"It wasn't just looking in our direction, it was looking right at us! / Hieronymus Thermal

0:00 Either you're listening to the Big Society podcast and I'm Jeremiah Byron. Every week I talk to individuals who have experienced sasquats in some way or another, so you won't want to miss an episode. Make sure you're subscribed on the platform that you're listening to, and share this episode where the friend does not cost a thing, and it helps the show continue to grow. If you'd like to hear Bigfoot Society episodes early in ad free, you can do so by becoming a Patreon supporter or a YouTube channel member. Links to those are in the show notes and Big Foot Society. I've taken far too much of your time so far, so let's get on with the show, all right, Big for Society. You've got the privilege of talking to Austin Brown tonight.

0:49 He is from the great state of California and a mutual friend through te Horonymous. How's it going tonight, Austin, It's going pretty good. Jeremiah doing even better now, thank you. Oh yeah, it's a pleasure to have you on. I've been trying to chat with you for quite a while since your name comes up in a few different things. You've been seeing in a documentary or two maybe, but you've got some really interesting stories. So just very very pleased to talk to you tonight. Is there anything else that the listeners would need to know about you before we get going Austin? Oh, thank you so much. No. I just so appreciate your patience and your persistence. You've been very patient with me, and I have been giving it back as much as I should. But no, I mean I can kind of start off with how I met Tate if you like, absolutely, yeah, so let's let's start with, Yeah, the first story, how did you meet that crazy guy Tate Horonymous and kick out, kick kick off, all this big foot stuff. Yeah. Yeah. So it was kind of my first excursion away from home around eighteen or nineteen, and my friend was going to go to Mexico for six months and kind of live cheaply, and the dollar goes really strong over there, and we ended up getting an apartment together, not for six months but for over a year, and I ended

2:19 up staying there for three years. But being in Mexico, like I said, the dollar is super strong, and rent there was super cheap, and utilities for super cheap, and expenses for super cheap. So we split a place for I think one hundred bucks a month, so it was like fifty bucks a month for each of us and then fifty on top of that for utilities and maybe little groceries here and there. And that was my other friend, completely different friend. But basically what happened is The Dark Night Rises had just come out, and we were going to go see it in the theater, and we're going to meet up with a group of friends, and so we went to see The Dark Knight Rises, and of course it was fantastic, and they had a group of friends, and they introduced us to this person, take Pateronomous, And it was at that time that I discovered that he had watched The Dark Knight Rises like like five times already within the span of like a few days. And I began to understand that he is a bit of an enthusiast, right. And so as we sort of lived in Mexico, sort of side by side, he lived a few miles away from me, he would invite me to stuff. You know, I've always kind of been an introvert, kind of a stay home on the computer or play video games or watching movies or this or that, and it takes a little like that too, but he's more of an outdoorsy type. And so in Mexico, we would go to the Guvadora, we would go to mountains, we would go to hot springs, and we'd go to all these different places.

3:52 And he began to describe to me sort of his history and his fascination and his interest with Bigfoot, and for him, I think it started at an early age. I think he kind of grew up watching that Finding big Foot TV show on Animal Planet, and I never really grew up with TV. TV was one of the things I didn't really have. We had, you know, internet, and we had movies, but not so much TV because we didn't like to watch TV too much for whatever reason in our house. But he had a fascination for it, and I think his dad showed him the Patterson Gamlin film, and I think he may have actually seen that Patterson Gimlan film like in theater in several different places. So he kind of described that to me, and every now and then he'd say, Hey, you want to go do some big Foot researching? Do you want to go over here to these woods? Do you want to go over there to those mountains? And I never personally had an interest in big Foot. Like I said, we didn't have TV, so I didn't watch the Finding big Foot TV show. I never grew up watching the Patterson Gailan film. I did, never had any family members, never grew up around any mountains, you know. I grew up in Ventura, California, which is a beach town.

5:00 It's in southern California. Most of the stuff we do here is go to beach and good restaurants, and we don't really do much time in the mountains or the woodsy stuff like that. But Tate was kind of always bringing me out to do a fun big Foot research excursions. And as little interest I have in Bigfoot, I just wanted to tag along with my friend. And that's kind of how it's been from the beginning, and it's still that way now. I still don't have much interested in big Foot. But Patrier does, and you know, in the same way that he was interested in certain things, he's especially interested in that. That's an incredible way to meet someone through a great movie. The Dark Night Rises so good, right, and you've been along for the ride quite literally for Bigfoot. But I'm curious, so he probably he's very persistent in trying to get you to do things.

6:02 That's he's a great guy. What was the first thing where you're like, all right, Tate, I'll go out, we'll go do something Bigfoot related. We'll go we'll go do some research out in the field. What was the first thing. I don't remember the first time. It might have been just to a little field. We might have done a couple knocks or something very simple. But the first major one, the major one that I remember that was serious that I took time off work to go do, was to go to Bluff Creek to go to where the actual Patterson Giblin film site was filmed. And little did I know that it would end up being like a twenty hour drive to get there, and it would be such a harrowing experience just to exist in camp there, let alone find the actual site, you know, where the video was taken. But yeah, so that was the first time. I don't remember exactly the first time that we went.

7:00 It was quite a while ago, but we went with him with his dad, and we went with his dad's friend and obviously me and like I said, that was like a twenty hour drive, and you know, Tap did all the research he did all the work. It was really incredible. He found out the whole route how to get there. He planted all out on Google Maps, and he downloaded maps onto his phone so that even if he lost service, and he did lose service, we'd still be able to find our way. And Jeremiah, I mean there were multiple multiple times, and we were in two separate cars. I think I was in Tate's truck and then Tate's dad and his friend were in different truck or something like that. We had walkie talkie through a walkie talking back and forth, and we all had no faith in tape, Jeremiah. We had zero faith in it.

7:46 And we started to go off the beaten trail. It's not looking like there's a road here. We got no idea what's going on. And Tate's just trust me, trust me. Trust We planned it all out, and then a couple of times I hear tape, No, oh wait, no, not that way, you should be that way. No, you don't even know what you're doing. But low and behold, we got there and it was it was really something, Jeremiah. We got to what is it, Laos Camp? I think that's what it's called. It's called Laos Camp and we went there and gosh, it's just beautiful water and beautiful trees. And that's when Tate was serious about looking for big Foot. Yeah, what an incredible adventurous sounds like. Was this around twenty sixteen? Do you think I feel like it was before that? Okay, yeah, I feel like it was even longer ago. I've seen a photo from Tate where it's I believe it's you, Tate. When do you and Tate when you met Cliff Bobo and Tom Yamaron? Does that sound familiar? Do you remember that for sure?

9:00 I mean, how could you forget those guys that are incredible. That was the second time we went. So the first time we went it was with his dad and his friend. But the second time we went it was just him and me. We just went along. Yeah. The second time we went was in October of twenty fifteen. The first time we went July twenty fifteen, so we went almost a year later. The first time we went out to last Camp was back in twenty fifteen, and that's when we went with him and his dad and his friend. And then the second time, of course, was in twenty sixteen. We went just him and me, and that's when we ran into everybody. Part of the lore that you always hear about going to this area is that there's always an issue with someone's car. Did you guys have any issues with cars, you know, blowing up at tire or anything like that that had to be addressed on the way there. No, we were super fortunate. At least the first time we went. There was a lot of rocks and trees that were kind of in the middle of the roadway, and so we'd often have to get out of the cars, we'd have to move the trees, we'd have to roll the rocks down the mountain or something like that. That was the first time we went, But I do think the second time we went, Date was going a little fast in his truck and the side of the sidewall of this tire ended up nicking a rock and it tore his wheel, just tore the tire right open, you know. But fortunately he had a spare and he knew

10:31 pretty much how to fix it. I didn't really know. I didn't really know what I was doing, but I was there for moral support, of course, and we got back on the road and ended up being okay. Absolutely, you know, one of the things I hear, if you're gonna try to do that route down there, you want to have extra tire, maybe even extra gas, maybe even a chainsaw with you in case you come across a down tree that you can't just drag out of the way. But people need to realize it's it's a pretty crazy trip trying to go down to that film site. What did that film site? How did that come across to you as a person that you know, maybe hadn't spend hours and hours looking into the Patterson Gimlin film, But what do you remember seeing detail wise from from that trip for the first time. Yeah, you know, it was so much further than I expected. I was really hoping that we would just, you know, sitt up camp right there in Laos Camp. It's nice and cozy, perfect spot with the water right there and trees and paths and everything clearly marked. But I mean we walked, I want to say, for several hours, you know, and we're bringing water with us, we're bringing granola bars, we're bringing pocket knives, we're bringing wood knockers, and I feel like it took us some time. I feel like it took us several hours just to get there, and a lot of it was going through the creek. You know, you just follow the creek in order to get there, and that's a lot of water and a lot of rocks and a lot of fallen trees. I mean, I think the first time I

12:03 went, I wore regular shoes. Then the second time I went, I think I wore boots. You know, it's ridiculous getting over there, but it's really quite fantastic. I mean, it's such untouched forest. Really, there was little to no paths whatsoever except for what the big Foot people do. I know, they go through and they clear out a few trails and paths here and every now and then. But even with that, it's it's it's not a clearly travel trail that way. Oh absolutely. One of the good things that the Bluff Creek Project do is they keep that area, you know, up kept, They clear it out in a way so that it can be appreciated and not just you know, fade away into just a normal forest. From what I've heard, I have yet to go there myself, but someday I will be definitely going there. The thing the other thing I hear about that camp area is that sometimes there are weird things that happen there.

13:09 Did you experience anything out of the ordinary when you were in that camp at all? Or not? Not really, Jeremiah, not me. You know, when I go out for these things, I'm kind of tagging quong with Tate and I'm being a good friend. But honestly, I'm They're just to camp and have a good time, So I'm not really you know, I'm paying attention. I am. You know, I would be cool if if I saw a big footer assess watch, but I don't. I don't want to see it nearly as much as Tate does, or here as much as Tate does, So I'm not perceiving the events around me with that in mind, per se. You know, I'm perceiving it just like I'm camping personally. I didn't really have anything funny or strange happen. I did hear, you know, Tate was He's having a hard time sleeping, and I think on the first night that we were there, he felt like something was hovering over the tent. Now, of course it's late, it's night's two o'clock in the morning, You've had this long twenty hour drive, and you're looking for Bigfoot. So every shadow you see is going to be something.

14:11 But there was another friend he heard something as well, and he felt like something was hanging over the tent, but he was in a completely different tent, so that kind of freaked me out a little bit. But I really I believe that people see what they want to see and hear what they want to hear, and I wanted to see nothing and hear nothing. So I was finding with myself and they can see and hear whatever they want to hear. But it didn't really make much difference to me. That's amazing. It's from what I've heard, it's an interesting area because it's surrounded by water and it's almost like you can people will say they hear voices in that area sometimes, so it can really lead to some interesting things to happen. Maybe even some some things happening inside your head too, who knows. But we'll be back with more Bigfoot Society after these words from our sponsors. Yeah, yeah, I mean, if you listen to it enough, you know, and I think if you're in that state of mind, you really can hear stuff.

15:22 You really can. But I think with me is that I think I'm actively tuning that out. I'm just trying to sleep, you know. I love it. Did you get to the point after that first trip where oh sorry, let me ask, so, did you guys have any bigfoot interactions that first trip to Bluff Creek about it? The first time we went, I think the biggest interaction we had is Ta gave me this wood knocker. I thought it was so cool. It's just like this big thick wooden stick and you're supposed to for using it to summon bigfoot, you know. And I love whack of that thing, this other big foot. It was always so much fun during the calls of the wolves. I thought it was great, you know. But no, the funniest thing that happened was I was running around just whacking everything I saw. We're camping and we're e I'm just gonna whack stuff. And Tate's dad's friend said, you know, you might want to be careful about doing that, knocking trees and whatnot. You never know if there might be something in there. You might make it upset.

16:25 And I was like, what huh. I just kept on knocking around, you know, And the next thing I know, Tate's dad screams out in the middle of the forest and Tates, Tate's dad's friend is the same thing. He starts screaming too, and they're like, what's going on? What's going on? They start running and they start running ahead of us, and they're like, get us. They hang out of here, Get us out of here, get us out of here, and we're running like far wait, what are you running from? I don't even know what's going on. They were getting stung by hornets over and over and over, and they're the kind that don't like you and then go away and die. They just keep on staking you. But unfortunately I didn't get some take and get sung.

17:07 But Taste Dad and Taste friend that they got walloped they got. You should see their back. I have pictures. They were like so ready. But of course it was my fault, right because I'm the one who was knocking the stupid things, and he even told me not to do it. So to this day, I apologize, but I still think it's funny. There's a there's a life lesson to learn. Only do a few wooden knocks and don't be careful not to hit the hornet trees. You know, you don't want to unleash a barrage of hornets on your friends. That is wild. After the first trip, did you did you start to get into the finding Bigfoot stuff at all? Or still you're not really that that much into it?

17:49 Or a little bit? Yeah. I mean I had already put all this time and energy and effort into it. I already taken time off work, had already you know, lost sleep and lost gas and lost this and lost that for my friends. So I started getting into it a little bit. I saw a few episodes of Finding big Foot, and whenever take would have me to watch something or if we had me go out to another place, I was a little more open minded, especially being that I had been in kind of like what's considered to be the heart of big Foot research and discovery is right there at the Patterson Gatland. Philp Side's like, hey, I've kind of been a part of this thing, so I might as well look into it. It never really caught on for me one hundred percent.

18:29 It's just kind of like whenever I go I think about it, but whenever I kind of come back home, I kind of go back. I did my own thing. But it's certainly interesting, you know how many generations of people have reported it and how many different civilizations have reported it. And I think what gets me the most is people that have nothing to gain and everything to lose by sharing their stories. You know what I mean, perfectly credible people in their town. They're totally straight laced, their shriff or a deputy or something like that, and they can't afford to have people thinking that they're crazy. Yeah, but they still come forward and confess their their stories. Oh absolutely, I mean, and personally, those are the type of encounters and witnesses I love to talk to the most. You know, the gentleman who's a retired law enforcement official and you know he has nothing to gain by telling his story, but yet he had an encounter for sure. I asked the question earlier about if you started to get into finding Bigfoot in order to kind of get to another question, which was, so, let's talk about the time when you went with Tate and I guess you randomly would have run into Cliff and Bobo and Tom Yamaron, And did you recognize who Cliff and Bobo were or how did that go? Okay? So I totally did.

20:00 So. The way that happened is that Kate and I were going to go again this time. It was just gonna be him and me, no deadweight, no dad, no dad's friends who are gonna get there a little bit quicker, maybe a fifteen hours stead of twenty. And you know, Tate was like holding back for me the whole time. So he was saying, Oh, yeah, it's gonna be open, it's gonna be open. Everything's gonna be fine, everything's gonna be fine. But in the meantime, he was going back and forth with some guy he owns, like the big Foot bookstore, Stephen Streifert. Yeah, you got it, Stephen Stryford. He's going back and forth with Stephen. Little did I know he's going back forth with Stephen, and Stephen saying, oh, yeah, you know, the gate's probably closed. You probably can't even go in there. You know, it's it's it's cold, it's gonna be like snowy or icy or muddy or unsafe or something like that, and we're not going to anyone to go through.

20:45 But Tate was just leading me along as if everything was perfectly fine. And so we finally get there to what is it Willow Creek is kind of that town in there, and we're buying beer and ice and we're getting everything, and Tate's like, oh good, it might be open. I was like, what it might be open? What are you talking about. He's like, oh, nothing, nothing, I've just been talking with Stephen Strayford and it's all good. We're good. That's so awesome. But I think he while we were on our way, he eventually came clean and he said, listen, Austin, there's a chance that they gate to get to to get the loose camp. There's a chance that it might be closed. But if it is closed, there's another route that we can take. So they're gonna take us five more hours to get there. What's right, what's another five? We're already fifteen anyways, it's just gonna be twenty anyways, and one as well. So we show up there and we see that were they camp there first? Yeah? Yeah, I think we saw when we went to Laws camp there was already someone who had set up camp not too far away from us, and we said, oh wow, someone else is here.

22:10 That's interesting, but they weren't there at the camp site yet. And then we started setting up our own camp. We started setting up our own tent, and next thing I know, I think it was Cliff Barrockman, who came and introduced himself, and they were asking us if we needed any help, and like in that moment, Tate just went like full poker face. I mean he was different. He wasn't like he was talking to like a random Joe Schmo normal person. He was talking to Cliff Brockman, and I think I didn't connect it until I saw how Tate looked. And then I saw Cliff and I was like, oh, wait a minute, has the finding Big Flip TV guy? What did you say that out loud?

22:57 Or was that in your mind? That was in my mind? Okay, good right, as much as I wanted to, but no, I think the first thing he did, I think he offered me a beer and he asked me, he said, do you want domestic or do you want an import? And I was like, domestic means like local, right, Well, I want something bougie and different, so I'll go for an import. And the only imported they the only imported beer that they had was Plenty the Elder, which is like a fantastic beer, it is, yeah, and it just so happened to be like their last one, and they offered their last Plenty the elder to Lowly Austin Brown on the first day of him camping next to them. Wow, that was super cool. That's that is That is very cool because that's stuff is hard to get from what I've heard.

23:53 And that was Bobo there as well. Yea, Bobo was there too. I think we're trying to move the picnic table, and I think Bobo, I mean, he's such a big guy. He just offered to help. And you know, there were like two or three of us on one half and he just took like the whole other half. You know, we just carried it over to a mutual spot. And I think they said, well, hey, you know, once you guys kind of finished setting up camp, once you guys get kind of settled in and tucked away, you gotta you want to come over and buy the camp fire. We're gonna have some beers and some food. You want to swap big Foot stories and get to know we talk a little better, and we're like, yeah, wow, hitting the big footer l lottery is what that was. That's awesome. Yeah, yeah, but it was. It was Cliff Barockman, tomm yammeron Bobo, Like you said, I feel like there was one or two more guys, I have to send you a photo. Did did Tom bust out his guitar and play Roger and Bob or anything like that? He sure did, Okay, you know he did that. I think Bobo was going to be leaving. Bo was gonna go home. We were staying for a couple more days. And I think that that's the song that he used to play Bobo out. And so as you know, Bobo is getting in his car.

25:19 Tom Yamaron is Roger and Bob. Yeah, yeah, yeah, He's getting in his car and he's driving away, and he totally he serenaded him all the way down the road. Oh my goodness. That's just like from a movie, which for listeners, if this sounds familiar, if you've seen the movie Willow Creek with Bryce Johnson and by Bob Kat, that song is in that movie and Tom Yamarone is in that movie playing the Roger and Bob went out that Day song. So there you go. It's a horror movie, so you know, don't watch you with kids unless your kids are into that.

26:03 But whatever, they were awesome guys, Jeremiah. I mean, they were seriously, seriously cool. They were very open, They were very forthcoming, but they also listened. You know, they weren't just interested in their own stories what they had going on. You know, they asked me about me. They asked me about my life and my experiences and away from big food or sasquatch or anything like that, and they just kind of had a really good down to earth quality, you know, a real connection. Were they able to tell you anything about that area that kind of opened your eyes to it? Do you remember if they told you any any cool anecdotes about that area or yeah, I wish I could remember. I don't really remember.

26:52 I just remember the enthusiasm and the interest. I was just there to camp and drink and do little hiking and just had a good time. But I mean they were analyzing the rich the ridge lines and the rocks and the path of the water and the weather and you know, north and south and magnetism and migratory stuff. They're so knowledgeable. I mean, between all of them, they knew so much. And I felt like, wow, you know, they're really perceiving so much more in their environment than I am. You know, I've been such a disadvantage here. I've a city boy, but you know, in the meantime they're pointing out tracks and stuff like that.

27:33 It's it's really cool. But that really struck me is there is there genuine interest in their surroundings and they're and they're well rounded knowledge, you know, not just about big Foot, but about bears and deers and bobcats and mountain lions and things like that. Oh no, that's not a big foot anything. That's a bear scat or whatever. They they knew about being out in the woods. Wow, did Bobo do his famous big foot howl when you were down there? I'm sure he did. I'm sure he did. I don't remember how it sounded, but he's definitely. I mean, he's such a big guy and he's got such a big set of lungs, and he's kind of got that voice where he could really he did really good.

28:22 I think he did the best out of all of us. Oh absolutely, I'm sure. I mean we've probably most listeners have heard Bobo busted out on finding big Foot. He's just he's very, very, very good. Yeah. I'm going to ask directly during that trip, were there any interesting big Foot related occurrences that happened that you can remember? Yeah? No, no, nothing that stuck out. I mean, the most amazing thing that happened, obviously was just the fact that you ran into them, right into the cast. And we were of course happy to be there, especially being alone.

29:06 That was super cool, kind of doing our own thing. But no knock on my recollection. We looked, we tried, we not, we called, we did all these different things. But I mean, I think Tate might have gotten like a couple of recordings maybe her like a knock in the distance or a whoop in the distance, But for me, it was never really anything so substantive that it was worth considering any further. You know, it's a noise in the night. It's not that big of a deal. Yeah, And and unfortunately that's the way a lot of them go, you know, ninety nine times out of one hundred year. Not that that's that's what Tate tells me. And we had I'm not gonna go too far into it, but we had stuff happened in our Iowa trip last last summer, and that's exactly what Tate said to me. He was like, you know, this isn't normal that you usually don't have much happen. So I totally agree with you. Where Yeah, most times when you go out, it is kind of like a fun camping hiking trip when you're also looking for bigfoot. We'll be back with more Bigfoot Society after these words from our sponsors.

30:22 But another thing that I heard about you Austin that was interesting is you were involved with a hike from the twelve and thirteen bridge up to the film site and you had it was Tate, I think Robert Leiderman, Rowdy and Ian was there as well. Do you remember much about that experience? Yeah, that was great. Those guys were absolutely great, really love Robert, really love Rowdy, absolutely fantastic guys, and against super knowledgeable about areas and spaces and evidence and tracks and all that. I don't really remember anything super substantial. I was just so impressed by their enthusiasm and sacrifice in a kind of like a career of spending time and money and gas too to find something that we haven't really found yet. You know, they really have that sense of mystery and them and I really got that kind of like adult sense of curiosity from all of them. You know, they were like they were like little kids out there in the woods. They were just having a blast.

31:45 But as far as actual experiences go. I mean, I do recall listening to the water a little bit more carefully because I think we spent a lot of time around water, and I could start to hear what people might hear. Oh yeah, I could see how someone could think of as voices or something of that nature. But no, No, we just had a really good time. M It's a it's a good thing to point out. I mean, your viewpoint of that is very interesting. It's truthful. You know a lot of people when they get into big footing, they are, you know, definitely sacrificing their resources, their time in hopes of uncovering some greater mystery. And there's not many of those left today in our world if you talk to most people. So that's a very cool observation that you had.

32:43 There is an interesting account, and I'd like you to share as much as you can. Remember when you and Tate went down to southern California. I believe it was southern California, correct in the is the Sierra Nevada's absolutely yeah, and feel free to share kind of what happened. It's an interesting account that I think some people may have seen. But I would love to hear your thoughts about it. Absolutely. Yeah, So, I mean, ever since it happened, I thought a little. I thought a little of it when it happened, but I really didn't think that much of it. But ever since then, multiple videos have come out and people have had interviews and analysis, and they've interviewed me, and they think that it might be like a genuine experience. But I'll just kind of like walk you through the details of as much as I can remember. At the beginning of the day, we were meeting up with another finding big Foot person, Matt Moneymaker. So Matt Moneymaker, who's doing this thing where he collected like five or six different eyewitnesses, people who had seen some sort of something going on with big foot.

33:55 And Tate's experience that he had is that he had found what he thought might be a track and he took a picture of that track on his phone. I don't think he had any casting materials at the time, but he took a pretty good picture and it looked pretty good, and I think he shared that with Matt Moneymaker. And I think also Cliff Backman had suggested to take when he was asking about areas to look at, he suggested, why don't you go over to us. So it's this whole area where it's kind of like in the middle of this California desert, and there's this big mountain and a lot of people kind of go up and down the mountain. They've got a TVs, they've got dirt bikes, they've got jeeps, they've got trucks. It's one of those trucking up and down sort of places. And it's also a big hunting ground during hunting season. And so when we were going around with Matt Moneymaker, we went to this site over here to see kind of where that person saw that thing, and then we went to that site over there to kind of see where that person saw that thing. And we kind of just bounced around. And we finally ended with Tate's experience going over to Gorman and Hungary Valley and trying to find where he found the track, because Matt Moneymaker wanted to know, Okay, where did you find this track. Let's go take a look at it, see if it's still there, see if there's any more evidences, And there was nothing. We drove all the way out there, we drove all the way up and down and all around, and I'm bouncing all around, and it's like six or seven at night. We've been at this all day. I'm tired. I'm ready

35:29 to be done. I've already been humoring everyone else's experience, and I don't even want to humor Tate's experience. I just want to go to sleep. Yeah, And there was like nothing, There was no other evidence. We couldn't find a track, We couldn't find any other tracks or any other evidences, and so we thought, well, why don't we just kind of take a look at what it looks like at the very top of this hill. We're already here kind of near the bottom or near the middle of mine as well keep on going up, and so we kind of just care a vand up. So Matt Moneymaker was in like his land Rover, and he's going super fast up at Tate was it his little Honda ridge line, And we're bouncing up and down and cherema like from the from the bottom of the top, it's like an hour hour and a half, you know, not because of incredible distance. I mean, surely it is distance and elevation, but mostly because all the bumps and crannies and impossible turns and getting through you have to go like five miles an hour, because if you go any faster, you bounce around so much you can't even stand it, or you feel like you're going to fall off the cliff. And so we go all the way up to the top of this stupid cliff, and these guys you're just kind of talking and sharing stories, and we're just kind of seeing our final goodbyes before Tate and I decide, okay, we're going to spend the night at the top of this mountain, the top of this cliff, at the top of Hungry Valley, and you could really see everything up there. I mean you just look around. You see city, you see mountain, you see.

37:00 It's really absolutely fantastic. And it was a beautiful evening. I mean it was kind of warm at first, but then it started getting colder and colder and colder. And the guys left, you know, Matt said his goodbyes, all the other eyewitnesses said they're goodbyes, one after another, and so Teyton and I started setting up camp, and I think the way we did it is he pulled up his truck and at first we were kind of sitting in his truck, just kind of gathering our things, getting the items ready and whatnot, and getting out any beverages we might want to enjoy while we're trying to set up camp. And that's that's what I wanted to do. I just wanted to kick at camp and just have a good time and drink a few beers and be done for the day because I had a long day and I was just kind of ready to maybe let's do something tomorrow morning, you know. And about nine o'clock at night, I think we kind of got our tents set up a little bit and Tat's like, well, right now, it's a pretty good time. It is hunting season, you know. So we had passed multiple different hunts, you know, and they're in their orange jackets and their sniper rifles and their ATVs. It's funny because they wear camo and then they wear the orange jacket on top of it.

38:10 Why the second here, this doesn't really match. But from the hunters up to where we were, I mean it must have been a half hour or an hour distance, and so there was nobody around. It was just me and Tate in the campsite. And around nine o'clock at night and Tate it's like, why don't we go do a couple of knocks, do a couple of calls, and then we'll call it a night. And I think I said, why don't we just call it a night right here? You know, we've already had such a big, long day. Why don't why don't we Why don't we just try it in the morning. And Tate was like, come on, dude, we're already here. We made all this effort to be here, that's all the more reasoned. While we're at it, we might as well do a couple knocks and a couple of this. And he's always been that way. He's always been much more of an optimist, and I've been much more of a pessimist. So I'm the most like reluctant bigfoot researcher that I know, you know, but I still go along with it because I loved Taitan who couldn't love Tate? And so what we did exactly is we're camped up at the top of the mountain. I think what we did is we kind of went toward the sign, and so that's like the site of where we're ast and it's dark enough so that it's not pitch black at night, but it's pretty darn dark. I mean, you could see the ground in front of you, but that's about it. And it was starting to get cold, you know, So I put my jacket on, I put my hoodie on. I don't think I had ear muffs,

39:43 but I kind of like cinched my hoodie to try to like trap as much heat in as possible, so I couldn't hear that much. And to be honest, Jeremiah, I'm not that great of a hearer to begin with. I think I've kind of blown out some of my hearing through loud music and concerts and whatnot here and there. And on top of that, I'm not really trying to hear anything anyway. So we start to kind of go down. There's this one little spot that kind of leads down the mountain, and so we're going down in the opposite direction of where we came. So we came up this side of the mountain. Now we're going down the opposite side of the mountain just a tiny bit. And he saw this big dead tree and to him, I think it looked kind of hollow, look kind of solid. Maybe I don't really know what's better for knocking, but he decided I'm going to give this thing a knock, a couple knocks, and he had this big stick or something like that, and he gave it a couple of knocks and terrible. It's not awful. It didn't carry at all.

40:39 It didn't have like deeps down, it didn't resonate whatsoever. I think it was just so dead that when he hit it, there was nothing to echo within it or something like that. I don't know how all that works, but it didn't make any sense anyway. So he said, this isn't really working. So we kind of walked a little ways further, and then he said, I'm gonna do who you know while I do my whoop, and then that we can listen to the response is he's always happy to do that with me because I always started talking. And he said, okay, I'm gonna do a call, so be quiet for like a minute, you know, and he said he did a whoop, and then he said, Austin, I heard something. I heard something I heard as I heard a response in that direction. Whatever, dude, you heard something, you did a whoop, you heard something in the night, whatever, bro. And he said, let's just walk back over here, back over the ridge to see if we could see where it came from, because he said very distinctly it came like from the left of where we were sown. In order to see over the left, we would have had to go up kind of back up the mountain, but we had to go back the way we came. So we started going back the way we came, and we curved up. We've got our head lamps on. I'm only seeing like the ground in front of me right here, so I can just kind of walk clearly. And as we're walking up, there's this big old dead tree, I mean absolutely blocking our way. It's just a massive fallen tree, and it's kind of like diagonal in this way, and I kind of approach it a little bit on

42:13 in the middle left side of it, and then Take kind of approaches it on the middle right side of it, and we're like, well, this is like as far as we can go, and this is got a good view of the rest of the mountain or valley. It's it's up. It's the highest part of the mountain from where we're at. And so as we're scanning the ridge to see whatever it is that Take didn't hear. As far as I'm concerned, I see a pair of eyes in the middle of the night. Just while I'm sort of scanning the ridge, there are two big, bright, yellowy orangey eyes just staring right back at us like it was already you know, when when we scan the horizon and saw it. I mean, it was already locked on us. It had already been looking at us the whole time. And this is just kind of a personal thing, Jeremiah. Ever since I was young, I kind of had always this thing about seeing eyes in the middle of the night. You know, I don't know if you ever thought of it, or if anybody else ever thought of it. It might be kind of a familiar meme or something that they use in scary movies or whatnot. But I always said to myself, you know, if I ever see eyes in the middle of the night, that's gonna be tied the goat. You know, it's gonna be the craziest thing.

43:34 But there it was, right there. And when I first saw the eyes, man, man, what was running through my head? I thought that I was imagining it. I thought that I was seeing the same eyes that I saw like when I was a little kid, when I was worried about seeing eyes in the middle of the night staring back at me, because man, Jeremiah is it wasn't just looking in our direction. It was looking at us, staring right at us. And so the first thing I said, I was like, Hey, what it is that? And I was fully expecting him to say that it wasn't there, or that it was something totally benign, you know, a telephone pole, lights in the distance. I thought that he would instantly brush it away, Oh, that's just the glare of the head lamp or something like that. But he saw the exact same thing and he said, I don't know, dude. I say, what do you mean, you don't know. You're you're the expert, You're the one that comes out here. You should know you see in the middle of the night. And so the exact experience was I just said, what is that? And then Tate said, I don't know, dude, and we just had a stare down and we literally just stared at it. We'll be

45:04 back with more big Foot Society after these words from our sponsors. And even though my head lamp wasn't looking like directly at it, the eyes were so reflective. It was reflective enough that it caught that light and I mean, they were just big and bright as day, and I thought that they were like fifty feet away. That's how close I thought it was. I thought it was fairly close. The eyes were big, they were not quite perfectly round, but almost so, kind of like human eyes. But they were further apart. They were a little further apart, and they should be.

45:46 And they were bright and unblinking, focused right on us, you know, and immediately, you know, when you look at a deer, or if you look at this, or if you look at it that it almost always looks at you and then looks away and does something else. This thing just stared, stared right at us, and I really didn't know what to do. And I was kind of like leaning to the right and left to see, like, is it really not just like city lights in the distance, because you could see that, you know, there was there were lights in the distance way back. But no, you could very very clearly see there's lights in the distance and then two glowing yellowy dots right right between them, you know. And I asked Tate, I said, do you think do you think I should do a whoop or something like that? He says, sure, dude, go for it, and apparently, you know, he he brought up his his thermal imaging camera at some point and he started to film it. And I didn't they know. I was completely transfixed. I was just locked in this experience, just trying to figure out what this was, or was it was or wasn't. And I ended up doing my whoop and Jeremiah, there was no response. I let out this loud, you

47:19 know, nothing whatsoever, you know, no blinking, no looking in either direction, no backing away, no response whatsoever. And we waited, I want to say, another thirty seconds to a minute, and finally I said, maybe I'll try another one. I'll just try one a little bit more aggressive, you know, And so I did kind of a you know, with a little bit more you know, meetness to it, and in a very conscious way, you know, it went from just having eyes locked to us, you know, to what I saw. It's simple turned to the right and walked away, you know, like it just decided to stop staring at us. But it was like a delay, you know. I did that aggressive call, and it kind of just stared at me for another couple of seconds, and then it lost interest, basically, and it turned the other way. Apparently, looking back at the at the thermal footage, there's a moment where it stands up, and that's where it's very clearly visible, you know, on thermal footage. Personally, all I saw was two glowing dots in the middle of the night, and having no reference as to height.

48:40 You know, I didn't see that ridge that was below it. I didn't see that tree that was right next to it. All I saw was two glowing eyes. So personally, I didn't see the moment where it stood up. I just saw two blowing eyes the whole time, and then the mid and then a couple of seconds after I did that that second whoop, it just turned away and went back wherever came. Yeah, it was super weird. The whole time that it was there. I really got the sense that this wasn't some dumb animal acting on instinct, you know, this was something that was deciding to look at us. And you know, while I didn't hear the whoop, I didn't hear you know what it called the tape, take heart. It take heart something that caused us to go in that direction. And then we went in that direction, something was already looking at us. You know, that's pretty It never blinked, never blinked. It's crazy, but it's such It's a fascinating account because when you take into consideration everything before this, you are really the most reluctant big footer that I've ever taught too, being able to talk to Cliff and Bobo randomly, and then having this experience, and at this point you're still not really into it.

50:09 You're You're like, I'd rather go to It's have a beer turn in for the night. But I mean, after this happened, did you guys get any sleep or I bet Tate was just revved up? Dude, absolutely, absolutely, yeah, No, It's weird. I felt a lot of different things at once. Personally, part of me was kind of offended that it looked at us and it made its presence known, and then it ran away without showing its face, without doing anything. So part of me wanted to run away, but then also part of me wanted to like run towards it, you know, like, who do you think you are? Just pop it out in the middle of the night like this and scaring the Bejesus out of us? Who are you and what are you doing? You know?

50:58 Or what are you and what do you do? If you are a big foot, let's pursue this and see what it's all about. But after that, you know, Tate and Night we were shook up. Yeah. I think initially we tried to relax a little bit. We tried to go back to camp and kind of shake it off a little bit and say, I don't know what it was, but whatever it was, we can certainly still sleep and it's certainly gone. It's probably not going to hurt us or anything like that. But we were too scared. It was really nuts, and so Tate was asking me, He said, hey, you know, what do you think about maybe going back down to hill? And even though I knew going back down the hill would mean that it would be the exact same arduous journey that it took us to get up, you know, like an hour and a half a bumpy roads, I said, you know, I could use a change of scenery. So we did the whole bumpy mountain.

51:50 We packed everything back up, all the way down the road and yeah, and at that point we tried to sleep, just kind of making sense of what we saw. Do you ever think tears? Do you ever? I would be questioning myself afterwards, like what if you guys had stayed in that area, Like that's that's a question I'd be asking myself for quite a few days afterwards. I don't know, man, but you know it you had to make the call, right, sort of the same thing. Should I run away or should I run towards it? Yeah? Yeah, yeah, yeah, I think I think, you know, just because we were so completely bewildered and we were so not expecting it. You know, we didn't have any guns, we didn't have really any defenses or anything whatsoever. We were totally shocked by the experience. I mean, the whole experience was just be able to show that money maker something to take down, you know, and like the big foot calling, which is kind of like a plus, it was kind of an add on so to actually, you know, run into something. I was really trying to try to trying to disprove it.

53:01 You know, in my mind, I was thinking, well, it could have been it could have been a deer, could have been a bear, could have been this, could have that, could have been a person. I don't know, and I really just tried to shut it out of my mind until the morning. And at that point even then, I said, you know, we saw something creepy and scary in the night. But a lot of things are creep being scary in the night. It could have been anything. I don't know what it was, but it was only upon like further inspection of the evidence seeing actually how far away it was. Turns out it wasn't fifty feet away. It was like three hundred feet away. You know. We literally like took a tape measure that was like fifteen feet long or twenty feet long, and we just you know, one person stood and hold and held the metal part of the tape measure tape measure, and then the other person took the tape part of the tape measure, and we just went back and forth and back and forth, and we thought, this is crazy, how far away it was. It must have been large. It must have been a large animal earth thing, whatever it was. And when we went over to where it would have been standing, because Tate saw on the thermal imaging camera on the fleer, he saw something on there where he didn't see that before. He didn't see the thermal image in the fleer live as it was happening. He only saw that portion of it like the next day when he was looking at the footage because it's too hard, like he had one eye open and focusing on the eyes and then another eye trying to film it with your fleer or whatever. It was too much, and so

54:35 he said, wait a second, there was something there, you know for sure, and it stood up, and on that fleer he was able to see that, oh, there's a ridge right here, and then there's a tree right here. So we were able to go the exact spot where it was next to the ridge and next to the tree, and we saw that there's like a straight drop behind that tree. There's no trail, there's no nothing, there's like a seventy or eighty degree eighty degree mountain or something like that, and we're just thinking, what in the world could it have been. You know, it must have been hiding right behind that ridge and kind of just next to the tree, just checking us out. And then as soon as it was done checking us out, it just turned around and walked down this seventy or eighty degree mountain. Man, that is, it's such a wild story. When you left that area, in your mind, what had you come to think? What do you think do you think that was a big foot there that night or what was in your head when you were leaving your just maybe as confused as ever. I have no idea what else it could be. You know, I've gone through my mind and I don't know much about bears. I don't know much about deers or birds or wildlife or anything like that. So I don't feel like I'm an expert in saying

56:07 that it couldn't have been those things. Perhaps it could, Perhaps it could. But watching the footage and listening to other people talk about it, listening to people who are really good at ruling this stuff out and narrowing things down, people with a lot more experience and knowledge than me, they make a lot of really good points. And I still have no better explanation for what I saw. But it's like, if it wasn't Bigfoot, then then what was it? I have no good I have no good explanation. You know, there's been a few there's been taught Tastes. Tats made a documentary episode about this, and I'll have it in the show notes, and there's been others as well, So I'll make sure that there's plenty of resources for this episod. So if people want to dig deeper, which I would definitely recommend that you do this whole experience. Did how did it affect you getting more into bigfoot at all? Or were you really the same person as regards to bigfoot before first? After? No, I'm definitely a little more of a believer. I'm definitely a little more of a believer. You know. There's there's no way that there's been all these stories, and even I have a story, and you're telling me that they have no common element, that this is just all people just imagining things or making stuff up, you know,

57:38 even though they have nothing to gain, just like me, I have nothing to gain, right exactly. Austin has no book or podcast, He has nothing to gain from him talking to me tonight. It's just it's a very interesting account and I I'm so thankful that you agreed to come on. Have you been involved with any other expeditions or going out and looking for stuff since that time? There was that second time that we went, I think with Jonathan Easley and I think a few other people as well. And he's another guy that I'm just super impressed and interested in. He does that West Western bigfoot theory or exploration exploration. It's a very very good channel. His camera is intense, but him too, you know, he's so knowledgeable and he's so enthusiastic. And we went back out there. You know, he told me straight up that he went out there to disprove it, you know what.

58:51 It basically said that you guys didn't really see anything. But the more that you talk to me and my experience, and I'm just sharing events as they happen to me, I don't really have any dog in the fights. Wait a second, you saw this, you saw that, and they did this, and they did that. Wait a second. So that that was the next time that we went out there, and I didn't have any experiences at that time. But I really am starting to put the pieces together that even though I have nothing to gain, you know, per se Gosh, it's so interesting and it kind of has sparked my own adult curiosity a little bit as to what's going on around here. You know. Wow, pretty cool. Do you think he might ever go out to that area a third time? It's funny you should mention it. I will be going in a couple of days this Saturday. Yeah, Yeah, Take's going out there.

59:49 I think he has a few other people going out with him. He's always got some some big crew. But I'm really going to look at the place again and really consider it very seriously and not try to disprove it. But I don't know, kind of goes a little bit more of an open mind. Yeah, it'll be interesting to see what occurs. This will this will come out probably after after that trip. But I'll be very curious to see what you guys notice after a third trip out to that point. But Austin, this has been such a fun conversation. Thank you for spending some time with us. I will ask you if there's anything that you want to to plug or give you the chance, but it sounds like probably not. Oh thank you. Well, definitely not as far as you know items are concerned professionally or or or or or big footly. I'm kind of a photographer.

1:00:53 I do like to take a lot of photos. It's just like my average, ordinary neighborhood stuff. So kind of through COVID, I just started taking like these funny little photos. It's just funny stuff I saw my walks around my neighborhood and it really kind of took off and I really like to try to Yeah, I think a lot of happiness can be derived in satisfaction and being satisfied with where you are and with what you're doing, and so these photos are kind of an experiment of that and getting more in touch with my current surroundings, being satisfied with what I have. So my Instagram is an Austigram, so it's a ust I and then g R a M so Austigram and I just post a lot of photos of beautiful Ventura, but I try to bring out the extra in the ordinary, if that makes any sense, and it's something I like to think anybody can do. They can appreciate the surroundings. That is awesome. We'll definitely have that in the show notes as well. People can keep up to date with your photography. But man, thanks so much for coming on. And I'll have to keep an ear out.

1:02:09 If you're involved with any other cool things in the future, let me know. So thanks so much, Jeremiah. Such a pleasure, and you're such a good interviewer and you're such a great enthusiast and I'm just so grateful to being able to have this time with you, and thank you for being open minded and listening to my crazy story. Well, thank you, Austin. You're a Bigfoot Society article is to provide a platform for those that have encountered Bigfoot to share their encounter in a safe and respected environment. But we need to hear your story. If you've experienced something that you just can't explain, please send me an email at Bigfoot Society at gmail dot com. Then we can start the conversation. I know a lot of you have not your encounter at all. It's been twenty years and it's time that you get this off your chest and then you can get some well deserved for rest, because I know you haven't been sleeping. I understand what you're going through, and I appreciate every one of you listening