Bigfoot Encounters in North Georgia: Tamra & Gabe’s Chilling Stories from Chattahoochee National Forest and Etowah River

0:00 It didn't sound human, it didn't sound like a beard. It almost sounded like almost like a primate. It's just it's so hard to describe because it's not like anything I'd ever heard before, and it didn't sound like it sounded like it was definitely a language. Welcome back to Bigfoot Society. In this episode, we welcome back Gabe and his girlfriend Tamara, who share about bigfoot encounters they've had in northern Georgia. What was the language that Tamarra heard that one day? And what was watching? Gabe and Tamera in their kayaks from the side of the Ottowah River find out this and more on Bigfoot Society.

0:57 Well, all right, let's let's get her on then. All right, here she is. Hi there, my name is Tamara, and right there. Um, So i've been I actually gave in that group together in Indiana, but I moved to Georgia in two thousand and one. He didn't move down to Georgia until twenty one, so I've been here for quite a long time. I started hiking in twenty nineteen, so I'm just hitting that five year anniversary of being a hiker. Um I always hike alone. UM I hike by myself. I really enjoy just being in nature, being out by myself, being alone. UM. A lot of people just I really don't care what people think. There's different opinions on it. But I do practice grounding. Other people call it earthing um, where you physically just take your shoes in, your socks off and you actually connect with the earth. I do that on every hike. UM. I'm I do this in water.

2:06 If there's water, I'm getting in the water. But I've been doing this alone. Up until Gabe came down here. I've been hiking alone. So I've I've taken him back to trails that I've been on before. And it's funny because I've never really I mean, I've i've heard just being in the North Georgia area. I mean there's a big Foot museum up here, and I've I've heard, like other sightings, there's this there's that I just kind of thought, well, you know, I haven't actually seen it with my own eyes, so I don't I don't believe, and I don't not believe, but I just I didn't really have an opinion of it. UM. There was one particular trail that that I was on UM and this is like he said, Um, I'll use the all trails. App I'd like to go where there's no other people. Um. I had made it all the way into this trail, it was about a maybe four and a half five miles in. It was during the summer, made it to the waterfall.

3:08 I was I was coming on my way back and I needed to just pretty much get off the trail and I had to pee. So I looked and I'm like, Okay, there's a boulder right there. I'm gonna get off this trail where to summertime, the grass is almost knee high. Got off the trail maybe ten feet behind this boulder, and we went to get back up, and all of a sudden, I was just afraid. I consider myself pretty fearless and brave. Nothing nothing scares me. I'm not afraid to be in the woods at night. I'm not afraid to be alone. You know, I grew up in the country in Indiana. I used to sleep outside. I'm really not a paranoid or I feel fearful person. So this particular day and it was funny. It wasn't until a few years later talking to him about it. Um, but I was just all of a sudden, just very disoriented. I couldn't think straight. I was I was terrified, I was paranoid. I felt like I didn't feel like I was lost, but I felt like something was trying to get me, which is it's not my character. I'm very clear headed, I'm a I'm a rational thinker.

4:32 I could not find the trail and I knew that there was this boulder and it was ten feet this way, and it probably took me twenty minutes to get back on this trail, and my ears were ringing, and I was just very confused and my thoughts were foggy, and I couldn't think straight, and I and I almost felt like I was drugged. It was it's really a hard feeling to describe U and just between being confused and being panicked at the same time. UM, it just took me a very long time to get back on the trail, and I just what got me there was like, go go back to where you hear water because I had followed UM.

5:17 I had followed a river going in and I finally, um got back on it and just started running and running and running, and I ran um for a good mile and I finally started getting a more of a clear head on my way out, and I was like, ah, you just got lost. You yet paranoid? You went into kind of fight or flight mode. Um. Well, fast forward a couple of years later, I take him back to the same trail and I'm like, this is the trail that messed me up? And it is you remember that one? Yeah, I will say this is um. I can say this is pretty much a lot of this takes place up in the Chattahoochiecone National Forest, which I don't know if you know this area, but it spans a big part of the North Georgia. The Appalachian Trail is part of it. So there's there's so many areas a hike. It's just a vast forest system. I take him on this trail and as soon as we get in there, he's like, Okay, look at this. And I remember seeing these things but not thinking anything of it. Um. When we say tree breaks and tree bends, we're talking you know, trees that are broken. You've got one side of them mountain going up, and you think, Okay, if a storm came through and the wind blows, you would think that a tree is going to fall, you know, towards down like towards gravity, but they're broken in the

6:51 other way, and some of them are twisted. They're they're they're young trees, but they're they're bigger around than than my arm or my calf, and they're really really high up, and they're bent and twisted almost strategically, and some of them are bent down where they're they're kind of twisted together and form a structure. And you're thinking, Okay, my mind automatically goes to how could this have naturally happened? Like could this tree have fallen and knock on this tree over? And so I always try to just kind of ration it out and think, how could this have naturally happened? And honestly, we've got so many pictures and video stuff if it weren't for him coming down and explaining all this to me and showing me this now, this is what I'm looking for them seeing a lot of stuff that makes me question, you know, just question everything. And I've I've found one of the footprints, I've found one of the handprints, I've I've heard the noise is the story he was telling you about when we were we had stopped in a creak and he was smoking his cigar. I actually was in the water practicing grounding. It's kind of um, you just I submerged myself in water. It's almost a form of meditation. And I could hear those voices too, and I heard

8:26 I heard, though I do remember him hearing. He said, I heard the one and it just sounded kind of this low rumbling growl. It didn't sound like words. It didn't sound like I know what bears sound like. I've I've seen bears. I know what Farrell hogs sound like. I haven't seen them. I didn't want to see them. I've seen their tracks. And then I'll turn around and go the other way. But I know what all the animals of these forests look like. It sound like. Um, it didn't sound like any any animal I've ever heard. And do you feel that there were two individuals talking to each other or did it sound just like just one individual? You know there were two? I yeah, there were multiple ones. Um. And it was crazy because I'm sitting in the water and looking back. You think that that would make me just really freak out.

9:24 Um, I'm I'm hearing this and and I was. I remember because I was kind of on a small bart phone and I was kind of I think I was kind of laying on my stomach because I was laying on my stomach, I was just letting the water flow over me. And I stopped and I just looked at him, and he's looking at me, and I could I could hear them, And at first I thought, I can only hear this in my head, and I wonder if you can hear this too, and he could. UM, And I could hear from kind of from one side, kind of um chatter, and I would hear a voice from way on the other side. UM. It was a different voice. UM.

10:09 It sounded like the same form of communication. It same like like the same I don't want to use the word animal, but the same thing. But it wasn't words that we're making out. It's just it was just kind of an indistinct kind of chatter. But the feeling that I got UM when I say, I could kind of feel them in my head, which sounds really really weird. I know, I know it sounds strange, but I'm just gonna just come out and say it. I just I felt like they were just um, I didn't feel like we were in danger. And I told him that, I told Gabe that I said, I said, they're curious, um about me and what I'm doing because I was, I was meditating, I was doing browning, and I said, they were just they're just curious and they seemed kind of surprised to me. That's I just I felt that feeling like I could almost like pick up an emotion. Um.

11:16 I don't know. It was just a really weird experience. It's nothing I'd ever experienced before. But it wasn't negative like where I was afraid and disoriented and confused, and it wasn't like that at all. I felt like, Um, I wasn't in any harm, that I wasn't going to be harmed. Um, I felt like it was okay. I just felt like they were like I kind of caught whoever whoever it was, off guard and they were just very curious. So um, but still I'm like, you know what, I'm gonna get out of this water and get dried off and just keep on keep on hiking up going, go on ahead and get on out of here. Um. So that was that was one experienced and it was really interesting. It wasn't a negative one. But that was last fall.

12:09 Yeah, that was last fall. A tamera. When you've been out hiking, have you experienced or heard any other type of vocalizations or is that the main time that you actually heard something when you were out there. This was the first vocalization that I had heard, and I try to be very quiet when I'm out and about. I don't h with groups or many of the torsty crowded areas. But I had never heard of vocalization before, so it was it was actually really cool to hear it, and it almost it didn't sound human. It didn't sound like a bear, It didn't sound it almost sounded like um, almost like a primate. It's just it's so hard to describe because it's not like anything I had ever heard before, and it didn't sound like it sounded like it was definitely a language and not just a noise, you know. It sounded like a like a foreign language. But it's just so hard to describe. It sounded almost kind of um, if a primate like um, like a great apri, a gorilla. We're talking almost similar. That's a that's the most similar I could get. Um. It sounded a little more advanced, like like like their voice was sound like if

13:39 they were talking, but they were. They were lower in tone, and they projected farther away. But it was hard because you've got the water rushing and then you've got the mountain up and everything kind of bounces off. There's a lot of raw up in the mountains, so it's it's hard to tell what direction it's coming from and how far away it is. But it was it was very distinct. Um, that's the only time i'd actually heard anything. Um. They they they tend to several times if they we call, they get in my head. And so now that when we hike, I'm like, I'm like the big foot barometer, like a So everyone's looking at you. Is are you hearing anything? Yeah? I actually don't like it because it's not cool knowing it. I don't know. It's when you have a good experience like that, when you're getting a calming feeling like it's okay.

14:46 They're just curious. And then then when we got Chase, and that was, um weird because I had actually kind of got off the trail and I was just chattering on about some kind of flower that was blooming. I think I was like, look at it, and then all of a sudden, I just felt like I was just drugged again, and I felt disoriented and I felt sick, and all of a sudden, I'm I'm like like low blood sugar or something. I was like, I don't feel good. I almost I was starting to kind of sway a little bit and lose my balance and I couldn't talk right, and I'm like, I don't know, I don't feel so good. And and then he, you know, kind of got a bad feeling and he's like, we gotta get out of here now. And we got out of there and he had to kind of drag me. And it's it's crazy because it's something kind of takes over and you just kind of lose your sense of direction and you lose your sense of control of of logically you're afraid, and but you're a disorient and you're kind of stunned. Um, it's not it's not a good feeling. I don't like being the I don't like being the Canary's Um. I don't know if it's because of all the browning that I practice. UM, stay tuned for more.

16:18 Bigfoot Society will be right back after these messages and trying to be as connected to the earth as possible. UM, I'm kind of the environmental hippie girl. So I'm I tried to stay very connected to mother Earth. Um, so nothing wrong with that for sure. Yeah, well that's who I am. But um there was another. There was a third time, wasn't there. I don't know. We've been on so many hikes. It's kayaking on the kayak trip. Oh well, yeah, I forgot about that one.

17:00 Um do you want to hear about the yak I would love to hear whatever you guys have to share, So go right ahead. Yeah, this one, this one was last summer, okay, were we were kayaking and uh, we come up to this beach and she decided she wanted to get out and she wanted to swim a little bit in the river. I was in the creek. It's the river. So she's on the other side of the river. Yeah, they had and she's swimming just just chilling, just you know, just swimming, thinking around whatever. And I'm sitting on the other side of the bank on the beach, just killing and watch her.

17:41 And she starts getting this weird feeling and I look up and I see one pull its head back. Not I not in the It was just like you see a tree and you steal a lump move that was it like like a pe kaboo type thing. And then that's when she started feeling her feeling that she gets and needless to say after that, and she shot back across the river and we kept on going. So, like I said, I'm I kayak a lot too. I do a lot of the river cleanups where I'm pulling tires out of the rivers. I'm jumping in and out. I am not afraid to be in these rivers. Up in the mountains, I'm not.

18:27 I'm always in them. And in this particular river, I was like walking up the edge of the banks as far as I could, and then I kind of jump in and just kind of float down and swim and let the current kind of take me. And I go swim in past him and I'd be like, hey, come on coming and swim and he just wasn't in the swim and I'm not afraid to be in the water at all. So I got I was getting close to the banks, and all of a sudden, I was just afraid to be in the water, and I'm like, I gotta get the hell out of here. And kind of simultaneously he's looking at me like we gotta go, come on, and he's waving, I mean, he's like, get out of there, come on, we gotta go. And I'm like, yeah, I'm on it. And I started swimming, you know, against the current as fast as I can, and I just all of a sudden felt like something was wrong. That that same feeling that I got um when I was on that hike by myself, that that just something was wrong and I was just oriented again and I shouldn't have been there, and I just I was afraid, and that's that's not like me. And I think in that case, we you just got too close, and that I did because it didn't happen until I got too close to that part of the part of the banks. I don't know. And you know, it's the Edewall River goes through a lot of parts of UM.

20:00 There's some pretty dense forests that No, there's not hiking trails in there. UM, No one hikes in UM. We were we were on on that part as Dawson Forest, right. UM, there's not a lot of hiking in Dawston forests. And like we were on that portion of the Ottawa um where you can be on the Ottawa. But you really can't be on the Dawson Forest side. There's no hiking. They don't allow you to make your kayak there. They don't want you to be on to explore there on that side. So um, yeah, it was. It was. It was interesting that I just I was fine, just having a good old time floating around, messing around, swimming, and then all of a sudden, I'm just terrified for no reason whatsoever. Have there been reported sightings in that area as well? Absolutely, Um, okay, what's great. And I can say this just by if you go to um, have you been to the I don't know, You're you're out, You're in a different state.

21:10 There's there's a Bigfoot museum. And you know, when he moved down here, I took him here. And I and I had been to Blue Ridge, Georgia a million times, and I've always passed the Bigfoot Museum and I thought it was just some touristy little gift shop with knick knacks and T shirts and hats. But I took him there because he really wanted to go when he first moved down here. And I was blown away with all of the scientific evidence and the documentation. But they they have a map of the state of Georgia and they have a little pen marked of all of the sightings and all of they've They've got this really great library of where everyone has actually had actual sightings or experiences. And I'm looking at this and I'm like, holy cow, this is where I hike. This is where I'm at all the time, like all of the heavy sightings like around um, the Appalachian Trail and the Chatta Huciocone area, and this this whole part of North Georgia that I end it is my turf, you know. And there's all these sightings there and I'm like, oh my gosh, this whole time, I've been going here all the time by myself alone. Um, right right here all the time. Yes, it's a very um, heavily active area for sightings.

22:37 Um. We went on this one trail and the way I took it, they were when we say when we stay, like the tree brass are almost like warnings, like don't come past this. You know you'll see them. It's odd you'll see them on one side of the trail prominently and not the other. And I'm not sure you're if you're a hiker, are you a hiker. I used to be a lot more than I've hiked the Appalachian Trail, all of Massachusetts, in Connecticut. I grew up in New England. But so I have a history back in the day. Yeah, okay, so you know how there's one side, there's the other. Sure, so when we get on, when we get on these trails, some of them just right off the bat As soon as you get on these trails, one side, which tends to be the side of the side of where the elevation is going up, there's going to be all of the structures and the tree breaks and the tree bends, and that's where we see that. And some of them as soon as you get on that trails. And it's funny because these trails aren't all. I love all trails, because people will complain.

24:00 They'll say it, I never got to the waterfall. I couldn't find it. The trails not marked, parking lots not marked. The forest system is not keeping up with this trail. Those are the ones we go to. And um I used to before I met him, I used to blaze the trails. I used to bring blazing equipment. I would I would make sure I got it marked, and now I would go back and I would blaze that so other hikers wouldn't get lost. And now, seeing what I'm seeing, I'm like, no, I'm going to leave this trail alone, and I'm not going to blaze it and make it easy for other people to find. There's a reason the forest, the forestry doesn't keep up with it. There's a reason. Yeah, oh absolutely, yeah. Wow. So now I'm respecting that, and I'm I've stopped blazing the trails and I'll find it and just do the best I can to find these trails and enjoy them.

24:52 Yeah. Like like, for instance, the one that she was talking about where she had her first sound. When I went on this trail, we got to this one section and it looked like it had just been ravaged. There were trees probably sixty eight inches around, pulled up on the ground, laid across the trail all the way fifty yards for fifty yards, and you couldn't find where these trees just fell over. There were there were no stumps, there was no root balls, there was no holes where they came from. They were picked up and put here. There's there was Yeah, it didn't matter, and there there was there was tree bends, there was twisted brakes. I mean, it didn't looked like it looked like a tornado or a hurricane went through there. And here's the thing. It was in a valley. So and these trees were no order. There was no order to it. Like I said, you couldn't see where they fell over, because that's the first thing I started doing it is I started looking to see if these trees just fell over, if they were broken from up top and they you know, they just fell down from a dead tree or whatever.

26:17 These weren't. These were These were placed here in this area. And it went like I said, it went on for fifty yards. And it took us thirty minutes to walk through this fifty yards because we had to walk over all these trees to get through this area. It was insane. Several years ago when I had went on that trailer, I took pictures and I had posted it on Facebook and I said, oh, I've got an obstacle course for a trail today. I remember and they were still there and and he's like, that's that's U. Yeah, it was. It was pretty intense. We didn't I think it it had been there, done there, it had been done a long time ago. It wasn't anything fresh, but nonetheless it was there. I mean it was. It was pretty obvious to me.

27:10 But wow, that you guys have some fascinating stories. You're definitely in an area where things are going on, and Tamara, I want to just verify with you. You haven't had a sighting yourself yet. Correct? I have not. Okay, I have a feeling one day you will, though. Yeah, I think it's inevitable. Yeah, wow, for as much as as much as is we've that I've noticed down here, just just evidence and signs it, Yeah, it's inevitable. You know all. We were one of the one when I found my first track down here. It was it was it was odd. It's almost like it almost looked like if you there's deer tracks mixed in with tracks on the trail, and to me, it looked like they were hurting deer to us a valley because the trail kind of went around and there was a like a bowl down to the left or to the if you're if you're anyways, it looked like they were running down the trail hurting deer to one massive area. Because then all of a sudden,

28:40 the tracks the footprints stopped, and then the deer tracks went right down into this bowl and then that was it. And you could see where the leaves were tore up, you could see dirt torn up. It just it looked pretty pretty up, I mean. And you can see them on the side of the trail where it looked like a foot was sliding down the side of the trail about every ten feet. Well, not to be too descriptive, but in that area, did you find any bones or you know, um or who is anything like that? Here's the thing, when when we see signs and tree brakes and bins and stuff like that, we will venture off the trail. I got you. Yeah, I'm not. I'm not going to push my luck. Yeah, you know, we're because the trails that were on you know, we're five five miles away from the road, the paved road at some point. Okay, so here in fairy remote areas too. I don't want to get stuck out to her. Yeah, you know, you put your phone up and it's there's nothing. Wow. So you know, when we see stuff like that, we just stick to the trail and we'll observe and look. And but as far as getting off the trail. No, I ain't happening. I was born and nine, but it wasn't last nime. I like that, Gabe and Tamara, this has

30:12 been a super fun chat. And I know it's getting late where you guys are at because you're ahead of me. Um, but man, I feel like I might be talking to you. I feel like you guys are gonna have some more situations come up in the future, so I think we need to definitely keep in touch with me. Um. If anything else happens, let me know. Gabe. Absolutely, yeah, um plenty more from from Indiana. Oh you do Oh my goodness. Oh absolutely, you're killing me, Gabe. Oh yeah, Uh, we're gonna have to do We're gonna have to do a part too someday. Man. Absolutely, yeah. Yeah, this has been a good time. Um. I have a feeling people are gonna be saying when you're gonna get when you're gonna get Gabe and Tamar back on. But uh, this has been super fun. Thank you for for chatting. And I appreciate you guys chatting with me tonight. Yeah.

31:15 Absolutely, I appreciate that. The opportunity the way I see it, like like I texted you earlier, the way I see it is if if I can hear and I can get on here, we can tell our stories. Maybe there's somebody else out there listening it's too afraid to tell their story. Maybe this will give them the courage to come out. And now I feel super bad about it. You know, who cares what anybody thinks. I know what I saw, I know what's out there. That's all I care about. Become a supporting member of the big Foot Society podcast by going to www dot Patreon dot com forward slash the big Foot Society and receive extra episodes and early ad free episodes as well. If you've got a personal Bigfoot encounter to share, please contact me at Bigfoot Society at gmail dot com and thanks for listening.