October 29, 2025 • 26 mins
Following bigfoot - even if by mistake, is not a good idea.
A hiker near Upper Arrow Lake, BC follows fresh footprints and sees a reddish-brown Bigfoot step off a logging road into the trees in broad daylight.
Originally published on Youtube October 29th, 2024
https://youtu.be/PLHbq8roc5k
If you have an encountery you'd like to share, email it to: Contact@buckeyebigfoot.com
If you've enjoyed this episode, there are hundreds more on the youTube channel.
Find us on YouTube at: https://www.youtube.com/@BuckeyeBigfoot
A hiker near Upper Arrow Lake, BC follows fresh footprints and sees a reddish-brown Bigfoot step off a logging road into the trees in broad daylight.
Originally published on Youtube October 29th, 2024
https://youtu.be/PLHbq8roc5k
If you have an encountery you'd like to share, email it to: Contact@buckeyebigfoot.com
If you've enjoyed this episode, there are hundreds more on the youTube channel.
Find us on YouTube at: https://www.youtube.com/@BuckeyeBigfoot
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Tonight's encounter comes to you from long ago.
(00:03):
We're pulling this one out of the vault.
Some people have these incredible moments with a big foot that seemed to last a long time,
or they get up close with them.
I cannot brag that I sat down and had tea with big foot,
(00:27):
but I did sort of follow him for about a mile, maybe a little more,
and I didn't realize that that's what I was doing.
This happened a few summers ago.
I had spent a few days fishing and camping at Upper Arrow Lake in British Columbia, Canada.
On my third morning, I packed it up and headed up a logging road
(00:49):
that led away from the lake in towards the west.
I had no destination or a timeline that I needed to follow.
I didn't have to be back to university until August, and right then it was mid-June.
The way was open.
It was a warm and dry day that day.
(01:09):
It was very sunny.
I was wearing my sunglasses.
I won't give a disclaimer about what a world class outdoorsman I am,
but I can truthfully say that I've done my share of hiking and camping
in many different parts of North America.
The road was a dirt road, and maybe once a half hour or so,
(01:31):
a car or a truck would come through, kicking up dust clouds from the road.
They couldn't help it, but it was so bad I tied a bandana around my nose and mouth
to stop from breathing in all the dust.
Sometimes people would not or wave as they passed me.
But mostly everyone just looked ahead, making sure they weren't going to hit me.
(01:54):
I was surprised when a white Cadillac escalade that had been barreling down the road
at a fast pace came to a stuttering stop on the road right by me.
I don't like to think about stereotypes much less, use them.
But the four men in that escalade, maybe there were five, but the men in that escalade
(02:16):
that I could see fit every terrible stereotype about drug dealers with gold teeth and diamonds in them,
driving escalades.
The only thing missing was music with base thumping.
I didn't know what to expect.
No one's ever stopped like that for me.
As the passengers window came down, I could hear all of them inside the Cadillac, talking
(02:41):
at a level that was just below a yell.
It seemed they all had something important to tell me.
As the window came down, I had the remnants of some herbal smoke hit me in the face.
They weren't actively using those urbels at that time, but I could tell it had been very recent.
I stood there waiting curious to see what they wanted.
(03:06):
The passengers shushed everyone up inside, then he leaned out the window and he said,
"Hey man, come on, we got room, come on, get in!"
Now he said this to me in a way that was not exactly an invitation like you would offer a ride to someone you knew.
No, this was urgent, like he was helping me get off the Titanic by offering me a seat in the lifeboat as it was lowering.
(03:32):
"What?" I asked.
I did not and could not make the connections here of what was going on and what was so urgent.
He leaned out the window further and said, "Listen, my man, you do not want to keep walking up this road. You get me?"
Now even with my sunglasses on, I could see that his eyes were heavy-litted and they were rimmed and red.
(03:57):
Even if that escalated, been full of fresh-faced, female preschool teachers wearing cute little corduroy romper dresses,
I wasn't getting into a vehicle with anyone I didn't know.
You know, that's in the top three rules in the book that I'm writing. It's titled "1,000 in one ways to not become a missing person."
(04:20):
I just looked at him and shook my head and said, "No, man, thanks, but I was good."
Then he says to me, "You ain't gonna be man if you keep going up that road."
He looked at me, waiting.
"Oh yeah?" I said, "Why is that? What's up the road?"
"There's a man, I don't know what it is," he said.
(04:45):
Immediately, the other guys inside began chiming in, throwing out words like they were playing charades.
I heard everything from monster to beast and then the granddaddy of them all. Bigfoot."
"Listen, man," he said. "I don't know what it is. I'm just saying you don't want to go up that way. Trust me."
(05:08):
Now, usually serial killers ask you to help them find a puppy or they offer you a basket of kittens in the back seat to lure you into their car.
But never once had I heard of anyone trying to scare you into their car with the threat of a big foot.
I thought about that and I almost laughed out loud.
"No, man, thanks," I said. "Again, I'm good. I'm armed."
(05:34):
I said that as I padded the bear spray hanging from a belt loop by a clip.
He looked at me and he said, "Do that thing ain't gonna do jack against what I just saw."
I could tell he was scared. He was serious.
But still, I said, "Thanks, but I'll take my chances."
(05:57):
This had gone from creepy, weird, to full-blown Twilight Zone in less than a few seconds.
I kept my thumb on the clip that held my bear spray.
I mean, I was doubtful that I could outrun all four or five of them, not with my backpack on me for sure.
Plus, I was pretty tired. I'd been hiking a steady uphill climb on that road for about two hours.
(06:22):
If they opened the door, I'd decided I was gonna blast them all with that spray.
I know he saw me holding onto that spray.
He looked at me and shook his head and said, "Forget you, man," then he told the driver to go.
He shook his head and gave me one last look as they took off, leaving me in a cloud of dust on the road.
(06:46):
I shook my head, talk about strange encounter, I thought.
You know, even if what happened next hadn't happened, I would still chalk that up to one of the weirder moments I've ever had while out hiking around.
To me, it was an obvious situation. They had seen a bear or a heck, maybe even a moose out there by the road.
(07:12):
Maybe even a raccoon, I didn't know. But whatever they saw, that herbal smoke of theirs had them seeing something else.
That was all I decided. I thought about it, and I had a good chuckle over it as I walked.
But I also immediately left the road and then decided to go into the trees about fifty feet.
(07:33):
I found a good place to sit where I could see the road, but staying under the dark tree canopy,
I was sure I couldn't be seen from the bright sunny road.
I decided that last minute, just in case they did have nefarious intentions and came back up the road.
Also I thought, in case a bear was rambling down the road, and I had seen that before, I did not want to be in that bear's direct eyesight.
(08:02):
I waited about ten minutes, listened, waited some more, and decided the coast was clear, and I went out and resumed my walk on the road.
I did think I wish I had stopped to ask them how far up the road was, whatever they had seen.
It could have been a mile or two back, or it could have been just around the curve that was up ahead.
(08:27):
Either way I was cautious, walked a little slower, and kept a look out.
It might have been a quarter of a mile or maybe a little more, but about ten minutes or less later I saw a set of large bear human-like prints in the dusty road.
These looked fresh, they hadn't been ran over by tires, but one time, I assumed it was the escalade.
(08:52):
I stopped and I looked. The prints went both directions across the road.
It looked like they had come out from one side, and walked all the way to the other side.
Or maybe they walked over to my side of the road. I was no print expert, so I really didn't know how to read them.
I thought maybe those guys in that escalade had maybe said all of this up, but then I thought, "Nah, that's a lot to do for just a joke."
(09:22):
Especially when you had no idea if anyone would be coming up the road like I had been, because I don't think anyone could have seen those prints as they were driving along.
But me walking on the road? I was looking straight down at them, and I didn't even see them until I was almost on top of them.
(09:43):
Though the road was dusty, the core of the road was very hard with packed dirt, so the impressions were not very deep.
They were superficial on the surface, so they wouldn't have been seen easily as you were driving.
The impressions also did not seem to be faked to my untrained eye. None of the prints looked exactly like the one before or after it, which those made by hoaxers often do.
(10:10):
They were not perfect copies, which I think a hoaxer either wouldn't be smart enough to do, or wouldn't be diligent enough to do over an entire area.
There was a natural difference from print to print, and I sure couldn't see the escalade full of those herbal smokers going to all of that kind of trouble.
(10:32):
Then again, I thought they might not have been the ones to do it. Perhaps they fell victim to someone else's very good hoaxing.
The more I thought about it though, the more it just didn't make sense. A hoaxer gets a kick out of knowing that they got someone.
They like to see it, or they like to hear about it, don't they? They only get a payoff if someone sees it and falls for it.
(11:00):
Tracks going across an old logging road with very little traffic just didn't seem like a prime spot for that, but I really didn't know for sure.
I knew a big-foot, of course, but I knew next to nothing about big-foot or the world of big-foot, including hoaxers.
(11:22):
My reasoning was drawn from being one of five boys in my family that included two sisters, so seven children.
And all seven of us lived our entire childhoods and our early adulthoods, either planning a prank or being the victim of a prank.
It was the law of the land in my house growing up, and we learned from the biggest prankster of all, our dad.
(11:51):
So I know what a prank or a hoax that is thrown together for kicks feels and looks like.
I'm not saying that big-foot hoaxers have the same sophistication as two pre-teen boys ganging up on their older brothers, you know, like maybe stretching saran wrap under their toilet seats, but over their toilet bowls, right before bedtime.
(12:13):
And as a side note, that was a real howler when my brother got up at 2am to use the toilet, but that's another story.
And it wasn't like the big-foot hoaxers had the same sophistication to make children really believe, like when our parents made fake boot prints across the floor from the fireplace to the Christmas tree.
(12:34):
Well, then again, maybe I'm wrong.
I've since read about some big-foot hoaxers, and some of them, I don't think they rivaled us when we were 12 years old, but I'm getting off topic.
I'm just saying that standing there on that road, looking down at those prints? Well, they didn't seem to have the look or the feel of being staged.
(12:58):
I looked over into the darkness of the trees on both sides of the road.
Just like I knew, no one could have seen me earlier when I was 50 feet in from the road.
I was having trouble seeing beyond the first 20 or 30 feet.
And in the sunlight, it makes it hard to look down into the darkness of a forest where the tree canopy is thick, where almost no sunlight comes through.
(13:24):
I thought to myself, "Well, anything could be in there, just out of sight, watching."
And I suddenly thought a little chill work its way into the pit of my stomach.
After all the years, and probably hundreds of miles that I've walked along roads and gone down trails through forests, I had never once felt uncomfortable like I was being watched or stalked.
(13:50):
Like something I'd never encountered before might be lurking nearby.
I told myself to knock it off, to get ahold of myself. I told myself that I was being really stupid.
And I walked right through and on top of those princes I continued on the road.
I would not let myself give in to the urge to look back, though I had the incredible desire to do just that.
(14:18):
I felt more strongly that I was being watched once I passed the point of the prince.
But I knew if I gave in to it, I would be angry at myself.
It would be as good as admitting that the hoax worked, and I believed it.
So I did not look back.
(14:40):
Maybe another 15 or 20 minutes later, I looked up from the dusty road to see something large and dark reddish brown, standing on the side of the road, maybe 150 feet away from me.
I stopped when I saw it.
And when I did that, it suddenly stepped off the road, gave me a look and went into the trees.
(15:06):
That chill that had been in my stomach suddenly covered my whole midsection.
If there was someone out here hoaxing, they had just kicked it up to another level.
I enclipped my bear spray unwilling to believe that what I had seen was an a bear, and I suddenly wished for the thousandth time that I was able to carry my pistol in Canada.
(15:32):
As much as my mind kept trying to tell me I was still being pranked, my gut refused to agree.
I took off my sunglasses and took a look, but there was nothing to see.
You know it's funny how I almost had myself convinced that what I had seen was some strange optical thing, you know, what can happen when you wear sunglasses and you look at things sideways real fast.
(15:57):
Sometimes it looks like there's oil slicks or pixels or you see flashes of darkness that aren't there.
I don't know if anyone else has had that.
Maybe it's just me, but that has happened to me when I wear sunglasses especially ever since I had lace x surgery.
Now here I thought about turning back, going back to the lake.
(16:21):
It was already afternoon, and if I didn't find somewhere safe to camp soon, well it would be an uncomfortable night.
I suddenly heard a low rumbling sound coming down the road.
I looked up sharply, stepped to the side and waited.
And sure enough, a pickup truck came down the road.
(16:43):
There was a man and a woman in the cab with the truck, and there were two big dogs in the back who seemed to be enjoying the ride.
I watched them as they passed, carefree, and for just a moment I considered flagging them down and asking if I could ride in the back with the dogs too, well, however far they would take me away from here.
(17:04):
But I stood there mute as they rolled by.
I made eye contact with the woman, and she flitted her eyes away instantly.
She didn't seem friendly, so I said and did nothing.
But I had watched as they approached where I had seen that dark flash up ahead on the road.
(17:25):
They did not slow down, and they did not speed up.
The dogs in the back of the truck didn't bark or even seem to look that way.
I was trying to tell myself, I hadn't seen anything at all, and I was doing a good job of condensing myself too.
So I steadied my breath, readjusted my pack, and began walking again.
(17:52):
But this time I crossed to the other side of the road because, well, you know, just because.
And as I got to the other side of the road, I stopped dead.
Right there on the other side of the road was a clear line of the same prints I had seen earlier.
They were right there in the dusty dirt road.
(18:14):
I looked backwards, and I saw there was a long line of prints going back as far as I could see.
With a shock I realized I had read the previous prints completely wrong.
It had crossed back to the opposite side of the road, and it probably walked inside the trees for a while.
But then at some point it had to have resumed walking on the road on the opposite side for me, so I didn't see the prints on the other side.
(18:45):
I quickly understood that because I had waited those ten minutes earlier, it had been able to stay ahead of me the whole way, and with all the curves in the road I never saw it ahead.
But it had heard that truck coming though, long before I did.
I can't explain all the movements that it made that day.
(19:09):
But one thing was very clear to me. It knew to get out of the road when traffic was coming.
But for some reason it didn't move fast enough to avoid that escalade that came through first.
And for some reason it crosses the road to hide it seems, rather than take shelter in the closer trees?
(19:33):
I don't understand that, but that seems to be what was happening.
It seemed to be anyway from the prints that crossed the road both times.
I have no explanation for it in any other way.
My mouth suddenly went dry when I realized this, and I could feel a drop of sweat run down the hollow of my spine under my shirt, and I shivered.
(19:57):
Was there really such a thing as big that I thought?
I had never really thought so, but I was now having to reconsider.
I could hear my heartbeat in my ears.
It was pounding so loud that I was sure it could be heard all the way down to the lake.
I looked, but I couldn't see anything ahead or on either side of the road, as far as I could see into the dark trees.
(20:26):
My instinct was to turn and run, but I knew that would be a mistake.
Running just makes a predator chase you, and I didn't know if big that was a predator or not, but I didn't feel like betting on it.
I stood there at the side of the road, sweating, breathing, thinking, waiting.
(20:50):
I couldn't see it, but I had to think that it was still nearby.
The last time it went across a road, it came back, and it walked on the road again, at least according to the prince I saw.
Was it waiting for me to go buy it?
I might have stood there for a minute or more, trying to make up my mind.
(21:11):
Do I go on up the road? Or do I turn my back and walk away?
While I was trying to decide, all of a sudden it came right to the edge of the road where I thought I had seen something before.
It looked my way.
Stood still for just a second.
Then walked right across the road, and started walking up the road, turning to look at me several times as it walked semi-sideways.
(21:39):
It suddenly was putting a lot of distance between us, even with the slight uphill grade to the road.
It was making fast ground.
I swear I was hit with what I can only describe as waves of malice, like it was telling me to stop following it.
No problem, I thought. Listen, Mr. Furry Beast. Trust me, I'm not following you.
(22:06):
I repeated that over and over, intending to send it out to it as a message, the same way it sent me waves of malice.
I thought to myself, I've gotten as close to one of those things as I ever planned to be, and I didn't plan on this.
I watched as it strode up the road.
(22:28):
I remember that I could see quite a few things clearly, even from that distance, although it was mostly in the form of an outline.
It was definitely on only two feet. It was walking one foot right in front of the other.
The legs were very thick, and it had a very thick midsection and chest, and everywhere that I saw was covered with a deep reddish brown fur.
(22:54):
And it was fur, not free-flowing hair to me, at least not from that distance. Of course, I was pretty far away from it by then.
But hair looks different from fur.
I also remember, it was very wide across the shoulders.
I also saw the dark brown black of the souls of its massive feet.
(23:18):
It picked each one up very high when it walked, and each time I had a perfect view of the bottom of the foot souls.
It walked on the road for another hundred feet or so, then it stepped down to walk on the grassy shoulder.
It stopped, and turned to look at me in a pointed fashion again before it stepped into the trees along the road, and disappeared.
(23:46):
I had seen enough now to know there was no way I was going up that road any more.
I started walking sideways and backwards. It didn't seem like it was interested in me, but I wasn't taking any chances that it was going to sneak up on me as I retreated.
I thought to myself, "If I hadn't waited those ten minutes initially after the escalade left, you know I might have just walked right up on that creature.
(24:17):
All the way back down that road I was playing the "what if game with myself?"
"What if I had walked around a curve and startled it? What if I hadn't seen it at all?"
"If I had known it was there, if I had listened to and believed those guys, I would never have walked up that road."
(24:39):
In essence, I was following that big foot, and I didn't know it, but apparently it did.
I remember those waves of malice, and even now the hair on my arms will stand up when I think about it.
Don't follow big foot. I know some people want to, but I really don't think it's a good idea.
(25:05):
Maybe there are some really friendly big-futs out there, but I know for sure at least one is not.
Oh, one other thing I do remember about its walk, and it may or may not explain a lot of things.
I noticed that it seemed to be uneven in its walking. I won't say that it was limping exactly, but it wasn't a strong steady gate.
(25:33):
I have since wondered if that explains a lot of things like why it was walking on the road instead of going through the forest.
And how, although they have a much bigger stride, maybe it was going slower. Maybe that's how I caught up to it.
Maybe it was walking on the road because if it had a leg injury or some other kind of injury, the flat road was easier.
(25:58):
I have since thought of a thousand other things. I guess I'll never know.
Thank you for letting me get this out of my head.
I know this big foot wasn't all up in my face, wuking at me or throwing things or attacking me, but just seeing it at a hundred or two hundred feet away.
Well that was enough for me for my whole life.
Tonight's encounter comes to you from long ago.
(00:03):
We're pulling this one out of the vault.
Some people have these incredible moments with a big foot that seemed to last a long time,
or they get up close with them.
I cannot brag that I sat down and had tea with big foot,
(00:27):
but I did sort of follow him for about a mile, maybe a little more,
and I didn't realize that that's what I was doing.
This happened a few summers ago.
I had spent a few days fishing and camping at Upper Arrow Lake in British Columbia, Canada.
On my third morning, I packed it up and headed up a logging road
(00:49):
that led away from the lake in towards the west.
I had no destination or a timeline that I needed to follow.
I didn't have to be back to university until August, and right then it was mid-June.
The way was open.
It was a warm and dry day that day.
(01:09):
It was very sunny.
I was wearing my sunglasses.
I won't give a disclaimer about what a world class outdoorsman I am,
but I can truthfully say that I've done my share of hiking and camping
in many different parts of North America.
The road was a dirt road, and maybe once a half hour or so,
(01:31):
a car or a truck would come through, kicking up dust clouds from the road.
They couldn't help it, but it was so bad I tied a bandana around my nose and mouth
to stop from breathing in all the dust.
Sometimes people would not or wave as they passed me.
But mostly everyone just looked ahead, making sure they weren't going to hit me.
(01:54):
I was surprised when a white Cadillac escalade that had been barreling down the road
at a fast pace came to a stuttering stop on the road right by me.
I don't like to think about stereotypes much less, use them.
But the four men in that escalade, maybe there were five, but the men in that escalade
(02:16):
that I could see fit every terrible stereotype about drug dealers with gold teeth and diamonds in them,
driving escalades.
The only thing missing was music with base thumping.
I didn't know what to expect.
No one's ever stopped like that for me.
As the passengers window came down, I could hear all of them inside the Cadillac, talking
(02:41):
at a level that was just below a yell.
It seemed they all had something important to tell me.
As the window came down, I had the remnants of some herbal smoke hit me in the face.
They weren't actively using those urbels at that time, but I could tell it had been very recent.
I stood there waiting curious to see what they wanted.
(03:06):
The passengers shushed everyone up inside, then he leaned out the window and he said,
"Hey man, come on, we got room, come on, get in!"
Now he said this to me in a way that was not exactly an invitation like you would offer a ride to someone you knew.
No, this was urgent, like he was helping me get off the Titanic by offering me a seat in the lifeboat as it was lowering.
(03:32):
"What?" I asked.
I did not and could not make the connections here of what was going on and what was so urgent.
He leaned out the window further and said, "Listen, my man, you do not want to keep walking up this road. You get me?"
Now even with my sunglasses on, I could see that his eyes were heavy-litted and they were rimmed and red.
(03:57):
Even if that escalated, been full of fresh-faced, female preschool teachers wearing cute little corduroy romper dresses,
I wasn't getting into a vehicle with anyone I didn't know.
You know, that's in the top three rules in the book that I'm writing. It's titled "1,000 in one ways to not become a missing person."
(04:20):
I just looked at him and shook my head and said, "No, man, thanks, but I was good."
Then he says to me, "You ain't gonna be man if you keep going up that road."
He looked at me, waiting.
"Oh yeah?" I said, "Why is that? What's up the road?"
"There's a man, I don't know what it is," he said.
(04:45):
Immediately, the other guys inside began chiming in, throwing out words like they were playing charades.
I heard everything from monster to beast and then the granddaddy of them all. Bigfoot."
"Listen, man," he said. "I don't know what it is. I'm just saying you don't want to go up that way. Trust me."
(05:08):
Now, usually serial killers ask you to help them find a puppy or they offer you a basket of kittens in the back seat to lure you into their car.
But never once had I heard of anyone trying to scare you into their car with the threat of a big foot.
I thought about that and I almost laughed out loud.
"No, man, thanks," I said. "Again, I'm good. I'm armed."
(05:34):
I said that as I padded the bear spray hanging from a belt loop by a clip.
He looked at me and he said, "Do that thing ain't gonna do jack against what I just saw."
I could tell he was scared. He was serious.
But still, I said, "Thanks, but I'll take my chances."
(05:57):
This had gone from creepy, weird, to full-blown Twilight Zone in less than a few seconds.
I kept my thumb on the clip that held my bear spray.
I mean, I was doubtful that I could outrun all four or five of them, not with my backpack on me for sure.
Plus, I was pretty tired. I'd been hiking a steady uphill climb on that road for about two hours.
(06:22):
If they opened the door, I'd decided I was gonna blast them all with that spray.
I know he saw me holding onto that spray.
He looked at me and shook his head and said, "Forget you, man," then he told the driver to go.
He shook his head and gave me one last look as they took off, leaving me in a cloud of dust on the road.
(06:46):
I shook my head, talk about strange encounter, I thought.
You know, even if what happened next hadn't happened, I would still chalk that up to one of the weirder moments I've ever had while out hiking around.
To me, it was an obvious situation. They had seen a bear or a heck, maybe even a moose out there by the road.
(07:12):
Maybe even a raccoon, I didn't know. But whatever they saw, that herbal smoke of theirs had them seeing something else.
That was all I decided. I thought about it, and I had a good chuckle over it as I walked.
But I also immediately left the road and then decided to go into the trees about fifty feet.
(07:33):
I found a good place to sit where I could see the road, but staying under the dark tree canopy,
I was sure I couldn't be seen from the bright sunny road.
I decided that last minute, just in case they did have nefarious intentions and came back up the road.
Also I thought, in case a bear was rambling down the road, and I had seen that before, I did not want to be in that bear's direct eyesight.
(08:02):
I waited about ten minutes, listened, waited some more, and decided the coast was clear, and I went out and resumed my walk on the road.
I did think I wish I had stopped to ask them how far up the road was, whatever they had seen.
It could have been a mile or two back, or it could have been just around the curve that was up ahead.
(08:27):
Either way I was cautious, walked a little slower, and kept a look out.
It might have been a quarter of a mile or maybe a little more, but about ten minutes or less later I saw a set of large bear human-like prints in the dusty road.
These looked fresh, they hadn't been ran over by tires, but one time, I assumed it was the escalade.
(08:52):
I stopped and I looked. The prints went both directions across the road.
It looked like they had come out from one side, and walked all the way to the other side.
Or maybe they walked over to my side of the road. I was no print expert, so I really didn't know how to read them.
I thought maybe those guys in that escalade had maybe said all of this up, but then I thought, "Nah, that's a lot to do for just a joke."
(09:22):
Especially when you had no idea if anyone would be coming up the road like I had been, because I don't think anyone could have seen those prints as they were driving along.
But me walking on the road? I was looking straight down at them, and I didn't even see them until I was almost on top of them.
(09:43):
Though the road was dusty, the core of the road was very hard with packed dirt, so the impressions were not very deep.
They were superficial on the surface, so they wouldn't have been seen easily as you were driving.
The impressions also did not seem to be faked to my untrained eye. None of the prints looked exactly like the one before or after it, which those made by hoaxers often do.
(10:10):
They were not perfect copies, which I think a hoaxer either wouldn't be smart enough to do, or wouldn't be diligent enough to do over an entire area.
There was a natural difference from print to print, and I sure couldn't see the escalade full of those herbal smokers going to all of that kind of trouble.
(10:32):
Then again, I thought they might not have been the ones to do it. Perhaps they fell victim to someone else's very good hoaxing.
The more I thought about it though, the more it just didn't make sense. A hoaxer gets a kick out of knowing that they got someone.
They like to see it, or they like to hear about it, don't they? They only get a payoff if someone sees it and falls for it.
(11:00):
Tracks going across an old logging road with very little traffic just didn't seem like a prime spot for that, but I really didn't know for sure.
I knew a big-foot, of course, but I knew next to nothing about big-foot or the world of big-foot, including hoaxers.
(11:22):
My reasoning was drawn from being one of five boys in my family that included two sisters, so seven children.
And all seven of us lived our entire childhoods and our early adulthoods, either planning a prank or being the victim of a prank.
It was the law of the land in my house growing up, and we learned from the biggest prankster of all, our dad.
(11:51):
So I know what a prank or a hoax that is thrown together for kicks feels and looks like.
I'm not saying that big-foot hoaxers have the same sophistication as two pre-teen boys ganging up on their older brothers, you know, like maybe stretching saran wrap under their toilet seats, but over their toilet bowls, right before bedtime.
(12:13):
And as a side note, that was a real howler when my brother got up at 2am to use the toilet, but that's another story.
And it wasn't like the big-foot hoaxers had the same sophistication to make children really believe, like when our parents made fake boot prints across the floor from the fireplace to the Christmas tree.
(12:34):
Well, then again, maybe I'm wrong.
I've since read about some big-foot hoaxers, and some of them, I don't think they rivaled us when we were 12 years old, but I'm getting off topic.
I'm just saying that standing there on that road, looking down at those prints? Well, they didn't seem to have the look or the feel of being staged.
(12:58):
I looked over into the darkness of the trees on both sides of the road.
Just like I knew, no one could have seen me earlier when I was 50 feet in from the road.
I was having trouble seeing beyond the first 20 or 30 feet.
And in the sunlight, it makes it hard to look down into the darkness of a forest where the tree canopy is thick, where almost no sunlight comes through.
(13:24):
I thought to myself, "Well, anything could be in there, just out of sight, watching."
And I suddenly thought a little chill work its way into the pit of my stomach.
After all the years, and probably hundreds of miles that I've walked along roads and gone down trails through forests, I had never once felt uncomfortable like I was being watched or stalked.
(13:50):
Like something I'd never encountered before might be lurking nearby.
I told myself to knock it off, to get ahold of myself. I told myself that I was being really stupid.
And I walked right through and on top of those princes I continued on the road.
I would not let myself give in to the urge to look back, though I had the incredible desire to do just that.
(14:18):
I felt more strongly that I was being watched once I passed the point of the prince.
But I knew if I gave in to it, I would be angry at myself.
It would be as good as admitting that the hoax worked, and I believed it.
So I did not look back.
(14:40):
Maybe another 15 or 20 minutes later, I looked up from the dusty road to see something large and dark reddish brown, standing on the side of the road, maybe 150 feet away from me.
I stopped when I saw it.
And when I did that, it suddenly stepped off the road, gave me a look and went into the trees.
(15:06):
That chill that had been in my stomach suddenly covered my whole midsection.
If there was someone out here hoaxing, they had just kicked it up to another level.
I enclipped my bear spray unwilling to believe that what I had seen was an a bear, and I suddenly wished for the thousandth time that I was able to carry my pistol in Canada.
(15:32):
As much as my mind kept trying to tell me I was still being pranked, my gut refused to agree.
I took off my sunglasses and took a look, but there was nothing to see.
You know it's funny how I almost had myself convinced that what I had seen was some strange optical thing, you know, what can happen when you wear sunglasses and you look at things sideways real fast.
(15:57):
Sometimes it looks like there's oil slicks or pixels or you see flashes of darkness that aren't there.
I don't know if anyone else has had that.
Maybe it's just me, but that has happened to me when I wear sunglasses especially ever since I had lace x surgery.
Now here I thought about turning back, going back to the lake.
(16:21):
It was already afternoon, and if I didn't find somewhere safe to camp soon, well it would be an uncomfortable night.
I suddenly heard a low rumbling sound coming down the road.
I looked up sharply, stepped to the side and waited.
And sure enough, a pickup truck came down the road.
(16:43):
There was a man and a woman in the cab with the truck, and there were two big dogs in the back who seemed to be enjoying the ride.
I watched them as they passed, carefree, and for just a moment I considered flagging them down and asking if I could ride in the back with the dogs too, well, however far they would take me away from here.
(17:04):
But I stood there mute as they rolled by.
I made eye contact with the woman, and she flitted her eyes away instantly.
She didn't seem friendly, so I said and did nothing.
But I had watched as they approached where I had seen that dark flash up ahead on the road.
(17:25):
They did not slow down, and they did not speed up.
The dogs in the back of the truck didn't bark or even seem to look that way.
I was trying to tell myself, I hadn't seen anything at all, and I was doing a good job of condensing myself too.
So I steadied my breath, readjusted my pack, and began walking again.
(17:52):
But this time I crossed to the other side of the road because, well, you know, just because.
And as I got to the other side of the road, I stopped dead.
Right there on the other side of the road was a clear line of the same prints I had seen earlier.
They were right there in the dusty dirt road.
(18:14):
I looked backwards, and I saw there was a long line of prints going back as far as I could see.
With a shock I realized I had read the previous prints completely wrong.
It had crossed back to the opposite side of the road, and it probably walked inside the trees for a while.
But then at some point it had to have resumed walking on the road on the opposite side for me, so I didn't see the prints on the other side.
(18:45):
I quickly understood that because I had waited those ten minutes earlier, it had been able to stay ahead of me the whole way, and with all the curves in the road I never saw it ahead.
But it had heard that truck coming though, long before I did.
I can't explain all the movements that it made that day.
(19:09):
But one thing was very clear to me. It knew to get out of the road when traffic was coming.
But for some reason it didn't move fast enough to avoid that escalade that came through first.
And for some reason it crosses the road to hide it seems, rather than take shelter in the closer trees?
(19:33):
I don't understand that, but that seems to be what was happening.
It seemed to be anyway from the prints that crossed the road both times.
I have no explanation for it in any other way.
My mouth suddenly went dry when I realized this, and I could feel a drop of sweat run down the hollow of my spine under my shirt, and I shivered.
(19:57):
Was there really such a thing as big that I thought?
I had never really thought so, but I was now having to reconsider.
I could hear my heartbeat in my ears.
It was pounding so loud that I was sure it could be heard all the way down to the lake.
I looked, but I couldn't see anything ahead or on either side of the road, as far as I could see into the dark trees.
(20:26):
My instinct was to turn and run, but I knew that would be a mistake.
Running just makes a predator chase you, and I didn't know if big that was a predator or not, but I didn't feel like betting on it.
I stood there at the side of the road, sweating, breathing, thinking, waiting.
(20:50):
I couldn't see it, but I had to think that it was still nearby.
The last time it went across a road, it came back, and it walked on the road again, at least according to the prince I saw.
Was it waiting for me to go buy it?
I might have stood there for a minute or more, trying to make up my mind.
(21:11):
Do I go on up the road? Or do I turn my back and walk away?
While I was trying to decide, all of a sudden it came right to the edge of the road where I thought I had seen something before.
It looked my way.
Stood still for just a second.
Then walked right across the road, and started walking up the road, turning to look at me several times as it walked semi-sideways.
(21:39):
It suddenly was putting a lot of distance between us, even with the slight uphill grade to the road.
It was making fast ground.
I swear I was hit with what I can only describe as waves of malice, like it was telling me to stop following it.
No problem, I thought. Listen, Mr. Furry Beast. Trust me, I'm not following you.
(22:06):
I repeated that over and over, intending to send it out to it as a message, the same way it sent me waves of malice.
I thought to myself, I've gotten as close to one of those things as I ever planned to be, and I didn't plan on this.
I watched as it strode up the road.
(22:28):
I remember that I could see quite a few things clearly, even from that distance, although it was mostly in the form of an outline.
It was definitely on only two feet. It was walking one foot right in front of the other.
The legs were very thick, and it had a very thick midsection and chest, and everywhere that I saw was covered with a deep reddish brown fur.
(22:54):
And it was fur, not free-flowing hair to me, at least not from that distance. Of course, I was pretty far away from it by then.
But hair looks different from fur.
I also remember, it was very wide across the shoulders.
I also saw the dark brown black of the souls of its massive feet.
(23:18):
It picked each one up very high when it walked, and each time I had a perfect view of the bottom of the foot souls.
It walked on the road for another hundred feet or so, then it stepped down to walk on the grassy shoulder.
It stopped, and turned to look at me in a pointed fashion again before it stepped into the trees along the road, and disappeared.
(23:46):
I had seen enough now to know there was no way I was going up that road any more.
I started walking sideways and backwards. It didn't seem like it was interested in me, but I wasn't taking any chances that it was going to sneak up on me as I retreated.
I thought to myself, "If I hadn't waited those ten minutes initially after the escalade left, you know I might have just walked right up on that creature.
(24:17):
All the way back down that road I was playing the "what if game with myself?"
"What if I had walked around a curve and startled it? What if I hadn't seen it at all?"
"If I had known it was there, if I had listened to and believed those guys, I would never have walked up that road."
(24:39):
In essence, I was following that big foot, and I didn't know it, but apparently it did.
I remember those waves of malice, and even now the hair on my arms will stand up when I think about it.
Don't follow big foot. I know some people want to, but I really don't think it's a good idea.
(25:05):
Maybe there are some really friendly big-futs out there, but I know for sure at least one is not.
Oh, one other thing I do remember about its walk, and it may or may not explain a lot of things.
I noticed that it seemed to be uneven in its walking. I won't say that it was limping exactly, but it wasn't a strong steady gate.
(25:33):
I have since wondered if that explains a lot of things like why it was walking on the road instead of going through the forest.
And how, although they have a much bigger stride, maybe it was going slower. Maybe that's how I caught up to it.
Maybe it was walking on the road because if it had a leg injury or some other kind of injury, the flat road was easier.
(25:58):
I have since thought of a thousand other things. I guess I'll never know.
Thank you for letting me get this out of my head.
I know this big foot wasn't all up in my face, wuking at me or throwing things or attacking me, but just seeing it at a hundred or two hundred feet away.
Well that was enough for me for my whole life.
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