Sasquatch Chronicles Blog

A listener writes “Been trying to figure out how to tell you about my experience for a while now. Not sure where to begin because I have never told anyone about this not even my wife of over 20 years. It was 1990 I was 9 or 10 years old my 12 year old brother and I just arrived at the Smoky Mountains.

Our dad drove, mom in passenger seat while my brother & I rode in the back of the F-150 (it had a cab so it was safe) towing one of those Coleman pop up campers.

Needless to say my brother and I beat the crap out of each other all the way there from Ohio.
So as we finally arrived and we were allowed out of the truck and mom & dad were trying to set up the camper before it got dark my brother had found what he must have thought was the perfect stick to whip me with I ended up running away from him.

I had ended up running what I am guessing to be about 150 to 200 yards in to the woods. I ended up stopping because I came up to a drop off, a drop of 8 to 10 foot ravine.

There was a nice large tree about 3 or 4 feet from the drop with a large horizontal branch that I could just touch with the tip of my fingers that I was able to grab when I jumped up. So I climbed up and sat on that branch with the trunk of the tree directly on my left.

I was sitting in the tree for 20 to 30 minutes enjoying not getting my ass beat when I could hear what I 1st thought was my brother down in the drop off . I was doing my best to see him through the little trees and bushes that were down there when I saw it wasn’t my brother. It was something almost as tall as the drop off, covered in a rich brown hair. So it must have been a bear. One of the bears that we were warned about when entering the park.

I looking down on this bear walk right up to the dirt wall and he slowly lifted his head above and it was looking making sure the cost was clear I’m guessing. That is when the bear reached his right HAND up and placed it on the ground as he was lifting himself up and with his left HAND grab a small tree trunk that was growing right on the edge of the drop off, thumb aimed down and he lifted himself up and as he stood up we were face to face. I was sitting on a branch that was what I’m guessing 6′ to 6’3″ off the ground then add my height when sitting….. so that made this bear some 8′ feet tall? So the bear stood and we immediately made eye contact and i think he exhales sounding like a horse who’s out of breath like a big huff and freezing still.

Me being a stupid kid, I’m not scared but exited as Fuck so what do I do? I lifted my right hand and said hi. And so did the bear, it lifted its left hand just like I did. After about 2 or 3 seconds the bear looks at his own lifted left hand then lowers it, glances back at me and he just turns and walks to his left and faded into the trees and bushes after about 4 or 5 steps.

Me being excited as can be I got down and ran all the way back to our camp site and told everyone how I saw a bear and that I startled it.

My mom obviously isn’t happy. My dad reminds her they are more afraid of us than we are of them.
The next morning my mom wakes us all up pretty early to see the actual bear, that was ripping up a small bag of trash.

That’s when I was like oh mom it’s a baby bear, she asked where ? I said right there that one it’s a baby because the one I saw yesterday was so much bigger and could walk on two feet. Dad told me that is a full grown black bear and that they don’t really get much bigger. And I just knew he was wrong but I know better than to tell my dad he’s wrong! I never realized wtf I had actually saw until years later when my brother asked if I remembered when I saw a bear with hands.”