Sasquatch Chronicles Blog

A listener writes “My first experience was in Texas over in the boyscout summer camp called Camp Pirtle in east Texas. In BSA summer camp, you take around 5 merit badge classes over the coarse of a week and the campsites are set up like isolated pods along dirt road trails. For anyone whose familiar with the setup, we were in campsite 2. I had finished my Nature badge class early and I was antisocial so instead of goofing off in the common area where the trading post and pool was I just walked back to my campsite alone.

I love to draw so I got my newly bought custom sketchbook and started drawing our camo setup. My tent specifically was along the edge of the cleared and the thick forest. I was putting the finishing touches on it when I caught movement to the left of the tent as if something was present and then decided to move. It didnt come from behind the tent and into my view. It was there but I didnt catch it appearing there in the first place. What i saw was something coffee-brown with no tail, the size of my tent on all fours (tent was 4ft high x 6 or 7ft long), run into the woods and disappear. The only noise made was its body pushing the shrubbery and vines over. What frightened me was that i was constantly glancing up and down from my sketch book to the area to get details down and yet I never saw the thing appear or come into view. All i caught was the act of it turning and running away.

My second encounter happened in February 2017 the Chiricahua Mountains in southeastern Arizona in Cochise county. I was much older and frequently did hikes alone because I dont like having to accomodate other people or worry about them. Im well seasoned in the woods and very physically fit. I had made plans to hike up to Winn falls using the Greenhouse trail that was about 3miles of climbing elevation.

I had about 30lbs of gear on me because I wanted to camp at the falls have dinner and enjoy the stars. Along the way I lost the trail and decided to have a snack by Cave Creek which flowed parallel to the trail most of the way. There were ferns and large pine and some spruce/fir trees in that pocket. It was what i would imagine Oregon to be like in their forests. I look up the side of the hill to my left and I see something big moving. First I though Oh! A deer! Then i squint my eyes because I make out that it is rather bulky. Ok not a deer, maybe a bear. But there was a strange marking on its side, it was a different color than the body, slightly lighter and looked almost like a lightning bolt. It would come into view, do something, then disappear into the hill repeatedly.

I took out my nikon camera but the thing was too far away to see it. I had forgotten my big lens at the car, which I still beat myself up over to this day. The other unusual thing was the way it walked. It reminded me of a how a bird of prey walks, it kind of “sways” from side to side as if it hops from one foot to the other. Then i lost it. I continued up the trail and made it to the falls. I got out my Subway sandwich, Italian BMT, and sat with my back behind this huge boulder. Then out of nowhere, the manzanita bush to my right about an arm length away started shaking violently and I heard a “WOOO WOOO WOOO”. I jumped high into the air and whipped out my bear spray and .38 revolver and pointed it at the bush. I was frozen, scared, jaw wide open, cold sweat, and not breathing as I scanned the woods. I had never felt so vulnerable and petrified. I looked up and down and around the boulder and the surrounding shrubs and trees but there was NOTHING. I holstered everything and then I caught movement behind this one pine tree and saw the outline of what looked like a Carlhart jacket, but hairy, then it moved slightly out and peaked to where I could see the outside outline of its face and I lost composure. I never took my eye off of the thing, grabbed my backpack until i was out of view and ran. What took me 4hrs to climb took me one hour to get back to my car. I hauled butt out of there.”