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I walked the trail to the latrine, did my business, and I was walking back when I saw

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something on the rocks at the eastern shore of the island, maybe forty feet from the trail.

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It was crouched at the water's edge.

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My headlamp caught it, and the eyes reflected back.

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00:00:26,200 --> 00:00:31,040
They were flat amber, set wide apart, and much higher up the ground than the eyes of

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00:00:31,040 --> 00:00:46,200
any animal I ever expected to see on that island.

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00:00:46,200 --> 00:00:52,760
The Pysca National Forest, North Carolina, May 2016.

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00:00:52,760 --> 00:00:55,200
I'm a long distance hiker.

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In May of 2016, I was on day eleven of a solo section hike on the mountains to sea trail

10
00:01:01,660 --> 00:01:04,200
through the Pysca National Forest.

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00:01:04,200 --> 00:01:09,920
I had camped the night before at a primitive site near Black Balsam Nob, and I broke camp

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00:01:09,920 --> 00:01:15,960
early, moving by 5.30am, and on the trail by six.

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00:01:15,960 --> 00:01:23,240
The morning was foggy, but visibility along the trail was decent, maybe sixty feet, but

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the surrounding forest was deep and mist, and the light was a flat gray.

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I had been hiking for about an hour when I came to a small clearing where the trail crosses

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00:01:34,080 --> 00:01:36,480
an old logging skid.

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00:01:36,480 --> 00:01:40,240
I stopped to take a drink and to check my map.

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I was sitting on a down-log with my pack still on, not making any noise, but sitting with

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my back mostly to the trail.

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I then heard footsteps approaching from the trail behind me.

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The cadence was clearly too footed.

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They were heavy and steady in the rhythm.

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I assumed another early hiker, and I turned around to greet them.

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But what was coming up the trail was not a hiker.

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It was about thirty feet behind me, walking the trail in my direction.

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00:02:14,280 --> 00:02:17,600
Then it stopped the moment I turned.

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We were now facing each other directly.

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It was tall, significantly taller than the surrounding bushes, which were wild rodendrons,

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and they were taller than me.

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I put the height of those bushes at around six feet tall, and this thing was much taller.

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I had to put its height at over seven feet.

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It was hair-covered, and the hair I saw was dark, almost black in the gray morning light.

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And it looked a little wet, probably, from the misty fog.

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The face was big, and it was kind of flat with no difference in depth from cheekbone to

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jawbone.

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The eyes were dark, set far apart, and they were very large.

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00:03:04,560 --> 00:03:10,480
The nose had clear nostrils, but I can't recall anything other than that.

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It was carrying nothing.

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It was wearing nothing.

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It was not wearing shoes.

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This was not a person.

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00:03:20,160 --> 00:03:25,240
We held that position, me sitting on the log, it standing on the trail.

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For what I asked to make was probably close to a full thirty seconds.

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I didn't feel afraid exactly, but I was feeling some weariness as the staring continued.

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I didn't know what to do or what not to do.

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00:03:43,000 --> 00:03:48,720
All of a sudden it stepped off the trail to its right, that is, my left, and it walked

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00:03:48,720 --> 00:03:52,240
into the rodendrons without breaking stride.

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00:03:52,240 --> 00:03:56,360
The vegetation around closed behind it.

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00:03:56,360 --> 00:04:00,360
I could not hear it moving away after a few seconds.

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00:04:00,360 --> 00:04:05,480
I continued to sit on the log for a few more minutes, and then I stood up.

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I did not see it again.

52
00:04:07,720 --> 00:04:13,920
I finished my section that day, and I got off the trail at the next road crossing.

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00:04:13,920 --> 00:04:19,640
I had planned to go another four days, but I went home instead.

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00:04:19,640 --> 00:04:25,200
I had a lot to think about.

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00:04:25,200 --> 00:04:31,320
Black Hills National Forest, South Dakota, September 2019.

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00:04:31,320 --> 00:04:34,640
I am a retired law enforcement officer.

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00:04:34,640 --> 00:04:41,120
I worked twenty-six years for a metropolitan police department before I retired in 2015

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00:04:41,120 --> 00:04:44,600
and moved out to Western South Dakota with my wife.

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00:04:44,600 --> 00:04:48,800
We have a small property at the edge of the Black Hills National Forest.

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I am providing this account because I am certain of what I have seen, and I believe some

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00:04:54,720 --> 00:04:58,280
documentation of it is important.

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00:04:58,280 --> 00:05:04,600
In September of 2019, I was on a two-day solo elk scouting trip approximately fourteen

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00:05:04,600 --> 00:05:09,640
miles into a remote section of the Black Hills, west of Custer.

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00:05:09,640 --> 00:05:11,560
I was not hunting.

65
00:05:11,560 --> 00:05:18,600
I was scouting for the upcoming season, locating sign, water sources, and bedding areas.

66
00:05:18,600 --> 00:05:24,520
I was on foot with a day pack, no fire arm, beyond a side arm.

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On the afternoon of September 17, around four o'clock, I was working the edge of a meadow

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at the bottom of a long timber draw.

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The wind was steady out of the west, and I was approaching from the east, which kept my

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scent off the meadow.

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I had glassed the edge from a small rise about two hundred yards back, and I saw what I

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believed was a bedded cow elk in the timber on the far side.

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I was working into a closer position to confirm.

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00:05:55,000 --> 00:06:00,200
I was approximately one hundred yards from the timber edge when something stood up from

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00:06:00,200 --> 00:06:04,760
where I had seen the cow when I glassed the area.

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00:06:04,760 --> 00:06:08,280
What stood up was not a cow elk.

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00:06:08,280 --> 00:06:11,120
It stood up, and it was bipedal.

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00:06:11,120 --> 00:06:16,400
It came up from the bedded or seated position to fully upright in one fluid motion, and

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the height was immediately obvious.

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00:06:19,560 --> 00:06:27,000
I had a vortex diamond-backed Tim by forty-two binocular up, and on it within three seconds.

81
00:06:27,000 --> 00:06:32,200
I had a clean look at it for approximately fifteen seconds before it turned and walked

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00:06:32,200 --> 00:06:34,760
into the timber behind it.

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00:06:34,760 --> 00:06:40,560
I want to describe what I saw with the binoculars in detail, because the optics gave me a quality

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00:06:40,560 --> 00:06:44,440
of view I would not have had with the naked eye.

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00:06:44,440 --> 00:06:49,960
The figure was standing in the open at the timber edge, fully exposed in the full afternoon

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00:06:49,960 --> 00:06:51,280
light.

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00:06:51,280 --> 00:06:52,360
The height.

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I estimated seven and a half to eight feet based on the comparison to the surrounding

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00:06:56,600 --> 00:07:03,760
ponderosa pine, which in that area runs in mature stands of forty to sixty feet.

90
00:07:03,760 --> 00:07:06,480
The build was massive through the upper body.

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00:07:06,480 --> 00:07:12,000
The shoulders disproportionately wide for the height, with long arms hanging loose at its

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sides.

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00:07:13,760 --> 00:07:19,360
The hair was a uniform dark brown across the body, with longer hair on the head and along

94
00:07:19,360 --> 00:07:21,960
the upper back and shoulders.

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The hair looked clean.

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00:07:24,160 --> 00:07:29,880
It wasn't matted, and it laid down in a way that suggested conscientious grooming rather

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than any form of neglect.

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00:07:33,000 --> 00:07:37,320
The face was the part the binoculars showed me most clearly.

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00:07:37,320 --> 00:07:41,760
It was facing in my direction, but it had not seen me.

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It was looking out across the meadow, scanning.

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00:07:45,440 --> 00:07:50,040
The face was incredibly large with very big features.

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It was wide across the cheekbones, with a heavy brow bridge over the forward-set eyes.

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The skin of the face was dark, nearly black, and it was very visible because the hair on

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the face was sparse compared to the rest of the body.

105
00:08:06,160 --> 00:08:10,880
The nose was broad and short, almost flush with the face.

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00:08:10,880 --> 00:08:18,240
The mouth was closed, I saw no teeth, and I saw that the jaw line was thick and heavy.

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I watched it scan the meadow for approximately 15 seconds.

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Then it turned to its left, walked four strides into the timber, and was gone.

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I lowered the binoculars and sat down where I was.

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I did not advance to confirm.

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I sat in that meadow edge for some time before I started back toward my truck.

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I went back the following morning with a colleague, a former wildlife trooper that I trusted.

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We worked the area where it had been standing.

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Twenty-six years of law enforcement gave me the discipline to investigate before I drew

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conclusions.

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We found a bedded oval of compressed grass at the timber edge, approximately seven feet

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long and three feet wide, consistent with a large animal lying down.

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The grass underneath was matted in a pattern that did not match any bedding I've ever seen

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from elk, deer, or bear.

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We found two clear footprint impressions in the soft soil at the timber entry point.

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They were bipedal, five-toed, and the larger of the two measured 15 and three-quarters

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inches.

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00:09:29,800 --> 00:09:35,040
I have hunted and scouted that country regularly since 2010.

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I have observed every species that lives in those mountains.

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What I observed through ten power optics at one hundred yards distance on a clear afternoon

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with good light on September 17th, 2019?

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It was something I have never observed before.

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I am providing my full statement to you on the condition that my name not be published.

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White Mountain National Forest New Hampshire, November 2021

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This is a short account.

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It was a late-season deer hunt, White Mountain National Forest New Hampshire, November 22nd,

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2021.

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Heavy snow on the ground, maybe eight inches, more was falling.

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I was tracking a buck through hardwoods on a north-facing slope.

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The buck's tracks were fresh, clean edges, note to breathe in them yet, despite the falling

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snow.

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I had been on the track for about an hour when the tracks went into a stand to mature

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himlocks at the bottom of the slope.

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I worked into the himlocks slowly.

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The cover was dense and sight lines dropped to maybe forty feet.

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I was watching the ground for the buck's tracks and watching the spaces between the trees

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for the buck itself.

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00:10:56,560 --> 00:11:00,040
I came around a large himlock and stopped.

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A second set of tracks had joined the buck's track.

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They were not there before I entered the himlock stand.

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I checked behind me.

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The himlock stand was small, maybe a hundred yards across.

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00:11:15,360 --> 00:11:21,520
Whatever made those new tracks had entered from the side opposite me at some point in

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00:11:21,520 --> 00:11:28,880
just the last few minutes, because the snow falling on them was very minimal.

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00:11:28,880 --> 00:11:32,480
The tracks were bipedal, five-toed.

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00:11:32,480 --> 00:11:36,440
The stride length was significantly longer than mine.

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00:11:36,440 --> 00:11:43,240
I'm six foot one with a very long stride, and I had to take a stretching step to begin

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00:11:43,240 --> 00:11:47,120
to match the spacing between those prints.

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I followed the new track for approximately twenty yards, then I stopped.

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It had cut directly across the buck's track and continued in the same direction the buck

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was moving.

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00:12:00,360 --> 00:12:05,800
Whatever had made the new track was tracking the same buck I was.

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00:12:05,800 --> 00:12:11,120
I do not know what made me decide to leave, but I left immediately.

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00:12:11,120 --> 00:12:16,840
I backed out of the himlock stand following my own tracks, hiked back to my truck, and

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drove home.

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00:12:18,560 --> 00:12:21,960
I have not hunted that area since.

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00:12:21,960 --> 00:12:29,160
I do not know exactly what was tracking that buck, but I know it wasn't me, and I know

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00:12:29,160 --> 00:12:34,000
it was not a human.

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00:12:34,000 --> 00:12:40,480
The Allegheny National Forest, Pennsylvania, July 2022.

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My family has owned a cabin on private property bordering the Allegheny National Forest in

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Warren County, Pennsylvania, for over forty years.

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I have been going to that cabin since I was a child.

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I'm now forty seven years old.

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I'm submitting this account because what happened on the night of July 8, 2022 was witnessed

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by myself, my wife, and our adult son.

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00:13:07,000 --> 00:13:12,000
The three of us are in complete agreement on these details.

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00:13:12,000 --> 00:13:16,840
The cabin sits at the end of a long private drive on roughly twelve acres of cleared land

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surrounded on three sides by National Forest.

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00:13:20,240 --> 00:13:26,640
There's a back deck that faces a tree line about sixty feet out from the cabin.

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We have a motion-activated flood light mounted on the back of the cabin that covers the cleared

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yard and reaches roughly to the tree line at full intensity.

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On the night of July 8, I was sitting on the back deck with my wife and our son.

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It was approximately ten thirty in the evening.

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We had been sitting outside after dinner, talking and watching the fireflies.

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The deck lights were off.

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We were sitting in mostly darkness with only a low ambient glow from the windows behind

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us.

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00:14:00,600 --> 00:14:04,040
In the motion-flood light clicked on.

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The light covers the full yard all the way out to the tree line.

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00:14:08,360 --> 00:14:12,880
When it triggered, all three of us were looking toward the yard expecting to see a deer

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00:14:12,880 --> 00:14:14,560
or a raccoon.

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00:14:14,560 --> 00:14:17,920
They both were common visitors to the yard.

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00:14:17,920 --> 00:14:23,280
But what the light illuminated was not a deer or a raccoon.

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00:14:23,280 --> 00:14:30,000
A very big and tall figure that was human-shaped was standing at the edge of the tree line, fully

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00:14:30,000 --> 00:14:33,600
upright facing the cabin.

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00:14:33,600 --> 00:14:36,400
The flood light hit it directly.

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00:14:36,400 --> 00:14:41,920
We had a clear, fully lit view of it for the duration that the light remained on, which

193
00:14:41,920 --> 00:14:47,120
it was approximately one minute before the timer cut off.

194
00:14:47,120 --> 00:14:50,640
The height was the first thing that all three of us noticed.

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00:14:50,640 --> 00:14:55,840
It was greatly taller than the surrounding undergrowth, which we know runs to about five

196
00:14:55,840 --> 00:14:58,440
feet at the edge of the tree line.

197
00:14:58,440 --> 00:15:02,640
We know because we maintain that line ourselves.

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00:15:02,640 --> 00:15:06,120
The figure's head was well above any of that.

199
00:15:06,120 --> 00:15:12,160
We have since estimated its height between seven and a half and eight feet.

200
00:15:12,160 --> 00:15:17,720
The build was enormous and heavy, wide and bulky through the shoulders.

201
00:15:17,720 --> 00:15:22,560
It had very long arms with long fingers on the hands.

202
00:15:22,560 --> 00:15:27,600
The hair was a dark reddish brown and covered all that we could see.

203
00:15:27,600 --> 00:15:31,960
The face was turned toward us, and it was visible in the flood light.

204
00:15:31,960 --> 00:15:37,080
It was a very wide face with eyes that reflected the light back to us.

205
00:15:37,080 --> 00:15:41,040
The light reflected was a dull, dark orange.

206
00:15:41,040 --> 00:15:47,080
We couldn't get a sense of the eye-shape or size other than those kinds of reflections,

207
00:15:47,080 --> 00:15:51,160
and the rest of the face was too shadowed to be clear.

208
00:15:51,160 --> 00:15:55,240
It did not move during the time the flood light was on it.

209
00:15:55,240 --> 00:15:59,040
It stood at the tree line and looked at us and the cabin.

210
00:15:59,040 --> 00:16:04,640
The three of us on the deck did not move, and none of us said a word.

211
00:16:04,640 --> 00:16:08,960
The flood light timer ended, and the light shut off.

212
00:16:08,960 --> 00:16:12,000
The yard went back to darkness.

213
00:16:12,000 --> 00:16:16,920
From the deck we could see only the silhouette of the top of the tree line against the slightly

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00:16:16,920 --> 00:16:20,160
lighter sky back behind it.

215
00:16:20,160 --> 00:16:25,920
A few seconds later we heard the sound of footsteps on the ground, the sound of little twigs

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00:16:25,920 --> 00:16:29,320
snapping, branches moving.

217
00:16:29,320 --> 00:16:35,360
We assumed it was going backward into the trees, but all three of us immediately got up

218
00:16:35,360 --> 00:16:38,040
and went inside just in case.

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00:16:38,040 --> 00:16:41,560
We did not go back out that night.

220
00:16:41,560 --> 00:16:46,280
The next morning I went out to the tree line where it had been standing.

221
00:16:46,280 --> 00:16:49,720
The ground there is soft from the runoff of the cleared yard.

222
00:16:49,720 --> 00:16:55,900
I found three clear footprint impressions in the soil at the tree edge, the largest

223
00:16:55,900 --> 00:16:59,380
measuring just over 14 inches.

224
00:16:59,380 --> 00:17:05,300
I photographed them with my phone, but they just didn't turn out on the photos.

225
00:17:05,300 --> 00:17:08,500
You can't really see them, not like in person.

226
00:17:08,500 --> 00:17:12,220
The photos just look like dirt.

227
00:17:12,220 --> 00:17:16,100
My family has been going to that cabin for over 40 years.

228
00:17:16,100 --> 00:17:23,340
We have seen black bear, coyote, fox, fisher, and every variety of common Appalachian wildlife

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00:17:23,340 --> 00:17:24,660
on that property.

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00:17:24,660 --> 00:17:31,080
Now, what stood at the tree line on the night of July 8, 2022 was something we had never

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00:17:31,080 --> 00:17:35,500
seen before except in books and on television.

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Until that night we didn't believe they were real.

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I have to tell you that has changed.

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Boundary Waters canoe area, Minnesota, August 2018.

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My buddy and I were six days into a 10-day canoe trip into the boundary waters in early August

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2018.

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We were deep.

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At least three portages and probably 25 miles of paddling from the nearest entry point.

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We had not seen another party in three days.

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We had set camp on a small island out in the middle of a long narrow lake.

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The island was maybe three acres total.

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Open at the south end and that's where we'd put our tents and it was timbered up on the

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north end.

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It was the second night on that island.

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Around 1139 I got up to use the latrine, which was on the north end of the island in

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the timber.

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I had a headlamp.

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The night was clear.

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No moon, a lot of stars.

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I walked the trail to the latrine, did in my business, and was walking back when I saw

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something on the rocks at the eastern shore of the island, maybe forty feet from the trail.

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It was crouched at the waters edge.

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My headlamp caught it and the eyes reflected back.

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A flat amber set wide apart and much higher off the ground than the eyes of any animal I

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ever expected to see on that island.

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I froze.

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The figures stood up.

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When it stood up, it stood up on two legs, two feet.

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The headlamp lit it up brightly from the chest down clearly and I only got a partial of

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the head and shoulders.

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I am estimating its height at over seven feet based on the trees behind it, which I had

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walked past on the way in.

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The body was covered in a very dark hair.

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It had long dangling arms.

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The build was heavy and very muscle-looking.

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All the classic big-foot shapes and sizes, I guess.

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The face, what I could see of it in the headlamp beam, was turned toward me.

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Big and wide.

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Its eyes were locked on my light.

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We stayed just like that for maybe ten seconds.

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When it stepped backward off the rocks, down into the water of the lake, I heard it waiting

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in.

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Heavy, wet, deliberate steps in the water, moving away from the island.

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I kept my headlamp on the water, but it had moved beyond my beams reach within just a few

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seconds.

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I heard the sounds of water lapping and being broken for roughly the next minute, and

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then the sounds faded away.

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From the sounds in the water and the direction, my best guess is it was swimming over to the

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shore away from the island.

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I got back into camp and I woke my buddy up.

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I told him what I had seen, not sure if he would believe me.

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He didn't argue with me at all.

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He then told me he had heard something earlier in the evening as I was on the other end

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getting water.

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He said he didn't say anything about it because he didn't want to spook me.

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He said it sounded like wood was being broken, not a single snap, but a long, torturous,

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slow break of wood, and it was very near the camp, somewhere in the timbers.

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He said it happened a couple times.

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He kept checking and he thought he saw something off in the distance, but he couldn't be sure.

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He knew it was something an animal would not do.

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We stayed up until the sun came up.

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We kept the fire lit high.

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We stayed watchful.

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Neither of us could shake the feeling.

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We weren't alone on that island, despite me being sure I had heard it swim away from there.

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We broke camp at first light and paddled out a day early.

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I've been to the boundary waters many times since, but I have not been back to that lake

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or that island since.

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I never will either.

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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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Bring these little tidbits up for you pretty regularly from now on.

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Listen, I've been getting a lot of questions about the whole demonetization things.

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Why are they picking on Bigfoot?

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Why are they doing this?

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What's happening?

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Why are they picking certain channels and not others?

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Well, I can't answer all those questions, but I am planning a small, probably five minute

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little video this week to answer those questions.

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It'll just be me and my phone, and I'll try to tell you what I know.

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But the thing is, nobody has any real answers.

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So please keep that in mind.

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I do want to say I am not demonetized as of this video date, May 5th, 2026.

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I don't imagine I'm home free.

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It can still happen.

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I'm expecting it too.

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But until it does, I'll be here giving you the best Bigfoot encounters I possibly can.

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All right, then my Sasquat.

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Listen, until we meet up again in a few days for the next journey down into Sasquat's

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valley, keep your snackage fresh and hot, and always remember, absence of proof is not proof

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of absence, unless the snackage is missing off your plate.

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Now that is proof of absence, and you need to go track it down.

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You need to hunt down that snackage thief, do what you got to do with them.

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All right, folks.

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Thanks for listening.

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I'll catch you soon.

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