Sasquatch Chronicles Blog

I am a long time listener and i very much enjoy your show. I will get straight to it. I was camping about an hour north of Asheville, N.C. with my son and my nephew. I was 53 years old and both of them are in their mid to late 20’s.

It was 1 week before the devastation of hurricane Helene last year. It was a beautiful weekend. Sunny and in the mid 70s during the day and mid 50s in the evenings. We all met up in Asheville for this trip. I live in central Virginia, in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. My son flew down from MA and my nephew came in from eastern N.C. Myself, being an experienced camper, brought most of the gear for this trip.

We drove up the blue ridge parkway, stopping at Mt. Mitchell for the scenic 360 degree view, before getting to the campground. I mention the stop, because as many of these national parks do, they have a lot of history and information about the areas. We learned that red wolves were re introduced into these mountains in the 50’s. An important fact for later. Anyway, we continued to our destination. Linville Falls campground.

Because we had 2 vehicles, we were assigned the overflow campsite. Which is about 100 yards from the campsite proper with a separate road to get there. It was perfect, not to close and in the middle of the woods with a great canopy above us. This campground was a couple of hundred yards from the parkway and the crest of the mountain range. Just on the edge of the Pisgah National forest and just north of the great smokey mountains.

We settled in, made dinner and proceeded to catch up. I had a couple of beers while those 2 abstained from drinking that night. While we were chatting we could here music and laughter coming from the campground proper. We could also hear something in the woods. Moving, breaking sticks, etc. Now these noises could easily be from any number of critters. But, they were moving around us, almost as if circling. My son and nephew, well their heads were on swivels. Turning , looking, canvassing the areas with their flash lights. I was to at first. Then I just started to ignore it. Around 10ish, we finished catching up and had a lull in the conversation as we were watching the fire.

During this time we heard a howling from somewhere far off in the north, and were like cool, must be those red wolves we’ve read about. About 10 minutes later we hear another one, much closer. Not sure if it was the same one or an answering howl. Then no more howling happened for the rest of the evening.

We wrap up for the evening around 11ish because we have a long hike on Roan mountain the next day. Not 15 minutes after we turned in do we hear something walking through our campsite. Slow heavy crunching footsteps on the packed gravel road that we drove in on.
My nephew whispers too me: Uncle Bran, do you hear that.

I whisper back: Yes
Nephew: What do you think that is.
Me: I have no idea. Why don’t you open the windows and look.
My nephew starts to open the tent window and stops. He turns to me and says: I don’t want to.
Me: Just look already.
He opens the windows slightly and doesn’t see anything.
He whispers to me again: Should I get my gun.
I say: Probably
He starts getting up to get his gun that is in his truck and asks: Will you come with me.
I say: Sure

Then the 3 of us pile out of the tent shining flashlights all around and see absolutely nothing. We look around the campsite and still nothing. I apologize to them for all the creepy tales and tell them that I hope I didn’t freak you guys out. In stereo from either side was the same response. “Well you did” . So we relieve ourselves quickly and get back I to the tent. I fall asleep very quickly.

All of us are awakened around 2:30 am to very loud sounds that are very close by. Three loud knocks. Then few minutes later, three loud knocks. This continues to about 5:30 am. I ignore it and go back to sleep.

In the morning when we get up, the campsite is untouched. No trace of anything, no foot prints, nothing out of order. However, I do take consideration that none of us are making any noise walking around on the packed gravel. So what ever was walking must of been heavy. I head to the bathhouse to shower and get cleaned up.

While waiting on line I get to talking with another camper who came in late the previous night. He asks me if I heard someone chopping wood last night around 2:30am. I tell him I heard something. He let’s me know that he walked around the campsite and everyone was asleep. Then points to where we were camping and says it was coming from that direction, which I find interesting because to us it was coming from the direction of the campground proper. Now I did look on the way back to our campsite and saw that there is a ravine between us and that is heavily wooded. It is just weird.

We head out for our hike and return late afternoon to make dinner and relax. Nothing happened the 2nd night except for the loudness of the critters. Tree frogs, insects, night birds. It was quite different from the night before, because there was none of that. Odd.

Anyway, after our stay and saying goodbyes, I dropped my son off at the airport and heading home. I had a realization. We heard something enter our campsite, but not leave. That creeped me out…..

Thanks for taking the time to read my long winded tale of a strange night camping. If it is of any interest to you please feel free to contact me. If not, no worries. Thanks