Sasquatch Chronicles Blog

A listener writes “I used to work in Telecommunications installing DirecTV in the mountains of Western Virginia and West Virginia. Naturally, this job took me to places deep in the woods and high on the mountains.

I was an avid outdoorsman until my dad passed away a few years back, when you lose your hunting buddy, hunting just isn’t the same anymore, ya know? I say this because I know what animals sound like, I know what they do, I’ve been watching them since I was young enough to walk. I’ve seen bears, big cats, deer, and pretty much every animal that the Appalachia’s have to offer. At least, I thought I did. Now I’m not so sure.

When it comes to Sasquatch, I’ve always been mesmerized by the idea. I believe that this world still has many unknowns, even though humans have taken it over, Nature has ways of pushing back. I’ve watched movies, tv shows, heard stories, and just recently found this podcast.

I am an OTR truck driver, and I am a nigh runner. Less traffic, better parking, more miles rolling through the twists and turns of these United States national network of roads. If there was ever to be an encounter in my life, I always thought it would be while I was in a different state, but not in my own.

I’ve heard the urban legends, and I’m fascinated by Crytids, which also means I’m fascinated by Big foot. You hear stories the locals tell you about hairy wild men in the national forests of the Appalachias, and honestly, I’ve never got out there at night to find out if they were true. “Listen to your elders,” I’ve always been told. Natives telling stories of missing people from hundreds of years ago, forest spirits haunting the land to take away evil, settlers going missing and never seen again, the Shenandoah Valley has some great stories.

The Shenandoah Valley is possibly the most beautiful piece of land I’ve ever seen, and I’ve seen 46 of the 48 continental states. I feel like it holds a secret in them hills. Those Caverns miles long and miles deep into those old rocks, rocks older than bones themselves.

Highland County, Virginia,
Miles from nowhere, even further from somewhere, no cellular service, and sparse farms dotting the valleys as the peaks of the mountains are covered in trees. I get a job to install DirecTV way out in McDowell. A little town nestled in Highland Counties many peaks and valley’s. The address takes me to a old fire trail that cuts deep into the National forest. The house is about 10 miles down this narrow trail. It’s the beginning of 2020, Covid is coming out swinging and people are running to the hills trying to flee the cities.

These people had this house build on private land that the wife’s uncle left to her. He had lived up there all his life, and somehow they were able to keep the land when the surrounding area was deemed National Forest. Beautiful home, built up on the mountain, quiet and peaceful. A great place to keep away from the fright of the Corona Virus.

I get there, and I’m escorted around the property by the husband. This man is an avid big game hunter. Lion, zebra, and giraffe pelts everywhere, and guns everywhere too. I find the perfect place to install the dish, hopped up on a ladder and got to work. My tools to drive the lag bolts in was a 1700 breaking lb impact driver. So it made some noise. The sound of my impact reverberated through the holler and echoes for miles. The husband, his father, and the sons who were young boys were outside with me while doing this. Just chatting up a storm when a noise they’ve never heard before came reverberating back through the holler.

boom.. boom.. boom..

3 distinct knocks, sounded like tree on tree about mile down the holler.
They look at each other and look at me and asked me what that was, I told em “I dunno, probably Bigfoot. Never heard of tree knocks before?” Then I laughed, cause I never would’ve thought what happened over the next hour or so would happen in Virginia.

I keep going, getting the job done. Dish is up, signal is great, time to run the wire. This time I’m using a different impact, one with less ass but still gets the job done without damaging the wire. About 20 minutes after the first knocks, we hear them again.

BOOM.. BOOM.. BOOM..

This time, much closer than the last.
This startled the husband and his dad. These were about half a mile from the house. Had a different tone to them. Almost as if something was pissed off I interrupted the quiet of the holler.

Not gonna lie, I was startled too. Cause I had heard those noises before while hunting but I never thought anything of it. But thinking back, every day I heard those noises, it was as if the woods went dead. A pin drop or a leaf crunch could’ve been heard for miles.

I keep working, it’s getting dark, I’m hungry and I’m ready to go home. Then we hear them again, this time we could hear the tree shaking as the noises were made. It was spring time, leaves weren’t full out yet but they were there.

Tree shaking, leaves rattling, this time a few hundred yards away. Couldn’t see the tree moving, but we could hear it. The woods were dead quiet, no wind, nothing. This was the final straw for the husband and his dad. They pull me off the ladder and told me to wait, and they’ll be right back. As I’m standing there alone, I get this feeling.. a feeling that I’ve never felt before. A feeling of dread, a feeling of danger, a feeling of death. The feeling that I am being watched by something that doesn’t want me there and will do anything to get me away. My hair stand up on end, I’m covered in goosebumps, and my first instinct is to look directly at the tree line just 70 yards down from my location. Sky is still burning but the sun had set in the valley and it was dark in that tree line. I couldn’t see anything but every inch of my being knew something was there. The husband, his father, and his sons come out with guns loaded and ready. They’re playing no games. The husband informs me that his wife’s uncle had been in jail several times for fighting people who told him big foot wasn’t real after he told them that he had seen it. A man, willing to go to jail for assault, claiming he saw big foot and would fight over it? Yeah, I believe him.

I continue working, wires ran, hooking up the box and getting ready to activate the receiver. No cell service so I have to leave to call it in. The husband tells me he’ll drive me to town so I can use the wifi at the fire station, he volunteered there and knew the password.

There were no lights on outside, everything was motion sensored but it had to be a bear or bigger to set the lights off. We’re about to leave to go to town, we’re all still inside and boom.. the flood lights come on outside the back door. The sensors are aimed at the tree line, something triggered those lights.

We walk outside, it had gotten cold enough to see our breath, I’m grabbing everything to load into my truck before we head to town, I hear what sounds like a growl from the wood line. Now while I’m packing up, the light is bright as hell so I can see just fine in front of me, but not so much behind me where the tree line was. This growl stopped me in my tracks. A growl that I’ve never heard before made by something huge. I heard bears growl, I’ve heard big cats growl, I know what I heard and what I heard wasn’t no damn bear. I hustled my ass right up to my truck with the husband who was helping me carry shit, loaded my shit, and jumped in the husband’s truck and we peeled out to the fire house. When we got back, you could hear the forest again. A calmness had settled over the woods.

I never saw anything, but I can tell you what I felt. I still get that feeling to this day when I think about this. Its a fear that is in your bones. Fight or flight has nothing on this. I wasn’t running, I couldnt. My legs were locked. All my senses were heightened as if I was about to die. I could hear everything around me, I could feel the forest around me, I could smell the crisp spring night air, and I could watch shadows dance on the mountain tops in the sun’s settling light. Whatever it was had a vicious intent.

I’m not afraid to tell this story, but I have been laughed at many times for it. Those people laughing, I hope they never find themselves face to face with whatever that was. And if I do, I hope I have something big enough to protect myself because an impact driver apparently calls them in.”