Sasquatch Chronicles Blog

During the summer in the mid 80’s a group of us were fishing at night on the Rocky River in Cabarrus County, North Carolina when we encountered what I believe was a sasquatch. As to which year it was I’m not sure, but I know it was a few years after reports in the media of a Bigfoot nicknamed Knobby in the winter of 1979. We talked about this creature possibly being the famed Knobby during our encounter.

His nickname resulted from a string of encounters that began at Carpenter’s Knob in Cleveland County, North Carolina in which the state’s print and TV media focused on a sudden rash of encounters by numerous people around that local. Bigfoot encounters are still to this day dubbed to be Knobby returning again whenever there are sightings in any of the counties surrounding that initial encounter at Carpenter’s Knob in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. We were fishing two counties to the east of those original sightings.

We were a group of about 5 or 6 guys fishing next to an overpass way out in the country. We began fishing during the daylight hours and continued fishing after dark, assisted by a half a moon and a large campfire we built on the shore that also shed ambient light on the surrounding landscape. We had not brought flashlights with us since we had not begun this adventure as a planned nighttime fishing trip. This lapse likely resulted in the length of our sasquatch encounter which lasted for several hours since flashlights are a sure deterrence of sasquatches.

We had parked off the road on the east end of the bridge and went down to the river and set up under and slightly north of the overpass. The east bank of this river has a very steep, high embankment that levels off some toward the bottom, with the fast flowing river only about fifty feet wide where we fished. To reach the river we had traveled down a steep narrow path that cut through dense overgrowth. The trees had been cut down under and next to the overpass, but a lot of dense bushes and small trees had grown up in the subsequent years, which as it turns out would lend aid to the close proximity the sasquatch was availed to harass us with screams, rocks, and shaking vegetation. In one of Dr. Jeff Meldrum’s articles he comments that sasquatches in the south tend to be more aggressive than other parts of the country, and this one became particularly aggressive on this night.

THE SIGHTING:

When I first saw the Sasquatch I did not realize I was looking at one, but I thought I was observing an odd looking, extremely tall man, wearing a coat with a hood which I thought was unusual for that time of year (summer). He was on the other side of the bridge up by the road looking down at us about 75 yards away in the river bottom. We had a half moon that was still fairly low in the eastern sky, which at this time was not yet over our side of the bank, but its light shown onto the western bank of the Rocky River where I observed him.

I don’t remember how many or even if any of the others ever noticed him, (those fishing under the overpass likely didn’t see him). I did my best not to look like I was staring at him, showing him a social courtesy, but I was keeping an occasional eye on this odd looking fellow without being obvious. From that distance he likely thought no one had seen him as we were all going about our business.

Even without hearing a car we knew if a car was approaching long before the occasional car reached the bridge because its lights would gradually light up the surrounding trees that towered above the road, and as he stood next to the road those reflections announced such a car was coming from our side of the bridge (east), but the sasquatch just stood there on the west end of the bridge facing toward the car’s direction while looking down our way.

The road on our side of the bridge has a downgrade that levels out just before the bridge, and it seems the headlight beams directly hit the Sasquatch when the car reached that level area, which seemed to startle him as he suddenly jerked his head slightly to look toward the oncoming car and then anxiously turned and took quick steps down the embankment next to the road and stood there with his entire body below the level of the road. The car on the bridge slowed down considerably, which I had assumed was because the driver had seen a man on the roadside, but in retrospect I wonder if the driver got a good view of it and was reacting for another reason. When the headlights lit him up I was bewildered at what he was wearing, with my brain still attempting to justify him in human terms my minds eye saw him wearing a tattered coat in shreds of cloth.

Shortly after this I had a catfish hooked and I reeled it in and held my pole up higher in the air than usual with the fish, dangling from my line, flipping its tail from side to side. I did this to make a show for the big guy watching us from up the hill, with maybe a grain of fisherman’s pride to boot, but I was unknowingly still fishing with a fish acting as a lure for an even bigger catch, a fish connoisseur, as I soon observed the Sasquatch walk down the hill in our direction and squat down behind a bush to continue spying on us.

The west bank of the river was more terraced with steep areas leading to flat areas, and while he walked down a steep portion of the embankment he looked like a headless man. In videos their heads tend to sit slightly more forward than a human’s, and walking down that steep hill he must have looked down at his feet giving him an appearance of a headless man in the darkness, only showing a slight bump where the head should be. He already looked odd to me, which I understand today why he did considering the body proportions and joint locations are different than a human’s, not to mention their great height, and this additional scene just piled on the oddities of this unusual looking and mysterious man. But I still wasn’t thinking anything but “man” because Bigfoot was not a staple in my mindset back then.

The first thoughts that it might be a Sasquatch were later after it had been screaming near us and someone suggested it might be Knobby. It’s funny how people used to often think in terms of a single Bigfoot, but I too must admit I once thought it might be the same one as had been sighted in Cleveland County, but today I realize that’s unlikely.

After he hid behind the bush I could only see his head sticking up above the bush, and if I had not seen him squat down there I would have had no idea he was even there. I occasionally glanced over to see him still there behind the bush. This went on for at least 30 minutes or longer during which I’m sure he observed people catching fish since this was one of the greatest guaranteed fishing spots; I always caught fish here and I’m the one who got this group to come to my favorite fishing hole.

Finally I looked up and I didn’t see him anymore, although I didn’t realize until later that he was still behind that same bush. Perhaps he had sought better concealment in the bush when I wasn’t looking after he finally noticed me looking toward him. I asked my friend fishing to my right, “I wonder where that man went.” He responded, “What man?” Evidently he had not seen the guy. So, while discussing what I had seen I extended and held my arm and forefinger forward pointing at the bush while attempting to verbally identify which bush I had seen him behind, and as we were both gazing at it he stood up from behind that very bush and slowly strode into the trees and out of view, evidently believing I could see him.

In any event, it really shows a lot of intelligence for him to understand the meaning of my pointing finger. Maybe Bigfoot uses that same hand gesture.

THE HARASSMENT:

It was sometime later, I’m not sure how long, when he let out his first series of screams from the other side of the river, although not from the north side of the bridge like I had viewed him before; but he must have crossed over the road and re-emerged on the south side of the bridge. It sounded like he was close to the water near a bridge support — which was really close to the guys fishing under the bridge. Descriptions given in the media for Knobby’s screams compared it to a woman screaming in pain, and although that is inexact, its a good analogy to the sounds we heard of the long, high pitched screams he delivered in succession.

If you listen beginning at the 50 second mark in the following video recorded in 1993 Puyallop, WA, the sound is similar to what I heard including the repetition of screams that occurs on the recording:

He would stop screaming for 20 minutes or so and then start up again at a different location, beginning on the other side of the river then on our side of the river to our south, I’m guessing usually ranging from 50-75 feet or more away. So, he was fairly close and really loud. Whenever he made these super loud sounds he always blasted out many screams in a row, one right after the other, when he decided to make them. During the periods of silence I would think he had gone away only to be disappointed later when he continued his really annoying screams. It seems during these periods of silence he stealthily moved around the overgrowth, probably coming down close to us at times since we were busy facing the water, watching our poles for bites.

The river is really swift where we fished, not far above rapids, and I could not conceive of anyone crossing that river in the dark without a flashlight. I was gravitating toward the idea that this really could be a Bigfoot since no human prankster would do that nor could someone produce the loud sound like we heard. We never could see it while it was making these screams since there was ample vegetation to provide cover in the night and none of us had flashlights.

Another group of fishermen larger than ours (about 10 people) had arrived during the daylight hours after we did and were just to our north. They left long before us, with the consensus being they must have got scared and left, being unnerved by the behavior of the sasquatch, which occasionally threw rocks it lobbed high in the air into the bushes or water. I wonder if Sasquatches do that so the trajectory of their rocks doesn’t betray their direction. If so he’s a true thinker.

For the most part we just kept fishing and going about our business, not overwhelmed by its antics although it was a bit troublesome. I believe the sasquatch’s main interest was our fish. Maybe sasquatches will scare animals away from food to scavenge it, and that was the purpose of its harassment.

THE ROCK DUEL:

At one point, it was directly up the hill behind us, perhaps 65 feet away, making it’s screaming noise and throwing rocks, which landed in the bushes behind us or in the water, and I decided to throw rocks back. The riverbank has tons of great throwing rocks that are flat on two sides making good aerodynamic throwing rocks that I often liked to skip across the water when I fished there. And back then I had a good throwing arm. Since I was a kid I loved to throw rocks. I threw in the direction of where I heard it scream causing it to move – whose movement rustled the vegetation as it attempted to avoid my rocks, and I continued throwing, at times in rapid succession, where I believed I heard him crashing through the vegetation.

After a bit he kept making this rustling of the vegetation in the same location and I surmised he must be leaning over occasionally to rustle a bush to draw my fire toward an errant location; so, I decided to throw one well to the left and my shot in the dark hit its mark, causing him to let out a vocal ruckus different from his usual screams. It sounded like a combination of pain and anger, a lot more broken up than the long loud screams he did before, impressing me that he was cursing me out, sounding like an ape temper tantrum. I actually felt really bad when this ruckus went on for so long, thinking I must have really hurt the guy.

Very soon after that I barely ducked from a rock thrown at high velocity spinning end over end, the sound of which I heard wising past my left ear. He was maybe 50 feet or a little less away when he threw it, which demonstrates the accuracy of a Bigfoot whom must have had a lot of practice throwing rocks. It was a good sized rock too, and I was fortunate I saw it coming by the light of the campfire or it would have hit me square in the forehead.

He seemed to move in even closer for the ensuing rock duel and I had to move closer to him away from the water to gain cover behind a row of bushes. I spent time moving around and staying behind bushes as he was throwing rocks in my direction, with me attempting just a few throws back since the trajectory of his rocks gave up his general location. But I was stymied in my efforts to throw back because whenever I popped up from behind a bush to throw his release was so quick and so accurate at my head that I had to duck down quickly before I could release mine, and I was reduced to a few wild blind throws. However, in an attempt to use my homo sapien intellect over this relict hominid I timed it to where I purposely popped my head up to get him to throw, then ducked under that rock and popped back up quickly to aim and throw on the same trajectory as his rock, on the premise that since he just threw a rock he would not be ready to respond in time with another throw. I threw it hard on that trajectory and I believe I hit him again because he let out another ruckus, not nearly as long as before, but the voice inflection sounded like he was cursing me out again. I repeated this pattern several more times while he was at this same close location.

As I relished in the superior intellect of my species, kneeling down behind a bush, he relocated himself and one of his rocks made it through the bushes well enough to strike me in the chest pretty good. He had found a thin spot in a bush with just a few branches to impede the rock’s path to slip one through; so, I repositioned myself. I can’t praise the accuracy of this guy enough. Later on one other rock cut through the bush and hit me, but it too was slowed down by the bush.

Earlier during our rock duel I exclaimed, “He’s throwing rocks at us,” and one of the other guys standing on the rocks next to the water did throw a rock at him. The sasquatch immediately returned a shot that landed hard about 3 inches beside his left foot sending rocks by his foot flipping into the air. That fisherman heeded the warning and did not throw any more rocks and the other fishermen were staying clear of me; I was on my own.

I continued to pop my head up to draw fire and attempt a repeat performance of my victory but I don’t know to what degree I hit him anymore, although over the course of the duel I assume I did hit him more, especially late in the duel when I outsmarted him again. He ended up moving further away, I assume to give himself more reaction time, although I could still follow his trajectory and thus at least make him dodge my rocks, and I had more time to react as well. I usually did not throw unless he did. I finally caught a glimpse of him a few times as my eyes became more adjusted to the dark since the campfire was to my rear. He would throw and immediately move to my left (his right) and squat behind a bush, and he was always throwing from the exact same spot and moving over to the same spot, thus he became predictable. I then started timing my throws to where I knew he would be moving to after he threw, and even throwing when I knew he would be moving back to his throwing spot, and then I started holding multiple rocks in my left hand so I could fire in rapid succession on his prescribed movements, and I really must have messed with his head because he finally gave up. I even stood there waving my left arm in the air, taunting him, and he didn’t throw.

These events happened around 30-years-ago, and it has been a bit of a rediscovery as I’ve tried to recall all the details of that episode, and a vague memory came to me of a horribly pungent odor that lasted briefly during the rock duel. If it’s true that sasquatches release that odor during fear induced stress that would explain the timing of that odor which could have been when I figured out his pattern and disrupted it.

A little while later I was standing near the water’s edge facing the river and a rock hit me in the center of my upper back a little below my neck just left of my spine, and it hurt; it was sore for many days after that too. It was quickly followed by another rock that hit me in the back of the head and I bent over holding the back of my head and crying out in pain – it was a long, drawn out, single tone cry. He drew blood on the back of my head that I saw on my right hand when I brought it around, and I got angry. To associate an idiom with my anger, “I just wanted to kill him.” I turned and took off running full speed and ran up the path going up hill. I’m not sure what I was doing, or what I would have actually done if I had reached him, but I had not run very far at all up the path when I saw a large towering dark figure standing in the path, which then ran off the path crashing through the bushes.

I didn’t realize that he had moved over and down the path since he was not even near the path when I first hit him with a rock or on subsequent throws. I guess to get a better shot at me he re-positioned himself, moving in a lot closer and to a much better strategic position too in order to thwart me from hiding behind those bushes as well, and I had unknowingly run dead at him on the path. I slowed down to a walk and came to the spot where I had seen him run off of the path. He had run straight through thick bushes that would have been difficult for a man. When he ran with his torso leaning far forward I could see his whole dark silhouette, particularly his two legs propelling him forward, and he was huge. I basically knew where he had stopped, but I could no longer see him.

I reached down and picked up a rock and stared at where I believed he had stopped at to intimidate him and I heard him deliver a warning growl at me, a very low, deep growl coming right from the position I had assumed he had stopped, about 20 feet away, but I still couldn’t see him and I dropped the rock. It was a bad scenario if he threw a rock from that close, plus I used that as a peace gesture. Then he lobbed a rock over my head that hit a plant about 2 ½ feet behind me, which from his vantage point was a phenomenally perfect high arch to go right over my head and land so close to me, which again confirms his uncanny accuracy. I think he may have done that to draw away my attention while he re-positioned himself.

I assume I must have hit him in the head earlier because he had been head hunting with his throws until he reached satisfaction and quit. From reading accounts of bigfoot I believe they have a vengeance culture where if you do something to them they have been known to seek revenge. I believe this could be one part of a very complex social culture, like the gifting sometimes displayed in response to food left for them, or even their intimidation might reflect a larger facet of their own social framework.

I was lucky I didn’t sustain a worse injury. Where he threw the rock from was behind me and to my left, and he hit the right rear side of my head, meaning the rock hit the back of my head at an angle and was not dead on. Fortunately I had just started to bend over causing the rock to hit the right rear of my head at an angle, otherwise it would have been centered more and I might have suffered a brain injury.

He was lucky as well. I didn’t have it during this trip, but often times, more so in later years, I carried a 12-gauge shotgun with me because that place was so snakey, (poisonous cottonmouth water Moccasins). Once when I shot a snake skimming across the water under the bridge some people near the bridge about jumped out of their skin because it echoed so loud under that bridge.

CLOSE ENCOUNTERS:

We continued to fish some more and then finally we all decided to leave, and I was the one carrying the stringer of fish. This thing started it’s screeching again as we were traveling up, but this time it was about 20 feet behind our group, paralleling the path as it followed us up. It must have sneaked right down to the edge of where we were fishing because we had just started our trek away from the river when it followed up behind us vocalizing it’s presence.

It’s a steep trek up the hill, and at one place we had to climb onto and over this chest high square piece of concrete. We were all scared because this screeching had intensified and was being delivered much closer to us as we were leaving, and the group were kind of struggling against each other at the concrete block because the block slowed our progression up the hill adding to everyone’s anxiety. The guys bringing up the rear charged forward after becoming particularly frantic with this thing so close to them screaming and shaking plants. I had led the way up the path and I was mostly on top of the concrete block but the logjam at the block created panic because the sasquatch was almost on top of us, and I ended up getting pulled backwards by people climbing over me, even using me as a handhold to climb over the block, which pulled me backwards as they fought to get on up the hill. I was kind of at a disadvantage because I was carrying the stringer of fish plus my poles and tackle box, and my hands were full, and I ended up last.

This creature came right up to where I was and made it’s high pitched screeching noise right behind me, just a few feet away, while it simultaneously shook the vegetation, and I moved laterally down the block of concrete a few steps away from it until the bushes prevented me from moving away any further. I couldn’t see it due to the thick overgrowth. It started violently shaking the vegetation, including some young poplar trees, about ten to twelve feet tall, which were on the edge of the path right next to the block, all the while it was screaming over and over, very loudly. The trees it was shaking were maybe six or seven feet from me, but I still couldn’t see it. The path up the hill cut through thick vegetation, and without the use of a flashlight this creature could manage concealment even at that close in.

I yelled up to the other guys to come help me but none of them would come back. They continued all the way to the top of the hill. I just needed someone there so I could turn my back to it; that’s why I was reluctant to turn around and climb up over the concrete block. The creature shied away from being seen but while my back was turned to it it had come right up to me, within reach if it was so inclined to grab me; so, I reasoned if someone was just there to take my stuff and watch my back I could more easily turn my back to it. Also, he had previously injured me with rocks when my back was turned to him. While stuck at the concrete block I yelled up periodically to them with pleas to come back down but they would not. I kept thinking some of them would come back; thinking surely they wouldn’t just leave me, and that anticipation prolonged my not turning my back to it sooner; but self-preservation had kicked in, beginning when they all had fallen into a frenzied panic at the block, degrading our party into a free for all — every man for himself. They deserted me.

While I was next to the concrete wall, which may have been for as long as ten minutes, which might not seem long, but was an eternity in that situation, I made an attempt to communicate with this thing that was making it’s screams and shaking vegetation. I put my right hand on the back of my head, bent over slightly, and started saying, “That really hurt,” and I was repeating similar statements along that line, and he went silent. I garnered from his silence that he felt some sympathy for me. Soon afterward he started back with more ruckus and I did it again, holding the back of my head and talking about how it hurt, but this time he made a verbal protest very similar to just after I had struck him with the rock, and I perceived it to be an angry protest of me hitting him. It wasn’t his usual screaming, but rather had up and down tones like a language of some kind, similar to his vocalizations right after I had hit him with a rock.

So, in response I tried to tell him I was sorry for hitting him, attempting to use sign language which included me making a throwing motion with my arm, and when I did that I heard the vegetation crashing as he attempted to move out of the way, perceiving I was throwing a rock at him. Then he started zinging rocks, not far over my head, that I could hear cutting through multiple bushes above while continuing to curse at me in his Squatchese. Then I did something relatively stupid, I bent over and picked up a rock causing him to redirected his fire into the concrete wall including one rock that slammed into the concrete about a foot from me, partially breaking apart. Then I threw my rock straight down at my feet and started yelling at him loudly to, “Cut it out! Cut it out!” Shouting at him in a frantic tone while holding my left arm in front of my head and weaving back and forth for fear he was going to nail me in the head or face.

He showed compassion for my pleas and spoke what sounded like a single, I think maybe a two-syllable word, when he stopped zinging rocks near me and went silent. I found that shocking because it sounded just like human speech, just like another man, leaving me staring into dark silence. It was in a low, normal tone, relatively calm, not yelling in a higher tone like the angry speech before. I believe he showed some compassion at my frantic pleas for him to stop.

I’ve read that sasquatches sometimes mimic other animals and human speech. This was a welcome silence since he had been shaking things or making vocalizations most of the time I was stuck at the block. Among the several other times he went silent was once when I briefly laid the stringer of catfish on top of the concrete block. He might have thought I was going to give him one at that point.

The following link includes sound recordings of sasquatches talking to each other in their Squatchese. Between the 6:00 and 7:00 minute mark is similar to what I heard just after I hit it with a rock and again at the concrete block just after the second time I held the back of my head and said, “That hurt.” In both incidences the Sasquatch seemed to give an angry verbal response. The video below is of linguist Scott Nelson studying recordings that Ron Morehead made in the 1970’s. They assumed it is of sasquatches having a heated argument with each other over food the researchers had left out.
Listen between the 6:00 and 7:00 minute mark (guttural speech)….

There have been people who have heard them speak in what some describe as Indian sounding language. Listen to the 26:20 – 26:40 minute mark of the following video which is reminiscent of the single word he spoke to me.
Listen to the 26:20 – 26:40 minute mark (human sounding speech)

I finally did climb up and over the concrete block and made my way to the top, but before I finally achieved that freedom I experienced a very close encounter with this beast, the closet to date. In order to climb up I actually had to step closer to the shaking trees that were now practically shaking non-stop and climb over the block from that point because the concrete block gets a lot higher where I had moved away from the creature. In order to climb over the block I built up some nerve and walked toward the shaking trees. When I did so he quit shaking them and went silent. I attempted to stick my head into the vegetation to get a look at what was doing this. When I did so I heard a rustling of vegetation as he moved away, he then let out a low growl, and I immediately turned and started to climb up over that block.

Just as I was about to climb onto the concrete block I caught something out of the corner of my eye after feeling a light tug on the stringer of fish, and I looked down and saw a hand frozen in place about 4 inches from my right knee. The hand itself was in the shadows, but against the backdrop of the moonlight lit ground beneath I saw a sharp image of this dark object. It appears he was trying to get a fish off of the stringer of catfish. I saw a side view of his right hand, thumb side up. The shape of the hand looked similar to a human hand, and as I continued looking I noticed his arm from the hand to the elbow was as long as my entire arm. As I turned to look at more of the arm it was gone in a flash, but I never saw it move. I’ve guessed I may have been distracted for a split second; I’m not sure, that maybe he threw something and I looked away for a short moment, because I didn’t actually see him retract his arm; it just suddenly wasn’t there anymore, and I was looking for it befuddled at its disappearance.

I continued turning and looking in the direction the arm must have retracted to, which was not directly behind me, and I ended up turned completely back around with my back to the block again, looking at what I perceived was the direction the arm had come from. There was no noise now, no shaking of trees, and no vocalizations. All was quiet.

I didn’t see anything although his head and shoulder were completely exposed about 4 feet from me. There was a moon out and also a light up near the road, but that part of the vegetation was in the shadows, and it appears he had been laying on the ground, his body on the steep portion of the hill, when he reached around me for a fish. I took a step forward, bending over to peer into a hole I saw in the vegetation, but it wasn’t a hole at all, it was him, and my face was moving ever closer to a rendezvous with his, and may have come as close as 2 feet or less from his before he suddenly sprang back into the vegetation, and then is when I saw him, only when he suddenly moved. What I saw was the dark silhouette of his large head and a section of his upper body suddenly move backwards into the bushes out of view. After this I was able to throw all my stuff on top of the block and climb over it and get out of there.

I had not climbed over the concrete block sooner because I had been scared to turn my back to this beast to climb over the block, and I tried in vain to get others to come back down so I could, and true to form he did emerged from the bushes when I turned my back. This was like what you would see in a monster horror movie – a hairy monster that screams and growls and hides in shadows that I feared would assault me again if I turned my back. I assume earlier the guys had panicked so feverishly because the creature came right up them since their backs were turned to him as they traveled up the path. Typical of Bigfoot, he has an aversion to being seen.

Considering his arm was bent at the elbow as it reached around me, it may have been 5 feet long. When I had my back to the creature while facing the block he was more to my left side reaching around me to my right side to nab a fish off of the stringer I had dangling by my right side.

Also, when I glanced down at his hand and arm he froze it. That seems to be one of Bigfoot’s tactics to remain secluded from view. The old magician’s adage, “The hand is quicker than the eye,” applies to his mastery of deception to remain concealed. The hand and forearm were in the shadows when he froze it, but it seems he miscalculated a stream of moonlight sneaking through the vegetation and lighting the ground beneath his hand. It was only when I was turning while looking down at more of his arm that he retracted it in a flash; a noise, I’m guessing, had misdirected my eyes for that moment, leaving me puzzled on what happened to it. Freezing in place, staying in shadows, and throwing objects to distract you while it moves are typical Bigfoot concealment tactics. Since infrasound can in some cases cause confusion or memory loss, it’s possible that’s the source of my not seeing the arm retract; perhaps he hit me with infrasound at that moment.

There was one other time I saw him while at the block wall but I can’t remember when in the sequence of events this occurred so I’ll tell it here. I looked laterally down the block and saw him standing erect on the same elevation as me about 10 or 12 feet from me. He was standing more under the overpass and in complete shadows from any light, but I could make out his upper body and head towering above the bushes. I was struck with sudden fear due to the extreme height and the nearness of this monster, seeming as tall as a basketball goal. I believe he realized I could see him and he casually turned to his right and with his head slightly tilted forward walked down the hill and out of view.

I finally reached the top where the other guys were waiting. They all had rode with me in my 1973 Caprice Classic, a big car that did not have bucket seats and could fit six people. They told me they had considered flagging down a car to ask them to go phone law enforcement. We were out well away from any homes. I expressed my disappointment that none of them had come back down, and commented I believed the Bigfoot wanted some fish, upon which I was told, “You should have given him the fish.” I responded that I had everyone’s fish but they didn’t seem to care. Another reason I didn’t give him any fish is because I had been in a fight with him, and injured during it, and he had dished out a lot of frightening intimidation and I just didn’t want to give him any, although in retrospect I wish I had given the guy some fish. But it should have dawned on me that giving it a few fish may have alleviated the situation and I should have.

As I was driving away I saw him through my rear view mirror start to emerge from the path at road level, and I yelled, “There he is!” and hit my brakes, and he immediately went back down. The others got angry at me because I didn’t specify I saw him in the mirror. They were looking forward to see him and were sorely disappointed.

SOME OBSERVATIONS:

I went back there the next day alone during the daylight and no one was at the river. I yelled out to the big guy and heard no response. I couldn’t find any tracks, but I did see broken branches in the bushes he had run through after I had charged at him up the path. After that I went back up to the road and crossed over to the other side of the bridge and stepped down the embankment from the road where I had seen him do the same. I attempted to judge his height by standing where he had stood and comparing how far below the road my head was to what I had observed when I saw him stand there. I settled on estimating he was more than two feet taller than me which would put him in the eight foot range. He was definitely well over seven feet tall. My first estimate put him at around nine feet, but it seemed so unbelievable I had to revise it down to a more conservative estimate when telling others how tall he was, because it was already unbelievable to people.

There are some factors that contributed to the length and severity of the encounter. One is the lack of flashlights. One of the best ways to deter a sasquatch are flashlights. They like to lurk in shadows and flashlights defeat that. If we had had flashlights there would likely not have been much of an encounter. That might even serve as a lesson for people who want contact with Sasquatches. If they see you using flashlights in your campsite they might be more inclined to stay away.

Another factor is I injured it, changing the dynamics of the encounter. There are numerous reports of the adverse effects of injuring a Sasquatch, even one report of the speed of a running sasquatch clocked at 35-40 mph when it chased after a car that had hit it. Another report I read was of a young girl who fired a shotgun at one, which the beast was too far away to do any real damage, but Sasquatches started getting into the coup and killing their chickens at night, breaking the necks of chickens, but leaving the whole bird there for them to find. After the girl’s mother baked two cakes of cornbread and set it out for them the killings stopped. From multiple more accounts I’ve read I believe they have a vengeance motif.

Another factor is he didn’t scare us off like the other fishing party that didn’t stick around. Most of the time we were busy fishing while facing the water as we watched our polls for bites, keeping our backs turned toward him, which afforded him ample time to get his eyes full of the fish we were catching. I would assume during those periods of silence he likely moved down very close to us since he was very close to us when we departed. He was enticed to hang out due to those delicious looking fish, which is another factor. If I had thrown it some fish I might have been spared some of the frightening turns of this event.

Another factor is the concrete block that obstructed our ascent up the hill. If it hadn’t been for that we would have simply gone to my car and drove away. That factor is coupled with an aggressive Sasquatch. It came so close and was so intimidating I was afraid to turn my back to it. Since it wanted to stay out of view it would only come so close while I was looking, but moved in much closer when my back was turned. All these factors led to an unusually long and especially contentious encounter.

We were fishing near the western edge of a sparsely populated area of the state. 30 years ago when this incident occurred there was nothing much around there, although it’s developed a good bit more since then. Back then there was only one span of bridge for a two-lane road, now there are two bridges to accommodate four lanes, and where we parked is now road.

Most of the population in the Carolinas are situated on the coast or in the Piedmont region in the center of those states. Between those two regions is a lot of forested and swampy areas with small towns here and there, with vast tracks of land that no one ever sets foot on. There could be a large population of Bigfoot living here. A previously unknown indigenous dog breed that hunts in packs was discovered here in the 1970’s called the Carolina Hound. It’s not a European breed. It has primitive canine DNA and is an indigenous North American species. There is a lot of untouched wilderness here for wildlife to live in seclusion.

SASQUATCH INTELLIGENCE:

There are a number of things that occurred that shed light on how intelligent Sasquatches really are and are not. He exhibited a lot of intelligence during this encounter reminiscent of dealing with another man, even realizing why I was pointing in his direction behind the Bush. A lot of strategizing was employed on both our parts during the rock duel. When I figured out how to throw on his trajectory he was so close it was hard for him to dodge my throws; so, he finally moved further away to throw at me. So, he reasoned that out.

When I first threw at him causing him to move crashing through some bushes he settled on shaking the same Bush to create a false target for me which I threw at multiple times, but it became obvious to me after a short while, and really anyone else would have caught on, that it was a false target. I would be standing, waiting with a rock to hear some kind of noise, and he would occasionally shake the same bush. Since he had been moving to my left before this took place I took a wild guess on his location and luckily (or unluckily) beamed him on my first throw there. So, he was somewhat clever but he underestimated human intelligence.

Likewise, just like when he shook the same bush over and over to create a false target while he moved to my left, later he would throw rocks at me from the same position every time and then move to my left; therefore, he was predictable and simplistic in his reasoning and I exploited the flaws in his defense by timing my throws accordingly. This rock duel had become a sporting contest. My eyes had adjusted to the dark some and I was picking up how he was moving, and I timed my throws accordingly, but he still continued to stick to that same pattern, not picking up I had compromised his strategy, which suggests his reasoning is not proficient in sporting activities whereas sports are a staple of our species. But wisely he quit that losing proposition and revised his strategy.

In my own ignorance I underestimated his resolve and ability to throw thus creating a dangerous situation for myself in the process. I knew he could lob rocks but I failed to consider he was an all-star pitcher who would not deviate from a vengeance quest until he settled the grudge.

But I nonetheless figured out how to combat the onslaught of a hominid I couldn’t see by ducking under and immediately throwing on his trajectory. But he adjusted his throws lower to compensate for my ducking, so that the rocks cut through the top of the bush where it was thin enough for a rock to make it through and therefore make me have to duck even lower after popping my head up above the bush, which was really smart of him and it almost got me the first time he did that. He was thinking ahead. I’m noting these things to show his level of intelligence.

Later, when a friend distracted me, he threw a rock that cut through the top foot of a bush and hit me in the chest because I didn’t duck at all. It hurt a lot but I believe the bush slowed the rock down some. I yelled “Owe!” and other vocalizations acting like he really hurt me in hopes that would satisfy him, because this was getting really scary and I began to get anxious about how all this would end. But it didn’t stop him; he kept on throwing, possibly encouraged by his strategy of aiming through the top of the bush. I assume I had hit him in the head earlier because it seems his ultimate goal was a head-shot.

Now, on the shot that he hit me in the back just left of my spine he was fairly close and I’ve wondered why, with his accuracy, he didn’t hit me in the head – the money shot he had been trying to achieve for so long. I think it was because I had ducked so many of his shots that he aimed lower just like he did before in order to hit me in the head if I ducked. He was at my 2 O’clock behind me when he threw and hit me just left of my spine which would have lined up with the center of my head if I had ducked straight down. He quickly followed that throw with a shot to my head, but I had just started to bend forward and the rock hit the right rear of my head at an angle, which really popped me good, but could have been more severe if it had impacted into the center of my head. So, I’m going to lower his IQ a few points on that because with my back turned to him there was no need to compensate for me ducking, but it seems he couldn’t figure that out.

I’m going to guess that after he stopped throwing at me after I could predict his movements and make timed rock throws he relocated strategically, outflanking me with the location he had picked when he hit me in the head because I would not have been able to hide behind the line of bushes like before as well if the duel had persisted. He showed an ability to learn and adapt.

Language is a good indicator of intelligence and Sasquatches do possess that. It takes a cognizant thinker to use language. What I heard could be viewed as guttural sounds, which are cries or other sounds that start in the back of the throat. It didn’t sound like a normal language in the context of how we speak.

A unique aspect of my encounter is I was afforded some rare one on one time with a Sasquatch at the concrete block. When I held the back of my head and was expressing how it hurt he apparently understood what I was referring to. Even though his response was in Squatchese I could still infer the idea of what he was communicating since he responded in the same angry sounding response he made after I hit him with a rock, and by his angry sounding voice inflection I assumed he was rehashing the issue of why he hit me in the head, touching on the issue of me hitting him first, and my injury is what I get. So, it is possible to communicate with them.

Now, the Bigfoot didn’t understand the point of my charades when I made a throwing motion with my arm, I suppose due to already being “gun shy” from our duel, prompting him to communicate a warning by throwing rocks near me, but he did understand my frantic pleas to “Cut it out!” probably due to my voice inflection and he responded with a single calm sounding word followed by silence. He seemed to be consoling me. So, we were not unlike two humans who spoke two different languages but were still able to conduct a simple conversation

This was a unique circumstance. It is not often that a person and a Sasquatch spends that much one on one time in such close proximity to one another, much less have a subject to talk about. He responded with verbal and non-verbal communication after I did the same; he was possibly spurred by my bringing up a touchy subject and he didn’t care for my complaint.

Given sasquatches feral existence it’s hard to effectively gauge their intelligence. A feral homo sapiens does not fare well compared to humans raised in a civilized environment either, and I surmise that until a Bigfoot is raised from a young age among humans we will never know the potential of their intellect.

My take on the Bigfoot I encountered is he is not the brightest thing, but he does possess cunning intelligence that far exceeds anything but man in the animal kingdom. I believe he is a hominid of some type and as such possesses higher reasoning; however, he has a much less sophisticated intelligence than homo sapiens. I out witted him during the rock duel, although the rock duel was really a sporting contest and humans are vastly more experienced in sports, thus he was handicapped in that respect; although I was handicapped by his superior athleticism. But once he figured out that it was not going well for him he adapted by moving away or stopped throwing and in the end his persistence won the day. He actually demonstrated some good decisions. So, as we strategize on how to study them we should think of them in terms of men who can adapt to what we do and not like apes or dumb animals of the forest, like is the case with many who are confounded over their lack of success with trail cams which Sasquatches seem to recognize and avoid or destroy. I assume Sasquatches talk about people among themselves and are more aware of us than many credit them with.

Sasquatches can outsmart researchers, like in the case where researchers laid fruit out in the middle of an area of mud to get foot impressions, the Bigfoot foiled them by lying on the ground to reach the fruit, but in the process made a body impression in the mud. A researcher commented how that wasn’t the smartest thing since he gave them an even better impression. But in any event, if those creatures recognize we want to get footprints at a feeding station and avoid it, we are dealing with some really intelligent beings, and we need to devise tactics that addresses that better.

Their apparent limited to lack of tool use is a negative mark on their intelligence. I have read where one was observed digging with a stick, but most often they are seen digging with their hands which are said to have thick sharp fingernails. Clearly they lack the cognitive abilities of homo sapiens. I’m hypothesizing (guessing really) and I’m likely over my head on a possible reason for this, but maybe they are so well physically adapted to live without the need for tools that it’s been an impediment toward that cognitive development. Man’s earliest tools included tools to cut tough hides and to break open bones for marrow, or axes to cut wood, etc. But maybe Bigfoot’s abilities and attributes have superseded that cognitive development since their great strength can tear animals apart and break bones, and I believe use rocks as weapons, and they don’t need clothing, etc., to gain an advantage like man did.

I haven’t seen any stories where they have hunted with rocks as of yet, but speaking to one Bigfoot researcher he told me they have been observed hunting game with rocks. From my experience I think it’s inevitable that they do hunt with rocks. I read one account in the community section at Sasquatch Research Association of a man taking off a ghillie suit and a Bigfoot hit him with a rock and broke 4 or 5 of his ribs, which must have been a big rock to injure so many ribs. Maybe since the suit almost mimics a Bigfoot it offended him which touches on his vengeance culture.