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I was hunting that day, and just trying to get out of a storm that turned the woods

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black in the middle of the afternoon.

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I found a blowdown, and I crawled inside to wait the storm out.

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I thought I had made a smart decision.

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But then something else came into that blowdown after me.

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And when the lightning flashed?

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Well, I saw exactly what it was.

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This happened during both season eight years back.

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I was hunting alone in the Hughes River Wildlife Management area in West Virginia.

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I knew that piece of ground well.

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I'd been hunting it since I was a teen.

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Nothing about that day stood out at first.

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It was cool, overcast, and the kind of day you expect dear to move a little.

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By early afternoon something started to change.

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There had been no rain in the forecast, but it was on the way.

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The wind suddenly picked up.

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I don't mean gradually either.

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This came on quick, pushing through the trees hard enough.

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It quickly got my attention.

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Then the light around me dropped.

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Thick, dark clouds were rolling in, low and heavy and fast.

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It was like something had sucked all the ambient light out of the woods around me, and it

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went from a grey overcast afternoon to feeling like it was close to midnight.

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I remember stopping and looking up through the tree canopy.

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I remember thinking I should probably go ahead and head out before it gets worse.

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So I went ahead and started my walk out, but I didn't get far.

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Now the rain really started.

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This was a heavy, cold rain that came in, slanting sideways with the wind that was hard behind

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it.

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It felt almost like sleep hitting me.

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It was cold and it stung my skin.

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I knew right then this wasn't a storm I could walk through.

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This is the kind of storm that brings the ugly stuff with it.

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I knew it was still a couple miles to get to my truck, and I was way up in the hills.

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For a few moments I was thinking, "Well, maybe I could just keep walking.

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At least get down to a lower elevation and wait it out down there."

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But that's when the lightning started.

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It was striking close.

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Being high up and surrounded by trees is really not a good place to be when lightning comes

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in.

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My pack was on a metal frame.

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My compound bow had both aluminum and magnesium alloy in it.

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I was nothing more than a walking lightning rod.

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Now bright flashes lit the woods up all wide around me, and they were followed almost immediately

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by thunder that didn't just roll.

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It cracked.

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Sharp and heavy.

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Like it hit right on top of you.

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It was the kind that you could feel in your chest, and I felt it in my boots from the ground

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up.

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In no time at all this went from being a thunderstorm to being a hot electrical storm.

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There's not a lot of shelter in the woods when you're in this kind of storm, but I did

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know where a blowdown was, not too far from my current position.

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I had seen it again that day on my way up.

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I've used it as a waymark for years.

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It came down some years back, and I noticed on the way up that day that it looked as if another

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hunter had added to it and coated it with pine branches.

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But I also noticed the branches looked old and dry, but I took note of it as I moved

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up the hill.

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I also fleetingly thought it might have been some teens making some kind of a hideout

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or fort, and thought no more of it.

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This blowdown wasn't much, but I turned, and I made a beeline for it.

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By the time I reached it, the storm was in full swing.

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The tops of the trees were whipping back and forth.

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You could hear limbs snapping somewhere deeper in the woods.

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Everything was hitting everything, running in sheets and rivers down the slope.

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I got to that blowdown, dropped down, and pushed into what looked like the opening.

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Only way in was on hands and knees.

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I had to take my pack off, shove it in my bow in first, then I climbed in, working through

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the branches and trunks that were laid over each other.

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A few feet in, it was a good-sized opening.

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A couple of feet from the side of the branch walls, and I could sit up cross-legged, and

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I still had room for my head.

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Outside the storm raged.

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Crack after crack of earth-shaking thunder and flashes of white hot lightning were almost

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non-stop.

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Rain still came through the blowdown shelter in a few spots and drips, but I counted

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my blessings and said it was much better than outside.

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I shifted around, set my pack and my arrow off to my right, which was closer to the opening.

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I took breath, ready to sit there and wait out the storm.

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But that didn't last long until I wondered what I had crawled in, too.

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In my hurry, I didn't check first to make sure it wasn't already inhabited by some other

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animal.

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The smell that suddenly hit me was now a mix of zoo-like smell, mixed with that nasty,

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rank rotten smell of a predator's den, where the blood and the fur are there rotting.

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I got my pen-lite out and shined it around.

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This was definitely something's den, something big lived here.

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It relieves and pine needles that repress down in one area across from where I sat.

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It was flattened, a long oval.

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Looked like something's bed.

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Like I said, something big.

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I remember thinking this didn't make sense for a bear's den.

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It was the first full week of November, and it was still warm enough that a bear might be

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outlooking for its last dinner.

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But the den didn't have the look or the feel of a bear's den.

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But I didn't dwell on it.

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Whatever it was, I thought.

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It's not here.

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And I wasn't planning on staying any longer than the storm was active.

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Two or three minutes I was sitting like that.

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And then I heard movement at the entrance.

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Branches snapping and being pushed aside quickly.

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I guess I hadn't heard its approach because of the storm.

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I immediately pulled out my 9mm single hole punch.

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And before everyone gets all riled up, I am allowed to carry in West Virginia during

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bow season.

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Well, like I said, this was just a 9mm, and I only carried it for emergencies and/or to ward

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off other humans.

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And I figured this might be one of those emergencies.

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Oh, I got ready, because whatever it was was coming in.

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Before I could react, something crawled all the way into the space under that blowdown.

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There was a crack at thunder, and almost instantaneous white lightning that lit the world up for

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just a fraction of a second.

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But it was long enough I saw it.

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It was right there in the opening.

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Huge, big shoulders filling the whole space, brushing against the sides as it came through

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– hair hanging in thick wet strands – the arms, long and heavy, bracing as it pushed itself

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to get inside.

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I saw its face just long enough to know.

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This wasn't a bear, and it wasn't another hunter.

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It wasn't anything I'd ever seen before.

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This was something that I'd always thought was just a joke.

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Bigfoot.

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That lightning flashed, and then it all went dark again.

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I was in there alone with the bigfoot in the dark.

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It came all the way in.

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I scrambled with my other hand and pulled out my pen light and flicked it back on again.

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That bigfoot had crawled in, and I was staring at a large backside now of brown fur just

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a few feet from my face.

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Just a second, I thought I had gotten it all wrong.

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That wasn't some bigfoot.

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That big rounded rump looked like a big brown bear's rump to me.

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I could even see the water of you, let's run down the fur.

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Now never mind, we do not have big brown bears in West Virginia.

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I have seen great big brown bears far too close for comfort on trips out west and up in

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Canada.

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But the fur I saw shaking from the rump as it moved around looked very much like a bear.

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You want to know what panic is?

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Imagine being in a very small enclosed space with a very large, aggressive brown bear with

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a useless bow and a small nine mill hole punch.

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That's when panic sets in.

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I didn't move.

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I'm not sure I was even breathing.

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I kept looking, and that's when I noticed something.

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That rump went down to a leg that was on a bent knee, and beyond that knee was a lower leg,

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and at the end of that leg was a very large human-like foot at the end of it.

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Not a bear after all.

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And for just a second, I wished it had been the bear, because then I'd at least known

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what to expect.

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With my pen light still on, I saw it take another second to get positioned around, and it

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turned slightly and plopped down into the flattened bedding area that I had noticed earlier.

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I still debate with myself if it knew I was there before it plopped down.

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At that time I saw it very clearly for about three seconds in my pen light.

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I saw the wide and heavy shoulders, the arms that looked long and dangly but full of muscles.

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I saw the way its hip had dug down into the flattened leaves, and the way its hair was

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still full of rainwater, wet and clumpy, and I saw that water rolling off the hair.

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I took in several things all at once, more than just its size and the hair.

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I heard its breathing, and I saw it was staring at me.

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The look on its face wasn't easy to read, but I caught a flash of annoyance, which I guess

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was reasonable.

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But there was also something else that I didn't like when I saw it.

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At that second I couldn't name what it was I saw on its face, but I felt it, and it made

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my hair stand up.

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Now, thinking back, I would say the look on its face was one of not just annoyance and

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surprise, but the look someone would get when a great opportunity or a great piece of look

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has just dropped into their lap unexpectedly.

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The realization that I was sitting in Bigfoot's house had me almost wet myself, and that

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look on his face, well, that was something else.

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My mind went through everything with lightning speed.

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I was too close to use the bow.

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No room to draw or even pull up properly.

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And how could I do that and keep a light on it?

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I couldn't.

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And my single hole punch?

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Yeah, that might help, and it might just piss it off.

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I'd have to get a perfect shot right in the eye socket, because I'm telling you, that

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close to it, I saw the size of the skull.

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It was huge.

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The eyes in the face seem smaller than such a skull would have.

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I mean, the bone of the skull seemed really thick.

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So the chance of that skull being thick like a bear's and hard to shoot through, I was

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willing to bet that chance would be pretty high.

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But a shot right through the eye socket, well, that might do the trick and reach right

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through to the brain.

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Well, it should, anyway.

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But what if I was wrong?

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What if my single hole punch didn't have a high enough caliber to do what I needed to do

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with one shot?

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This was a massive creature.

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So I'm there, weighing all these options at lightning speed in my head.

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Also, I was thinking, could I turn around and back out fast enough?

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Now, for a handful of seconds, I had all these thoughts.

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The whole time, we kept looking at each other, and every second we did, my hair was rising

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up even higher.

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I was already thinking that I had to get out of there when the big foot shifted just

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slightly, and with its free arm reached out and touched the toe of my booth that was

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nearest to it.

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It sort of started pinching the toe area.

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I wear boots with reinforced toe caps that are very thick, hard leather.

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I felt that pinch even through that, and I don't think it was trying to pinch very hard.

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It seemed to me it was testing.

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I don't know if it was interested in the boot, or just wanted to see what I would do.

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Well, that was enough for me.

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I kicked at its hand and pushed it away, and quickly rolled and crawled to the opening.

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I crawled out of there on my hands and knees, like you wouldn't believe.

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I tore out of there.

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I left my pack and my bobe behind.

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On the way out, I know I felt something grabbed my foot, and I kicked it away and kept going.

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I got out, stood up, and I ran faster than the rain and lightning all around me.

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I wasn't even sure which direction I was going in.

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I realized that, and I stopped, knowing that panic was not my friend.

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I was maybe 50 yards down the slope from the blow-down.

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I looked up to find the blow-down, to check my direction, to make sure I was going roughly

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where I needed to go.

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Last thing I needed to do was zero gear on me, was to get lost in those hills.

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As I turned around, I saw a very large thing rise up out in front of the blow-down.

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My heart stopped.

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It was the big foot.

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It stood up, and I saw it looking around, until its eyes found me.

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My stomach dropped.

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Maybe it just wanted to make sure I was really leaving, or maybe it was checking my direction

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so it could track and follow me.

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There was no way I could know.

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I still had my whole punch, but that was all.

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I turned and ran down that hill as fast as I could.

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I did not look back again.

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I was really afraid if I did, I was going to see it right behind me.

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That would stop my heart, which would stop my legs, and it would all be over.

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I went down once, though, on slick ground with leaves.

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I hit those leaves, slid, went down, and tore my side of my hip up really good, because

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I landed on stones and sticks.

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Now, that's the only time I looked back, and that was when I stood up.

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There was nothing following me.

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I stood up and breathed in a few big breaths, then I headed down the hill again, this time,

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more carefully, and slower.

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The thought that got me was that if I had fallen then, and broke my ankle or my leg, I'd

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be stuck.

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I still had probably two miles to get to my truck.

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Meanwhile my phone, my GPS, and all of those things were back at Bigfoot's house.

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Then I thought my truck, oh no, my key fob and key ring were in my pack.

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I kept them wrapped in flannel so they weren't jingling around in a pocket while I walked.

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I guess I'd figure out what to do when I got to my truck.

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The storm was still coming down hard, but it was lessening.

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I hardly noticed it anymore.

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I was so focused on getting down that hill.

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Another lightning flash lit up the woods.

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I looked up, expecting to see the Bigfoot again so hard, that I thought I did see it shape,

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and I thought that every time the lightning flashed.

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But then it would all die back to normal light of a dark day, and there was no Bigfoot

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there.

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But that's how much it was playing with my head all the way down that hill, all the way

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to my truck.

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When I got to where my truck was parked, I had no phone and no way to contact anybody.

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I stood there uncertainly for probably twenty minutes trying to decide what to do.

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Was I really ready to walk the miles down those roads, which were, by the way, full of

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woods on either side?

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I didn't think so.

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I was really trying to decide what to do when some other hunters pulled in to that pullover.

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I asked them right away if they could call someone for me.

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They asked what was wrong.

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I told them I'd been ran off by a black bear, and I had to leave my pack and everything behind,

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including my keys.

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They were a little stand-offish at first when I approached them, but I think they quickly

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saw.

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I was for real.

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One of the guys handed me his phone, and I called up my brother, who thank God I remembered

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his phone number.

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He lives north of Parker's Burg.

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Took him over an hour to get there, but I was so relieved to see him pull in.

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The hunters who were all really nice men, they had offered to stay with me until my brother

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got there, but I told them no, go on, I'd be fine.

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A strange way, as much as I didn't want to be by myself right then.

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I also didn't want to have to make talk with people I didn't know.

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They were good guys, and I am really grateful to them.

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I just didn't want to stand there and talk.

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So my brother was of a mind to go get my pack and things when he got there.

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I told him to forget it, just get me home.

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I said I'd get to the dealership, buy a new fob, then I'd call a locksmith for the house.

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I could buy a new phone.

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I went down the whole list of how I was going to replace everything.

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My brother looked at me like I was crazy.

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He said, "Don't be stupid.

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Everything of mine was just sitting right up there on that hill."

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He had brought with him my nephew, his son, who was around twenty at the time.

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My brother was adamant that between three of us we could handle any bear.

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And under normal circumstances, I'd say he was right.

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I told him at first that I didn't think this was just a regular bear.

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It wasn't like one I'd ever seen, and it behaved very differently.

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My brother looked at me weird again and then he said, "Come on, knock it off.

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Let's go get your stuff."

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I really didn't want to go, but I had no choice.

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I could not let them go alone, plus only I knew where that blowdown was.

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I was also of a very scared mind.

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We were going to get up there, and we were going to face that big foot.

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Better three of us than two.

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Now my nerves got the better of me, and halfway up the hill I stopped.

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I told my brother flat out what had happened, did not happen with the bear.

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I told him it was big foot.

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My brother has since said that when I stood there and told him that, that I was shaking

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a little, and I could hardly look him in the eye.

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He said he knew then I was for real, because the last time he saw me like that, so scared,

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was the night that I had sneaked out of the house, hot-wired my dad's truck, ended up

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getting drunk and wrecked it.

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I had walked home that night, went to my brother's bedroom window, bloodied and bruised, and

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scared to death.

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I knew when my dad found out my life was as good as over.

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I went to my brother to tell me what to do.

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My brother said I was acting the same way that day.

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Scared, shaking, trying to get the story out, and I could hardly look him in the eye.

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He said that's when he knew I was for real, and he did not laugh when I told him.

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He really didn't laugh.

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My nephew, however, was standing there, and he made a scoffing, almost laughing snort sound

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when I said the word big foot.

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My brother just reached out with his left arm and slammed it across my nephew's chest

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like a warning to shut up, which he did.

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Then I told the whole thing to them, beginning to end.

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And nobody laughed that time, not even my nephew.

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I knew we were just over a hundred yards from that blow-down, or big foot's house as I

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had come to think of it.

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The rain had stopped while I was still at my truck waiting, but the ground was still very

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wet.

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Everything was damp, and the further up the hill we went, visibility lessened from a mist

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that was hanging around after the rain.

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We went up that hill more like soldiers, and less like a group of hunters.

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Me and my brother both served in the military, but my nephew hadn't, but he followed our

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lead in directions.

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We moved from tree to tree one at a time, slowly and quietly.

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I got to within about ten yards of that blow-down, and I was at an angle that I could see the

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opening, which was dark.

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I saw no movement.

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I stayed well to the side, while my brother had gone left to the blow-down line of sight,

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quite a ways down the hill.

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From there he had swung up to the higher ground behind the blow-down, and came down to the

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back of it.

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And it's exactly where I indicated the bedding area had been.

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While he did that, me and my nephew stayed hard left and hard right of the opening.

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Well, out of the line of fire.

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My brother got right up to the back of that blow-down, and he fired quickly twice through

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the brush, right down to where the Bigfoot would have been bedded if it had been there.

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And if the Bigfoot had been in there, he would have surely hit him, and if not, we would

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have heard movement yelling something from inside.

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But there was nothing but silence.

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My brother came around to the front and fired a few rounds into the opening.

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Still nothing.

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He dropped down and took a look inside with my pen light.

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He said there was nothing in there, nothing at all, meaning not even my pack, not my bow,

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nothing.

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My brother took one look inside, stood up, and his wrinkled nose said everything.

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He shook his head and said, "Whatever it was, it didn't seem one bit like a bear's den."

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In the end, I reported my bow and my pack is being lost.

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I just wanted in case somebody found my pack way out in the wilderness.

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I didn't want people thinking I was lost or dead or mounting some kind of reconnaissance

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mission for me.

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That was eight years ago.

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And to my knowledge, nothing has ever been found, not my pack, not my bow.

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00:25:41,800 --> 00:25:48,000
All that that happened hasn't stopped me from hunting, hunting alone, or hunting alone

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in that area.

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What it has done has made me more cautious about blow downs, tree downs, caves, overhangs,

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cliffs, anywhere an animal could bed down or take shelter.

360
00:26:02,080 --> 00:26:06,440
I don't think Bigfoot is a joke anymore, you can bet on that.

361
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I don't talk about this experience much, either.

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You know, I've often heard people talk about what they would do if they walked in and found

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someone had broken into their home, or if they came home and found some squatters inside.

364
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All the scenarios, all the things people say that they would do, well, you can guess,

365
00:26:26,160 --> 00:26:27,600
it's pretty bad.

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And I agree with them.

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Nobody wants to find someone in their house that shouldn't be there.

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I know I would do the same.

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But I also know that's what I unknowingly did to Bigfoot.

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And to this day, I'm still surprised I escaped.

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I think the fact that I surprised him might have worked in my favor.

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You know, I'm betting when a bunch of Bigfoot get together, they sit around and they'll

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tell each other stories of what they would do if they walked in and found a bunch of

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humans inside their house.

375
00:27:00,920 --> 00:27:05,800
And I bet those stories are no prettier than what we say we would do if we find someone

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in our home.

377
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And yet Bigfoot found me inside his house.

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And somehow I'm still alive.

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Talk about miracles.

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You've been listening to The Buckeye Bigfoot podcast.

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Find more stories, hundreds more, over on our YouTube channel.

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Just look for Buckeye Bigfoot.

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[Music]