Idaho Bear Hunt Turns Into Bigfoot Encounter!

0:01 You're listening to Big for Society, and I'm Jeremiah Byron Tonight's story isn't from a simple hike or a camping trip. It's from a military veteran who spent decades in the wilds of Idaho chasing bears, not bigfoot. But in the fall of twenty fifteen, while hunting near Boiling Springs campground, something unusual happened. Rocks were thrown at him, and silence fell upon the forest, and something or someone was watching. In this episode, we sit down with Michael, who's about to take us into the heart of one of Idaho's most mysterious bigfoot encounters. And this is no ordinary hunting trip. So stay with us, all right, pick the Society. You've got the privilege of talking to Michael today. Michael is a retired military special ops veteran that has some interesting things he's going to share with us on the show today.

0:46 But welcome to the show, Michael. How's it going today. It's going really good. Appreciate the opportunity to be on your show. Absolutely. You know we were talking just before or this, and we definitely have some interesting ground to cover. You've had more than a few things happened over the years. So I'm going to say, let me go ahead, and I'm going to pass things over to you, and we'll probably chat about things as we go along. So feel free to take us back to however far back we need to go for when you started getting involved with this.

1:30 Okay, my experience. I'm from Idaho, originally from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. I'm a big city kid. Didn't have a lot of exposure into wilderness or anything bigfoot related. As a child. I did see, you know, some in search of television shows that you know, just drew my interest, but it was really never on my radar, particularly more of an entertaining type of involvement. In twenty fifteen, a gentleman and. Myself, Eric and I.

2:10 Decided to go bear hunting one season in central Idaho. The area that we bought bear tags for and decided to go was out of a campground called Boiling Springs Campground, just north. Of the city of Crouch, Idaho. We got ourselves together. We both were carrying rifles and then also had side arms. We got to the campground on a Thursday in the fall, so it would have been after school was back in session, so you know, no family camping or anything like that.

2:57 We got to the campground on a Thursday, pulled in, set up camp nothing, just kind of set up, had something to eat, and then came up with a game plan on what we would do Friday Saturday and then probably leave on Sunday. So we set up, we headed out before the sun came up Friday morning. We had a due north from. The campground, and then as you're looking at a map or going in a cardinal direction, we were moving due north from the campground. There were no other vehicles in the campground, so as far as we knew, there were no other human beings.

3:44 At that campground. That Friday morning, we set. Out, and when you're moving north, you come up to a river that you have to cross, which would then head you do east or you can stay on the west side of the river. And there is actually a remote hot springs that's about a three mile hike backcountry to this hot springs that I've been to a time or two before this particular event. So I thought, well, to avoid any humans whatsoever, let's cross over the river so that we can be moving in a more remote area so that we don't ever have to come across a human.

4:30 So we crossed the river. We're probably a good. Couple hundred yards to maybe even a half a mile to three quarters of a mile from the campground. We crossed the river, and by this point the sun is starting to show itself, so there's daylight. It's not particularly bright out. Still heading north, and now we start moving east a little bit and not much further from where we were or crossing the river. Sorry, I heard something coming through the thicket, so you know, we had bear tags.

5:12 So there was an already fallen pine tree, and I gestured to Eric, like, let's get behind the pine tree to see if whatever is making the noise coming through the woods would present itself. It's pretty thick up there. Especially this time of year. So we got down behind the pine tree. Nothing ever came through or presented itself over the rise. And sort of gestured to. Eric and I was like, hey, let's like start moving in that direction and if we see something like a bear, obviously, then we can shoot it. If we see an elk, then hey, we know that we can come back up here el hunting. So we start moving in the direction of what we heard, and we are moving uphill.

6:11 Northeast. At this point, we're moving. Uphill and we probably get another two hundred yards from where we were behind the pine tree fallen pine tree. It was already on the ground. And Eric turns to me and he kind of is. A little surprised, and he says, did you just see that? And I didn't, so I was like, no, what he said, something just threw a pine cone at me from that thicket. And if you can envision yourself in the wilderness, pretty thick uphill, and the distance from where we were to the thicket that Eric claimed that the pine cone came thrown from it is probably fifty yards maybe sixty yards, so not far but not super close. And we went to the pine cone and it was a green, closed pine cone. So in my mind's eye, I thought to myself, well, that didn't fall off of a tree because it's green, it's not dried up and ready to drop its seeds, so it was pulled off of the tree. So sort of like, okay, that's different. We were moving and we

7:41 were sort of moving, and as you know, when you're hunting, when you're moving through the wilderness, you're not really at the ready until you see something you're not ready to put around into your weapon. Until you see what you're going to shoot at. And we were doing the thing, but at this point, I'm a little more attentive. Some of my red flags are starting to turn on. I'm becoming more alert, and I was like to Eric, I. Was like, well, let's go towards it. Let's go towards the bush. So we deviate from. Where we were going, and we're now moving at a steeper grade uphill.

8:23 And because I. Am a little more alert, I'm now looking directly at the thicket. That Eric said the pine cone came out of. We get closer, and we get a little closer, and I physically see a rock larger than a softball, but a little smaller than a cantaloup, so like a big, not a small pebble size rock. This thing was pretty big. I see this thing come out of the thicket like an underhand softball pitcher at Eric, and that was very confusing to me. Eric turns around and looks at me.

9:11 Eric was in the lead. I was probably twenty feet behind Eric as we were moving up the hill. Eric turns around to me and I just am dumbfounded, and I'm looking at him, and he's looking at me, and at this point a little more of my alertness turns on. So I put the weapon. I put my rifle, and at that time I was hunting with a Bushmaster ar platform, so basically, visually it. Looks like a machine gun. It's an ar platform bush Master thirty thirty. Eric has a lever action thirty thirty. He has a forty four magnum side arm. I have a nineteen eleven side And so now like I'm kind of all my switches are on, if that makes sense.

10:08 So I had. Now I have the weapon in my shoulder pointed directly at the thicket. Eric is about twenty feet. Ahead of me, closer to the thicket, and we don't even speak at this point. I just give him a hand. Gesture of let's get a little closer. I'm you know, I'm starting to get amped up here. So we start moving closer to the thicket. And if you're looking when you're moving through the wilderness, the direction you're moving, we'll call that twelve o'clock. So we're moving at a twelve o'clock direction. Eric is now getting closer and closer to this thicket, and from my three o'clock an entirely different direction. Also, uphill, something went flying past my field division basically over the front of my barrel, like a Major League baseball player through it, and that just stopped me in my tracks. I then turned to my right and I'm looking uphill. I do not see anything.

11:21 We do not see anything in the thicket, and at this point we're probably twenty yards ish from it, from the thicket that the softball rock came out of, and now from my three o'clock uphill, something went flying past me very fast. So I am now running through like a mental roll of Dex, like what wait a second. We're way too close for whatever that was in that thicket to our twelve o'clock to run uphill and get into another position without a seat and or hearing it.

12:03 So now I'm like, oh no, there's more than one. Eric turns around and he's now looking at me eyeballs massive. He's very close to that thicket at this point, and I was like, oh crap. If something were to come out of that thicket chasing after or going to get Eric, I don't know if I could put enough bullets in it to stop it from getting to Eric. And the idea that there's more than one. So basically Eric is looking at me, I'm looking at Eric. We're scanning the hillside.

12:43 Do not see anything, and oddly enough something that I wanted to point out. While we were moving initially through the woods, crossing the river, starting to go through the thicket, there was definitely wilderness chat. The squirrels were letting everybody know we were there with their clicking and their noise, and there was just general mourning, ambient noise. Well at about the time the first pine cone that got thrown in Eric's direction, at that time, all of that wilderness chatter was gone.

13:27 There were no squirrels. Chattering, no immediate close proximity birds, you know, nothing. It was very eerily quiet. So after the rock or I actually don't know what it was, but it definitely went right across the front of my barrel, like very close and very fast. We decided, like, we do not know what's. Going on right now, what could be, what's happening, what could this be? So we make an immediate left turn.

14:08 So now we're moving in a in the westerly directions. We go straight down the hill, you know, regardless of how steep and It wasn't aggressively steep, but it was definitely steep way downhill. We got back to the river. That would have been. Probably one hundred yard one hundred and fifty yard movement to get back to the river, and just kind. Of we're now looking at each other, like what just happened. I did not hear something that Eric reported to me when we got back down to the river, but he heard what sounded like I was now in the lead and Eric was behind me, and he said it sounded like something was behind him sort of trailing him coming down the hill. I didn't hear it, so I can't really specify that I heard anything like that. We get back down to the hill, we get to the river, and we just sort of collect ourselves.

15:17 It is now maybe nine o'clock in the morning ish, pretty early. Actually, I'm like, I don't know what's going on. I think we should leave this area. So let's basically, we walked down the river to where we crossed the river, and then we headed back to camp. So that's what we did. You know, we didn't really have anything happen thereafter. We get back to camp, collect ourselves, have a cup of coffee, like what was that And he's like, I don't know, I have no idea. We decided to then go from that point. Around lunchtime, we're like, well, let's go on this area. So we stayed up there. We hunted in an entirely different area. We still walked in, but we.

16:07 Avoided anything north. Never saw anything, never saw any more animals, definitely nothing, no bear, signed, no bear, So we didn't We didn't shoot. Our weapons or anything. When we got back to the campground again, there were absolutely no other human beings occupying the campground but Eric and I we were the only tent. We were the only people at that campground. And if. You look at that campground, it's not a The road dead ends at that campground, So it's not like someone could have driven up past the campground park somewhere else.

16:50 It's it's a dead end at that campground. So we hunted the rest of that Friday, spent the night, didn't really have anything happened that night. Saturday morning, we woke up kind of like, yeah, no, I don't want to be here, and we both agreed, no, I don't want to be here. So we basically got up, had coffee, had breakfast, broke. Down our camp and we left. So the experience was Friday morning, Saturday, we decided to leave. Since then, I have been able to Oh. Actually, in.

17:34 The same time frame, a friend of mine, he's a retired Air Force veteran, he moved to the city of Crouch to get out of the city, to get out of the big city. I live in Boise, if that matters, and so moved up to a property and because we were still in contact, I sent him an email and I was like, hey, guy, when you're in the bars or you're just out kind of socializing or you know, whatever, does. Anybody up there talk about And this was. In September when we were hunting. I was like, does anybody up there talk about Bigfoot? Has anybody seen anything? So, and you know, he's like, hey, what's up, Mike. He responded to me and he's like no, He's like, I don't know of anyone that.

18:31 Talked about it. I was like, okay, well, this is what happened to me. I'm just letting you know. He's like, oh, well that's different. Fast forward so September, October, November, December, January, so technically the next year, but within a few months. God sends me an email. He's like, you're not going to believe this. So I've responded, well, what a friend of his who is a mechanic, leaves for work earlier than his wife. He leaves for work, he's at work, his wife is leaving for work, and she sends him a message, did you see the footprints coming up the driveway? And his response was no, I didn't see any footprints leaving the driveway.

19:27 She said, you might want to come. Home real quick and take a look at these footprints. So he leaves for work before the sun comes up. She leaves for work after. The husband comes home to his wife's message, and. There are barefooted like footprints that come up from the creek bottom on their property onder their driveway, and there's about nine or ten footprints before or it makes a left and goes up not up the driveway, but up into the tree line area and then up the hillside.

20:09 Where it's basically back in the forest. The husband claims those footprints were not there when he left for work, and were there one of his wife left for work. So in between the two of them leaving for work, something came. Up out of the creek bottom walked up their driveway and then went up into the wilderness. And this was in the town. Of Crouch, which is roughly eighteen miles from the campground, so maybe ten miles as the crow flies. He also sent me photographs of those footprints in the snow with his friend's work boot footprints, and they were a few inches bigger than his friend's work boot ffoot, so probably they didn't have a tape measure, so probably thirteen to fourteen inches footprints.

21:07 I did at one point two laptops ago have those. Footprints in the email from guy, but have since they're just gone. So that was an interesting, I guess addition to my story that a few months later barefooted footprints in the slushy snow in the town of Crouch, which is due south from the campground. So that's kind of an interesting addition to my story that a few months later something was walking around in bare feet in the town of Crouch. As far as any other my personal experiences, a few years later I had friends, actually a gentleman that I was in the service with also in special operations.

22:05 He and his wife traveled up here and they wanted to kind of have the Idaho mountain experience because they're from southern Louisiana. So Chad and his wife came up and I wanted to take them to the remote hot spring because they had never been to one. So it was before my then ex wife, my buddy, his wife, and then my dogs. I always take my dogs into the wilderness. They're two German shepherds. While on the trail, you know, and it's not a very used trail, but while we were walking to the hot springs, I came across it looked very much like a footprint in kind of the gravelly area. So I stop and I looked down, and then one of my dogs alerted to me, alerting to the ground. So he runs back to see what I'm looking at. And the picture that I sent you, you'll see in the upper left hand corner.

23:05 You'll see like disturbed gravel. Well that's where my dog freaking ran down to see what I was looking at and wanted. To see what I was looking at. So his footprint is like right at the top where initially you could see a toe like imprint, then another toe and then another toe and then the rest of the print. So my personal experiences were the rock, the pine, cone and then whatever else directly at us, and then a few years later the footprint on the trail to the Hot Springs, and then additionally the same a few months later the snow barefooted snow prints from my friend Carlson's buddy on his property. And then additionally, I that's what kind of kicked off, like what happened. So then I went down the rabbit hole, looked up that campground and bigfoot, and there have been a few things going on up there that are easily if you were to type in Boiling Springs campground and Bigfoot, you can read.

24:23 Probably exactly what I read. But interestingly enough, they were all in the fall around the same time that what happened to me and Eric happened. So I thought that was pretty interesting. Michael, this is it's a really interesting encounter. Yeah, I want to clarify a few things. So I'm looking on a map, like to get to Crouch. From Crouch to this Boiling Springs campground, it looks like it's it's a pretty good ride. And you said there's only a one way in pretty much.

25:08 Yeah, once you get to the campground Boiling Springs, the road dead ends there just south of Boiling Springs. You cross a bridge. And then there's a few unincorporated where people will camp for free so they don't have to use the Forest Service campground. And then the road goes due east and then we'll start. Heading up into the wilderness and then it drops back down south. If you pan out, if you're on like Google Earth now and you pan out, you'll see that bridge and then the like dirt turnouts where people will camp outside of the campground.

25:50 Gotcha. And the road to get up there, is that a like a forest service road or what kind of road is this? Yes? Yeah, it's dirt and gravel there. It's not. It's not as falt or anything. It's just a dirt and gravel road. Okay, it's a forest service road. So not easy to get there, not like a we're not talking a major road to get there. You know, dirt and gravel and no one at the campsite besides you guys, for yes, for the time that you were there. Wow, Okay, when you were up near that thicket, did you guys smell anything out of the ordinary. We did not smell anything. Again, we were approaching. Our movement through the woods was up, so whatever that was was higher in elevation than we were, and then you know, generally, you know, the smells are moving in a different direction, and it was pretty quiet wind wise, there wasn't a lot of It wasn't a lot of wind, but we definitely did not smell anything.

27:03 It's always interesting when the sounds of the forest completely just cut out like that. Did that affect you in any way or is that something you've experienced before as a hunter. No, I have never experienced that before, and I've been hunting. I've I'm originally mentioned I'm originally from Pennsylvania. I hunted whitetail and black bear in Pennsylvania with my uncle, a family member, a very very well established and very active woodsmen in Pennsylvania. And then I went to college in Central Virginia and hunted whitetail in Virginia. And all of my hunting experiences I've never had where just everything went dead, silent.

28:03 And that was something when Eric and I after the incident were down at like right at that incident, and we were down at the river when. We left, I brought that up to Eric. I said, did you notice that there were no other noises going on at that time? And he was like, yes, it was just eerily quiet. So one of the things I haven't really told this story to a ton of people, but one of the things that in close friends that I've told this to a my military buddy's like, why didn't you start shooting? And I was like, I don't know, because we were close. I had a full magazine in my weapon. I could have put thirty rounds in to that bush. And as a combat veteran for you know, for the military, I've been in firefights. I have run into buildings knowing the occupants of that building are armed and are going to be shooting at us as we go in to clear the building. So I'm no stranger to shooting. I'm very comfortable with shooting. But I just could not bring myself to shoot into the bushes and

29:34 not knowing what it was. And then I thought to myself, Oh, crap, what if it gets to Eric, because he's the one closest to the bush, Like we are probably a forty five fifty minute hike back to the campground with a wounded individual that I have to do triage on to get Eric to the truck, to get Eric all the way to Crouch like, we are a two to three hour ordeal to get someone the safety if God forbid, there was I don't know, an attack, so I just was like.

30:25 At the time, I was just like, I don't know what to do. So that's why I did not start shooting into the bushes. And then. Also with the people that I've told the story to, they're like, well, feral people, and I was like, I've been up there quite a bit. And since twenty fifteen when this happened, I've been up there hundreds of times. I love that hot springs. I go up there regularly. To go soak in those hot springs. I have never ever ever thought of feral people. But who throws rocks at people who have weapons? Like, legitimately, why would you throw rocks at people that are heavily armed? And what I'm carrying to you know, to the naked eye, what I am carrying.

31:28 Looks like a machine gun. It's an ar platform honeting rifle. It would have to be something that didn't quite grasp what you had, but knew you could do something. And the only weapon they had was a rock, right huh. And then. What I can only guess from the position I was in where I was. The first rock was underhand. Hey, you guys are getting kind of close, a little too close, So here's a rock to give you guys something to think about.

32:13 But we then. Moved a few feet closer, and then the other one. Again, I can't imagine that there was one we were too close to the thicket for if it moved positions, we would have seen it and we would have definitely heard it. So the idea that there was more than one, but we're getting very close to one of them, So it goes from underhand to very fast, get your attention. You guys are getting pretty close. Stop. That's sort of that's how I read the message of the rocks. It went from you're making us uncomfortable to now you just need to leave. So we're going to be more aggressive and we're going to throw things at you at a faster rate.

33:10 How many times have you played through in your mind the potential ways that scenario could have. Gone hundreds, hundreds and hundreds of times. Let's say if it had gone where something rushes out of the thicket towards you guys, would you been able like what would you have done? Have you ever thought about like what I've been able to even affect it at all with what I had. I I would have definitely I was in the position of shooting, so weapon in my shoulder at a combat ready and my finger in the rail, which means my finger is basically touching the trigger. Eric was twenty feet from me, so as I stand in my living room, Eric would be as if he was in my kitchen, and I'm a good shot, I would have definitely hid it.

34:22 Would I have killed it? I have no idea, But say it got to Eric, I then would have had a transition from my primary weapon, which is my hunting rifle, slid it down my body with my sling, and then I would have had to grab my nineteen eleven and approached it on Eric and started engaging it in that manner. But holy moly, what if there's more than one and something is coming down the hill? Now I'm in what I run in my mind. As a firefight, which I've been in a lot of in my military service overseas.

35:05 So now I. Would have had to have kept Derek safe while engage in something further up the hill. It's insane. It's an insane thought, it really is. And I'm glad that it did not turn into that or you know, I think these situations like that do happen, and the reason why we don't hear about them is because those individuals probably don't come back because there's more than one there. That's just my hypothesis. But yeah, just some wild wild stuff in the You said fifty two one hundred times you've gone back to this region. Have you ever experienced the same, You know that the sounds of the forest just all of a sudden shutting off like you did that day.

36:00 Yes. Again. I travel with my dogs. I have two male German shepherds. They're amazing bush dogs. They run ahead, they run back, They run ahead, they run back. They let me know when shit is going on well before I know what's going on. And probably on two occasions when going back to the hot springs, they both alerted uphill and just stood there and stared up uphill, letting me. Know, hey, dad, there's something up there. I didn't really.

36:44 And on one of those occasions is when the chirping stopped and dogs running through the wilderness, squirrels are telling everybody there's a dog here or there's something here. To let all the other squirrels know like there's something here. And on one of those occasions, yes, it was dead silent. I looked where they were looking. I never saw anything. I never heard anything. I moved through that area. I gesture to my dogs, I give them the commands let's go, and they run right path me and take off.

37:29 So yes, on two other. Occasions, I've been in exactly that area and all of the ambient noises and essentially what they are is the squirrels that are chirping, and people who walk through the wilderness or are on the hikes remote hikes know exactly what I'm talking about. When you get close, they shut up. So yeah, it's a really weird experience if people haven't gone through it. When the sounds of the forest shut off after the main experience we were talking about with you and Eric did, was there anything in the days after that happened that was unexpected, any you know, weird physical things or weird dreams or anything that you experienced after that or was it life back to normal?

38:29 Pretty much? Life back to normal. Eric and I talked about it a. Few times and more as a novelty. Eric is an amazing guy. Eric was in the Army, but he had more of an administrative role in the army. He wasn't what I call a shooter basically what I did in the military in special operations, and it was more novelty, like what what do you think that was? And he just absolutely no clue.

39:11 He did not go down the rabbit hole quite as far as I did. And suddenly being like, what could that have been? And since then, I've. Probably read fifteen books about it. I've read quite a few of the David Politis series four one one, I've read some of the When the Science Meets Something book. I think doctor Jeff Meldrum from the University of Idaho or Idaho State, whom I've met on one or two occasions here in Idaho when they've put on just like little bigfoot forums or a Bigfoot I don't think festivals.

40:00 What maybe a forum like a bigfoot for him. And he's in Idaho and he's from Idaho, so he'll he'll pop into those things, and you know, he found my story very intriguing and unlike you know, he had a few occasions on his own personal research that he's had things thrown at him, so he kind of related. But that's kind of as far as that went. You know, I was going to actually ask you, but you you just kind of brought it up. Is this area also known for incidents of missing fore and on or missing people?

40:42 No, And after I got back and sort of started looking into the area Boiling Springs Campground, the occurrences that I read about up there on you know, the BRFO website, I think also the big the new Big Bigfoot mapping website that were drawn to happen at the same time in the fall. One happened in the campground. It was an elderly couple. One of the campgrounds. And you know, when you go up there, it makes sense, but one of the campgrounds, when you pull into the campground, your camping location, and then where the bathroom is, there's a there's a little tree line. This elderly couple saw something tree peaking is the only way I can describe it, between their campground and the bathroom, which prompted them to leave immediately. Like they essentially got up, pulled their camper in, were setting up. It was twilight, and the woman that was camping up there saw something poking its head out from behind the trees between them and the bathroom, and she's like, oh, yeah, no, we're.

42:06 Good, We're out of here. And then another couple on their four by fours were riding around the service roads up there, and the husband was in the lead, the wife was in behind, and she was far enough back that his trail dust didn't bother her, so she was a little bit further back than her husband, and something split them. It ran in between the two of them and ran. Up the hill. She saw it as it crossed the road and went up the hill, and as she crested the corner she saw her husband, who was waiting. For her, making sure that she was right behind her.

42:47 He saw it in the woods running up the hill and they both kind of like Eric and I. They were like, did you just see that? And She's like, did you just see that? But that was in the same area. That is extremely interesting for people that are new to the subject. The two websites that Michael's referring to you can go to as well, bfroo dot net and bigfootmap dot com, And I recommend you check out both of those for resources. They're good. Would you ever want to have a visual sighting of whatever is up there in this area?

43:34 I don't know. I still go back there. I'm planning on. I mean, I'll be back there this as soon as you can get back there it's still pretty snow filled. As soon as you can get back there, I will be back there again. It's one of my. Favorite places for hiking. The river is amazing for fly fishing, So I will be back there, and I've thought about it. I don't think I. Would be afraid of a visual sighting. I do carry a side arm when i'm back there, and when I'm back there long enough, because I'll go back there and practice field craft where I'll stay at the remote hot springs on a hammock and make a little fire and basically stay there and enjoy the wilderness. I'm generally armed a little bit more than just a side arm, so I'm not worried about it in that respect. I'm more worried about it the people that I have heard from podcasts and reading research, a visual sighting is an entirely different scenario, Like the visual confirmation of something that is not supposed to exist really haunts people like they can't get it out of their minds. So I don't know if a visual I mean I'm not out seeking it.

45:02 If I do have one, Like, I'm kind of mentally prepared for it as far as I know, but I hear seeing one definitely changes your. Perspective, I would agree, And it's not that I've had that happen myself. I haven't yet, but it is definitely the I would say it is the point of no return. There might be some people that would argue with me on that, but I mean, once you have that, I mean there's definitely no going back. I mean I feel like I'm already there after hearing some vocalizations. But yeah, the vocalization, as you or the visualization as you said, really does change things for witnesses when they talk about that.

45:49 But so. Talking about the main experience that you had, is this the first time in your life that you've had something that was just out of the ordinary, just weird happened like this, or has that kind of followed you along your life in different ways? No, that was no. That was the first and only very specific interaction. I mean, there's really no other way of putting it. That was literally an interaction, and I've had no additional interactions specifically. Again, the time when I was up there and my dogs alerted to something uphill again, and the ambient noise of all of the squirrels basically completely when silent. That interaction wasn't very specific, and it was only a few moments.

46:51 By the time I. Got up to where the dogs were alerted, I looked up. I didn't see anything, because it could have very well been a black wa because there are black bear up there. I didn't see anything. They did not pursue it, and my dogs have chased coyotes, you know, they're they're not afraid of coyotes, So if it was a predatory animal, they did not pursue it. And by the time I got to them. I looked up hill, took a second or two. Don't see anything. All right, guys, let's go. Gave them the alert. They took off up the trail, and then we just continued on. Got to the hot springs. I soaked, no big deal, hung out, hiked out. Nothing happened at the same location. We walked right through as if it was normal.

47:42 It's interesting because you mentioned that you have been looking into the area since your interaction. Have you talked to any I don't know if if you guys have like if they're forestry workers or DNA are what the equivalent of this area. Have you talked to any individuals like this about potential things going on Bigfoot related? Yeah, I contacted. I believe the Forest Service ranger station is the Loneman station, that would be the closest one, and I contacted. I went in like not right then when we left, we left, we went home.

48:28 But I did go in there before and I. Was like hey, and it was probably a seasonal park ranger, nice kid, probably in his early twenties. I was like, hey, do you guys ever get any strange reports of things here? And he's like, no, not really. I didn't expect anything less. I did not speak with the l EO Park ranger, the law enforcement park ranger. Because they're very rare. I didn't see them. I didn't think to get a hold of Idaho fishing game. But the one time I went into the ranger station. Yeah, they were just like no, not really. So I left it at that.

49:15 It's extremely interesting and just a double check. Is Eric going down the same trail that you are where you're becoming very interested in the subject, or is he kind of like whatever about it? No, he's I failed to mention this earlier. And this may not mean anything, but Eric is a very religious person. He's a practicing. In the community Mormon, and I don't think that I think for him it was an unusual something. But I don't think he he ever looked into it scientifically because I don't think he believed anything past what his own personal beliefs are.

50:11 And that's you know. And and he's a he's a nurse, he's a. We both worked for the VA here in Boise, and now neither of us work for the VA. He moved on the private practice, and I fully retired because my military retirement came through. But he was just sort of nifty about it. You know. He had brought up the ferral people thing because he couldn't he couldn't think of something with an opposable thumb that could throw. Throw something. So he was leaning towards the ferral people thing. Because again, there were no vehicles in the campground when we were there.

50:52 The entire time we were at that campground. There were no vehicles there, which leads me to believe, how would a person. Get there, Like, let's speculate. That this was another human being, how would they have gotten there by quad by four by four. But that's only going to get you to the road. You would then have to hike the distance we hiked remotely to be at that place at that time. And I've hunted in Pennsylvania. The areas that I hunted were state game lands, and they get pretty they get pretty crowded, And that sounds weird to say, but I have had a hunter come through my hunting area where I was in a blind and you just courtesy, Hey man, I'm in here.

51:46 Oh shoot, sorry, I didn't know anybody was back here. And then they walk off. They don't stand there and throw at you. So if it was another hunter, why wouldn't they have indicated, hey man, this is our are oh sorry, turn around and leave. Nothing. There was no None of that happened. And again there were no vehicles at that campground. So Eric was leaning more towards ferral humans. And it's I guess it's possible, but I've been up there quite a few times. I have never never any indication of any kind that there would be people.

52:34 Up there, right, it would be quite yeah, yeah, I mean either viewpoint could be right, But logically, you know, it's just I'm probably gonna go more with with your viewpoint on it. But it's just such an interesting I mean, it's a new area for me. I'd be interesting to see what comes out of this episode being aired if there's you know, usually more people come forward about the same area, so we'll see what comes. Out of this. But but but Michael, it has just been really fun chat with you, and thank you for taking us back to the time when this happened for you. I want to make sure that you were able to share everything that we're in your notes today.

53:31 Yeah. Yeah, it's a it's a very interesting and very unique story. To me again and me going down the rabbit hole of nonferral people that there are what this is one of the things that they do, you know, they they let you know you're getting too close, and they do it with pine cones, smaller rocks. To bigger rocks. I would be I would love to stay in content, Jeremiah, and the fact that if you start getting reports from that area that I'd love to hear about them because I will be going. Back there and this season I think.

54:12 I'm going to go back there a little more electronically, So I'm going to start putting some trail cameras just up off of the river and just see what I can find. Because I'm also I'm still an avid hunter, so if I get activity up there, game wise, I will be up there during hunting season, which would which would put me up there in the fall. But it'd be interesting to hear if anyone else in the area who has been up there. Has an experience. Absolutely, we'll definitely keep in touch and you know how to reach out as well. But Michael, thank you for coming on the show today. I'd really appreciate it.

55:00 Yeah, I appreciate it. It's a pleasure meeting you. I look forward to, you know, maybe hearing from you again, or are you hearing from me again? Swan to take a minute to say thank you truly for listening to this episode of the Big for Society podcast. Michael's story is a wild ride through Idaho's forest and a mystery that leaves more questions and answers. It's huge thanks to Michael for sharing his incredible experience with us and reminding us that sometimes what we think we know isn't all there is to the story. You enjoy this conversation, please subscribe to us on YouTube. Hit the bell Icon so you don't miss any new episodes, and share this one with a friend who's into Bigfoot, the unknown, or just a good old fashioned mystery. You're listening on Apple Podcasts or Spotify and make sure you're following the show and if you'd be willing to leave a review, it really helps more people find us. Now, if you or someone you know has had a big Foot encounter, especially around places like Boiling Springs Campground or Crouch, Idaho, I'd love to hear from you, so shoot me an email at big for Society at gmail dot com and let's talk. Also, don't forget Sasquatch Summerfest is coming up July eleventh through the twelfth in Oakridge, Oregon, and Bigfoot Society listeners can grab a two day pass for the price of one day admission with code BFS at checkout. Huge thanks to Priscilla for making that happen. Tickets are still available at www dot Sasquatch Summerfest dot com. So thanks again for being part of the Bigfoot Society. Until next time, keep your eyes open, trust your gut, and never stop asking what else might be out there And see you in the woods.