SC EP:1163 Not A Bear

Tonight we will be speaking to Austin and his parents Tim and Linda. The family is from Oregon and Tim and Linda both had encounters when they were younger. Austin shares a strange encounter from a lake monster. We will also be speaking to Wyatt. Wyatt had an encounter a year ago with his cousin in Michigan. Happy Fathers Day!

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:03Speaker 00

  It looked like somebody was bent over and had their head in the window of the deer blind and it either heard me or smelt me and he pulled his head out of the tent and stood straight up and that, that shocked me. They don't make people that, that big.

• 0:26Speaker 01

  The way it moved, almost as if it was gliding across the beach. I've never seen anything move like that in my life. They were screaming at each other in gibberish. It sounded like a language and they were chuntering away, back and forwards, back and forwards, back and forwards. I know what a bear looks like and there is no way on this planet that what I saw bears.

• 1:01Speaker 02

  911, what are you reporting? Jesus Christ, you better... Karen? See ya! Hello? Get somebody out of here. What's going on now, sir? That son of a bitch is about six foot nine, I don't know. Do you see him now, sir? Yes, I'm looking right at him. Uh-oh.

• 2:21Wes Germer?

  Welcome to the show, everyone. Thanks for being here tonight. Got a great show planned for you. Uh, we're gonna be chatting with Wyatt and, uh, about a year ago Wyatt was 14 years old. He was on his ATVs in northern Michigan, him and his cousin. Uh, they were on the ATVs and they had seen this creature. It was a real brief sighting, but I asked Wyatt if you'd come on and share it. And then we'll wrap up with, uh, Austin and his parents, uh, Tim and Linda, who are from Oregon and, uh, both Tim and Linda had, uh, experiences when they were younger. And, uh, Austin had something strange happen to him when he was in the woods.

• 3:04Wes Germer?

  I'll kinda let them go into it. If you've had an encounter and you'd like to be on the show, shoot me an email. My email address is [email protected]. And if you get a chance to check out sasquatchchronicles.com, you can become a member and get additional shows. And I hope the members enjoyed last night. Um, I had Tom on and we went into the, uh, Bragg Road Lights and a lot of other things. I really gotta have Tom back. We went on for over two hours and I could have probably done another two hours with him. But for the members out there, if you've missed that show, it's up on the website and in the Sasquatch Chronicles app. Let's jump into it tonight.

• 3:49Wes Germer?

  I wanna welcome, uh, Wyatt to the show. Wyatt, thanks for coming on.

• 3:54Speaker 04

  It's nice to meet you, Wes.

• 3:56Wes Germer?

  Yeah, it's a real pleasure meeting you Wyatt. And you're up there in Michigan. And about a year ago, when you were 14, you had this encounter. If you would, tell me about it.

• 4:08Speaker 04

  Oh, so one day I was out with my cousin at my grandma's property. Oh, she's got about six acres and we were riding my four wheeler through the trails and there's a spot where the guy that used to live there in like the 50s or 60s, he would burn all of his trash there. There's a bunch of old glass bottles and stuff there and we like to go uh look through, see if we can find anything cool. So uh we were on the trail set like the back of the property. And we're looking around and we were just kind of sitting around there and uh we started hearing stuff moving around. It was probably about 50 yards away and uh looked out and I saw something. I wasn't really sure what it was. So I just kind of paid no attention, thought it was a deer.

• 4:53Speaker 04

  So I kind of just told him, I think there's deer over there and we just kept on with our time for about 15, 20 more minutes and then uh there I heard something. I think it was tree knocks. At the time, uh, well, it was tree knocks. I heard those pretty good. It was really scary. I was quite scared, but um. So we stuck around because I didn't really know much about what Sasquatch was or anything like that. So I thought it was a tree falling over or something, but uh so we kept hanging around for a little while and then I started hearing more stomping around. It was more stomping instead of walking this time.

• 5:35Speaker 04

  And more tree knocks. And then I looked over and saw something moving. It was it was about six and a half, maybe seven feet tall, tall, brown, hairy face, hairy everywhere, I guess. It had a fallen tree limb in its hand when I'd seen it. I know we were talking at the time, so I know it had to have heard us because we were being quite loud. And I didn't really hear any vocalizations or anything, which I also thought was kind of weird, but. It was, I don't know, it was just really scary. I wasn't expecting to ever see anything like that, but it was like fifty to sixty, maybe seventy yards out.

• 6:16Speaker 04

  My cousin saw it too, but uh, he didn't really know what it was. So I was like, I don't know what that is. It kinda looks like a person. So we better get out of here. I was on my quad too. So it was kinda scary starting it up and getting out of there. But yeah, it was just really tall and hairy and it looks super muscular from what I could see. We just uh, got out of Dodge out of there. It was quite scary. I just kinda ended up searching it up and then figured out it was a Sasquatch. At the time, I really didn't believe in him until I'd seen it.

• 6:51Wes Germer?

  Yeah. And I know from uh, talking to you off the air, you know, you didn't really buy into the whole Bigfoot thing and for a moment you were thinking it was a person. Kinda looking back now, what, what makes you think it wasn't a person?

• 7:04Speaker 04

  Uh, the fact it was covered all in a dark, dark brown hair. And uh, there's miles and miles of woods all around the property. So there wouldn't really be any reason for a man to come into the woods that deep.

• 7:24Wes Germer?

  Yeah. And from your description, why it doesn't sound like a human being at all. Uh, you know, sometimes I'll ask questions for maybe the audience is thinking, but from your description, there's nothing about it. That sounds like a man to me. Um, this property that you guys were on was your grandmother's property. Had your grandparents ever talked about anything weird ever happening?

• 7:48Speaker 04

  Uh, no, my grandparents never really went up into the woods. It was mostly just me and my cousins and my dad once in a while. So they had never really seen anything, but since this was way far back there, it was.

• 8:02Speaker 04

  Kind of just, I don't know.

• 8:05Wes Germer?

  Yeah, I get what you're saying. It's grandma's probably not out there running around on the property. Did you ever tell anyone? I know you and your cousin saw it, but did you ever tell anyone about what you had seen?

• 8:20Speaker 04

  Oh, yeah, I tell a lot of people about it, but I don't think anybody really believes it. Except for aside from my cousin, because he was obviously there with me and saw the same thing that I saw.

• 8:32Wes Germer?

  Did you guys ever go back to the area where you guys had seen the creature?

• 8:37Speaker 04

  Oh, no, actually, recently after that, we moved from that property because that was my house was actually not too far from my grandma's house. I would just ride my quad over there and go back in the woods. So once I moved away from there, I moved about fifteen, twenty miles away. And so I'm just never really there anymore.

• 9:00Wes Germer?

  I got you. This is probably a bad idea going on someone else's property now. Was that the only thing that ever happened on your grandparents' property?

• 9:10Speaker 04

  Oh, there was another time I was up feeding my cows because they're kind of they're a little bit away from the woods, but sort of close there. And I thought I heard something tromping around. I'm not sure if it was a deer or something else, but it sounded like really heavy footsteps.

• 9:28Wes Germer?

  Yeah. And I know it was kind of a brief sighting, but let me ask you, what do you think Sasquatch is?

• 9:35Speaker 04

  Oh, I think Sasquatch is more of a more of an animal than he would be an alien or anything. I think it's just primitive and we've lost contact with him and just tries to stay away from people and mind his own, but sometimes people stumble upon him.

• 9:53Wes Germer?

  You know, Austin, in your sighting, I wanted to ask you, what do you, what do you think the creature was doing? Do you think it was just kind of curious? On what you and your cousin were doing?

• 10:04Speaker 04

  Oh, yeah, I think it was curious. It didn't really seem very territorial. So I think it was more just curious to see what we were doing. And since I had my quad out there, probably had never seen something like that either before. So, yeah, I think it was just curious as to what we were doing.

• 10:24Wes Germer?

  Makes me wonder what it was doing with that log. Um, the wood knocks that you heard was in the same direction where you saw the creature?

• 10:33Speaker 04

  Yeah, it was the same direction that I had seen and I kind of forgot to mention after I had like looked over at it. It was moving somewhat. It was moving toward, it was moving northbound. After I had looked over and actually seen it, it started moving. So I guess I caught it on the move.

• 10:55Wes Germer?

  Yeah. Well, I know it was a real brief sighting, but I really appreciate you coming on and sharing it, Wyatt. I really enjoyed chatting with you, man.

• 11:04Speaker 04

  Yeah, thanks for having me.

• 11:16Wes Germer?

  And next up on the show, I want to welcome, uh, Tim. Tim, thanks for coming on.

• 11:21Speaker 05

  Thank you.

• 11:23Wes Germer?

  Yeah. And I know that you're Austin's dad and we're going to be chatting with, uh, Austin and Linda here in a moment. Uh, and he, Austin was telling me off the air that you had an experience when you were younger out there in Oregon, kind of near the beach in the, uh, Tillamook Forest. If you would kind of start from the very beginning, what, what were you doing and what happened?

• 11:47Speaker 05

  Oh, sure. I will. Um, this is a long time ago. It's probably like 50 years ago. Um, 1974, give or take a year. And, uh, back in those days I was into dirt bikes and that's kind of what my passion was. I did a lot of racing and, and rode all the time my dirt bikes. And so there was, there was, uh, it was in the winter time and there were three of us who all rode dirt bikes and we went up into the Trask Mountain area. I don't know if you're familiar with the Trask Mountain area is the coast range between the Willamette Valley, basically Portland and the Willamette Valley and, and the beach, the coast, the Pacific Ocean. And so there's maybe 50 miles of

• 12:35Speaker 05

  A really rugged terrain, lots of, you know, a big rainforest with fir trees and not a lot of homes up there. And this one road that I was on called the Nostaca River Road, and it goes from a little town called Carlton all the way over to the Pacific Ocean. But it's literally, it's not a highway at all. It's just like a backroads road that follows the Nostaca River all the way to the ocean. And part of it's paved and part of it isn't. So we were, we decided to go up and go pitch tents and we were camping and

• 13:13Speaker 05

  riding our dirt bikes. And this one evening that we were there, it started to do a freezing rain. And if you're not from Oregon, freezing rain is when a big bank of moisture comes in and hits some cold air instead of snow, it freezes and then it falls on the ground as just like a sheet of ice. And it was probably, literally, there was probably two inches of ice on everything. So we couldn't, there's no way we could drive out of there because we would have like slipped off the road. And it was cold enough that we're like, hey, we're out. And so we got on our dirt bikes. And these were motocross bikes. So they didn't

• 13:56Speaker 05

  have lights or anything. It was a cloudy night. And we were on our, the three of us were on our dirt bikes and we're trying to make it down this road on a sheet of ice, which is pretty interesting to do. And so it's dark, cloudy, as you know, there just wasn't a lot of light to be had right then. We're riding along and I was in the front, no lights on our dirt bikes. I'm on the front and I stop at the top of this hill. And the road went down and the road was cut out of a bank. So it was like a cut bank road. I'm waiting, I stopped, turned off my bike and I'm waiting for my buddies to catch up with

• 14:37Speaker 05

  me. And I'm just sitting there. And I look down the road and maybe 50 yards in front of me, something comes. So it's a, it's a pretty sharp bank that this road is cut out of. But I'm standing there and I see something come up to the road and maybe take one, two, three steps. And it was on the cut bank and gone. And I'm just sitting there going, what the hell was that?

• 15:05Speaker 05

  I don't know what it was. You know, my son Austin, he's like, oh, it's, it's, it's gotta be squash. I know it is, but Sasquatch, but um, I can't say that. I didn't see enough detail to see that. But, but you know, it, it took two or three steps. So it was upright, walking. And those are big steps because you want clear across the road and up onto the, onto the bank and it was gone. So that's what I saw. I know I saw something. I have no idea what it was, but um, yeah, it made for a real interesting trip.

• 15:39Wes Germer?

  Yeah. And you're pretty near to the Tillamook Forest, aren't you?

• 15:43Speaker 05

  Yeah, that's basically Trask Mountains, part of the Tillamook Forest. It's a, it's a vast area when there's, there's like in the area where we were, there are no homes up there at all. Nobody lives up in that area at all. It's just, you know, rugged forest land, rainforest.

• 16:02Wes Germer?

  Yeah, it's a pretty lonely forest, even up until this day. You don't run into a ton of people out there. You know, this thing really wasn't that far ahead of you. How much bigger do you think it was than you?

• 16:17Speaker 05

  It was at the top of the hill. My buddies hadn't gotten there yet. So it's just me like witnessing this and it was probably a half a football field, maybe 50 yards. So it was pretty close. But not enough light to really pick out a lot of detail. It was, it was much bigger than me for sure. No doubt about it.

• 16:42Wes Germer?

  Yeah, I can't imagine being out in the Tillamook Forest and, and you know, being caught up in an ice storm. It's hard enough in town. I mean, we still get them to this day and it, I mean, you really can't go anywhere. At the time when you were seeing this thing, what did you think it was?

• 17:01Speaker 05

  I have no idea what it was. It was not a man. There's no way. No, two biggest steps and two, you know, too, too bulky to be just some guy out there walking around. And nobody's gonna be out there walking around anyway because of the, you know, because of the location, number one, and because of the, of the freezing rainstorm and the ice that was all over. Yeah, I, I don't see how it could have been a person. And I don't know if I don't think bears can get up on their hind legs like that and, and, and walk like that. So I don't know what it was.

• 17:41Wes Germer?

  Yeah, it definitely doesn't sound like a bear and it definitely doesn't sound like a man. I almost kind of have to agree with Austin, your son at this point, that it might've been one of these creatures. Cause you know, you're in the middle of nowhere and in an ice storm. I don't see it just wa- you know, I don't see a man walking down the mountain and just keep going.

• 18:03Wes Germer?

  And I have Austin and Linda coming up here in a moment, but I ask everyone on the show, Tim, what do you think Sasquatch is? What's your take?

• 18:11Speaker 05

  Yeah, I don't know. I, I retired from an engineering firm as a scientist. So I have like a scientific kind of background where I need some solid evidence before I could make like a real determination of what I think it is. I don't know. I don't know what I saw either, but I know I saw it. There's no doubt. I still remember it from this day. That was like 50 years ago.

• 18:38Wes Germer?

  And you know, it doesn't shock me that you would have a sighting in this area. The Tillamook Forest really is kind of notorious for sightings and even on the Washington side, you have to go through a lot of hills and a lot of forests before you hit the ocean. And there's not a lot of people out there, but I know I have Austin and Linda coming up next. I really appreciate you coming on, Tim.

• 19:04Speaker 05

  Yeah, no problem.

• 19:14Wes Germer?

  And next up on the show, I want to welcome Linda. Linda, thank you for being here.

• 19:19Speaker 06

  Thanks. Thanks for having me.

• 19:21Wes Germer?

  Yeah. And I know that we have Austin. Austin, thank you for being here.

• 19:26Speaker 07

  Yeah, thanks, Wes. Happy to be here.

• 19:28Wes Germer?

  Yeah, and I just spoke to your father, Tim, and he shared his encounter from Oregon many years ago. And I was fascinated by his account. And I know when I was talking to you, Austin, off the air, you were saying, hey, both of my parents have had these experiences, but they won't really say it's Bigfoot. And I kind of got that from Tim. But I wanted to ask you, Linda, if you would, tell me what happened to you. I know your incident took place in Oregon. What were you doing? And what happened?

• 20:01Speaker 06

  Um, well, I used to spend a lot of time up by Flying M Ranch. And we had some friends that lived up there and on the weekends. So I was probably, I'm thinking around 14, 15. But up, up here, we, you know, we would drive around and stuff. But I used to, um,

• 20:20Speaker 06

  every once in a while, go help my friends that owned the ranch on the, you know, do trail rides and, and I would go help them because it was like, like a fly in dude ranch. So there's like horses and there used to be an airport and log cabin and it's, it's way up, it's in the coastal range, kind of outside of McInville. I was staying there and my, my brother and I, so there, this is, this is, this is gonna go sideways here a little bit. So, um, we were there and they had an, their older son that lived on the property as well. We had bought beer and we were gonna go hide it, Austin. No, don't. We were gonna go hide

• 21:03Speaker 06

  it in the creek and just let it get cold and then, you know, pick it up later. But it was probably about, um, they had about 80 acres on the, on the ranch. And so it was probably about, you know, kind of in the middle of the property where this creek ran through. And so it had been there all day and it was kind of a rainy night. And we went back to go get this beer out of the creek. And, um, we were, I was, we were in this old Volkswagen. And, um, I remember that we

• 21:37Speaker 06

  Uh, this, uh, we came around this corner and we were, and I was parked because it was like a, um, a bridge, like a little man-made bridge that went over the creek. And I stayed in the Volkswagen and the guys were out looking for it. And what had happened to the creek had kind of moved it around or down a little bit. And so it was down a ways and I don't know why, but they had hit it down a ways. And so, um, I was sitting in the Volkswagen and I, I looked up and it was kind of, it's just like a two-way, the, the roads, you know, they weren't like real roads. It was like, you know, you could see where the wheel marks were and there was brass coming in between them. And there were shrubs on all both sides, but I was on the opposite side of the creek.

• 22:21Speaker 06

  And I happened to, I was looking out and I saw something on this side of the road, road. And I was, and I was, I got, I immediately felt very uncomfortable. And all I can say, I could not make it out, but I, first I thought it was a bear. And it was like on the side of the road, it was like a dark figure. And it, and then I thought, is it the guys? And I was like, no. And then, and then all of a sudden it just went across the road, but it wasn't on four, like it wasn't a horse. It wasn't a cow. It, it wasn't a wolf.

• 23:03Speaker 06

  I mean, it was very dark. It seemed, you know, just, I didn't get to see it that long. And I don't even know, but it was on two feet. And it stepped like, it almost seemed like it was almost even like one or two steps and it was out of sight. So it went from the side of the bush where it was standing and the headlights were on in the Volkswagen. And the Volkswagen was running. And so, and it just happened that quick. I remember after that, because I used to ride my horse from this ranch up to Flying M. And, you know, I just, I don't know. I mean, that's, that's what happened. And like I said, I didn't get a good look at it. I didn't see a face.

• 23:49Speaker 06

  And it happened very, very quickly, but I know it was really odd and I could not figure it out. And it wasn't, it wasn't my brother or the other person that was with us. And so. I just remember feeling really uncomfortable and I remember staying there uh two in the cabin and the the they had a white picket fence kind of around it and then they had pastors in there that would go out and I remember one night too uh I thought that there was something in the window looking in and I just you know because like I said I was fourteen I was so afraid that I just rolled over because it was a

• 24:31Speaker 06

  it was a room with two twin beds and so there was a twin bed between me and the window I I don't know I just I don't know what that was either but I went out and looked there was no cow I mean they the gates weren't open there was no cows or uh anything but I just remembered that whole night being awake and not looking I would not look at that window I was just like petrified and you know and I remember being out riding and you know it would be like I'd be riding from this ranch up to Flying M and um all of a sudden things would get really really quiet and then my horse would kind of like start snorting like there was something there but then I couldn't see anything and

• 25:16Speaker 06

  just those kind of moments I mean that's just kind of you know horses do those things but usually they're pretty attuned when they smell something or you know you know they're of the environment probably more where than I am but yeah that's my that's my story and um I don't forget it and um I didn't go out at night anymore because I used to drive the bulls wagon all over the place that was part of the fun about being out there in the countries and those back country roads you know and the private properties and stuff so that's my story

• 25:56Wes Germer?

  Yeah, the night that you thought you saw something in the window was that the same night as you guys were out with the beer and you saw this thing?

• 26:06Speaker 06

  No it was another night and then I almost I just quit going up I I I just quit kind of going up there not long after that because it just was so creepy.

• 26:22Wes Germer?

  And Linda, kind of going back to when you saw the creature, I mean, it doesn't sound like a man to me and it doesn't sound like a bear, but for the audience, what what made you think it was anything but those?

• 26:34Speaker 06

  I I think the reason why I don't think it was a bear was because, you know, you I've, you know, I've seen different films, you know, where bears are up and they kind of they wobble. You know what I mean? This this whatever the, you know, like I said, I don't, I don't know. I don't. I don't know what it was, but it it was it like had hit like it moved like it was fluid. It wasn't like I don't think a bear could have walked on its hind feet like that across the road. Do you notice you do because they're they're just, you know how bears, they're kind of round?

• 27:15Speaker 06

  You know, so when they come up, they're not, I don't think that, I mean, they go straight up if they're on a tree or something, I guess.

• 27:24Speaker 06

  But to me, it looked, it just seemed taller, lot bigger. And it was just more, it was just two, like I said, just like one, two across the street. I mean, across this road and it was it was gone and it was up upright and purposeful. I haven't seen a, I haven't seen a lot of bears, but like, you know, like at Yellowstone or whatever in just shows, you know, they just, they seem like their stride isn't like that. They wouldn't be like boom, boom. I mean, we're talking, it was probably, I don't know, 12 feet, one step, you know what I mean? I from 12 to 14 feet.

• 28:12Speaker 06

  From bush to bush, you know, across the road.

• 28:14Wes Germer?

  When it stepped across the road, was it more like a man? Like what you would see with a man's movement?

• 28:21Speaker 06

  Mm hmm. It was just more, it just, that's why I thought it was the guys and I mean, for a second, because the one guy, I forgot what his Randy, I think his name was, he was a big guy, but he wasn't tall. I mean, he was a bigger guy, but I said, I said, like, and then, but then it wasn't. It just had hair, you know? It seemed covered, like I said, there was it, it like whatever it was, I never saw like a face. It was just like, it, it just happened to, it happened so fast, but I would say more man-like than bear-like. And it had, it was hairy. It was dark. Dark, kind of dark. Like really dark. And when it was on the side of the road, it took like,

• 29:05Speaker 06

  like I said, I didn't even, I, by the time I had recognized it on the side of the road, there wasn't any eye shine either. Which I think, you know, I mean, that's why I, I, I don't remember seeing eyes, you know, like an animal, animal face, a face or eyes. So I don't think I really, it happened so quick. That that's why, like all these years, I just never.

• 29:31Speaker 06

  But I'll never forget it. Like I, I can visualize it right now. The headlights shining on the bushes, because it wasn't like close, I mean, it was, it was down the road a ways, but not so far that I couldn't see it. And then it was just like across boom, boom.

• 29:52Wes Germer?

  How far down the road do you think it was?

• 29:54Speaker 06

  Okay, I think it was probably twenty five to twenty five to thirty feet. I was scared. Like I said, I was like fourteen or, I mean, I, I, I squished down. I didn't, I didn't like, you know, go, I'm going to go see what that was. You know what I mean? I, I squished down in the back of the, the Bull's Wagon, down into the, you know how little Bull's Wagon's are? I was bush and I was just petr- I was petrified. So I was so scared.

• 30:27Wes Germer?

  Yeah, it makes me wonder if it was there the whole time, or if it had seen what you guys had done and it had come back. I know that you don't know, and I don't know, but or maybe it was just there when you guys pulled up and obviously didn't want to stick around. But they, it does seem like they're running around that ranch because of what you'd seen later. Tell me a little bit about the ranch. I mean, how far away from it was where you had seen this thing?

• 30:58Speaker 06

  I used to go up on the weekends quite a lot and I'll spend a lot of time up there in the summer. Like I rode all over that place and there was an old barn. So there was the, the, the whole old ranch house was actually a single level.

• 31:15Speaker 06

  And it had a porch on the front and, and like I said, it was enclosed because they didn't want the

• 31:23Speaker 06

  the cows and stuff getting in there. I think it was probably like, I don't know how to convert like acres and miles, but like I, like I said, I knew that I know they owned about 80 acres there. And this was right in the middle of the property. So it would be about, you know, halfway out. And then, like I said, there was a big old barn. There was a corral and then the barn is it was a distance from the house. And there was another like dip, like little gully dip thing before you got to the house. But the house was right on this gravel road. That's how you got there. It was on this gravel road. It was kind of like by an intersection. So, but it wasn't a busy, you know, it's not a busy street, just people that live up there. So,

• 32:08Speaker 06

  so yeah, and like I said, I don't even know. I don't know what that was, but I thought I saw like a face. Like I thought I saw a face looking, but I, I, like I said, I was so. I just turned. I was so scared. I remember I went in and slept on the the people that owns the place. I slept on their floor like the next night.

• 32:35Speaker 06

  I just wanted to go home. I didn't want to be there anymore.

• 32:39Wes Germer?

  I don't.

• 32:40Speaker 06

  But I don't, I did not get a good look at it. It was just like, there's something there. You know what I mean? What is that? And it, it had to have been tall enough. The windows weren't like, like extremely high, but I'd say, I don't know, maybe five, six feet. If I'm remembering correctly. I want to go back. I should go back. I want to go back and see it. But, but whatever it was, and like I said, it, I don't know. It just scared me. I just remember it looked like someone was looking in and I thought it was like a person.

• 33:16Wes Germer?

  Yeah, it makes me wonder if it followed you back to the, uh, the ranch house. I know this is many years ago, but it makes me wonder if, if they knew anything. Did you ever tell the guys or the people that own the ranch about what you had seen?

• 33:30Speaker 06

  I told the people, um, about it. I told, yeah, I told my brother. My brother said it was probably a deer on its back legs.

• 33:40Speaker 06

  That, that's what he says to this day, doesn't he, Austin?

• 33:44Speaker 07

  Yeah, I don't know why he, I mean, he's, he's interesting, but yeah, he, uh,

• 33:48Speaker 06

  He didn't see it. So anyway, yeah. So I think that's it. Like I said, and I just thought, and that happened after that incident. So the house had a connecting, like, like it was another house and that's where the older sons li- you know, lived and there was like a pool table and stuff in there. These weren't not big places, but they were, you know, so we used to go back and forth, but I didn't want to go up there anymore. Even now, when I go camping, I'm a little creeped out.

• 34:21Wes Germer?

  Yeah, encounters will definitely stay with you your whole life. At what point did it kind of click as far as, oh, I wonder if it might have been one of these things?

• 34:32Speaker 06

  Well, I remember watching, you know, the original movie, maybe the first film, I forgot the guy's name, raised watching it, you know, and I just started, I don't know, it just became really interesting to me. Like, my kids call me Mimi Squatch. I just, I just think it's fascinating. I think the possibility of, you know, we're finding new species all the time. And I don't know, I just, I like to watch, I like to, I like to listen to the Chronicles, I like watching all the, because all the films that come up now, you know, it'll be like Bigfoot Boise and whatever. But I just think it's interesting, you know, it's, I don't know, I just kind of kept it quiet

• 35:15Speaker 06

  because, you know, because anyway, I didn't really talk about it. Did I really, I mean, Austin, do you remember when I started talking about it?

• 35:23Speaker 07

  I don't remember you talking about it till, at least I would think I was a late teenager, maybe even in college. Dad had told me his story when I was younger, probably like middle school. But I don't, yeah, I don't remember you saying anything about it really till a little bit later in life. I don't remember any family members mentioning it either.

• 35:43Speaker 06

  I think, you know, because, you know, as a mommy, like you're protecting your kids, you know, like, I didn't really know, you know, I mean, I didn't want to scare them, right? And I don't know, I just, I just think it's interesting. I love the possibility of it. I just think it's kind of fun. And, and it's interesting that other people, like so many people are coming out and sharing stories.

• 36:03Wes Germer?

  Yeah, well, I know it was many years ago, and I really appreciate you sharing it, Linda. There's two experiences we're going to chat about, Austin. The very first one, kind of, what were you doing? And, and what happened?

• 36:17Speaker 07

  Yeah, so I should, I should preface, I don't necessarily know what I saw, which is why I haven't really talked too much about it. Like, Mom, I don't think I've told you really about this. But I have two instances. One is, I think, was, I mean, the only thing I could think of was would be a Sasquatch. I don't know what else it could be, or something supernatural. And the second one is a kind of a one-off story. I'll tell you. I don't know if you want to include it or not. But so we, I, since I've moved to Eugene, I've been going to the Cascades a lot. It's only about an hour away. It's in a town called Oak Ridge. I don't know if you're familiar with that, Wes. Probably, probably not. But

• 36:58Speaker 07

  it's basically a halfway point in between Eugene and Bend, Oregon, if you know where those are. But, so I spent a lot of time camping in and around the Oak Ridge area, and I still do, kind of tapered off a little bit recently. But it's a beautiful area, and we usually camp around a lake called Hills Creek Reservoir. And it's the middle fork of the Willamette River. So it's actually where the middle fork starts way up in the Cascades. But, so we, we like to explore out there. Me and my friend Miles went out, and this is probably 20, probably 2020, 2021, so kind of pandemic era. But we were spending a lot of time camping out there, because, you know, there was not a lot of, not a lot

• 37:42Speaker 07

  of rules. And it was just, it was safer to go out there, you know, not have to be around a lot of people. And it was just nice to get away, you know, get away from, from town. So we would go out there a lot. And what we like to do is, we would just do dispersed camping. So find a Forest Service road, find a little turnoff and camp out there. And what we like to do is just drive around on these, these Forest Service roads, because almost no one was out there. And this was, gosh, let me think, probably June. It was pretty warm. And we were just going around Forest Service roads like we normally do, you know, going, basically driving until the, we can't go any further, and then turning around. And it was fun. We got to see a lot of cool stuff. We found some old logging operations that seemed to be from like the 1930s or 20s, and had some cool glass bottles and stuff that were from the time period laying around, and old equipment that had

• 38:27Speaker 07

  been abandoned. So it's kind of cool finding that stuff. But I'll get to that. We were on a basically a Forest Service road and we took a corner. I mean, we weren't going fast, probably only going five to 10 miles an hour and we were in his older Subaru Outback. And I was sitting in the passenger seat and we took a corner going slow. And I remember as we took that corner, seeing these two basically jet black masses running full speed across the road and I only caught them as they were going down a hill and I should say the road layout is kind of similar, a little more flat than the one that kind of similar to my dad's encounter where is a hill on one side,

• 39:12Speaker 07

  less tapered though, less steep than the one on my dad's encounter, but hill on one side, gravel road that we were on and then on the left side of the road, it goes basically straight down into a gulch or a gully. And what I had caught was them, these things, sprinting seemingly across the road and it was so fast that I couldn't really make out almost even like a shape. It was literally a blur and I caught them going down that gully and I, the first thing I said was, oh, bears. There's bears. And Miles didn't see them. I don't know where he was looking when he was driving, but he apparently didn't see them. So I had him pull over immediately because I was like, oh, I want to go see where they went. He pulled over, I got out, I kind of, I didn't want to go over too close in case they, for some reason, had stopped and we're just sitting there.

• 39:57Speaker 07

  But I got out of the car and walked over to the edge of the gravel road and looked down on the gully and when I walked over there, I could see, the first thing my eyes caught was where these these masses had run. All the plants were still moving and I looked over and down and the, and the gully was pretty, pretty expansive. You could see, I mean, it's kind of on a corner. So I could see out quite a ways, but it's a lot of undergrowth and trees and the last thing I saw was them, these two figures exiting basically directly away from where I was looking. And again, moving at a speed that I can't even describe.

• 40:35Speaker 07

  Just looked like blurs basically running away from me and I in the moment, I still thought they were bears and it wasn't until we were driving back that certain details kind of started to click in my brain.

• 40:48Speaker 07

  They weren't down on the ground on all fours. They were, they're basically vertical. And I wanted to say, if I had to estimate the height, like six to seven feet tall. They weren't huge, but no bear running and they have to run on all fours. No bear running is even close to that height. I mean, even grizzly bears, I think are maybe five feet when they're, when they're on all fours at the shoulders. So

• 41:17Speaker 07

  it was just weird. And like I said, the whole situation happened so fast that it's, it's just hard for me to describe what it was. And I, again, maybe, maybe it wasn't Sasquatch. I don't know, but it was something and I saw it and I know I saw I wasn't, wasn't hallucinating, wasn't on drugs. It was just, it was weird. It was in the middle of the day too. This is like 1pm, heat of the day. So I could see pretty clearly as far as, you know, lighting was available. So.

• 41:47Wes Germer?

  How far ahead of you were these figures that you saw?

• 41:52Speaker 07

  Um, I would say 30 yards if I had to guess.

• 41:58Speaker 07

  So we, we ran on the corner and they were, like I said, coming off that hill already running. So I'm assuming maybe they heard the car. I don't know. But yeah, probably I would say 30 yards. And then by the time I got out of the car and checked down the gold, when they were running away, at that point, they were probably close to a football field away. And then they, they left my sight. So.

• 42:19Wes Germer?

  Yeah, bears are fast when they're on four legs. I've seen a bear run on all fours and I was shocked how fast they can actually move, but on two legs, they're, they're not that fast. So you guys kind of pull up where you saw them cross?

• 42:36Speaker 07

  Yeah, well, we, he didn't see them and I don't know how Miles didn't see them. He also stayed in the car when I went to go check. So like I said, we were just out driving around and in the moment, I think I mentioned it, you know, I didn't know. I just thought they were bears and I thought they were running away and I was like, oh, that's, that was cool. Um, but didn't really think to, to stick around and, you know, do any further investigating. Also, if they are bears, I mean, we weren't, we weren't armed or anything. So I'm not trying to, trying to mess with any bears, you know, and poke fun, especially if there's two of them. Usually that's like a juvenile and adult. But yeah, like I said, it wasn't until after I was, we were driving back and,

• 43:10Speaker 07

  back to camp. And that's when it kind of clicked that things were adding up. And I mean, I admittedly had doubts. I, I, I do believe, um, obviously Sasquatch exists, but you know, it's hard when there's, there's not like, I don't want to say there's no evidence because obviously there's tons of evidence and that's, that's why the podcast exists. For example, there's so many, so many books, so much literature, um, so many articles. But yeah, in my mind, I just, it, it didn't click right away. And, and I think from what I've heard from listening to the, to the podcast, that's, happens quite a bit. You know, it seems like people have an encounter and then there's a, a latency period between the encounter and what I guess realization of what they've seen. I mean, even with you, mom, um, like you said, you thought it was a bear right away, but

• 43:55Speaker 07

  it wasn't until a little bit later until things kind of clicked. So.

• 43:58Wes Germer?

  Yeah, it kind of takes a brain a second to go, wait a minute, that, that wasn't a bear. Um, tell me you, you had mentioned a paranormal encounter?

• 44:08Speaker 07

  Well, so this one's just, it's so strange. Um, so I, I mean, I grew up in the city. I grew up in Corvallis, but, um, I spent a lot of time outdoors, um, mountain biking, fishing. I was in Boy Scouts. Um, I'm really familiar with, with wildlife in the area, which is, um, also I was kind of stumped by what I saw in my initial encounter, but this, this other incident, it's just, it's strange. Um, my, my dad's side of the family, we'd go camping in this area. I'm also in the Cascades, called a Lally Lake. It's right near Mount Jefferson, if you know where that is. Basically right at the foot of it, but. The Forest Service road that takes you up there is really rough. It's poorly maintained, but it will take you straight to the lake eventually.

• 44:50Speaker 07

  And it's off of a paved road near Detroit, Oregon. You probably have to go two miles or two hours, sorry. Half of it on paved road and half of it on this really poorly maintained Forest Service road to get to where the camp is. But the camp is nice. So we were doing our summer vacation there and we had rented out the campsite. And on the way up in that poorly managed Forest Service road, there's all these, you know, micro cascade lakes. They're a lot smaller than the main lake is, but they're basically dotted all over the place on the way up. And you can see them and you're driving, they're basically right off that dirt road. And we had already been camping for a couple of days. And we decided that we wanted to go fish one of those smaller lakes.

• 45:32Speaker 07

  So me, my stepbrother, Jordan, and two of my cousins decided that we wanted to go fishing. So we went down one of those cascade lakes. We walked there, it was probably a good 45 minute walk. And we ended up going to this lake and it was really cool because it was probably the size of a half a football field, maybe three quarters of a football field, so like 75 yards. The unique thing about it though is there was this log that was sitting in the middle of the lake. And it was perfectly vertical. And you could swim out to it and touch it. And if you put your hand on it, it was probably sitting about two feet out of the water. Just you could see basically just the tip of the log. You could actually push it down and it would almost effortlessly go down and then come back up.

• 46:17Speaker 07

  And you could do that over and over again and it wouldn't move, wouldn't go side to side. It was basically stuck vertical, but you could still mess with it, if that makes sense. It was really strange. So we went there, day one, that was cool, caught some fish, came back. We decided to go there on day two, and this is again, middle of the day. We're fishing, one of my cousins brought a little float to go fish on. So he was out in the lake and me and my other cousin are sitting on the shore fishing and just kind of waiting. It was the last day, taking the sun. And we noticed the log.

• 46:53Speaker 07

  Independently goes completely underwater and then shoots back up. And we're like, oh, that was, that's weird. That's really strange. And it kind of bobbed a little bit. And then after that, this mass came from right where the log was. And you know, when you're, when something is swimming and it's near the surface of the water, but it doesn't break the surface tension and it kind of rolls over the top of it, almost looks like a little wave. It looked like that, but the width was probably three to four feet wide. And it almost looked like an orb, like a big, dark orb, three feet wide, almost circular. But it came up where that log was

• 47:37Speaker 07

  and, and kind of made an S shape and was swimming towards my cousin. We started freaking out because we don't know what it is. Screaming at him, screaming at him, screaming at him. He doesn't understand what's happening. He's flailing. So he just tries to get to the shore as fast as possible. And then right when it gets to about 10 to 15 feet from him, it just sinks, disappears, nothing. So he got out. We ran back to camp. We were screaming at the family. Now, we just saw something in the water, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Obviously, everyone dismissed it. We were probably, I don't know, 14 to 16 years old. They just thought we were no yanking their chains. But that's, that's what I mean, when I see is, I don't know what else to call that other than paranormal, because there's nothing natural. I mean, I know there's sturgeon in Oregon. That's the biggest fish we've got, to my knowledge. There's some catfish, but for that to be in

• 48:21Speaker 07

  a cascade lake, that's only 75 yards in a, in diameter, with no, with no spring feeding it, or no creek, it just doesn't, doesn't add up. That's, that was my weird, one-off thing. That's, like I said, it's not really, not really Sasquatch related, but it was just, it was so strange. Because it just doesn't add up.

• 48:41Wes Germer?

  Yeah, I'm really glad that you shared it. I don't know what that thing could have been. Like you said, Austin, I mean, we have sturgeon, but they're in the Columbia River, right? I don't know that you're going to catch them in a lake. And probably the biggest fish we have in a lake is trout.

• 48:59Speaker 07

  Yeah, that's really true. I mean, and I've caught, I was on a guided trip and I've caught sturgeon that are like, seven feet long. I mean, it took four of us to pull it in. And they're not even shaped that way. They're not wide, you know, they're, they're shaped like a, like a tube, basically, you know, I mean, like a shark, I guess. But. Yeah, so it's kind of just an unexplainable thing that that had happened that I thought I'd mentioned because it's just it's just out of place. It was weird.

• 49:25Wes Germer?

  Yeah, you're right. Sturgeon is more of a, I guess, tube shape would be the best way to describe it. It's not that big round shape like you were describing. Um, that is weird, man. I have no clue what that could have been. I want to ask you, Linda, I ask everyone on the show, what do you think Sasquatch is? What's your take?

• 49:46Speaker 06

  I don't know. I, I guess I want to believe that it's a, it's a, you know, just a species that's been out there and smart and survives and, and I don't know, I, I, I've watched the shows, you know, about the tunnels and stuff through mountains. I can't remember where that was at. You know, there are different little passageways that people are stumbling on and finding. And I don't know, I guess that's what I want to, I think it's like, as a species of us before. I don't know. I guess that's what, that's how, that's what I'd say.

• 50:30Wes Germer?

  Yeah, and I think a lot of people say that, you know, it's some form of human or some form of, you know, us running around. What about yourself, Austin? What do you think that they are?

• 50:43Speaker 07

  I, I mean, the, the, the short answer is I don't know, you know. Um, there's, there's a lot of theories I think are interesting. Um, you know, from listening to the show, I hear people think that, you know, the Nephilim, some people will earn the impression they might be, you know, some sort of extradimensional, extraterrestrial being. Um, I guess I'm of the impression that it's, it's a, it's a physical creature. Obviously, people are having these experiences and they're, they're leaving behind evidence. Yeah, hard for me to say. I, I think it's maybe a combination of relicomended and

• 51:19Speaker 07

  And a primate, like a lost ancestor, I guess. But the strange thing for me is like anthropologically, they're, they seem to be everywhere. And that's, that's the weird part. I mean, there's evidence in Australia, there's evidence in China, there's evidence in Tibet. You hear stories about stuff even in like Eastern Europe and Germany, and then Russia's got these al musta, and there's stuff in South America. So there's, there's too much going on globally that kind of throws another wrench in it because it's, you know, species are usually, especially larger ones like this, are like endemic to one specific area. But these seem to be a phenomenon that's

• 51:59Speaker 07

  everywhere. I mean, even the US, there's so much diversity because, you know, growing up here, of course, you hear about it in the Pacific Northwest. It's part of the native culture.

• 52:11Speaker 07

  You hear about it here. Obviously, we have a big cluster of, or high density of sightings, but it wasn't until listening to Sasquatch Chronicles, I was more opened up to, you know, areas like East Texas. I hear that area quite a bit on there, you know, like Sabine River and Western Louisiana, but pretty much everywhere in the US, even states that I'm surprised about, like Indiana and, you know, Oklahoma being a pretty big hotspot kind of shocks me, but they're there. And I, you know, you can't, I think I've heard on the show, it's like, even, even if one in a hundred of these encounters are, are real, it's still one out of a hundred. Like, too many people can't be making this up. And there's, there's too much, too much consistency in the

• 52:56Speaker 07

  encounters. That's, that's what's interesting to me. But yeah, maybe some sort of genus homo that's gotten freakishly large. And I mean, like you said, like you've heard in the podcast, there's a lot of There's a lot of size difference, it seems like, in the species and the way that they're built. Like, I know I've heard you describe them, and witnesses describe them, sometimes more chimp-like, where they're faster, but, you know, not as stocky. And then it seems like some of them are built, you know, like a brick house, basically, where they're, you know, 10 to 12 feet tall, and, you know, close to 1,000, 2,000 pounds. So, there's clearly a lot of variance in what people are seeing. And that's what kind of stumps me, is, you know, it's hard to say, with that much variance, what truly they could

• 53:40Speaker 07

  be. But yeah, I think, I would say, some sort of, some sort of hominid, or primate, or a splicing of both that happened hundreds of thousands, if not a million-plus years ago. But, yeah, I don't know.

• 53:55Wes Germer?

  Yeah, it's good insight that you have, Austin. The variances are strange, and that is why, I'm much like you, that is why it's hard to kind of pinpoint it. But I really appreciate you coming on, and your mother coming on, had your dad on. I really enjoyed chatting with the family. Thanks so much for being here.

• 54:15Speaker 07

  Yeah, thanks, Wes. It's been a pleasure.

• 54:18Wes Germer?

  And that's it for tonight, everyone. Remember, if you've had an encounter, shoot me an email. My email address is [email protected]. And if you get a chance, check out sasquatchchronicles.com. You can become a member and get additional shows. Until next time, everyone.

• 55:31Speaker 08

  So I'll put my spirit a little wiser Put the lights on To do something a quieter When the lights on This is my home Close your eyes Memories of you dear Untie your eyes Close at the sky I'll miss my ride Memories of you dear

• 56:22Speaker 08

  Put the lights on This is my home Close your eyes Memories of you dear Untie your eyes Close at the sky I'll miss my ride Memories of you dear

• 57:28Speaker 08

  Say you're just in here And we're smiling with the moon 'Cause I found the key to the moon

• 57:38Speaker 08

  Say I want you darling

• 57:42Speaker 08

  And I'll make you stay young Don't let slip away

• 57:49Speaker 08

  Say you're just in here And we're smiling with the moon 'Cause I found the key to the moon