Sasquatch Chronicles Blog

Tonight I speak to two guests. My first guest is Josh who was riding on some ATV’s with his family when they came across a strange creature that was watching them. Josh and his brother were on the trail riding their ATV’s when Josh’s brother stopped ahead of him. Josh said “As I came around the corner my younger brother was stopped and was pointing so I stopped and looked and that is when we saw it…..”

I also speak to Eric who had probably who had some very interesting encounters, Eric writes:

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.

My second experience occurred just west of Bloomington, IN in January or February 2009.  My friend and I were returning to her home after having dinner.  I stepped out of the car and immediately noticed a moaning sound coming from behind her home.  Whatever it was moaned about every 10-20 seconds and it was getting louder (and I assumed closer).  It sounded similar to a cow mooing but without the leading grunt, just the “ooo” sound, though longer and louder.  The calls were mournful in tone.  I went out on the back porch to see if there were cows or other livestock in the area.  None were present, just soybean fields.  There was a stand of trees to my right, along with several houses.  The stand angled to match the angles of the properties and ended at the farm fields, creating a triangle shape.  As the moaning moved closer, the dogs at each house would bark ferociously then retreat and hide.  It was extremely strange.  The moaning sound reached the end of the trees and stopped.  I asked my friend what was that and she said “The Troll.”  Apparently, this creature was known to the locals.  She said it lived out past the farm fields and would come close to the homes on occasion.  Just then, I saw a grayish blur run from the stand of trees to behind a hill directly in front of us.  The stand of trees was about 300 feet away to the northwest and the hill was about 200 feet away to the west.  The blur ran low to the ground, arms parallel to the ground but pumping.  That was all I could see – the legs were below a berm and the head was either tucked down or also parallel to the ground.  I felt like it was time to go inside immediately.  My friend related that occasionally this “troll” would look in the windows.  I did not want to see it so I did not look back outside.  After about 15 minutes, I could hear a commotion outside.  When I looked out, the lawn furniture about 150 feet from the back door had been thrown all over the place.  It looked like someone had a massive temper tantrum.  Nothing had been thrown a superhuman distance but neither had someone just tipped everything over.  My friend advised me to not go out there as it wasn’t safe.  I stayed about another hour, heard nor saw anything else and went home.

My third experience occurred near Salem, IN on the Knobstone Trail in 2010.  This trail is used as training for hiking the Appalachian Trail.  A co-worker suggested we camp near the trail one weekend and I agreed.  Unfortunately, our work schedules necessitated that we begin our hike at or near nightfall.  I had hiked many times in the night in forests without headlamp or flashlight.  I found it easier as my eyes would adjust to the darkness and I could see the whole forest, not just what was in the flashlight beam.  We arrived about 7PM (it was summer time) and began to hike in.  We walked about four miles when I began to hear the sound of a rock being smashed against another rock.  The sounds were coming in groups of four.  These weren’t clicks, clacks or taps – it sounded like someone slamming a rock down.  My co-worker thought they were gunshots.  If they were, these were the reports of a .50 caliber machine gun.  I kept hiking, feeling nervous.  The sounds got louder, starting from my southeast then passing them and putting the sounds to our east.  More sounds came from the south and southwest, though not as loud or powerful, in groups of three to eight.  Even if these were locals, I’d never heard anything like this and wanted no part of them.  I was not looking forward to spending the night out there.  At that time, I was unaware of Bigfoot making these noises or hitting trees with tree limbs or rocks – I just knew it was not normal.  We climbed a small hill and checked the weather on our cell phones.  Severe thunderstorms were inbound with tornadoes already reported.   We decided to hike back out for safety reasons (we were not prepared to endure torrential rain and the inevitable gully washers to follow).  As we hiked out, the rock hits started up again.  They faded out as we got closer to the trail exit.  Though I never saw anything (partially because my co-worker kept intermittently shining his flashlight into my eyes), I do not believe we were alone out there that night.