Saved by a Hatchet in the San Gabriels

0:00 But I had my camping acts, right, so I grab it, I put it next to my head and I just I lay there. I just lay there, and I'm quiet. I'm not really breathing. I'm listening. And the closer they got, the more terrified I became, like I felt fear before, and this, this was this was nothing like the fear I felt before. This was unbearable. And this thing walks up to the door of my tent. I'm about ready to like, I'm about ready to defend myself, even if I'm gonna like, even if I'm gonna disappear, right, I'm about ready to defend myself. I have this acts in my head.

0:45 Doesn't tear the tent open, doesn't push on it, doesn't expect it nothing. It walks around the tent, over and over and over again. Hi there, You're listening to the Big Society podcast and I'm Jeremiah Iron. Every week I talk to individuals who have experienced sasquatch 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 with a friend. Does not cost a thing, and it helps the show continue to grow. Great news. I did get back from my Bigfoot expedition with Tate, Horonymous and friends without an issue. You'll hear more about that much later, but I want to do a special thank you to some more people that helped support that expedition. Special thank you to Scott Dee for buying two coffees. He says, have fun going squatching. Appreciate that, buddy, and also a special thank you to someone for buying five coffees. Good luck, and I hope you come back with some great stories. I will, I mean I did. You're just not going to hear him yet because my buddy Tate is going to come out with another IOWA episode, so I'm going to wait until then. Make sure you're subscribed to Taste channel. It's in the show notes.

1:59 If you'd like to here 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 for 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. I've got the privilege of talking to a gentleman that reached out to me via email. His name is John, And how's it going tonight, John, I'm doing well. I'm just at home chilling out experience because it had a significant impact on me and it's good weighing on me, and so I reached out and here we are.

2:39 So keep chatting with you, absolutely, John, What we have to be a little bit careful about some certain things about yourself, But what are what are some things maybe that you can share with the listener to give context about the area that we're dealing with, et cetera. So I was born and raised in the city, but a lot of my life has also been spent out in the woods, mainly out in California. Or in California, I've been up and down the state and a lot of my experiences have been throughout the state, and so it's not really one specific spot where they keep happening, or you know, I can only think of a couple of different areas I've been where multiple accounter encounters have happened to me. But in terms of specific mountain ranges or national parks, I've had two encounters in Camlith National Park up by the Oregon border, and I've had I believe three, well one is held in two other like strange occurrences, if you will, as far

4:10 down as the bottom tip of the San Gabriels. And so it's all up and down California. I've had these encounters or strange happenings at fifteen in total, or well sixteen actually, about six of which have been face to face with something and the rest have been you know, whistles, would knocks. You know, you're out camping and you hear something walk up to your tent, curious thing like that. Wow, that's so, that's definitely a lot right off the bat, over a span of how many years? Would would you say? This has been happening many many years I was, I was a boy scout as a kid. My love for the wilderness. I still love the woods. You know, it doesn't matter how many encounters I've had.

5:08 It's not just big foot that I've encountered. But you know that is I'm going to lead those as they are because we're not talking about those today. But then I would say my first encounter, as far as I can remember, the first time I saw a sasquatch face to face was actually when I was in fourth grade, So we go, when is like nine, almost ten years old, how that all that was actually had a Bible camp you know. Funnily enough, I'm a man of God, and so when I first saw the thing, it really rocked me. You know, growing up as a Christian, you believe that what you see out in front of you was what God has created. And then to have something show up that goes so far beyond what your little minds at the time mine was very small, right, I'm only nine could comprehend. It shakes you. But one of the sixteen encounters were strange happenings, if you will, that I've had, I've been relatively peaceful. The first one I had, I was in a cabin and I got woken up because I thought something was staring at me.

6:31 You know that feeling you're being washed in the middle of the night, and up I wake up and it's looking at me out through the window on the opposite side of where it was probably wall, all still there, and it was looking at me, and I was looking at him, and I was terrified and head when it did that, like just enough moonlight had hit its eyeballs and it reflected back green Now, if you know primates, primates are much like our own They don't reflect back light. That's not They're not necessarily nocturnal creatures, right, They're much like us. We worked day and night, right, so there's no reason for there to be you know, cones and rods that reflect light back out of your eye and so really, of course I didn't know that at the time, but that was my first experience. So I started researching as young as fourteen, bothering me for several years before I started to look into it. You know, now I have the understanding of what I thought. Well, like, of course, it rocked me as a nine year old kid. It wasn't than human, you know, I was unnatural in my opinion or what or that was my opinion

8:09 at the time. So that most of my experience is especially face to face, very curious. They're very curious creatures. The you know experiences the the most the most I've had happened to me was a small stick or stone thrown in my direction as a you know, don't don't walk any further, you know, and so I turned around and I walk out. I started doing more research. You know, if I'm ever in in a wooded area for very long. You know, I like to go camping, and I would sometimes go camping for a few weeks to a month, so I'm in their area for a significant time. Well, and a lot of the times native tribes would take offerings and place these offerings on a tree, stump, or stone. Wait a couple of days, if you go back and there's some say raven feathers, others say hawk or eagle feathers, I've experienced both to be completely honest. But really speaking, if I play say like apples, like I played D and D a lot, So one time I just placed these colorful D and D dyes that I had sure enough put those, and then the place put feathers, and I've hadn't had an issue had an issue

9:39 with them. How granted, I'd always feel watched, right, They're always watching you when you're out there in their area, but expect them like the wishes, because essentially you are a guest in their home alone. Yeah, So the most of my parents have been very, very peaceful and very respectful, you know, even to the point where in some areas I've kind of gained a reputation. That's the thing. They're incredibly curious but also incredibly smart creatures. They will remember a face when they see it, right. They're like almost akin then to crows. They're very very intelligent, and they do remember faces. And if they don't like you, they will not like you for as long as they live. Right, very much to say, I heard chatter, I've heard, you know, the casual whistle, or a couple of whoops here and there. If you respect them and are around them long enough, it seems to me that you start to gain sort of reputation with those specific families. And yes, I do say families for reasons, and so in some areas I've actually had them protected me, believe it or not. This has only happened significantly at least once. I was night hiking

11:16 up all the way and this this one isn't one of the ones in Camelith. I was night hiking all the way up in Camelith and just doing my thing, and I start to come up on what smells like cat smell. You know, different animals have different smells, right, You got a bear smell smells all musky and stuff. Well, cat smell like mountain lions and stuff. They make. It's interesting they mainly smell like like human sweat, Like that's that's the most I can compare it to. It's like very subtle hints of bodiodor dirt in neat. And so I was smelling that. I'm like, okay, I have a cat either on my tail or it's around and it just happens to be in front of me. Maybe it hasn't noticed the yet. Well, sure enough, I'm walking down this trail. I'm about to turn around because I'm getting to the end of the trail and this cat comes walking out of the street line to my right and it starts walking directly toward me, and it goes it goes to crouch, you know, that strange crouch walk they do. And I'm like, okay, well, I mean, if this is it, this is it. You know, It's kind of been my mentality out in the woods. Right. They're beautiful,

12:48 but sometimes they're unforgiving, you know, and if if that's it, and that's it. And so now mine gets maybe not ten feet away before I start smelling a different kind of smell, a very familiar kind of smell. You know. Most people describe it as smelling like a wet dog or extreme body order or like human human feces, right, yeah, smell as people call it, That's what I was smelling. And I was like, okay, this is confusing, right, And it walks behind me and I could feel its footsteps. It walks up behind me. I go to grab a stick that was on my right, and when I go to grab it, as I stand up, it actually reaches around, picks the stick out of my hands and tosses it and it just stands there behind me. And when this cat was scared enough to leave, because it did eventually left leave, it nudged me forward, like keep going, I have you. So there have been instances like that where in sun of ways or like that's like I said, that's the only significant way of had it happened where if you respect their territory, if you respect their home, they're not happy to make

14:18 sure that you're relatively safe. It's very strange to me. So that's in Klamath National Forest in northern California, correct, Yes, And so for listeners, this is just north of the Marble Mountain Wilderness area, I believe, and also kind of in the same area as Happy Camps. Some big foot you know, nerds may know of that area too. Yeah, so it's up northwest of the Marble Mountains, and it spans most of it's in the on the California side of the Oregon California border, but it spans all the way north into Oregon. And interestingly enough, most encounters that I've heard about happen above the Oregon border, part of Klamath. And so I find it very very like to this day, it recks my brain as to why we'll be back with more Bigfoot society after these words from our sponsors. You know, why would such an elusive creature who wants to keep hidden, who wants their space respected there far is to help me? When I've an't seen any

15:52 one of that, sad like, I don't. I don't know if it's a couple there, I don't know if it's a family there. I haven't been up there that often, right, But why would they do that for someone that they haven't had much experience with yet? Right? Then? They don't do that at all really, So it was it was very confusing for me. You know, I appreciated it. I wasn't going to get eaten, So yeah, that's a that's a plus for sure. So it was behind you took the stick out of your hands. Yeah, now, And the funny thing is it was a good like two or two and a half feet behind me. It wasn't directly behind me, and it was still tall enough and long enough to completely reach around me and grab the stick out of my hand. This thing was big. Did at any point you actually see the creature than it being behind you? No? If I know one thing about them, even at that point, they don't like they don't like their face to be seen. Given that it just helped me out, I wasn't going to be the first one to turn around. I didn't see a hand though, and most of my encounters at that point I did not see their hands. You know, when you see something like that, what do you do? You lock onto its eyes, right, that's your natural instinct.

17:21 I haven't seen their hands yet. And the thing that taught me so off guard about the hands specifically, and it was it wasn't even it wasn't like a full moon, but it was. It was still a full enough moon to where I could see really well. Right, you know, they described being like just a larger version of ours. It's hand only had four fingers. I didn't see a stub of a fifth any of that. It's hand only had four fingers and had these long, really long claws on it.

18:03 I'm not saying I'm not talking fingernails, I'm talking claws, right, Like there's a there's a point where your fingernails become claws if they're long enough. Right, And they looked I mean, I mean, you know, we wonder how why it's so easy for you know, sasquash to strip bark off of trees. That's why they looked wicked sharp. Yeah, it only had the four fingers. Think of it, like, it looks like it's middle finger would have been missing, it's index finger, it's ring finger, and it's pinky finger. But it looks like that was completely natural for it, like it was born that way. Right, So like I said, no, no, stump. Well you look at pictures of different subspecies of squatch their footprints, Well what do you see and then then have three toes, So with them five or four I've seen when where it was two toes.

19:11 So I do believe that it's on genetic diversity with them, you know there's there's a lot of different tails or you know, like native American legends in Alaska and in the Pacific Northwest, where there's supposedly tribes of like four toad Sasquatch that are usually you know, you don't want to mess with them. They can be pretty rough, right, no exactly, which then even further the question why would it help me? Right after it nugged me forward, I just kept walking and it was paralleling me. It went up the ridge where the Mountain Lion had come from, and it was paralleling me making sure that I was either go into specific destination, are going to turn around?

20:03 I was going to turn around on the trail because my camp was about a mile behind me at that point. And when I went to turn turned the head of the trail, I put my head down, turned around, and kept walking back toward my camp. And it led me the whole way, And so I started I started wondering. I researched this. Those same Native American legends that say, hey, these these these these guys are not They're not fun to mess around with. They also say that these ford towed Sasquatch tribes. Ye, yeah, they need to be there. They will help you get back to camp. I did some research, and yes, it is true that the natives say that these four to sasquatches are not to be messed with, right, they're pretty rough. It also says that if they see it fit for you to be there, and there's a couple of conditions to this. Apparently, they will routinely help you back to where where you're supposed to quote home is if if the time arises, if the time, if the need arises. I was like, okay, what are these couple

21:33 of conditions? Because obviously I was about to get my face eaten by a mountain lion and it had helped me to some degree, right, whether that was its intention or not. And these couple of conditions is one if you have given them food or some sort of offering in the past. Two if you have if you are there solely to see the natives say the well, we'll we'll call it our equivalent of mother nature. So it's a it's a native word that I cannot pronounce for the life of me, but they say that. Or if you're simply there to enjoy mother nature and you need no harm to their territory, they will see you, they will see it fit.

22:34 Well. I don't know if these things thought that I had no intention of harming their territory. But what I do know is after my first encounter in camel because there is there is a there is a hunting reserve there that I went to the first time around, and I had an encounter. Well, I took that I took that same year that I was hunting, and I found the flattest rock around that I could find, and I put that deer there. I just left it. I just left the whole thing. I wasn't about to I wasn't about to screw with that, you know.

23:15 And so I'm pretty sure Sasquatch, being intelligent as they are, I'm pretty sure they may have remembered that the second time around. Will I go back, Probably not, you know, I don't know how much their patience lasts. But like I said, a lot of my encounters have been very peaceful, which is why the last one I've had rocks me so hard. It's fascinating the whole leaving the animal for the creature, because when I've talked to a few hunters, that comes up, and it's different parts of the US as well. Well. I mean even in Oklahoma. Leaving part of the animal that you've hunted for these creatures in order to you know, have a good relationship, which just it's incredible. Before we get too far away from the first encounter, is there. Do you feel comfortable sharing anything about that summer camp you were at? Well, I can say that it was.

24:30 You know, I've had my best friend, he's actually more of a brother than me. Now, we've known each other since we were four years old, and that was his grandparents Bible camp. And this isn't where I live, so I'm comfortable sharing to some degree. It was in the Azusa Mountains area. I know that's not what they're called, but like just to give others centers an idea, right, it's in that area. Well, come to find out, that's a migratory area for a lot of day a lot of fast squashes will actually pass through those ridges because there's a couple of valleys here and there in that general vicinity of California. They'll pass through those those ridgeways to get to this year and Nevadas to move out past California. And so that's I assume that's what ended up happening. You know, a bunch of kids running around, you know you've been watching them all day, they finally go to sleep, and you're curious enough to like, hey, I wonder what these guys are actually doing in these weird like brick these weird like you know, brick shaped shelters, right, Like, I wonder what they're doing in there? Are they doing what I'm doing in my shelters? Like?

26:00 I'm sure it was curious enough at that point to take a peek, and my cabin happened to be the one that took a peek at Is there a history of bigfoot encounters in that Bible camp that you know of? I don't know if any about bigfoot specifically, sure, but talking to my grandfather to my best friend's grandparents, I asked for some strange stories around the place, and they give a couple. You know, you know, we we three Christians, believe that where God works, the enemy tries to work harder, you know, being Satan. So there's a lot of spiritual warfare there.

26:47 I get it. Yeah, So they scared a couple of those stories. But when I asked specifically about I said, I believe the words I use. What about certain animals? They got very hush hush. They shut that down pretty quick. So I think they know there have been a couple of reports, but for the sake of the camp and sake of you know, people feeling safe enough to go there, because you don't want to go to a camp and experience Jesus where you don't feel safe. No, No, that wouldn't That would be against the point, I think, the opposite of what of what the whole point of the message is, right, Yeah, yeah, I asked them about that indirectly, but but very pointedly, and they immediately got hushed. They immediately shut that down. Okay, I might not be the only one. So I don't know if it's sasquash specifically or big foot specifically, but it is interesting to me that when asked about it, they were like, oh, we don't talk about that. They didn't say no, they didn't say we don't know anything out of any of that. They said, we don't talk about it. Well, oh, I see, right, So I might not be the only one that's had a maybe not a big foot encounter per se, but definitely a strange encounter.

28:17 Interesting, yet another mystery. Well we'll leave that where it is, but John, feel free to continue. This one's fun. This one's really fun. This was. This happened when I was in when I was fourteen, again at another summer camp, different places farther north than the one I previously mentioned, but this one was pretty significant in my understanding of them. So, in this particular camp, from the cabins, there's a path down to a to a grass field where they would set up bleachers, you know, they would have their amphitheater there and do you know, sermons and stuff.

29:06 Right, Well, again, I like to take night night hikes. So what do I do? I asked my counselor, Hey, can I go ahead and take a night hike. He's like, sure, make sure you don't die. I'm like, I will try, right, And well, I just walk the trail to the amphitheater. And you know, my plan was to walk the trail of the amphitheater, come all the way around, because that loops all the way back to my cabin I was staying at. Well, I get down to that grass field. I'm looking forward to.

29:47 Grass field is more than my right. The trail kind of curse intew it. I'm looking forward jere Jeremiah. The quickness in which my hair on the back of my neck shot up and a chill went up, knocked down, up my spine towards like the cry in my head. I my knees locked like I stood there like it was like my body was told to stay still and it did. You know they've been subconscious or something. I don't know. It was a full moon that night. It was completely full moon.

30:32 And I see pretty darn well at night anyway, you know, like some people will say, oh, well, you know, dusk is really really dark actually, and I'll be like, what do you mean. I can see the edge, I can see the tree line from like you know, one hundred hundred fifty yards away, Like what do you mean? Right? So I can see pretty well at night, and I was able to see everything with this full moon. We'll be back with more Bigfoot society. After these words from our sponsors, well, I felt like whatever caused such a visceral reaction to my body was off in the grass field. I turned to look. I see it silhouette because the moon, the position of the moon was behind it. I see I see this, I see this big foot. I see it's silhouette and it's just standing there. It's I guess it's just curious, like or maybe I just happened upon it, right, and it's just kind of like, oh, well, hello there, right, may I anyone who goes out, like if I could say one thing that is the most significant piece about my encounters here in my time talking with you, Jeremiah, it's anyone that goes hunting for sasquatch, don't go with

32:05 the goal of seeing one, please, because those people are not ready for the size of these things. They simply are not ready for how big they can actually get. This thing had to be at least fifteen hundred pounds easy. Its shoulders were wider then, like a good portion wider than the door frame of my house, and that's considered it a wide door door frame. Like I mean, I'm talking. I could see the silhouette, but you know, because it's a full moon, I could see like the fur kind of coming off of the piece of the silhouette that I could see, right, And when it breathed, every muscle that's supported it's breathing would ripple under its fur, every single one. And it was huge. The bleachers weren't set up at that point, right, it was too early in the week, but I can kind of I could kind of in that moment visualize the break because my brain's analyzing this right, It's it's moving down the logic train of like, oh my god, how much danger am I actually in?

33:23 Right now? Those bleachers are fourteen feet tall, and I know this because there are there are marked lines like ribbons around the trees of where they set the bleachers, so it's center on the field, and the height is of the ribbons is where the of where the top of the bleachers would, you know, not like the steps I'm talking about, like the two or three runs above the steps. Right, this thing's head past those ribbons by at least a foot in the half. It was the biggest animal I have ever seen on the planet. I can't even begin to describe you like there, there's there's no way really to describe. You know. I'm a five foot seven hundred and forty pound guy. I'm not big, and this thing made me feel like an ant on the floor right, Like that's that's how big these things get. I can say that confidently because I know other people, not personally, but like through through different stories on you know, the internet, and through different reports, there are other people that are like no,

34:57 I've seen them and they get ridiculous sly big. From time to time, there are other reports of you know, thirteen fourteen foot tall creatures like that. I just happen to be one of them that saw something that big. It's like thinking about it even right now and like visualizing it in my head. It it still gives me chills. It's still like makes me speechless, just that there's just the sheer size of it. You know, if you put Mike Tyson in a ring with this thing like it would crumple them up like a piece of paper, chew them up and spin them out. But it was so much easier. It's terrifying. How just to sheer power that these things hold, would you be able to share a rough area of what region of California this other camp was in, just for context, the Sandbardandino Mountains. Okay, gotcha? Wow? Yeah? No. That was a pretty big milestone for me because so far I've only had two face to face encounters, and they were like most reports, seven to ten feet tall, eight hundred to one thousand pounds, muscly needy, right stand off fish,

36:28 but not really like threatening. This one didn't even have to threaten me, and I was immediately like I'm going to die tonight Like that that was my first thought, like I am legitimately if I move a muscle, I'm going to die tonight. Well I didn't have to move a muscle. I didn't have to do anything. I just sat there looking at it, and I guess it was done looking at me one eight eight and went back their direction it came from. And when I tell you, you're gonna have fifty yards away twenty like anywhere between forty five to fifty yards away. I felt it.

37:08 I felt it's football still, I still felt its football. I felt it all the way until it hit the tree line. That's how careless it was. Because it knew that anything that it came across would not be running if it came up to it. It did not need to be stealthier, silent. There is nothing anything could do to to outrun out strong arm like. It's like it carried the confidence of of like a really big rizzy bear. Right. Have you ever seen seen videos of those in the internet? These massive Coda bears. Bears are known to be stealthy for their size.

37:51 These Kodiac bears, man, they don't care. They walk right up to a gear pick it up in its mouth and move along because it knows right, it is the apex of its area. That thing knew it was the apex of its area and carried that confidence like it was. It's still unnerves me, but again, right, a simple peaceful interaction, a transaction, almost a thing of understanding, the understanding being I'm terrified of you, and I respect you for that, and I understand that you respect me. I'm going to go now like if you respect them, like that's the golden rule I live by out in the woods. If they are in the area, if you respect them, they will respect you in respecting them, and you will have brokered at tenuous peace, tenuous but still peace. So these early stories you had a peaceful situation with these creatures, but it sounds like that was not always the case. No, that's where my most recent encounter kind of comes in. Sure, why not get into that. There's a specific

39:30 spot in the San Gabriel Mountains that before this moment I absolutely adored. There's a trail in the bottom end of the San Gabriels right as it heads into like you know, the mountains that I don't know what they call, but the mountains that stretch into Baja California. In New Mexico, there's a trail that wraps around the mountain have bottom edge, and that trail has separate switchbacks that lead off from it. At the base of the mountain. One of those switchbacks comes arounds a split in the peaks and goes into a saddle back that is, Man, it's at the perfect spot almost all right. So yeah, this this trail leads to a saddle back in the in between two peaks, essentially two separate parts of the mountain range. And man, the saddle back is like at the perfect elevation. It's not too hot or cold in the summer, and it's not too you know draft, it's not too bad in the winter either. The spring is gorgeous. It's like two miles of intermitute planes and woodline in the saddleback. You know, it's gorgeous.

41:04 Very deer that lived in that saddleback, I know because I've hunted them, like and you know, that would be my for years, like an upward of four or five years. That place would be my favorite spot to go and just camp out for weeks on end. And this last time it was it was the December of twenty twenty going into the Winner of twenty one the beginning of twenty one. I went there because I wanted to see I wanted to test myself, right. I've been in all sorts of biomas in the world, and as I've done all my thing right, I wanted to see if I could survive for two months in the winter in that saddleback. Mostly for two reasons. One I wanted to test myself and two I wanted to see just much of a how much of a habitat bubble this thing produces, right, It's just massive expanse. And so you know, I brought two months worth of rations, and I parked my car close to the mountain base.

42:23 I you know, it takes a day to hike there. Really, I take a day to hike there. You know, I do my thing, get there by nightfall, set up camp, light of fire, and I go to bed and wake up doing my thing. Blah blah blah. Now, what I like to tell people is that I accidentally forgot to bring the last month of rations, even though I prepared them, and so I had to either you know, force myself to go gather leaks or hunt food or not even leaps like wild but JATOs too, or go home, And so I decided to go home. That's my normal speel about this why I don't go there anymore, and it always confuses people were like, Oh, well, that's not really a problem, just go back better prepared. Right, That's kind of what I mentioned in my email. I I don't like lying to them, and so I feel like if I could share this and get it off my shoulders, I may not have to speak about it again, and I'm willing to do that. So so about two weeks in to this trip, I'm walking this trail that I've walked I can't even tell you how many times before, you know, being it being in the woods as

44:00 much as I have, or anyone that has, you begin to get a sense like almost like a sixth sense in those areas we're just in general, like it bleeds in your normal life of just situational awareness, right, like this deep awareness of what's happening around you in the woods. And I've had instances where like red flags have been raised in the back of my mind before, right, I've had I've had bear encounters, right, like your body's telling me, hey, you lo, theres something there that should not be right. I was walking this trail and it weren't just red flags popping in my head. It's like someone took the Liberty bell, put it over my head and started reading it. It was loud and jarring, like you know, you know those thoughts that like nag the back of your head. This one was like punching me in the back of my head. That's how bad it was. That's how like wrong everything felt. And so I'm walking this trail and I'm like, there's something wrong. These aren't the woods that I that I knew right, Something different is here, something new is here.

45:25 We'll be back with more Bigfoot society after these words from our sponsors. So I stopped and I take my time to listen, to really like observe and to get a sense of my surroundings. Winner is quiet in general, How much is true? We'll still hear things. You'll still hear snowfall, you know, coming down from tree branches. We'll still hear the occasional rabbit f it's passing by. Right, there was enough thing. There was absolutely nothing.

46:06 I witnessed snowfall off a branch and I heard nothing. The air was so incredibly still. It was like I had to walk forward to breathe it in. It was so thick and still. And that's when that's when, that's when I started getting the chills all over my body. And they started at the left side of my body and moved right. And I was like, Okay, I'm being watched, and I'm not just being watched as a precaution. I'm actively being stalked. I'm actively being hunted. Whatever is new here is either making sure that I leave permanently or it wants to kill me.

46:58 It's that simple. So I tranulate where I'm at, pick that direction, and beline it as a crow flies back to camp to get to camp. Next couple of weeks are pretty chill. I'm just doing my thing. I go out gather whatever, you know, deadwood, I can find right, anything that's dry enough to make a decent need to keep the fire going right, you know, because in winter you don't want to keep trying to restart fires. You want to keep the same one going. I'm do my thing. I have my rations, dry nuts, meats, cheese cubes.

47:38 You know. I'm just simple stuff that'll fill your belly. But like it's not not so perishable and I'm just chilling. Well, it was the week of December thirtieth on that in that time, December, December the thirtieth and the thirty one split the week and half between the end of December in the beginning of January. So the thirty first of December for sorry, the thirty three of December rolls around and I'm in my bed, I'm sleeping. I wake up, like completely wake up. And it wasn't like, oh I heard something and it woke me up. No, like I suddenly could not find the energy to sleep. I was soul full of adrenaline and energy.

48:36 It forced my body to wake up. Well, I haven't. I didn't have any rifles or anything on me. I didn't have any guns on me. I didn't figure that I was going to be, you know, really killing anything. But I had my camping ax, right, so I grab it. I put it next to my head and I just I lay there. I just lay there and I'm quiet, not really breathing. I'm listening, and in the snow, I start hearing footsteps and then you know, you have a combination of hearing footsteps and feeling footsteps, and the closer they got the more terrified I became, like I felt fear before, and this was this was nothing like the fear I felt before. This was unbearable.

49:35 And this thing walks up to the door of my tent. I'm about ready to like, I'm about ready to defend myself, even if I'm gonna like, even if I'm gonna disappear. Right, I'm about ready to defend myself. I have this acts in my head. It doesn't tear the tent open, doesn't push on it, doesn't expect it nothing. It walks around the tent over and over and over again, as if just to say I'm here and there's nothing you can do about it. And then it does that till dawn. And as soon as I see the sun peeking ope up over the ridgeline of the mountain off to my off to my northwest, I feel it go. It just goes, It just leaves. That thing purposely went to my camp to terrify me that whole night, starting around like maybe two thirty three in the morning, I'm like, Okay, new situation. Nothing I can't handle. That was sketch whatever, Right, So I get out.

50:45 You know, my fire is still going. Thankfully you know, I was hoping it wouldn't have messed with it, but it's still going. So I go, I grab more wood, I keep, I keep the fire replenished. I eat my breakfast, and I didn't At that point, I really wasn't enthused to do anything that day. I wasn't going out experiencing nature. I wasn't looking at the wildlife that's still around at that point, because I remember this is this is only the middle of winter, right, you know there are still things up and about, things that are hibernating. I've already hibernated, right, So you'll see your couple of deer, You'll see your couple of hairs. You know, there's a few of them, but they're out in about there. I just didn't have the will of the drive to experience any of that anymore. Like that first close up encounter with from what I know, this brand new sasquatch through the area soured that for me.

51:53 But I wanted to stay for two months, and so you know, in at that point in time, still young and dumb minds, I was like, screw it, I'm gonna stay for two months, sting it, and and I meant it, you know, I'm not going to go through all this preparation and not make it work. Well, that lasted out to the end of the week because every night they're they're on. Until I actually saw this thing. It came up to my camp, circled all night, and this time that you know those times, it didn't wait until I was asleep.

52:39 It started at dusk. I would go to bed near dusk, because that's how I like my sleep schedule out in the woods anyway, And it moved in and up at dusk, circle my tent all night long. Finally I wait, but you know, I'm up in the morning. Obviously it's would bother me and bother me all night. Finally, the next night I sleep, I finally get some good, decent sleep, and I wake up and I'm cold. I'm like really cold, too cold for me to be in a subzero sleeping bag in my tent that should be heated because of the because of the fire. I get out of my tent. What fire?

53:30 This thing had kicked out my fire in the middle of the night, and I did not wake up to hear it. Either I was too tired or it was that quiet, but he kicked out my fire. So I'm like, Okay, obviously it wants me to leave. So what I do is I pick up what I can from the wood that was left. I gather more wood, I restart my fire, and I start packing up because I know, right, it's gonna take a long time for me to hype down those mountains to the basis of the mountain. That's that's an eight to twelve hour hikee depending on how fast you go, right. So I pack up my things. I grabbed my rations. I'm surprised it didn't even take them to be a flick to this day, I'm like, why the hell didn't it just take my rations? Like they're there, Take them. I don't care. As long as you leave me alone, right, I'll be able to figure it out. Oh, it's just look them there. So I took them. I packed them. Blah blah blah blah blah. I kept the fire going to make sure that I was warm right enough to actually get moving. And as I get ready to leave, as I'm putting the fire out, I see movement out of the corner. Like my head is down, but I see movement out of the court of my eye, coming out of the tree line and I'm like, okay, here we go. I already knew. I already knew this thing was stand some ways away from me.

55:02 Well, I I stand up and I look at it, and it's standing at the tree line, so it's it's standing away from the tree line enough and the clearing that I was at too for me to see it. But it wasn't like in the woods, you know, And it was by all intents and purposes, it was. It was a it was a normal sasquatch, like maybe eight and a half feet tall, probably nine hundred and fifty pounds, anywhere between nine I actually know, anywhere between like nine ten and nine twenty. I feel like it was a bit skinny on the skinnier side for something that tall. But I can see it right like it was there. It was looking at me, and I pick up my axe, like I'm like, okay, if I need to defend myself, I'm absolutely willing to. I'm not going down without us right right, And it's looking at me and it's it's it starts to sway back and forth, you know, like have you seen have you seen like I'm sure you have. Football players will like that. They'll set up little tires or whatever they have, and they'll like move in between the cones or whatever, back and forth, back swaying motion. Same exactly, absolutely, except that two feet was on

56:37 the ground right, swaying back and forth, back and forth, and it got faster and faster and faster right like it it seemed like it could not stop going faster. Right, I'm like, I feel like this thing is about to try and jep me out, like it doesn't want to want me to know exactly which the actually it's gonna it's gonna come from when it goes to charge me. Right, So, my I was so done, man, and I was so tired. My stupid self picked up one of the rocks that I was using for my firing, and I threw at it and I screamed, I mean I didn't throw it far enough to hit it, obviously, right, I barely made it. I didn't even I'm like, I didn't even barely make it. It's kind of like lunched and blocked.

57:24 And I yelled at it, you know, I was like, lead me the f alone. And it stopped swaying, and it almost looked like it almost like tilted its head back into its neck, like it was like appalled that I did that to it, you know, like how how dare you? Right? So it looks a palmed like it legit looks like looks at me, like, how how dare you do that to me? Right? And this is kind of where it gets hard to talk about it. It smiles at me, and if you know anything about apes, smiling is an act of communication, and that communication is I'm going to kill you. Now I have had enough. I am going to I'm going to kill you.

58:23 No bluff, charges, no nothing, you you will die. It's that simple. And as soon as it smiles at me, it's like time slowed down, and I felt that adrenaline rush, you know, and I started to get tunnel vision, you know, like the sight around the corners of my eyes narrows on this thing, and sure enough it charges at me. And it was so fast, all right. It covered the distance between it and me. You know, it would have taken me a whole minute and minute to go from where to sprint from where I was, or it would have been it covered that distance in less than ten seconds. It was so unbelievably fast. And I don't know if it was the adrenaline or if it was the tunnel vision or was because I was just simply paying attention. I saw which side it was going to collide with me on and I threw myself into the snow. On the other side. It barely missed me. It barely missed me. I mean, at that point, I said, screw

59:58 the fire. I already had my back pack on. I started running. We'll be back with more Bigfoot Society after these words from our sponsors. I didn't even care about the switchbacks on the trail. I just knew which direction my vehicle was and I booked it. And you know, at that point, time didn't seem to matter or affect me. I knew it was keeping up with me very easily, and it was like I felt like it was it was always on my tail, you know, And didn't that On that trail to the saddle Back, there's plenty of little hollows and ridges and all that jazz coming down the mountain for each one. Every time there was a rise, I'm grabbing on tree branches, trying to move myself up the rise as fast as possible. Every time there's a dip, I just launched myself off the debt and hope. I landed like that. That's how, that's how unbelievably scared and ready to get out of there. I was right, And I didn't even stop sprinting like, I didn't stop sprinting there. I couldn't stop springing, like even if I wanted to, there was no way I would force my body just stop like it was. It was strange.

1:01:31 I'm obviously in my body, you know, but it was like an out of body experience in the sense of I had no control. I kept moving like every instinct in me tompo took my body completely over and I just moved. And I did that for like. It didn't feel like it. It definitely did not feel this long. But knowing that trail and knowing how long it would take you to get down the mountain, even even you know, doing it as a crows fly like I did, it takes six to eight hours to do that. I was. I was sprinting, and I don't I don't know how long it must have been around that around at least between between five to eight hours. It had to be that long. But eventually I did make it to my car. I did dead sprint that way to my car. It's something I will probably never be able to do again, mainly because I haven't experienced anything like that again. But as I'm getting as I'm bun rushing my car, I somehow flying my keys in that process.

1:02:53 I unlock it. You know, my keys are always on a on a belt loop on my pants right like with the carabiner. You know, some people have them. So I just unlock it, usually with my hand right there that's just dangling from my side. So I did that, and thank god I did. I don't think I had a second to spare if I had them in like in my pocket, because I threw my door open and I slammed it shut, and this thing like full force ran into my car. Like it didn't stop, it didn't do anything. It's just like allowed his body to use that momentum into my vehicle. And I am shocked that my car didn't tip over, like it tipped a little bit. But it eventually made its way down the top and I drive us to Dan for the Ford focus for reference. The top of it's like that where the joint between the thigh and the hip is the top of that that joint there met the top of my driver's side window. And as I'm kind of processing that, I realize what my car is still tipping. No, my car is tipping back and forth. No, this thing has my car by the hood in its hands and it's shaking the ship out of my car. I'm like, I gotta get this thing off my car. I'm never gonna be able to

1:04:25 get out of here. Like it's going to put my vehicle into the into the snow and into the mud so bad I won't ever have the traction to get out. Right. Well, my camping axe is still right there in my passenger seat. I guess i'd had I guess I'd tossed it on my way in my backpack was actually still on my back. I took my backpack off through it in the back real quick. I took my axe roll down the window, aimed right at that spot where it's hit meets its thigh, and you know, I kind of half chopped at it, half through it.

1:05:15 You know, it was far enough to where like my axe left the axe left my hands just enough to like give it that extra umph, right and it it landed it where I wanted to land. I mean, it was the creature was right there, but I guess I had thrown it hard enough to where like I buried that thing deep in its thigh, like like in that joint. I buried it deep. It lets out a yelp. I start rolling up my window because it's starting to back up, and I realized as I'm rolling my window up, but just bury deep. I buried the whole axe head into that portion of its leg, and it decided, I guess it, it didn't want to mess with me anymore. I was already on my way out and I heard it, and it turns around and it starts to kind of like hop limp away. But when it when it yelled out. When I did that, I didn't ever hear a sound of pain like that before it was. It was a mixture of anger again pain just pure frustration, you know. And it was loud. It was powerful, and it rattled the windows in my car and I felt it all through my chest like that thing has so much power. And I know it looked

1:06:53 pissed off at me when I saw it in the clearing. I honestly of this. They think that if it wanted me dead, it would have killed me in that clearing. I think the only reason I survived that whole thing and was able to get to my car. Like I. It lint away with my axe in its in its thide. I just left it. I just left in me. I didn't care. I just wanted out. I think the only reason I survived is at all, pass like the first initial charge, even coming down the mountain as fast as I was, as fast as it is it was going, was because it was trying to scare me enough to leave, and I simply wasn't leaving. I think it had enough and just wanted me out, because if it wanted to, it would have absolutely killed me. It would have absolutely like ripped me to shreds, and then I would be another like, you know, missing for one one like I would have gone in the mountains and never come back. And I drove home. You know, I have my snow chains and stuff on my car, so I was fine driving out of there. And I drove home, and I I haven't been. I haven't been back since I've been out in the woods since you know, I'm not going to let that determ my love for the woods. I haven't been back to the San Gabriel since that time.

1:08:24 I can no longer go back to my favorite set, my favorite spot up there, and enjoy it. Even if it wasn't there, I think I would always have, you know, looming sense of needing to look over my shoulder. It completely entirely ruined that for me. And you know, like I said, I haven't had mostly peaceful encounters before this. That was the most violent. Like you know, I you know, I believe only that this world is as you know, sick with evil and violence, as it is you know, full of you know, good things and blessings and all that. The face it made when it went to smile at me, like this thing had all of the violence in the world at its disposal.

1:09:26 That was the most violent thing I've ever seen in animal do to me or anyone, you know. And it could have done that to anybody. It just happened to be me. I've never seen. I had never seen any animal be that. I don't even like that violent to like that territorial that willing to cause such like psychological and emotional damage. You know. Of course, four weeks it again and again, like I said, it circled my camp just to scare me, just to let me know that I'm there and there's nothing I could do about it. And when it finally came to pass that I would see it and it revealed itself to me. You know, it still had all the power in the world. I still could do nothing about it. My life was in that exams and for whatever reason, it just decided maybe I'm not worth it, so just get me out of here.

1:10:41 And that's exactly what it did. I can see how you've never wanted to talk about that. I mean, that is absolutely horrifying. Thank you for sharing that. Oh yeah, of course tonight. It feels nice to finally get that out of it out there. It feels nice. Is that something where it that scene plays over? And has it taken a while to get past that where it took it way over? When you're stop having wonder is you just kind of know? I still think about it from time to time. Yeah, I don't. You know. The worst part is as such, severe ADHD. There's almost almost a sickening curiosity in me to look up exactly why that happened, what I get wrong, what I could have done better. But the more and more I think about it, the only thing I really did wrong was show up to a place I've been to us so many times before it happened to either make its home there or happen to be passing through. The only thing I did wrong was show up. I

1:12:12 showed up to my favorite place, and that's that, I guess. That's the sin it considered great enough to make my make my time there the time that I was supposed to be at peace, a living nightmare, a living hell. I think the second mistake I made was not listening to every part of my body telling me to just leave that first, that first time around, you know, the first time I went out to actually look for wood and look for resources. That was my second mistake. I should have listened to my gut. I should have listened to my you know, the senses of my surroundings, and I didn't. But you know, it's just it really breaks my heart that the only thing I actually did wrong was go to my go was go to my my spot that I go for for peace in life, to just get out and compress from life. That's that's all I did. I just showed up, and that was my mistake. And I can't go back for fear of that thing is still being there. You know, I don't know how sasquash is vigrate past, you know, actually like documented migration trails that they seem to have, Right, I don't know if they sometimes just pick a spot, hunker down and make that their home for our god knows how long. I don't know if it's going to be there

1:13:46 if I go to show back up. What if showing back up the second time is the exact mistake that kills me the next time. I can no longer go back to my favorite spot and feel safe. And that sucks in my personal opinion. I know it's just an animal, but like some part of me feels I know it's just an animal in that it probably felt threatens that it arrived, and then maybe soon after I arrived, and you know, we're two intelligent beings in the same place looking to live at that place for however long, maybe it felt threatened by that piece. Right, It's just an animal trying to do its best to survive, right, Every animal does that. But there's a strange piece of me that's just like so selfish of man. That was just plain need you know the whole thing. It was violent and it was scary and it was terrible, and I was on adrenaline that that whole back half of that encounter, and part of me really just wants to you know, I guess it, a logical part of me really just wants to sit down and go that was just mean of it.

1:15:13 I wasn't bothering it. I wasn't doing anything about it, even a mother bear. Right, if you don't bother it, and you put your put your face in the dirt, put your hands over your neck, and hope to and pray the dear God that it doesn't consider you food that day. If you just leave it alone, it'll leave you alone. You know, I left that thing alone, and it's it still came after me. And I guess part of me doesn't understand why why it had to be just so plain mean about it. But I guess that because that part of the really comes from, you know, I guess some subconscious piece like like I kind of owned the place. I really don't, but like I've been there enough times and if you know, not really left my mark per se, like leave no trace or something I heavily heavily lived by went out in the woods.

1:16:19 You know, you stay at a place enough times for greater lengths of times, right, there's a mark that you leave, whether it's your scent, whether it's you know, a fresh burn spot on the ground that I'll heal over it with time from your camp fire. Little things like that, you leave a mark there. And I guess part of me felt like I left my mark there enough to claim it. I mean I didn't, right, there's no way I could. Really, it's not my home, but it sure felt like it was a second home to me, and I was kind of I feel like that was kind of ripped out from under me.

1:17:05 So that's the thing that mainly sucks about it, knowing that I was completely powerless the whole time in a place where I was supposed to feel safe. John, I'm glad you finally were able to reach out get this off your chest. Hopefully it sounds like you're coming to grips with everything that happened and you can still enjoy nature, just not in this one area. And I hope life continues to start to get better for you. Dude. Yeah, I appreciate that. You know, I've tried in that specific area. I've tried to go back to the San Gabriels, you know, like a figure.

1:17:56 Why let one spot in a whole mountain range in it. For me, right ruined the whole mountain range. Yeah, I've been able to kind of enjoy my time in the mountain range. I still look over my shoulder. I'm far more cautious now in the woods than I was before. I'm a lot more respectful, even even more than I was before this event. You know, of anywhere I go, but generally speaking, you know, whether it's Claimas, whether it's you know, Sambardino Mountains, whether it's you know, somewhere in the Sequoias or even up further north in the Oregan.

1:18:41 You know, like I've been to a couple of places up there. It doesn't matter, right, I've been to a few of those spots after this event. I've had a nice time. I felt at peace, I felt safe. I've already had established relationships with a lot of the different little creepy credits are sounds, those areas, you know, So that didn't ruin those areas for me. I yeah, I feel like I appreciate that, but I can feel safe in those But you know, it's kind of hard to come to grips with your spot. You know that one spot you were hoping to bring your kids to right Like, it's hard to come to grips with the fact that you can't go back for fear of well, in all fairness, to never have the chance to have kids, or never have the chance to have that career job, right like, something as dangerous as that kind of animal. You know, you can make peace with them all you want, but if they decide that you're no longer worth staying there, it's not that hard to make that for them, to make that possible, you know, and it really wanted to make that possible absolutely, man, what what a wild, wild story? And John, if anything else happens, you

1:20:15 know, definitely feel like you can reach out at any other time. Hopefully from here on out things are are nice and easy for you, but if anything else does happen, you can always reach out, dude. Yeah, yeah, of course. I've been wanting to share a lot of my stories for a long time, you know, I just didn't feel like a lot of them were paramount enough to share, at least to a bigger audience, you know. But yeah, I'll definitely I will definitely contact you either.

1:20:58 You know. There's one that I think ab out but long enough for me to be like, yeah, that's interesting. More, you know, something new pops up. I'm almost constantly researching these right, you know, new theories people come up with, matching them with my own experiences. So if I have had experience and that causes me to research a little bit more, I've definitely let you know, like, hey, these are my thoughts. So I appreciate that absolutely. Thanks for chatting tonight. John. You're at Bigfoot Society. Art goal 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. And I know a lot of you have not shared 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