A listener writes “I am a retired professional musician with 38 years of touring and recording experience. I am 58 and I live in Kentucky. My farm borders the Daniel Boone National forest. There is a creek close to my house.
On this creek is an amazing cave system. One night in Sept. of 1995, my friend and I were camping just inside the cave where the water exits the cavern. It is a large room that you can enter through a large hole in the ceiling. It slopes down at an angle, and you can walk right in. We had been coming here about once a month for 6 months or so, every full Moon and camping. We would always bring a guitar and drum and play music.
When we arrived, we started breaking large sticks for firewood by hitting the limbs across a big tree. We did this for 30 minutes or so, making lots of noise until we had enough firewood to last the night. This night was a full moon and clear. We had built a fire inside the cave, and were rolling out our sleeping bags getting ready for bed. I needed to get some more firewood, so I walked up and out of the cave.
As I was standing there, I was amazed at how the woods were lit up from the full moon, and a silvery light that was cast on everything. As I stood there admiring this awesome place, I heard/felt a very low growl right behind me. I turned around to see a very large, at least 8 foot tall Sasquatch only 4 feet from me! The moon was behind it, so I could not see its face, but it was huge and for a split second I was scared stiff. We stood there facing each other for a few seconds until my shock wore off enough to think, “okay, I am not a threat to you, and I’m going to walk back in the cave now.” So I walked slowly to my right the 10 steps it took to get back to the opening. I then went back to the fire, where I kept my encounter to myself. I stayed awake until daybreak watching the cave entrance..
When the sun was coming up, we left to go home.
I couldn’t help thinking that I had invaded it’s home, the cave. I never camped at that cave again, and only visited during the daytime.
A few years later in 2013, my friend and I set up a small stage outside on the same property to have outdoor jam sessions and camp. This was on the same property, a few miles from the cave, close to the house that sits on the farm. We played some music and hung out until dark.
I had set up a tent in an apple orchard a few yards from the stage. In the middle of the night, I started hearing a pack of coyotes howling in the distance. This was a little unusual to hear as at that time, because there was not a big coyote population in Jackson County.
I went to sleep and was awakened by that same low growl I had heard/felt before, on the outside of the tent right by my head!
I knew that it was the same creature I had come face to face with years earlier. I lay there motionless until I eventually passed out from exhaustion. As soon as it started getting light I packed up as fast as I could and got out of there.
Both times this happened there was music and or drumming involved. Since then, my great uncle who was 89 at the time, told me a story about hearing strange yells coming from the valley below his house at night. He has lived here his whole life, and said,”he had heard every animal in the woods, but had never heard anything like this.” He said “it made the hair on the back of his neck stand up!”