Sasquatch Chronicles Blog

Garrett writes “I’ve been listening to your show for some time now. I wanted to tell you about the encounters I have had while hunting in the Uintah forest in Utah.

I grew up hunting with my dad since I was 8yo. I’m 33 now and have been in the Army for 10 years. I was in the Army reserve from 2012 to early 2018 and now active duty since mid 2018.
I always pushed the limits while outdoors, always wanted the highest peak and the density was better because thats when I could stalk animals. I would think of it as me against the mountain.

My family took up a elk trip in 2017. I recently was deployed 2015 and 2016 so this was my first time back in the mountains since being over seas. I needed it and with that said, I was pushing harder then I ever had searching for elk. I was scouting every weekend for the later part of 2016 to the hunt of September 2017. I figured if i can find the winter range path I could use it for the upcoming season and be where they would migrate once the pushing started.

On one scout trip my dad and I went down a dirt road that kicked us into the south slope. You could tell it was not traveled very often. No tire marks or any sign of camping off the side of the road. Well about 5 miles where the road got rough I smelled this awful smell. We stopped sniffed around then headed further. We came to a peak, glassed and felt weird like something was watching us. Needles to say we turned around and crawled out on the side by side. We passed that smell again this time it was stronger. We pushed through and got to camp.

Well I ended up finding the heard after countless hours and long nights and endless map recon. I thought I had figured it out. I wont give away this honey hole. This location was not easy to access you could only get there by 4×4 and not a pavement princess truck either. You had to be a skilled driver and be prepared to tough out camp. The way we liked it.

The opening morning. We all departed a hour before dawn. My sister and brother in law took off to a ridge line that over looked a slot canyon. My sister and I went adjacent and my brother Ben and dad went their own way. There were probably 10 hunters in this 20 mile area and all were very skilled. This was no rookie beginner area. I came back for water at about mid day and my sister and brother in law were in camp. We camped in an area where we could walk to our hunting spots thats how far back we were. They started freaking out saying the smelt some horrific smell and then heard some loud knocks on trees and booked it out of the area. It scared my brother in law so bad i took him back down the mountain to catch a ride home. He was done in the first 8 hours of what was to be a 7 day trip. I was upset because it took 2 hours to get down the mountain and me taking him back took me out of the game.

Well a couple days later we got skunked only 3 elk were taken in that area so we packed up and headed down the mountain. We ended up at about 8 thousand feet when we were at about 10 thousand the few days before. I found a trail that would take me 9 miles to the other side of the mountain range and had arranged for my dad to pick up Ben and I. We were the only ones left that had the stamina to keep climbing mountains. The day before we took off a cow herder came down a ways from the camp. I asked him how it looked and if he saw anything he said yeah about 4 miles up they are up there.

Me and Ben took off packs light and gear for anything we may face. Well this hike was good for the first mile then about the 2nd mile we lost the forest trail. I was looking everywhere for the trail using my compass trying to get back on line when i noticed a small stack of rocks. Me and ben used rock formations like that to mark trails as a sign to each other that we headed in that direction if we ever split up. It was odd because next ti the rock stack there was a old but not opened bag of beef jerkey it was sealed but didn’t even have the brand on the bag. Then there was an apple kind of old but still good enough to eat. I DID not see any human tracks not a footprint at all not a horse track nothing and to see that was weird and have it be it put us back on trail. It was a small plateau so we couldnt see the trail. We climbed down and entered the what seemed to be the DEAD zone. I mean no life no sound dead trees everywhere like an old forest fire ripped through 20 years ago. We still moved slow and tactical because you never know. Well about 500 yards into this DEAD zone a dam LOG came out of nowhere mid air and almost struck me and Ben. I was lead he was 5 yards behind. The LOG came crashing through The trees. We heard the k k k k boom. Looked at each other and i went into fight mode. Took up a defense posture scanned with my rifle right to left and there it was in my dam crosshairs. Running away through baby aspen trees. I mean i played football my entire life and when this thing was in my scope running away I only saw its back but the back was like a defensive lineman that plays in a D1 college i saw the muscle tone and the fluid motion of it getting through the trees. I didn’t shoot. I wanted to pull the trigger but thought that if i did we would start a war. I knew my brother could handle himself but I would only think of protecting him. Now I had a 30-06 a 4 Sig 40mm and he carried my dads 44 mag and a 270. We had the ammo but I’ve never seen anything move like that even being an high performing athlete never in my life. And look moving in high elevation is not an easy task guys get gassed walking a 100 yard ridge.

Anyways if you made it this far I’d love to tell you about the night that came following and how we ended up getting out of there.

Thanks for taking your time to read a bit of my story. Writing about it is hard because there is so much to tell.”