A listener writes “My name is Ian and I’m from central Indiana. First, I would like to say that I have actually met you back in 2019 at the Indianapolis Horror Hound Convention where Bob Gimlin was a guest, so I’ve been listing to your podcast for a while. Anyways, I have had 2 separate experiences here in the last couple of years.
In the summer of 2022 around June, I was on my way to go wader fishing in the river we have down the street. It was probably around 10-11a.m. and I was heading back on a gravel road where it dead ends at the river and you can put in kayaks, fish, etc.
When I got out of my truck, I put on my waders and all my gear and I heard this deep loud howling in the distance down a ways by the river. The closest thing I can compare it to is the sounds you played on episode 590 at the beginning. I grew up in the country and been in the woods/outdoors all my life and I have never heard anything like that before in my life. It startled me enough that I stopped in my tracks and called my wife to have her come down and hear it for herself because at this point, it had been going on for about 3-5min. I remember I kept asking her if she could hear it on the phone, she said no so that’s why I said come down and hear it for yourself. I was in such shock that it didn’t even dawn on me to record it. Of course, after I hung up the phone, shortly after it had stopped so I called her back and told her forget it and that I was headed back home.
Fast forward to the middle of this past December,2023, I was out walking my great Dane in the woods in the same area and I looked down and I saw what I thought was a print of some kind. I initially just saw the toe impressions and immediately thought it was from my dog, but then I realized he was behind me and hadn’t caught up, so I know it wasn’t his. This is the same path that I walk him on almost daily, so I know that track wasn’t there the day before. I’m always looking down at the path we walk to see the different tracks being made. like deer, racoon, etc. Anyways, I took a pic of it and placed a fueling card next to it for size reference. It’s the same size as a credit card. I was afraid my dog would come and step on it as I was looking at it, so I took home and came back. Thats when I discovered the 2nd track.
As for the first track, I was like I had to make a cast, so I ordered casting material from amazon and made the print. First time I’ve ever done this. It actually turned out ok. I think I smooshed the toes together a little because of how I was pouring it, idk. But again, had no clue what I was doing. I took pictures before, during and after the casting. As for the second print, I did try to cast it but it didn’t turn out very well, but I did manage to take a few pics before I casted it. There was about a 5ft gap between the toes and the heel of the next.
I am writing you to share my story because after I told a few people, they just laughed/shrugged it off like “yeah right. It’s just footprint.” What gets me is that it’s out in the middle of the woods, in December, with debris all around. I don’t think someone is out here walking barefoot to leave a print in an area. So, I don’t tell my story to anyone anymore and my print is put up for now. I hope you would like to hear more details of my story and I appreciate you giving people a place to write in too. I’ll be adding attachments of the pics I took. Feel free to write me back.”