Aug. 27, 2024

"I sat there with my knife ready" | Oakridge Wilderness Guide Remote Interview

In this remotely recorded episode during the events of Oakridge, Oregon 2024, Kevin delves into his astonishing experiences in the secluded Willamette National Forest near Oakridge, Oregon and beyond. From sharing the rich history of the Pacific...

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Season 1

In this remotely recorded episode during the events of Oakridge, Oregon 2024, Kevin delves into his astonishing experiences in the secluded Willamette National Forest near Oakridge, Oregon and beyond. From sharing the rich history of the Pacific Northwest, including Native American and settler tales, to recounting chilling personal encounters, Kevin brings the mysterious wilderness to life. Listeners will hear about eerie noises, rock-throwing incidents, and unsettling wilderness phenomena from places like Linton Meadows and Diamond Peak Wilderness.

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WEBVTT

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Welcome to Big for Society. If you have Bigfoot activity

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to report from the same areas discussed in this episode,

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please reach out to me directly after this episode. And

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if you'd like to be on the podcast to discuss

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a personal Bigfoot encounter, please reach out to me directly

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at Bigfoot Society at gmail dot com. Do you wish

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there was more Big for Society to listen to you

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every week? Well there is now. If you become a

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supporting member over at Patreon, you get a special members

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only episode every single week on Wednesdays, and sometimes even

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more episodes. Head on over to patreon dot com. Forward

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slash the Big for Society and now let's get on

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with the show. The following remote interview happens in the

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region around Oakridge, Oregon, at a cabin out in the woods.

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That being said, the audio might be a bit different

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than what you're used to, but enjoy as this is

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the first time this individual has shared this information. There

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may be hot mics, mic issues and other things that

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you notice in the background, but don't let that stop

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your enjoyment of this and again, thank you to Kevin

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for coming on the podcast. Enjoy and we're okay with

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Kevin first name only. Okay, I'm going to start with it.

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Kevin introduced me to his property, which is pretty far

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up in the woods. Kevin, thank you for inviting me

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out to your picnic table at your property. It is

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very nice out here. Your dog is running around. We've

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been tossing the ball too. He's pretty good at running

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around getting that. But do you mind. Is there anything

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you can share about the area that we're in, just

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for the listeners to get a visual of what we're

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looking at.

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Yeah. Sure.

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Where we live here in Oregon, it's nestled in the

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west side of the Cascade Slopes and it has a

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lot of Native American history and a lot of settler

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history related to the Oregon Trail and different routes that

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we're trying to be discovered for easier access, because everyone

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was heading to the Lamott Valley, which is where Eugene

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sits and all the bigger cities in Oregon. So basically

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in western Oregon, once you get out of the valley areas,

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you end up with all small world towns that might

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be ten, fifteen to twenty miles apart and probably averaging

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anywhere from a thousand people maybe to three thousand or

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five thousand people, So a lot of small spread out

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towns dispersed in a really large forest system. And so

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where we're at here, this is the Blama National Forest,

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one of the largest national forests in the United States.

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I mean, there's just a huge amount of roads and

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different ecosystems, you know. I mean you go from one

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thousand feet in elevation all the way up to ten thousand,

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three hundred and fifty eight feet at the top of

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South Sister Mountains, which is the pinnacle of Blama National Force.

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And that's bordered on the eastern side by the Hush

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National Forest over their eastern Oregon in Bend area. But anyways,

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really lush area, really pretty area. And I spent decades

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out here, me and my wife, backpacking and exploring and

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really just just finding places away from people. And before

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I had children, my oldest daughter's nine, we always went camping.

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That's what we did.

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I worked fifty sixty hour weeks at shops in Eugene,

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and at the end of the work week, we'd have

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our packs packed and I'd cram them in the back

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of my ninety four jeep Cherokee and we would oftentimes

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leave Friday night and drive for an hour and a

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half two hours to get up into the National Force,

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and then hike into campsites just to spend as much

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time as we could out out in the woods. We

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both really enjoyed it, and it decompressed us. For me,

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growing up in rural communities, on farms, on ranches. I

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spent most of my adolescents growing up in eastern Oregon

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outside of Pendleton on the Indian Humuntil Indian Reservation out there,

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and I worked for all the ranchers that were had

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big ranches and big farms nestled up against the slopes

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of the Blue Mountains out there, and just a beautiful area.

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And for me, I came from Florida. I moved up

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here when I was eleven from southwest Florida, just south

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of Fort Myers, and even down there my family we

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lived out pretty muchut in the middle of nowhere. We

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were the typical southern swamp kids. I don't know most

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of time, I probably was barefoot and shirtless. And when

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I was my boy's age now, which there are seven,

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me and my younger brother, we'd take the john boat

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out and we'd go hunt alligators and bring back little

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three foot four foot alligators and just spent our days exploring.

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And the funny thing is, now that I've gotten more

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familiar with miss Bigfoot phenomenon and had experiences myself, think

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about how remote I lived in Florida, and my mom

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and dad got divorced at an early as, so there's

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two different hig This is how we spent our time

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at and my dad lived out and out in the

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middle of big swamps. There's no houses around us for

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six or seven miles. And I never experienced anything in Florida,

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you know. And I know people say that there's a

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lot of activity on there, and I believe them. I

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believe them. I think that there's a lot of people

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that have these experiences and they just don't automatically go

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to Bigfoot as a first explanation, which in my case

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for the experiences that I had, while the most of

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these happened, Most of these happened, and I didn't even

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realize what was really behind it until years later, even

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decades later, on some of these and when you start

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thinking and putting it together and being like, ah, that

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explains what happened. And it was one that finding Bigfoot

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show kicked off, and there's a lot of fans of

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that show, and we discussed my opinions on it, and

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I think it really mainstreamed the Bigfoot thing absolutely, you know,

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really brought it out there. But it was more entertainment

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and hooting and hollering and these microscopic noises that you

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hear in your TV you know, when the show's debut

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and they're like, here, that's a sasquatch. It's a hard

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bill to sell, you know, to people that never had experiences.

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But what I really did get out of that show

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was listening to people share their encounters. And after listening

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to several of the very first episodes of Finding Bigfoot,

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me and my wife both looked at each other and

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we're like, we started recounting all these experiences we had,

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and we really like that explains exactly.

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What we had happened.

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Yeah, with that all, I'll just jump into some of

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the experiences that I've had and I'll give as much

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detail as I can to paint the picture. Unless you

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for people, I've never been to the Pacific Northwest, you

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spent the last few days running around here, really just

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dipping your toes into the vastness that's out here. This

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is a rugged place, and nature rules out here for

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the most part. I mean you look at right now.

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I mean we're surrounded by wildfires. You know that's normal.

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I have my camper pack right now. I have all

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my important stuff in there ready to go in case

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we have to leave. I've had to evacuate the last

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five years, and so it's just one of those things

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you prepare for. Reminds me of being in Florida prepared

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for hurricanes, you know. So, I mean, nature's nature is

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still rules out here, and a lot of these places are.

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Even though there's roads going everywhere in this Lamba National Forest,

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there's just so much uncharted land. There's two thousand plus

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miles worth of road in this National forest. You could

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spend decades trying to drive these roads. And I'm friends

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with a lot of third generation loggers up here, and

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even these guys haven't explored all the roads out here.

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It's just incredible how much room there is. I ran

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a backpacking business where I take people out on paid

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hikes and everything. And after getting really involved with backpacking

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myself and spending spending months outside literally every year, sleeping

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in the stars, finding the most remote corners of this

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Western Oregon Cascade Slope wilderness areas, and just spending weeks

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out in these quiet spots, we really got to know

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the area well. And my experiences with Bigfoot really only

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started happening when I moved to Western Oregon, and once

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I made the realization of what was going on, Like

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I said, sometimes ten years later plus on some of

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these experiences, it was kind of exciting and made me

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a little bit apprehensive, especially now that I have children,

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and so all my kids but you know, I have

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to seven year old boys that are twins, and I

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have a nine year old daughter, and we camp all

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the time. We go super remote. My camp trailer set

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up for boon dog camping. We never go to campgrounds.

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We go thirty forty miles out and we'll stay there

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for as long as we can usually when we go camping,

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so usually it's three days, five days or whatever. So

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my kids know my stories, and I told my kids

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all my experiences more as a cautionary tale. I don't

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know if I don't think these things necessarily want to

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be your friends. I think they're out there. I don't

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think I don't think that they are prone to violence

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and disappear in you or murdering you with anything, especially

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large animals and especially intelligent large animals.

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You gotta consider that's a possibility.

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And I think it's naive to go into the situation

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and think that all these things are your friends and they're.

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Just gonna going.

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To do these things where they're knocking on wood and

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throwing rocks and charging your tent and stuff. Look at

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Timothy Treadwell and the bears. We talked about that. He

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spent decades with these bears, you know, and then moved

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out there and I don't know how many years he

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spent up there and Laska with those bears and finally

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came across the wrong bear and ate him and his

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girlfriend right there on camera. Pretty horrific. And I think

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that that could be the case with these animals too.

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And I think the more intelligent a creature is, the

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more likely you are to have personalities, and the more

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likely you are to just come across a poor, an

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angry sasquatch. So anyways, my kids know about it. It's

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really just let them know that they're out there. We

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deal with cougar and bear all the time up here,

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and wolves and everything that's not an issue.

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I just don't want them.

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If my kid ever went missing missing, the last thing

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I want to want to worry about is my mind

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would go to well, crap, like maybe a bigfoot got them,

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you know. So anyways, with that, I'll start some of

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my stories here, some thinking back to my encounters, and

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I listed them out here, and I got approximated, and

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I think for the most part, I'm just gonna I

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got them listed in the chronological order they happen. I

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don't know if I'm going to really mention the actual

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years of these happen. I'll give you the baseline unless

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you want me to throw it out there.

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If that's nothing that if you don't mind, that might help.

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Sure.

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Like I said, all these experiences that I've had, except

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for later ones twenty fourteen on, we had these encounters

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and bigfoot wasn't on my radar. I mean, I've always

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heard the stories growing up here, but I've hunted. I

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hunted a bunch you know, deer, elk, and lots of

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bird hunting, and so I've heard stories about bigfoots. But

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through most of these encounters, it wasn't like I'm being

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accosted by a bigfoot it was just kind of on

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a nerving situation and being around wild animals, I don't

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spook easy. I've been around play any of cougars and bears.

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I've been followed for a day with mountain lions, hiking

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up and through wilderness, and it's really just not an issue.

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You learn how to act around them, and you know

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they're there, so you never want to freak out, and

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you never want to freak out and run. And so

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00:11:14.240 --> 00:11:16.840
with that being said, you know, so I moved to

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00:11:16.840 --> 00:11:21.480
Eugene area from Pendleton when I was nineteen, and my

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00:11:21.559 --> 00:11:25.559
wife went to University of Oregon and she was studying there.

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I was a farm boy out in Pendleton, eastern Oregon

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on the Until Indian Reservation. And after living in small

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towns my entire life and rural communities, my wife invited

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me to be a roommate with her and her other

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00:11:38.120 --> 00:11:40.120
classmates over in Eugene. We were friends. I went to

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school with my wife. Her dad was my math teacher

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in high school actually, you know. And so I moved

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in with her at tuxa village in Eugene. And when

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I got to Eugene, about two hundred thousand ish population

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00:11:53.080 --> 00:11:55.159
in that area there because Eugene is Springfielder right next

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00:11:55.159 --> 00:11:58.320
to each other, second largest metropolitan area in Oregon. Small

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for some of the East Coast stuff, but when I

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got here, it was exciting moving into a bigger city.

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I've never been in a big city.

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What Eugene might be considered small city for most people,

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but for me, it felt like a big city and

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it was exciting. So I spent and we spent our

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first ten years, eight or nine years in Eugene, every

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day just exploring everything we could. It started with the

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city and I explored all the parks and it was

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00:12:20.440 --> 00:12:22.919
fun walking through the downtown areas with big buildings and

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00:12:22.960 --> 00:12:25.240
everything was so busy in the hustle and bustle of it.

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And we started exploring outside of the city limits more

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and got in a lane county and we ended up

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in the mountains, and that's when I really got into

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backpacking over here. So in two thousand and eight, we

247
00:12:36.960 --> 00:12:40.720
were well on our way to pretty much backpacking. Every

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00:12:40.799 --> 00:12:42.399
chance we got, we just me and my wife. We

249
00:12:42.440 --> 00:12:45.600
went back back wintertime, it didn't matter. We went rain storms, snowstorms.

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00:12:45.879 --> 00:12:47.759
So in two thousand and eight I got invited to

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00:12:48.120 --> 00:12:52.480
go to Thanksgiving up in as story organ. My mom

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00:12:52.519 --> 00:12:55.000
actually lives up in Warrington out there, which is sits

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more west of Astoria, I mean, a couple miles away

254
00:12:58.759 --> 00:12:59.279
from the beach.

255
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Really pretty area.

256
00:13:00.600 --> 00:13:02.799
Probably most people recognize it because of the Meglar Bridge

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00:13:02.799 --> 00:13:04.639
at Big Green Bridge that spans the Columbia River.

258
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There.

259
00:13:05.159 --> 00:13:07.159
That area's got a lot of history, a lot of

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old history. And so we drove to Astoria. I was

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00:13:13.159 --> 00:13:17.120
in my wife's ninety six hont A cord and we

262
00:13:17.159 --> 00:13:18.960
got to the house where my mom lived, and my

263
00:13:18.960 --> 00:13:21.360
brother and my sister were there, and they had kids.

264
00:13:21.440 --> 00:13:24.440
They had taken all the spare rooms in the house,

265
00:13:24.799 --> 00:13:27.919
and so we brought a tent just a case, which

266
00:13:27.960 --> 00:13:30.159
weren't we were actually looking forward to camp in. Anyways,

267
00:13:30.200 --> 00:13:32.000
we figured we would end up pitching our tent somewhere.

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00:13:32.039 --> 00:13:34.840
My mom offered for us to pitch our tent in

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00:13:34.879 --> 00:13:37.000
her yard, but we, like I said, we like to

270
00:13:37.000 --> 00:13:39.120
seek out those quieter places, and so me and my

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00:13:39.159 --> 00:13:42.720
wife we decided to go find a little spot off

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00:13:42.759 --> 00:13:44.559
of one of the main highways out there, a mile

273
00:13:44.600 --> 00:13:46.279
or two off and just pitched a tent for a

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00:13:46.360 --> 00:13:48.879
night or two, and that's where we'd stay. So we

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00:13:48.919 --> 00:13:52.159
got up to Astoria, met with a family and it

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00:13:52.200 --> 00:13:54.679
was later afternoon, hung out with them for a few hours.

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And in November the sun sets quite a bit earlier

278
00:13:59.200 --> 00:14:01.720
up here. You're starting to it into shorter days, winters

279
00:14:01.720 --> 00:14:05.080
coming and everything like that. And this is before cell

280
00:14:05.120 --> 00:14:07.320
phones and the communions. Having a phone you could just

281
00:14:07.360 --> 00:14:09.000
shake and get a flashlight on and stuff like that.

282
00:14:09.120 --> 00:14:11.919
So one thing I realized I forgot was my flashlights.

283
00:14:12.080 --> 00:14:15.480
And so we swung by the fred Myers in Warrington

284
00:14:15.799 --> 00:14:18.120
and on our way to go find a campsite, and

285
00:14:18.200 --> 00:14:21.080
I picked up a Coleman lantern, propane lantern, and.

286
00:14:21.120 --> 00:14:21.960
I'd never set one up.

287
00:14:21.960 --> 00:14:24.279
I was in boy Scouts, grown up and stuff, but

288
00:14:24.320 --> 00:14:26.440
they always had the mantles on them, and so I

289
00:14:26.480 --> 00:14:28.840
never had to tie myself until we grabbed a lantern,

290
00:14:28.960 --> 00:14:33.519
grabbed one of those one pound propane canisters and threw

291
00:14:33.519 --> 00:14:36.200
it in the trunk with our camping gear, and we

292
00:14:36.279 --> 00:14:38.399
headed off to go find a spot to camp for

293
00:14:38.440 --> 00:14:41.879
a couple of days. We drove through Astoria so over'heading

294
00:14:41.919 --> 00:14:47.200
east now on Highway thirty, heading towards Sevenson and Rainier

295
00:14:47.200 --> 00:14:49.200
and all those little places that are right along the

296
00:14:49.240 --> 00:14:54.440
Columbia River there, and we drove twelve to fourteen miles

297
00:14:54.480 --> 00:14:56.120
east out of Astoria. And once you get out of

298
00:14:56.120 --> 00:14:59.279
as story, it turns into just logging country. A house

299
00:14:59.320 --> 00:15:02.120
here and there, gold amongst the forest and everything, but

300
00:15:02.240 --> 00:15:04.440
pretty open, with a lot of little side roads that

301
00:15:04.519 --> 00:15:07.320
come off of it. So fourteen ish miles or so

302
00:15:07.919 --> 00:15:10.960
out of Astoria, we find a little road to the right.

303
00:15:11.039 --> 00:15:14.039
And I have tried to remember the name of that road,

304
00:15:14.039 --> 00:15:18.399
but I just I can't remember the exact name of it.

305
00:15:18.399 --> 00:15:19.919
And I've looked on the maps and I found the

306
00:15:19.919 --> 00:15:22.679
general area. I couldn't pinpoint the road, but we found

307
00:15:22.720 --> 00:15:25.399
this little road, and it's getting dusk, you know, the

308
00:15:25.440 --> 00:15:28.519
sign has got maybe an hour worth of light left

309
00:15:28.519 --> 00:15:30.960
in it. And we find this little road, come off

310
00:15:30.960 --> 00:15:33.320
of it off of Highway thirty. Go a couple of

311
00:15:33.320 --> 00:15:36.000
miles up this road and find this little four by

312
00:15:36.039 --> 00:15:39.159
four track some of the locals must wheel their trucks

313
00:15:39.159 --> 00:15:41.159
on and stuff like that drops sharply off this little

314
00:15:41.159 --> 00:15:42.480
gravel road that we turned on too.

315
00:15:42.519 --> 00:15:43.879
So I pulled the car around.

316
00:15:44.000 --> 00:15:46.080
Figure in there's going to be a wide spot I

317
00:15:46.159 --> 00:15:48.360
camp spot somewhere in there. So pulled the car off

318
00:15:48.399 --> 00:15:50.919
the side of the road, grabbed our tents and I

319
00:15:50.960 --> 00:15:53.080
didn't bring our backpack, so we were just carrying stuff

320
00:15:53.120 --> 00:15:55.519
under arms, you know. And so my wife had the

321
00:15:55.559 --> 00:15:59.480
ten I had had some gallon jugs of water, the

322
00:15:59.600 --> 00:16:01.919
lantern still in the box, still in the box, and everything.

323
00:16:02.039 --> 00:16:04.960
And we hiked down this little trail and it comes

324
00:16:05.000 --> 00:16:07.320
to a little a t junction. You come down and

325
00:16:07.320 --> 00:16:10.159
then there's a junction and we went straight and it

326
00:16:10.240 --> 00:16:12.120
ended up in these big maple trees and there was

327
00:16:12.120 --> 00:16:13.159
a campsite under there.

328
00:16:13.759 --> 00:16:16.559
Big for society who will be right back after these messages.

329
00:16:32.559 --> 00:16:35.480
In fact, actually there was a whole camp site set

330
00:16:35.559 --> 00:16:39.720
up and there there was multiple tents, picnic tables, camp chairs,

331
00:16:40.000 --> 00:16:42.080
and on the picnic table it had stuff set up

332
00:16:42.120 --> 00:16:44.559
what you see here. It had people's plates and there

333
00:16:44.600 --> 00:16:47.480
was some food, chips and stuff and bags. We got

334
00:16:47.519 --> 00:16:49.919
in there and everything was covered in leaves because it's

335
00:16:49.960 --> 00:16:51.799
fall time, so the trees are dropping their leaves, and

336
00:16:51.840 --> 00:16:53.679
it didn't look like anyone had been in that camp

337
00:16:54.320 --> 00:16:57.120
for weeks. I mean, there was a good covering of

338
00:16:57.159 --> 00:16:59.840
leaves over everything, and it was kind of bizarre, you know,

339
00:17:00.639 --> 00:17:05.519
And we looked at the situation. We thought it was odd,

340
00:17:05.559 --> 00:17:07.079
and we're like, who knows what the deal is? And

341
00:17:07.319 --> 00:17:09.599
so we just went back to that junction on that

342
00:17:09.880 --> 00:17:11.359
little four by four road, and then we took that

343
00:17:11.400 --> 00:17:13.119
other leg that came off of it.

344
00:17:13.160 --> 00:17:13.319
There.

345
00:17:13.359 --> 00:17:14.880
At that point in time, I've been carrying these water

346
00:17:14.920 --> 00:17:17.440
bottles with gallon jugs, so I set them down in

347
00:17:17.440 --> 00:17:19.480
the middle of that little t shape junction.

348
00:17:19.480 --> 00:17:20.440
I'm like, well, let's just walk down.

349
00:17:20.480 --> 00:17:23.079
Here's see if we can't find a spot to put

350
00:17:23.079 --> 00:17:26.640
our little two person tent. And we walk two hundred

351
00:17:26.640 --> 00:17:29.160
feet down that road. And this road is surrounded by

352
00:17:29.200 --> 00:17:33.319
brushts six or seven feet tall, scotch, broom, himalay and blackberries,

353
00:17:33.759 --> 00:17:35.839
a lot of scrub pretty typical two areas that had

354
00:17:35.839 --> 00:17:37.599
been logged over a bunch of times. It just turns

355
00:17:37.640 --> 00:17:40.559
into a brushing mass. You couldn't walk through this stuff

356
00:17:40.759 --> 00:17:43.400
if you wanted to, you know, while walking down this trail,

357
00:17:43.400 --> 00:17:45.759
there was just a big enough spot, probably not much

358
00:17:45.799 --> 00:17:48.640
bigger than the footprint that this picnic table takes up,

359
00:17:48.960 --> 00:17:51.039
cleared off the side of the road there where some

360
00:17:51.079 --> 00:17:52.640
of some of the bushes have gott knocked down. And

361
00:17:52.720 --> 00:17:55.599
we set the tent up there and it's getting fairly

362
00:17:55.680 --> 00:17:57.200
dark now, and I'm like, I'm gonna get that lantern

363
00:17:57.240 --> 00:18:01.680
set up, So I unbox it out there and get the.

364
00:18:01.640 --> 00:18:02.279
Thing put together.

365
00:18:02.359 --> 00:18:04.519
I put the mantles on, and I didn't burn the mantles,

366
00:18:04.559 --> 00:18:06.039
and I didn't know you had to light the mantles

367
00:18:06.160 --> 00:18:08.279
and burn them in, so I just assembled it, put

368
00:18:08.279 --> 00:18:11.079
the propane canister on there, and lit it. The propane

369
00:18:11.200 --> 00:18:15.200
lantern lit up for about five seconds and it started

370
00:18:15.200 --> 00:18:17.319
burning the mantles down from the top, so it turned

371
00:18:17.359 --> 00:18:18.680
to ash, and now you have this heavy weight of

372
00:18:18.720 --> 00:18:21.400
the unburned mantle, and I just watched as both of

373
00:18:21.440 --> 00:18:24.359
those socks just disappeared, and what little light we had

374
00:18:24.440 --> 00:18:26.319
disappeared at that point in time. And so at this

375
00:18:26.400 --> 00:18:28.640
point in time, it's it's dusk to the point to

376
00:18:28.640 --> 00:18:30.839
where you can still see, but it's getting dark, like

377
00:18:30.960 --> 00:18:33.599
you couldn't read a book, was getting that dark. And

378
00:18:33.640 --> 00:18:34.880
so I told my wife, I'm like, we're just gonna

379
00:18:34.920 --> 00:18:36.480
have to camp without the lights tonight.

380
00:18:36.480 --> 00:18:37.160
It's not a big deal.

381
00:18:37.240 --> 00:18:38.720
And I'm like, I'm gonna I told my wife, I'm like,

382
00:18:38.720 --> 00:18:41.039
we I'm gonna head back to that junction and pick

383
00:18:41.119 --> 00:18:44.799
up our water jugs that I left there and she

384
00:18:44.839 --> 00:18:47.480
said okay. She started setting up our sleep bags and

385
00:18:47.480 --> 00:18:49.119
stuff in the tent. So I headed back and I

386
00:18:49.119 --> 00:18:51.519
had my little dog with me, Norty, and she backpacked

387
00:18:51.519 --> 00:18:53.480
with such a good dog in the willness, super quiet,

388
00:18:53.519 --> 00:18:54.359
super calm dog.

389
00:18:54.799 --> 00:18:58.319
So we head back to get the.

390
00:18:57.759 --> 00:19:01.599
Water jugs, and we're walking and Norri's falling right behind

391
00:19:01.599 --> 00:19:03.119
me like she always says she never runs in front

392
00:19:03.119 --> 00:19:04.920
of us, and broke her of that for hiking on trails.

393
00:19:05.599 --> 00:19:08.279
And I'm getting close to these to these water jugs

394
00:19:08.319 --> 00:19:10.079
at this junction, and I can see them up ahead,

395
00:19:10.160 --> 00:19:13.000
sixty seventy feet up ahead, and as I get closer

396
00:19:13.200 --> 00:19:16.000
my dog, she kind of puffs up her scuff or

397
00:19:16.000 --> 00:19:17.920
her scruff on the back of her neck. I looked

398
00:19:17.920 --> 00:19:19.680
out at her, and she's been in the wilderness tons

399
00:19:19.680 --> 00:19:21.480
and round bears and cooars, and she's not a very

400
00:19:21.480 --> 00:19:24.200
reactive dog, and she kind of growls, and I thought

401
00:19:24.200 --> 00:19:26.119
it was odd and maybe that kind of put me

402
00:19:26.160 --> 00:19:29.119
on alert, and so I say, oh, she smells something.

403
00:19:29.200 --> 00:19:31.640
And so as I get closer to these water bottles,

404
00:19:31.920 --> 00:19:36.359
these gallon jugs, the bushes, the brush on the other

405
00:19:36.400 --> 00:19:39.319
side right immediately ten feet behind where these jugs are

406
00:19:39.359 --> 00:19:42.039
sitting that whole shrub line just starts shaking, I mean

407
00:19:42.079 --> 00:19:44.799
shaking so hard that leaves are falling off of them.

408
00:19:45.640 --> 00:19:48.519
And Nori goes to run up there and she's growling,

409
00:19:48.960 --> 00:19:50.759
and I call her back right away. She made it

410
00:19:50.799 --> 00:19:52.039
five feet in front her. I called her back, and

411
00:19:52.039 --> 00:19:54.400
I saw him sitting there looking at these jugs, and

412
00:19:54.960 --> 00:19:57.480
the bush is still shaking a little bit, and it stops,

413
00:19:57.759 --> 00:20:00.240
and I just decided I got this feeling. I'm like,

414
00:20:00.279 --> 00:20:01.759
I don't think we need water tonight. So I just

415
00:20:01.759 --> 00:20:04.839
turned around. I left the jugs and made it back

416
00:20:04.880 --> 00:20:08.440
to the tent. My wife asked me why didn't grab

417
00:20:08.519 --> 00:20:09.799
the jugs, and I'm like, I didn't want to tell

418
00:20:09.799 --> 00:20:13.559
her what happened, because I mean, it just was kind

419
00:20:13.559 --> 00:20:15.039
of an off putting feeling. I'm like, we'll just get

420
00:20:15.119 --> 00:20:16.279
him in the morning, you know. I mean, we had

421
00:20:16.279 --> 00:20:18.440
a little water bottle with us, so we stilled some water.

422
00:20:18.759 --> 00:20:20.000
You know what, we'll scrab in the morning. I don't

423
00:20:20.039 --> 00:20:21.400
want I didn't want a home all the way down here.

424
00:20:21.440 --> 00:20:23.359
We get in the tent now and it's completely dark

425
00:20:24.279 --> 00:20:26.640
and we're setting up to go sleep. We lay down

426
00:20:26.839 --> 00:20:30.000
and within five minutes of laying down, we start hearing

427
00:20:30.039 --> 00:20:31.880
things moving through this thick brush.

428
00:20:31.920 --> 00:20:32.559
I mean it started.

429
00:20:32.559 --> 00:20:35.119
You could hear it two hundred feet away, and sticks

430
00:20:35.160 --> 00:20:39.000
snapping and wrestling, light wrestling here and there, and and

431
00:20:39.640 --> 00:20:40.680
you know, I'm like, oh, you know, there's a lot

432
00:20:40.680 --> 00:20:46.319
of coyotes here, and and there's bear and I guess

433
00:20:47.039 --> 00:20:48.880
cougar's too. You know, you usually don't hear the cats.

434
00:20:49.359 --> 00:20:51.000
And I saw we're here this and my wife's like,

435
00:20:51.039 --> 00:20:52.319
yet you hear that. I'm like, yeah, it's probably some

436
00:20:52.319 --> 00:20:54.640
animals moving around through here. And well, as we were

437
00:20:54.640 --> 00:20:58.680
talking about it, the noises got louder, and it got

438
00:20:58.680 --> 00:21:01.039
to the point to where it sounded like there were

439
00:21:01.799 --> 00:21:05.960
three or four truck sized things running through this brush.

440
00:21:06.240 --> 00:21:09.839
And they'd run directly to our tent from multiple directions,

441
00:21:10.359 --> 00:21:14.039
and they would stop twenty feet away, and then you

442
00:21:14.119 --> 00:21:16.559
just hear the brush go crazy, you know, I mean

443
00:21:16.640 --> 00:21:18.839
as they ran back away. And this went on for

444
00:21:19.160 --> 00:21:21.440
thirty to forty five minutes, and they got so close.

445
00:21:21.440 --> 00:21:23.440
I mean, they were right outside our tent and me

446
00:21:23.519 --> 00:21:27.680
and my wife were laying there and just looking at

447
00:21:27.720 --> 00:21:28.279
each other.

448
00:21:28.359 --> 00:21:29.240
And what do you think it is?

449
00:21:29.240 --> 00:21:31.559
I'm like, Oh'm probably coyotes or something like that. And

450
00:21:32.119 --> 00:21:33.960
it got pretty intense, It got pretty loud. It's to

451
00:21:34.039 --> 00:21:35.519
that point to where if you've ever been intent and

452
00:21:35.559 --> 00:21:37.400
you hear something out in the middle of the woods,

453
00:21:37.559 --> 00:21:39.079
you give that I'm just going to lay here and

454
00:21:39.119 --> 00:21:42.079
not move a deal. And so we just pretty much

455
00:21:42.119 --> 00:21:44.200
laid there and listened to it. I was pretty nervous

456
00:21:44.319 --> 00:21:47.599
about it. It was definitely aggressive. If animals are doing

457
00:21:47.640 --> 00:21:49.799
that tea in the woods, it definitely brings their attention

458
00:21:49.839 --> 00:21:52.079
to it. And this went on, and I mean it

459
00:21:52.799 --> 00:21:55.680
was pretty nerve wracking when these things would run through

460
00:21:55.680 --> 00:21:59.519
the bushes to us, there was no going around brush.

461
00:21:59.599 --> 00:22:02.279
They ran right through it like a truck. And after

462
00:22:02.319 --> 00:22:06.400
forty five minutes the noises died down, and a couple

463
00:22:06.440 --> 00:22:09.119
hours later we ended up falling asleep and I woke

464
00:22:09.200 --> 00:22:12.359
up in the morning, beautiful morning, and got out of

465
00:22:12.359 --> 00:22:14.359
the tent and went for a little walk. And there's

466
00:22:14.359 --> 00:22:17.279
this big power line lane path that leads all the

467
00:22:17.319 --> 00:22:18.880
way up to the east side of the river and

468
00:22:18.920 --> 00:22:20.799
that connects up to Rainier And I know you've done

469
00:22:20.839 --> 00:22:23.359
some stories about Rainier up there, and it was just

470
00:22:23.519 --> 00:22:26.400
a really odd experience. And this is this stuff that

471
00:22:26.440 --> 00:22:30.799
me and my wife experience over the decades backpacking and hiking.

472
00:22:30.799 --> 00:22:34.000
And like I said, it wasn't until the Finding Bigfoot

473
00:22:34.000 --> 00:22:36.720
show came on that we really started putting together what happened.

474
00:22:36.799 --> 00:22:38.920
And it was a mix.

475
00:22:39.000 --> 00:22:41.039
It was actually exciting, like actually getting an answer for

476
00:22:41.119 --> 00:22:43.279
what it was because it explained everything perfectly. Listen to

477
00:22:43.640 --> 00:22:47.599
people's encounter stories on the East Coast. They were describing

478
00:22:47.640 --> 00:22:49.720
the same stuff that we had happened, and the exact

479
00:22:49.720 --> 00:22:52.920
same stuff, and I mean, there's just no coincidence of

480
00:22:52.960 --> 00:22:55.319
what it could be. And so we put it together

481
00:22:56.119 --> 00:22:58.480
what it was, and we started thinking about all these

482
00:22:58.519 --> 00:23:00.599
experiences we've had in years past, and so I made

483
00:23:00.599 --> 00:23:03.240
a little list of some of the stuff I had happened,

484
00:23:03.279 --> 00:23:05.440
you know. And so, like I said, we backpacked every

485
00:23:05.519 --> 00:23:07.400
chance we could get, and we did that pretty much

486
00:23:07.480 --> 00:23:10.079
till we moved out here eleven years ago. And when

487
00:23:10.240 --> 00:23:12.400
we moved in here, had a kid our first year

488
00:23:12.440 --> 00:23:14.799
in here, and now I run a business and I

489
00:23:14.839 --> 00:23:16.440
don't have as much time to do the backpacking that

490
00:23:16.480 --> 00:23:18.079
I used to do. And two thousand and nine, I

491
00:23:18.160 --> 00:23:22.000
still live in Eugene and it was a weekend, so

492
00:23:22.039 --> 00:23:24.440
we took our dogs I too at that time, Hughey

493
00:23:24.440 --> 00:23:26.920
and Nori, and we decided to head to the Coast

494
00:23:27.000 --> 00:23:29.759
Range to just find a spot out of the way,

495
00:23:29.839 --> 00:23:31.359
find a little swimming hole in one of the creeks

496
00:23:31.440 --> 00:23:34.079
up there. And this is the area is Wolf Mountain,

497
00:23:34.160 --> 00:23:37.160
which is west of Benita, and the Coast Range is

498
00:23:37.440 --> 00:23:39.319
super rugged. They don't have the big mountains that the

499
00:23:39.400 --> 00:23:41.599
Cascades have. But you're either going up or down. You're

500
00:23:41.599 --> 00:23:43.240
either the bottom of the valley or you're on top

501
00:23:43.279 --> 00:23:45.559
of it, and that's how the roads go too. We

502
00:23:45.640 --> 00:23:49.079
end up finding this section of land. It was actually

503
00:23:49.119 --> 00:23:51.160
Warehouser land, and they have a gate on it and

504
00:23:51.279 --> 00:23:52.920
they say private property, no tresspassing.

505
00:23:53.000 --> 00:23:54.200
It's more for hunters and stuff.

506
00:23:54.359 --> 00:23:57.960
And so we, being younger and more rebellious, we bypass

507
00:23:58.000 --> 00:23:59.920
the gate. We just went around it and we had

508
00:24:00.480 --> 00:24:02.039
a lunch pack and we were going to find a

509
00:24:02.079 --> 00:24:04.359
little creek it's in the Clay Creek area, and find

510
00:24:04.400 --> 00:24:06.079
a little swimming hole and let the dogs play and

511
00:24:06.160 --> 00:24:08.200
just spend the afternoon out there. And so we hike

512
00:24:08.240 --> 00:24:11.200
in a couple of miles and end up in at

513
00:24:11.200 --> 00:24:12.880
the bottom of this valley where there's nice creek a

514
00:24:12.920 --> 00:24:16.799
little swimming hole and a recent clearcut that had been

515
00:24:16.839 --> 00:24:19.519
done maybe a year prior, you know, so all the

516
00:24:19.559 --> 00:24:21.400
big trees were cut down. There was probably a one

517
00:24:21.440 --> 00:24:24.640
hundred acre clearcut, and the clear cut went straight up

518
00:24:24.680 --> 00:24:28.200
this really steep ridge, and I wanted to get to

519
00:24:28.240 --> 00:24:30.559
the top of this ridge to see the view. Well,

520
00:24:30.640 --> 00:24:33.799
this clear cut is flanked by very large trees. So

521
00:24:33.880 --> 00:24:36.160
when you take out these sections of these big trees,

522
00:24:36.279 --> 00:24:37.440
it opens a forest up.

523
00:24:37.720 --> 00:24:38.640
It's dark in the forest.

524
00:24:38.920 --> 00:24:40.680
It was a bright sunny day, but you look into

525
00:24:40.680 --> 00:24:42.559
the forest, you couldn't see more than twenty thirty feet

526
00:24:42.599 --> 00:24:44.079
into it. I just got so dark in there, and

527
00:24:44.279 --> 00:24:46.720
that contrast between the bright light and the dark forest,

528
00:24:46.720 --> 00:24:49.720
it makes it impossible as hand. While we're stump jumping

529
00:24:49.720 --> 00:24:52.160
climb up this really steep hill to get up to

530
00:24:52.160 --> 00:24:54.519
the top. And I make it about three cours away up.

531
00:24:54.559 --> 00:24:56.440
My wife's a couple hundred feet behind me. She's always

532
00:24:56.440 --> 00:24:59.480
a slower hiker, and I start getting this feeling, the

533
00:24:59.519 --> 00:25:01.960
same feeling I got when I was camped outside of Astoria. There,

534
00:25:02.000 --> 00:25:04.119
when I abandoned the water jugs, I just got this

535
00:25:04.160 --> 00:25:07.519
feeling a little uneasy that I was being watched. I

536
00:25:07.519 --> 00:25:10.839
hadn't heard anything yet, and I put it aside and

537
00:25:11.839 --> 00:25:14.119
just continued hiking up the trail while I made another

538
00:25:14.119 --> 00:25:15.640
fifty feet up this step slope, and you got to

539
00:25:15.680 --> 00:25:18.799
weave through this mess of slash and stump, so it's

540
00:25:18.799 --> 00:25:20.519
hard hiking. And as I was making my way up

541
00:25:20.559 --> 00:25:23.799
the hill, I hear I almost sounded like a gunsholt,

542
00:25:23.880 --> 00:25:26.640
a dry chunk of tree, not even a branch, getting.

543
00:25:26.400 --> 00:25:29.200
Snap crack, and it's in that.

544
00:25:29.119 --> 00:25:30.920
Big force that's flanking us on either side, and it's

545
00:25:30.920 --> 00:25:33.279
probably a hundred yards to each edge of this, maybe

546
00:25:33.400 --> 00:25:35.759
hundred and fifty yards, And I'm like, oh, I've heard

547
00:25:35.880 --> 00:25:37.920
it sounded like a bear moving through woods. They're pretty clumsy,

548
00:25:37.920 --> 00:25:39.480
they'll step on branches and stuff. I'm like, oh, it's

549
00:25:39.480 --> 00:25:41.720
a bear up there. They don't worry me. I've hunted

550
00:25:41.720 --> 00:25:43.640
them and been around them, and I'm not too worried

551
00:25:43.680 --> 00:25:45.920
about the bears. And I'm like, that's what it was.

552
00:25:45.960 --> 00:25:47.400
That's a feeling, not a guy. So I rode off

553
00:25:47.440 --> 00:25:51.519
the sap. I continued up and stick started snapping and

554
00:25:51.559 --> 00:25:54.200
breaking a big tree knox whack on the side of trees,

555
00:25:54.279 --> 00:25:56.279
and it was all to the right of me, and

556
00:25:57.599 --> 00:25:59.480
like I said, you look into this force and it's

557
00:25:59.519 --> 00:26:03.559
so dark, but I could see there was there was

558
00:26:04.559 --> 00:26:06.880
almost like shadows moving back there. I could see that

559
00:26:06.920 --> 00:26:10.000
there was something in there, and it made me really uneasy.

560
00:26:10.039 --> 00:26:12.279
And at this point, I'm only fifty yards from the

561
00:26:12.279 --> 00:26:14.000
top of the ridge that I want to get up

562
00:26:14.000 --> 00:26:17.559
on to get my vantage point. I stopped there and

563
00:26:18.079 --> 00:26:23.160
I got even more uneasy. And it's just one of

564
00:26:23.200 --> 00:26:25.200
those situations. I always followed my gut when I'm in

565
00:26:25.200 --> 00:26:27.960
the woods, I always have and I just felt really uneasy,

566
00:26:28.480 --> 00:26:30.480
and it was a turnaround now kind of a thing,

567
00:26:30.799 --> 00:26:32.480
and I didn't want to stand where I was standing,

568
00:26:32.960 --> 00:26:35.200
and so I turned around and met back up with

569
00:26:35.240 --> 00:26:36.799
my wife. She was a little bit lower down the hill,

570
00:26:36.839 --> 00:26:38.359
and I'm like, oh, just get some so rough and

571
00:26:38.359 --> 00:26:40.480
brushy up there, and it probably wouldn't be much of you.

572
00:26:40.559 --> 00:26:42.519
I'm like, let's just head back down. And my wife

573
00:26:42.519 --> 00:26:44.599
had heard the commotion in the wood sield. I'm like, oh,

574
00:26:44.599 --> 00:26:45.799
I think there's a bear up there. Anyways, I'm like,

575
00:26:45.839 --> 00:26:48.160
let's just head down to the creek and enjoy ourself sore.

576
00:26:48.240 --> 00:26:50.680
So we went back down to the creek and spent

577
00:26:50.759 --> 00:26:52.680
the rest of the day, probably three hundred yards away

578
00:26:52.720 --> 00:26:54.240
from where I was at the top of that ridge,

579
00:26:54.920 --> 00:26:57.519
just enjoying herself. Nothing else happened that day, but it

580
00:26:57.559 --> 00:26:59.400
was the first time that I really started more paying

581
00:26:59.400 --> 00:27:02.119
attention to that. Just that really off putting turnaround. Now

582
00:27:02.680 --> 00:27:03.799
you know, your hair is up on the back of

583
00:27:03.799 --> 00:27:05.640
your neck kind of deal. And I had never experienced

584
00:27:05.640 --> 00:27:09.000
that hunting or anything, you know, being around mountain lions

585
00:27:09.000 --> 00:27:11.319
and bears and stuff like that. I mean, you're always

586
00:27:11.319 --> 00:27:13.119
on edge when you see them, but it's not terrifying.

587
00:27:13.240 --> 00:27:16.000
That was the borderline terrifying. So I spent a restaurant

588
00:27:16.119 --> 00:27:18.359
day there, no big deal, but nothing else happened. And

589
00:27:19.839 --> 00:27:23.440
so the next experience I had was actually later that year.

590
00:27:23.519 --> 00:27:27.480
So I was in my early twenties and Eugene has

591
00:27:27.519 --> 00:27:30.960
a hippie influence and I was getting to that scene,

592
00:27:31.279 --> 00:27:36.680
and so I was. I did small grows years prior

593
00:27:36.720 --> 00:27:39.119
to that, little closet grows and stuff like that, and

594
00:27:39.240 --> 00:27:43.079
like most people did in Oregon, pot was still highly

595
00:27:43.400 --> 00:27:46.599
illegal felony for any of it. And my roommate that

596
00:27:46.599 --> 00:27:49.839
I was living with at the time, we decided in

597
00:27:49.920 --> 00:27:53.759
that year to do a grow out in the forest

598
00:27:54.160 --> 00:27:56.160
and I'm like, we want to pick a spot that's

599
00:27:57.160 --> 00:28:00.240
as remote as possible but has access to where we

600
00:28:00.240 --> 00:28:02.640
can get to it and still be able to hike

601
00:28:02.680 --> 00:28:04.559
in and not spend five hours hiking into this place,

602
00:28:04.599 --> 00:28:06.079
you know, because I mean you have to carry the

603
00:28:06.079 --> 00:28:08.720
plants up there. We grew from clones before planting them,

604
00:28:08.720 --> 00:28:10.559
so the plants were already two feet tall before we

605
00:28:10.640 --> 00:28:13.400
put them in the ground and threw in this group.

606
00:28:13.480 --> 00:28:15.480
So I think we had sixty or seventy little plants

607
00:28:15.480 --> 00:28:17.920
and it was an industrial operation. It was just us

608
00:28:18.000 --> 00:28:21.200
kids messing around. Have fund I don't think we were

609
00:28:21.200 --> 00:28:23.920
going to make millions off of this stuff, which it

610
00:28:23.960 --> 00:28:26.039
was never the case. So we find the spot, and

611
00:28:26.319 --> 00:28:28.599
Google Maps really was a new thing than once, so

612
00:28:28.839 --> 00:28:31.000
it was pretty unbelievable to be able to pull up.

613
00:28:30.960 --> 00:28:32.279
On your computers.

614
00:28:32.680 --> 00:28:35.160
I think my computer's still running Windows ninety eight or

615
00:28:35.279 --> 00:28:36.759
ninety five or something like that at that time, pull

616
00:28:36.839 --> 00:28:39.039
up these maps and be able to get these satellite

617
00:28:39.079 --> 00:28:41.759
overlays of these areas. And that's what I used to

618
00:28:41.759 --> 00:28:44.279
pick the spot where we end up growing this year.

619
00:28:44.480 --> 00:28:48.559
And I earmarked a couple sites that were super remote.

620
00:28:49.039 --> 00:28:52.160
They were nestling up into the west slopes of the Cascades.

621
00:28:52.200 --> 00:28:53.880
They weren't super high elevation because you don't want to

622
00:28:53.880 --> 00:28:56.240
get too much elevation because you need to get warmer

623
00:28:56.240 --> 00:28:57.519
weather in the fall. If you get too high, you're

624
00:28:57.519 --> 00:29:00.440
going to get froze out before your plants finish, you know.

625
00:29:00.680 --> 00:29:04.160
And so we go up there that early spring two

626
00:29:04.160 --> 00:29:07.200
scout spots to put our plants on. So I go

627
00:29:07.279 --> 00:29:10.640
up with my wife and my roommate Terry, and we

628
00:29:10.720 --> 00:29:12.759
go to check out this first spot, and it's about

629
00:29:12.759 --> 00:29:15.160
three quarters of a mile of a brushwhack off of

630
00:29:15.880 --> 00:29:18.519
these logging roads that you drive for twelve or fourteen miles,

631
00:29:18.559 --> 00:29:20.359
and they're so brushy, brushes dragging down in the side of

632
00:29:20.400 --> 00:29:23.480
your vehicle while you're doing it, you know. And so

633
00:29:23.519 --> 00:29:25.200
we get to the spot where I marked it, and

634
00:29:25.279 --> 00:29:28.400
this is before GPS and everything, so we always just

635
00:29:28.480 --> 00:29:31.079
navigate it with map and compass, and the GPS units

636
00:29:31.119 --> 00:29:34.440
they had then were expensive and fairly clunky, gray screen,

637
00:29:34.559 --> 00:29:37.480
none of that nice overlay like not having your tablet

638
00:29:37.480 --> 00:29:39.160
out in the woods like it is now, you know.

639
00:29:39.200 --> 00:29:42.119
And so we hike into this first spot that I

640
00:29:42.119 --> 00:29:45.799
had marked, and three quarter mile hike in kind of

641
00:29:45.799 --> 00:29:48.240
pick on our way through through this forest area. They

642
00:29:48.240 --> 00:29:50.200
have been logged several times over. Every time they log,

643
00:29:50.240 --> 00:29:51.920
they plant three trees for every tree they cut. So

644
00:29:52.000 --> 00:29:54.359
that process, if you repeat it over several times, you

645
00:29:54.359 --> 00:29:57.759
can imagine how dense the trees get after they keep

646
00:29:57.839 --> 00:29:59.640
on replanning three to one on the cuttings, and that

647
00:29:59.640 --> 00:30:02.640
stuff dense. And I'm heading for this open spot that

648
00:30:02.640 --> 00:30:04.519
I saw in satellite. It was probably a half acre

649
00:30:05.000 --> 00:30:08.000
in between all this old or this new reprodden, which

650
00:30:08.039 --> 00:30:09.440
is what they call the trees that they plan after

651
00:30:09.480 --> 00:30:12.799
the log and we get up into the spot finally

652
00:30:12.759 --> 00:30:15.440
antakes I don't know, forty five minutes a bust and brush.

653
00:30:15.440 --> 00:30:17.680
You get up there and it's actually a perfect spot

654
00:30:17.720 --> 00:30:19.480
to grow. I had a little spring that popped up

655
00:30:19.480 --> 00:30:21.559
in the middle, really brushy, some BlackBerry up in the

656
00:30:21.559 --> 00:30:23.519
middle of it that had enough room to where we

657
00:30:23.559 --> 00:30:27.079
would get sunlight, enough sun light to do what we

658
00:30:27.119 --> 00:30:29.920
want to do. As we got into this clearing, I

659
00:30:29.920 --> 00:30:31.839
got that feeling again, same feeling I got when I

660
00:30:31.839 --> 00:30:33.480
was over in a Wolf Mountain, and the same feeling

661
00:30:33.519 --> 00:30:37.759
I got outside of Astoria that the really uneasy, like

662
00:30:37.839 --> 00:30:41.000
you're being watched and really just very uncomfortable, like you

663
00:30:41.039 --> 00:30:43.640
wouldn't want to You wouldn't want to spend any mountain

664
00:30:43.640 --> 00:30:47.519
time up there with that feeling. And so we scout

665
00:30:47.559 --> 00:30:50.000
around it and we brought a lunch. We were planning

666
00:30:50.039 --> 00:30:52.039
eating a lunch out there, and I was talking to

667
00:30:52.079 --> 00:30:53.680
Terry about the spot and turs like, yeah, I like

668
00:30:53.680 --> 00:30:54.480
the spot.

669
00:30:55.039 --> 00:30:56.720
Big for society. Who will be right back?

670
00:30:56.759 --> 00:31:15.279
After these messages, I didn't say anything to my wife

671
00:31:15.920 --> 00:31:17.400
or my buddy that was with me about how I

672
00:31:17.440 --> 00:31:18.400
was feeling about the spot.

673
00:31:18.680 --> 00:31:19.920
We decided not to eat our lunch chair.

674
00:31:20.559 --> 00:31:22.599
We spent maybe six or seven minutes in this place

675
00:31:22.799 --> 00:31:25.680
before we decided to hike back to the rig. Well,

676
00:31:25.680 --> 00:31:27.839
we made it back to the rig, and I asked

677
00:31:27.880 --> 00:31:30.720
my buddy, I'm like, what do you think about this spot?

678
00:31:30.880 --> 00:31:34.720
And he says, well, he's like, the spot's great, he said,

679
00:31:34.720 --> 00:31:37.759
but I had a horrible feeling going in there, he said.

680
00:31:37.920 --> 00:31:39.240
He said, it is super uncomfortable.

681
00:31:39.279 --> 00:31:43.559
My wife said the same thing, and I told him

682
00:31:43.720 --> 00:31:45.400
told them how I felt about it. I'm like, well,

683
00:31:45.400 --> 00:31:47.680
I had the same thing happened. I was just very uncomfortable,

684
00:31:47.680 --> 00:31:50.960
and that walk back out was worse than anything, just

685
00:31:50.960 --> 00:31:51.880
because it was so thick.

686
00:31:52.160 --> 00:31:54.039
You couldn't move fast through this stuff. You know what.

687
00:31:54.079 --> 00:31:56.559
We didn't hear anything or see anything on that trip,

688
00:31:57.000 --> 00:31:58.960
but we decided not to grow at that spot. So

689
00:31:59.079 --> 00:32:01.559
we got back in the rig, drove up the road

690
00:32:01.599 --> 00:32:04.799
another four or five miles, so where these logging roads

691
00:32:04.799 --> 00:32:07.400
really start petering out, and I had another spot marked

692
00:32:07.599 --> 00:32:09.440
and we parked the car.

693
00:32:10.200 --> 00:32:10.480
We do.

694
00:32:10.799 --> 00:32:14.000
This spot's about a quarter mile off the road, and

695
00:32:14.079 --> 00:32:16.240
so we bushwhacker way to it. And this spot is

696
00:32:16.319 --> 00:32:19.640
up on ridges and the hillsides between the ridge and

697
00:32:19.640 --> 00:32:23.640
the valleys, and I mean they're probably fifty degree slopes,

698
00:32:23.960 --> 00:32:26.119
really steep, so when you're climbing up this you're rabbing

699
00:32:26.279 --> 00:32:28.599
trees and branches. And we're heading to this other open

700
00:32:29.039 --> 00:32:31.640
spot that we thought might be a good place, right

701
00:32:31.680 --> 00:32:33.559
next to a little creek. We get up there and

702
00:32:33.559 --> 00:32:36.079
find that there's these little terraces where the hillside slumped

703
00:32:36.119 --> 00:32:38.519
over the years, these little terrace spots that are pretty flat,

704
00:32:38.799 --> 00:32:40.640
and that's the open spots that I was seeing on

705
00:32:40.680 --> 00:32:42.319
the map, and there's about five or six of them.

706
00:32:42.599 --> 00:32:44.920
I continue down the hill, the creek kind of followed them.

707
00:32:44.960 --> 00:32:46.440
I mean, it was a perfect spot. And I told

708
00:32:46.480 --> 00:32:48.559
my buddy, I'm like, this is a spot, and no

709
00:32:48.680 --> 00:32:51.319
off putting feelings or anything like that on that earlier

710
00:32:51.359 --> 00:32:53.640
hike we did in that day, we just no one

711
00:32:53.640 --> 00:32:56.480
talked about it, and all the end easiness seemed to disappear.

712
00:32:56.559 --> 00:32:58.319
I'm like, oh, this is gonna be the spot. So

713
00:32:58.599 --> 00:33:01.160
the next week I organize a couple of my buddies

714
00:33:01.160 --> 00:33:05.720
to help us get our supplies up there, and we

715
00:33:05.839 --> 00:33:08.119
got all the stuff up there, all of our plants

716
00:33:08.319 --> 00:33:10.680
and all of our supplies we're going to need throughout

717
00:33:10.720 --> 00:33:13.680
the year. And our schedule was in the summertime. Every

718
00:33:13.680 --> 00:33:16.359
other week on Friday, we would leave Eugene at about

719
00:33:16.359 --> 00:33:19.240
eleven o'clock and we'd drive up to this area which

720
00:33:19.359 --> 00:33:22.279
was in the Lane County Lynn County line up there.

721
00:33:22.279 --> 00:33:25.279
So it took us about an hour to an hour

722
00:33:25.319 --> 00:33:27.400
and twenty minutes to get up drive up to the spot,

723
00:33:27.440 --> 00:33:30.200
and then it was another We always parked about a

724
00:33:30.200 --> 00:33:32.640
mile and a half away from where the spot was,

725
00:33:32.640 --> 00:33:34.000
even though it was only quarter mile off the road.

726
00:33:34.000 --> 00:33:35.480
We don't want to park right below it on so

727
00:33:35.519 --> 00:33:37.200
we would park and then do about a mile and

728
00:33:37.200 --> 00:33:39.599
a half walk in. And so it's after midnight and

729
00:33:40.279 --> 00:33:42.640
the stipulation I had for doing this was one, we

730
00:33:42.680 --> 00:33:44.359
never took any guns with us, you know it. One

731
00:33:44.400 --> 00:33:46.839
I didn't want that to be part of it. And two,

732
00:33:47.000 --> 00:33:48.599
like I said back in the day, you got caught

733
00:33:48.599 --> 00:33:51.119
doing the stuff, that's just an extra felony thrown on

734
00:33:51.160 --> 00:33:53.559
top of it. And so we would go up and

735
00:33:53.640 --> 00:33:56.319
hike into the spot and we would do our pruning

736
00:33:56.359 --> 00:33:59.599
and our watering and fertilizing and stuff like that, and

737
00:33:59.640 --> 00:34:02.279
spend a few hours up and up in the spot

738
00:34:02.319 --> 00:34:03.759
in the middle of the night doing it. We'd usually

739
00:34:03.759 --> 00:34:06.720
come out about about four o'clock or so in the

740
00:34:06.720 --> 00:34:09.440
morning back to the rig. So as we're doing this

741
00:34:09.480 --> 00:34:12.639
through the summer, we started having some strange experiences up there,

742
00:34:12.840 --> 00:34:18.679
and we heard the sound of car doors slamming, just boom,

743
00:34:18.760 --> 00:34:21.079
and it only sounded like they were one hundred feet away.

744
00:34:21.079 --> 00:34:22.639
But there's just no way, there's no cars up there.

745
00:34:22.719 --> 00:34:24.840
We walked the roads to this spot, and the spot's

746
00:34:24.840 --> 00:34:26.519
at the end of Deadon Road, and there's no roads

747
00:34:26.599 --> 00:34:28.960
within besides the one we came in on. There's no

748
00:34:29.079 --> 00:34:32.440
roads within three quarters to a mile away from there,

749
00:34:32.480 --> 00:34:34.119
and those roads are so brush anyways, no one's gonna

750
00:34:34.119 --> 00:34:35.440
be out there in the middle of the night.

751
00:34:35.480 --> 00:34:36.760
So we'd hear these car.

752
00:34:36.559 --> 00:34:42.119
Doors slam, and we would hear what almost sounded like

753
00:34:42.159 --> 00:34:45.719
gunshots occasionally, but they weren't a sharp I mean, it

754
00:34:45.719 --> 00:34:48.360
would just be a loud crack, you know. I mean

755
00:34:48.400 --> 00:34:51.679
maybe you know, five hundred six hundred feet away. And

756
00:34:51.760 --> 00:34:53.840
I mean me and Terry discussed it, and our rule

757
00:34:53.960 --> 00:34:56.599
was if we ever found that anyone had gotten in there,

758
00:34:56.639 --> 00:34:59.000
we get found out, you'd just abandon the site and

759
00:34:59.079 --> 00:35:02.400
you never come back. And so we just dealt with

760
00:35:02.440 --> 00:35:04.480
that through the whole summer, you know. And I mean

761
00:35:04.519 --> 00:35:07.880
the Carridor thing was the weirdest. It just sounded like

762
00:35:07.880 --> 00:35:09.719
a newer car, not like not like an eighty square

763
00:35:09.719 --> 00:35:11.599
body Chevy. I mean like a newer car where the

764
00:35:11.599 --> 00:35:13.119
doors closed and there's no rattle, and you get that

765
00:35:13.199 --> 00:35:17.320
loud as it closes, just tons of that. And my

766
00:35:17.360 --> 00:35:19.679
buddy Terry was joking rising, he's maybe this maybe it's

767
00:35:19.719 --> 00:35:22.119
haunted up here. And we always had our chuckle about it,

768
00:35:22.320 --> 00:35:26.320
you know. And and so later in the year, in

769
00:35:26.400 --> 00:35:30.079
late September, going on October, we harvested at the as

770
00:35:30.079 --> 00:35:31.760
far into October as we can get it before the

771
00:35:31.800 --> 00:35:33.679
frost kicked us out of there. We started going every

772
00:35:33.679 --> 00:35:38.039
week and doing our late night prunings, and it was

773
00:35:38.119 --> 00:35:41.119
our last weekend that we were going up there to

774
00:35:41.159 --> 00:35:43.559
do our maintenance before we come back and harvest our

775
00:35:44.239 --> 00:35:47.239
our our little crops, which they the plants, did not

776
00:35:47.280 --> 00:35:49.360
do good. They were tall, they were big plants, ten

777
00:35:49.400 --> 00:35:51.639
feet tall, nine feet tall, but they were so spindily

778
00:35:51.719 --> 00:35:52.960
growing in that clay soil.

779
00:35:53.079 --> 00:35:54.800
And we got we got.

780
00:35:54.599 --> 00:35:56.360
Some stuff off of them, but it wasn't anything to

781
00:35:56.360 --> 00:36:02.159
write home about until our innniversary there. A week before

782
00:36:02.159 --> 00:36:03.519
we decide to harvest, we go up to do our

783
00:36:03.559 --> 00:36:05.840
normal deal, get them pruned up and cleaned up, ready

784
00:36:05.840 --> 00:36:08.800
to go to take back and haul our bounty back

785
00:36:08.800 --> 00:36:11.880
home after a long summer of growing these things. And

786
00:36:11.960 --> 00:36:14.480
we were pretty excited about it. And so we get up.

787
00:36:14.360 --> 00:36:17.480
There and we do our pruning and all of our

788
00:36:17.480 --> 00:36:19.119
stuff that we're doing. I'm up in the upper plot.

789
00:36:19.440 --> 00:36:21.559
Terry's in one of the lower plots down there, and

790
00:36:21.599 --> 00:36:24.480
it's probably one hundred and fifty feet separated, I mean,

791
00:36:24.480 --> 00:36:26.199
down this incredibly steep slope and once you come off

792
00:36:26.239 --> 00:36:28.280
those terrace sections, you're going down your side footing it

793
00:36:28.360 --> 00:36:29.920
on the hills and to get to the next one

794
00:36:29.960 --> 00:36:33.280
while I'm stashing the stuff up at the very top plot.

795
00:36:33.280 --> 00:36:35.119
Oh, and I should mention I forgot to mention.

796
00:36:35.320 --> 00:36:38.119
We had week a couple weeks prior to that, I'd

797
00:36:38.119 --> 00:36:39.920
come up there on the top plot and there's probably

798
00:36:40.039 --> 00:36:42.480
twenty plants or so in the top plot, and three

799
00:36:42.559 --> 00:36:44.079
or four of them had been ripped out of the

800
00:36:44.079 --> 00:36:46.199
ground and thrown.

801
00:36:45.960 --> 00:36:46.960
Up into the trees.

802
00:36:47.079 --> 00:36:49.159
Really, you know, I mean fifteen twenty feet up the tree,

803
00:36:49.159 --> 00:36:51.000
there's this whole plant sitting there. And we saw some

804
00:36:51.039 --> 00:36:53.800
elk sign and growing up on ranches. I watched horses

805
00:36:54.039 --> 00:36:56.079
rab plants and shake them and throw them. I was

806
00:36:56.119 --> 00:36:57.960
just like, we might have some elk in here picking

807
00:36:58.000 --> 00:37:00.079
on this stuff.

808
00:36:59.480 --> 00:37:00.719
And we found it odd.

809
00:37:00.760 --> 00:37:03.599
We actually discussed actually abandon in it because of that.

810
00:37:03.639 --> 00:37:05.880
We're like, man, maybe someone's in here, maybe a hunter

811
00:37:05.920 --> 00:37:08.320
had found it, and maybe we should just call it

812
00:37:08.400 --> 00:37:11.079
quits and not come back. And so anyways, our last week,

813
00:37:11.079 --> 00:37:15.400
there I'm up there top plot, sashing my stuff underneath

814
00:37:15.400 --> 00:37:17.920
this s Douglas fir tree, the watering containers and stuff

815
00:37:17.920 --> 00:37:19.679
like that. So it couldn't be spots. They use helicopters

816
00:37:19.719 --> 00:37:21.880
back then, they were flying helicopters all over the place,

817
00:37:22.039 --> 00:37:26.079
and as on stash and this the stuff the creeks

818
00:37:26.159 --> 00:37:28.639
to my back here and there's a slight open area,

819
00:37:28.679 --> 00:37:30.679
probably about to the edge of where it drops off

820
00:37:30.760 --> 00:37:34.400
right there, and I see out of my per field

821
00:37:34.440 --> 00:37:37.960
is really dark black shadow just zoomed by.

822
00:37:38.000 --> 00:37:40.000
I mean, no brush noise or anything like that. Just

823
00:37:40.199 --> 00:37:40.800
caught my attention.

824
00:37:40.880 --> 00:37:43.480
I looked over there, and I should also note that

825
00:37:44.079 --> 00:37:47.039
I are flashlights that we used. We didn't use really

826
00:37:47.079 --> 00:37:49.599
bright flashlights, you know, for obvious reasons, you know. So

827
00:37:49.719 --> 00:37:53.400
I had LED headlamps just started coming out. I don't

828
00:37:53.400 --> 00:37:55.920
know if you ever bought the first generation LED headlamps.

829
00:37:56.679 --> 00:38:01.960
They were blue, bluish purplish colored, and you couldn't see.

830
00:38:02.039 --> 00:38:04.639
You couldn't see ten feet on a nice night with

831
00:38:04.719 --> 00:38:06.280
those things. It was enough light to work in, but

832
00:38:06.360 --> 00:38:08.400
and plus at wavelength too. I mean, it just really

833
00:38:08.800 --> 00:38:12.679
messed with your debt perception. You can't see. It drowns

834
00:38:12.679 --> 00:38:15.199
out some of the colors and textures of things. So anyways,

835
00:38:15.199 --> 00:38:19.119
i'd see this, the shadow move, and it gets my attention,

836
00:38:19.360 --> 00:38:21.119
And so I sat there for a couple of minutes listening,

837
00:38:21.119 --> 00:38:22.519
and I didn't hear anything, and so I was like, oh,

838
00:38:22.559 --> 00:38:24.679
maybe it's and I'll move me through there really quick

839
00:38:24.719 --> 00:38:26.599
so much which I mean it would have made a

840
00:38:26.599 --> 00:38:28.679
lot of noise if his alk, But that's the explanation

841
00:38:28.719 --> 00:38:31.239
I came up with that time. So packed the stuff

842
00:38:31.320 --> 00:38:35.880
up and put my backpack on, clicked on my CRAPPYRII headlamp,

843
00:38:36.159 --> 00:38:41.000
and went down to started heading down to Terry. And

844
00:38:41.440 --> 00:38:43.559
about the time I started coming off that first plot

845
00:38:43.559 --> 00:38:46.880
to come down towards where Terry was, I started hearing

846
00:38:46.920 --> 00:38:49.719
brush breaking. It started about one hundred and fifty feet

847
00:38:49.760 --> 00:38:52.000
above me on the hillside, right where that that shadow,

848
00:38:52.760 --> 00:38:57.000
that dark figure had ran to. And I would start

849
00:38:57.039 --> 00:38:59.079
walking and it would start walking, and I mean at

850
00:38:59.079 --> 00:39:00.760
first it was pacing. I was going at the same

851
00:39:00.800 --> 00:39:03.119
speed I was going by, I mean, in the thick

852
00:39:03.159 --> 00:39:05.719
brush moving so you hear yeah, I mean just just

853
00:39:05.760 --> 00:39:09.159
like walking through thick brush, snapping, crackling. It wasn't rushing

854
00:39:09.159 --> 00:39:12.480
at that point, and I would stop and it would stop.

855
00:39:12.679 --> 00:39:15.679
As I got closer to Terry down on the lower plot,

856
00:39:15.800 --> 00:39:17.800
it started picking up. Every time it started moving, it

857
00:39:17.840 --> 00:39:20.840
started getting faster and faster, and so this thing started

858
00:39:21.440 --> 00:39:24.559
pretty much running to me and when I would stop,

859
00:39:24.840 --> 00:39:26.840
a couple seconds later it would stop, but every time

860
00:39:26.840 --> 00:39:28.880
it would get closer, and I got that feeling again.

861
00:39:29.239 --> 00:39:31.679
I'm like, oh, man, Harry, are middle of the night.

862
00:39:32.440 --> 00:39:34.760
A couple three inch three and a half inch pocket knives,

863
00:39:35.079 --> 00:39:36.719
you know. And I make it down Terry. I'm like, hey,

864
00:39:36.719 --> 00:39:38.559
I just want to let you know. When I was

865
00:39:38.639 --> 00:39:40.000
up there top plot, I don't know if there's a

866
00:39:40.599 --> 00:39:42.360
bear or nolk. I saw something move up there and

867
00:39:43.119 --> 00:39:44.800
it was moving down the hill with me when I

868
00:39:44.840 --> 00:39:47.159
was going, and Terry hadn't heard it at that point,

869
00:39:47.559 --> 00:39:49.599
and he's like, well, okay, And I'm like, let's grab

870
00:39:49.639 --> 00:39:51.320
our stuff and let's take the shortcut. Let's just go

871
00:39:51.400 --> 00:39:53.960
straight down the steepest parts and let's just get onto

872
00:39:53.960 --> 00:39:55.480
the road and get back to the car. So we

873
00:39:56.079 --> 00:39:58.320
as soon as we started walking through that bottom plot,

874
00:39:58.880 --> 00:40:01.400
this thing started running and Terry looks at me and

875
00:40:01.440 --> 00:40:03.480
he says, what the hell is that. I'm like, that's

876
00:40:03.480 --> 00:40:05.320
what I was talking about. I'm like, it'll be fine.

877
00:40:05.360 --> 00:40:07.760
I'm like, do not freak out and run. I'm like,

878
00:40:07.760 --> 00:40:10.559
if it's a bear or a cougar, I'm like, it

879
00:40:10.639 --> 00:40:13.320
will chase you if you run. I'm like, it'll be fine.

880
00:40:13.800 --> 00:40:16.199
I've dealt with animals in the woods before and I've

881
00:40:16.199 --> 00:40:17.679
never had an issue. I'm like, you just need to

882
00:40:17.679 --> 00:40:20.440
be cool about it. And so we start moving down again,

883
00:40:20.559 --> 00:40:23.639
and this scene starts running and every time, I mean,

884
00:40:23.639 --> 00:40:25.880
it sounds like a truck driving down this hill, just

885
00:40:25.920 --> 00:40:28.519
snapping breaking up trees. Like trees that were in there

886
00:40:28.760 --> 00:40:30.760
were twenty year old, fifteen year old reefrod. So they're

887
00:40:30.760 --> 00:40:33.760
all about this big round about six to eight inches,

888
00:40:34.159 --> 00:40:36.119
you know at the base and Douglas fir they grow

889
00:40:36.159 --> 00:40:38.480
in pretty thick, and these things are thick in there,

890
00:40:38.559 --> 00:40:42.559
you know, so you can't see more usually, especially once

891
00:40:42.559 --> 00:40:43.960
you get off these plots, you can't see more than

892
00:40:44.000 --> 00:40:45.639
five or six feet in front of it. Before you

893
00:40:45.639 --> 00:40:47.239
have a tree and branches and you can see the

894
00:40:47.239 --> 00:40:49.480
gaps in between there. We start making it off this

895
00:40:49.639 --> 00:40:53.679
edge and this scene starts coming and now it's within

896
00:40:54.679 --> 00:40:57.679
seventy five feetish of us, and we start and stop

897
00:40:57.800 --> 00:40:59.599
multiple times, and I told Terry, I'm like, take your

898
00:40:59.639 --> 00:41:02.119
knife out, and he takes out this little pocketknife. I'm

899
00:41:02.159 --> 00:41:04.880
in front when I pull my pocket knife out, and

900
00:41:04.920 --> 00:41:06.960
I'm like, I told Terry, I'm like if this animal

901
00:41:07.000 --> 00:41:10.960
comes down and starts attacking, I'm like, you stab it

902
00:41:11.199 --> 00:41:13.079
until it stops attacking, and I'll make sure I do

903
00:41:13.119 --> 00:41:16.199
the same for you. And Terry look quite nervous. I'm like,

904
00:41:16.239 --> 00:41:19.239
but do not run. And Terry's okay, you know. And

905
00:41:19.280 --> 00:41:22.559
so we stop and listen. We don't hear anything. We

906
00:41:22.599 --> 00:41:24.960
start walking, and again this scene starts coming, and now

907
00:41:24.960 --> 00:41:27.199
it's coming. It's just coming with a vengeance. And we stop,

908
00:41:27.199 --> 00:41:29.599
and this time it doesn't stop.

909
00:41:29.960 --> 00:41:32.360
And it's just coming. We're sitting there looking up the hill.

910
00:41:32.400 --> 00:41:34.639
I mean, time seems to slow down in those moments,

911
00:41:34.599 --> 00:41:36.239
and it's just coming towards you. And you think about

912
00:41:36.239 --> 00:41:39.559
all these movies you watch and everything about these animals coming.

913
00:41:39.400 --> 00:41:40.199
And grabbing me.

914
00:41:40.280 --> 00:41:41.960
You have nowhere to go, nowhere to run. You can't

915
00:41:41.960 --> 00:41:43.400
move over this train. And the only thing to do

916
00:41:43.440 --> 00:41:46.480
is stand there and just prepare. And so I'm down

917
00:41:46.519 --> 00:41:49.119
and the ready when this scene's coming, and it's coming,

918
00:41:49.159 --> 00:41:52.280
and my heart rate's sitting there pumping. But it's a

919
00:41:52.360 --> 00:41:55.400
chilly night, so as I'm exhaling, my breath is it's

920
00:41:55.400 --> 00:41:57.480
a nice still night too. My breath is just coming up,

921
00:41:57.559 --> 00:41:59.639
wrapping over my headlamps. I'm exhaling to the side so

922
00:41:59.639 --> 00:42:02.079
I can and get the conversation from my breath out

923
00:42:02.079 --> 00:42:04.880
of my field of view. And this thing is just

924
00:42:04.960 --> 00:42:08.239
running straight at us, and I'm sure we're about to

925
00:42:08.239 --> 00:42:10.280
get attacked by whatever it is, you know, And so

926
00:42:10.320 --> 00:42:15.039
I'm down ready. It's brush snap and breaking closer. Stops

927
00:42:15.199 --> 00:42:17.440
about ten feet in front of me, directly in front

928
00:42:17.440 --> 00:42:20.440
of me, and so I'm sitting there looking straight ahead,

929
00:42:20.639 --> 00:42:25.000
kind of slightly hunched down, kind of in that batter's position,

930
00:42:25.320 --> 00:42:29.960
you know, ready to go, and this thing stops and

931
00:42:30.000 --> 00:42:33.199
the noise stops, and looking through the trees with this

932
00:42:33.239 --> 00:42:36.639
crappy headlamp in between the Douglas fir branches, there's gaps

933
00:42:37.199 --> 00:42:42.440
and I can see this blackish fur and it's got

934
00:42:42.519 --> 00:42:44.599
a little bit of a shine to it, and I'm

935
00:42:44.599 --> 00:42:48.320
looking and as I move my head lamp up, I

936
00:42:48.360 --> 00:42:50.760
see these splotches of her. And I get to about

937
00:42:51.440 --> 00:42:54.159
eight feet where I'm looking up about eight feet tall,

938
00:42:54.480 --> 00:42:56.079
just ten feet in front of me, and I can

939
00:42:56.119 --> 00:42:59.760
see black fur still, and I can see these lighter

940
00:42:59.760 --> 00:43:03.719
pass and I think I was looking at his chest.

941
00:43:04.079 --> 00:43:07.199
So I sat there with my knife ready. My buddy

942
00:43:07.280 --> 00:43:09.880
Terry had his hand on my shoulder behind me and

943
00:43:10.960 --> 00:43:13.159
just waiting for the scene to come the rest of

944
00:43:13.199 --> 00:43:16.280
the way and confront us. And we sat there for

945
00:43:17.280 --> 00:43:21.039
probably six or seven seconds, just staring at it, and

946
00:43:21.199 --> 00:43:25.039
all of a sudden, I hear it shuffle and it turned,

947
00:43:25.079 --> 00:43:28.199
and when it turned, I saw this light flash come

948
00:43:28.280 --> 00:43:30.480
through and I think what I saw was it's palm,

949
00:43:30.639 --> 00:43:33.960
and it was about the size of a baseball mint,

950
00:43:34.119 --> 00:43:37.400
like adults baseball mint. It's just this flash that went

951
00:43:37.440 --> 00:43:39.719
through this crapy. My eye was really cussing that headlamp.

952
00:43:39.960 --> 00:43:41.400
All I wanted to do was see. You just want

953
00:43:41.440 --> 00:43:42.679
to You can't run, and you want to be able

954
00:43:42.719 --> 00:43:45.679
to see. And this thing turned and you can hear

955
00:43:45.719 --> 00:43:48.920
it on two legs taking these huge steps going down

956
00:43:48.920 --> 00:43:51.159
this really steep slope, and I mean it disappeared out

957
00:43:51.199 --> 00:43:54.920
of earshot within five seconds, just disappeared. And we sat

958
00:43:54.960 --> 00:43:58.360
there for another minute, and I told Terry, I'm like,

959
00:43:58.440 --> 00:44:00.440
let's head back to the truck, you know, And so

960
00:44:00.480 --> 00:44:03.639
we hiked out of there, headed back to the truck.

961
00:44:03.679 --> 00:44:05.960
And anyways, we ended up going back the next week

962
00:44:06.440 --> 00:44:08.679
and finished up our plants and stuff, and you know,

963
00:44:08.800 --> 00:44:11.400
I mean, I didn't know what to think of it,

964
00:44:11.440 --> 00:44:16.000
and I really never We chatted about a little bit

965
00:44:16.000 --> 00:44:17.960
on the way back to town, but I just didn't

966
00:44:18.000 --> 00:44:19.880
know what to think about it, and really didn't have

967
00:44:19.920 --> 00:44:23.119
a firm place to put this experience, you know, And

968
00:44:24.079 --> 00:44:28.679
so time goes by and it just was one of

969
00:44:28.679 --> 00:44:31.559
those odd experiences. And then, like I said, once that

970
00:44:32.159 --> 00:44:34.440
show came on TV Finding Bigfoot and stuff, I'm like, yeah,

971
00:44:34.480 --> 00:44:35.599
I was a big foot stand in front of me.

972
00:44:35.760 --> 00:44:38.840
I saw a bigfoot. And years later, actually a few

973
00:44:38.880 --> 00:44:40.039
years later, Terry.

974
00:44:39.800 --> 00:44:42.480
Now lives in Idaho, and I went to buy that

975
00:44:42.599 --> 00:44:44.920
camper over there because I had a really good deal

976
00:44:45.000 --> 00:44:47.519
during the pandemic, and so we drove over to Boise

977
00:44:48.039 --> 00:44:51.519
and I hadn't seen Terry and seven or eight, and

978
00:44:51.599 --> 00:44:53.559
I'll probably even longer that, maybe ten years, And so

979
00:44:53.639 --> 00:44:55.159
we meet up with them in town while I'm waiting

980
00:44:55.360 --> 00:44:57.440
for the paperworking done on the camp trailer, and it

981
00:44:57.519 --> 00:44:58.960
was on my mind because I now I knew i'd

982
00:44:58.960 --> 00:45:00.280
have put all this stuff together, and I had a

983
00:45:00.280 --> 00:45:01.840
pretty good idea about what was going on to us

984
00:45:01.840 --> 00:45:03.760
out there. And I talked to Harry about him, like, hey,

985
00:45:03.760 --> 00:45:05.960
you remember that like grow we did out in Lane

986
00:45:05.960 --> 00:45:09.199
County Line he's oh, yeah. I asked, Terry, you remember

987
00:45:09.199 --> 00:45:11.599
that thing that chased us down the hill. He'sa, oh yeah,

988
00:45:11.599 --> 00:45:12.119
I remember that.

989
00:45:12.519 --> 00:45:13.800
I'm like, what did you see?

990
00:45:13.840 --> 00:45:16.800
Because I never asked Terry what he saw when he

991
00:45:16.840 --> 00:45:19.800
says I didn't see anything. I was behind you, when

992
00:45:20.440 --> 00:45:23.440
nice hunch, I'm like, you didn't see the things standing

993
00:45:23.519 --> 00:45:25.400
right in front of us? And Terry's like, I didn't

994
00:45:25.440 --> 00:45:27.360
see it. I was actually a little disappointed. I'm like, man,

995
00:45:27.480 --> 00:45:29.039
and maybe it's a good thing you didn't see it,

996
00:45:29.239 --> 00:45:32.559
because I'm Terry was pretty spooped and walking back on

997
00:45:32.599 --> 00:45:34.639
that road, I mean, you know, I mean I heard

998
00:45:34.639 --> 00:45:37.840
it run off and that uneasiness just left on just

999
00:45:37.840 --> 00:45:38.719
back in the woods again.

1000
00:45:38.800 --> 00:45:40.159
And but yeah, it was incredible.

1001
00:45:40.400 --> 00:45:43.199
And I don't know the whole door slamming thing and

1002
00:45:43.239 --> 00:45:45.840
stuff like that, like how they make the noise, but

1003
00:45:46.119 --> 00:45:50.199
it's so distinctive and I heard I've heard that many

1004
00:45:50.199 --> 00:45:53.159
times before in places where you wouldn't expect to hear it.

1005
00:45:53.239 --> 00:45:55.639
And I don't know if it's them smacking their chest

1006
00:45:55.679 --> 00:45:58.599
and making a big exhale, but it's pretty incredible.

1007
00:45:58.679 --> 00:45:59.519
Sounded mimicry.

1008
00:45:59.599 --> 00:46:03.079
I think the things mimic the sounds that they hear,

1009
00:46:03.159 --> 00:46:05.199
and I don't know why they do it. It seemed

1010
00:46:05.239 --> 00:46:07.320
territorial obviously, because I mean, this run is out there,

1011
00:46:07.320 --> 00:46:10.440
But why waited all summer with having these those noises

1012
00:46:10.480 --> 00:46:11.239
around us all summer?

1013
00:46:11.280 --> 00:46:12.920
I don't know. But made it out of.

1014
00:46:12.920 --> 00:46:17.039
There unscathed with another experience, and so where am I

1015
00:46:17.079 --> 00:46:17.440
at here?

1016
00:46:17.519 --> 00:46:21.599
So I'm okay. So the next year I kept on backpacking,

1017
00:46:21.960 --> 00:46:24.320
and that was last year. I grew. It's just it

1018
00:46:24.400 --> 00:46:26.440
was just too much work and I get busier with

1019
00:46:26.519 --> 00:46:29.159
my career. I'm a mechanic, big for society.

1020
00:46:29.159 --> 00:46:31.199
Who will be right back after these messages.

1021
00:46:47.079 --> 00:46:49.480
I've been a mechanic for twenty five years, and it's

1022
00:46:49.559 --> 00:46:52.280
just the whole growing thing, especially once it turned legal,

1023
00:46:52.360 --> 00:46:53.920
Like I just didn't want any part of it. It was

1024
00:46:53.920 --> 00:46:55.639
fun to you as a kid. It wasn't a commercial venture.

1025
00:46:55.639 --> 00:46:57.639
It was just kids being kids. But anyways, backpacking was

1026
00:46:57.639 --> 00:46:59.679
my true passion and that kind of took away from

1027
00:46:59.719 --> 00:47:02.320
backpack So me and my wife was she and my girlfriend.

1028
00:47:02.360 --> 00:47:05.800
Then we found the spot and South Sister or Three

1029
00:47:05.840 --> 00:47:08.519
Sisters Wilderness. This is on the western slopes of the

1030
00:47:08.519 --> 00:47:12.719
mountains there and the Lama National Forest. Probably thirty five

1031
00:47:12.920 --> 00:47:16.039
miles forty miles as crowde fly from here. Just an

1032
00:47:16.360 --> 00:47:20.440
absolutely gorgeous area in my opinion, being around the state

1033
00:47:20.480 --> 00:47:23.519
and backpack in the whole state, it's some of the

1034
00:47:23.559 --> 00:47:26.159
prettiest hiking you can find. An Organ and Linton Meadows

1035
00:47:26.159 --> 00:47:29.239
in particular, it's this meadow system that comes off the PCT,

1036
00:47:29.400 --> 00:47:32.280
runs on the top side of it, and this meadow

1037
00:47:32.280 --> 00:47:34.239
system drops for miles and miles below. So you get

1038
00:47:34.239 --> 00:47:36.840
these terraced lava flows that have huge meadows, two hundred

1039
00:47:36.880 --> 00:47:40.280
acre meadows, and they open up to South Sister, this

1040
00:47:40.360 --> 00:47:42.800
huge volcanic mountain that's got glaciers on it, and South

1041
00:47:42.800 --> 00:47:44.800
Sister has a lot of red rock and it's just

1042
00:47:44.880 --> 00:47:48.559
absolutely stunning. We actually end up getting married out there.

1043
00:47:48.639 --> 00:47:50.519
That's where my wife we did a wilderness wedding. You know,

1044
00:47:50.519 --> 00:47:53.840
I got my brother ordained and hiked in my inlaws

1045
00:47:53.840 --> 00:47:55.880
again only takes aeve people in the wilderness. And I

1046
00:47:55.960 --> 00:47:57.920
was starting to get into guiding at this point in time,

1047
00:47:57.960 --> 00:48:01.039
so I was running some nonprofits as a as a

1048
00:48:01.039 --> 00:48:03.000
guide and taking a bunch of people out and so

1049
00:48:03.000 --> 00:48:05.559
I had tons of year for backpacking, and me and

1050
00:48:05.599 --> 00:48:07.920
my wife decided we didn't want to we didn't want

1051
00:48:08.000 --> 00:48:10.599
a church wedding, but anyways, we chose a spot because

1052
00:48:10.639 --> 00:48:13.360
it's so pretty and it's off the beaten path. A

1053
00:48:13.360 --> 00:48:15.960
lot of people might day trip it if they're out

1054
00:48:15.960 --> 00:48:18.639
there backpacking, but it's thirteen miles to the nearest trail

1055
00:48:18.679 --> 00:48:23.360
head is hard hiking. So Aileen Lake was our main destination.

1056
00:48:23.719 --> 00:48:24.360
So we go in.

1057
00:48:24.880 --> 00:48:31.280
It's about twenty ten and we always liked later season hikes,

1058
00:48:31.360 --> 00:48:34.920
so it was September, maybe a couple weeks into September,

1059
00:48:35.000 --> 00:48:36.559
and we picked that because one of the crowds are

1060
00:48:36.639 --> 00:48:39.400
less and the bugs lead. The mosquitos can be horrendous

1061
00:48:39.400 --> 00:48:42.079
out there all the way through August, and it's such

1062
00:48:42.079 --> 00:48:43.679
a pretty spot. It sucks if you got to spend

1063
00:48:43.719 --> 00:48:46.559
your time under mosquito netting. And so we hike in

1064
00:48:46.679 --> 00:48:50.000
just me and my wife and spend all day hiking.

1065
00:48:50.199 --> 00:48:50.800
Is a hard hike.

1066
00:48:50.880 --> 00:48:53.719
I mean, my packs were heavier than they should have been.

1067
00:48:53.760 --> 00:48:56.360
I was probably carrying seventy pounds. My wife is probably

1068
00:48:56.360 --> 00:48:57.599
carrying fifty five or sixty.

1069
00:48:57.599 --> 00:48:58.119
She's a trooper.

1070
00:48:58.360 --> 00:49:01.000
She could put miles on and never complains about it.

1071
00:49:01.039 --> 00:49:03.559
And she I introduced her to backpacking, so she cut

1072
00:49:03.599 --> 00:49:06.079
her teeth with it with me, and it was just

1073
00:49:07.159 --> 00:49:09.480
it was such a great experience. So we hike in

1074
00:49:10.159 --> 00:49:12.639
to Lint Meadows and it takes us all day to

1075
00:49:12.679 --> 00:49:15.159
get into there. By the time we get into Linton Meadows,

1076
00:49:15.199 --> 00:49:17.599
super dry year, we were running low in water. We

1077
00:49:17.639 --> 00:49:19.920
had been out of water for the last few miles,

1078
00:49:20.079 --> 00:49:21.800
and I knew there were springs down there and Lint Meadows,

1079
00:49:21.800 --> 00:49:24.239
So our plan was to just get into where the

1080
00:49:24.239 --> 00:49:28.559
meadows start and post up camp, find some water, and

1081
00:49:28.599 --> 00:49:30.400
then the next morning hike the rest of the mile

1082
00:49:30.400 --> 00:49:32.440
and a half two Island Lake, which is our destination.

1083
00:49:32.480 --> 00:49:33.719
We were gonna spend about a week and a half

1084
00:49:33.719 --> 00:49:37.360
out there. So we drop into the meadow and the

1085
00:49:37.360 --> 00:49:39.119
sun's got about an hour and a half worth left

1086
00:49:39.119 --> 00:49:40.559
a light on it. But it gets start quick up

1087
00:49:40.559 --> 00:49:42.280
there because everything's so up and down and we're in

1088
00:49:42.400 --> 00:49:44.280
this valley. You can be a couple hours away from

1089
00:49:44.320 --> 00:49:47.000
sunset and be in complete shade and darkness.

1090
00:49:47.039 --> 00:49:48.360
So we set up our We come.

1091
00:49:48.199 --> 00:49:50.559
Into this meadow and it's one of the larger meadows

1092
00:49:50.599 --> 00:49:52.719
that are up there, and you get out of the

1093
00:49:52.760 --> 00:49:54.280
trees and all of a sudden, the views open up

1094
00:49:54.320 --> 00:49:55.840
and there's a mountain I mean lit up by the

1095
00:49:55.840 --> 00:49:59.519
setting sun alpine glow, and it's just you know you're

1096
00:49:59.519 --> 00:50:01.119
gonna spend We can half up there and we have

1097
00:50:01.199 --> 00:50:03.000
nothing to do, and it's the best feeling.

1098
00:50:02.800 --> 00:50:04.760
And we're tired, we're thirsty.

1099
00:50:05.000 --> 00:50:06.719
We find a little spring that's trickling right by the

1100
00:50:07.079 --> 00:50:09.000
trail as we enter the meadow, so we set our

1101
00:50:09.079 --> 00:50:12.280
tent up right where this meadow starts to open up,

1102
00:50:12.280 --> 00:50:15.039
and there's these little tree peninsulas that open up into

1103
00:50:15.039 --> 00:50:17.480
the meadal, so you get these little kind of jets

1104
00:50:17.480 --> 00:50:20.039
of trees that come out in between the meadow. So

1105
00:50:20.079 --> 00:50:23.559
we camped about fifty feet away from the edge of

1106
00:50:23.559 --> 00:50:26.039
this tree line, right where you come into the meadow

1107
00:50:26.079 --> 00:50:28.199
where you first start to get to the meadows, set

1108
00:50:28.199 --> 00:50:32.199
our tent up, got water, feed the dogs they're dehydrated dog,

1109
00:50:32.239 --> 00:50:36.079
backpack packing food, and made our dinner and we're sitting

1110
00:50:36.159 --> 00:50:39.960
in our camp chairs, shoes off, just enjoying it.

1111
00:50:40.000 --> 00:50:41.000
And we're looking.

1112
00:50:40.800 --> 00:50:42.760
Across the metal on the other side, and metal runs

1113
00:50:42.840 --> 00:50:46.119
up this really steep hillside, and as we're eating our dinner,

1114
00:50:46.360 --> 00:50:49.599
this whole herd of deer. I've never seen so many

1115
00:50:49.639 --> 00:50:52.840
blacktail deer out there, but this whole herd of probably

1116
00:50:52.920 --> 00:50:57.760
twelve deer just explode out of the woods through the

1117
00:50:57.920 --> 00:51:00.400
past the trail that we came in on, probably one

1118
00:51:00.440 --> 00:51:02.840
hundred feet away from us, and they are running full

1119
00:51:02.840 --> 00:51:05.159
board and they run straight up this hillside. I mean

1120
00:51:05.199 --> 00:51:07.199
you'd have to use you know, you'd have to use

1121
00:51:07.199 --> 00:51:10.320
all fours to climb up that that mountain side.

1122
00:51:10.320 --> 00:51:11.800
I mean it's steep. You can just see this.

1123
00:51:12.239 --> 00:51:15.079
They are just running and I told my wife, I'm like, oh,

1124
00:51:15.199 --> 00:51:18.679
something's chasing those things. Mountains and mountain lions and bears

1125
00:51:18.679 --> 00:51:20.599
are really common up there, and so I'm like, well,

1126
00:51:20.679 --> 00:51:22.559
probably cat chasing them. And so we just sat there

1127
00:51:22.599 --> 00:51:24.639
and watched them run, and we're like, oh, that's cool,

1128
00:51:24.719 --> 00:51:26.760
like really cool, and we.

1129
00:51:26.719 --> 00:51:27.400
Finish our meal.

1130
00:51:27.519 --> 00:51:29.320
Our dogs were done. Who make them carry their gear?

1131
00:51:29.440 --> 00:51:32.320
And humans can walk way farther than dogs. You thirteen

1132
00:51:32.360 --> 00:51:34.360
mile a day for a dog. In that heat, it

1133
00:51:34.400 --> 00:51:37.119
was really hot. They were ready for bed, So open

1134
00:51:37.199 --> 00:51:39.760
up the tent, they go in, they go to sleep.

1135
00:51:39.800 --> 00:51:42.559
We finished cleaning up camp and we get in our

1136
00:51:42.599 --> 00:51:45.920
tent and we didn't see anyone hiking in there.

1137
00:51:46.400 --> 00:51:47.400
We didn't see anyone.

1138
00:51:47.159 --> 00:51:49.440
In the last probably eight miles, so there's no one

1139
00:51:49.480 --> 00:51:52.519
in the meadow system. There's no sign of people in there,

1140
00:51:52.519 --> 00:51:55.400
no noise. It gets dark, starts getting dark, and we're

1141
00:51:55.480 --> 00:51:59.920
laying in the tent and we hear what sounds like,

1142
00:52:00.000 --> 00:52:01.679
I want split in firewood just as dry.

1143
00:52:01.519 --> 00:52:06.000
As firewood crack. It was so loud, echoing off these

1144
00:52:06.079 --> 00:52:08.920
huge metal walls and its meadows probably three quarters a

1145
00:52:08.920 --> 00:52:10.800
mile across. You just hear it echoing.

1146
00:52:11.400 --> 00:52:15.440
And I knew that there's another camping area about about

1147
00:52:15.480 --> 00:52:17.639
a quarter mile up the trail, on this other tree,

1148
00:52:17.719 --> 00:52:20.519
this tree island that's in the middle of the meadow system.

1149
00:52:20.559 --> 00:52:22.719
There's really pretty spot to camp, so I assume people

1150
00:52:22.719 --> 00:52:27.719
were camping there. And this wood splitting went on for forty.

1151
00:52:27.440 --> 00:52:30.360
Five minutes or more. You know, loud, I mean just loud.

1152
00:52:30.400 --> 00:52:34.039
Eyes remarking to my wife, Man, I'm like, it almost

1153
00:52:34.039 --> 00:52:35.440
sounds like gunshots. It's so loud.

1154
00:52:35.559 --> 00:52:38.559
And it started getting closer to us, to the point

1155
00:52:38.559 --> 00:52:41.519
to where the sounds of this what we thought was

1156
00:52:41.519 --> 00:52:45.199
would be being split was one hundred feet into the

1157
00:52:45.239 --> 00:52:47.440
trees that we are now camped next to, Like there

1158
00:52:47.440 --> 00:52:49.239
are people camped in there, so we hear that wood

1159
00:52:49.239 --> 00:52:53.760
splitting crack right in there. And it was odd, and

1160
00:52:53.800 --> 00:52:55.519
I'm like, man, we didn't see anyone in there, and

1161
00:52:55.599 --> 00:52:57.760
we're right right next to where this happening. Now, I'm like,

1162
00:52:57.760 --> 00:53:01.039
it doesn't really make much sense that they're moving splitting firewood.

1163
00:53:01.519 --> 00:53:03.960
But we chalked it up to people being out there camping,

1164
00:53:04.519 --> 00:53:07.880
and the wood splitting stopped after about forty five minutes,

1165
00:53:07.960 --> 00:53:13.079
not noise anyways, and then we started hearing the sound

1166
00:53:13.119 --> 00:53:16.360
of the thump on that ground up there, being volcanic

1167
00:53:16.559 --> 00:53:18.119
and made with a lot of pumuses, a lot of

1168
00:53:18.159 --> 00:53:20.679
air pockets in the ground, and when you run on

1169
00:53:20.719 --> 00:53:23.559
that stuff, you get you can hear the foot footsteps,

1170
00:53:23.559 --> 00:53:25.719
even humans walking on and people walking on it. But

1171
00:53:25.760 --> 00:53:29.360
it wasn't footprints or footsteps. It was rocks being thrown

1172
00:53:29.840 --> 00:53:33.239
towards our tent, big rocks, football size, soft all sized rocks.

1173
00:53:33.199 --> 00:53:34.119
Boom boom boom.

1174
00:53:34.159 --> 00:53:36.320
And these rocks got closer and closer, I mean to

1175
00:53:36.360 --> 00:53:39.400
the point to where they were hitting five feet away

1176
00:53:39.400 --> 00:53:42.199
from our tent. And I told my wife, I'm like,

1177
00:53:42.440 --> 00:53:45.280
you know what, I'm like, these are drunk out here camping.

1178
00:53:45.480 --> 00:53:47.159
I'm like, we come out here to get away from people,

1179
00:53:47.199 --> 00:53:48.840
and here we are we end up setting up right

1180
00:53:48.840 --> 00:53:51.719
next to someone. I'm like, you know, if this continues,

1181
00:53:51.760 --> 00:53:53.159
I'm I'm gonna go out there and talk to him.

1182
00:53:53.159 --> 00:53:56.159
My wife's, oh, don't go out there and get in

1183
00:53:56.199 --> 00:53:57.679
a fist fight. And middle of the forest, I'm like,

1184
00:53:57.719 --> 00:53:59.519
there's plenty room for these people to go camping.

1185
00:53:59.559 --> 00:53:59.719
Here.

1186
00:53:59.719 --> 00:54:01.679
They are camp right next to us and being drunks

1187
00:54:01.679 --> 00:54:05.199
thrown rocks at her tent. So this continues, and it

1188
00:54:05.199 --> 00:54:08.480
gets closer to the tent and I'm like, I'm gonna

1189
00:54:08.480 --> 00:54:10.559
go out there and talk to him. So I started

1190
00:54:10.599 --> 00:54:13.239
getting up and my wife's just leave it me. Well,

1191
00:54:13.239 --> 00:54:15.599
I'm like, if they hit her tent, I'm going out there.

1192
00:54:15.760 --> 00:54:18.440
And so we listen to this rock throw and go

1193
00:54:18.480 --> 00:54:21.079
on for thirty to forty five minutes. You know, it's

1194
00:54:21.119 --> 00:54:26.719
well dark now, and the rock throwing stops, and a

1195
00:54:26.760 --> 00:54:33.599
few minutes later we hear three or four things standing

1196
00:54:33.679 --> 00:54:36.320
maybe twenty five feet away from her tent, in between

1197
00:54:36.320 --> 00:54:38.599
our tent and the tree line. You can hear them talking,

1198
00:54:39.039 --> 00:54:40.960
but it's not a discernible language.

1199
00:54:40.960 --> 00:54:41.840
It's super low.

1200
00:54:42.480 --> 00:54:45.800
And the best way I heard it described is if

1201
00:54:45.800 --> 00:54:47.880
someone was talking in a really deep voice and you

1202
00:54:47.960 --> 00:54:52.400
played it backwards, you catch sections of it, and then

1203
00:54:52.480 --> 00:54:54.280
it is so low and frequency like parts of it

1204
00:54:54.280 --> 00:54:55.800
would drop out from what you can hear, and then

1205
00:54:55.800 --> 00:54:58.639
you pick it back up and you'd hear these things

1206
00:54:58.760 --> 00:55:02.480
chattering back and forth right outside our tent. And it

1207
00:55:02.559 --> 00:55:06.440
probably only lasted a couple of minutes, and then it

1208
00:55:06.480 --> 00:55:07.440
was quiet the.

1209
00:55:07.280 --> 00:55:07.920
Rest of the night.

1210
00:55:08.400 --> 00:55:10.880
In the morning, we woke up early, so we wanted

1211
00:55:10.920 --> 00:55:12.360
to get up get the Island Lake. So we were

1212
00:55:12.440 --> 00:55:14.719
up and out of the tent by six and I

1213
00:55:14.800 --> 00:55:17.639
decided to hike into that tree area where where the

1214
00:55:17.639 --> 00:55:19.840
people were. I thought people were camping, and there's no

1215
00:55:19.880 --> 00:55:22.360
campsite in there. There's no sign that anyone was ever

1216
00:55:22.400 --> 00:55:25.760
camping in there. But around our tent were quite a

1217
00:55:25.800 --> 00:55:28.119
few large rocks that weren't there. In the morning, you

1218
00:55:28.119 --> 00:55:30.559
could see where they had hit on the pumissey ground

1219
00:55:30.679 --> 00:55:34.119
and skidded, and like I said, it was I just

1220
00:55:34.159 --> 00:55:36.360
assumed it was people, but there was no people there.

1221
00:55:36.519 --> 00:55:39.480
And so we packed up a tent and hiked up

1222
00:55:39.480 --> 00:55:43.400
the Island Lake and spent our week or so time

1223
00:55:43.480 --> 00:55:45.079
up there and join us up. Never had anything else

1224
00:55:45.079 --> 00:55:48.039
happen up at Lint Meadows that whole trip. Our first

1225
00:55:48.079 --> 00:55:50.400
trip into Linton Meadows. By the way, we hiked from

1226
00:55:50.639 --> 00:55:52.920
the Cascade Lakes highwayside of it, so it was a

1227
00:55:53.079 --> 00:55:55.280
sixteen or seventeen mile hike. I ended up taking a

1228
00:55:55.320 --> 00:55:58.079
wrong turn and ended up adding a couple miles to it,

1229
00:55:58.679 --> 00:56:01.079
and our first hike in there just the only other

1230
00:56:01.119 --> 00:56:02.719
thing I've had happened our first time up there, we

1231
00:56:02.760 --> 00:56:05.119
went to Husband Lake, made it in there. We were whooped,

1232
00:56:05.119 --> 00:56:06.519
The dogs were whooped, and they are laying down in

1233
00:56:06.559 --> 00:56:08.079
the shade every time we stopped. So it is time

1234
00:56:08.079 --> 00:56:10.239
to stop. Our goal is to get Island Lake. When

1235
00:56:10.239 --> 00:56:12.079
that was our first time up there, we camp on

1236
00:56:12.159 --> 00:56:16.400
this huge out rock outcropping that overlooks this lake, and

1237
00:56:16.480 --> 00:56:19.360
as after we set up the tent, this five point

1238
00:56:19.920 --> 00:56:22.639
black tailed deer just comes out of the bushes and

1239
00:56:22.719 --> 00:56:25.360
it's within ten feet of our tent. And I have

1240
00:56:25.440 --> 00:56:27.880
my two dogs there and they're not grounding or barking,

1241
00:56:28.159 --> 00:56:30.599
they're watching this year. It's just clopping around. It was

1242
00:56:30.639 --> 00:56:33.679
so close I could have reached out and touched this animal.

1243
00:56:33.679 --> 00:56:35.679
And it made me a little uneasy about the health

1244
00:56:35.679 --> 00:56:37.639
of this animal. It's getting later in the year too,

1245
00:56:37.679 --> 00:56:39.880
so I possibly could have been rut and so I

1246
00:56:39.880 --> 00:56:41.400
told my wife and I just don't mess with it,

1247
00:56:41.480 --> 00:56:45.840
and it'll goa hung around our tent well into the

1248
00:56:45.920 --> 00:56:47.599
evening to the point to where the sun had dropped down.

1249
00:56:47.639 --> 00:56:49.760
In fact, actually I was laying in there and it

1250
00:56:49.800 --> 00:56:52.639
was sniffing the tent and it ended up laying down

1251
00:56:53.199 --> 00:56:56.320
right outside of our tent, feed away from us, laying down.

1252
00:56:56.920 --> 00:56:59.199
And I never put two and two together, but I

1253
00:56:59.199 --> 00:57:02.440
think what it was that deer had been being chased

1254
00:57:02.480 --> 00:57:05.480
and it was around us for safety, And that's my

1255
00:57:06.159 --> 00:57:08.920
speculation on it. Anyways, really odd. Yeah, you could have

1256
00:57:08.960 --> 00:57:10.519
gotten that thing with a slingshot. Boy, I would have

1257
00:57:10.519 --> 00:57:12.360
been a hunter streamed. He was a nice looking buck.

1258
00:57:12.440 --> 00:57:14.719
It was a beautiful buck. But yeah, So that was

1259
00:57:14.760 --> 00:57:18.159
my experiences in Litton Meadows there and I spent a

1260
00:57:18.199 --> 00:57:20.880
lot of time in that area, a lot of time

1261
00:57:20.880 --> 00:57:22.960
in that area. In fact, actually years later me and

1262
00:57:23.039 --> 00:57:25.159
my buddy that I ended up starting the back hiking

1263
00:57:25.199 --> 00:57:28.760
Guide service with we bush whacked eight miles from Linton Meadows.

1264
00:57:30.400 --> 00:57:33.239
No trail route to get to or Linton Lake to

1265
00:57:33.280 --> 00:57:34.440
get to the meadow section.

1266
00:57:34.519 --> 00:57:35.480
And it's super rugged.

1267
00:57:35.960 --> 00:57:39.400
I mean you're going up steep hillsides that are just

1268
00:57:39.480 --> 00:57:43.400
covered in eight to ten foot rhododendron. And I remember

1269
00:57:43.440 --> 00:57:47.400
on my hike up there that I ended up coming

1270
00:57:47.440 --> 00:57:50.440
across tree structures in there and just in the middle

1271
00:57:50.519 --> 00:57:53.199
of absolutely nowhere where no one hikes, you know. I

1272
00:57:53.199 --> 00:57:54.880
mean you might get a hiker through there once every

1273
00:57:54.880 --> 00:57:57.000
ten years, you know, someone like us. I was really

1274
00:57:57.039 --> 00:57:59.360
pushing what they wanted to do, a miserable hike up

1275
00:57:59.360 --> 00:58:02.840
beautiful though multiple tree structures up in their big trees

1276
00:58:02.920 --> 00:58:04.360
piled up on each other. I always side it as

1277
00:58:04.360 --> 00:58:06.599
odd as let's just do an I mean, it wasn't treefall.

1278
00:58:06.679 --> 00:58:08.159
I mean someone had stacked it, you know, And I

1279
00:58:08.199 --> 00:58:10.000
just thought it was odd. And but that area up

1280
00:58:10.000 --> 00:58:16.320
there ended up burning later in a fire around twenty.

1281
00:58:14.960 --> 00:58:15.599
Fifteen or so.

1282
00:58:15.639 --> 00:58:17.000
I think there's a big fire up there, and it

1283
00:58:17.039 --> 00:58:19.000
burnt through a lot of that stuff up there. And

1284
00:58:19.000 --> 00:58:21.280
I actually went took my family on a week long

1285
00:58:21.320 --> 00:58:24.519
backpacking trip up there the following year, or maybe it's

1286
00:58:24.800 --> 00:58:27.199
two years after that fired burn. Actually, my neighbor has

1287
00:58:27.199 --> 00:58:29.519
a little airplane, so actually traded off some work with

1288
00:58:29.559 --> 00:58:31.039
him and he took me on a flight so I

1289
00:58:31.039 --> 00:58:32.920
could do reconnaisance to make sure it wasn't we weren't

1290
00:58:32.960 --> 00:58:35.039
just gonna be hiking through a complete burn for a week.

1291
00:58:35.360 --> 00:58:37.039
And it's a beautiful area. But yeah, I took my

1292
00:58:37.119 --> 00:58:39.639
family up there and they really enjoyed it.

1293
00:58:39.639 --> 00:58:40.000
Half of them.

1294
00:58:40.039 --> 00:58:41.719
I had already been up there for my wedding that

1295
00:58:41.760 --> 00:58:45.480
we did up with those lakes and yep, never had

1296
00:58:45.760 --> 00:58:47.039
anything else that happened up there.

1297
00:58:47.199 --> 00:58:47.760
And then.

1298
00:58:49.760 --> 00:58:52.400
Twenty eleven Dine Peak Wilderness. So that's just east of

1299
00:58:52.480 --> 00:58:55.159
us you out Hills Creek, and I don't know where

1300
00:58:55.159 --> 00:58:56.880
you've been around here, but I wouldn't be surprised if

1301
00:58:56.880 --> 00:58:58.679
you went out that direction because that's a great direction

1302
00:58:58.719 --> 00:59:01.719
to go. But east of Eugene or east of Oakridge

1303
00:59:02.159 --> 00:59:03.880
you run into Dime Peak Wilderness.

1304
00:59:03.960 --> 00:59:05.159
You know what I mean. It's a big mountain you

1305
00:59:05.159 --> 00:59:07.239
can see when you're driving up the highway. Oh okay,

1306
00:59:07.400 --> 00:59:07.760
I got it.

1307
00:59:07.840 --> 00:59:10.960
Yep, Snowpeak Captain everything, and there's a beautiful loop in there,

1308
00:59:10.960 --> 00:59:14.880
and I really like love backpacking in that area, and

1309
00:59:14.880 --> 00:59:18.199
so we were It is my first time doing the

1310
00:59:18.239 --> 00:59:20.440
Wilderness Loop and it's about a thirty mile loop and

1311
00:59:20.480 --> 00:59:22.480
we like take about a week to do them. And

1312
00:59:22.519 --> 00:59:26.559
so my wife, me and my buddy Ryan from Pendleton

1313
00:59:26.599 --> 00:59:27.920
that I went to school with. We start out from

1314
00:59:27.920 --> 00:59:30.079
Trapper Creek trailhead, which is by Chilter Co Resort there

1315
00:59:30.079 --> 00:59:33.599
on Oda Lake, and our second night we end up

1316
00:59:33.639 --> 00:59:35.599
at Marie Lake. Well, we me and my wife had

1317
00:59:35.639 --> 00:59:39.719
just bought a brand new Arii backpack intent I mean

1318
00:59:39.800 --> 00:59:42.880
it was the big Agnes sl It was a six

1319
00:59:43.000 --> 00:59:45.079
hundred dollars tent, really nice piece of gear and only

1320
00:59:45.079 --> 00:59:46.559
weighed two and a half pounds. It was so nice

1321
00:59:46.599 --> 00:59:48.280
to really get her pack weight trimmed down, you know,

1322
00:59:48.320 --> 00:59:49.920
so we could do these bigger trips and not die

1323
00:59:49.960 --> 00:59:52.639
doing them. And so we set up at Marie Lake

1324
00:59:52.800 --> 00:59:56.239
and there's one camp spot that's at the front side

1325
00:59:56.239 --> 00:59:57.519
of the lake. There there's another one you got a

1326
00:59:57.519 --> 00:59:59.440
bushback to on the other side, but there's no one

1327
00:59:59.480 --> 01:00:01.960
in the first so we took it. No people around

1328
01:00:02.000 --> 01:00:04.639
or anything like that. We set up on the grassy

1329
01:00:04.639 --> 01:00:07.360
area in between the campsite that was in the woods

1330
01:00:07.360 --> 01:00:08.920
about a hundred fet from the side of the lake.

1331
01:00:09.239 --> 01:00:11.559
We were about fifty feet closer to the lake than

1332
01:00:11.559 --> 01:00:14.079
the grassy area that leads right to the lake's edge.

1333
01:00:14.599 --> 01:00:18.239
And we did our thing, went to sleep. I had

1334
01:00:18.239 --> 01:00:21.440
my two dogs with me, yuey Nori. And we wake

1335
01:00:21.519 --> 01:00:23.559
up in the morning and my wife's side of the tent,

1336
01:00:23.719 --> 01:00:25.199
it's got a full rain fly on it. It's a

1337
01:00:25.199 --> 01:00:27.480
heavy dewty tent for backpacking, three and a half plus

1338
01:00:27.519 --> 01:00:29.639
season tent. It's stout, this ink can take some storms.

1339
01:00:29.679 --> 01:00:32.760
And we wake up and the rain fly is ripped

1340
01:00:33.400 --> 01:00:35.679
on her side, with the zippers rip ripped out of

1341
01:00:35.719 --> 01:00:36.880
the seam on her side.

1342
01:00:37.000 --> 01:00:38.000
The mesh body of the.

1343
01:00:37.960 --> 01:00:41.480
Tent, which is all mesh her zipper side, was ripped open,

1344
01:00:42.039 --> 01:00:45.599
destroyed the zipper, and there is urine on top of

1345
01:00:45.599 --> 01:00:47.360
this tent and it's about probably close to five and

1346
01:00:47.360 --> 01:00:49.760
a half feet tall. The peak of the town just

1347
01:00:49.880 --> 01:00:53.119
about tons of the stinky urine on it. And I

1348
01:00:53.199 --> 01:00:55.920
was pretty pissed off. I'm a brand new tent just

1349
01:00:55.960 --> 01:00:59.639
got ripped up and shredded. And I don't know why

1350
01:00:59.719 --> 01:01:02.280
I did wake up. My dogs didn't alert us, my

1351
01:01:02.320 --> 01:01:04.039
wife didn't alert us, and she was on that side

1352
01:01:04.039 --> 01:01:05.599
of ten. I was actually just talking to her about

1353
01:01:05.599 --> 01:01:08.599
this the other night. I'm like, and we just didn't

1354
01:01:08.639 --> 01:01:10.760
know what to think about what happened with the tent,

1355
01:01:10.800 --> 01:01:13.320
so we taped it back together to make the trip work.

1356
01:01:13.679 --> 01:01:15.719
And the funny thing is where it was ripped. Like,

1357
01:01:15.760 --> 01:01:17.480
as my wife'side, I'm like, yeah, now that now I

1358
01:01:17.559 --> 01:01:19.480
kN know what was going on. I'm like, you could

1359
01:01:19.519 --> 01:01:21.119
have had something reaching in over the tent on you.

1360
01:01:21.239 --> 01:01:22.559
I don't know why we didn't wake up. You know,

1361
01:01:23.000 --> 01:01:25.159
that's the only weird you know, I'm not much on

1362
01:01:25.199 --> 01:01:28.400
the wu side of the phenomenon, but that's unexplainable because

1363
01:01:28.480 --> 01:01:30.280
you're gonna hear that stuff that rips up nylon to

1364
01:01:30.280 --> 01:01:31.880
be able to rip it, I mean, it's loud if

1365
01:01:31.880 --> 01:01:34.519
you rip it, it's super loud and man at least

1366
01:01:34.559 --> 01:01:36.559
for the dogs to alert. So luckily ari I had

1367
01:01:36.559 --> 01:01:39.119
their return policy. We took it back and got a

1368
01:01:39.159 --> 01:01:40.679
brand new tent for free.

1369
01:01:40.880 --> 01:01:44.199
Big for society, who will be right back after these messages.

1370
01:01:59.719 --> 01:02:02.639
So there's no loss on that. So that was a

1371
01:02:02.719 --> 01:02:08.920
dime peak Wilderness in two thousand. In twenty thirteen we

1372
01:02:09.039 --> 01:02:10.760
moved up here and bought this property that we're on

1373
01:02:10.840 --> 01:02:14.360
right now. Moved from Oakridge or from Eugene up to here,

1374
01:02:14.400 --> 01:02:15.519
and it was so nice to get back out of

1375
01:02:15.559 --> 01:02:18.000
the city. Spending in a decade plus in Eugene was

1376
01:02:18.000 --> 01:02:20.239
all the city, all the need for the rest of

1377
01:02:20.280 --> 01:02:21.760
my life. And so we got up here. I know

1378
01:02:21.800 --> 01:02:24.559
this area well, and we started. As we were living

1379
01:02:24.599 --> 01:02:26.679
up here, we explored it like I did Eugene when

1380
01:02:26.679 --> 01:02:27.960
I first got out here. And now I was living

1381
01:02:28.039 --> 01:02:29.880
up here, I could just leave out my back door

1382
01:02:30.079 --> 01:02:33.480
and in fifteen minutes I could be at wilderness wilderness edge,

1383
01:02:33.519 --> 01:02:34.840
and it was just so much.

1384
01:02:34.719 --> 01:02:35.199
To see and do.

1385
01:02:35.320 --> 01:02:39.079
So we decided to check out Huckleberry Lake, which is

1386
01:02:39.679 --> 01:02:41.840
just up the road from us. It's about eleven miles

1387
01:02:41.840 --> 01:02:44.159
from here, probably twelve miles, not very far. It takes

1388
01:02:44.199 --> 01:02:46.480
about twenty minutes or so to get up there, and

1389
01:02:46.559 --> 01:02:49.400
it's this little lake that isn't used a lot. So

1390
01:02:49.440 --> 01:02:52.360
we pull off at this trailhead, really brushy road. So

1391
01:02:52.400 --> 01:02:55.280
you're driving truck down. Everyone calls a cascade pin striping here.

1392
01:02:55.320 --> 01:02:56.920
Anyone that's out in the woods up here and drive.

1393
01:02:56.920 --> 01:02:58.320
You can tell by looking at the truck what they do,

1394
01:02:58.360 --> 01:03:00.599
because everyone's got the scrape marks from these branches dragging

1395
01:03:00.599 --> 01:03:02.679
down inside of their vehicle. So we find this trailhead

1396
01:03:03.119 --> 01:03:06.199
and this lake drops. This lake's in this bowl that

1397
01:03:06.239 --> 01:03:08.800
sits well below the road, and it's backed up by

1398
01:03:08.880 --> 01:03:11.599
this big, thousand foot tall cliff that makes Huckleberry Mountain.

1399
01:03:11.599 --> 01:03:13.519
There's a fire lookout up on top of it, which

1400
01:03:13.559 --> 01:03:17.280
you can't see from the lake, but I had my

1401
01:03:17.360 --> 01:03:21.400
boys were probably about two years old at the time,

1402
01:03:21.559 --> 01:03:24.719
so we had them in backpack carriers. Abby was three

1403
01:03:24.719 --> 01:03:28.639
and a half or four, and I usually open carry.

1404
01:03:29.119 --> 01:03:31.400
When I started hiking with my kids, I started just

1405
01:03:31.599 --> 01:03:33.599
bringing a gun just in case I'm not scared or

1406
01:03:33.599 --> 01:03:35.199
worried about it, and it just fell out. It was

1407
01:03:35.400 --> 01:03:37.760
a smart move to make, especially where we went and

1408
01:03:37.800 --> 01:03:40.199
the stuff we did. And so we hiked down to

1409
01:03:40.199 --> 01:03:43.199
this lake and come up to it and it's really brushy.

1410
01:03:43.239 --> 01:03:44.639
There's just a big enough spot to get out of

1411
01:03:44.679 --> 01:03:46.039
the brush to see the lake when you first come

1412
01:03:46.079 --> 01:03:48.239
down to it, and there's this really faint fisherman's trail

1413
01:03:48.239 --> 01:03:51.280
that goes around the east side of the lake and

1414
01:03:51.320 --> 01:03:53.840
it takes you through this rhododendron thicket seven eight foot

1415
01:03:53.840 --> 01:03:56.360
tall rohdodendron thicket, and you're stepping over logs and you

1416
01:03:56.480 --> 01:03:58.400
get to the outlet creek and you got to walk

1417
01:03:58.840 --> 01:04:01.679
a log to get over the creek to this semi

1418
01:04:01.800 --> 01:04:03.559
established camp spot that's at the end of the lake,

1419
01:04:03.559 --> 01:04:06.599
and it's up in these bigger trees the rhododendron there,

1420
01:04:06.639 --> 01:04:08.360
so it was a spot to put a tent. We

1421
01:04:08.440 --> 01:04:11.159
hung out there and had lunch, the kids splashed around

1422
01:04:11.159 --> 01:04:13.719
in the lake. We spent probably an hour there and

1423
01:04:13.800 --> 01:04:17.079
I started getting that uneasy feeling again. And my wife,

1424
01:04:17.119 --> 01:04:19.000
I know, she was packing up stuff. I'm like, are

1425
01:04:19.039 --> 01:04:19.840
you ready to get out of here?

1426
01:04:19.840 --> 01:04:20.519
And she said yep.

1427
01:04:20.800 --> 01:04:23.320
So we put the boys back in the back cock carriers.

1428
01:04:23.320 --> 01:04:25.519
I had one and my wife had the other boy

1429
01:04:25.519 --> 01:04:27.880
on her back, and my wife led the way out

1430
01:04:27.960 --> 01:04:29.760
on so I had Abby in front of me. And

1431
01:04:30.280 --> 01:04:32.320
as we're walking we crossed that outlook creek and we

1432
01:04:32.400 --> 01:04:34.920
get back into the really thick rhododendron. That feeling that

1433
01:04:34.960 --> 01:04:37.559
I got, like when I was scouting some of those

1434
01:04:37.599 --> 01:04:40.000
gross sites over there, it came back on. It just

1435
01:04:40.039 --> 01:04:42.119
hit instantly. It was like, oh man, I just want

1436
01:04:42.199 --> 01:04:44.639
out of here. I just want to get back to

1437
01:04:44.679 --> 01:04:47.039
the truck and get out of here. And it was

1438
01:04:47.199 --> 01:04:50.719
so strong on that trip that I Abby was about

1439
01:04:50.800 --> 01:04:52.159
about twenty thirty feet in front of me.

1440
01:04:52.239 --> 01:04:52.320
Up.

1441
01:04:52.360 --> 01:04:54.159
I told her to come back towards me and actually

1442
01:04:54.239 --> 01:04:55.880
unholstered my gun and took it off safe and just

1443
01:04:56.000 --> 01:04:58.360
kept it out the ready on the side and just

1444
01:04:58.400 --> 01:05:02.400
waiting to see it. My wife wasn't eyesight, and we

1445
01:05:02.440 --> 01:05:05.400
walked through there. Just a horrible feeling, absolutely horrible feeling.

1446
01:05:05.400 --> 01:05:08.239
I don't know if you've ever experienced that. It's yeah,

1447
01:05:08.320 --> 01:05:09.920
you know, it's just and you're in it too. When

1448
01:05:09.920 --> 01:05:11.599
you're out there, you can't You're not going to run

1449
01:05:11.599 --> 01:05:13.400
from it, so you just deal with it and slowly

1450
01:05:13.400 --> 01:05:13.679
move on.

1451
01:05:13.719 --> 01:05:14.960
But boy, is it uncomfortable.

1452
01:05:15.000 --> 01:05:16.360
My hair was up on the back of my neck

1453
01:05:17.039 --> 01:05:20.320
and I'm just sitting there there waiting for something to

1454
01:05:20.320 --> 01:05:23.320
come out. I'd stop every every minute or so and

1455
01:05:23.360 --> 01:05:25.920
just listen. I never heard anything, but the feeling got stronger,

1456
01:05:25.960 --> 01:05:28.280
ass the thicker, the deeper. We made into tho rhodendrons,

1457
01:05:28.280 --> 01:05:29.679
and we made it back to where the trail dropped

1458
01:05:29.679 --> 01:05:31.360
into the lake, and then you switch back up this

1459
01:05:31.440 --> 01:05:33.199
ridge back to the road and we get up there,

1460
01:05:34.000 --> 01:05:36.599
load the kids up, load the backpacks up. And I

1461
01:05:36.599 --> 01:05:37.920
asked my wife, I'm like, what did you think of

1462
01:05:38.039 --> 01:05:40.199
that lake? You you probably go backpack in there's right

1463
01:05:40.239 --> 01:05:42.800
out our back door. And my wife says, I never

1464
01:05:42.840 --> 01:05:44.519
want to go back down there again. She said, I

1465
01:05:44.559 --> 01:05:47.280
got the worst feeling coming out of there, and that's

1466
01:05:47.280 --> 01:05:49.440
when I told her that I experienced the same thing.

1467
01:05:49.440 --> 01:05:51.840
I'm like, yeah, I actually unholstered my gun, I had

1468
01:05:51.920 --> 01:05:54.199
all fun safe and called Abby back to me because

1469
01:05:54.320 --> 01:05:56.480
it just felt so imminent, so eminent.

1470
01:05:57.159 --> 01:05:58.039
Yeah, it's unbelievable.

1471
01:05:58.119 --> 01:06:01.760
I actually years later, actually he's the idea of going

1472
01:06:01.760 --> 01:06:03.719
down there with my buddy, which you met down there,

1473
01:06:04.000 --> 01:06:06.679
because he's had his experiences, and he's actually so frightened

1474
01:06:06.679 --> 01:06:09.960
by his experiences that he hasn't really gone camping since then.

1475
01:06:10.000 --> 01:06:12.039
And I never stopped camping. And the more I know

1476
01:06:12.079 --> 01:06:14.400
about this, a little bit more apprehensive I am about

1477
01:06:14.519 --> 01:06:18.920
putting myselves in these vulnerable situations. But we were actually

1478
01:06:18.960 --> 01:06:20.360
going to go up there and camp at that lake,

1479
01:06:20.639 --> 01:06:23.159
just me and him, just to understand this a little

1480
01:06:23.159 --> 01:06:26.400
bit more. I've had so many encounters with this, and

1481
01:06:26.440 --> 01:06:28.280
now that I'm starting to wake up to what was

1482
01:06:28.320 --> 01:06:31.239
going on, I wanted with some clarity to experience this

1483
01:06:31.480 --> 01:06:33.559
and get some more answers. And we end up having

1484
01:06:33.559 --> 01:06:35.719
a massive fire Cedar Creek fire burnt through that year

1485
01:06:35.719 --> 01:06:37.000
we were going to go up there. I mean that

1486
01:06:37.360 --> 01:06:39.920
couple weeks later was when we were planning on camping,

1487
01:06:39.920 --> 01:06:42.000
and the Cedar Creek fire burnt through in twenty twenty

1488
01:06:42.039 --> 01:06:46.719
one and it just cooked all that area of Huckleberry

1489
01:06:46.719 --> 01:06:48.840
burnt and the lake around it burnt. I haven't been

1490
01:06:48.880 --> 01:06:50.760
up there since they they've had the road closed off.

1491
01:06:50.760 --> 01:06:53.280
I think it's back open now, but I wouldn't imagine

1492
01:06:53.840 --> 01:06:55.880
it would be the same kind of place to go to,

1493
01:06:56.039 --> 01:06:58.480
plus camping under burnt out trees that have been there

1494
01:06:58.480 --> 01:07:00.320
for a couple years, isn't the best to say to

1495
01:07:00.320 --> 01:07:02.920
make Yeah, it's right out our back door, and the

1496
01:07:02.960 --> 01:07:05.239
same right out my back door. My property backs up

1497
01:07:05.360 --> 01:07:08.719
to National Forest. There's private lots around us, but we're

1498
01:07:08.760 --> 01:07:12.519
this little tongue of houses that are spread out all

1499
01:07:12.519 --> 01:07:14.440
on big plots of land like what we have. You know,

1500
01:07:14.400 --> 01:07:16.079
I probably have one of the smaller chunks of land

1501
01:07:16.119 --> 01:07:19.239
out here at fourteen acres. You know, almost everyone else has,

1502
01:07:19.280 --> 01:07:22.400
you know, sixty two hundred acres. But outside of that,

1503
01:07:22.400 --> 01:07:25.719
it's just National Force. And when I first moved up here,

1504
01:07:25.800 --> 01:07:27.760
the logging that you saw coming up the road that

1505
01:07:27.800 --> 01:07:30.559
hadn't happened, So it was a continuous thick stretch of

1506
01:07:31.039 --> 01:07:33.480
nice eighty two hundred year old trees that are grown

1507
01:07:33.559 --> 01:07:35.119
up here. I mean you're just driving the trees the

1508
01:07:35.119 --> 01:07:37.039
whole way. So I worked in Eugene at the time,

1509
01:07:37.679 --> 01:07:39.880
and I always did side jobs. So I take customer

1510
01:07:39.880 --> 01:07:42.480
side jobs in on chainsaws, generators or whatever, just to

1511
01:07:42.480 --> 01:07:44.639
make some money on the side. And when I get home,

1512
01:07:45.159 --> 01:07:46.840
I would go out to the shop up there, the

1513
01:07:46.880 --> 01:07:49.559
Red Shop, and I would work on these things. And

1514
01:07:49.599 --> 01:07:52.920
sometimes I'd be out there till midnight or later. And

1515
01:07:54.400 --> 01:07:57.199
as I'm working out there, I had this happen. Eight

1516
01:07:57.280 --> 01:07:59.360
or nine times. I'd be out there working middle the

1517
01:07:59.480 --> 01:08:02.440
night and something would come and hit the side of

1518
01:08:02.440 --> 01:08:05.280
that shop so hard. I mean it shook that whole

1519
01:08:06.079 --> 01:08:09.440
the whole shop. I mean the whole shop would shake

1520
01:08:09.559 --> 01:08:12.159
hard enough to wear. It's a two two story bar,

1521
01:08:12.239 --> 01:08:14.400
and essentially, you know, hard enough to wear. Dust would

1522
01:08:14.400 --> 01:08:17.600
fall through the slats from the upper story. Adia you know,

1523
01:08:17.600 --> 01:08:19.119
I thought it was an animal upstairs a couple times,

1524
01:08:19.159 --> 01:08:21.159
so I went up there with a pride bar, waiting

1525
01:08:21.159 --> 01:08:23.119
to clever a raccoon or something. But there was never

1526
01:08:23.159 --> 01:08:26.640
anything up there. And now I realize it was probably

1527
01:08:26.640 --> 01:08:27.720
being harassed and.

1528
01:08:27.960 --> 01:08:29.079
Chased by these things.

1529
01:08:29.079 --> 01:08:30.520
But I got that feeling a couple of times up

1530
01:08:30.520 --> 01:08:32.520
there when I shut it down and walk back to

1531
01:08:32.600 --> 01:08:34.560
the house late at night, I got that same kind

1532
01:08:34.560 --> 01:08:35.960
of creepy feeling that I get it that I've had

1533
01:08:35.960 --> 01:08:38.840
at Huckleberry Lake and other times, and once the logging

1534
01:08:39.720 --> 01:08:42.319
kicked in there the last six years or so, a

1535
01:08:42.359 --> 01:08:45.600
lot of that seemed to have gone away. But of

1536
01:08:45.600 --> 01:08:47.479
course I don't spend late nights out there doing anymore.

1537
01:08:47.479 --> 01:08:49.279
You know, I run my business from my property now,

1538
01:08:49.319 --> 01:08:51.239
so I mean I'm already doing forty fifty hour weeks

1539
01:08:51.279 --> 01:08:53.159
out there, so I'm not out there at eleven o'clock

1540
01:08:53.239 --> 01:08:55.880
or twelve o'clock a night anymore. But really interesting stuff,

1541
01:08:55.920 --> 01:08:57.439
And at that point in time, I was pretty well

1542
01:08:57.439 --> 01:09:00.199
aware about what was going on and felt pretty lucky

1543
01:09:00.239 --> 01:09:03.199
to have the stuff so close for a guy that's

1544
01:09:03.199 --> 01:09:04.880
looking for some answers and clarity on it, so I

1545
01:09:04.920 --> 01:09:07.399
don't have to go two hours away to find the

1546
01:09:07.399 --> 01:09:09.680
answers for the stuff that's happened to me. And recently

1547
01:09:09.720 --> 01:09:14.119
here in December of last year, I went up to

1548
01:09:14.840 --> 01:09:18.159
kitsen Or, a CT beach area, and explored with the kids.

1549
01:09:18.159 --> 01:09:20.239
And there's a little bridge that goes across one of

1550
01:09:20.239 --> 01:09:21.680
the arms of the reservoirs in the winter time, they

1551
01:09:21.720 --> 01:09:25.800
drank the reservoirs for flood control, and so what would

1552
01:09:25.840 --> 01:09:28.920
normally be underwater is just back down to mud banks

1553
01:09:28.920 --> 01:09:32.199
and the river that used to feed the reservoir body.

1554
01:09:32.479 --> 01:09:36.279
And I took the kids there after Christmas. It was

1555
01:09:36.479 --> 01:09:39.880
a few days after Christmas, so December twenty eighth, twenty ninth,

1556
01:09:40.359 --> 01:09:42.880
and it was a stormy, snowy day, but I wanted

1557
01:09:42.880 --> 01:09:44.760
to get out and do some exploring. So we went

1558
01:09:44.800 --> 01:09:47.199
down there and hiked down to the river, parked on

1559
01:09:47.239 --> 01:09:49.199
top of the no cars, no people around us, And

1560
01:09:49.199 --> 01:09:52.680
while we're down there, we got almost sounded like gunshots,

1561
01:09:52.800 --> 01:09:56.399
these sharp cracks ringing out through the woods, and I

1562
01:09:56.439 --> 01:09:58.239
almost assumed that someone was up there shooting. So the

1563
01:09:58.319 --> 01:10:00.720
kids came running over to me, and we're down lower

1564
01:10:00.760 --> 01:10:03.359
elevation from of the noise is happening, and I'm like

1565
01:10:03.359 --> 01:10:05.720
that there might be someone over there, maybe shooting their

1566
01:10:05.720 --> 01:10:07.319
pistol or something like that, you know, So we end

1567
01:10:07.399 --> 01:10:08.039
up hiking out of there.

1568
01:10:08.039 --> 01:10:09.119
I hiked across the bridge.

1569
01:10:09.159 --> 01:10:11.039
I was going to go talk to these people about,

1570
01:10:11.560 --> 01:10:13.039
you know, making sure that they were shooting a safe

1571
01:10:13.039 --> 01:10:15.000
direction and stuff like that. And so we get over

1572
01:10:15.039 --> 01:10:17.000
there and there's no cars on the other side of

1573
01:10:17.000 --> 01:10:20.600
the bridge, and the only road going in there is

1574
01:10:21.119 --> 01:10:23.960
a really narrow paved road. There's no other roads above it.

1575
01:10:24.159 --> 01:10:27.640
And it wasn't thinking about it. It wasn't someone up

1576
01:10:27.640 --> 01:10:29.399
there shooting their gun, because people are out there shooting

1577
01:10:29.399 --> 01:10:31.359
their pistols. It didn't sound like high powered rifle. It's

1578
01:10:31.399 --> 01:10:34.239
definitely a pistol. It sounded more like a pistol. And

1579
01:10:34.239 --> 01:10:35.720
when people are shooting their pistols still.

1580
01:10:35.680 --> 01:10:36.960
Go bang, you know what I mean. This is just

1581
01:10:37.000 --> 01:10:39.760
like crack crack.

1582
01:10:39.800 --> 01:10:42.279
And then to change directions where it's coming from in

1583
01:10:42.359 --> 01:10:44.399
another portion of the wood. But we loaded up in

1584
01:10:44.439 --> 01:10:46.279
the truck and we went a little further down the

1585
01:10:46.359 --> 01:10:48.119
road in this place called Kits and Hot Springs. It's

1586
01:10:48.119 --> 01:10:50.840
administrated and owned by BSA. Now it's a little chunk

1587
01:10:50.840 --> 01:10:54.319
of private lamb that's nestled in the National forest there.

1588
01:10:54.520 --> 01:10:56.279
They used to have old Hot Springs house there. I

1589
01:10:56.319 --> 01:10:58.279
don't know if you made your way up there, but

1590
01:10:58.319 --> 01:11:02.199
oh man, it's super cool, super cool. This was right

1591
01:11:02.239 --> 01:11:05.079
after the ct Beach incident, and so we go in

1592
01:11:05.119 --> 01:11:07.520
there and I always wanted to explore it. And they

1593
01:11:07.560 --> 01:11:10.159
have the whole Hot Spring Foundation for the lodge that

1594
01:11:10.199 --> 01:11:12.359
these have. They're still hot water coming up through there,

1595
01:11:12.399 --> 01:11:15.319
and really cool area. We hiked across this little bridge

1596
01:11:15.319 --> 01:11:17.680
and there's these three sided shelters that the boy Scouts

1597
01:11:17.800 --> 01:11:20.560
used to use for their summer jamboreez and stuff like that.

1598
01:11:20.640 --> 01:11:24.079
And in the mud on these trails and these roads

1599
01:11:24.159 --> 01:11:26.199
that ran on the other side of there, there were

1600
01:11:27.039 --> 01:11:30.640
old footprints, big ones, sixteen seventeen inch footprints. There were

1601
01:11:30.680 --> 01:11:32.840
small footprints. They were all over the place and there

1602
01:11:32.920 --> 01:11:35.000
from fresh to ones that utel had been up there

1603
01:11:35.039 --> 01:11:36.760
for a few weeks, and I know people have had

1604
01:11:37.560 --> 01:11:40.479
run ends and encounters up there before. And I've never

1605
01:11:40.520 --> 01:11:42.960
cast at a track, and I would. I'm planning on

1606
01:11:43.039 --> 01:11:45.520
going back up there later in the year and when

1607
01:11:45.520 --> 01:11:47.199
things slowed down, and I want to find a good

1608
01:11:47.199 --> 01:11:49.479
track to at a cast in my collection. So I've

1609
01:11:49.520 --> 01:11:52.399
had other stuff happened to me. I've had the classic

1610
01:11:52.399 --> 01:11:55.000
wooden knocks and stuff like that happened. I've never heard

1611
01:11:55.199 --> 01:11:57.800
screams or yells. I've had buddies that have and the

1612
01:11:57.840 --> 01:11:59.960
guy that you met one, but I never had other

1613
01:12:00.039 --> 01:12:02.560
than the murmuring that I heard at Lent Meadows. That's

1614
01:12:02.560 --> 01:12:04.800
the only audible noise I've ever heard from it. Also,

1615
01:12:04.960 --> 01:12:07.319
I want to note something too, I never have had

1616
01:12:07.840 --> 01:12:09.279
the smell never.

1617
01:12:09.960 --> 01:12:11.880
Yeah, Okay, that's really interesting.

1618
01:12:11.960 --> 01:12:12.159
Yep.

1619
01:12:12.239 --> 01:12:15.439
And people talk about it, and I have never when

1620
01:12:15.439 --> 01:12:18.880
I've had these run ins, I have never smelled that

1621
01:12:18.920 --> 01:12:22.319
smell that people described. And maybe it was the way

1622
01:12:22.359 --> 01:12:26.199
the wind was blowing. But for me, in my situations

1623
01:12:26.199 --> 01:12:28.520
that I ran into, smell wasn't part of it.

1624
01:12:28.520 --> 01:12:29.079
It just wasn't.

1625
01:12:29.159 --> 01:12:31.760
Yeah, that's a rundown of what I've experienced that since

1626
01:12:31.760 --> 01:12:32.479
two thousand and eight.

1627
01:12:32.760 --> 01:12:34.720
And like I always tell some of.

1628
01:12:34.640 --> 01:12:36.640
My friends that know my stories that they don't backpack,

1629
01:12:36.680 --> 01:12:39.479
they're always really curious about it. And I think about

1630
01:12:39.520 --> 01:12:42.560
how many nights I've spent out camping and the remote

1631
01:12:42.560 --> 01:12:44.960
spots that I've gone to, and you have to be

1632
01:12:45.000 --> 01:12:48.079
out there so much ninety nine point nine percent of

1633
01:12:48.119 --> 01:12:51.399
the time you're not gonna have anything happen. It's that

1634
01:12:51.600 --> 01:12:54.600
point one percent of the time that this stuff happens,

1635
01:12:54.680 --> 01:12:58.520
and it's a it's such an odd ball event that

1636
01:12:59.640 --> 01:13:02.199
you don't really think much of it. People are always like, oh,

1637
01:13:02.199 --> 01:13:03.479
why don't you go out there and just see what

1638
01:13:03.479 --> 01:13:05.720
it is? You have to be in the situation. To

1639
01:13:05.800 --> 01:13:07.760
understand it, you really have to be in there, and

1640
01:13:07.840 --> 01:13:11.680
it's just so close to what humans would sound like

1641
01:13:11.680 --> 01:13:13.479
that that's why I think it gets rid off more

1642
01:13:13.520 --> 01:13:15.960
than not as people just thinking they're hearing other people

1643
01:13:15.960 --> 01:13:18.199
out there, and maybe more people would be surprised that

1644
01:13:18.239 --> 01:13:19.319
may not always be the case.

1645
01:13:19.520 --> 01:13:23.239
Kevin, thank you so much for sharing your years of

1646
01:13:23.399 --> 01:13:26.560
things that have happened all over the state, which just

1647
01:13:26.800 --> 01:13:28.800
is incredible. Do you have a few minutes if I

1648
01:13:28.840 --> 01:13:31.720
could ask you a few questions? Okay, And the Diamond

1649
01:13:31.720 --> 01:13:35.119
Peak Wilderness incident. We had discussed that at the booth,

1650
01:13:35.279 --> 01:13:37.920
but it's really interesting to hear more details about it.

1651
01:13:38.479 --> 01:13:42.520
There was actually a lot of urine that was gathered

1652
01:13:42.560 --> 01:13:43.479
at the top of the tent.

1653
01:13:43.760 --> 01:13:46.600
Yeah, because when the fly got when the fly got

1654
01:13:46.640 --> 01:13:49.000
torn as a full coverage rain fly that goes over

1655
01:13:49.000 --> 01:13:51.439
the main body of the tent as most modern backpack

1656
01:13:51.479 --> 01:13:53.439
intents look like this and has this hubsystem where the

1657
01:13:53.439 --> 01:13:56.920
poles cross over on top, so clay creates a flatter

1658
01:13:57.119 --> 01:13:57.800
spot on top.

1659
01:13:57.880 --> 01:13:58.560
If the fly is not.

1660
01:13:58.640 --> 01:14:01.359
Zipped up, it loses that, so you get a little

1661
01:14:01.359 --> 01:14:03.479
low spot like kind of forms in the top when

1662
01:14:03.479 --> 01:14:07.399
it's un zipped. Yeah, and there was that yellowish urine

1663
01:14:08.199 --> 01:14:09.359
that was up on the top side of it.

1664
01:14:09.479 --> 01:14:11.119
That's what I was going to ask if you remembered

1665
01:14:11.119 --> 01:14:15.000
any details. And being in a wilderness individual, you've probably

1666
01:14:15.079 --> 01:14:20.119
are aware of what kind of urine from different creatures

1667
01:14:20.119 --> 01:14:22.840
in the forest looks like. And so this was you said,

1668
01:14:22.840 --> 01:14:25.079
a yellowish color, yellowish, it is urine.

1669
01:14:25.079 --> 01:14:28.159
I'm the only animal I know around here that would

1670
01:14:29.159 --> 01:14:31.720
could could possibly deposit something like that up there would

1671
01:14:31.720 --> 01:14:33.960
be would be male cougars, you know, and they spray.

1672
01:14:34.119 --> 01:14:37.039
They can spray pretty far. They can put their markings

1673
01:14:37.079 --> 01:14:38.760
five feet up on a tree and stuff then back

1674
01:14:38.800 --> 01:14:41.800
up to it and pretty gross future and stuff.

1675
01:14:41.920 --> 01:14:44.720
Big for society. Who will be right back after these messages.

1676
01:15:00.680 --> 01:15:03.399
But this wasn't katgurn smelled like someone's been eating too

1677
01:15:03.439 --> 01:15:05.279
much of sparagus and drank a bunch of beer the

1678
01:15:05.319 --> 01:15:07.920
night before, you know. But yeah, it was pooled in

1679
01:15:07.920 --> 01:15:09.359
the rain plot that was down on the ground. But

1680
01:15:09.399 --> 01:15:10.680
it's on the side that was ripped out. When I

1681
01:15:10.720 --> 01:15:13.319
tease my wife about that, like you're there are sleeping

1682
01:15:13.439 --> 01:15:15.720
and imagine you might have this big hand reaching I

1683
01:15:15.720 --> 01:15:19.119
couldn't imagine that it wouldn't have reached into the tent.

1684
01:15:19.199 --> 01:15:22.920
I'm like, pretty incredible, and I've always intererstained the idea

1685
01:15:22.960 --> 01:15:24.680
of taking a game camera with me when I'm going

1686
01:15:24.680 --> 01:15:26.920
out back back and now, but I just I don't

1687
01:15:26.920 --> 01:15:28.760
know if they can detect it. I don't speculate too

1688
01:15:28.800 --> 01:15:32.119
much on that, but the fact that there's just very

1689
01:15:32.159 --> 01:15:34.640
few game camera pictures that are get to be credible

1690
01:15:34.680 --> 01:15:36.640
enough to even want to talk about, I think it

1691
01:15:36.640 --> 01:15:39.239
would lessen your chances of experiencing anything.

1692
01:15:39.520 --> 01:15:43.279
We had discussed Spirit Lake at the booth right. That's

1693
01:15:43.359 --> 01:15:46.199
come up with a few individuals, And I've talked to

1694
01:15:46.239 --> 01:15:49.520
people before I got here about a lot of different

1695
01:15:49.600 --> 01:15:52.159
encounters that have happened in that area. Were you the

1696
01:15:52.199 --> 01:15:55.199
individual that had talked about the sticks in Spirit Lake?

1697
01:15:56.279 --> 01:15:57.159
Have you heard about that?

1698
01:15:57.800 --> 01:16:00.920
I've heard people have had strange run ends up there.

1699
01:16:01.000 --> 01:16:02.840
I mean, here's the namesake of the lake, Spirit Lake,

1700
01:16:02.920 --> 01:16:06.000
Devil's Canyon. All these places I guess condessate from the

1701
01:16:06.279 --> 01:16:08.119
schnook jargon of the Indians that around here. But no,

1702
01:16:08.359 --> 01:16:11.000
I've camped up there quite a bit, very remote. That

1703
01:16:11.039 --> 01:16:11.560
part's all.

1704
01:16:11.479 --> 01:16:13.479
Burnt up in the Cedar Creek. Now, that's all a

1705
01:16:13.479 --> 01:16:16.159
big burn scarf there. No, I never I've camped up

1706
01:16:16.159 --> 01:16:16.600
there plenty.

1707
01:16:17.079 --> 01:16:19.840
I haven't had any run ends up there, but I

1708
01:16:19.880 --> 01:16:22.760
will say the times that I've camped up there, it's

1709
01:16:22.800 --> 01:16:24.960
been with my group of backpacking buddies. We all drag

1710
01:16:25.000 --> 01:16:27.079
our campers up. They have kids that are my age

1711
01:16:27.119 --> 01:16:31.319
and they'll be eighteen of us up there and going

1712
01:16:31.359 --> 01:16:35.359
in big groups and backpacking with big groups. There's just

1713
01:16:35.359 --> 01:16:37.199
too much noise, in my opinion, but only happens when

1714
01:16:37.239 --> 01:16:39.800
you're being quiet, and I think smaller groups maybe it's

1715
01:16:39.800 --> 01:16:40.479
more approachable.

1716
01:16:40.600 --> 01:16:41.439
But I could see it.

1717
01:16:41.479 --> 01:16:43.359
I mean, there's plenty of I've had locals that I

1718
01:16:43.359 --> 01:16:45.199
have told me about stuff that's gone on up there,

1719
01:16:45.680 --> 01:16:47.399
you know, And I know that area carries a lot

1720
01:16:47.399 --> 01:16:49.520
of that kind of those kind of stories.

1721
01:16:49.520 --> 01:16:53.039
And the specific thing I want to make sure that

1722
01:16:53.239 --> 01:16:56.600
I remember to put on recording is I had multiple

1723
01:16:56.680 --> 01:16:59.359
hunters say that they've been there in around dusk or

1724
01:16:59.439 --> 01:17:01.920
night time, all the sticks that are in the lake

1725
01:17:01.960 --> 01:17:03.840
will go to the center of the lake form a

1726
01:17:03.880 --> 01:17:09.079
circle and then start rotating in a circular fashion, which

1727
01:17:09.960 --> 01:17:13.520
magnetic field or just tie strangeness. It's it seems like

1728
01:17:14.079 --> 01:17:15.520
a really interesting area.

1729
01:17:15.680 --> 01:17:18.159
Yeah, definitely. I've hiked into Spirit Lake once.

1730
01:17:18.319 --> 01:17:21.399
It was actually right before the summer, before Cedar Creek

1731
01:17:21.439 --> 01:17:24.000
burnt it up there, and I just wanted to.

1732
01:17:24.000 --> 01:17:26.239
Check it out. And it's beautiful lake. The hike going

1733
01:17:26.279 --> 01:17:29.479
in there and it's absolutely was absolutely gorgeous, huge trees.

1734
01:17:29.680 --> 01:17:31.119
But yeah, we got up there and there's a big

1735
01:17:31.159 --> 01:17:34.359
meadow on one end of it, and I didn't see

1736
01:17:34.359 --> 01:17:37.000
anything unusual. It is a beautiful lake, though, absolutely beautiful.

1737
01:17:37.000 --> 01:17:38.319
I didn't I've been around a lot of these mountain

1738
01:17:38.359 --> 01:17:40.399
lakes and I don't. I can't say I've ever seen

1739
01:17:41.319 --> 01:17:44.239
any weird anomalies with sticks floating around and swirling in

1740
01:17:44.239 --> 01:17:46.079
the middle of a lake. But in come evening time,

1741
01:17:46.319 --> 01:17:48.880
you get these inflows and outflows of air that move

1742
01:17:48.960 --> 01:17:51.319
through these valley systems, you know, So during the daytime,

1743
01:17:51.600 --> 01:17:54.479
as the lowlands heat, the wind moves up valley and

1744
01:17:54.560 --> 01:17:57.119
as it cools, that colder sinks back down. And Spirit

1745
01:17:57.199 --> 01:17:59.920
Lake's kind of in this bowl. And so I mean,

1746
01:18:00.199 --> 01:18:02.279
if you ever watch the win come in on these lakes,

1747
01:18:02.399 --> 01:18:04.479
you can actually almost see that, you can actually see

1748
01:18:04.479 --> 01:18:06.119
the ripples on the lakes. It actually hits the lake

1749
01:18:06.560 --> 01:18:09.560
from straight up on top and billows out and around.

1750
01:18:09.600 --> 01:18:11.399
If I saw something like that, I would probably attribute

1751
01:18:11.439 --> 01:18:13.600
it more to that. I'm not saying that these guys

1752
01:18:13.640 --> 01:18:15.119
didn't experience something that strange.

1753
01:18:15.199 --> 01:18:18.439
Kevin, this has been an incredible interview, and thank you

1754
01:18:18.439 --> 01:18:20.680
for your hospitality for allowing me to come out to

1755
01:18:20.920 --> 01:18:25.119
your beautiful home area. The woods are literally just on

1756
01:18:25.960 --> 01:18:27.960
the side of your yard and it's like everything is

1757
01:18:28.119 --> 01:18:30.680
right here. And thank you so much for your hospitality.

1758
01:18:30.840 --> 01:18:32.920
Oh no, no problem. Is a pleasure meeting you all

1759
01:18:32.920 --> 01:18:34.680
the way from Iowa too. So what do you think

1760
01:18:34.720 --> 01:18:37.920
you think you come back to Pacific Northwest for more

1761
01:18:37.960 --> 01:18:39.000
bigfoot adventures.

1762
01:18:39.399 --> 01:18:43.039
I think it is definitely just beginning, and I don't

1763
01:18:43.079 --> 01:18:46.000
think this is the last time that I will be

1764
01:18:46.079 --> 01:18:47.199
in Oakridge for sure.

1765
01:18:47.640 --> 01:18:49.880
I might have a couple questions for you on this side.

1766
01:18:49.920 --> 01:18:53.359
You being from Iowa, we talked about your experiences that

1767
01:18:53.439 --> 01:18:55.439
you experienced in your neck of the woods over there.

1768
01:18:55.920 --> 01:18:59.319
Yeah, how does it rate for your.

1769
01:18:59.199 --> 01:19:03.319
Iowan big footed experiences compared to what you've experienced in

1770
01:19:02.760 --> 01:19:05.680
the last few days here in this area.

1771
01:19:06.479 --> 01:19:12.119
What I experienced just outside of Oakridge has blown everything

1772
01:19:12.239 --> 01:19:14.760
that I've ever experienced out of the water, because we

1773
01:19:14.840 --> 01:19:20.000
experienced things like growl, slash, green vocalizations. Right next to

1774
01:19:20.000 --> 01:19:23.159
the meadow we were at, I found a track by

1775
01:19:23.199 --> 01:19:26.560
where a visual had been seen just a day before.

1776
01:19:26.600 --> 01:19:29.439
And then we wrap up there and he was able

1777
01:19:29.439 --> 01:19:31.920
to really analyze the area for about forty five minutes

1778
01:19:31.960 --> 01:19:35.560
to an hour and he found a solid set of

1779
01:19:36.079 --> 01:19:40.239
tracks and these are like splayed you have. The tracks

1780
01:19:40.239 --> 01:19:42.319
were like really spread out like that. Like I actually

1781
01:19:42.399 --> 01:19:44.720
saw that in real life and I was like, oh,

1782
01:19:44.800 --> 01:19:47.560
this these can be legit. Usually those tracks look like

1783
01:19:47.560 --> 01:19:50.960
they're faked, but like it was there. I saw it.

1784
01:19:51.479 --> 01:19:55.680
They were not casted the way that it was. What

1785
01:19:55.760 --> 01:19:59.279
it was stepping over would have made it extremely hard

1786
01:19:59.279 --> 01:20:02.720
to be casted. But there's no doubt there was. Did

1787
01:20:02.760 --> 01:20:05.479
I tell you about the apple the fruit? Okay, so yeah,

1788
01:20:05.560 --> 01:20:07.439
the apple and the orange and banana that was left

1789
01:20:07.479 --> 01:20:11.199
from the group the day before and that we went

1790
01:20:11.239 --> 01:20:13.279
back and the apple was left there uneaten and the

1791
01:20:13.319 --> 01:20:16.199
orange was on the ground uneaten, but the banana was

1792
01:20:16.239 --> 01:20:19.960
on the ground and peeled and eaten and just things

1793
01:20:20.000 --> 01:20:25.119
like they've never experienced stuff like that in Iowa. I

1794
01:20:25.159 --> 01:20:27.279
have had some things happen, but like it is a

1795
01:20:27.359 --> 01:20:30.680
totally different world out here, and you do have to

1796
01:20:30.720 --> 01:20:32.920
be really careful. You go out there and there's no

1797
01:20:33.000 --> 01:20:36.439
cell service, there's huge predators. You get a flat or

1798
01:20:36.479 --> 01:20:39.680
your car blows up, you have to hike back to

1799
01:20:39.720 --> 01:20:42.600
town at least twenty miles, and there's not many chances

1800
01:20:42.680 --> 01:20:44.319
out here for sure. But it is beautiful.

1801
01:20:44.640 --> 01:20:46.640
Yep. They lots of people.

1802
01:20:46.720 --> 01:20:49.039
I mean, you know, the sneaky thing about this area

1803
01:20:49.239 --> 01:20:53.319
is the access is so so good. There's so many

1804
01:20:53.359 --> 01:20:56.479
points of access, and they can take you so far

1805
01:20:56.560 --> 01:21:00.399
out into the wilderness. A lot of people don't realize

1806
01:21:00.439 --> 01:21:03.039
how far out there they really are. You have these

1807
01:21:03.119 --> 01:21:07.920
roads that go forty fifty miles sixty miles into these

1808
01:21:08.000 --> 01:21:11.319
wilderness areas, and your cell phone coverage drops as soon

1809
01:21:11.319 --> 01:21:13.359
as you get off fifty eight. You know, anywhere off

1810
01:21:13.359 --> 01:21:15.760
fifty eight were out here, it's dropped. And that's just

1811
01:21:15.840 --> 01:21:18.039
kind of part of this area. But yeah, that's the

1812
01:21:18.039 --> 01:21:19.640
way I've always looked at it is I think it

1813
01:21:19.640 --> 01:21:22.399
should be approached with caution. When I'm not much on

1814
01:21:22.439 --> 01:21:24.640
the Bigfoot Woo side of things, I've looked a little

1815
01:21:24.640 --> 01:21:27.000
bit into it, and from my experiences it.

1816
01:21:26.920 --> 01:21:27.640
Doesn't line up.

1817
01:21:28.279 --> 01:21:32.920
I think it's some kind of biological, physical animal. It

1818
01:21:33.439 --> 01:21:37.000
seems that's the most logical starting point. I don't know

1819
01:21:37.000 --> 01:21:39.439
if you have any opinions on what you think it

1820
01:21:39.520 --> 01:21:41.479
is from a physical standpoint.

1821
01:21:42.600 --> 01:21:48.479
Relic commented after experiencing something that could peel a banana

1822
01:21:48.479 --> 01:21:52.680
and eat it, it's definitely a physical creature. I think,

1823
01:21:52.760 --> 01:21:55.279
physical creature that can do stuff that science has no

1824
01:21:55.359 --> 01:21:58.399
idea how to explain it. So some people say that's

1825
01:21:58.399 --> 01:22:01.039
a cop out, but I think that it's not too

1826
01:22:01.079 --> 01:22:03.680
bad of an explanation. That's what I'm thinking right now.

1827
01:22:03.880 --> 01:22:07.000
So yeah, that's been my take on it. So my

1828
01:22:07.920 --> 01:22:10.600
word of caution is kind of Bigfoot's been mainstream for

1829
01:22:10.720 --> 01:22:13.039
quite a while and a lot of people.

1830
01:22:12.760 --> 01:22:14.000
Out there looking for it.

1831
01:22:14.600 --> 01:22:17.359
My experience and run ins with these things, last thing

1832
01:22:17.359 --> 01:22:19.359
I would do is go out there and start hooting

1833
01:22:19.359 --> 01:22:23.319
and hollering and banging your chest. I think one as

1834
01:22:23.319 --> 01:22:25.560
little as we know about these things, and as intelligent

1835
01:22:25.640 --> 01:22:32.239
as a I presume they are, I think caution should

1836
01:22:32.279 --> 01:22:35.800
be used, especially with small kids and being a father

1837
01:22:35.880 --> 01:22:38.920
of three and camping in remote spots, and we still

1838
01:22:38.920 --> 01:22:42.880
back back quite a bit. I think it's really important

1839
01:22:43.000 --> 01:22:45.479
to keep an eye on this stuff and realize that

1840
01:22:45.560 --> 01:22:49.680
this isn't a zoo, You're in a super rugged wild area.

1841
01:22:50.199 --> 01:22:52.239
If it isn't animals you have to deal with. I mean,

1842
01:22:52.239 --> 01:22:55.000
it's other natural phenomenon like these wildfires. That we're surrounded

1843
01:22:55.000 --> 01:22:57.199
by wildfires, and that's been the norm for quite a

1844
01:22:57.199 --> 01:22:59.520
while up here. And I'm not on the I don't

1845
01:22:59.560 --> 01:23:02.279
s sscribe to the idea that these things want to

1846
01:23:02.279 --> 01:23:04.920
be friendly and want to be seen. I obviously if

1847
01:23:04.960 --> 01:23:07.319
they want to do harm, they have their chances with me,

1848
01:23:07.640 --> 01:23:10.560
and they could have. But the fact matter is it's

1849
01:23:10.600 --> 01:23:15.399
a really thin line from what I experienced to actually

1850
01:23:15.479 --> 01:23:18.439
having physical altercations with them. And I think if you

1851
01:23:18.479 --> 01:23:20.840
do it enough, I think you're going to come across it.

1852
01:23:21.439 --> 01:23:25.079
Like even Ronnie and Dwayne, those guys, they've been dealing

1853
01:23:25.119 --> 01:23:28.439
they've been experiencing this for decades, and you see all

1854
01:23:28.520 --> 01:23:31.560
uncomfortable they can get in those experiences.

1855
01:23:31.600 --> 01:23:32.840
That should show you.

1856
01:23:33.000 --> 01:23:34.720
So the people that are out there that think that

1857
01:23:34.720 --> 01:23:36.960
these things want to sit down and enjoy their campfire

1858
01:23:37.000 --> 01:23:38.760
with them, I think they need to understand that these

1859
01:23:38.760 --> 01:23:41.399
are wild animals. We know very little about them, and

1860
01:23:41.760 --> 01:23:42.760
they're unpredictable.

1861
01:23:44.399 --> 01:23:47.960
Absolutely. Kevin, thank you so much again for your invitation

1862
01:23:48.039 --> 01:23:50.880
to come out to your property and hopefully I'll be

1863
01:23:50.920 --> 01:23:53.199
able to continue conversation in the future.

1864
01:23:53.640 --> 01:23:56.640
Yes, absolutely, Thanks thanks for taking time out to interview me.

1865
01:23:56.680 --> 01:24:00.680
This is the first time I've made any officials on it.

1866
01:24:00.800 --> 01:24:02.439
So look forward to.

1867
01:24:04.079 --> 01:24:06.600
Some of your podcasts coming from this area, especially you

1868
01:24:06.640 --> 01:24:10.680
know your earlier or late last week stuff. I think

1869
01:24:10.720 --> 01:24:12.560
that'd be really interesting. I don't know how much you're

1870
01:24:12.560 --> 01:24:13.239
going to put out there.

1871
01:24:15.600 --> 01:24:19.239
The following audio shares what happened immediately after this interview

1872
01:24:19.239 --> 01:24:25.000
in Oakridge. We're in a bit of an issue. When

1873
01:24:25.039 --> 01:24:28.000
I went in the woods Thursday, I thought I got

1874
01:24:28.079 --> 01:24:31.279
horse fly boats, but I thought I got horsefly bites.

1875
01:24:31.960 --> 01:24:38.359
They've escalated into what the Wilderness Guide says. Wilderness Guide

1876
01:24:38.399 --> 01:24:41.399
I interviewed this morning for the podcast says I potentially

1877
01:24:41.399 --> 01:24:44.880
have staff infections in both of my legs. The one

1878
01:24:45.000 --> 01:24:47.560
small doctor's office in Oakridge has said I need to

1879
01:24:47.600 --> 01:24:52.159
immediately go out to urgent care in Springfield, Oregon. Supposed

1880
01:24:52.199 --> 01:24:56.239
to be flying out tomorrow, so Oakridge is going to

1881
01:24:56.359 --> 01:25:00.600
have to, unfortunately, say goodbye to interviews are not going

1882
01:25:00.600 --> 01:25:05.239
to happen the or the old This sucks. The old

1883
01:25:05.239 --> 01:25:08.199
timers are not going to happen unless I come back tonight.

1884
01:25:08.399 --> 01:25:17.479
But it all depends on what the urgent care says. Yeah,

1885
01:25:17.560 --> 01:25:20.239
so I made it up to Springfield, Oregon, went into

1886
01:25:20.279 --> 01:25:24.319
the urgent care per the advice of the Wilderness Guide.

1887
01:25:25.560 --> 01:25:29.600
Thankfully it was not staph infection. However, they have no

1888
01:25:29.680 --> 01:25:32.840
idea what's going on. They say it makes no sense.

1889
01:25:33.000 --> 01:25:40.119
It looks like something hit a log across my two legs.

1890
01:25:44.439 --> 01:25:47.800
They say, there's bruising. It looks like blood is leaking

1891
01:25:47.800 --> 01:25:51.640
out from inside. I have no idea they've did. They

1892
01:25:51.640 --> 01:25:55.119
did a few, did a full barrage of blood testing,

1893
01:25:55.199 --> 01:25:57.880
which they'll be sending directly back to my doctor in

1894
01:25:57.880 --> 01:26:02.520
des Moine. I'm not gonna lie. I'm freaked. I've got

1895
01:26:02.520 --> 01:26:04.399
a fever, a little bit of a fever right now,

1896
01:26:04.439 --> 01:26:08.439
so heed for me to go on antibiotics right away,

1897
01:26:08.680 --> 01:26:11.560
even before the blood tests are back, just in case

1898
01:26:11.640 --> 01:26:19.880
there is some bacterial infection. They're saying some sort of cellulatus,

1899
01:26:20.640 --> 01:26:23.319
one of the causes of which on the paper can

1900
01:26:23.399 --> 01:26:31.520
be high energy raised. I'm headed back to Oakridge. I

1901
01:26:31.600 --> 01:26:34.720
got my two hour interview this morning, but I've fortunately

1902
01:26:34.760 --> 01:26:38.199
had to cancel a few because of this. This health mishap,

1903
01:26:38.319 --> 01:26:41.000
but we are headed back to Oakridge, back to the hotel,

1904
01:26:41.840 --> 01:26:45.680
and then I'll be flying out of Eugene tomorrow and

1905
01:26:45.720 --> 01:26:48.039
then going directly to my doctor. Okay, I'm going to

1906
01:26:48.119 --> 01:26:52.800
head back to Oakridge. As of time of recording in

1907
01:26:52.920 --> 01:26:56.800
late August twenty twenty four, my legs have completely healed.

1908
01:26:57.560 --> 01:27:00.000
Both doctors in Oregon and Iowa are not quite sure

1909
01:27:00.079 --> 01:27:05.640
or what caused that issue, but we are in a

1910
01:27:05.720 --> 01:27:10.560
great spot healthwise right now. No issues. I'll tell you this,

1911
01:27:10.760 --> 01:27:12.680
next time I got into the woods, I will be

1912
01:27:12.760 --> 01:27:16.960
wearing appropriate attire such as pants and not shorts. Take

1913
01:27:16.960 --> 01:27:19.840
care of yourselves out there, guys, and we'll talk to

1914
01:27:19.880 --> 01:27:22.520
you next time. Please take a minute to help out

1915
01:27:22.600 --> 01:27:26.479
the show by subscribing on YouTube, making sure you hit

1916
01:27:26.479 --> 01:27:29.520
the bell so you don't miss any notifications, and share

1917
01:27:29.760 --> 01:27:32.560
the episode on YouTube with a friend. Also, if you're

1918
01:27:32.600 --> 01:27:36.159
listening to us on a podcast, thank you so much,

1919
01:27:36.319 --> 01:27:40.880
make sure that you're subscribed, share the show with a friend. Really,

1920
01:27:40.920 --> 01:27:44.119
it's all about sharing the show wherever you can. If

1921
01:27:44.119 --> 01:27:46.960
you've had a bigfoot encounter related to the following, or

1922
01:27:47.079 --> 01:27:51.039
know someone who has, please reach out to me at

1923
01:27:51.039 --> 01:27:54.960
Bigfoot Society at gmail dot com or pass on my email.

1924
01:27:55.760 --> 01:27:58.640
Here's the list. If you've had any encounters in Oregon,

1925
01:27:58.880 --> 01:28:01.239
which I'm sure there's probably a few of you out there,

1926
01:28:01.399 --> 01:28:04.279
please feel free to reach out immediately. You can use

1927
01:28:04.319 --> 01:28:08.039
email Bigfoot Society at gmail dot com. A special thank

1928
01:28:08.079 --> 01:28:11.560
you to all the big Foot Society, Patreon and YouTube

1929
01:28:11.640 --> 01:28:14.279
channel members. It's your support that helps keep the show

1930
01:28:14.319 --> 01:28:18.319
going and I extremely appreciate it. If you want to

1931
01:28:18.439 --> 01:28:21.680
join in the fun, you can join over at patreon

1932
01:28:21.680 --> 01:28:24.920
dot com. Forward slash the big Foot Society. I'll see

1933
01:28:24.920 --> 01:28:28.119
you there, and again, thanks for listening.

1934
01:29:18.000 --> 01:29:19.479
Her and I can get on here. We can tell

1935
01:29:19.479 --> 01:29:22.800
our stories. Maybe there's somebody else out there listening that's

1936
01:29:22.840 --> 01:29:25.960
too afraid to tell their story. Maybe this will give.

1937
01:29:25.800 --> 01:29:28.520
Them the courage to come out and now feels so

1938
01:29:28.680 --> 01:29:29.279
bad about it.

1939
01:29:29.760 --> 01:29:32.319
Who cares what anybody thinks. I know what I saw,

1940
01:29:32.800 --> 01:29:35.640
I know what's out there. That's all I care about.

1941
01:29:51.560 --> 01:29:55.079
Please let people know, Please let them know.

1942
01:29:55.359 --> 01:29:58.039
If you ever see one of these things, you need

1943
01:29:58.199 --> 01:30:00.720
to tell because if you don't, be

1944
01:30:00.880 --> 01:30:14.399
Shame on you, you know, shame on you.