1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:07,000 [Culton sounds] 2 00:00:07,000 --> 00:00:08,760 My name is Colton. 3 00:00:08,760 --> 00:00:14,800 Folks just call me Colt, which I guess is fitting as I've spent most of my life around horses. 4 00:00:14,800 --> 00:00:17,640 But you know, I'm not the only one that knows horses. 5 00:00:17,640 --> 00:00:21,040 I'm pretty sure Bigfoot knows them pretty well too. 6 00:00:21,040 --> 00:00:23,080 Maybe too well. 7 00:00:23,080 --> 00:00:28,360 I'm writing this email to tell you about the time at Bigfoot was eyeing my horses one night, 8 00:00:28,360 --> 00:00:31,960 and I didn't like it one bit, no sir. 9 00:00:31,960 --> 00:00:35,160 I know horses and their behaviors well. 10 00:00:35,160 --> 00:00:39,680 They will spook its snakes curled up on a warm road on a summer's evening. 11 00:00:39,680 --> 00:00:43,480 They blow inside step at the gator slides off the bank. 12 00:00:43,480 --> 00:00:48,440 They dance sideways when a hog goes running through the brush like a freight train. 13 00:00:48,440 --> 00:00:51,800 But what they don't do is stop dead. 14 00:00:51,800 --> 00:00:56,600 Lock up as if someone drove a post right through their hooves, and they refuse to move the 15 00:00:56,600 --> 00:00:59,280 way my mare did that evening. 16 00:00:59,280 --> 00:01:04,760 Unless there's something close enough and wrong enough that every instinct in my mare's 17 00:01:04,760 --> 00:01:08,080 body starts screaming, "Predator." 18 00:01:08,080 --> 00:01:13,640 And when I finally got wind of what she did, I understood why. 19 00:01:13,640 --> 00:01:19,400 It was early spring, March, one of those Louisiana Mississippi line kind of evenings where 20 00:01:19,400 --> 00:01:22,440 the air is just plain wet feeling. 21 00:01:22,440 --> 00:01:28,560 Now March down here is sometimes already very warm, humid, and sticky. 22 00:01:28,560 --> 00:01:34,440 The bugs are already out, and even if you don't see them, you're hearing them everywhere. 23 00:01:34,440 --> 00:01:38,640 Now the trail I'm going to be talking about is one that I've ridden more times than I 24 00:01:38,640 --> 00:01:39,960 can count. 25 00:01:39,960 --> 00:01:44,760 It goes along the back of my property and about eight or nine more, running between two 26 00:01:44,760 --> 00:01:49,640 and a half to three miles if you put it all together, and it runs through some deep swamp 27 00:01:49,640 --> 00:01:51,120 areas. 28 00:01:51,120 --> 00:01:56,600 If you're out there, and if you stay still, you can still hear the highway in the distance, 29 00:01:56,600 --> 00:02:01,800 or you might hear someone's mom at their back door yelling for the kids to come in for dinner. 30 00:02:01,800 --> 00:02:05,800 No one would go out there and think that they're in a remote place. 31 00:02:05,800 --> 00:02:09,600 But the swamp back there doesn't care what people think. 32 00:02:09,600 --> 00:02:13,480 It behaves like it's the most remote place on the continent. 33 00:02:13,480 --> 00:02:20,080 Now once you're there under those bottom land hardwoods, oaks and gums and cypress knees 34 00:02:20,080 --> 00:02:23,920 in the low spots, the whole world changes. 35 00:02:23,920 --> 00:02:26,400 The light everywhere goes more green. 36 00:02:26,400 --> 00:02:32,120 The air feels heavy, and sound it will do funny things to you back there. 37 00:02:32,120 --> 00:02:37,320 A frog can sound like it's right behind your ear when it's really more than fifty yards 38 00:02:37,320 --> 00:02:38,720 away. 39 00:02:38,720 --> 00:02:45,760 A stick snapping can be a squirrel or a man or nothing at all, and it might be right by you, 40 00:02:45,760 --> 00:02:47,440 and it might not. 41 00:02:47,440 --> 00:02:50,000 It can be hard to tell. 42 00:02:50,000 --> 00:02:55,160 And the understory there, the palmetto and the briar and the black water and pockets. 43 00:02:55,160 --> 00:03:01,680 You can be ten feet from something, and you can't see it if it doesn't want to be seen. 44 00:03:01,680 --> 00:03:06,080 Now I had meant to be in and out that evening, just a quick ride. 45 00:03:06,080 --> 00:03:10,840 A neighbor was in Hawaii for his daughter's wedding, and while he was gone, I was taking care 46 00:03:10,840 --> 00:03:13,320 of his place and his two goats. 47 00:03:13,320 --> 00:03:18,080 I was going that night to do a routine check on a fence line and drop some feed. 48 00:03:18,080 --> 00:03:23,520 I was going to make sure nothing was torn up, and I'd planned to be back well before dark. 49 00:03:23,520 --> 00:03:28,660 But I got off work late, then got home, did a few things, lost track of time, and I told 50 00:03:28,660 --> 00:03:30,320 myself that's okay. 51 00:03:30,320 --> 00:03:35,880 I knew that trail well enough to cut it close, but I'd be home before dark. 52 00:03:35,880 --> 00:03:37,840 But I was just lazy. 53 00:03:37,840 --> 00:03:39,480 That's what it really was. 54 00:03:39,480 --> 00:03:43,440 I was complacent and overconfident. 55 00:03:43,440 --> 00:03:45,720 You know, that overconfidence? 56 00:03:45,720 --> 00:03:49,240 That's the death of many a good man, I suspect. 57 00:03:49,240 --> 00:03:53,540 I had my mare under me, and a pack horse and tow behind. 58 00:03:53,540 --> 00:03:58,680 A good, steady animal, but he always sped off my mare's mood. 59 00:03:58,680 --> 00:04:04,200 I was carrying feed for the goats, because where the feed was normally stored wasn't somewhere 60 00:04:04,200 --> 00:04:06,760 that I would have access to. 61 00:04:06,760 --> 00:04:12,440 I was also carrying some tools and a small roll of fence wire and some staples and a puller, 62 00:04:12,440 --> 00:04:14,040 just in case. 63 00:04:14,040 --> 00:04:19,100 He had been having trouble with something tearing up the fences all around there, seemed every 64 00:04:19,100 --> 00:04:22,700 couple of days something was torn up, he said. 65 00:04:22,700 --> 00:04:28,600 And just like the feed, where all those tools and things would be on his property, I wouldn't 66 00:04:28,600 --> 00:04:30,440 have access to. 67 00:04:30,440 --> 00:04:34,360 I knew that going into it, and we discussed it, and I was okay with it. 68 00:04:34,360 --> 00:04:36,440 He's a really good neighbor. 69 00:04:36,440 --> 00:04:42,760 But other than that, all I had was a flashlight I tossed at the last minute in a saddlebag. 70 00:04:42,760 --> 00:04:43,760 No need though, right? 71 00:04:43,760 --> 00:04:47,360 I was going to be home before dark, I thought. 72 00:04:47,360 --> 00:04:53,520 I had no rifle, no long gun with me, and that day I didn't even have my sidearm, mostly 73 00:04:53,520 --> 00:04:58,600 because again it was supposed to be just a quick check and to drop some feed. 74 00:04:58,600 --> 00:05:03,560 I didn't want to carry the weight, I didn't want the hassle, and besides, I had never ran 75 00:05:03,560 --> 00:05:08,320 into anything out there that would need a gun anyway. 76 00:05:08,320 --> 00:05:14,940 Otherwise all I had was a small, dicks blade on my belt out of habit, and that was it. 77 00:05:14,940 --> 00:05:18,160 We rode in around 640 that evening. 78 00:05:18,160 --> 00:05:22,800 The sun was already low enough that the shadows had teeth to them, and they were gobbling 79 00:05:22,800 --> 00:05:24,960 up everything around. 80 00:05:24,960 --> 00:05:31,640 The swamp, it was alive with noise, frogs calling, insects buzzing, and something splashing 81 00:05:31,640 --> 00:05:33,720 in a slough somewhere. 82 00:05:33,720 --> 00:05:38,040 The air sat on my skin like a heavy warm rag. 83 00:05:38,040 --> 00:05:41,360 There was low wind from time to time. 84 00:05:41,360 --> 00:05:47,040 You could smell the wet leaves in the mud, and that sweet sour rot that never leaves a place 85 00:05:47,040 --> 00:05:48,840 like that. 86 00:05:48,840 --> 00:05:51,480 The horses were fine at first. 87 00:05:51,480 --> 00:05:56,640 Ears working, heads bopping, going at a good steady pace. 88 00:05:56,640 --> 00:06:01,880 My mare stepped ever fallen limbs and walked through shallow puddles without a fuss. 89 00:06:01,880 --> 00:06:05,200 We made good time until the trail tightened up ahead. 90 00:06:05,200 --> 00:06:11,080 There's a section where the path pinches between a thick stand-up palm meadow and a line 91 00:06:11,080 --> 00:06:12,880 of older oaks. 92 00:06:12,880 --> 00:06:16,440 Tall trunks and roots like knuckles pushing up through the soil. 93 00:06:16,440 --> 00:06:20,240 It's not wide, not like a road. 94 00:06:20,240 --> 00:06:23,840 More like a single-file lane carved through green. 95 00:06:23,840 --> 00:06:25,000 Just a choke point. 96 00:06:25,000 --> 00:06:29,400 Now you don't go around it unless you get off and fight brush and briar and maybe sink 97 00:06:29,400 --> 00:06:32,840 a boot in the black water that you can't see. 98 00:06:32,840 --> 00:06:36,320 She came up on it and my mare stopped. 99 00:06:36,320 --> 00:06:38,280 I don't mean she hesitated. 100 00:06:38,280 --> 00:06:41,320 This wasn't a cautious step-and-look. 101 00:06:41,320 --> 00:06:46,120 This was a full-body stop like someone hit the pause button on her. 102 00:06:46,120 --> 00:06:51,080 Her ears went forward, stiff as boards, then flattened back against her head so hard the 103 00:06:51,080 --> 00:06:52,960 tips trembled. 104 00:06:52,960 --> 00:06:55,240 Her nostrils flared. 105 00:06:55,240 --> 00:06:58,960 She sucked air in sharp, then blew out low. 106 00:06:58,960 --> 00:07:05,040 One of those warning blows that horses do when they catch something they don't like. 107 00:07:05,040 --> 00:07:09,160 Behind her, the pack-horse started shifting his feet. 108 00:07:09,160 --> 00:07:14,680 The lead rope went taught, then slack, then taught again as he tried to decide whether to 109 00:07:14,680 --> 00:07:18,120 come up beside us or try to get away. 110 00:07:18,120 --> 00:07:19,640 I clicked my tongue. 111 00:07:19,640 --> 00:07:21,800 "Come on, girl." 112 00:07:21,800 --> 00:07:23,400 But nothing. 113 00:07:23,400 --> 00:07:26,120 I gave her a light nudge with my heel. 114 00:07:26,120 --> 00:07:28,680 She would not take a single step. 115 00:07:28,680 --> 00:07:32,080 So I nudged again a little more firmly. 116 00:07:32,080 --> 00:07:33,280 She backed up. 117 00:07:33,280 --> 00:07:36,680 That's the moment my stomach dropped. 118 00:07:36,680 --> 00:07:39,240 My mare is not timid. 119 00:07:39,240 --> 00:07:45,720 She'll push through brush, step over logs, wade into water up to her knees if I nudge her. 120 00:07:45,720 --> 00:07:51,000 She does not back off of a trail unless there's something really bad in the air. 121 00:07:51,000 --> 00:07:56,960 So my first thought, because it's the sensible thought, was there might be a snake. 122 00:07:56,960 --> 00:08:00,840 No cotton mowls, they like to lay on a warm path. 123 00:08:00,840 --> 00:08:06,600 So I swung down off of her, keeping a hand on the reins, and I scanned the ground. 124 00:08:06,600 --> 00:08:12,960 There was no snake, no movement in the dirt, no slithering of scales. 125 00:08:12,960 --> 00:08:17,960 But the smell hit me the second my boot sank into the ding-up trail. 126 00:08:17,960 --> 00:08:24,200 Thick, sour, like wet dog, mixed with swamp mud, and something rotten that had been sitting 127 00:08:24,200 --> 00:08:26,760 far too long in the heat. 128 00:08:26,760 --> 00:08:31,320 It was strong enough it made my eyes water, and my throat tighten. 129 00:08:31,320 --> 00:08:33,240 This wasn't some whiff. 130 00:08:33,240 --> 00:08:37,560 This was an occupying force on my nasal passages and my lungs. 131 00:08:37,560 --> 00:08:42,640 It was like all the air had been replaced with whatever this stink was. 132 00:08:42,640 --> 00:08:49,640 I put my palm on my mare's neck, feeling for some explanation, feeling for a trimmer maybe 133 00:08:49,640 --> 00:08:52,640 or a thorn stuck under her tack. 134 00:08:52,640 --> 00:08:55,560 Her muscles were quivering under her hide. 135 00:08:55,560 --> 00:08:58,800 Not from exertion, from fear. 136 00:08:58,800 --> 00:09:02,840 The pack-horse snorted behind us, a quick, nervous sound. 137 00:09:02,840 --> 00:09:06,800 Then he blew hard through his nose like he was trying to clear the stink out of his head, 138 00:09:06,800 --> 00:09:08,280 too. 139 00:09:08,280 --> 00:09:11,800 I let it my face, trying to place that scent. 140 00:09:11,800 --> 00:09:12,800 Bear? 141 00:09:12,800 --> 00:09:15,640 No, I'd smelled bears before. 142 00:09:15,640 --> 00:09:19,320 They're musky, oily, animal smelling. 143 00:09:19,320 --> 00:09:21,360 This was so much worse. 144 00:09:21,360 --> 00:09:27,200 This was like an animal that had lived in wet rot and rolled around in it for fun. 145 00:09:27,200 --> 00:09:30,080 Then the woods to my right suddenly went quiet. 146 00:09:30,080 --> 00:09:33,880 I don't mean the no sound kind of quiet. 147 00:09:33,880 --> 00:09:36,840 The swamp always makes some kind of noise. 148 00:09:36,840 --> 00:09:40,800 There's always something calling, buzzing or dripping. 149 00:09:40,800 --> 00:09:42,640 But this was different. 150 00:09:42,640 --> 00:09:47,560 It was like the sound was a fire and someone threw a wet blanket over it. 151 00:09:47,560 --> 00:09:53,200 It was muffled for just a second, dwindled, and then died out in the next second. 152 00:09:53,200 --> 00:09:57,880 There were still frogs out in the distance calling, but right there, right where I was, 153 00:09:57,880 --> 00:09:59,720 right beside the trail? 154 00:09:59,720 --> 00:10:06,240 There was a sudden focus stillness, the kind that makes the hair rise up on your arms. 155 00:10:06,240 --> 00:10:09,200 The Paul Meto-Fran's rustled once. 156 00:10:09,200 --> 00:10:16,120 I looked, thinking, wild hog, thinking, dear, thinking, maybe a black bear coming up too 157 00:10:16,120 --> 00:10:18,280 close. 158 00:10:18,280 --> 00:10:21,280 And then I saw something tall beside the Paul Meto's. 159 00:10:21,280 --> 00:10:29,040 At first my brain tried to see it as a man, maybe a hunter, maybe someone out there lost, 160 00:10:29,040 --> 00:10:33,640 maybe he's somebody who had stepped off the trail to let me pass and didn't want to spook 161 00:10:33,640 --> 00:10:35,960 the horses. 162 00:10:35,960 --> 00:10:39,280 Except it wasn't shaped quite like a man. 163 00:10:39,280 --> 00:10:43,520 It shifted forward just enough that the light filtering through the fronds caught a shoulder 164 00:10:43,520 --> 00:10:47,920 line, too high, too broad. 165 00:10:47,920 --> 00:10:53,680 It was upright, dark and bulky, like a big barrel wrapped in hair. 166 00:10:53,680 --> 00:10:58,160 The mass of it filled the space in a way that just didn't make sense with the thin cover 167 00:10:58,160 --> 00:11:00,440 that it was trying to use. 168 00:11:00,440 --> 00:11:05,520 It shouldn't have been able to hide there so completely, but yet it did. 169 00:11:05,520 --> 00:11:09,920 Maybe because it didn't need to hide its whole body. 170 00:11:09,920 --> 00:11:15,440 It only needed to stay just inside the brush line where the green broke up its outline. 171 00:11:15,440 --> 00:11:18,640 It didn't step out onto the trail. 172 00:11:18,640 --> 00:11:23,920 It stayed there in the Paul Meto's, using the fronds like a curtain. 173 00:11:23,920 --> 00:11:29,680 And then I saw a hand slide up onto a tree trunk, the way a person braces themselves when 174 00:11:29,680 --> 00:11:33,320 leaning out to look around something. 175 00:11:33,320 --> 00:11:36,680 Only it wasn't a person's hand. 176 00:11:36,680 --> 00:11:39,200 It was too big, too wide. 177 00:11:39,200 --> 00:11:44,640 The fingers looked like thick sticks, and when it gripped the bark, the palm and fingers all 178 00:11:44,640 --> 00:11:49,320 spread out, showing just how big it really was. 179 00:11:49,320 --> 00:11:54,760 It leaned slightly, like it was trying to see around my mare. 180 00:11:54,760 --> 00:12:01,440 And then I got this cold, clear realization that punched down through everything in my head. 181 00:12:01,440 --> 00:12:04,040 It was not looking at me. 182 00:12:04,040 --> 00:12:06,680 It was looking around me. 183 00:12:06,680 --> 00:12:10,280 It was looking at my animals. 184 00:12:10,280 --> 00:12:15,960 Now predators look at the vulnerable animals first, sizing up which looked like the quickest 185 00:12:15,960 --> 00:12:22,880 runners, the ones that might fight, and the ones who might be too weak or old to do either. 186 00:12:22,880 --> 00:12:30,920 My mare snorted, sharp, high, and tried to swing her hind quarters away from the chokepoint. 187 00:12:30,920 --> 00:12:36,280 The pack-horse jerked the lead rope tight, eyes rolling wide at the edges. 188 00:12:36,280 --> 00:12:40,760 Like arched, like he was ready to bolt through me if he had to. 189 00:12:40,760 --> 00:12:43,120 I kept my voice calm. 190 00:12:43,120 --> 00:12:45,360 Easy, easy girl. 191 00:12:45,360 --> 00:12:47,680 Stay easy. 192 00:12:47,680 --> 00:12:51,120 But my voice sounded then to my own ears. 193 00:12:51,120 --> 00:12:53,520 I didn't want to move forward. 194 00:12:53,520 --> 00:12:55,800 I didn't want to get any closer. 195 00:12:55,800 --> 00:13:01,880 I also didn't want to stand there frozen long enough for whatever that was to decide standing 196 00:13:01,880 --> 00:13:03,080 still meant. 197 00:13:03,080 --> 00:13:07,960 I wasn't any kind of threat, and my animals would be easy pickings. 198 00:13:07,960 --> 00:13:09,560 No sir. 199 00:13:09,560 --> 00:13:15,000 I reached into the saddlebag with one hand, keeping the reins tight in the other, and pulled 200 00:13:15,000 --> 00:13:17,280 out my flashlight. 201 00:13:17,280 --> 00:13:22,440 You know, the stupidest part of fear is that it makes you argue with yourself while something 202 00:13:22,440 --> 00:13:23,440 is happening. 203 00:13:23,440 --> 00:13:28,520 There was a part of my brain that kept saying, "Don't shine that light on it. 204 00:13:28,520 --> 00:13:29,520 Don't provoke it." 205 00:13:29,520 --> 00:13:33,040 Then the other part was saying, "Oh no, you need to see what it is." 206 00:13:33,040 --> 00:13:34,040 It is. 207 00:13:34,040 --> 00:13:36,000 You need to know if it's alone. 208 00:13:36,000 --> 00:13:39,520 You need to know what it's doing. 209 00:13:39,520 --> 00:13:44,520 So I clicked the light on low, and angled it toward the brush, keeping it down at first, 210 00:13:44,520 --> 00:13:47,680 not shining it straight into its face. 211 00:13:47,680 --> 00:13:52,720 The light beams slid over the palmettos and the wet leaves, and it caught the glint of 212 00:13:52,720 --> 00:13:54,520 hair. 213 00:13:54,520 --> 00:14:00,400 Black brown, coarse-looking, matted in spots as if it had just been in water. 214 00:14:00,400 --> 00:14:02,960 The hair wasn't like a bear's fur. 215 00:14:02,960 --> 00:14:07,480 This looked longer, stringier, hanging in clumps. 216 00:14:07,480 --> 00:14:13,240 The head turned toward the light, and through a gap in the fronds, I caught a glimpse of 217 00:14:13,240 --> 00:14:15,360 the face. 218 00:14:15,360 --> 00:14:23,160 Dick heavy brown, wide, flat nose, and skin darker than the hair, looking like wet leather. 219 00:14:23,160 --> 00:14:26,520 The eyes caught the light with a dull shine. 220 00:14:26,520 --> 00:14:31,520 Not like deer eye or gator eye, something else. 221 00:14:31,520 --> 00:14:34,160 My mare tried to bolt backward. 222 00:14:34,160 --> 00:14:35,400 Not a shy step. 223 00:14:35,400 --> 00:14:37,680 She was trying to leave. 224 00:14:37,680 --> 00:14:42,480 I grabbed the reins hard enough that the leather bit into my hand, and she hit the end of them 225 00:14:42,480 --> 00:14:46,560 and through her head, snorting and trembling. 226 00:14:46,560 --> 00:14:49,480 The thing in the brush made a low sound. 227 00:14:49,480 --> 00:14:56,320 Not a growl, but more like a rumble, some kind of a vibration in a very large chest. 228 00:14:56,320 --> 00:15:02,240 It was a warning, I think, and one that didn't need volume to be understood. 229 00:15:02,240 --> 00:15:04,080 And then it moved. 230 00:15:04,080 --> 00:15:07,880 It wasn't charging, but it stepped parallel. 231 00:15:07,880 --> 00:15:13,800 It kept to the brush, moving with us as I backed my mare out of that choke point. 232 00:15:13,800 --> 00:15:18,280 And that's when the real tear or hit, sharp and clean. 233 00:15:18,280 --> 00:15:23,360 Because this wasn't some animal being spooked by the horses, it wasn't slipping away into 234 00:15:23,360 --> 00:15:28,600 the cover as most animals do when they encounter my horses. 235 00:15:28,600 --> 00:15:30,520 This thing was not retreating. 236 00:15:30,520 --> 00:15:31,600 No, sir. 237 00:15:31,600 --> 00:15:34,600 It was tracking us. 238 00:15:34,600 --> 00:15:36,280 Like it knew the trail. 239 00:15:36,280 --> 00:15:42,200 Like it knew this choke point forced us to commit, going one way or the other. 240 00:15:42,200 --> 00:15:47,400 Like it understood where we had to be to get somewhere else. 241 00:15:47,400 --> 00:15:52,920 So I started backing up, leading my mare now because she was too keyed up to stand still. 242 00:15:52,920 --> 00:15:55,760 I didn't want her to spin. 243 00:15:55,760 --> 00:15:58,920 If she spun, the packhorse would get tangled up. 244 00:15:58,920 --> 00:16:02,760 And if we went down in that narrow trail right there? 245 00:16:02,760 --> 00:16:09,600 Well, we'd be on the ground in a tight lane with palm meadows on one side and oaks on the 246 00:16:09,600 --> 00:16:10,600 other. 247 00:16:10,600 --> 00:16:15,920 And something big enough to reach us from three or four feet away. 248 00:16:15,920 --> 00:16:17,520 I kept the rain short. 249 00:16:17,520 --> 00:16:21,120 I kept my body between her head and the brush line. 250 00:16:21,120 --> 00:16:27,400 I kept backing up, boots sliding on damp leaves, feeling every second stretch out longer than 251 00:16:27,400 --> 00:16:29,560 it really should. 252 00:16:29,560 --> 00:16:33,720 The brush to my right kept moving right along with us. 253 00:16:33,720 --> 00:16:36,520 Always the same distance. 254 00:16:36,520 --> 00:16:39,160 Always just inside the greenery. 255 00:16:39,160 --> 00:16:44,000 But close enough yet that it could reach for us in a second if it took just one step toward 256 00:16:44,000 --> 00:16:45,600 us. 257 00:16:45,600 --> 00:16:48,720 I couldn't see it fully anymore. 258 00:16:48,720 --> 00:16:53,760 But I knew it was there because the Palmetto-Fran's dipped in rows as something passed behind 259 00:16:53,760 --> 00:16:54,760 them. 260 00:16:54,760 --> 00:16:59,760 I heard the soft, weighted sound of a foot sinking into wet leaves. 261 00:16:59,760 --> 00:17:08,200 Not the quick patter of deer, not the light crunch of a raccoon, but heavy and deliberate. 262 00:17:08,200 --> 00:17:12,900 Every now and then I would look over and I would see that dark shape moving above the 263 00:17:12,900 --> 00:17:13,900 fronds. 264 00:17:13,900 --> 00:17:17,160 I tried not to look at it. 265 00:17:17,160 --> 00:17:23,240 Once there was a sharp pop of wood as if a branch had snapped under heavy pressure. 266 00:17:23,240 --> 00:17:27,360 My mare flinched so hard I felt it in the rains. 267 00:17:27,360 --> 00:17:31,280 The pack horse let out a low, trembling kind of wicker. 268 00:17:31,280 --> 00:17:37,880 It's the sound that horses make when they're calling, but they're afraid to call too loud. 269 00:17:37,880 --> 00:17:42,040 With every step my mind kept trying to rationalize. 270 00:17:42,040 --> 00:17:43,040 Bear. 271 00:17:43,040 --> 00:17:44,040 Man. 272 00:17:44,040 --> 00:17:45,040 Hog. 273 00:17:45,040 --> 00:17:51,320 I was trying to rationalize anything but what it looked like. 274 00:17:51,320 --> 00:17:56,480 But everything about it was wrong for any of the answers my mind came up with. 275 00:17:56,480 --> 00:18:00,440 It was too upright, walking too smoothly. 276 00:18:00,440 --> 00:18:04,040 It was using cover and being deliberate. 277 00:18:04,040 --> 00:18:09,480 It matched our pace without noise except when it wanted to. 278 00:18:09,480 --> 00:18:12,800 And the smell of it, oh my god, the smell. 279 00:18:12,800 --> 00:18:16,760 It rolled out to us in waves, stronger when it moved. 280 00:18:16,760 --> 00:18:19,680 Thick enough I could taste it. 281 00:18:19,680 --> 00:18:21,800 And I had no gun. 282 00:18:21,800 --> 00:18:28,120 No clean way to protect two animals and myself on such a narrow trail. 283 00:18:28,120 --> 00:18:33,640 All I had was my voice and a flashlight and a small knife. 284 00:18:33,640 --> 00:18:37,760 So I did the only thing that I knew might maybe help. 285 00:18:37,760 --> 00:18:39,840 I made myself look big. 286 00:18:39,840 --> 00:18:43,520 I mean, that's what animals do when they're threatened right? 287 00:18:43,520 --> 00:18:47,640 Well, that's what I did, or tried to do. 288 00:18:47,640 --> 00:18:54,160 I raised my arms wide, keeping the light pointed down, not flashing it in its face. 289 00:18:54,160 --> 00:18:59,200 And I shouted, deep and loud, like the way you would holler at a bull that's looking at 290 00:18:59,200 --> 00:19:01,200 you way too hard. 291 00:19:01,200 --> 00:19:04,200 "Hey," I shouted. 292 00:19:04,200 --> 00:19:07,160 The brush stopped moving. 293 00:19:07,160 --> 00:19:10,800 Being held still in quiet for a heartbeat. 294 00:19:10,800 --> 00:19:16,800 My mayor's ears flicked forward, then back, and forward again, trembling the whole time 295 00:19:16,800 --> 00:19:20,320 as tissue paper in the wind would. 296 00:19:20,320 --> 00:19:23,880 Now for three seconds, maybe less, maybe more. 297 00:19:23,880 --> 00:19:30,600 There was nothing but my own breathing and the distant drone of bugs and frogs. 298 00:19:30,600 --> 00:19:37,480 When I heard one heavy exhale from the brush, like a big lung emptying out slowly, and the 299 00:19:37,480 --> 00:19:39,840 palmettos began to move again. 300 00:19:39,840 --> 00:19:41,920 But slower now. 301 00:19:41,920 --> 00:19:46,120 Yet, they still paralleled us. 302 00:19:46,120 --> 00:19:49,360 That slower pace was somehow worse in a way. 303 00:19:49,360 --> 00:19:51,120 It was deliberate. 304 00:19:51,120 --> 00:19:55,360 That meant it was thinking and reasoning and planning. 305 00:19:55,360 --> 00:20:02,120 I knew, then, it wasn't hurried at all because it knew it didn't have to. 306 00:20:02,120 --> 00:20:06,720 I backed up until the trail widened into a section where two horses could pass without 307 00:20:06,720 --> 00:20:08,960 brushing both sides. 308 00:20:08,960 --> 00:20:14,120 I could see a turning spot ahead where the path bent and opened enough to pivot without 309 00:20:14,120 --> 00:20:16,880 tangling the pack-horse. 310 00:20:16,880 --> 00:20:18,920 My calves burned. 311 00:20:18,920 --> 00:20:23,200 My hand ached from clamping so hard on the reins. 312 00:20:23,200 --> 00:20:29,560 Squat, slipped my shirt down to my back, even though the air was beginning to cool. 313 00:20:29,560 --> 00:20:34,800 I didn't take my eyes off the right side of the brush any longer than a blink. 314 00:20:34,800 --> 00:20:40,280 Every time I looked away, I imagined it was going to step out and close the distance between 315 00:20:40,280 --> 00:20:42,080 us. 316 00:20:42,080 --> 00:20:48,240 When I hit the wider spot, I turned my mare in one careful, smooth motion, talking to her 317 00:20:48,240 --> 00:20:50,400 the whole time. 318 00:20:50,400 --> 00:20:52,160 Easy, easy girl. 319 00:20:52,160 --> 00:20:55,080 That's it. 320 00:20:55,080 --> 00:21:01,160 The pack-horse swung with us, his hooves scraping, the rope pulling, and his whole body tight 321 00:21:01,160 --> 00:21:03,560 like a drawn bow. 322 00:21:03,560 --> 00:21:08,360 I got back in my mare saddle quickly, and we left. 323 00:21:08,360 --> 00:21:09,360 Not at a gallop. 324 00:21:09,360 --> 00:21:14,360 No, no, you don't gallop on swamp trails at dusk unless you want a broken neck. 325 00:21:14,360 --> 00:21:20,880 But it was an urgent fast walk that flirted to being a trot, the kind that says, "Okay, 326 00:21:20,880 --> 00:21:24,880 we're leaving now, and nothing is going to stop us." 327 00:21:24,880 --> 00:21:30,920 My mare kept flicking her ears back as if she was listening for footsteps behind us. 328 00:21:30,920 --> 00:21:36,200 The pack-horse blew hard, and he kept crowding up close to us like he wanted to come right 329 00:21:36,200 --> 00:21:42,520 beside us, like he understood that he was the last one in line, and he knew that made 330 00:21:42,520 --> 00:21:44,720 him vulnerable. 331 00:21:44,720 --> 00:21:49,520 I didn't look back until we'd cleared the worst of the understory there. 332 00:21:49,520 --> 00:21:53,160 In the trees finally thinned out enough that the air didn't feel like it was pressing 333 00:21:53,160 --> 00:21:57,880 in on my face, I got us out onto the open-toe track. 334 00:21:57,880 --> 00:22:04,320 The sky was purple by then, and the last light was stretched thin and fading fast. 335 00:22:04,320 --> 00:22:06,880 The horse's settled just a fraction. 336 00:22:06,880 --> 00:22:12,240 They weren't quite calm, but they weren't in their earlier panic, either. 337 00:22:12,240 --> 00:22:14,800 My mare's neck was still arched. 338 00:22:14,800 --> 00:22:17,760 Her nostrils still blowing wide. 339 00:22:17,760 --> 00:22:24,080 Her skin still twitching as if she expected something to grab her from the side. 340 00:22:24,080 --> 00:22:26,280 And then there was a smell. 341 00:22:26,280 --> 00:22:28,560 That smell hung with us. 342 00:22:28,560 --> 00:22:34,760 So I knew the swamp monster, meaning our version of a bigfoot, was out there hanging with 343 00:22:34,760 --> 00:22:36,720 us, too. 344 00:22:36,720 --> 00:22:39,520 It was on and off for another half-mile. 345 00:22:39,520 --> 00:22:43,400 It would come back like it was pacing us just downwind. 346 00:22:43,400 --> 00:22:45,040 It wasn't constant. 347 00:22:45,040 --> 00:22:51,600 It was like it would drift away, then roll in again in a hard way as soon as the breeze shifted. 348 00:22:51,600 --> 00:22:54,360 But I did not see it again. 349 00:22:54,360 --> 00:23:00,280 Once we got on the two-track, all I had to tell me that it was still around was the smell 350 00:23:00,280 --> 00:23:03,640 in a persistent feeling of being watched. 351 00:23:03,640 --> 00:23:08,360 I heard no screaming, no running footsteps or noise of any other kind that didn't belong 352 00:23:08,360 --> 00:23:11,440 out there in the evenings in a swamp. 353 00:23:11,440 --> 00:23:15,760 It wasn't the sighting itself that bothered me the most, though. 354 00:23:15,760 --> 00:23:21,080 I replayed that face many times through the Paul Meadow more times than I want to admit, 355 00:23:21,080 --> 00:23:25,800 but even that isn't what bothered me the most. 356 00:23:25,800 --> 00:23:27,760 It was the behavior. 357 00:23:27,760 --> 00:23:32,680 The way it used the brush line, and it was doing it right at the choke point. 358 00:23:32,680 --> 00:23:39,560 The way it stayed parallel, and the way it ignored me, and looked at my animals. 359 00:23:39,560 --> 00:23:46,120 I remember the look on its face, and it still chills me when I think about it now. 360 00:23:46,120 --> 00:23:48,720 It completely disregarded me. 361 00:23:48,720 --> 00:23:51,040 It was looking at my animals. 362 00:23:51,040 --> 00:23:53,360 It wanted my horses. 363 00:23:53,360 --> 00:23:58,520 I would lay my life on the bedding table on that one. 364 00:23:58,520 --> 00:24:04,520 But my mare, my wonderful, tough, stubborn mare, who will walk into things most other horses 365 00:24:04,520 --> 00:24:05,520 would refuse? 366 00:24:05,520 --> 00:24:13,400 Well, she was convinced from the get-go we were in danger, and I know to always trust her. 367 00:24:13,400 --> 00:24:20,000 I trust her way more than I trust my own instincts or any kind of manly pride. 368 00:24:20,000 --> 00:24:27,080 If my mare says there's trouble out there, yes, sir, I believe her, and I act accordingly. 369 00:24:27,080 --> 00:24:29,120 And so should you. 370 00:24:29,120 --> 00:24:31,600 Signed, cult. 371 00:24:31,600 --> 00:24:42,800 Keep in listening to the Buckeye Bigfoot podcast.