Sasquatch Chronicles Blog

A listener sent me this encounter:

“My first experience occurred in either summer 1993 or 1994.  I simply cannot recall the specific date any longer.  My friends from high school and I went to Cave River Valley near Campbellsburg, IN, which at the time was privately owned (it is now a state-owned natural area).  We stopped by the owner’s house, paid for a few nights of camping and received the key to get past the iron ranger blocking property access.  The property was magnificent.  The upper section of the property was about 60 feet above the valley floor and had two camping areas.  The valley was wide and covered in sparse grass and hard packed dirt along with an old log cabin.  A creek ran through the valley.  There were also several caves – River Cave, Endless Cave, Dorsey’s Cave.  We spent the first day setting up camp near the park entrance and exploring the caves.  Nothing odd or strange was noticed.

We started cooking dinner over the campfire at nightfall and enjoying a couple of beers apiece.  After dinner, we were all sitting in chairs around the campfire and heard the clear sounds of footsteps coming up the hillside to our east.  This hill was a *very* steep grade.  The footfalls were consistent and sounded like someone walking normally.  All of us turned around and watched, expecting someone to crest the hill.  The footfalls stopped at the top of the hill.  We waited a few seconds and began calling out to this “person” in a friendly manner.  We waited a few more seconds and began to get nervous.  No one had any weapons – if this is a hermit who wants us out of here, we have no way to defend ourselves.  Then we heard this “person” take off running in the brush and deeper into the woods.  We could follow the path taken aurally, leading to the north and away from us.  Whoever was running out there did not slow down, make any effort to be quiet and was moving very quickly.  The runner got to a point about 500 feet away from us and the sounds stopped.  Once we all got our wits about us and discussed what had just happened, two of us (myself and my friend who was 6’ and 300 lbs.) decided to investigate.  We began walking towards where we last heard the runner and stopped at the edge of the firelight.  My friend went to the west and started moving north on the dirt road and I headed directly towards the last location of the running sounds in the woods.  I may have taken 5 steps when an ear-splitting scream erupted from the darkness.

While I am no Les Stroud, I am not unfamiliar with the woods, animal sounds and the general cacophony of nighttime in the forest.  I’ve heard all manner of animals scream – foxes, rabbits, owls, coyotes.  All of them make sounds far louder and stranger than you’d expect.  However, even when close by, I’d categorize their sounds as startling but never (to me) ear-splittingly loud.  This scream hurt my ears and made me back up.  I could physically feel it.  The scream sounded like a bizarre owl screech, but deeper, louder and powerful.  The sound was very deep, almost rumbling, for about one second and then increased in volume and pitch for the next 5 seconds, ending as a paralyzing shriek.  My friend ran back to camp instantly.  I stood still and listened.  I could hear whoever this was retreating into the forest to the point I could no longer hear them.  I went back to camp, joked it was probably a bobcat or owl, and let it go.

We spent the night sleeping in a van rather than tents.  Everyone was freaked out but no one wanted to say it.  It was pure comedy.  By that time, we’d been drinking beer for a few hours and were drunk – no two ways about it.  We all passed out.  About 3AM one of the guys woke up and screamed he’d seen a hairy arm reach in the van’s passenger window (all windows were open to cool off the interior and allow the horrible odors we were emitting to escape).  He said it picked up all of our leftover food stacked on the seat and retreated.  Everyone piled out to find the food missing and plates strewn about, with a path heading into the woods.  I said he probably saw a raccoon.  He didn’t say anything else and we went to sleep.  The next morning, we did go over to the hill to look for tracks and found nothing.  We went down the hill and tried to walk and run up it.  None of us could do so without using handholds and stumbling every few steps.  All of us were in good shape, young and played sports actively.  We were perplexed but shrugged it off like the teenagers we were and went about our day.  Everyone went home the following day.

The next summer, three of us went back and camped in the valley.  We spent the day exploring the log cabin (we did find two bedding areas inside, but no idea what made them), caves and trails.  We went rock climbing.  We had a great time.  When we came back to where our cars were parked, one of the cars had been spun around and moved a good 20 feet away from where it had been parked.  There were large scuff marks all over the ground, but no foot prints and no detail.  We chalked it up to locals being jerks, though we’d neither seen nor heard anyone in the area.  We then set up a 3 man tent, cooked dinner and sat in the cool creek water to relax.  About 1AM or so, we all went to bed in the tent.  Very shortly afterwards, both of my friends were snoring when I heard distinct footfalls above us at the top of the valley.  I then heard the sound of something sliding down the valley wall.  Each slide (4 in total that I recall) came with a several minute pause in between.  It took a good 30 minutes or more for this sliding creature to reach the valley floor.  Once at the valley floor, all was silent until I heard two distinct splashes in the creek (it would have taken me 4-5 steps to cross the creek).  Whoever or whatever this was, it was now in our camp.  I could hear occasional rustling sounds, followed by silence, then more rustling.  Eventually a cooler was knocked over and dead silence filled the camp.  It was then I realized I’d heard nothing but this creature making noise and the babbling of the creek for about an hour.  I heard the footfalls leave the fire ring and circle our tent.  The footfalls stopped directly behind my head.  My heart was in my throat and I had my eyes closed.  I distinctly remember thinking “F___ it” and opening my eyes and looking up through the rain fly.  There was a massive head looking down at me.  I could see no detail, eyeshine, hair or anything else.  It was just a massive head.  The moment I opened my eyes, the head moved backwards and out of view.  I never heard it leave camp but did hear it climbing back up the valley wall.  Once it left, the normal night sounds came back and the fear subsided.  I stayed awake until one of my friends moved.  I woke him up and told him what happened.  It was my turn to be told I was dreaming or mistaken.  I did check for footprints and sign the next day and could see the slide marks down the valley wall but nothing else.  I don’t recall that we found anything missing.  I tried to look in the rain fly like the head the night before.  I would need to be about a half foot taller to do so comfortably.  I am 5’9” and this person would have need to be at least 6’5” to look directly down at me.  I could almost look straight down but had to lean on the tent to do so.  Whoever the head belonged to, they were not leaning forward onto the tent.  We stayed a couple more days without incident and then went home.”