It Was Right There! | Chewelah | Washington

0:00 Welcome to Big for Society. If you have BIGFOD activity to report from the same areas discussed in this episode, please reach out to me directly after this episode. And if you'd like to be on the podcast to discuss a personal Bigfoot encounter, please reach out to me directly at bigfo Society at gmail dot com. Do you wish there was more Big for Society to listen to you every week? Well there is now. If you become a supporting member over at Patreon, you get a special members only episode every single week on Wednesdays, and sometimes even more episodes. Head on over to Patreon dot com. Forward slash the Big for Society and now let's get on with the show. All right, Big for Society. You've got the privilege of talking to Laura today. Laura is an individual that reached out to me after she heard an episode that was an organ episode that was asking for any people to reach out that had organ encounters. So Laura has some really interesting things she's going to be sharing today. So welcome to the show.

1:00 Laura. Hi, Hi, thanks for having me. Absolutely, we've had such a fun conversation before the show just a few minutes ago, so I really can't wait to get into this, Laura. We're going to be going from Oregon to Washington and who knows where else. But I'm going to go ahead and give the reins over to you. Laura. There's anything that else that you want the listeners to know, feel free to add that as well, but definitely take us back as far as we need to go. When you started experiencing interactions with sasquatch. Okay, okay, let's see. So the first thing that happened was in about twenty fourteen. I think it was summertime. Yeah, it was, And I had been living in Oregon for a couple of years, and I lived there for a total of about eight years. But in twenty fourteen, yeah, i'd lived there for a couple of years and was dating my ex who Well, what we kind of did for fun was just drive to the coast or drive to the forest on the weekends. We weren't really squatchers or anything like that. Did kind of both, you know, believe that was a real thing. But we didn't exactly go looking for sasquatch either, but we would drive through the forest. He had a lot of experience doing that in a previous job. So I think he was comfortable doing that. And well, during the summer, there one time when we were riding around, or we were riding up

2:32 and down like some old forest roads near Durana Lake. It got to the end of one of them and it was way up high on the top of a ridge and let's see, there was a sort of an open just a little clearing there, not even in a field. It was a pretty small clearing, but it was just a really cool spot we found. So maybe some weeks later or a month later, there was this alignment in this sky that I'd heard about on the news, like you could see the super moon and a couple of planets and it would look really cool. So I said, hey, why don't we go back to that spot because we'd have such a great view to, you know, look at the sky see the moon and the planets. He said, are you sure you want to do that? And I'm like, why not? Because I liked the camp and right around in the forest and so but I guess I didn't really know what the forest would be like at night, because the atmosphere kind of changed. After we got there.

3:33 We drove to Durana Lake and then we found that old road and kind of rode up. It was around six or seven miles away from sort of a main road. And when I say there was just nothing there, there's I don't know the name of that forest exactly, but no outside of the roads, there was just nothing, no buildings, no people. I don't even know if we even passed another car, maybe one or something, but not a lot. But as we were it hadn't gotten dark yet. And as we were driving, I thought one of my friends had given me really good advice about going into places like that, and it was to just let the creatures and the animals there know what your intentions are. And she had told me I could say it out loud or just say it in my head, but it was just important to do that, and so I did. And when we were driving up that road, I just thought, well, hey, guys, you know Sasquatch, if you're out there, we're just coming to visit. We just want to share the space for a little bit. We're not trying to get pictures or videos.

4:48 We just want to visit so we can look at the sky tonight. And as we got there, it was still light. I was after we'd driven about seven miles into the forest, and we were up on the ridge. As it started to get dark, we could still see it was twilight, but the atmosphere kind of changed, so it was a little bit windy and the tree tops were moving a little bit, and it wasn't scary. But it had been like sunny, and we were kind of excited, you know, on the way out there, but suddenly it felt less like that, but it wasn't scary, and I took a minute to leave, leave the truck we were in, and I decided to take a little break, you know, away from my boyfriend and behind a couple of trees.

5:48 And so when I stood up, I was about to walk back over to him, and I felt this electricity sort of in the middle of my back, but more on my left side, but down kind of in my area, and I stopped. I'd never felt anything like that before, and it slowly traveled up my back and into my neck and threw my scalp and it was the strangest sensation I'd ever had in my life, like ever. And I walked back to my boyfriend and he was standing next to the truck and he just looked at me, and before I could say anything. He said, I feel uneasy.

6:30 So I said let's go. Let's go, and we jumped into the truck. He said, well, it feels a little better sitting in here, and I said no, no, no, no, no, let's go. Let's go now, now, now, And we drove out of there pretty fast, and we talked a lot about how the atmosphere had changed, and we both had the feeling. He asked me what it felt like, and I said, it just felt like we were surrounded, even though we didn't see anything. It just I felt like I was being watched by it, I have to say, several creatures. And it was just the feeling I had. And then of course the electricity thing happened. And what he had noticed was that there was a small kind of bushy tree on the edge of the clearing, and he thought that it was shaking a lot more than all the others. And I hadn't really, I hadn't seen it moving, but because it was kind of windy too, I don't to me, I wasn't sure if that meant there was like actual tree shaking or it was just the wind. But he just felt really uneasy, and he kind of felt the same way so that led me to right after that, I began listening to Sasquatch chronicles quite a bit and trying to learn more about Sasquatch.

7:48 I did believe it was real, but I didn't have a real strong interest before that either, even though I'd heard a lot about Sasquatch in the region people I met when I would go camping and go skywatching. That was something I did whenever I could around that time, and eventually, I guess it was about three years later, and I went to a spiritual sort of let's see, well, I was on a spiritual retreat. I had done that for a few years in a row, and just kind of a long weekend away with a lot of people who had the same interests, and we were all believers, you know, and I guess you could say a lot of woo stuff Sasquatch and aliens. And I had an interest in UFOs too, and so I was around with a lot of like minded people. And I had gone to this retreat up in northeast Washington and that was let's see, yeah, that was Labor Day weekend in twenty seventeen, and so it was kind of late summer, really late summer and we were outside Chewela Chehela, Washington, This really

9:20 small town, I guess it was about an hour's drive north of Spokane, maybe about halfway between Spokane and the Canadian border. And there's a really small town called Chewela in a big mountain, Chewela Peak, and you could drive about nine miles up from the small town of Cheweila, and my group had rented out this conference facility there. There wasn't much else there. There were a few roads that had like some housing, some summer houses, a few year round residents. Not that many lived right there on the peak. I think there was a ski slope not too far away, but most of the area was just national forest. So but the conference facility, i'd see that was the Chewela Peak Learning Center, I think that's the name of it. And there were about one hundred of us and I think it was the last night we were staying, either the second to last night, the Saturday night or Sunday night, because we all left on Monday morning.

10:28 I had an experience where I was walking back to the RV that I was staying in kind of late, and there was a small building that had a bunch of showers and some women's dorm areas, and it was next to a kind of a field, like a like a soccer field, if you can imagine that. And so I was walking back from that building into the RV. It was maybe ten point thirty I don't think it was past eleven PM, so it's pretty dark, but there was an outdoor light on the building I came from, and on a couple of the other buildings on the property too, and that soccer field was right in front of me. And there were a lot of tents too, a lot of so some of the people at the conference were staying in tents that were around the edge of the field. And let's see, how did that. I left the building and I kind of glanced down to my left, and I could see another woman that attended the conference. She was kind of sitting alone in a area we had There was a fire pit area, but we weren't burning any fires because there was a burned band.

11:50 That summer was too dry, so we couldn't have any our own. And then I turned to my right to go on the path towards the RV on the other side of the property. And as I was beginning to go that way. I saw something moving down the center of the field, and I kind of stopped because I knew what a person looked like from that distance, because I'd seen people, you know, in that area before, but it was so much bigger than a person, and I just stopped. I was kind of frozen because I couldn't believe it what I was looking at. And I could see a sasquatch walking kind of down through the center of the field if you can imagine, you know, like from one goal of a soccer field, you know, towards the other goal area. It just walked down through the center basically, and it kind of looked like Patty from the film that everybody's seen, except it was walking the other way, from right to left. And because it was dark, I couldn't quite see the face it was. That part was in shadow, but I could see the outline perfectly, and you know, and the little conical head. And I think it was really dark because in the hair was

13:20 really dark. And I wasn't scared. I wasn't scared at all. I know a lot of people are when they see that, but I think I was just too shocked and surprised at what I was looking at to be scared. Plus, it wasn't walking straight towards me, it was walking more past me. It seemed to kind of glance in my direction, but kept on moving away from me. So I wasn't scared, and I just watched it, and from my perspective, the other end of the field was sort of there. Weren't any lights or buildings back there. There was nothing but forest behind it. So it just kind of disappeared in to the darkness. And so I went back to the RV and I got into the bunk that I was sleeping in, and I just pulled the blanket over my head and just said, like, what did I just see?

14:15 What did I just see? And I didn't tell anyone. I didn't tell anyone, even though a lot of the people that I knew and that were there, they are all believers and some experiencers. But I just didn't tell anyone. I think I didn't maybe trust that. I thought. Was I open to suggestion? Could I have imagined that, could have not imagine, but maybe created that somehow in my mind?

14:57 And so that was my feeling at the time, And so over the next year I would often think about it and wonder what I saw and replay the incident in my head, and I'm going back to where I told you. I left the small dorm building and looked to my left, well, I saw another woman that I knew. And when I went back to the same conference in twenty eighteen. She was there, too big for society, who will be right back after these messages?

15:53 And as we arrived, people were just standing around saying hi to each other, and I spoke to her and we chatted for only a minute, and then she said something about last year when the sasquatch walked through the field, and I said, you saw it too. You saw it too. I know you were there because I saw you when I left the building, and so you saw it too. I didn't bring it up. She was going that brought it up. And that's when I began to truly believe that I saw what I saw and she hadn't seen me leave the building, but I had seen her as I left a little building that night, And so it was.

16:42 It was a year before I actually breathed a word of it to anyone, and but I'm somewhat more comfortable talking about it today. And that's that's pretty much what happened. That. That is incredible. I'm looking at a picture of this learning center. It looks like a very really cool place in the out in the mountains. Yeah, out in the middle of nowhere, right. Yeah. Yeah, it's a really cool place. And it was owned by the a Department of Education and a lot of educational conferences were held there, I guess for administrators, but also like band camps, and I think maybe church camps could rent out the facility too, and they would rent it to other groups I wanted to, and so my group just happened to be the one they rented it that weekend.

17:40 But yeah, yeah, it's a neat place. So when you were there for twenty eighteen, then you did have this conversation with this woman that you saw again, But did it come up to any other people that you would talk to during that same time where hey, actually, last time I had seen a sasqua walk through the field. Do you mean were there was there anyone else who saw it? Or did you start sharing your account with people at that time during that conference? Yeah, a little bit. Yeah, I told a few people and determined that there was another witness to it, but he he was from a different country, and he also deleted his Facebook account, so I never could ask him about it. I was going to, but I just kind of dropped it when I couldn't find him on social media when he had been before, but his account was deleted.

18:34 So yeah, So there was actually a third person who saw it, according to the other woman. Yeah, and so yeah, I was going to say, just the one of the organizers. When I spoke to her about it, you know, I said, I didn't leave it, and then I talked to her and she confirmed it, and so I know it really happened. And she just said, oh, I love when that happens, you know, kind of a synchronicity sort of thing. Is this particular have you looked to see if this particular area is known for sasquatch sightings regularly? I heard that I don't know about. Well, I had heard people say that they were there, they that they some were there and lived there. I don't know about actually, you know how many sightings just I it some people in the area said, yeah, they live here there, they're around.

19:31 Interesting And what I think and what I think it was doing was it actually used one of the trails. There's a lot of nature trails on the property, and I think it actually used one, uh when it disappeared into the forests off the kind of behind the far end of that soccer field. Yeah, there was a little trail right there, so I think it actually used used it to at least enter and exit. Yeah, the area. I think it was just curious about us because there were, you know, a bunch of people staying there and some were intense actually in the field or well around the edge of it, and I think it was just checking things out. And yeah.

20:16 Well, and the thing is is like, you know, we don't know exactly how how this all works, but hypothetically, if you do have a large group of people where they do have a positive intention, that could be almost like a huge magnet, right and they could be like, well, what's going on right here? This is like a big party, Let's check it out. Sure, sure, absolutely, absolutely, And the vibes were you know, strong and high, so yeah, I think if they couldn't sense that sort of thing, and I believe they can, then and that's what happened. Yeah. Now, the year that you had the sighting, so which should be twenty.

20:58 Seventeen, twenty seventeen am. The day after you had that sighting at night, did you go back to that area at all, maybe to see if there was anything that you know, would be like, oh, there's something that maybe looks like a track or or anything like that, or did you kind of stay away from that area. No, I didn't go back, and the next time actually went there, or at least with the intention of, you know, thinking about it, was actually the next year, gotcha, And I actually went back again in twenty nineteen for the same event, but did not in twenty twenty. Everything got canceled in twenty twenty. That's true. Yeah, so, and I'm not sure that the centers even open anymore. I think the state closed it. They closed it for when COVID happened, and they closed everything and then didn't reopen it because they said it cost too much to maintain.

22:01 Yeah, unfortunately, on my map current day does say permanently closed, so. Yas, Yeah it is, but it is a real place, and yeah, it's a neat place. So you know, after having that sighting in twenty seventeen, are there ways that this has greatly affected your life in years after that? I think so in some ways in that I had to think long and hard about what it meant to believe in something, because before I saw it, I was a believer. I mean, I thought, well, I mean, I listened to so many stories people recount their stories on you know, some other podcasts, and I thought, well, they're not all liars. I don't know if they're all telling the truth, but they're not all liars, so believe them.

23:03 But I never thought I would see one, especially because I really never went looking through one either. I didn't go out squatching. I didn't go on expeditions and things like that, which is something I have done in more recent years. I live in Kentucky now, that's where I'm from, and so I've actually gone on a couple of trips to go out looking. But back then, you know, around that time, I went from being like a believer to like a knower, an experiencer. And it just kind of reinforced that probably other things that we've been told aren't true are true. If I mean, if that's true, then a lot of other things like well, I think, you know, there's probably alien life throughout the universe, and there's probably some that have visited us before, and I have no idea which stories are true. And which are not true.

24:03 But again, they're not all liars. The people you know, sort of catalog that information or have those experiences and share them. I don't think they're all liars. I haven't had that kind of experience, but yeah, yeah, so I'm probably more inclined to believe some of those things that we're told are not true really. Are That makes sense. I've mentioned it a few times on the show. But you know, I did go out to Oregon this summer, did not have sighting, but I did experience some weird vocalizations way out in the woods around the will lame It National Forest, And so I can get I can kind of get that. I think where it makes you question things that you have set up in your mind, in guardrails that you have set up, and like, okay, you know what do these guardrails actually need to be up? Or are there things that I believe that maybe aren't completely true? Things like that. You know, it does make you just think through everything. Right, you mentioned that you are starting to go on like bigfoot expeditions.

25:18 I'm able to do it a few times. KBrO Kentucky Bit Research Organization. Often there's a spring one and a following in different parts of Kentucky, and so I moved back here in twenty twenty. And actually, so I've been able to meet some other people in the area. Well some people come from other states, but in the region, and yeah, we all have that common interest we do. We go to some places that are known for sightings and see what we can find an experience. So, if you've had that sighting out in Washington, what is your main goal or why then take part in these expeditions down in Kentucky.

26:11 Well, because I think they're just they're all over the United States. Maybe not everywhere, but at least in the heavily witted parts. They're probably more common than we realize. And so if I could have the chance to see one again, that'd be amazing. But also it's been cool to just go camping with some people who have similar interests. That makes sense when you have an interest in a niche subject where it's hard for people to really understand. It was super helpful when you're able to meet people that get it. I totally understand that.

26:53 Yeah, And you know, you continue learning about the phenomenon by doing things like that. You know, Charlie Raymond, he organizes that. He and his wife Lindsay organized that, and they're great people, and he's mentioned a few times and now I believe him that they're curious, curious creatures, and they do sometimes want to come check out, you know, the people who are camping in the woods or taking a trip, taking a hike through the woods at least sometimes. But he describes them as curious. And now I believe. That when you've been out on these expeditions with the Raymonds, has anything out of the ordinary happened that you've experienced?

27:38 Oh wow, yeah, well, let's see, I haven't had a sasquatch sighting, although some other people on the trip have and I'm the same event, but not when I was present. There have been a few sightings. I know at least one person there's a had a really cool sighting, but it was on a I'm not sure a fleer it was, or the no, the thermal the thermal camera. Someone saw, you know, the really cool movements like through the thermal camera, but not like visually. And things like that have happened different times. One time a log got rolled over on a trail that we had just hiked, and no one knew who did it. There was another really weird thing that happened one time. It was I don't know if it was No, I don't think it was Sasquatch related exactly.

28:35 It was almost like a time slip happened in the woods where I was with a group of about five or six of us, and we were pulled off on the side of a road that was leading to a river, and there was a rock wall on the other side of the road, and let's see, a group of about six five or six in another truck passed us and stopped and slowed down and said hey, and we said hey, and that we'd meet up down at the river. And so a little while later the group I was in, five or six of us got in the truck we were in and continued on down to the river, but they weren't there. And we were kind of surprised because they couldn't have left the area without passing us. We couldn't have left without passing them. They couldn't have left without passing us. But neither of us passed each other.

29:38 I don't know if if I can if I explained that very clearly or not. But we didn't meet up until a couple hours a few hours later back at the campfire, and none of us could figure out what happened because a screw passed us in a truck slowed down, said hey, we'll meet you down there later, and continued on down there. Big for society, who will be right back after these messages.

30:19 But when we caught up with them down there, or we went to catch up with them down there, they weren't there, but they hadn't passed us coming back, so there was no other way for them to drive out. Yeah. Yeah, that's a mind bender, for sure. It was. It was a mindbender. Yeah yeah. And right before well kind of while that happened, I'm not sure if it was right before the truck passed us or right after, but all these dry leaves started falling, like right at the same time, but it wasn't windy, and we could hear them and see them falling, and it was it was just kind of odd, yeah, and nothing explained it, and you know, some of us talked about it with other people in the group, and but all we could really come up with was huh, I mean, huh, that was weird.

31:14 Yeah, yeah, yeah, one of those things where everyone's just like yeah, no, no answers for that one. Yeah, yeah, pretty much. Yeah. Yeah. So so it makes you want to go on, you know, another trip if you get another chance, why not? You know, Oh yeah, when you when you get access to to something where you know, it's just it feels like you're part of some big mystery and that you're slowly starting to solve it, which in a way, that's really what this is. It's yeah, it's it's very very fun to be a part of. After after you or you know, maybe at any time, I guess I'll ask, have you ever felt, at any time that you've had a form of communication with assess Watch.

32:03 Not really. I mean, I know there are people who do, and that's another thing that I believe is true. Other people have that experience. I don't really have that experience. No, No, But the one the time that the closest I could say is that the time in twenty fourteen when I felt the burning sensation or the electric sensation sort of like in my lower back, I just had I shut my eyes and I had this really strong sense that there were like maybe between five and seven other beings nearby, and I just was kind of overwhelmed with that sense, and I didn't see them. But as far as actual communication, no, that's just not my experience.

32:54 Absolutely. I did want to actually get back to that twenty fourteen incident for a minute and just to maybe even just comment on it. That area that Doriana Lake. Have you been to any other areas around that as well? Mmm, let's see right around there. Not not really at least not that I could say I spent a lot of time in or No, because other times we took trips like that, we went further south and let see, but I think we only visited that area maybe two or three times, sure well maybe total of maybe total of about three. But I did see something later that gave me pause. If someone had made a map of Oregon and it was it was meant to be humorous and like like for Eugene. You know, there was something like this is where the ducks live in Portland, I guess where hipsters live something like that, But that same area around do Irena Lake. Someone the person had written this is where people see Bigfoot. That it was that area south of Eugene. No, and I thought that was funny.

34:13 It's one hundred percent truth to that, because so if you keep following. You know, you have to go down to the Cottage Grove to get to Durana Lake. Usually you take that road. If you keep going down, there's a Sharp's Creek is a huge it's it's a campground. But there's been so so many incidents encounters in that area to do with Sasquatch. And if you just keep going out on service roads, there's places out there that are wild. And then you know that whole Cottage Grove area. I don't know if you've ever heard of the Al Moonlab or London Springs. Al Moonlab is a book you can read if you want to know more about that area, and just there's some really really intense bigfoot encounters and just super paranormal stuff related in that area. So I'm not surprised that you were experience things like you were mentioning in that lake, because this whole region is just absolutely wild.

35:17 Yeah, yeah, it sure is. No, Actually, I didn't know that was a real hotspot for lots of paranormal stuff, although I did have that feeling sort of about the whole region the Pacific Northwest, and one of the reasons that I was so keen to move out there in twenty twelve. Is I was a skywatcher. I like to go camping and watch the sky and just watch, you know, different things in the sky that you know, you see a lot of weird stuff around mountains, and so I was a big fan of doing that, and I thought stories about big Foot were kind of silly. But as soon as I got there, though, you know, people just sort of b I met talked about it the utmost seriousness, that it was a real thing and people had real encounters.

36:05 And I probably didn't quite believe they were real, or at least get glued into that until about twenty twelve. Yeah, once I got there, because it turned out if I was in a place skywatching and I did that a bunch, people were probably talking about Sasquatch too. Now with your experience just talking to random people out there were these people that were also you know, bigfoot researchers or were they just you know, run of the mill, normal people, blue collar workers. What kind of people were you running into that were talking about how like, yeah, I've had something happen, or yeah I believe in that stuff.

36:53 Oh oh well, no, that was more. I had visited Trout Lake, Washington, around Mount Adams several times to go to go skywatching there, and so I met people there who you know, had the same interest. Yeah, the Mount Adams area has some really really interesting things happen around it, a lot of things related to UFOs and but also to Bigfoot as well. It sounds so I learned. Yeah, did you actually have sightings of UFOs when you were up in that area. A couple of times? Yeah, I saw a few really really strange things. You know, I would describe them as just lights in the sky, but they didn't conform to conventional aircraft and maybe orbs is probably the simplest way to explain some of the really weird ones in the sky. Yeah, that happened a few times.

37:58 Interesting. Well, Laura, thank you for coming on the show to share what you have experienced over the years in your travels through the Pacific Northwest but also down in Kentucky. It's been very informative, and I hope that you're able to have more things happen as you probably will continue to do more expeditions down there in Kentucky. Well, thanks so much for letting me talk about it. I actually haven't done that much in a public setting, but I don't know. Now seems a good time to maybe finally share a little bit more about that. So I really appreciate the chance to do it absolutely. Thank you again.

38:38 Okay, bye bye. Just want to take a few minutes to say thank you to you all my listeners for listening to the podcast. Please take a minute to help out the show by subscribing on YouTube, making sure you hit the bell so you don't miss any notifications, and share the episode on YouTube with a friend. Also, if you're listening to us on a podcast asked thank you so much, make sure that you're subscribed, share the show with a friend. Really, it's all about sharing the show wherever you can. If you've had a Bigfoot encounter related to the following, or know someone who has, please reach out to me at Bigfoot Society at gmail dot com or pass on my email.

39:21 Here's the list. Number one encounters from Franklin County, Texas. Number two encounters from the entire state of Iowa. Number three encounters from Oakridge, Oregon or the surrounding area. Number four any individuals that know about Bigfoot being flown off after the Mount Saint Helens eruption. Number five individuals that have had a bigfoot encounter well in the military. Number six. Those that have had a bigfoot encounter in the southern New Hampshire or north central Massachusetts area including Franklin County, Massachusetts. Number seven individuals that have had a bigfoot encounter in a Bible camp or boy Scout camp setting. Number eight individuals that have had bigfoot try to enter their house forcibly while they were living inside. Number nine individuals that actively have a bigfoot living on their property. And lastly, any sightings that are in the watchitat National Forest Area of Oklahoma or Arkansas. A special thank you to all the Bigfoot Society, Patreon and YouTube channel members. It's your support that helps keep the show going and I extremely appreciate it. I'll see you back next time. Listeners. SASA Summerfest this year July eleventh through the twelfth. It's going to be fantastic. July eleventh through twelfth in Greenwaters Park and Oakridge, Ore again and listeners, if you're going to go, you can get a two day ticket for the cost of one if you use the code b FS like Bigfoot Society, but BFS it'll get used some off your cost.

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