window of the deer blind. And it either heard me or smelt me. And he pulled his head out of the tent and stood straight up and that that shocked me. They don't make people that that big. The way it moved. Almost as if it was gliding across the beach. I've never seen anything move like that in my life. They were screaming at each other in gibberish. It sounded like a language and they were chunting away back and forth, back and forwards, back and forwards. I know what a bear looks like and there is no way on this planet to what I saw with bears. 911, what are you reporting? Jesus Christ, you better. Sheriff? See ya. Hello? Get somebody out here. What's going on now, sir? That son of a bitch is about six foot nine, I don't know. Do you see him now, sir? Yes, I'm looking right at him. This is Ninka from Cold Lake Alberta, Canada. You are listening to, in my opinion, the best place to share your encounter stories. Sasquatch Chronicles. Welcome to the show, everyone. Thanks for being here tonight. Got a great show planned for you. We'll be chatting with Sean and his son, Bennett. And Bennett is 13 years old. He was at a scout camp in the South of Canada. He was a scout camp in the South of Canada. He was a scout camp in the South of Canada. He was a scout camp in the South of Canada. He was at a scout camp in Mississippi. And this is a very recent encounter where he was followed out of this area in the woods, him and a friend of his, by this very large creature. And I'll kind of let Bennett go into it. We're also going to be chatting with Seth. And Seth comes to us from Washington State. And back in 2019, he had a very strange experience when he was out with his family. Sean is a self-described skeptic and doesn't believe in Bigfoot. But I suspect some of that will change after his experience. If you've had an encounter and you'd like to be on the show, shoot me an email. My email address is Wes at Sasquatch Chronicles.com. And if you get a chance 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 Seth to the show. Seth, thanks for coming on. You're welcome. Thank you. Yeah, I appreciate you being here. Now, you had this incident in 2019 in Washington. If you would just start from the very beginning. What were you doing and what happened? All right, on May 9th, 2019, my ex-girlfriend and I and our little boy, we decided to go up to Remrock Lake and do some mushroom hunting. So we left about eight o'clock here and we got there about 9.30. And there was a lot of people hunting mushrooms. So we hunted around for a little bit, weren't finding anything. And then we found this forest service road that cut off to the backside of the mountain. So I decided to take it. And we drove as far as we possibly could. It came to a dead end and we stopped and we were just looking around. I thought, well, let's walk through the woods a little ways and let's see how it looks. So we did. And my little boy was all excited. He loved being out in the woods. We walked about a mile and a half from the truck and we came across this meadow with this runoff pond or little lake that was in the bowl of this meadow. And instantly when we got down there in the marshy spots, we were finding mushrooms like crazy. We weren't paying. We got so excited. We weren't paying any attention to the surroundings, to anything. And the wood line to this pond was about 30 yards, 50 yards away. And we started digging mushrooms. I was about 20 feet, 25 feet from my girlfriend at the time and my little boy was right beside me. And we hunted there for about an hour and we were just cleaning house, mushrooms everywhere. We started walking around the pond about 20 minutes of walking around the pond. I was bent over. My little boy was beside me. And I heard this like whoosh. I kind of stood up. And before I could see anything, I heard a big splash right beside me or behind me. And I turned around real quick. And when I turned around, it was the kind of splash where a very heavy, heavy object hit the bottom and then the mud and water came up and then rained down. And I'm like, well, that was weird. So I sat there and looked at it. And all of a sudden this log comes floating up to the top. And this log or tree limb, whatever you want to call it, was about four and a half, five feet long and probably anywhere from 13 to 15 inches in diameter. And I sat there for a second. We were all three of us were stunned. I had no idea what it was. And me being the logical one, I said, well, it just rolled off the hill. You know, it rolled out of the tree line. Because I didn't believe in Sasquatch. I don't believe in, I didn't believe in any of that. We sat there for a little bit and looked around. It was quiet, no birds, nothing. The frogs quit making noise. I mean, there was, there was millions of frogs in these ponds. We went back to picking. And when we went back to, we kept walking around this pond and we're digging mushrooms. And about a half hour later, I heard something coming through the tree line. And I looked, I caught a little black object out of the corner of my eye. And this rock landed right beside me on my left side, beside me and my little boy, and it splashed mud all over, all over me. And this rock was probably 20, maybe 20 plus inches in diameter is like a 16 pound bowling ball. And it hit with such force that it was about three quarters of the way covered in this mud marsh at the edge of this lake or pond. I looked at my girlfriend at the time or ex-girlfriend at the time I looked at her and she had drawn her nine millimeter was aiming it toward the tree line. So instinctively, I grabbed mine, my 45 and I'm aiming it at the same tree line. I'm looking at her and I'm pointing and I'm like, did you see anything? She said no. So we sat there and my little boy's eyes are the biggest soccer balls, my heart's pounding. I started to walk toward the tree line a little ways and out of nowhere, something took off through these baby fur and pine and camera trees that were on the edge of this tree line. These things were maybe 20 feet, 30 feet tall and maybe three, four inches in diameter. And I noticed that the tops of them were shaking so hard that they were hitting each other. And you could see where something was tearing off around this tree line going through those young trees because you could follow it by the tops of the tree shaking and hitting each other. We didn't hear any grunts. We didn't hear any noises. We didn't smell anything. But when we saw that, I'm like, okay, you know, we need to go because I can't explain this. I have no idea what's going on. Because bears are out that time of year. They're coming out of hibernation. They're hungry. And my first instinct was it was a big black bear. But as we're walking out and we're heading back toward the truck, realistically, I'm thinking there's no way a black bear is going to throw a rock or a log. You know, 20, 25 yards from the tree line. There's just no way. And we found this trail that I thought was the one that we came in on. So we're hightailing it out there. I've got my AR in hand. My ex-girlfriend's got her 9mm in hand. And again, there's not a noise. That whole side of the mountain is just dead quiet. And we're taking off. We're leaving. We're heading toward the truck. But it was about halfway up when I realized that we were not on the same trail that we came in on. Because there was little rock shelves that we crawled over. And there was little tiny caves that we went by. And we didn't see any of that. So we knew we were on the wrong trail. So we stopped for a minute. We started looking around. And then she walked over to me and she said, Do you smell that? I said, No. I said, My allergies are kind of bothering me. I said, I can't smell anything. And she said, Something smells dead. And I said, Well, it's probably just a dead deer or something like that. So we turned around and we started looking for this trail that we came in on. Then I smelled it. I'm like, That's something big. That's something that's dead. Something big. So then we started looking for it. Why we started looking for it? I don't know. Because we were so scared. There was no way that we should have stuck around. But we walked around and then she found it. She found some fur. And it was a little spike elk. And this thing wasn't poached. The fur on the one side was really ripped off. It just looked like somebody peeled the banana. The rib cage was lit clean. I mean, the bones were white. The kill was maybe three, four days old. The blood on the ribs, it was still sticky. It was still red. It was just starting to smell. We looked at it. She noticed, she goes, look at this. And she pointed down. And the one, the left hind leg of that elk, the femur was literally snapped in half. Like not cut, not with the saw, nothing. It was snapped. It was splintered. And I started looking at the other one. I kind of grabbed it and pulled the leg over and that one was broke. It was still had skin on it. But right at the mid femur, it was broke. You could wiggle it around. And I grabbed Hunter. He was kind of oblivious. I mean, he's only six years old. I grabbed him and I said, okay, we got to work. We're leaving. We're out of here. So we started walking around and I found the trail. And my ex-girlfriend was about 30 yards from me because we were looking for this trail. Whoever found it first, you know, so we, I found it. I waved to her and we took off. This was about five in the afternoon. And that time of year, five in the afternoon, it starts to get dark, especially when you're in the woods and got on the trail. We found the truck. We disarmed. We climbed in the truck. And we, I started it and I sat there for about five minutes. And we just looked at each other and I'm like, what happened? What was that? And we went through every scenario that we could think of. And there was no way that was any four-legged animal that could do anything like that. There just, there's no way. And I still don't believe in Sasquatch. But I cannot explain that. We didn't see anything. We didn't see a body. We didn't see any color and any fur, but whatever it was, whatever took off through that tree line, it made a, it made a mess. Yeah. I think when you take Bigfoot out of the equation, it's kind of hard to explain what happened. I don't see a man shaking those trees. I mean, I realize you're describing them as baby trees, but 20 foot tall pine or fur is still pretty, pretty sturdy tree to shake or even take down. How far away were those trees when they were shaking? I was about 25 yards, roughly, roughly about 25 yards. Whatever it was, just followed the edge of the tree line right as the, as the pond is. It just kind of followed it around. Yeah. And I know that you're skeptical of Sasquatch, but let's kind of go down the list of what it could be. I know those baby trees you're talking about. I've seen them many times and I can tell you they're pretty sturdy. I mean, it's a pretty hardy, both pine and fur are pretty hardy trees and I'm a big guy. I don't know that I could shake them on my way out, but I mean, what else do you think it could have been? That's the thing, Wes. I don't know what it could have been. I honestly don't. The only thing that comes to mind, the biggest animal out there is a bear and our black bears aren't that big out here. Once in a great while, you'll see one that tops maybe 400 pounds, but most of the time they're two, two, 50. They're not that big. Yeah. The black bears in the Pacific Northwest really aren't that big. I mean, I wouldn't go toe to toe with one, but they're not on the grand scheme of life. They're not very big and they also don't throw rocks. Yes. They don't throw rocks. They don't throw a five foot log or treeline, whatever you want to call it. Let me ask you, how would it change your reality if you sell one of these creatures and you were reflecting back on this moment? If I could see some 100% proof that they're out there, I would come back and say that that's probably what it was. But I can't say it's not. I can't say it is because I'm still somewhat of a skeptic. But out of everybody I've listened to on your podcast, there's been many of them, many of the other encounters that are just like mine. Some people have seen them, some haven't. And I just, I haven't. Have you ever looked into this subject as far as what evidence is actually there? I have. After that, I always watch things on Sasquatch when I was little. It was just something that intrigued me. I've been looking into it and I've seen some things, some pictures and some evidence that I'm like, hey, that's pretty good. That could be. But in the back of my mind, I'm like, well, no one's seen it. I mean, there's no 100% proof. There's not one dead in some laboratory somewhere. So I just can't quite get on board. But the more I think about it and the more I hear other people's encounters and the way mine went, I'm getting to the point where I do believe that something could be out there. I just don't know what. Outside of actually seeing one, what would it take to convince you that these things are out there? If someone could, if someone had an encounter like I did and was able to get a good picture of a, of an actual figure and a video of some, some sounds or something like that. That would, that would help a lot. But in just my way of thinking, there's too many people that want to be the first one to see it and the first one to have evidence. So they do anything they can to make it look like there is something out there and there's just not. Like I follow, I watch a lot of these big foot shows on TV, like mountain monsters and stuff like that. And there's just, it's too hokey. There's no way. And like finding big foot or whatever, I'm in the same camp as Renee Holland is. I mean, I, these guys here at Twig Snap and all of a sudden at Sasquatch, well, that could be a squirrel. It could be a bird. It could be anything. And that right there is what ruins it for me that makes, that keeps me a skeptic because every time there's a sound out in the woods, it's automatically Sasquatch. And there's a million animals out there. It could be. Yeah, but you have to remember all of these TV shows, mountain monsters, finding big foot, expedition big foot, they are built on entertainment. They're not built on trying to convince the world that this thing is out there. I think out of all of them, probably finding big foot did the best job at that. But even at the end of the day, finding big foot is still entertainment. As far as videos go, what's your take on the Patterson Gimlin film? I've seen it. I watched it. I can't, I just, I don't know that thing moves pretty natural. It's not, it doesn't move like a person in the suit. But that is probably the best evidence I have yet to see. But I just can't quite get on board with it. And I don't know why. Because I mean, that's the best proof I've seen. Seth, have you ever looked at trackcasts or gotten copies of trackcasts and just kind of looked at them or ever heard Dr. Meldrum speak about these footprints? Yeah. And I've listened to Bob Gimlin. I've listened to, oh, what's the guy from Idaho State University that does all the big foot stuff? Yeah, Dr. Meldrum, the professor of autonomy and anthropology. Is that him? Yeah. I've, I've, I've seen his tracks that he has. And I think there was an episode of, oh, I can't remember the name of that show, but it laid out all of his footprints and stuff he's seen, he's got and where it came from. And that's some pretty good evidence also. You know, a couple of years ago, I bought a bunch of these casts of these tracks that were made from all over the United States. And you can buy them online. They were really relatively cheap at the time. And I didn't even know that Cliff Brockman with the North American Bigfoot Center, his museum up there, he makes copies of these, these tracks and you can buy the, the casts from the track. And I had them all laid out at my desk one time and I was sitting there looking at them and you can tell just by looking at them, this was made by a living, something living made this. And Cliff's a good guy to go to because I mean, that guy really knows his, his different track ways and different casts and he even showed me like fake ones and was pointing out like 50 different things. How you can tell this is a fake compared to a real one. And you being skeptical, I would even encourage you to go down to the North American Bigfoot Center. I've been in this for a long time. It feels like forever at this point, but I learned a lot walking away from Cliff's Museum. I mean, I really, there was a lot of evidence that I was shocked by that's out there. I didn't even think about. So that's one thing that I'd recommend is go check out that, that museum that he has. It's outside of Grasham. You had mentioned audio, you know, if you heard good audio, what's your take on the Ohio Howl or that samurai chatter that gets reported? The samurai chatter, what they, that's what they call it. I, I have no clue what, what that is. I, I couldn't even begin to speculate what that is. But I've heard a lot of these screams and stuff that people have been putting out there and stuff like that. And most of them to me sound like a bobcat in heat or a cougar, a small cougar, looking for a maid or its mom. I've done a lot of big game hunting in my life and I've seen and heard a lot of cats. And to me, a lot of those screams sound like a big feline, a cougar or a big bobcat. Yeah, I agree with you. I think some nice people are capturing felines, whether it be like a mountain lion or a bobcat or some of those screams, I will agree with you on not all of them, but some of them I will agree with you on. You know, we talk about the Ohio Howl a lot. It was captured back in 1994 by Matt Moneymaker in Ohio. And you know, that particular vocal is a very strange one, but that's not the only one that was captured. I wish I had the one from California queued up. I don't have it. This one's from Maine in 2012. This is the Ohio Howl I talked about from 1994. Kind of a weird vocal. It's been described many times as like an air raid siren. And I actually had one from California. I know I have one from Washington. I don't have queued up, but I've spoke with a few eyewitnesses that I've actually seen them do this vocalization. But you know, if you don't believe in Bigfoot, I don't know what else in my mind. I mean, what other animal could make a sound like that? All the times I spent out in the woods hunting stuff like that. That one does not sound familiar to me at all. I couldn't. That one's odd. That one I couldn't tell you what that was even close to. You know, one thing I wanted to ask you is, you know, we here in the United States and in North America in general, we have the Sasquatch or the Bigfoot. You get down to Australia and they have the Yawies. You go over to Russia. They have the Olmas. They go over to China and Tibet. They have the urine and the Yeti. When you get into Vietnam, the soldiers called them Rock Apes. So all around the world, everyone is seeing this creature and we're all basically describing the same thing, even though we're giving it a different name. Even the Native Americans, when they were here thousands of years before us, they had a name for it. What do you make of this thing being seen all around the world? That's something that I can't explain. I mean, that's what puts me on the line of believing and not believing is that every country has one just under a different name. And like you said, they describe it the same way. Its tactics are the same thing. It does everything the same. Yeah, I can appreciate your skeptical point of view for sure. I like skeptics. A lot of the questions they ask are very fair questions that I don't have an answer for and I don't think anyone else does either. And I do think that you ran into a Sasquatch because I can't think of anything else that just as behavior alone, it makes me think it was a Sasquatch, even though you didn't see it. Have you ever gone back to this area? No, I have not been back to that area. We've gone, my current girlfriend now, my little boy, we've gone mushroom hunting in that, around Rimrock, but I've never gone back to that spot. Have you not returned because of the encounter or just kind of a lack of time? Kind of both. It's a long walk. It's a long ways back there. And I mean, if your truck ever broke down or you ever needed help, it's not there. It was probably pretty stupid to go that far out the first time. Yeah, I would encourage you to keep searching for answers, you know, outside of people's encounters. Look at the hard evidence. Look at some of the evidence that's put forth and make up your own mind. You know what I mean? I will. I plan on it. And I think the other reason that this thing hasn't been proven 100% is because once it is proven, it's going to take someone to shoot one and someone to put it in a lab. But if someone did find one and find legit evidence of one and make it known, that would destroy all of the state's timber industry. Just like they did with the spotted owl, when they saw the spotted owl, it shut down timber farming for a lot of places. And with this thing ever comes out as being real, the timber is gone. You won't be able to hunt and fish hardly at all anymore. They're going to close down everything. They're going to make it, you know, a natural habitat and sanctuary. And that's going to take a big chunk of money out of the state's income and everything else. Yeah, I would disagree with you on that. And I can give 20 different arguments why I would disagree with you on that. But from very briefly, from my witness testimony, they seem to be very nomadic. They seem to be on the move a lot. Generally speaking, they don't hang around in an area for too long. There was a, I remember back, I've talked about it many times, but there was one creature here in Washington that many people were interested in. And I know it was the same creature because everyone described the scar across his chest. But depending on the time of year, I can almost tell you exactly where that creature is at. What it was doing is it was making a loop from Mount St. Helens all the way down the Columbia River and all the way back up. But it never hung around in an area for too long. And again, they're not only seen in forested areas. You could make that argument if Sasquatch was only found in the Pacific Northwest. But they're found in areas where even for me, it shocks me. There's a long history. I know you know where Central Oregon is at. There's a long history of it running through that area. You get south of Bend and it's a desert. There is nothing out there. Yet reports come in from Madras and they come in from around. I know you know where Kenita is at. That's about as desert as you can get for this area. Yeah, there really is nothing out there yet. There is a ton of reports. They come in from Madras. There's nothing in Madras, but you get reports of Sasquatch. The Native Americans talked about them being out in the area of Kenita. And even south of Bend, I've had eyewitnesses come forward and they run into these creatures. And I'm sitting there thinking like, where are they coming from? Where are these creatures coming from that people are seeing them? Because there's not a lot of places to hide. I've been wanting to ask you. I don't know if you know much about the Yakima Indian tribe, but my girlfriend found a thing about a legend and supposedly it's buried. And there's a monument, but they call it the what? The giant lady. And it's from way, way back. And I've heard different claims of where she's eight foot tall, nine, 12 feet tall. And over six, 700 pounds. And there's a spot where supposedly it's actually buried. She's actually buried. And there's people leave offerings and stuff like that to this day. And I was talking to one of my friends who's a tribal member. And he said that his grandpa told him that she watched over the animals and watched over them, you know, in the 1800s, 1900s. And that's how far that story goes back. Yeah, I haven't heard that account, but Yakima is another one. There's nothing out there in Yakima. You're in, you know, Eastern Washington at this point. You're in the desert and there's nowhere to hide yet. Report after report after report come from that area. And for a long time, the Native Americans have talked about them being in that area. I definitely would encourage you to keep searching for answers. And but I really appreciate you taking the time to come on and share what happened to you. Hey, thank you very much. And I've listened to it's taken me two years, but I've listened to every one of your episodes on your podcast and I just finished the last one like a month ago. I appreciate that very much, Seth. Thank you so much for listening. Yeah, you're welcome. Thank you and be safe out there. Next up on the show, I want to welcome Sean. Sean, welcome to the show. Thank you, sir. Thank you, Wes. Nice to talk with you. Yeah, it's a real pleasure to chat with you. And I know mainly we were going to chat about your son's encounter that happened at Scout Camp in Mississippi about a month ago. But before we bring Bennett on, you had mentioned when we were off air, a couple of weird things happened to you. Tell me about those. Okay, I guess there's a couple that come to mind. I just like camping west, you know, so I go camping time to time. There have been phases in my life where I had more opportunity. And so anyway, the first, the first incident, I guess it comes to mind is my older son, Jacob and I were on a trip to the camp. We're on a trip that for some reason Bennett couldn't get to. And we were heading towards, I was thinking about this earlier. Dang it. Now it's slipping my mind, Wes. We were going up towards the ultimate goal was that spot. What is it called? Land between the lakes? I think Combo and those guys are familiar with it, right? But in the meet, but before we got there, we stopped this place. I want to say it's called Oak Mountain State Park. It's in Alabama. And I stopped there because before we went, we were going, I was, we were going under the auspices of these places have had or, you know, have big foot, those kind of stories. So we were just going to take this vacation and just go camping and just, it wasn't that serious. We were going to these places with that idea in mind. So at Oak Ridge, that was our first stop. That was the first stop of the trip. I keep saying Oak Ridge, or Oak Mountain, I think it's Oak Mountain State Park. But we stopped and we set up the tent and it got dark and it was around. It was, I know, I don't, it was cold. So, so I, the sun went down earlier and, but it was around nine o'clock when we decided to go on a walk and just away from where our tents were set up. There was a, you know, we, it was a campground. And so we took the asphalt road back up the way we had driven in and up there just probably not 200 yards from the campground itself as a, as the entrance to a main road. It's even got a, what do they call it? Just something you walk under, you know, that just marking the entrance, probably two poles and a pole on top running horizontally, just marking the entrance. But it's dark. It's, it's dark. There's, there's no real moon to speak of, nothing that was giving us any light. But it's a, it was a, it was a wide, again, real commonly used, just like a nature trail. But again, it was, it wasn't one of these narrow ones where you can't, you know, where you don't have any, we could walk side by side. But we got about not far, 50 yards in to this. And again, it's pitch black and all we, I don't even think we have our flashlights on at this point because the path is much lighter in color. I don't remember if it was kind of just sandy grouse or what, but you could see the path because it was a lighter. Probably, you know, sand or something, sand and gravel. But otherwise we didn't have, there was no light. You just couldn't see much, but we were just walking the walk and about 50 yards in, we, we startle something, we move something off, not something, some things like it sounded like, I don't know, four, five or six or seven. Wes, we couldn't tell what it was. I couldn't tell what it was, but whatever it was, it moved on. It, they, they move forward away from us. My best guess, middle Alabama. Man, I don't know. I can't, this is one thing I've wanted to run by you is what the heck was this because, like I said, we, we walked in on them, whatever it was. Mostly to the right of the trail up at our, if the trails were walking the trail and, you know, walking forward as noon, they were at one and two o'clock and they moved forward away from us and then got quiet second. And so we kept walking, whatever it was, we're bigger, we're, you know, they, they moved away. No big whoop. So we walk, I don't know, just a few, not far, a few more steps. And Wes, these, these things we, I'm detecting Jacob was 14 at the time. He's 19 now. So it was about five years ago. These things start, they not only stop, but they start coming back. What, whatever it was, starts moving back our way. And I mean, if somebody told me that I'm automatically stumped as to what would, what would be startled by your presence, like anything would even go off, but then stop and come back or start heading, heading back. And Wes, I don't know how many, and this is five years ago, but it's, it, it seemed like at least four or five something or other were moved. Well, they definitely were coming back our way. They moved back our way. And not only that, and by that, by now we're shining our lights. In fact, probably when we moved, when we moved them off, we probably turned on the flashlights, but I got these, just these dinky little flashlights that are as long as your finger and they amounted to absolutely nothing in that dark. They didn't light up five foot away. We, they were, they were not helpful at all. So these things start, whatever it is, is moving back. And it's not like footstep, footstep, footstep. It's not like obvious kind of bipedal. And it wasn't like that, but I could, Wes, if it were dogs, we would have heard breathing, huffing, you know, just panting. And, and if anything, like any kind of canine would have been milling around more than these were. These were kind of grad, not gradually, but I'll just say intentionally creeping back, moving back our way. And that's here, why I said creeping is because these jokers, when they were one at two o'clock at our one and two earlier, now there's turn it coming out to 10, 11 and 10. On the other side of the trail, they were on our right side and, and easing up to the three and the four as we're moving backwards. And it's like, what, what is, what, and please somebody tell me what, what do you spook off and then decide, you know what, let's go check this out. Let's go check. Nothing that I can, nothing that I can think of. I thought of armadillos because armadillos can be just kind of just, not dumb, but just don't care that you're right there and they'll do whatever they want to do. I've seen them do that. But this, these things were moving around us is, is absolutely what it felt, felt like. And Wes, you know what, I pulled my pistol. And I got, I got Jacob's kind of to my back and we just kept, we weren't that, like I said, we weren't that deep into this thing. And we just, but I got, I got, I mean, I didn't put my, my finger on the trigger or anything like that. It wasn't quite like that, but I had my hackles up because I felt like these things were coming around on, on all sides of us. And if they kept coming, they were going to be between us in the entrance. And so we just kept moving back. I kept Jacob kept slinging his life. He did so well, even though they weren't doing anything. We never, I never saw a thing, never saw a thing. All we, we just heard the movement. And again, the thing is, one or the other by themselves is, I don't know, but when you spook something off and then it comes, or you think you're something kind of moves off and then says, nah, I'm going to come back. That's, I don't know what that is. Yeah. It's kind of hard to say without, you know, not being there. I know, but that's why I've been, I've just been mystified and why I've wanted to talk to you. I was like, name the animal West, name the animal that would do that. And I'll, I'll, I'll sleep, but I can't, I can't come up with it. The way this was, these were moving. It just seemed intentional. It seemed, they were doing armadillos aren't going to pay attention to us and move the listening because, you know, try it much less. Try to surround us or anything like that. It wasn't random like armadillos. It really seemed like, well, I know we moved them off and then they came back. That's what happened in what comes back. Man, it was at least four of whatever. And I know that sounds like, well, there weren't four. So, and then you didn't, you know, I don't know. I'm not saying it is, but I got spooked because I still can't. I can still, nobody has yet told me, hey, nah, that's what, that's what I'm saying. That's what, that's what peacocks do or something, you know. Yeah. Again, it's, it's really hard to say what it is. Most animals you're right, aren't going to get spooked and go off and then come back. Usually when they go, they, they're gone. What was the other incident? Okay. This one is, this one, my sons were there too. My dad had got some property in a place called Brantley, Alabama. And it's rural, but we were running chainsaws and starting to take down a few trees and try to get some ideas of where he might want to put something, whatever. And, but we were camping in tents. So we were just off this trail. Everybody, my, I think my youngest son was probably in a tent with my dad. I think Jacob was, I think he was in a hammock and I was in a tent. And I had got out to relieve myself. It was about, I've always said it was about 1230 a.m. And it's dark out there too. I stepped out just, you know, a few steps away from where we were all kind of scattered and to relieve myself just out towards this house. It's not barren because there's a bunch of pines, but it's low. It's lower. It's a little bit wet because there's another, there's a man made pond on the other side of this stretch I'm talking about. But anyway, I go to pee out there and I don't remember at what point I might have been done. I guess I was probably done or something, but I'm still standing there. I heard bam, bam, bam, not bam, bam, bam, because I immediately tried to think of what it sounded like. And it sounded like somebody had doubled up a whip, like a bull whip, like Indiana Jones whip, doubled it up where, you know, you got to kind of cut off that thick section as the, as something you could hit somebody with. And it sounded like that being swung against a real solid 10, 12 inch pine tree. Just, just wap, wap, wap. Okay, I hear that. And then I hear steps for about maybe eight or 10 seconds of steps. And then same thing, whack, whack, whack. And Wes, when it was going on, it felt like this whacking was at me. Like it was, I'm just telling you what it felt like. It felt like whatever's out there, it's, this is, I got its attention or it's, I don't know. And I stood there for a minute. I don't remember anything else. It certainly did not hit anything or no other sound occurred. And I stood, I don't know how much longer I stood there, not that long. And I just got back in my tent, laid down and I guess eventually I slept, but I have wracked my brain about that too, because there is a pond over there. I'm thinking is there an otter or a beaver over there? Because that's well within reason that there could be a beaver or something around. But that's not what it sounded like. It didn't sound like it was hitting water, you know, for example. I made a mental note. It sounded just like what I said, like some leather, like, you know, just like leather on a tree, but, but wow, wow, wow, not that fast. And Wes, that's, that's, that's all there, that's all there was to that. That was, it sounded as if maybe that striking was going on about, I don't know, maybe 40 yards away, something like that. 30 to 30, 35, 40 yards away. I'm calling it a tree knock. There's a scribe in it like whack, but I'm, but it wasn't knocky. It like, if there, if we can distinguish it, it wasn't knocky. It was more wacky. How you like that? Yeah, again, it's kind of hard to, hard to say, you know, without being there. So you're kind of into Bigfoot. What did you think when your son Bennett came to you and he told you about what happened to him at the scout camp? It was the last person that I'd know of in my life that would have come to me with something like this has been it. He's, he's heard Sasquatch Chronicles like I've gone through phases where I've listened to the show just, you know, show after show. But, but not in a while. Like I said, in the little letter I wrote, I hadn't, I hadn't in a little while. But, but anyway, yeah, he, and he, he just is a matter of fact. In fact, his, his brother was in the truck with me. His brother doesn't, Jacob is going to live with me anymore, but we were all together and he, he told the story. Well, if you would, is Bennett there? Yeah, yeah, he's right here. Okay, I'm gonna put him on. Hello. Hey, Bennett, welcome to the show. Thank you. Yeah, and you had this encounter about a month ago. You were in Mississippi at a Boy Scout camp. If you would just kind of start from the very beginning, what were you guys doing and what happened? So we were like 40, I just checked like 45 minutes south of Jackson. Every year we have a summer camp and it's a week long. You know, you go sleeping tents for a week or whatever, do you sign up for classes, do certain merit badges. And it's very fun every year. And it was right after fishing class, which was my last class. It was, it ended at four every day and me and my friend for the first four days, three days, we would go fishing and we'd stay fishing for the next hour at least. And his dad was like Wednesday, we were supposed to go back and get him and on a Thursday, we're supposed to go back and I was like, yeah, I don't want to fish because Wednesday, I believe, which would have been the fourth, I think, was when we were fishing until like 530. And our friend in his patrol, so like his age group, which was a year younger than me, him and his cousin, he's from like Tampa, right outside of Tampa. And his dad went to this spot a couple minutes away and caught a fish. So we were, and there was another trail that we thought would lead there. So we were going down that trail. And we hear, I hear my footsteps, his footsteps, and a third pair of footsteps, which I thought were his dad's, because his dad's, his dad was supposed to meet us down there. We call his name because we don't see him. And there's another trail that we use to get down there, but usually nobody comes down there. At least nobody had the first couple of days. So we thought it was somebody there and we kept calling like, hello, hello, is anybody there? And nobody was responding. And we stop and we hear the third pair of footsteps stop shortly after. And we're still saying like, hello, hello, is there anybody there? And I see this thing like 20, 20 yards, 15 yards away. It was a blob hiding, it was really thin tree. And it was kind of peeking out behind that. And it was just a blurry blob. It kind of like it had a figure of like it looked like a blob, but it was like a kind of, you know, was the size. Like if you drew a circle around a person, like if you drew a person in the Jewish circle around them, it was, it would be kind of the size of that. It was a little bit taller. It was like six feet somewhere around there. And I'm like, yeah, let's go. And we get our stuff and shortly after we leave. And I talked to him and he's, he said, I asked him, like, did you see some weird blob thing? And he said, yeah, that's basically what I saw too. And we didn't, I didn't speak to anybody. I didn't, I didn't ask any questions more than that. That was all I asked. And then I told it to my dad and he, he said some people have had similar experiences. Do you think the same was following you out? We have no idea. We were like, we were not that far in. We had just started going. And that was the only time we would have been close to the trail. So if we would have heard it farther than and hadn't seen anybody, but it, as far as I could tell, the, the footsteps were walking along with us. And if it was walking towards us and I didn't see anything, I think I would have run. But I thought I was just being paranoid and seeing stuff at first and he saw it too when I asked him. So I had no idea what it was. And I didn't want to go back down there the rest of the time. So I didn't, I didn't go back down there the whole trip, besides like with, you know, the class when we were fishing down there. Now we're not having fun because we're paranoid. And that's, that's just kind of how it felt. Yeah, I can understand the way you feel. I think I'd feel the same way. And you know, this sort of behavior you hear a lot. You'll hear where people are walking in the woods and something is matching them step for step. And it's only when they stop, they realize, oh yeah, something is pacing me. Because these creatures, a lot of times they'll take that extra step or two when you stop. And I'm almost wondering if there was two of them in your situation. But when you looked back, how far away from you was this blob figure that you saw peeking around a tree? I mean, how many school buses away would you say it was? Maybe like maybe two school buses, but like, I mean, 50 feet maybe. Like somewhere around that like 50 to like 50, 55. So you guys were pretty close. And it does make me think it was one of these creatures. I almost think there was two of them. But you know, I don't know one way or another. But it does sound like one of these creatures because you know, if it would have been a person, the normal human reaction would have been, hey guys, I'm over here, you know, or something like that. Yeah. We were the only, me and him were the only people down there and we were fishing and the people at the waterfront, they had like slides and stuff. And it was at that time from 330 to 530, there was like lake activities. You could swim. You could go on the slides for like everybody. I didn't go, but my friends went every day. And I guess at that time they had either just left or leaving because I think it was 515 maybe around that time. So we had already been down there for like an hour. So we were the only people and nobody was going to swim over to us. They would have to like get out and it was, you know, so like actual like draw straight line wise, we were probably like 500 feet away from somebody, but trail wise, probably like a thousand feet if they were taking the trail. So I don't think there was anybody at the pavilion where they have all of the activities because I think usually the counselors just after the last class go and do whatever hang out. Yeah, it's very annoying when they do this sort of behavior. I don't think I've ever talked to an eyewitness that was super comfortable recounting this, this pacing of, you know, them trying to get you out of an area or kind of following along where you're going. The weird part is you'll hear in a lot of encounters to where they'll do this behavior, they'll pace you usually from the side. Rarely does anyone ever see them doing this, but a lot of people come forward and talk about it. And usually when you clear the wood line, they'll stop. They won't follow you anymore. Before I ask you what you think Sasquatch is, what was kind of your take on the whole subject before this ever happened to you? I mean, I always thought there was a genuine possibility like aliens and, you know, there's species discovered every, I mean, I'm sure there's people that see new species every day, but they just don't know. And so I'm sure like, you know, I had thought about it and, you know, it's a possibility, but before that I hadn't really thought about it, like about it being real, but I, you know, I could consider it. I would just need more evidence. All there is is like footprints and stuff and all the pictures, but like, you know, wait until there's a body, although I have no idea maybe there is. You'd know more about it than I would, obviously. What are you trying to blow my cover with the government or what? I'm just joking. What do you think Sasquatch is? Like, you know, from the dinosaur era, whatever that is, there was like big monkeys and stuff could be that could be, you know, just feral people that I think that's like not you're not going to find that. You're not going to find feral people and Mrs. Sippy probably. I'm sure there are, but not around a camp with a bunch of kids. Yeah, it's hard to say what this thing is. Do you think it's more of a man or do you think it's more of an animal? I think it's, I'd say it's more, like, it's probably like 50-50, like right in between animal and human. Yeah, a lot of people say that, Bennett. A lot of people say that. Do you have any plans on going back? I know this happened to you about a month ago. I don't know because we went to this place in Georgia, Bert Adams, for like three years in a row and we put it to a vote and not as many people wanted to go back. So we chose there, but I'm sure we'll go somewhere else next year, but there's people who will go every year. Yeah, well, I really appreciate you coming on and sharing what happened to you, Bennett. Really enjoyed chatting with you. Thank you for having me on. Yeah, and is your dad around? Yes. Hey, Wes. Hey, Sean. Yeah, Bennett did a great job at describing what happened and what he saw, and I do think he ran into one of these things. And I asked him, what do you think Sasquatch is? And I was curious on your opinion, what do you think that they are? Oh, I got, you know, with this stuff, you know, he had never, I want to make this clear. He hadn't, you know, all my big foot, you know, looking into and reading. I got a ton of books. I got to meet Bob Gimlin. He had never heard this kind of story before. I suspect you have, and I have with the whole, I think, your name is Barbara Shoup. They, you know, there's some footage or whatever. And I hadn't looked too deeply into it, but with, you know, if this is the same thing, I don't know. You know, I, it's like I think about octopus that can, you know, just morph so, so incredibly, it's like, well, you know, why can't a land animal do, you know, why? I mean, is it conceivable that with the fur and a shimmer of the fur of the hair or whatever, it can kind of make some tripped out looking, you know, I don't know. You know, I don't know. So what it is, I don't know. It, you know, I don't know, but our senses only pick up so much. I am realizing that. And so it's an aspect of life that we just, we can't pick up on much, you know, some biological entity that we're just not able to pick up on as much. I guess, you know, according to its whims, that's my final answer, Wes. Yeah, I don't get the impression what Bennett saw is what Barb Shoup has seen and filmed. I mean, if people don't know what we're talking about, they can go YouTube it. But I don't get the impression that's what he saw, you know, in Mississippi, when you're under that tree canopy, it's a lot like Washington State. I could see being a distance away from one of these things, having it peek around the corner and describing it like a blob, you know, with the big shoulders and the head seems to sit right on it. And you know, you hear this sort of encounter many, many times in and around these Boy Scout camps. Right. That's why I was that's what pushed me over the edge of these draft emails. I've, you know, drafted to send you but never sent this was like, okay, but if you want to, you know, because he I didn't know he had an interest. He's just because he's he's listened to this. I've made him listen to this junk in the truck. He never acted like he cared or anything much less believe he never acted like that. Neither of them have. You know how that goes. I mean, just because I like it doesn't mean my kids care at all. So yeah, I and you know, I know my son, he just he's not the one to the type to come back and make some junk up like that. And I thought he did great in the interview from what I was hearing. So I hope he got hope it was all right. Yeah, Bennett did a great job. I wish I was as well spoken as he is. But I really appreciate you coming on Sean and bring Bennett. I enjoyed chatting with both of you guys. Thank you so much. Yes, sir. Thanks. Thanks a lot for having us. We appreciate the opportunity. Thank you again. And that's it for tonight, everyone. Remember, if you've had an encounter, shoot me an email. My email address is west at Sasquatch Chronicles calm. And if you get a chance, check out Sasquatch Chronicles calm. You can become a member and get additional shows until next time, everyone. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Beauty is a blackling. Let me sail away. Beauty is a blackling. Let me sail away. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. 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