We Saw Them Watching Us: A Night in Sasquatch Valley

0:00 You're listening to Bigfoot Society, and I'm Jeremiah Byron. Tonight's story doesn't come from the Pacific Northwest, or even the West at all. It comes from Virginia, a place many underestimate when it comes to Sasquatch. But for Daniel Benoi, founder of the East Coast Bigfoot Researchers Organization, the truth is undeniable. In twenty fourteen, Daniel and his team were walking back from a lake the George Washington National Forest when they saw them, three of them, glowing yellow eyes, broad shoulders in a movement no animal could mimic. Later, hit hear footsteps in the dark, tree knocks, heavy bipudal pacing, and maybe strangest of all, the possible cover up of a body on the side of I ninety five. This is the story of what's hiding in the Shanandoah Valley.

0:41 So stay with us, all right, Bigfoot Society. We got the privilege of talking to Daniel ben Wa today from the ECBRO or East Coast Bigfoot Researchers Organization. He's down there in the great state of Virginia. So how's it going today, Daniel? I tell you what For a Saturday, beautiful day. It's going well. I can't complain. It was actually called for rain all weekend, but it's nothing but beautiful temperatures and nice skies right now. So yeah, going good. I'm loving it. It's pretty nice up here in Iowa as well. But but man, Daniel, you're in a state I've been hearing a little bit from lately. I've had a few interviews of people don Virginia. You've got some weird stuff going down in that state. I'll tell you what, man.

1:30 Well, I will tell you. I know a lot of the weirdness comes out of the West Virginia, well out of West Virginia itself. But where I live here in Virginia, I'm not far from West Virginia. So I'm like in the western part of the state here in the Shenando Valley. And you know, over the years since I've been involved with a Bigfoot research, I've gathered a lot of reports, you know, not far from my very own home here, and you know, so, and I spent a lot of time on in the National Force, which basically borders the West Virginia line. And yeah, there is a lot of strangers here. I mean, I've heard some weird things. Myself. I try to say focus more on the big foot subject because that's my main I guess copp of Tea is you want to pursue, you know, say, but yeah, I mean you get some crazy stuff here and there on occasions, I've heard some stories from friends that told me some things here and there. But but yeah, again, bigfoot is my main focus because there's a lot of bigfoot reports and activity and a lot of activity and behaviors that we can contribute to a bigfoot or that we like to contribute to a big foot anyway.

2:38 Yeah, absolutely, I mean, and that's our main focus as well. You know, we try to keep it one hundred percent bigfoot. Sometimes, you know, we have some things sneak in on the side, which is fine, but our main interviews are always focused on that. But you know, Daniel, being a researcher down there, I always like to to ask researchers, what was it that first got you into the subject and to start going out and looking for this. Well, to be honest with you, it was a big curiosity and as I've told people before, I believe this sparked it for a lot of people, you know, a lot of people are familiar with this. Then again, some people have never heard of it. But everybody's in the Bigfort community is well familiar with it. But the nineteen sixty seven Roger Patterson and Bob Gimlin footage that was taken out of Bluff Creek, California. And you know, that video has been around since again nineteen sixty seven, and that footage has been dissected left and right. Science has been involved, and you know all kinds of professional film analysis have been conducted with that film, and you know, nothing, nothing till this day, could debunk it. Now, for those who are familiar with that video footage, they know that there's been rumors pointed out with that was supposedly people

4:12 involved in a costume, the rumors of a costume, But you don't to Here's the thing, that costume never came about that. You know, if there was a costume, it's probably the best costume that was ever made or fabricated, because Hollywood and Disney both admitted to saying that we don't have nothing that looks that good. The best they had back then was what came out back in nineteen sixty eight, a whole year later from the Planet, the Other Eights the first release of that movie. So learning the details and some information behind that film, that was a big part of what opened my eyes out. Like wow, it opened up a strong curiosity and it had me starting to go out more looking. And you know what turned into that cure was started off as a strong curiosity, a little spark, and that spark grew into a major serious passion. And uh so I could honestly say, yes, the Roger Patterson, Bob gimme the footage was a big part of what got me involved. So yeah, of course, grown up, you know, you would hear about Bigfoot this and Bigfoot of that, and maybe you know, like an occasional movie here and there, but yeah, it's but Bigfoot was something I never really dwelt on until I've seen that film, and you know, it opened up the whole new role. I mean, it really did. And I'm somebody that grew up in the outdoors ever since I was a little kid. I was either playing out the woods, hiking or hunting with dad, you know, so I was

5:45 well familiar in her quakings with Wilf Daniel. That your story that you just shared of being inspired by the Patterson Gimlin film is one that a lot of other people can relate to. I know I can relate to it myself. By was there a time when you started to notice that, Okay, this thing that I thought was in California is also in my state of Virginia as well. Well. Actually, yeah, the thing is not long after I got involved and really doing some studies and research. I actually later on got got involved and jumped on social media for the first time. And I had no idea.

6:29 When I started exploring social media, learning about these different groups and forums, I ended up finding out that there was so many more people involved. I had no idea. Then I started learning about a local researcher that I got. Involved with, because now before I hooked up with this individual, you know, I was out in the field looking for myself, you know, because a lot of my research actually took place up in my earlier parts of research took place up. In Pennsylvania, and then of course came down here to Virginia to really focus and and uh but yeah, finding out, you know, getting connected with the local researcher, you know, listening to some of the stories he shared and the reports he shared, and then other people When I started putting myself out there, more and more Virginians came forward, you know, uh, little by little, you know, it didn't all happen in one big boom, but so yeah, over a period of time, I started meeting other like minded people, people that were interested enthusiasts, and those who claimed to be other researchers, you know. And I started listening to some of them. You know, a couple of them had some stories that happened here in Virginia. Oh good, okay, so they gave me some hopes. So, okay, there's got to be something going on here because we have a lot of force. And that's another thing, you know, you're talking about comparing the West Coast to the East Coast.

7:57 The more I studied, the more I looked into reports, the sightings, uh just here on the East Coast alone, I was like, well, everything's so popular out west. The East Coast is highly underestimated, it really is. And I was like, yeah, we don't have the Pacific Northwest, but we have you know, we have the George Washington National Forests, alligating mountains, the h the Appalachian Trio. I mean, all these forts all entered flying and connect in one way, shape or form. You know, the Blue Ridge Mountains is in my backyard, so yeah, there's so much terrain around here, there's so much force that you know, there's plenty of places for something elusive and highly intelligent that remain so.

8:48 And then, you know, the more I got involved in the field of research and exploring, I mean I was starting to find things that some people contributing to bigfoot. You know, you know that I was a little younger and new and newly involved with all this. Of course, I was like a lot of other people that are pointing fingers of everything and calling it bigfoot activity, which was exciting, uh the look at it that way. But then I was like, you know, I want the truth. So you know, my mindset is to be more objective on the subject. You know, it's like because things when the way I started looking at things. I grew up knowing wildlife and understanding wildlife. But as I gotten more involved with the Bigfoot research, I went back to focusing on wildlife and learning about the different species of wildlife that existed in habit are force, learning their behaviors, learning their diets, learning their routines. And the more I looked into what they do and what they're known for doing.

9:53 I was like, wow, everything a bear does, or even a deer, or you know, whatever it may be. I was looking at and learning at all these their behaviors and realizing a lot of people are saying Bigfoot's doing this. But wait a minute, why are they neglecting or forgetting our known species of wildlife. So that's where I started pointing out. I says, people are saying Bigfoot's doing this, but they're not witnessing Bigfoot doing this. They're just assuming because that's what's easier for them to believe, is they're so caught up, you know, in this field or this subject, that everything's got to be Bigfoot. I became known as the negative and Nelly because I kept a objective look on the subject, you know, and I wanted people to understand something. I was like, look, I believe in knowing Bigfoot, but I'm not saying he does not exist. I said, don't misunderstand what I'm trying to point out here. I mean, I want people to understand and think about what they're saying and how how they observe things. Because now I'm not perfect. I make a lot of mistakes, you know, I still do. I mean, I'm forty five years old, I'm still learning. But I see other drown adults, you know, you know, pointing out things and their mindset to me, the way I understand the way they look at things and they understand things, it's like their mind has a little bit of fantasy going on there, you know, where

11:24 I think they're really lacking a lot of common sense. Sadly, I'm you know, I mean, I don't like to put it that way, but I feel like they're lacking some common sense or the information they've gathered, they've been missing formed. You know, that's probably the best way to go about throwing it out there. So, yeah, that's that's really interesting. So I hear that you have a really big focus on making sure what we're saying Bigfoot does can actually be verified. Did you ever get to the point where you were actually able to have a visual of these creatures and see them do certain actions.

12:07 Or well, yes and no. I mean I've had a few things happened to me without having a visual, But then again, I did have a visual back in twenty fourteen. However, this particular visual wasn't a clear physical feature looking detail. It was long story short. There was five of us evolved doing a group hike. Actually it was a group camp out, to be honest with you. But we were out on a hike that evening where we were maybe a mile away from our campsite, and we were actually headed back because it was late, it was already dark. We were down by the lake in the area, and I was like, on the way back, we're headed back, working up to the main part of the fourth road out of the lake entrance. And as we're coming up the forceth Ord. Now keep in mind, we're walking in a single fire a line and we all have headlamps on it, and we're not trying to keep quiet. We're all talking amongst ourselves. And as we're headed up the road, you know, you know, interesting, we see a deer walking right towards us. And, like I like to tell people, I thought that was kind of odd. It's usually for a dear to be that close. And when I say that close, I'm talking ten feet maybe by the time we go reach around ten feet, it just nonchalantly turned off and walked away left whatever you're human see later, you know, Okay, that was weird and we all saw that.

13:40 I was like, well, whatever, But right as soon as we came, uh, just past the point where the geer turned off, we're walking and I'm looking on the opposite side of the road that we were hiking up, and then I need I noticed somethingthing that caught my attention. Now, in the National Forest, there's these yellow, random little signs that you'll find on trees and random locations, and usually all they say is no vehicles beyond this point. So that's what I'm thinking I'm seeing because my headlights reflecting off of something. Of course, that's what I thought, and I'm staring over there. I'm looking in this area and trying to get my eyes to focus, and then sure enough it became focused because what I saw next was it blink, and I was like, what I saw It was actually a set of eyes. It was the way the glare and the glow was reflecting off from my headlamp onto that set of eyes. The glow was like it looked like it was kind of close together until it became more focus where I saw the two eyes and they were like large, yellowish looking eyes. And the thing is they were setting kind of low. My bug Tracy was right behind me, and Tracy said, Tracy, what the heck is the right? And I don't know why.

15:01 The first thought that popped in my head as we're both of the he's like, he comes up beside me and I'm pointing at it, and the words that came out of my mouthfl is that a freaking mountain lion big? So a society will be right back after these messages. I don't know for a flight that came through my head. It was probably because like I said, it was sitting a little low, it was right next to a tree, and also we're watching it and whatever it was like zip off, like it went away kind of quick. And then Tracy's like, guys, come on up here. We got some eyeshine going on up here. So we get up into this spot where we saw that set of eye shine and we all regroup and we're looking right down.

15:58 Now that's when I realized was sloped down. It was kind of like a slight hill. It sloped down several feet then level back out. So now it's you know, we're looking into the dark forest there, you know, and there's trees, there's bushes and whatnot, and all of a sudden between thirty and forty feet out, we're seeing that set of eye shine again, and there it is. It is standing there, and well, I shouldn't say just standing there, because it was actually swaying side to side fairly swiftly, which that's interesting. Now we're watching this and like, what the heck is this? You know, I'm familiar with all the wildlife in this general area, and nothing I could think about is coming to mind, coming to mind, nothing's popping in my head. So while we're observing this over about five or six feet away, another set of eye shine appears, saying color eye shine very large, except this one here is good about feet tall and the small subject. Yeah, for the record, we estimated the small one to be around four feet tall. Well, now we got a second one, same action eye shine, and this one wasn't doing no movement, but when it was looking towards us, you could see that it was actually blinking its eyes on occasion. And of course some of us had some bright head lamps on, so I could see if they're staring directly at us and they're getting direct beam of the light, and you're all right, yeah, wouldn't you blink to you know? So

17:29 so this is interesting. It's getting issue. We've got two subjects with a simple eye shine choos height levels four foot and a six foot one. So you know, I'm still you know, I'm still puzzled. Uh, you know, I didn't know what to think. And because you know, I've seen bears at night. Bears have red eyes, every bear, black bear, and even the I've never seen a brown bear or grizzly, but I've only been told by those who experienced them. And I got they got red eyes too. When you shine a light arm. Every black layer I ever seen had red eyes on them. Now again, these were bright yellow looking eyes. And yeah, there's a few other species that will have yellow eyes. Raccoons. I've seen raccoons very close and there. Their yellow eye reflection is kind of like, uh, it's kind of I don't know, it's almost shocking word I don't want to say scary, But when when you see it for the first time and it catches you off guard, you're like, WHOA. Yeah, so, yeah, I've seen raccoons their reflection. They do have yellow eyes themselves.

18:33 But however, this whole situation we're watching and I'm scanning the woods. You know, everybody's kind of gathering there. They're actually making some noises, you know, because they're getting excited. But we don't know what we're looking at. Some of them are making some noises, maybe trying to trigger response from whatever we were looking at. But while everyone's observing, I'm scanning over there. I'm looking around and behind the bushes some of feet to the right of these two, I noticed a third set of eye shine. But this third set of eye shine looked like it was directly on the ground, at least from the position I was in. And I'm staring at this. I was like making sure I'm seeing some eyes, And sure enough, it was definitely a set of eyes. Now they looked a little the coloration looked a little different than the other two. But as it started to raise up, Yeah, they started to raise up like as if it was either laying on the ground or couch down very low, but it started to raise up like it was getting ready to go from its crouching or laying position to a standing position. Now, by the time those set of eyes rose above bushes, when it stopped, it was towering over top of the six foot one by another two feet. And that's when this was like really getting interesting. I was like, okay, now, for the record, I had a buddy mind ask the place I used to work at at the time. He was like, yeah, you saw a family of bears. I said, no, these were not no bears. You know, there's definitely no bears.

20:06 And soon after this, with what ended up happening, confirmed these were no bears and no other known species of animal day exist in those woods. Because as that tall one stood up and stopped, we're all seeing it. I know Tracy's now. You know a lot of times I talked about and I bring up my buddy Tracy because he's the one that acknowledged a lot of what we were seeing. You know, there was other couples with us. We had there was five of us, well six of us all together, that's including me. But this tall one. I stay focused on this, and I'll glanced over at the other ones to make sure that you know they're still there and all. And the small ones for the record, they staged swaying side to side. But my focus got on that tallest one. What is this, my buddy Tracy.

20:56 There I go again, my buddy Tracy. He walked out in front of a couple of he's like turned around and kind of like, guys, we got squatches. You know when you said that that was interesting because I really wanted to believe that I really did, but I needed something to confirm it for me. I needed some proof. I needed to see something. Well, sure enough, that tall one actually made a maneuver. It turned to its left and took a step or two and then turned back facing us. Now, I believe it was the positioning and the angle of the lights that hid it at the right time, in the right place where you could clearly make out the shape of wide, broad shoulders, very wide broad shoulders, and a big brown head that sat on top of the shoulders. And when I saw that, I knew again. I knew for a fact there was no bear.

21:55 I mean, what else could have There's no other known species of an animal that have wide broad shot I'm talking about a good four plus feet across in a big, fat, round ahead sitting on top of the shoulders. To me, that personally confirmed it for me that, Okay, we're looking at large humanoid. Five people humanoids. So so yeah, after this occurred, after we observed this, you know, they all seem to turn off and disappear further into the dark. Now, this seemed like it was going on for an hour, really, I mean, it's just it didn't last that long. It was probably maybe ten minutes, but it seemed a whole lot longer than that. So after they disappeared, we turned off to go look, you know, starting to finish our way back to camp. And course, as we're walking, you know, you could hear an occasional limb snap or whatever was on the ground. There was the oldest couple that was with us down from Vermont and Kimmy and Darren. Kimmy, she was the only one that ever expressed any type of nervousness during this whole situation. To be quite honestly with you, out, I think we were all excited. None of us had no fear because, like I said, most of the whole situation, the whole encounter, we didn't know what we were looking at. But Jimmy was like, oh, folle, they're just walking through the woods. Of course they're you're gonna hear limb snaff or whatever. You know. I said, no,

23:25 they're just walking like we are. They went away from us, you know, because you know, in my honest opinion. I think when we laid eyes on them and encountered and when that encounters started, I just believe they were just as curious of us as we were of them. So but yeah, we went back to champ and it's funny because we were still talking about it, and we were still trying to debunk it, even though like we knew what we saw, like you know, like why trying to debunk it. There was nothing compared this too, And but we did end up going back the next day during the daytime to that very same spot, and we actually did a height comparison, and I will say that what we estimated that night of what we were seeing, our height estimation was pretty much on point. So we got down in a position where we were seeing them. We had one or two people up the road. A few of us were down there in position to me and the gentleman his name is Cliff Stanley. He's probably, I'm sick to it tall he was. He's probably like six to two, so he's a probable in just tall me, me and him being the tall So we got into position basically where we were standing behind the bushes where the tall one was. Yeah, he was definitely eightkey tall.

24:45 There's no denying there. So and we did look around for tracks the grass. The ground was grassy and clumpy in most of their area, so the fining tracks in that area wouldn't have been defending. So now one thing I liked it throw out there. Regarding this, well, keep in mind the camp sites around there, they're all primitive and right where this whole incident occurred. A whole year later, something else happened in those same section of woods, but just around the corner. I was camping, and it was November twenty fifteen, and I will tell you I was camping in one of the camp spots right around the corner from this, and there was nobody else in this whole area, you know, and you see people camp out there during the season, but in this particular area, there was only one other spot next to me, which is a much bigger spot, and nobody was there. But I was in a camp slat by myself, and it was probably around ten o'clock at night. And so yeah, while while I was there, it was kind of boring because it was so quiet. I had the I are going and I decided to grab the spotlight. I was like, all right, I'm gonna grab the spotlight and walk out into the middle of the forest road just to walk out there. And keep in mind, as I walked out there, I did not have the spotlight turned on. I walked out into chartles darkness, and I stand there. I do

26:18 this on occasions, and when I do my group camp house, I get others to do it with me sometimes, but I do it a lot by myself. I'll stand there listen and look around, even though I can't see nothing unless there's moonlight out or whatever. I just stand there and listen, you know. I kind of let myself blending with the darkness. And then sure enough, after a moment or so, I started to shine the spotlight, hould the trigger on the spotlight and started shining it to my left. As soon as I shine light. As soon as I turned it on, I stooped up a deer. Apparently there was a deer just inside the tree line over there. You can hear like jump up and run off on all fours. But I was like, okay, cool, I spooped the gear. I continue paying my spot like from my left to my right, and as I got around the one and two o'clock position, all of a sudden whatever was inside the tree line there. And now, for the record, I never saw this, but I know what I heard.

27:17 I know the sound of the steps. What I heard next was very heavy, very large, and on two feet. Because what I heard next was a bipedal step. It was steps that were going away from me. And every step it took. You hear a crunch and a pump in each step. And I heard the enough bears. I tell you, I've been close to bearers. I've heard bears run off. I heard you know, I've heard bears their movements. They're very soft and quiet. You almost don't hear of them. But what I heard next was it wasn't a slow walk, but it wasn't a fast walk either. And when I heard this, and keep in mind, because I was by myself, even though I was, you know, I had a shotgun.

28:03 It was back at the campsite. I'm twenty I'm about from where I'm standing in the middle of the road. I'm about twenty feet from that tree line, and I'm like, my heart gets up in my front and I'm starting to like really kind of like slightly freak out because I'm by myself. I'm very vulnerable, and I start walking backwards, back towards my campsite, and I'm with the opposite hand. I reached down to my keys that were hanging on my belt to make sure my vehicle was unlocked, just in case I had to jump in there and take off. But once I got back into my campsite, it just all that went away. It's like that fear just like dropped away from me. I instantly call him right down.

28:44 I threw another log too in the campfire, and I just start to thinking whatever that was, if it meant any harm to me, had every opportunity to run out and sack me like a football player, but I had to keep in mind and remember it was going away from me, So that there kind of gave me, you know, like I got to thinking. And So a long story short, between twenty fourteen and this incident and fifteen being in the same section of woods and being that there was deer president in both situations till this very day, I'll look back and I question what was happening or what was about to happen, because you know, there's rumors there's a bullyef that bigfoot dear. So the question I have in mind, did we or did I interrupt the hunt?

29:39 So I don't know. I mean I could say yes, but I had no proof of that. But so was it a coincidence that there was there just so happened to be deer president next to each of these situations? Big for society, who would be right back after these messages? So I don't know. It's something I think about, you know. I mean, I've had large rock thrown at me, you know, from things I didn't see what food them. You know, I've heard all kinds of vocalizations over the years, very few that I could say that were unrecognizable because I know a lot of sounds of the known wildlife. So it's been like the adventure over the years, having the experiences and learning what I do about nature and wildlife in general. But yeah, so that was my main encounters that took place right here in Virginia and in the George Washington National Forest.

30:53 I know that particular area I've gotten a few reports from. Do you get a large amount of reports from that area as well? More so, well, yes, I've gotten a report from there. I've actually had Actually it's funny. When I started camping in the area, I had a coworker share something to me. It was interesting. Nobody at that workplace knew nothing about me. They didn knew what I was involved with. But I had a puddy of mine, the co worker at the time, he hunts out there all the time. Well, he actually shared a story when he was riding up the forest road and this is right above where our camps light took place in twenty fourteen. Well, he was riding up it was still daily, it was in the evening, but it was still daylight. And he said it was hopping between six and seven o'clock in the evening from out of nowhere, as he's riding up the forest road, saw a humanoid reddish brown figure comes running out and had a slight pause in the middle of the road as it briefly kind of looked at him and continue running and work this way across the river. And for the record, the river in this area is not really that wide, and it's not deep. It's probably about you know, in most spontses, probably voat up the two feet deep, and that depends on the time of the year. Sometimes lots of that parts of the river get dried out. So but yeah, and it's funny that when he shared the

32:23 stories to it, he I was like, who told you about me? He's like, what are you talking about? It's like, why would have totally you know, I don't want to say he was a total stranger. But again, like I said, he did not know nothing about me and what I was involved with. It's like, why don't somebody just come out and tell you about they saw a bigfoot out in the you know, out in this particular area, you know. So I thought that was interesting. But uh so, yeah, I have gotten more reports from those areas before, but more so just north from me where I'm at, I hear a lot of reports from the Blue Ridge Parkway behind me. I've heard several reports over the years now then again back from now that I think about it, Like I said, there's actually other reports that we've gathered not long ago, actually just a few months ago. We've learned of things over by in the main area. I don't want to get in specifics because we do our group campouts in our current investigation, and I don't want to give off the location because we do keep it quiet and we don't want people to come over and disturb it, you know. But yeah, there's been sightings up that way. We've had some crazy things happening around there.

33:33 I've seen large pictures of large humanoid foot tracks in the snow that people have shared with me from that location. So I don't want to say we're surrounded by big putts, but they're around, I will say that much. It seems like they there's a population of them around. I mean, I don't know if he's what's been cited or what we've experienced, are groups or ones that are or passes through. I mean that I can't put a finger on that part, you know, But so I don't know if there was actually a living population here or like I said, are they moving around or how they coming from other areas.

34:14 But there's just been so much activity over the years and strangeness from uh. I mean, I gathered information from the girl at the bank. Her fiance shared a story with me, you know, you know that was actually in between my main camp spren't and where we are currently investigation now, So where he shared his information that was basically in the middle of it all, which was interesting. So but I guess based off of the information we've gathered from others along with what we documented and noted the George Washington National Forest in the area we're in seems to be pretty much from a hot spire, you know.

35:00 I've been recently sharing some uh some information not far from our area but over in the West Virginia side, and basically and it's funny that with all this activity and all this information that we gather, it's like, it's funny because you know, you've heard of the Alaskans Triangle where a lot of strangeness and weird reports come from. Well, I like to put it, you know, it's funny because I started teaming my my team members and I said, we got the Virginia Triangle going on here in our area. There's if you know, look at the territory between we've been investigating and the reports that we learn about, and you know, it all kind of makes it makes a triangle formation, you know, and part of that triangle again runs into West Virginia, but a good portion of it is here in Virginia. So so yeah, it's definitely a healthy uh a healthy I still want to say population, but you know, I don't love if that's the right way to put it or really look at it. But you know, so Yeah, there is a good number of reports that come out of this part of the state, here in the Shanando Valley. So I'll just sum it up as that the Shanando Valley is a hot spot for big conciding.

36:21 I would also agree from what I've heard from other some different sources over the last year, the witnesses and researchers and such. Have you noticed that there is a that there are common threads in what witnesses are reporting that the bigfoot look like in that area or is it kind of across the board. Well, h most of it, I would have to say across the board. As far as the color of the hair, most reports I've ever heard about, most of them are brown on the black. And then there's only been a couple that I've heard where they say reddish brown, But most of them are black now. And that's another thing.

37:10 Back to talking about my encounter in twenty fourteen, that's another thing I think about too. You know, we all had hint lamps line, why didn't we see facial features and some other details? And I often think, you know, it was after midnight when this occurred, and you know they were just outside of our beam of light. Apparently, and did they have black hair or black fur. To me, that would make sense because they were definitely blending in with a night So that's another thing I think about, and I think that's why a lot of people don't can see much. Especially most of the sightings are in the evenings. There's there's been a lot of sightings during the daytime. So because like the guy used to work with he said what he described with British brown, So there you go. But yeah, like my buddy Tracy, he had daytime sighting down in his area now he lives about a couple hours self of me. Yeah, he had a sighting that put the scare in him the way he he wasn't even trying to look for big quick.

38:20 He was in a he was out the woods on a hike looking for a waterfall because the job he had at the time, he was he did medical transport, uh transportation, and he had some free time and he was in the area, want to go check out some area, and uh yeah, that's when his daytime sighting occurred. But he daytime sighting at twenty feet away, you know, and being face to face and you're all the way up there in the woods, down by this creek that runs through a waterfall. Yeah. I think if I was by myself too, I probably would have been freaking out too, Because as soon as he saw had his sighting and and he took off. Yeah, he went Facebook live, he started doing a recording his video. You could hear it in his voice, to see it in his face. Poor guy freaked out, you know. But so yeah, I mean there's been through excitings all throughout Virginia. I mean I've I even heard stories on the eastern part of Virginia, you know, because when you think I don't know how well you know the rest of the state of Virginia.

39:21 But like most of the East coast here, I mean Virginia, when you go to the eastern shores, I mean, it's all beach beach coves and you know everything else. You know, I'm sure it's the same way like on the West coast, but you know, but yeah, there's you hear about reports all over the state. But I get other people email and needy and sharing information to me, and you know, it's hard to keep up with a lot of it. I mean I do make notes of it. I want to be able to get out there to investigate these places, you know, especially when they're not that far. But sometimes it's hard finding the time, you know, finding in time is a big challenge. I haven't heard nothing out of the ordinary as far as details or on descriptions. But I will say this, as far as heights here on the East Coast, most of the reports I've learned from others, either from other people that have interviewed, you know, it seems like they tend to be around seven to eight feet on average. You know. Then of course out in the Pacific Northwest, you know, in an other area, you hear them about them getting around ten feet tall. Sure, you you know, so, I mean, maybe that's how big they are they you know. Then again, you sometimes some people like to question people's estimation, you know, like I mean, because you know, when people face a situation and your fear, you know, makes you wonder are they exaggerating out of fear,

40:52 you know, because they are they actually really that big? I mean, you know, I don't know, maybe they are, because then I've heard stories and reports from a little of the life the people saying they're up to fourteen sixty feet, you know, But I don't know. I've never been to Alaska, so you know, I never had the opportunity to explore. My thing is, if I went to Alaska, I'd be afraid of running into one of the big Marsha grizzly. Bears, so exactly exactly, you know, Yeah, they've got some wide of stuff up there, for sure. Has there been a time when you've been out, you know, doing research, maybe with your team or not with your team, where things escalated a little bit and you're like, at this point, I'm not sure if we need to be here right now.

41:40 Me personally can't say I've ever encountered going into a situation or exploring into anything to where we had to turn back. However, I've had a situation where I was introduced to this one area. It's not far from where our group camp outs are taking place right now, where we're actually doing something station. There was a place where an older gentleman took me c you know, and I learned about this area and this is close a little bit close to the West Virginia and you're really in the mountains in this particular spot. Uh. There was a time there when I went to camp by myself in those areas, and I mean I've actually I'll just cut to the chase. I basically felt like I got chased out of it, but without you know, being physically chased.

42:34 Like I said, my buddy introduced me to this location. He told me, at nighttime, it gets very eerie in the area because above you that runs through the mountains, you got these power lions and when the cool air in the mountain a will settle down into the lower areas below where you said it in camp, he said, it gets very eerie because the fog sits in and you can hear the power lines not crack on pop. But he started named the area Whispering Hollow because some of those snap crackling pots from the power lines above you sound like whispering, you know, you know, it sound like a bunch of whispering voices. And yeah, so I actually got to experience what he was talking about, you know, so you know, it was interesting. And like I said, you know, I had I can't, I can't set up and I had lights set up and it was dead quiet out there, you know, and you can see it.

43:31 It was. It was pretty foggy even with my lights around the cancer. But I know I'm not gonna say it was bidfuot. It could have been bears. It could have been a very bold, blunt bear that didn't care. Because most bears are skiddish. They won't bother you, you know, especially if you make a little bit of noise or whatever, or most of the time they smell you. They're not going to be wanting to be in the area. However, I'm sitting there late at night, and I had the lights on, and I had a sidearm next to me, and I'm sitting there and off to my left, I hear this from out of nowhere, this loud, hard tree crack like crack. I was like, whoa that They're scared the crap out of me, and I'm not gonna lie.

44:21 It really did. And I was like, okay, so I'm thinking thinking that it could be just a bear, you know, maybe starting to climb up a tree or whatever they're doing. I grab a bucket or something else, and I started banging it, banging it, banging, and I even yelled at wood. It's like hey, So it's like okay, I put everything down. I relaxed a little bit, and I'm sitting there probably about ten minutes later. Ten minutes later, right after I heard all that and bang my buckets and stuff right behind my camp my tent. Ten minutes later, directly right behind my tent, I hear another track and it was a lot closer.

45:07 Big for a society will be right back after these messages. That's why I said, it's like, right behind my tent. What do I do. I grab my spotlight and my sidearm and I shine, Shine, I'm shigning right behind my camp my tent to see if I can see anything, and all of a sudden, the spotlight keeps going out. I said, you gotta be shipping. You know, even when I did shign it, you're not seeing very far because that's how thick the fog was in the area. You couldn't seen maybe ten to fifteen feet out in front of you because whatever was just beyond that was whatever It knew what I was like, I don't. I don't even know how to explain it. I think whatever was there knew it was just on a site. It knew the fog and knew how the area works. And I was like, you know what with my spotlight not staying on apparently it wasn't charged properly. I just freaked out man, I said, all right, I'm done. I grabbed my most valuables, the food in my vehicle, left the tent set up there.

46:26 I just grabbed all my most valuable food in there and guided my my blazer and headed back over on the other side of the mountain. And I was like, wow, I didn't know what to think. I really did not know what to think because I didn't see what was making those cracks. But I didn't want to find out because again, you know, I had a side on. I felt vulnerable. I really did, because I was by myself. I was kind of new to this area. You know, I know there's a lot of bears in the area. The thing is, if this was a bear, I don't know, but it was a I don't know. I didn't want no surprises, so but yeah, so I could say I kind of got chased out of the area in a roundabout way. So yeah, that's what happened to me.

47:09 Have you heard anything come out citing wise or encounterwise from the Fort Barfoot area of Virginia? What location it's it's called. It's a military installation called Fort Barfoot. Oh, I think it's called something else. To let me look Okay, yeah, because that's not ringing a bell. Fort Pickett, Oh, Fort Picket, Okay, I'm familiar with around where about Fort Pickett is, But to be honest with you, I can't say I've heard any reports from there. Well, let me ask you something if you can look on them, like what part of Virginia is that in, because that is uh like Petersburg, Virginia.

47:59 It would be uh yeah, it's it's a little west of Petersburg. Actually, yeah, okay, because it's funny, because that's where I found it was. Because I will share one thing with you that I'm not gonna say. It was bigfoot or some print just south of Richmond, Virginia, on inter State ninety five. It was closest to the Petersburg area as I was because I was headed to North Carolina and this was a few years ago, probably well, well like six seven years ago. Now, well I was headed down ninety five south bound and now in Virginia here, I'm sure every state has their own company that does Like in Virginia, we have what they called uh DBI trucks.

48:46 They basically they you you'll see them on the side of the road picking up debris or whatever, and they're pick up prduction and they worked for they worked. They pretty much worked for the state, you know, and they they'll help patrol area or mark off area for construction or emergency vehicles or whatever. But anyway, as I was headed down, it was like, oh my gosh, there were several of them in a big cluster blocking one lane. Of course, one of them had their sign up with that, you know, the blinking arrow for everybody to get over. I said, oh man, I said, all I see was all these DBI drugs. Said, what the heck are they doing? You know, I didn't see no emergen you know, I just see no emergency lights and nothing. It's just there caution lights that they put on their trucks. And so everybody slows down. And we're going into the left lane because there's a two lane highway and and there's an exit.

49:39 It's like there were blocking the exit for whatever reason. Now we're going so slow, and I was like, I'm curious what text going on here. So I'm going slow enough where I can look over. Now there wasn't one state trooper, but he was on the other side of the exit ramp park next to an SUV that looked like I had a lady driving. I didn't see no other vehicles. I don't know if they got an accident. Of what happened. Apparently that vehicle hit something in the road. It wasn't a vehicle, it was some kind of animal. Now, what was strange was right in front of where all the cluster of trucks were, right by the exit ramp. Is there was something in the road right at the beginning of the exit ramp. They had it covered up with a yellow blanket. Now, animals get hit on the roads and highways all the time. I've seen, you know, anywhere, from a small little rodent, mammals or a raccoon or awesome, dear, I've even seen bears hit that could hit my cars up and down up the road from us here, you know.

50:47 And so I've seen almost every animal here in Virginia hit by a car. Now, whatever this was, the limbs were sticking out on one end and over off the side. All I remember seeing was what the heck is that it was brown and very hairy. It wasn't short hair. It looked like kind of shaggy hair. And I wish I was able to take pictures of it. But all I can do is describe into the best of my ability, because I actually end up going Facebook Live right after I saw this, Like, what the heck did I just see? What was that? Why would they cover something? Look, you know, they never cover up an animal that gets hit by a car. I mean, apparently it was a big scene, a big scenario that was I don't know they made.

51:34 It just didn't add up to me. And I've spoken to other police officers, both in Virginia and out of state. I got friends that are police officers through Maryland and also here in Virginia, and every single one who told me they don't cover up animals. You know, we don't cover them up. When there's a report of an animal that that guy hit, they don't cover them up. You know, they were hiding something. What were they hiding? I don't know, but it was weird. I will tell you it was definitely weird. Now, I took note of the exit ramp number and I say, okay, I'm going to remember this area, this exit number when I come back up in a few days from North Carolina. And what was interesting. Now, there was no city in the area. It was all woods on both sides are road. Both the north and south side of the highway was all woods. But when I came back up, I wanted to examine the area again.

52:37 You know, I'm not going to say I slowed down because there was a lot of traffic, but I noticed on the one side there was a sign there was a swamp over there. It said the name was such and such swamp. I said, oh, okay, so whatever maybe came out in the road that got hit might have been coming from that swamp. Where headed to the swamp, I don't know, But again, that was very close to the getting that was somewhat close to the Petersburg area, but it was well wooded in that area, so I don't know. Could it have been a big foot of some sort or something entirely different that I had no clue about. But seeing brown, shaggy hen coming off with the limbs of whatever this was what I recall seeing.

53:20 I don't know, I can't tell you what it was, but it just didn't look normal to me. So again, that was probably about five, six or seven years ago. Okay, yeah, but yeah, so that's why I was asking. When you said Fort Pickett, I was like, hmm, wait a minute. Yeah, so I'm familiar with some of the army bases and military basis here in Virginia. That's why I was like when I when I when you said Fort Pickett, I think I'm thinking Petersburg. So that's why I asked you near Petersburg, you know. So absolutely, that's one of the weirdest stories I've heard on this podcast over the last five years. I'll be honest, that is very, very strange interesting. I was im I could to give you. Yeah, I wish I could have give you better details, but I mean that's basically all I saw. And like I said, I try to investigate it and will gather information by sharing it on you know, the video. And like I said, I had several police officers tell me, yeah, we don't cover up animals when they get it, you know, either move them off the side of the road or whatever.

54:22 But so it was like left there like you were waiting for maybe waiting for somebody to come analyze it or take the body or whatever it was. I don't know, but that's something I saw. I'll never get it. That was, like I said, that was south of Richmond, right before Petersburg. So yeah, so yeah. Daniel, It has been a really interesting conversation. H thank you for sharing what you've experienced over the years down there in Virginia. I want to make sure you know as we start to wrap up our time together here today, is there any way people can keep up to date with what you're doing, Maybe share about your It sounds like you've got a podcast as well. How can people keep up to date with what you've got going on?

55:12 Uh? Yeah, there's a few different things. Well, I'm all over social media. You can find me right on Facebook. I do try to post a few updates and keep things on Instagram as well, but most of my postings are on Facebook. Now. I have a I have a personal website, and I have an Avenge website. I host an event every June which are annual E C. B r O Virginia Bigfoot Conference and Family Festivals, happening June twentieth and twenty first. Uh. There's a Facebook event page for that, or you can go to the website via bigfootcon dot com. Uh. But my personal website, if you want to learn and get some more details about me, you know, you can find that E C. B r O Founder dot com. All one word e c b r O, Founder dot com. Yeah, one thing. I speak at a lot of events, and I actually did a Facebook live video last night where one of the announcements I made the put out there was I'm going to focus more on my research and conducting more research and doing field videos. So as of twenty twenty six, I don't plan on doing many events next year, to really none at all unless they're local. I'm gonna keep it simple because I want to be able to have more time to spend out camping with my grandson, with my team members and do the investigations because I've been slacking on a lot of that over the years. So yeah, I mean my YouTube video, my YouTube channel. I really

56:44 encourage people to check that out and feel free to subscribe a lot of my researchers on there. We have fielding projects in the work, so you'll see a new new documentary series that will be on the YouTube channel Bigfoot Zone e c b r oh. That's my YouTube channel, big Foot Zone e c b r O. So feel free to check that out and subside if you have any questions, if you want to share a report, if if you're from Virginia or in the surrounding areas. I would love to hear your report. You can send me an email at e cb R O ninety eight at gmail dot com. So, but yeah, there's a lot going on for this year that I get to get through.

57:27 I'll be I'll be in Pennsylvania first week of June for the Marionville, Pennsylvania event and for the Forest Counting Big Fro Festival. I'll speaking June eighth. Then I'm my event in Virginia June twentieth and twenty first, and then I'll be speaking in West Virginia at the West Virginia Big for Festival that that event has taking place June twenty sixth through the twenty eighth, so I'll be there, and then there's other events throughout the year too. There's a few more events I'll be doing. But yeah, I'm not hard to find. You can look me up Daniel J bin Wo on Facebook, look up the ECB RO and you'll find me one way or another. So and hey, thank you for having me on. This has been great.

58:14 I really appreciate it. Fantastic. So a lot of different ways to keep up with Daniel. If you're going to be near a conference where you're speaking aut, make sure you hit it up because it sounds like it might be one of the last years he's going to be really into that, at least for now. But Daniel bin wa, thank you so much for hanging out and for chatting about your encounters. And we'll have to We'll have to check in at a later date see how things are going. But thanks so much for hanging out. Dude. Oh absolutely, I appreciate it, and yeah, I'll definitely talk to you guys here. I just wanted to take a minute to say thank you truly for listening to this episode of the Big for Society podcast. Daniel's story is one that sticks with you, not just for the glowing eyes or that eurie fog, but for what it says about being open minded, curious, and grounded in truth, even when you're standing face to face with the unexplained. So huge thanks to Daniel Benoit for sharing his time, his encounters, and his deep knowledge of the Virginia Wilderness. If you've enjoyed this conversation, please subscribe to us on YouTube tap the bell so you don't miss new episodes. Share this one with a friend who's into sasquatch. The Appalachian Mountains or a good old fashioned forest mystery here on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. Follow the show and if you'd be willing to leave a review.

59:28 It helps more curious minds find us now. If you or someone you know has had a bigfoot encounter, especially in Virginia or near the Shannondoah area, I'd love to hear from you, so send an email over to Bigfoot Society at gmail dot com. Thanks again for being part of the Bigfoot Society. Until next time, keep your head on a swivel, question everything, and trust the feeling that you're not alone out there. See you in the woods.