A listener writes “I came across your show several months ago and I am addicted. You do an awesome job. I applaud and thank you for providing an outlet to people who have had these incidents that are afraid to speak out.
Like you say, it is easy to laugh at someone until what they claim happened happens to them.
My wife and I live in Decatur, AL. (northwestern) region of the state. My family lives in Florence, AL. and my wife’s family lives in Double Springs, AL. (middle of the Bankhead Forest). Our story took place before we were married and even engaged. She was my girlfriend at the time of this incident. We both had an encounter with “something”. I want to first off say that we did not see any kind of creature. We do not know what we ran into at all, but it terrified us. Her parents live off of highway 33 about 1-2 miles. Highway 33 is the main highway that cuts through the forest. There are several trail head access points off of 33. Before we got married we would go hiking sometimes in the forest. Mostly trails near her house. One day we decided to go to a trail head (not sure which one it was) off of 33 that was about 2-3 miles off the main highway. My wife had heard about this trail being a very beautiful spot near a large creek The trail head and parking lot are not visible from 33.
When we arrived at the parking area there was a group of about 5 teenagers there and it appeared they had been swimming in the creek. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, they were laughing and talking by their vehicle. The trail is very defined right out of the parking lot as it is completely dirt. The creek is immediately visible when you pull into the parking lot. We walked about half a mile down the trail, until it curved to the right into the woods. The trail up until this point runs along the creek bank. We stopped (thank God we did not venture into the woods) because there are these massive rocks sitting in the water by the bank and we climbed on them to sit and enjoy the view of this gorgeous creek bottom. Up until this point I had already noticed I could hear absolutely nothing out there except the water running in the creek. It was an odd feeling and did not realize at that point that this is usually an indicator of a predator lurking somewhere. We sat there for about 30 minutes on the rocks and then decided to press on down the trail.
As we approached the point of the trail that curved right and went into the woods there was this tree that was maybe 6-7 feet tall that was completely covered in leaves and the branch structure kind of gave the tree a spherical shape. The leaves made it so that you could not see underneath or behind the tree. We got maybe 20 yards from this tree and something violently smacked the tree. It sounded like a pine tree coming down to give you an idea of how loud this was. It was an awful sound. The tree did not break though, amazingly. We both froze solid and stared at the tree. We knew there was no one else out there because the only other vehicle in the parking lot belonged to the people that were in the parking lot when we pulled up. I immediately had this feeling of nausea come over me. I had a machete that I carried with me on our hikes, but I felt so weak at this point. I could hear my girlfriend starting to breathe in a manner of which she was simply terrified.
I did not even look at my girlfriend. I was a sheet of ice. I do not ever recall me having that kind of fear come over me because I knew we were in a location that if something happened to us it’d be days until were found. We stared at this tree for about 2 minutes tops. I was about to whisper to her to slowly turn and start walking back to the car and I would walk backwards keeping my eye on our blindside. When I finally turned to look at her there was nothing but dirt dust floating in the air. She had become so horrified that she turned and ran. When I saw she was gone I turned and bolted after her back to the parking lot. I am a former cross country and track runner so my skills were put to good use that day. I managed to catch up to my girlfriend and it seemed like we made it back to the car in 5 seconds. I guess that was just the adrenaline and fear that kicked in. We were both white as ghost and out of breath. I recall looking down at my hands and I looked like I had no control over my hands they were shaking so badly. The ride back to her parents house we tried to tell ourselves that was just squirrels playing. I do not think 100 squirrels could have duplicated the force that smashed into that tree. The more I researched into things like this I finally realized that this was simply something that did not want us encroaching on its territory. The dead silence I had noticed previously. No birds or any signs of wildlife in the forest. It all made sense. The most terrifying thing was that we never heard anything in the woods walking. Something was already there and it was most likely watching us. I to this day cannot get my wife to speak of that moment.
I realize this account is not anywhere near as terrifying as some of the ones I have heard on your show, but listening to your show has helped me realize that there was probably a ‘squatch out there. There are numerous reports of sasquatch sightings ing the Bankhead forest. I never saw it, I never heard it, I never smelled the odor that people talk about, but the activity leading up to that tree being hit made almost too much sense. The situation could have been worse. Running was the last thing we needed to do, but when she bolted I became a microwave dinner. We have never been back to that spot and now if we go into the woods I carry a .45 springfield handgun.
Thanks for taking the time to hear my account.